Paranoid or Too Positive

It was still dark when he came out, and it started to snow fiercely again.

Alex who couldn't find himself going back to sleep due to his dream, reminding him of the recent tragedy that enthralled his mind and body with hatred, and the thirst for revenge, was kneeling on the ground nearby.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

Repeatedly, he pounded the snowy ground, each blow accompanied by a muffled thus.

Out of anything he could do to vent, this was the quietest he could possibly do.

Despite not being able to satiate his anger optimally as punching the snowy ground only provides little to no changes to his state of mind, he eventually calmed down enough to stop and threw himself back to sit on the ground.

'I don't know how much time has passed, but I need to quickly rise through the ranks'

Since he's inside the Hyperion Empire, he would need to start from the ground.

To eventually seek revenge on Migel, his little brother, would necessitate a well-structured plan, something he does not have due to his limited knowledge of the military hierarchy within the Hyperion Empire.

But he definitely would need a spaceship and a crew to journey back to his home galaxy.

'After I passed the Trial, I need to learn more about the Hyperion Empire's military...'

Deciding his next steps once he passed the Trial, his eyes glistened fiercely as a vivid image of Migel's face surfaced in his mind. In a surge of anger, he stood up to look at the sky and clenched both fists so tightly that his nails pierced his skin, drawing blood from his right hand.

No matter what, he would get his revenge.

Even if he has to sell his soul, he would not hesitate, he would do anything for his sole goal.

Alex sighed to suppress his emotions before he headed back to the ruin, he took his bag inside the underground chamber and went outside again. Inside, Natalia is still sleeping soundly thanks to the energy shield.

Leaning and sitting on a nearby tree, he takes out the beast's heart and starts meditating.

In the power ranking of the Adudal Principality, he's now a pseudo-mage.

Since his magic source is now connected and fully established to the Null Star, he's a pseudo-mage. Normally, if he established the connection and was able to cast 3 elemental spells, he would be considered a fully-fledged mage.

However, he doesn't have any elemental affinity.

A mage would instantly gain an elemental affinity when their magic source first connected.

But for some reason, that didn't apply to him.

'No matter, I can dwell in the path of neutral elements. Nobody has done it before, but I'm sure it will be fine. Maybe I should start by learning detection spells to increase my survivability. Also, I should use the remaining mana inside the beast's heart to expand my connection to the Null Star and advance to the True Mage realm before it gets soiled' Alex pondered, devising his growth plan before he started to circulate his mana.

Some time passed, and Natalia moaned and blinked her eyes a couple of times.

'Is it already morning? It's not as cold as before...'

Rubbing her eyes gently, she sat up and surveyed the underground chamber. To her surprise, Alex was nowhere to be seen. She hesitated for a moment, fearing that Alex for some unknown reason had abandoned him.

Due to that, she became restless and hurried up.

However, her eyes then darted to the energy generator that was now glowing again.

It was supposed to be drained of energy thanks to being broken by the beast chasing her earlier, yet she now noticed that her energy generator had been miraculously recharged. Pondering for a brief moment, she came to the realization that Alex must've given his.

Natalia didn't waste any time and quickly climbed out.

Scanning the ruins around her cautiously, she eventually found Alex nearby.

Looking at him makes her feel relieved and can breathe easily again.

Alex was meditating throughout the night and didn't realize that it was already morning, he was not disconnected from the surroundings, so he sensed Natalia approaching him and decided to open his eyes.

"Quite a gentleman are you?"

"What do you mean?"

Upon hearing this, Natalia raised her right arm and showed the glowing energy generator.

"Like you said. If you got sick and couldn't move, it'll lower my survival chance"

"Here I thought you were being a gentleman to a lady, but it seems I was fooled. Anyway, what are you doing out here knowing that it's dangerous? Are you scouting the area for a safer place?"

Although the ruins are quite safe, it was undoubtedly near the beast horde.

Maybe it would stay safe for now, but neither of them could guarantee that this place would remain safe until the rescue team arrived in search of them. It'll be a wise step for them to search for a safer place before that happens.

Just as she said that Alex stood up and nodded his head. "I have a place in mind"

"Where is it? And how come you're sure that it's safe?" Natalia inquired.

Shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, he then replied while strapping the bag on his back. "It's a wrecked battleship I stumbled across before. I don't know if it's safer, but I do know that it's in the opposite direction, away from the beast horde"

"Okay, I'll trust yo-"

Natalia stopped in the middle of her sentence when her stomach suddenly growled.

Despite the environmental suit, the sound still slipped out.

In an instant, her expression reddened like a ripe tomato as she couldn't believe that this happened right in front of Alex, someone she barely knew. "Wait, I think I still have some remaining food bars" He said, smiling lightly.

But as he rummages through the bag, he frowns that there wasn't any.

'Shit, I think it spilled when I crashes down earlier'

Finding that there wasn't anything left inside, Alex could only sigh as he didn't expect this.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I can hold out until we reach the wrecked battleship"

"We'll make a quick stop before going there, I know a place that still has some food bars"

A moment later, the two journeyed together.

Neither of them said anything, however, their eyes were stealing glances at the navigation device in the hope there was another aspirant abandoned aside from them. But it seems they were the only ones who arrived late and got abandoned.

'At least I got Casper to safety, not that it's a good thing for me' Alex thought acutely.

Upon pondering about this subject, he subconsciously glanced over to Natalia wondering how she was late to get to the pick-up point. "Say, how did you get left behind? Did you meet some strong life forms? Is it a Type-3 Beast?"

"Eh? Type-3 Beast?" Natalia mused, she then quickly waved her hand in front of her face.

Pausing for a moment and averted her gaze elsewhere, she seemed to be embarrassed again. However, she then bumped her own head with her fist playfully, "I was late because I was asleep and didn't realize the beast horde was coming"

Learning of his honest answer, Alex's expression twitched.

'Asleep...?' He pondered in utter bewilderment. 'Well, earlier, even after I changed her energy generator, she didn't wake up. I suppose she's telling the truth, she must be a heavy sleeper'

Natalia then clicked her tongue in displeasure, remembering something distasteful.

"I thought at least my friend, Mira would at least wake me up. But she didn't and I was left behind" She pouted, feeling a little bit soured about it. "I guess she must've had her reason for not waking me up, maybe she panicked"

Alex who heard this couldn't help but shake his head.

Considering that her friend, Mira left her essentially to die, she should've been angrier.

Instead, she keeps a positive thought and assumes that Mira has a legitimate reason for not waking her up. 'Either I'm too paranoid, or she's too positive. But I'm more inclined to say that she's too positive for her own good'

Not long after, the two arrived back in a spacious glade.

Located at the center of the spacious glade were hill formations, this was the temporary base that Alex's squad resided in before. Pointing at the hill formations, he said, "My squad was here before we got attacked by a Type-2 Beast. If I'm not mistaken, there should be another bag there"

Upon hearing this, Natalia's eyes lit up at the prospect of food.

"Keep a lookout for me, I'll get the bag and eat" She sprinted ahead and waved her hand.

Having no other choice, he decided to keep a look around for any life forms.

On the other hand, Natalia arrived at the hill formations and searched for the supposed bag. In the process, she encountered Malik's corpse in a horrifying condition, buried halfway in the snow as well as the other dead aspirants.

'Huh? This guy should be kind of strong, how did he die?' Natalia wondered.

In her point of view, Malik should be quite strong and yet he was lying here utterly lifeless.

Scanning the area around, she found the supposed beast that attacked this squad. However, she gasped when she realized that it was a Type-2 Beast, its size and muscles were enough to indicate that.

Glancing towards Alex, her eyes squinted, 'He survived, so he must be the one that killed it'

Natalia then resumed her search and eventually found the bag.

Unknown to her, Alex who was standing in the distance saw a couple of figures emerging from the dense forest. It was a pack of Black Spotted Hyena, and there were about nine of them in total.

Alex stretched his body when he witnessed the hyenas baring their fangs at him.

'Guess I'll see how much I improved, taking down these bunch should be quite easy now'

Rather than using the plasma pistol or the Soundwave Gloves in the battle against the hyenas, he abstained from doing so out of concern that Natalia might realize that those two weapons were empty yet he could still use them.

That'll be a tough spot, potentially exposing his Nexus Mark.

Due to that, he decided to use a knife and test his body's fighting capabilities.

...

Meanwhile, inside the mothership in a low atmosphere of the planet.

Casper and the woman with blue hair were sitting inside the hangar bay, both looking anxious thinking about Alex and Natalia who were still down on the planet, fending off against the beast horde.

Knowing the probability of their survival only intensified their worries even further.

Being abandoned literally means death for them.

Additionally, the timeframe for the beast horde incident is also random. It could only be a few days and it can even stretch to months, and the longer the two of them stayed on the planet the lesser their survival chance would be.

While the two were stressing out, Ms. Joselyn entered and caught sight of them.

Sighing softly, she was on the verge of offering words of comfort to the two, but her attention was abruptly drawn to movement on the scoreboard to her left. Ms. Joselyn takes a closer look before her eyes dilated in astonishment.

Alex's name was located near the top, and his point was actually increasing.

'T-That kid is alive!'