She cocked her head to the side, looking a little confused.
"What do you an by factions?" I asked.
"Oh, you must’ve never been there. All the applicants separated themselves into three factions shortly after we arrived here."
That made sense; I left the mont I arrived and didn’t bother waiting around.
"What are the different factions they separated into?"
"Oh, uhh..." She rested her finger on her chin as she tried to rember. "Cassian Montclair has his own faction."
I stared at her blankly, having no idea who that was.
"You know the Montclairs, the famous noble family. His father is currently the rank 3 hero. Plus, he inherited his father’s Thermal Energy System. Another faction belongs to Rafael Baldwin; he also cos from a noble family, and his mother is the rank 4 hero. He inherited his family’s Weather System. Lastly, there’s Alia Cassidy. I’m sure you’ve heard about her; she is a celebrity after all."
She stared at my expressionless face and then began giggling.
"You really don’t know anything."
"I don’t think a girl who pees herself has any right to laugh."
My words seed to strike a chord because she quickly covered her ears and began flailing about.
"Shut up!"
She quickly covered her mouth, looking surprised by her own outburst, her cheeks burning red. So all it took was a little teasing to get her out of her comfort zone.
After she regained her composure, she began speaking again, her face more expressive than before.
"Alia isn’t from a noble family, and from what I hear, no one in her family is a hero. But what makes her so popular is that she managed to awaken the sa system the forr number 1 hero had before he died—the Gravity System."
Now that was sothing I knew about, at least a little. The forr number 1 hero, the one before the current number 1, rose to fa with his powerful Gravity System. It was said to be the third strongest system to ever exist.
"What about you?" I asked. "That strawman I fought outside the cave—it belonged to you, didn’t it?"
Her expression changed at my question; she now wore a solemn look.
"My system is nothing special. It has brought more misfortune than good. It’s called the Curse System. It allows to create curses, and I can also extract the souls of dead dungeon monsters to create curse spirits. The mont I got this system, my skin turned pale, and that was when I started to get mocked."
So that’s why she didn’t join any of the factions. Was she like this because people made fun of her? No, probably not; her type of cowardice didn’t co from being teased. She probably just had an overly sensitive personality.
PING!
A loud ping ca from both of our watches. The screen lit up, displaying a ssage.
[SUPPLY DROP TOMORROW AT 10 AM. 100 SUPPLY PACKETS WILL BE DROPPED. MORE INFORMATION WILL BE DISCLOSED AT A LATER NOTICE.]
A hundred supply packets for 500 people. They were really trying to instigate a conflict. They didn’t give us much information, but they made sure to tell us that they were sending 100 supply packets so we knew it wouldn’t be enough to share.
The situation was much worse now that the applicants had joined factions; it would’ve been much easier if it had been a free-for-all. Would they accept if I tried to join?
Well, if I thought about it rationally, they wouldn’t have any reason to accept . I would just be another mouth to feed. But there was one undeniable truth I was almost certain of—there wouldn’t be enough supplies, no matter how they rationed it. More than likely, it wouldn’t even be enough to share among one faction.
No matter what they did, there would be people on the island who were starving. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that being by myself would be the best option. It was against them.
I stared up at the girl in front of , and a thought crossed my mind.
"Hey, would you be willing to team up with ? With the other factions out there, it will be hard to secure supplies."
"You want to work with ?" I couldn’t read the expression on her face. I couldn’t tell if it was excitent, confusion, or disgust. All I knew was that she was making a weird face. She lowered her head before speaking. "If you’re okay with it, then I would be happy to partner with you."
"Okay, then great—"
"But first, we should introduce ourselves properly. I don’t even know your na."
Our nas? I guess I understood where she was coming from.
"My hero na is Mockingbird. Yours is Luna, right?"
She nodded when I told her my na, but I got the feeling she still wasn’t satisfied.
"Okay, then Luna, for the remainder of our ti here on this island, we’ll be partners."
...
The next morning, I woke up bright and early to prepare for the supply drop. Luna was still sleeping, and it was just after 7. I had a practice session outside the cave to get used to the Middle Finger and Blade of Calamity. Overall, it was good, but decreasing the weight tended to throw off my rhythm just slightly.
The Blade of Calamity felt different since it had changed from a hunting knife to a dagger. I also practiced switching between the two at a quicker pace. The inventory ca in handy more than I thought; by just thinking about it, both weapons could switch places in an instant.
Plus, I had the added benefit of never losing my weapon. Since it was registered in my inventory, I could call it back whenever I wanted.
As I was practicing, I spotted sothing out of the corner of my eye.
Soone was watching .
They weren’t doing a good job of it either. As I practiced, I scanned the area to see if there were more of them, but it seed to be only one. When the ti was right, I launched my dagger at them.
A pained yelp rang out from where they were. Then a boy dressed in an orange combat suit ran out, limping with the Blade of Calamity embedded in his leg. It goes without saying that he didn’t get very far before falling over. Soon, he was crawling on the ground, trying to get away.
"Help! What did you do?! Oh my god, I’m bleeding!"
He seed more panicked than in pain. I paid his whimpering no mind and grabbed him by his orange-dyed hair.
"What are you doing? Let go of !!"
This was perfect; he was exactly what I needed. I dragged him back to the cave while he shouted and flailed about. The commotion woke Luna, who crawled away in a codic way before shooting to her feet.
"What’s going on? Who is he?"
"I found him spying on us from the bushes."
My explanation didn’t calm her one bit; she still had a frightened look on her face. I traced her eyes to the trail of blood from dragging him in.
"A-are you going to question him?"
She was trying to make sense of the situation.
"No," I replied flatly.
There was sothing else I needed to find out—a question that had been bugging ever since I ca to this island.
How far do a person’s vital signs need to drop before they are eliminated?
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