Usurping the Universe

[Congratulations.]

Alex was not alone on the circular platform this time. Niel stood by her side and a lavender bear hovered in the air.

[What you did was completely unprecedented.]

The bear adopted a muted tone even though this was a congratulatory message. Strange.

[Would you like to see your achievements? Well, you can't.]

"...What?" Niel and Alex were perplexed.

[Silence.]

'??' Alex could sense some hidden hostility in the creature's voice.

[Please wait for others to finish the stage for the announcement of ranks and rewards.]

'Oh.' Pleased with the thought of future rewards, Alex's foul mood from the previous stage improved slightly.

[Congratulations again, you have both earned the qualification to enter Stemma's World.]

The tiny creature vanished after leaving an insincere farewell. Niel sighed in relief, slumping on the ground with a brief, genuine smile.

He turned his head to the taller girl standing beside him, once a familiar figure now almost unrecognizable—partly due to the strange colour of her hair and partly due to her changed, now alien, behaviour.

"Alex....Marcus?" His voice shook slightly, showing his hesitation.

Alex's expression offered no affirmation towards his gnawing concerns. Her gaze lingered on the clear water of the pond surrounding them, her eyes distant, contemplating.

'What happened to my red lake then?'

She replied with a shrug.

"Dunno."

°°°

In a laboratory, exactly like the one Alex and Niel left behind, a freckled girl with latte skin struggled against the oppressive liquid in her cylindrical prison. A red progress bar on a lit monitor shifted forward with every struggle, rewarding her continuous efforts.

Upon completion, the transparent walls slid down, setting Maria free. She gasped, panting desperately for air then smiled briefly at her success but soon frowned at her soaked clothes.

'What to do next?' She shook her head to refocus, ignoring the blistering chill seeping into her bones.

Determined to move onwards, her eyes darted around the room, scanning for anything useful.

Clothed in thin fabric and without an extra layer of protection, Marie had no choice but to endure the biting cold within the facility. She carefully lifted a laser rifle summoning all her strength and ambled to the lab's door. She placed the gun down then pressed her palms on the two scanners and watched as the doors made way for her passage.

A blast of cold air assaulted her senses, worsening her already poor state. Maria dragged the heavy rifle across the snowy land, gritting her teeth to endure the ache in her shoulder.

°°°

A lean, caramel-skinned male waved a laser coolly in a similar laboratory,.

Squinting his eyes at the mild lighting streaming in from the open metallic doors, he walked around the machines inside the room twice. His features twisted as he unplugged the extension box and the connected appliances from the outlet on the thick metallic wall.

He left the small facility circling it's exterior twice. Occasionally, he would kick the snow around the building's foundation or hit the walls as if measuring their thickness.

Returning inside the facility, his eyes shifted glancing at the corner of his vision before he decisively got to work, pushing the machines to the side.

Beneath one of the largest display machines was a slim metallic handle, causing the male to smile in glee. 

Pulling at the handle with one hand, he disappeared into the darkness below utilising the ladder leading beneath. 

Soon, what was once a plain abandoned facility, had weapons shooting out from different angles, their contents blazing creatures to the ground easily regardless of distance.

°°°

Wearing the skin of a bear monster, an unconscious female was slumped across Elijah's shoulder. He laid her down upon another bear skin in the snow., wrapped her torso up even more tightly, and then returned to the lab to retrieve the second laser gun.

He stuffed the laser rifle into the bundle of girl and bearskin, ready to begin his journey. He wielded a jagged piece of metal, carved from one of the machines to cut off the excess bear skin. Then, he unceremoniously lifted the girl's left leg, holding firmly onto her fair skin. 

With the ankle of his unconscious teammate in hand and a rifle in the other hand, Elijah ran across the snowy lands at a steady pace, manoeuvring around trees and fallen branches while maintaining as straight a path as he could.

°°°

Imani's weapon pierced through beast after beast, a headshot from the laser always securing a kill. He stalked another prey, his gun rightly positioned to attack, and the laser sizzled through the beast's head with little resistance. He had hunted more than he cared to count, he was on his second rifle. The other gun had stopped firing a little after thirty-five minutes of hunting.

After using this rifle for twenty minutes, he decided to retreat to the laboratory to see what else he could use as a weapon. That was until he heard the approaching stomps of multiple bears. His instincts flared, and he directly discarded the rifle, running past the trees to the gate. Multiple bears joined the fray, chasing him from all directions.

Turning his head slightly, he glimpsed at the maddened creatures furiously shortening the distance between themselves and him.

He sprinted at full capacity, surpassing human limits with his ramped-up physical abilities —granted as rewards from his toils in the earlier stages. His heart pounded fiercely against his ribcage, the roars of many echoing across the snowy land. Sweat began to form as the pounds of feet rang louder in his ears.

Hot regret flashed across his features as he imagined how those predators would feast on him should they have a chance. In his haste, he tripped against a wooden branch partially hidden by the snow.

This shortened the distance even further, aiding the creatures behind. Luckily, he had opened the gate before exploration, as Alex suggested. It was not too far now, only a few trees separated him from safety, so he pushed himself further, straining everything he had.

'If I survive this, I'll never curse her again.'

As if to tell him he had spoken to soon, a massive streak if white appeared in the corner of his vision. On pure instinct, he tilted his upper body backwards, narrowly avoiding the deadly lunge.

The elongated fangs of the creature now faced a tree, crushing it in a matter of seconds. Imani did not stay to watch the crunching sounds behind him, causing him to run into the freeing darkness even faster. 

He jumped in, refusing to waste a second. One of his pursuers chomped at his foot, swallowing it in a single bite.

'Why did she ask us to hunt-'

°°°

[Congratulations, Dahlia Ansfrid.]

Dahlia was desperately panting for air as the purple bear spoke. Her clothes ripped, but she was uninjured overall.

[ The stages have officially ended, and you will be transported to witness the announcement of results with your fellow survivors.]

Her vision went black, and she popped into a million fuzzy specs of white.

°°°

"I am not naming THAT many achievements."

"And I am certainly not assigning rewards to each achievement."

"So what shall we do about this?"

"Well… Her base spirit shards are already above one hundred thousand. I propose we display 100 000+,"

"And what about all her achievements?"

"Why don't we just mark the standard ones she achieved, as for any extras she deserves that will be for the boss to decide. She's the one assigning rewards, so we should not interfere."

"What do you think, Chief?"

"I think you're right. We don't have the authority to decide these things. We'll do as you suggest."

A chorus of excited 'yes' erupted, and the thousands of identical lavender bears bustled about with renewed vigour.

°°°

The imposing but painfully plain room, the place where it all began, held an exact total of eighty people, a far cry from the original staggering numbers. Alex raised her head, slightly surprised at how big the room was now that it was not stuffed densely packed with people.

At the centre of the room was an imposing illusory box of text, listing names, ranks and spirit shards. Funnily enough, most people directly ignored this and their eyes faced Alex.

'Do I have a title of my name or something?'

She was completely confident of getting first place. Turning her head upwards to check for a floating title and confirm her theory, she saw nothing, so she ignored their stares and focused on the hologram.

All forty names were on the board, and Alex had to crane her head to see first place.

[Rank 1- Alexander Chase- 100 000+ spirit shards]

[Rank 2- Niel Chase- 50 000+ spirit shards ]

[Rank 3- Isaiah Fletcher - 49 540 spirit shards ]

[Rank 4- Elijah Fletcher- 45 680 spirit shards ]

[Rank 5-Damien Osterrich- 43 920 spirit shards ]

[Rank 6- Jelani Fahrrad - 38 960 spirit shards ]

[Rank 7-Akim Akilo- 37 650 spirit shards ]

[Rank 8-Dahlia Ansfrid- 37 350 spirit shards ]

[Rank 9-Imani Oreto- 37 330 spirit shards ]

[Rank 10- Avery Ming- 36 200 spirit shards]

[Rank 11- Luca Jansen- 35 980 spirit shards]

[Rank 12- Maria Augustus- 35 920 spirit shards]

[Rank 13- Charles Blake- 35 830 spirit shards]

[Rank 14- Wilson Shade- 18 600 spirit shards]

[Rank 15- Conrad Axton- 16 700 spirit shards]

"The top ten are to receive their rewards first. Please follow me."