Chapter 539: Into the game
Michael stepped into the giant hole in the middle of the stage, with his body slowly passing through the Pocket Dimension’s threshold feet first.
As soon as his head passed through the portal, his vision changed from an endless blue sky to a thick collection of trees around him. It wasn’t a moment later did his feet land squarely upon dry soil did he finally realize that he was directly transported randomly into the territory.
That was smooth. It didn’t feel like transportation at all. It felt like I was just walking through a door.
He looked around and tried to find his position relative to the map itself.
Of course, one of the best things to do in this situation was to fly over the trees and see the entire map in a top-down perspective. However, he realized that this may not be a good idea since it could bring a lot of attention onto him from the start.
After all, one of the good tactics to win in this game was to eliminate all the competition and get the drops all for yourself. He wouldn’t be surprised if the entire Rising Six converged onto his location once he peeked above the crowns of the trees.
Thankfully, this Pocket Dimension is still governed by the rules of mana.
He used his Supreme Talent to see the world the way mana saw the world. The trees and everything around him turned into a collection of natural mana, mostly Earth, Water, and Air.
One of the rarest things to see in the natural world was Light mana, so any life form that lived and breathed stood out like a sore thumb even from far away.
This way, he could see where his opponents were located relative to himself.
As he scanned his surroundings, he expected to see only a few collections of Light mana around him. He thought he’d have to play it like everything was a Where’s Waldo book as he tried to discern the tiniest bit of pixel in his vision.
But as he looked at everything, he saw collections of Light mana sprawling everywhere! There were those as small as an ant, and those as big as an elephant!
Now, animals weren’t that uncommon in the Pocket Dimension. He saw them frequently during the games of the auction and properly prepared for their presence here.
However, as he looked at all the life forms around him, he realized that they were no ordinary living beings at all. Their very presence was amplified by an intense collection of mana!
These weren’t animals. These were monsters!
Unlike normal animals, these living beings could command magic and mana just as well as humans could, if not better. It wasn’t taught to them. It was ingrained into their very body through years and years of natural evolution. This meant that their efficiency and their power could surpass even that of normal humans!
And judging from the concentration of mana in their bodies, some of them were as powerful as 7-star or 8-star monsters! Although he was certain that he could survive or even win against them, he didn’t want to take that chance.
Looks like I have to be careful.
And just as he thought that, he suddenly heard Barnaby’s voice projected up from the skies.
"Players, as you may have noticed, you are not alone in this Pocket Dimension. I have personally added my monsters into the territory to make sure that people didn’t simply just stay in one place and hide until their teammates found a Key.
If they did, then they could easily find themselves being hunted down by one of the apex predators of the natural world. Be careful, players, for these 7-star monsters are hungry for blood!"
After hearing this, Michael took a cursory glance around him to make sure that there weren’t any monsters nearby. Once he was sure he was alone, he sat down next to a tree and took out his Drone from his pocket.
Although Barnaby explicitly warned them not to stay in one place, Michael decided to take the risk because he wanted a full view of the territory.
He wanted to know what was happening in the other parts of the map, as well as where the Glass Dome was located. That place would be the end goal for everyone once their teammates got the key.
He pushed the side of the Drone’s frame and a box container shot out, allowing Michael to take out its glasses.
After taking another look at his surroundings and finding no one, he put on the glasses and entered the Drone Vision.
He saw the world turn black for a brief second before his consciousness was transferred over to the Drone.
With a single thought, the propellers started to rotate at buzzing speeds, allowing the Drone to be lifted up.
He was able to carefully maneuver the Drone through the thick and leafy branches of the trees before finally breaking through the crown and seeing the wide blue skies of the Pocket Dimension.
He hovered above the trees for a brief second, using his Supreme Talent once again to make sure that there was no one around him.
After a second of checking, he flew the Drone sky high, allowing him to have a topographical view of the Pocket Dimension.
To the left, he saw the opaque partition separating the two regions of the territory. That was where the Dragonborns were currently at.
Of course, he had no intention of crossing over the borders. First of all, he didn’t know if he’d get expelled because of cheating, and second of all, he trusted them to get the Keys for him.
Looking at the North-East side, he saw the glass dome that contained the Soo drops.
And scattered around the dome, he saw a dense grouping of high-leveled monsters just standing guard. The closer it was to the glass dome, the more dense and stronger the monsters became.
Some of these monsters were so big in size that he didn’t even need to use his Supreme Talent to see it. Their long heads and massive spiked bodies dwarfed the trees surrounding them.
ChatJK4, please make a mini-map of this world that shows me my current location.
[Understood... forming an HUD element... complete!]
Michael saw a slightly transparent rectangular map overlaying his current vision of the world. On the very bottom right quadrant of the map, he saw a pinging dot that symbolized his current location.
With this mini-map, he was confident he’d eventually find his way onto the glass dome when he needed to.
Should I explore more? he pondered. As long as I fly at a high distance, no one should notice me.
He wanted to see where the Rising Six members were located. And if there weren’t any monsters roaming around the territory, Michael would have wanted to stay in his Drone Vision and continued to look at everything that was happening in a 3rd person perspective.
He hoped to stumble upon the Rising Six and get more information about them, their strengths, weaknesses, and especially their Divas and Aubility.
And just as he was about to move his Drone forwards, he suddenly saw something move towards his direction in a rush.