Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 281: Danger Sense

Many men worked inside a large, spacious room with white walls and a nearly 30 meters high ceiling

Large screens were plastered across the room, and they showed nearly 300 different sections of the island, each one following the various participants of the game. Not all participants could be seen on the screen, and not all 300 screens exclusively showed a single participant either.

A number floated in at the top of all those screens.

122.

Just last night, the number was at 138.

16 people had died over the course of a single night. And as the number of participants dwindled, the excitement of who won increased day and day as well.

Many people worked to keep the game running down below, but a man stood at the balcony in the giant room and stared at a certain section of the screens, looking at a group of 5 that gathered by a campfire.

There were nearly 50 people gathered behind him with room for 50 more. They were all wearing some sort of hologram projected on themselves to make themselves look entirely different than they were.

These were the people who were here to watch the death game and find whatever enjoyment they could from it. Some liked to watch it just to see people die. Some liked to bet on who would survive. Some watched to see how they could recruit after it was all over.

Everyone had their own reasons, but the end result was the same. They were here to watch this one event that had only recently started.

The man who stood in the front had not bothered to hide his face at all. He was a tall man with short hair, some of which were graying. He had a pointed nose and narrow eyes, making him hard to forget.

He couldn’t help but feel excited when he saw that one single screen with the 5 people.

"Haha, I still can’t believe I got so lucky," he said softly, causing the many other people who sat in ordered chairs behind him to look at him curiously.

"Care to explain what you’re talking about, Zern?" an electronic voice asked from behind him.

Zern turned around, unsure who exactly had spoken. Everyone sounded the same with their speech modifiers.

"If you know me, you know there is truly only one thing that can get me excited in this world," the man replied with a smile.

"Oh!" one of the people said in a slightly feminine electronic voice. "If Zern is happy, then... it has to do with a Nova, doesn’t it?"

"But you were smiling while looking at those screens," another one said. "Surely you don’t mean..."

"No way," another one joined. "Is there a Nova on that island?"

Zern chuckled a little more strongly this time around, basically confirming their suspicion. "Keep watching, my friends. I wish to see if you can guess who will win this death game."

* * * * * * *

Stanley and the group struggled for 2 more days in the cold, staying warm only through the campfire at night. Having their sleeping bags destroyed was very much a problem that they couldn’t deal with easily and had to suffer.

Stanley was on the lookout with White, with Red just recently going to sleep for the next 6 hours.

White sat beside him, watching outside in the darkness. "Can you really see anything out there? I can barely notice that tree over there," he mentioned.

Stanley could see that tree and the tree behind it and the bush behind that tree, as well as dark silhouettes of most of the forest in the bright night.

Red had once more used his dice on him. At first, she had landed on a 7, which didn’t aid him much. But just an hour later, she had used it again, landing on a 22. His night vision had improved by so much once again.

Stanley was understanding her powers more and more every day, and the more he understood them, the more he understood the flexibility of her powers.

It was of course entirely dependent on luck, but even with that, it was an incredible power. If she somehow ended up winning this game and had her powers improved, Stanley wondered how it would evolve to become stronger.

"I’ll tell Red to wait until you wake up tomorrow so she can give you the night sight," Stanley said slowly. "You’ll know then."

White gave a small laugh and stopped. The crackling flame behind them filled the silence that would’ve otherwise been there.

White said nothing for a long time, but Stanley could see that he was stressed about something. He hoped the man would tell it to the group if it was in regard to the game, but he didn’t seem to want to speak at all.

"What’s the matter?" Stanley decided to just ask it in the end. "I can tell something is bothering you."

White gave a startled look. "I’m sorry?"

"You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to," Stanley said. "I was just curious why you were stressed."

"Stressed? No, I’m not stressed," he said. "It might be the cold."

Stanley doubted that was the case, but he decided not to question him. He let the man keep his problems to himself. Stanley didn’t want to deal with them anyway.

"I need to go take a piss," the man said standing to go outside.

"Don’t go too far."

Once the man left, Stanley sat alone in the cave, watching the world outside, feeling the cold air blow across his face. He could smell it in the air. It was going to rain very soon.

Would he rather have snow or rain?

’Most definitely snow,’ Stanley thought. Making fire in the snow was easier than the rain. ’I should go get some large logs to dry them in the night too. I wonder if it will rot instead in the night without the sun. Would the campfire do it any good?’

With his body continuously churning down the dead souls he had gathered after the blast in East Vanli, he had a lot of Soul Energy to get through and could use his powers endlessly.

In fact, just a day ago he had even gained a new power. It was an important power, but it wasn’t something he could activate and just happened on its own.

It was the power to know when and where someone he cared for would be in danger.

Stanley remembered having used this power before unknowingly when he found his brother in danger. He had been there to help him in time once, but the second time around he had been too late.

He hadn’t had this power be used subconsciously after that. He wondered if he ever would again.

"EVERYONE!" White’s voice rang out loud from the forest, pulling Stanley’s attention away from his thoughts. "WAKE UP!"

Stanley immediately grabbed the large stick that lay next to him and got ready to fight. However, the frantic return of White did not bring back any foe.

"WAKE UP!" he shouted even as he entered the cave. A few frantic voices clued Stanley in on the fact that people were waking up, but Stanley was stuck looking outside.

Stanley could finally see why White was rushing so frantically. He was now afraid that White might have been too late.