Chapter 106: Mira
The ditation had brought no peace. It had only brought clarity.
Alex sat with his back against a craggy rock while the wind carried the faint scent of ozone and blood across the battlefield. Sowhere in the distance, a creature scread, and the sound cut off abruptly, as though it had been swallowed by sothing larger. The hunting period had not yet begun, but the predators were already restless.
He opened his eyes.
The ranking board glowed against the darkening sky, and its numbers served as a constant reminder of what he faced. Five million points. Four point five million. Four million. The top three existed in a realm that seed almost mythical from where he sat. Below them stretched a pyramid of killers that descended into the tens of thousands, the thousands, and the hundreds.
He had less than twenty four hours to prepare for a system that had been designed to kill people like him.
"The first thing you need to understand," a voice said from the darkness, "is that the rankings are lying."
Alex did not startle. He had sensed the presence approaching long before it spoke, a small figure that was moving with the careful silence of soone who had learned to navigate spaces where sound ant death.
She stepped into the fading light.
She was young, perhaps sixteen, with close cropped hair the color of ash and eyes that held the flat, watchful stillness of a sniper. Her clothes were practical, worn, and sained with sothing that might have been mud or might have been dried blood. She carried no visible weapon, but Alex noticed the way her hands were hanging at her sides, relaxed yet ready, with the fingers slightly curled as though they were resting around handles that were not there.
"Who are you?" Alex asked.
"Mira." She did not offer more. She sat down across from him, and her movents were economical, wasting nothing. "I have been watching you since you arrived. I saw the confrontation with Sofia. I watched the conversation with your team-mates. I observed the way you handled Ares."
She paused, and sothing that might have been respect flickered in her eyes.
"That was well done, by the way. He will be nursing that wound for weeks."
Alex studied her. She was not friendly, not exactly, but there was a directness to her that he appreciated. There was no posturing and no threats. There was only information, offered like a handshake.
"You said the rankings are lying."
Mira nodded. "They show points, not strength. Do you know why Valerias has five million?"
"Because he has killed more than anyone else."
"Because he has killed more weaklings than anyone else." Her voice remained flat and matter of fact. "He has been here for over five months. He spends every hunting period hunting the bottom ranks. The ones with fifty points or a hundred points. He kills hundreds of them each ti. Sotis he kills thousands. The system rewards volu just as much as it rewards quality."
She gestured toward the board.
"Sofia, on the other hand, hunts the strong. She killed a Rank fourteen genius last month. She killed another Rank twenty before that. Her points are fewer, but her kills are worth more. If they fought, the betting would be close."
"And Rael Timber?"
Mira’s expression shifted, and sothing careful entered her voice. "Rael is different. He does not hunt like the others. He waits and he watches. When he moves, he always moves against soone who thought they were safe. His points co from battles that should not have been winnable."
She looked at Alex directly for the first ti.
"He is the one you should be worried about. Valerias wants to eat you because of what you are. Sofia wants to destroy you because you embarrassed her or perhaps she has so special interests in you. But Rael will want to understand you. That is more dangerous than either of the others."
Alex absorbed this. The top three each followed their own thod and their own philosophy. All of them, for different reasons, would be looking for him tomorrow.
"Why are you telling
this?"
Mira remained quiet for a mont. When she spoke again, her voice had lost so of its edge.
"I have been here for 5 months. I ca in with twelve others from my universe, and I am the only one left." She t his eyes. "The system does not just kill the weak. It kills the unprepared. It kills the ones who do not understand the rules beneath the rules. I have learned enough to survive, but I am never going to crack the top fifty. I do not have that kind of power."
"So you want to ally with ?"
"I want to trade." She held up a hand before he could respond. "I have information about the battlefield, about the creatures, and about the geniuses who will be hunting tomorrow. In exchange, when you climb, and you will climb one way or another, you rember that I helped you when you had nothing."
Alex considered the offer. It was cold and transactional, exactly the kind of arrangent that made sense in a place like this. There was no pretense of friendship and no false promises. There was only survival, negotiated at the point of mutual benefit.
"What’s your rank?" he asked.
"Seventy three."
He raised an eyebrow. That was higher than he would have guessed, given her apparent age and the way she carried herself. Seventy three out of a thousand placed her in the top ten percent.
"Seventy three," he repeated. "And you want to ally with soone who has zero points?"
Mira smiled, and it was a thin expression that was sharp at the edges.
"You have zero points now. Tomorrow, that changes. When it does, every predator in this place will know exactly where you are and exactly what you are worth. You need soone who knows the terrain. You need soone who can tell you where to go and where not to go. You need soone who can help you survive the first three days."
She stood and brushed dust from her clothes.
"Think about it. I will be at the eastern ridge before dawn. If you want what I am offering, co find ."
She turned to leave, then paused.
"Oh, and Alex?"
He waited.
"When Jaros said that anything is permitted during the hunting period, he ant anything. There are no rules and no limits. The only thing that matters is how many points you have when the three days end. Rember that."
She vanished into the darkness, and her footsteps were swallowed by the wind before she had taken three steps.
Alex sat alone for a long ti while he watched the stars wheel overhead. They were wrong, these stars. The constellations were unfamiliar, arranged in patterns that made his eyes ache if he looked too long. This was not his sky and this was not his world. He was a stranger here, a foreigner in a realm that had been designed to kill people exactly like him.
Tomorrow, the hunting would begin.
He found Jaros an hour later. The titan was standing at the edge of a cliff that overlooked the western expanse of the battlefield. His massive form was silhouetted against the moon, and his tallic skin glead dully in the pale light. He did not turn when Alex approached, but his shoulders shifted slightly, acknowledging the presence.
"You are a good leader Jaros. After 5 months, everyone is alive, this is prove of that.
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