Starving World

After directly consuming most of the blood from the three corpses and collecting their authorities, Frederick started to scavenge their belongings. He checked the middle-aged man's backpack, the woman's clothes, and even the last person's shoes.

Overall, he was pleasantly surprised after finding a substantial amount of food and water. The food included bags of sweets, a lot of canned fruits, and a few bottles of strange energy drinks.

For some reason, he also found gold and precious stones among the loot, which he discarded as they would only slow him down. He could pretty much guess that they were probably kept because of greed.

"My inventory is a bit full, and it would be difficult to store all this food." After some thought, he removed all the "meat" he had kept in his subspace before replacing it with the acquired food and water. Yet, even by doing so, he still had a surplus he could not store, so instead, he started to eat it.

It was a bit of waste, but it was not exactly something very nutritious, as it lacked many important vitamins. Although it could fill him very easily, even Frederick knew that it wouldn't really be good for his body to consume human meat in the long run.

He had only eaten it earlier because he lacked food. But now that he even had a surplus, he did not really bother keeping it. In the worst case, he only had to acquire more.

As he chewed on candies, he became lost in his thoughts. 'Surviving a month... I should have enough supplies to last, even if I only climb. Not that it's part of my plans, though,' he thought. He knew he had to seize every opportunity to gain experience points; this story was no exception.

Turning his attention to his wounded left shoulder, he noticed that the bleeding had long stopped by itself. Although he had been wounded only about 15 minutes ago, his body had already started to heal.

The wound had started to scab, and Frederick did not seem to need any medical care or medication, which was fortunate. This was probably a benefit of the purification process.

As he finished eating, he decided to examine the weapons they had. To his disappointment, all they had were two mere standard handguns, which could only be considered junk, so he did not even bother anymore and decided that it was best to just throw them away.

<Time 4 27 until the first collapse: hours minutes>

Taking one of their bags, he headed directly to one of the bridges leading to higher islands.

.

.

.

.

On a different island, a hooded figure was staring at their system window.

------------------------

<Congratulations on reaching level 11. Please assign your free point to a stat>

-Constitution + ( 12 -> 13)

-Mind + ( 14 -> 15)

-Perception +( 14 -> 15)

-Dexterity + (13->14)

------------------------

"Phew... Let's invest in constitution attribute this time. My body feels sore from all of this," the figure exclaimed aloud as they rubbed their faces and stretched their arms.

Around the hooded figure, several bodies of other candidates could be seen. Their limbs were scattered everywhere, and blood covered the yellow stone.

"This was a bit too easy. Was not even fun." They paused and took a moment to reflect. The scene was truly horrifying, with most bodies directly cut in half or directly crushed.

"Let's retrieve our prize."

As they walked, their hood slipped slightly, revealing a beautiful and enchanting face of a woman. Her golden-yellow pupils were like small suns emitting light. She had a cold yet alluring expression and was undoubtedly a woman who could stop all activities just from being there. Her most captivating feature was undoubtedly her dark hair that went well beyond her feet and almost touched the ground.

She then casually squatted down, paying no mind to the blood on the ground and the grotesque remains, which didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. As if it were the most natural thing, she proceeded to slowly and steadily collect all the authority orbs on the ground, treating them as if she were gathering colorful berries.

Once the woman had gathered all the orbs, she didn't bother with further scavenging for loot. With a smile, she gazed at the authority orbs and then suddenly opened her mouth, tossing one inside. With a gulp, she swallowed it.

< Authority consumption failed >

With a sigh, she continued.

< Authority consumption failed >

< Authority consumption failed >

As more and more authority orbs were ingested, a message finally appeared in the air in front of her.

<Authority 5 7 "Starving World" (High) has consumed "Moonless Fighter" (lesser). Assimilation rate is 73%. Slots:>

"Great!" the woman said with a cheerful tone as if she just obtained a new toy. However, after reading about the abilities of her new authority, she was a bit disappointed.

"Eh… Actually, I don't think this authority can even help me; it's pretty trash," she muttered to herself. "Whatever, it's not like I had to bear any curse anyway. In the worst case, I'll just replace the authorities I have with better ones."

With a happy mood, she jumped on a higher bridge leading to a nearby island.

.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, Frederick had been trotting on one of the numerous bridges linking the various floating islands for a while.

The bridges were not wide. They were long and narrow, like a rope bridge, with nothing below them but an endless abyss. Although the bridges were made of stone, they were not particularly sturdy, and he felt that he could fall off the edge with the slightest mistake. Looking behind, he watched the path behind him slowly crumble, replaced by the void below.

He had noticed this earlier, but it seemed that each bridge could only accommodate a single person before collapsing. This means that as time passed, the bridges available to reach the upper islands would get smaller and much harder to climb. Although there were many bridges, Frederick doubted that there were enough for everyone. This meant that he had to climb as fast as possible to avoid getting stuck on an island and die.

'So this story is more of a race than anything. It should also be a way to weed out some candidates and destroy groups, ' he concluded. Since only a single person can take a bridge, groups would be forced to either split up or fight among themselves for the bridges.

Looking up, he saw the distant floating islands above him.

'I should reach this one soon,' he thought as he sped up his steps.

<Time 2 11 until the first collapse: hours minutes>

Not long after, Frederick reached the end of the bridge and entered a completely different floating island. He was still on a fairly low floating island, and the island was not exactly the most spectacular he had ever seen as it was extremely similar to the one he came from, only it was much bigger.

Frederick immediately looked around the area and noticed many candidates also running across the many bridges that connected this island. They were not all on the same side. Some were running towards the bridges and some were running toward the next island already.

Sadly enough, Frederick knew he could not really afford to waste too much time on getting experience at this moment as the number of available bridges leading toward the upper islands was dwindling at an incredible speed. Without much of a choice, he continued to jog and decided to only attack if the situation presented itself.

Watching around, he saw that most candidates were exhausted from their run. Unlike most people, his stamina was now inhumanly high. Despite still experiencing some difficulty moving all his muscles due to the purification process, he was accustomed to running for extended periods like he did in Dyrroth, so he could easily keep the pace he was running at without exerting too much effort, if not any. Running felt like walking.

Taking the next bridge, Frederick maintained a steady and brisk pace.

His breath was stable and calm, and his heartbeat was slow and steady. His whole body was not tense. He did not have an ounce of fat on his body, and he felt like his body was like a machine, every muscle designed for optimal performance.

As he was running toward the next island, he noticed a fight taking place behind him on the island he had previously been on. Two candidates were fighting for a bridge. Without much thought, he noticed how most bridges were starting to crumble as the number of bridges available was nearly gone.