Chapter 144: Survival ame Over?

  Perhaps it was having Ikaros by his side, or maybe the system had been upgraded, but this time, the dimensional travel wasn’t nearly as unbearable for Alex as before.

  However...

  “Man, it’s hot.”

  The first thing Alex muttered as he opened his eyes was a pint about the weather.

  Just moments ago, they were in the snow-covered mountains amid a raging blizzard, but now, they found themselves in an eropical rai surrounded by dense greenery. The humid and stifling air was hard to tolerate. Thankfully, Alex’s body, modified by Zerg enhas, could adapt to nearly any climate. Unless it was something truly extreme, he could ha. Still, the damp and muggy atmosphere was far from pleasant.

  As for Ikaros, being an artificial angel, she was unfazed by enviroal ditions as long as they didn’t threaten her directly.

  “Ikaros, s the surroundings.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  Ikaros nodded obediently, pg one hand by her ear as her eyes lit up with a radiant blue glow.

  “Current temperature: 29 degrees Celsius. Retive humidity: 90%. No harmful gases detected. Enviro suitable for biological and human habitation... However, Master, this is h.”

  “Oh?”

  Alex raised an eyebrow at her response.

  “h?”

  “Yes. Based on analysis of gravitational and magic fields, this is h.”

  “Well, this just got iing…”

  Alex looked up toward the opy, where the dense rai foliage blocked out the sky. While he couldn’t see much, he wasn’t particurly bothered. Instead, he was intrigued by where they had ended up. A world with Earth-like ditions but h itself? His first thought was Avatar, but he quickly dismissed the idea. The Avatar world had toxic air, yet he felt no such danger here. Additionally, the pnts in Avatar were far more exotic, while these seemed retively normal. Then again, Alex wasn’t a botanist, so he couldn’t tell if there was anything especially unusual about them.

  “Master, someone is approag!”

  Ikaros’s alert pulled Alex from his thoughts. Without hesitation, he reached into the void and drew the Void Bde, turning toward the source of the disturbance. Even without Ikaros’s warning, he had already sensed several lifeforms heading in their dire. Judging by their movements, these individuals were... armed?

  “Get behind me.”

  Alex cast a couple of protective spells on Ikaros as he spoke. Obediently, Ikaros moved behind him, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. Moments ter, several figures emerged from the trees. They froze upon seeing Alex and Ikaros, and a few immediately raised their guns, aiming at the pair.

  “Hey, stop it!”

  A woman with braided hair and a sniper rifle quickly stepped festuring to calm her panions. Perhaps because Alex and Ikaros looked harmless, the group hesitated before l their ons.

  “Hey there, folks,” one of them said, waving toward Alex and Ikaros.

  “Looks like we found two more teammates.”

  “Teammates?”

  Alex narrowed his eyes, sing the group. There were eight of them in total, most of whom were white, with one Bck man and an Asian among them. Their attire was a mix of styles: some wore tactical bat gear, others prison uniforms, and a few casual clothing. However, they were all armed, with one even carrying a heavy mae gun.

  “That's right.”

  Perhaps seeing Alex and Ikaros as non-threatening, the lone woman in the group stepped forward to expin.

  “You fell from the sky tht? How about joining us?”

  From the sky?

  Hearing this, Alex gnced upward, sing the opy again.

  Is this survival in the wild... or a battle royale?

  “Sure,” Alex replied, a faint smile pying on his lips.

  Despite the odd thoughts swirling in Alex’s mind, he nodded in agreement to the group’s proposal. He still hadn’t figured out what world this was. In fact, Alex had taken a good look at everyone earlier but didn’t reize any familiar faces. That wasn’t surprising—he wasn’t the type to remember actors from movies uhey had distinctive features. For example, he could reize Natalie Portman by name, but if shown her photo alongside Emma Watson’s, he’d struggle to tell them apart.

  Among the group, the only person who seemed vaguely familiar was the man with thick, downward-snting eyebrows. His face had the perpetually anxious expression of someone drowning i, f a distinctive "囧" shape. Alex felt like he’d seen him somewhere before, which suggested this world might be based on something he’d entered before—a movie ame, though definitely not an ahe people here weren’t nearly good-looking enough for that.

  Led by the man with the “囧” fad rge he group pressed forward, aiming to find higher ground a a better sense of their surroundings. Alex and Ikaros followed quietly. Although Ikaros had already firmed this wash, Alex still wasn’t sure what world they had ended up in. Sihe man with the reizable face might be the protagonist, Alex decided to stick close to him and figure things out before making any decisions.

  Along the way, Alex learned more about the group’s situation through casual versation. Each of them had been going about their lives oh when, for unknown reasons, they found themselves transported here. When they awoke, they were free-falling from the sky, equipped with parachutes and whatever ons they happeo be carrying. Nothing else. It was starting to feel more and more like a battle royale sario.

  Still, Alex couldn’t piece together what kind of world this was.

  Perhaps this was why the system hadn’t issued him a quest yet. In previous cases, the quests were always tied to his knowledge of the world’s setting. Since he had no idea where he was now, the system likely had no way of issuing a task—either that or it was avoiding spoilers.

  This system really has a sense of humor. Does it think I don’t know what happens to Arthas in the end?

  Eventually, the group emerged from the dense forest into a rocky terrain. Exhausted, they all sat down to rest. The woman with braided hair approached the man with the “囧” face, who had naturally assumed a leadership role with his posure and decisiveness.

  “What do you think is going on?”

  Standing beside him, the braided woman frow a leaf spinning ier before them. They had inteo use it to determine dire, but the leaf spuically without pointing anywhere. Even the braided womae her practical mi, was beginning to realize this pce wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

  “What do I think?”

  The man with the “囧” face turo look at the others in the group.

  “An Alpha team member, a drug cartel operative, a United Front rebel, a Sierra Leonean assassin, a Japanese gangster, an FBI’s most-wanted fugitive... and those three.”

  As he spoke, the maured toward Alex, Ikaros, and a bespectacled man. Theurned back to the braided woman.

  “Don’t you think it’s strange? Everyone here seems highly skilled—except for those three. Especially the girl. Look at her outfit and the devi her ear. She doesn’t seem like an ordinary person. And those two...”

  “You mean the man and the little girl?”

  The braided woman g Alex and Ikaros. She had to admit they stood out. Alex was dressed in a -tailored suit from his time in the Edge of Tomorrow world, while Ikaros wore her inal bat attire. pared to the others, who were disheveled and battered, the two looked entirely out of pce.

  “Exactly.”

  The man nodded.

  “Did you notice? While everyone else is uneasy about being in an unknowhose two are pletely calm—like they’re just on vacation. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

  “You’re saying...”

  The braided woman’s expressioense as she sidered his analysis.

  “They’re responsible fing us here?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  The man shook his head.

  “Look closely. They’re as unfamiliar with this pce as we are. The difference is, they’re not panig. That meaher they’re clueless... or...”

  “Or what?”

  “Or they’re fident enough in their abilities to handle any threat that es their way.”

  The man cast a meaningful g Alex and Ikaros.

  “But holy, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.”

  (Chapter End)

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