Revive

"Beep-Beep"

"What now?" Alice exclaimed.

"THE SUPPLY BOX HAS BEEN COLLECTED." in such a short time?

"IN ANOTHER 10 HOURS A SUPPLY BOX WILL DROP."

"I should have been the one..." I think she meant that she would have been the first person to collect the supply box if I hadn't stopped her.

"Looks like we couldn't complete the special condition task this time also," I said.

"Don't use the word 'we', earlier I was able to complete the special condition task and that tent was its reward." I don't get it? Why is she acting like that?

One moment she talks normally to me but the other time she acts grumpy. What's her deal?

"Fine. 'I' failed to achieve the special condition task 'this time also'. Is this okay?"

"Hmph..." there she goes again. Should I comprehend it as a 'yes' or 'no'?

...

Since we don't have any food to eat, we both decided to work together and look for something.

Even though I said that I had searched the whole area earlier, she still refused to believe it and decided to scan the region again.

"I wish Selene was here. She would be able to distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous fruits.

" ~HELLO EVERYONE!~" I have a feeling something is going to happen again.

"~A DAY AGO MANY OF YOU WERE DISQUALIFIED DUE TO BEING UNABLE TO COMPLETE THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENT.~" what's he getting at?

"~TO MAKE THINGS INTERESTING WE HAVE DECIDED TO ADD A FEW NEW THINGS." I have noticed that he always mentions himself as we do. Not exactly himself as 'we', he might mean that he is not alone.

That's most likely the case. All this is not the work of a single person. That's maybe why he mentions 'we' and not 'I'.

"~THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO WILL PROCEED TO THE THIRD TASK WILL BE ONLY 7." It means that only half of us are going to the next task.

"~BUT BEFORE THAT WE HAVE DECIDED TO BRING IN THE DISQUALIFIED PEOPLE AGAIN.~" what?

"~YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT. ALL GE DISQUALIFIED TILL NOW WILL COME BACK AGAIN BUT ON ONE CONDITION.~" condition?

"~FIRST, IS THAT YOU CAN CHOOSE ONLY ONE. THE SECOND, IS THAT FOR THE REVIVAL OF ONE PERSON WILL COST 3000 POINTS.~" 3000 points? I don't think I would be able to get that many points easily.

"~TIME LIMIT IS TILL THE END OF THE SECOND TASK. SO, IF YOU WANT YOUR FRIEND, GIRLFRIEND, BOYFRIEND, OR A SIBLING YOU CAN BRING THEM BACK AGAIN. ~EVEN I CAN'T GUARANTEE THEIR SAFETY IF YOU TAKE TOO MUCH TIME TO REVIVE THEM.~" at least they gave us a decent amount of time.

This might be a great chance for me to bring back Selene.

With Selene, I remember I still need to find some food.

I strode around but this time I looked at every corner.

"Did you find something?"

"!?"

"Hmm..." it was Alice. For a second I thought someone else sneaked behind me so I was ready to punch the person.

"Don't ever sneak behind me. Ever." In this situation I believe, to survive, the most viable option is to eliminate others first before you get eliminated.

The system that Mr. X has made is most probably built to eliminate and to get a sole winner.

Till now what has happened to us is the evidence of that.

"Why?"

"If next time you sneak behind me, I'll give you the answer."

"Whatever. So, did you find something?"

"Not yet. I already told you that I have scoured this area."

"Hmph! Then it means that you did not search it thoroughly. I found some blueberries. Which were 'near' to the location you sat 'yesterday'."

"..." oops.

"What happened? Did a cat get your tongue?" this time I can't say it's not my fault. I should have looked at least around where I sat.

"I don't have any excuse." Let's admit it.

"It's your fault you should at least apo-" she stopped in between, "What did you say?"

"I said 'I don't have any excuse. This is my fault.'"

"Y-you..." she couldn't say anything.

She must have thought that I would not admit my mistake and she would try to get angry at me or something like that but instead, I apologized.

Now she can't get angry at me. It's common psychology. If a person admits his/her mistake the other person's anger reduces to half.

"Are you okay? You look pale a little bit." I tried teasing her a bit.

"Allen you mean..." I think I might have teased her a little bit too much.

"Hey, wait for me. I also need to eat those berries..."

...

She took me to the place where she found the berries.

"..." when I looked at it I remembered Selene. Why? Because these are the same berries Selene and I ate for the first time after coming to this island.

"What's with that look? It looks creepy?"

"What look?" I am sure I was not making a face or anything.

"I am talking about your inner face. It felt creepy."

"What are you talking about? Inner face?" it's true that it made me feel something but was my feeling leaking out? Whatever.

"These are edible but not in excessive amounts. If you eat excessively you might get poisoned."

"Ehh... you know about plants?"

"My friend told me about this."

"Thought so. You don't look like someone who likes something like this."

"'Something like this?'" What did she mean by that?

" Nothing. Forget about that... So, we can eat these right."

"You sure are good at changing the topic. And the answer to your question is yes."

"So, I'll take it out then." she just ignored my comment.

"No, not that one." she was about to pick out the one which has not yet ripped but before she could pluck it I stopped her hand.

Seeing her making the same mistake as I made, brought back the memories of when I and Selene were plucking out some blueberries. At that time she was the one who stopped me from plucking an unripened one.

"Why...?"

"It's poisonous. Here look at mine. There are color differences, right?

"... now I look closer at you, it looks much darker than this. Now I get..."

"Okay now that you got the difference, remember not to take out more than needed."

"I know if we eat in an excessive amount we might get poisonous."

"That's correct but there is one more reason."

"What?"

" This is our only food resource and if it gets depleted in one day what will you eat after that? Did you think about it? Even though we are in a forest we still don't know where we can find some decent food source. We need to make out the best of it."

"... What you said made complete sense but it came out of your mouth made it feel like you are just spouting things..." I think she doesn't lṣike me.

"If you understand it, then that's all that matters."

...

We plucked out quite a few and at least after so many hours, I was able to eat something.

I was starting to lose strength and even after eating I might still not have recovered completely but something is still better than nothing.

TO BE CONTINUED...