I can’t shake the feeling of judgment in their words. Haru acting like he’s better than me. Like he was any better. I’m doing what needs to be done. I’m surviving, that’s what we need right now. I don't have a choice but to do what needs to be done. Amakusa doesn’t understand either he’s just ignorant of the real world blinded by his cult.
I kick another rock as I walk along. It doesn’t take long before it starts to grow dark again. An entire day was spent walking and thinking to myself about what I could have done differently. I understand I could have taken the chips out without killing them… but then what if they sought to kill me afterward? They would be doomed to die anyway why prolong their suffering?
I sit down at a campfire made in the night… It’s the first night that I don’t have someone else watching guard. I don’t have enough points in endurance and resilience yet to last days without sleep. Deciding to make the most of it I climb a tree and sleep slung from a branch that seems strong enough to support my weight.
I didn’t sleep much that night… The black book on the floor mocking me with the information contained within.
The next morning, I grouchily awake, my back aching from the poor sleeping spot.
I’m more surprised by what’s down below though. Looking down it seems someone has rummaged about the camp. Leaning against the tree huddled by the warmth of the fire from the cold night is a child… They have two BIM bags one being used as a makeshift pillow covered by scraps of cloth.
He has to BIM bags… he likely has two chips. I would be able to go home… it would be so easy… Looking down on the child warn and dirty from the nights in the forest. Beaten and tired scared and cold he found my fire left from the night before and settled in for rest. He’s just 14.
I-It would be easy. A single cut or a BIM… but he’s just a child. Just like Kaguya… I don’t know if I would have killed her either now that I think of it… Even if I didn’t have the quest. I could have gotten the chips elsewhere.
Letting out a long sigh I make my way down. When I reach the bottom, my fall seems to rouse him. He quickly jumps up and reaches for his BIM. I just look at him waiting for him to speak.
“So… you’re the one that set up the camp. I thought maybe you had wandered off stealth and traps were never my strong suit in the game.” The kid starts thumbing the BIM case. Looking a bit jumpy likely ready to run in case I respond.
“Kid just go, I don’t want to kill you.” He looks at me surprised at first before getting annoyed and frowning.
“Kill me? You wish, old man. Hell, running won’t even help you. Because this island is just like Btooom! And I’m super good at that game.” I’m shocked by this mostly because I’m barely 18, he’s at most like five years younger than me.
“I’m not that old you little shit. Besides the BIM might be the same and there may be a radar but you’re being naïve if you think that’s all it takes to live here kid.” Suddenly kicking his ass at least doesn’t seem nearly as unbearable.
He looks upset at that. “Adults always do that… they call me naïve they, say I’m wrong but don’t explain why.” He pulls out a BIM I don’t recognize.
“You don’t plan to kill me either right? I’m sure you’re naïve enough to not even try right? Never even picked up the game so you don’t even know how to win!” He starts laughing to himself as he tosses the odd BIM towards me. Taking no chances, I jump out of the way. The BIM seems to have a loud air suction before the part of the ground it was touching just vanishes into nothing… Okay, not as lame as the other BIM.
“KID! I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU!” I start retreating now running into the brush nearby.
“Ha, I know this trick. One of the other players tried this on me.” I can feel his Radar pulse against me. I focus on the stealth skill, he starts running in my direction but seems to be looking beyond me. Like he thinks I’m further away than I am.
“GET BACK HERE! SCARED OF A KID?! YOU’RE PROBABLY A USELESS FUC- WOAH” Right as he gets close to the tree, I’m hiding behind I tackle him to the ground. He may have a strong BIM, but I have a couple of pounds on him, and I know how to do a proper hold.
“NO! NO! SAKAMOTO! IT WAS MEANT TO BE YOU! NOT SOME RANDOM ASSHOLE WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT THE GAME!” He starts kicking and screaming on the ground.
“Hey hey hey, relax kid I’m not going to kill you. Just… Fucking stay still.” I wrap his hands up with his vest.
“Okay, just don’t mess with me. Tell me where your spare chip is and I’ll just leave okay? Heck, I’ll just hang you BIM up on a tree and I didn’t tie your arms that well. You can probably get out quickly enough on your own.” He starts struggling at the clothe fast as if that would let him escape sooner. I let out a long sigh. “Look where is your spare chip. I don’t feel comfortable searching a kid.” He spits at me but it falls short hitting my shoes as he struggles at the bindings.
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“Shove it up your ass!” Sighing again I walk up and give him a little shove with my foot to turn him over. So he’s now uncomfortably laying on his hands.
“Come on, you’re a dumb kid. Where did you put it? Your sock?” I use search and start looking at him. I can’t find it anywhere though. I use Radar and get a response from the BIM bag. Searching it he apparently hid it under one of his odd BIM.
“THAT’S MINE! GIVE THAT BACK!” I toss his BIM up on a tree branch out of his reach.
“Alright kid, have fun. Good luck escaping.” I start walking away as he screams on the floor.
Moving on it just… this all just doesn’t matter anymore. I only need one chip now. I put the point into perception. Maybe it will help me find someone else sooner.
I go back to walking the perimeter of the beach I let out a radar pulse every once in a while. I only need one chip to have this all end…
I keep walking for a while I can’t help but feel… annoyed. SEE! I can be nice; I can spare people. I could have killed that kid, but I just took his chip instead I even let him keep his BIM. Everyone just seems to be acting like… Like I’m making mistakes. I just want to go home, to have that happy ending like Haru did… I deserve that right? I feel like I have earned that from how much I’ve dealt with…
Letting out a long sigh I look at my notifications
Congratulations! Story quest complete: Collect 7 chips and have Kaguya escape the island
Reward: Skill fusion
Main quest update: Himiko has left. Collect 7 chips and leave the island.
Okay, I have another skill fusion that should be useful. I look at my options.
Name: Shimada Hitomi
Titles: Prodigy
Age: 17 244 days
Carried over skills: Rebirth, Mindscape.
Health status 100/100
Afflictions: Annoyed, slight dehydration.
Current skills
1. Throwing LVL 99 (Inborn skill)
2. Martial Arts LVL 70
3. Stealth LVL 56
4. Search LVL 55
5. Treatment LVL 33
6. Disease Resistance LVL 99
Attributes: 0 points
Strength: 10
Speed: 13
Endurance: 12
Resilience: 12
Thought speed: 19
Perception: 11
Throwing and martial arts could be useful potentially turning into some sort of throwing art. Stealth and martial arts might turn into some sort of assassination or ninja-type skill. This could be useful for my second personal quest… but I’m not sure how I feel about that job.
Search and stealth have been interesting so far. I haven’t had to use them nearly as much as I was expecting to on a battle royal island. Mostly using it for sleep locations and searching for chips. Search and stealth could be an interesting combination too. Perhaps giving night vision or something like that… I also have to consider what skills am I okay with losing for this life. If I combine martial arts into something it may flop and get something useless then I would lose my impact resistance and other benefits but it could help a potentially deadlier future…
Screw it, I don’t depend on search and stealth that much but they are still nice skills. I might as well combine them.
Skill fusion selected; two skills will be combined of your choice. Select skills now
Out of curiosity, I place my mindscape skill in the first slot but all my other skills become greyed out when I do. Not sure if that means they are incompatible or they need to be fused already to fuse with a fused skill. Worth checking later though I’d rather not risk messing up mindscape.
First selected skill: Stealth level 56
Second selected skill: Search level 55
.....
Contradictory skills detected! Synergy created!
Combined skill: Sight of the Unseen Eye-level 55
Description: You are able to see around yourself able to see from any part of your body at lvl % of your normal visions capacity.
Lvl 25: You can feel eyes looking at you and know what direction they are coming from.
Lvl 50: Able to use search, using mental strain to highlight objects searching for within your line of sight.
I can't help but stagger for a moment by the disorienting feeling of my vision rapidly fluctuating between 62 degrees and 360 as I struggle for how to control this new sense. Even worse are the pinpricks popping up along my mind, it's an alien sensation like I'm being watched. I feel what must be hundreds of eyes on me, but they are all so far away that I doubt they are on the island. Those are probably the people in charge of organizing clips of footage and a few people that might want to watch live. If they were doing a public live broadcast I’d probably feel the sight of hundreds of thousands to millions considering how many people the murderer title required.
I stumble over to a tree for a moment and just close my eyes. Trying to adjust to the feeling of my new senses.
The feeling of my surroundings come out fairly foggy through my new sense. Able to see general shapes probably 20/100 vision which is fairly disorienting when it’s attached to a new muscle.
I spend most of the day just getting the hang of my new ability mostly learning to turn it off or moving the sight to project from a different part of my body rather than simply all around me. It seems to come from skin or connected hair rather than through clothes, so I need to make sure to always keep some visible in the future.
Overall, I don’t feel like the skill fusion was wasted. It could be very useful in future lives, at least once it’s no longer a blurry mess. Feeling people’s gazes is very useful, I just wish I wasn’t already being watched by millions. Their gazes leave me when I just sit at the tree for a long time. It seems like a much smaller are still looking at me likely having lost the interest of many of the people looking at my footage. I’m going to take the time to adjust for this. Losing stealth is slightly annoying but I should be able to make up for it.