Results and rewards

Midnight, 7th Day

A bright blue shimmer brought Kai back to the hall with white walls.

In front of the tall screen, there was only one chair. Kai helped himself to it, sat down, and leaned back.

There was a smile of prime satisfaction on his face, speaking of the murderous song he had sung in the last five days. By the end of the third day, their Bad Luck had wiped all Candidates clean off the island, except Kai, of course. Kai had kept himself in the cave's vicinity, as the highest number of Ovomorphs spawned there. And soon, even all the Yautjas had started to come to the cave's location in search of the single living Candidate.

Carnage, yes. That was the word the island had come to know in the next 4 days. Invisibility was as much useless to the Yautjas against Kai as the acidic blood and stealth to the Xenomorphs.

By the end of the week, Kai had gone bored killing the same creatures over and over. It didn't mean he hadn't killed the very last one of them at the mere sight. The final Points tally dictated rewards, and Kai hadn't forgotten the same fact, either.

Yet, the thing for which Kai was thankful the most was Selene's upgrade. After eating the Blooded Yautja, his Ghost Basilisk had finally undergone another shedding on the 5th day, becoming a D ranked magical creature. Her Stats had changed little, Kai knew. But it was a step forward, and he was happy to take it, especially knowing that with every level up, it would become harder to upgrade her.

The screen came to life now, and the two voices spoke along with the appearance of the text.

[[

Congratulations Candidate Blood Demon upon surviving Stage 1.

Please submit everything other than your Items

]]

A table sprang up from the floor between Kai and the screen. He put his swords and other Items back into the Inventory, and put the backpack on the table.

The table slid down, disappearing under the floor.

[[

Processing Tablet's contents…

Analyzing images, drafts, map routes, and points tally…

Analyzation complete

Generating results…

]]

The moment Kai saw the words "images" and "drafts", he threw his head back and laughed like a maniac.

He had questioned himself what was the need for the camera and messages on the Island. He could understand the function of sending messages to other Candidates, but then why the addition of keeping drafts?

Seldom had the Systems done anything without a purpose to it, Kai had thought then. And thus, as a precautionary measure, he had decided to keep detailed data of the incoming week as images and drafts.

The caution seemed to have paid off, Kai reflected.

[[

The results of Stage 1 are:

Candidate Blood Demon ranking (T009) - 1

Candidate Blood Demon ranking (Overall) - 1

Congratulations Candidate Blood Demon on obtaining the top score in Stage 1…

Stage 1's rewards are divided into two categories.

The first category has Customary Rewards, whose values depend solely on the points tally of a Candidate.

The second category has Ranking Rewards, whose numbers and their nature depend on a Candidate's ranking. Being the top-ranking Candidate, you can choose one Ranking Reward freely. All other such rewards will need you to sacrifice either Ability, Skill, Item, or a combination of these to have them. Remember, the Ranking Rewards only give the Candidate the qualification to obtain the rewards, and not the rewards themselves.

Customary Rewards:

1. +10 Attribute Points (Not applicable to a Set's quota)

2. +5 Title Status Points (only applicable to the beginner Titles)

Ranking Rewards:

1. Yautja Genes (Item)

2. Yautja Weaponry (Set Item)

3. Royal Facehugger (non-magical creature)

Please state your free choice first…

]]

Kai was half-happy and half-mad. Even if the Systems had only given him the Customary Rewards, he would have made his peace with it. 10 Attribute Points and 5 Title Status Points weren't something even 6th-floor Contestants could ignore, let alone him, who had yet to gain a single one in his Mission.

But why then present the Ranking Rewards and limit him from having them all so?

'There must be something here,' Kai thought. He took a deep breath, calmed himself, and worked upon the plausible reasons.

Kai closed his eyes and tapped on the chair's arm, his fingers drumming on the unknown material in dull thuds. Suddenly, his eyes shot open.

"Wait a minute!" he thought aloud. "Is it the Systems' way of letting Contestants flush out their unwanted Abilities, Skill, and Items? Yes, I can't think of it being anything else."

Kai knew how troublesome it was to keep a track of all Skills, Items, and Abilities. He was suffering from the same. But there was nothing on him he could just discard without grimacing about it first.

'Sigh!' Kai let out a breath, bringing his attention to the screen. 'Let's see what these rewards are, then I will decide.'

All Ranking Rewards had a bulge about them, so Kai knew they each had some. He thought of the first reward, and a new window popped open on the screen.

[[

Ranking Reward - Yautja Genes

1. This reward will grant the Candidate one swallow of ?#?#%?# substance

2. Once swallowed, the substance will change the species of the said Contestant permanently to that of Yautja

3. The Contestant will have the opportunity to teleport to the Random Worlds related to Predators and participate in Yautja Clan's rituals.

4. All statuses obtained by this method will be digitized into Titles. All items obtained will be transformed into Items. And if the Contestant were to form his Clan thereafter, then he would be qualified to obtain the respective Interdimensional Titles, Skills, and Items as well

5. Children of the Contestant will be granted the status of Primordial Tower residency, and he will be able to divulge the knowledge about the Primordial Tower to his Clan members (Condition: at least one of the Contestant children must be a resident of the Primordial Tower)

Note: Yautja Genes is equivalent to a Top-level Uncommon Grade Potion.

]]

'Damn! Top-level Uncommon Grade…' Kai mumbled with a brilliant glint in his eyes. As the Items didn't have separate levels to them officially, they were often divided into four levels by the Contestants.

Low-level, Medium-level, High-level, and then, Top-level Items. For comparison, his single Uncommon-graded Item, Murasame, was just a low-level, despite being a Named Sword.

'So the Systems took care of letting me understand the levels this time,' Kai thought, chuckling. 'Well, thank you.'

Another window opened up above the first reward, then.

[[

Ranking Reward: Yautja Weaponry

1. Jungle Hunter's Bio-helmet (Easy Grade): It is linked to the Wrist Gauntlet, which controls many of its functions. The helmet grants the wearer access to multiple vision modes including zoom capabilities, facilitates Vocal Mimicry and includes breathing apparatus, diagnostics, and visual and audio recording systems. The helmet also incorporates a red targeting laser used with a Plasmacaster

2. Wrist gauntlet (Easy Grade): The left-hand wrist gauntlet incorporates hologram and touch-pad technology to control a Predator's Bio-helmet, Cloaking Device, and Self-Destruct Device. The cloaking device uses Light-bending adaptive camouflage, allowing Predators invisibility, or at least translucence, rendering them incredibly difficult to spot. The invisibility effect has been known to be shorted out through contact with water or if the arm gauntlet is damaged, and it is susceptible to the effects of an electromagnetic pulse, at least temporarily

3. Wrist gauntlet (Common Grade): The right-hand wrist gauntlet incorporates razor-sharp serrated, retractable wristblades built into it, typically in pairs, used for melee combat and the ritualistic mutilation of prey. The rituals of Yautja must be performed using these wristblades

4. Shuriken (Common Grade): The Shuriken is a primarily thrown Yautja weapon. Constructed with six retractable blades, it is sharp enough to cut a Warrior Xenomorph in two. It can also be used as a slashing weapon

5. Plasmacaster (Common Grade): A Yautja long-range energy projector weapon with automatic targeting capabilities. Capable of firing armor-penetrating plasma bolts at distant targets, it is arguably the most devastating and technologically advanced offensive tool at the Yautja's disposal. It can fire multiple long-range bolts of charged plasma. The power of each burst can be adjusted manually, ranging from a minor setting to kill individual prey to a blast powerful enough to breach most of the Common-graded armors

6. Body Armor (Uncommon Grade): A protective but sectional assemblage of armor worn by Yautja across the body while on a Hunt. It is composed of a partial breastplate, pauldrons, gauntlets, and extremity armor and is Xenomorph's blood proof. It provides excellent defense against all corrosive attacks, physical or magical

Note: When used together, the combined grade of the Set Item, Yautja Weaponry, is equivalent to a High-level Uncommon Grade Item.

]] [Image 1]

Kai licked his lips.

The only issue with this reward was that it didn't suit Kai's fighting style. Though there were so many parts and hidden functions about it, he couldn't help but desire the entire Set.

Now came the last, and the one Kai had been looking forward to the most.

[[

Ranking Reward: Royal Facehugger

1. The Royal Facehugger, or Queen Facehugger, is a special variant of Facehugger that can implant an embryonic Queen by impregnating a host with a Queen Chestburster

2. Royal Facehuggers can implant over one embryo into multiple hosts before they die, typically as a second, regular Xenomorph embryo, which serves as a "guard" for the infant Queen (Current Capacity: 1 Queen embryo, 2 Queensguards embryo)

3. After fully grown, the Queen will have an equivalent grade of D+, being a non-magical creature herself. She will be capable of laying 100 eggs. The Warrior Xenomorph grown from these eggs will each have an equivalent grade of E+

4. The 2 Queensguards Xenomorph will have an equivalent grade of D-

WARNING:

1. Royal Facehugger can only be used in a Random World

2. Only the Queen Xenomorph will obey the Contestant's commands absolutely

3. The Hive formed by the Queen, her 2 Queensguards, and 100 Warrior Xenomorphs has a threat level equivalent to an above-average 6th-floor Contestant.

]]

By the time Kai reached the last point, he was already rubbing his head.