Kill The Old Ones!

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Diana woke up to a small commotion.

She wore a deep frown on her lovely face and evidently felt grumpy about having her rest interrupted. She wasn’t really tired, but her mentality has been tested since arriving to this place, and she had been thinking...a lot, so she was a little spent.

With her strength, she could spend weeks without sleeping, but she dislikes being interrupted when she decides to rest, which is happening right now.

She reigned in her temper, though. Instead, she got up from her ugly makeshift bed—the one she crafted with her own hands—and briefly checked her appearance to make sure she looked decent enough, which she did; she just needed to comb her hair with her fingers a bit.

Then, she got up and walked out of her crude shelter—also one that she made herself, and very ugly in her eyes—to check out what’s going on outside.

She saw hee fellow representatives bunched up in a group, surrounding what looks like a wooden board with several sheets of paper attached to it.

Diana frowned. She patted her clothes instinctively—still a little bothered by the crude clothes she’s now wearing and, more importantly, the lack of weapons—before walking closer to the group.

"...incredible! Pretty much everything is there!"

"Damn! I should start hunting soon! That bag of holding is a must-have!"

"Clothes with underwear! Sanitary pads! Gosh, I need those, ASAP!"

"Weapons, tents, tools...hmm...that many merit points should be possible. I can gather enough by the end of the day if I’m lucky."

Diana blinked as she overheard what they were saying. She formed an assumption—a guess—in her mind, and her steps instinctively hasted towards the board.

When she was close enough, her guess was confirmed.

The board did indeed have the full and complete list of all the items available on the system shop along with their price tags.

Diana’s eyes blazed with focus and attention. All her grumpiness melted like snow under sunlight’s glare, and her irration dissipated as well.

She summoned the system shop on her own and saw that, aside from a few items that had been revealed for her since she had enough merit points for them, the rest were just a bunch of question marks.

’But how? ’She couldn’t help but wonder.

"Hey, look! Here, at the last page, that guy with the tattooed arms left remarks here."

"Really? Let me see!"

Diana heard that too, so she also looked. And the remarks read:

Ps. For some reason, the full list of the system shop was revealed to me. Maybe it’s because I earned merit points first, or maybe because I placed our team in the #1 spot; either way, the list is here. The idea to share this knowledge with you all comes from my girlfriend, so be grateful to her, as she saved you all so much time.

— Soren Marek Vire.

’It’s him...again,’ Diana muttered inwardly.

Soren Marek Vire—a name she only learned the same day she arrived here as the rest did. He’s that handsome-looking thug with dense tattoos on his arms all the way to his neck.

He’s the one who adjusted the quickest and immediately proved that this realm wasn’t just some torturous hell hole. Survival was, indeed, possible here. And he knows how.

By the time they finally realized what was happening and had been woken up rudely to their new reality, he had already gathered enough food and supplies to last for a day for both him and his girlfriend. He had created tools from what was available and already found a place where he could settle down temporarily.

To be honest, Diana found that admirable. Even she was a step late into adjusting, and she thought herself ready for anything. Her father never said a word about this, but she never underestimated this trial.

Now, the same man—or more accurately, his girlfriend—shared another part of his advantages with them.

Diana wasn’t blind to the value of this list. As someone who’s being groomed to become the next ruler of an empire, she knows how important this move was.

With this list, the team who had been unsure, in doubt, and afraid now had a clear goal to work with. They’ve been given what was needed for them to pick up the slack and go to work.

This full list eliminated guessing blindly. More importantly, it encourages everybody to go out, explore, discover, and earn merit points for themselves so that they can improve their situation.

Those merit points are theirs, no doubt about that, but what they earn also adds to the total merit points of the whole team, therefore increasing the gap between them and the competitors.

With just one move, the whole team turned into willing laborers without needing coercion or force.

Diana focused on the list once more. This time, with the intent of memorizing it completely from one page to the next.

This wasn’t hard for her. Compared to playing politics with shrewd and venomous ministers in the palace, this was laughably easy.

After memorizing the contents, she began walking while making plans.

’They’re right, the bag of holding is a must-have. The convenience alone is worth every merit point spent. Clothes, tools, and then weapons follow that.’

She looked at her ugly shelter and felt her expression dropping.

’It’s fine. I can endure that ugly thing for a little while longer. Once I get my essentials, I’ll buy a camp. I’ll slowly build to a more acceptable living space and lifestyle.’

’Once I’m geared up and have some semblance of comfort, others will too, perhaps maybe a little bit slower than I. By then, I can maybe convince people to team up to explore this secret realm.’

’But that’s for later...right now, supplies! ’

Diana now has her priorities. She shelved everything else and disappeared deeper into the woods to start her hunt.

**

While the rest of the team were busy hunting for their livelihood, Ren and Lily were exploring deeper into the woods.

They hunted the giant python on the east, the same one that, by now, has already digested the chicks of the Sky Demon Hawk.

Fighting that thing wasn’t easy. It looked easy since Ren was the one fighting it, and he was working with Lily, who understood him the best.

This thing was as strong as a 2nd transformation of the Inhuman Realm. The python was about 50 feet long, surprisingly quick, and was both a constrictor and venomous.

It had innate abilities that could hypnotize, pry through eye contact, and spit a dense cloud of venom that was both hypnotizing and paralytic. It could instantly wrap itself to its target, and it’s strong enough to crush flesh and bones into pulp while also injecting its venom into its prey for more ease of killing. Its maws could open impossibly wide, enough for it to swallow large boars in one gulp.

Unfortunately, it met Ren—who crushed its skull with a single punch since it dared to strike at his girlfriend. He then harvested its flesh, its venom sac, fangs, and its skin before moving along with Lily.

That earned them 500 merit points, by the way. 500 points each.

Their hunt continued, and at the same time, Ren was leaving markers behind, grabbing basic materials on the go, and analyzing the terrain. Lily was doing the same.

"This rainforest extends deeper and feels more sinister the further we go into this direction," Lily commented, stating her discovery after observing for a while.

"Yeah, I feel that too," Ren agreed. "My sensory network had already spread farther; if we follow this direction, we get closer to the heart of this rainforest."

"There is a lot of activity in there. There are a lot of lairs, too. But at the same time, I also see a lot of resources I never encountered before, once I could only guess their uses for."

"How about in other directions?" she asked.

"South is fine. In maybe a week or so, I should be able to confirm if we could truly make that place a permanent camp."

"North is barren. I have no idea why yet, but I’ll find out soon."

"And west remains creepy in my senses. That fog is not normal. I’m starting to assume that a monster was responsible for that. I haven’t felt a single presence in there. Not even wild game, only insects, and that’s highly unusual. I’ve seen wild animals fleeing at the mere sight of that place too."

"Is the fog spreading towards our location?" Lily asked, her voice worried.

"No. Which is strange enough because that’s not how fog works," Ren replied. "If anything, it acts as if it has met some kind of an invisible barrier, one that is absolutely hot, allowing even a single wisp of fog to seep through. It’s like there’s a clear separation, which adds further to the strangeness."

"You’ll know soon enough; I’m sure of that," Lily said, having complete faith in her boyfriend. "For now, let’s keep hunting; we have enough food, supplies, and merit points. Let’s improve our comfort first. We analyze later."

"Hmm..."