The Place Where Everything Begins

Some minutes later, Jeremy was seen to be walking alongside Morgan, bypassing many areas and people around the camp...

As they walked along the way, Morgan would occasionally tell Jeremy about the places and facilities within the camp.

In fact, Jeremy had already known most of the places around here, but he had to nod his head and ask some questions as they walked here and there not to make himself become suspected.

Jeremy was introduced to many things, be it the camping areas, canteen, public bathing zones, gates, towers, armory, construction sites, and many more.

Morgan also introduced Jeremy to people whenever they met someone Morgan knew.

At some point, Jeremy even saw an obese man with the title Greedy Pig walking past him. The fatty was indeed tough and died hard like a cockroach to be able to survive this far.

At this time, the two finally arrived within one of the lanes leading to the giant Crystal...

Upon looking at the areas around the Crystal, Jeremy promptly spoke up,

"Why do we have to detour and walk inside this small lane towards the Crystal? Can't we just walk right into the Crystal, bypassing those small wooden poles and the ropes attached to them?"

Upon hearing Jeremy's questions, Morgan had finally realized that he forgot to tell his new friend about the prohibited areas, so he explained,

"Oh, that? As you can see from the poles and ropes put around them, the places within fifty meters around the Crystal are prohibited from entering. The reason is that those sites will be the places where daily materials are summoned. So, if you trespass those ropes into the prohibited areas, then the materials are somehow generated at that exact moment... well, you will become meat paste, I guess; no one has ever tried that before..."

"So, that's how you guys get so much woods and materials to build this fortress..."

Jeremy mumbled audibly before asking another question, pretending to be curious,

"Also, are you implying that these small lanes leading to the Crystal are the only safe places to cross if we want to arrive there?"

"Yes, it is as you say. At least, for the past three days, these small lanes are the only empty areas with no material spawned, so Kahn had told those construction teams to place the poles down, prohibiting anyone from accessing the areas," answered Morgan before continuing as he pointed his finger at the circular area around the Crystal,

"By the way, look over there, there, and there, too..."

After hearing Morgan's words, Jeremy promptly turned to look at those places before raising his eyebrows in surprise and saying,

"Hmm? The circular area around the Crystal has no poles..."

"You are right; the area of five meters around the Crystal is completely safe," replied Morgan with a light smile on his face.

After talking about many things, the two finally arrived before the enormous Crystal...

Looking from afar and looking at it in point-blank range gave out a completely different sensation.

Right now, Jeremy and Morgan appeared to be just a tiny thing in front of a giant existence. After all, the blue Crystal was even bigger than a moderate-sized house back on Earth.

After arriving before the colossal Crystal, Morgan gestured his head towards it as if telling Jeremy to touch it to see what this thing was all about.

"Can I touch it just like that?"

Jeremy asked in inquiry as he looked around and saw four or five people stood not far from the two of them, touching the Crystal and seemed to be engrossed in whatever projecting before them.

Meanwhile, within Jeremy's mind was another thought entirely,

'Should I try wearing the red crystal necklace looted from Xildas?'

The thought came inside Jeremy's mind fast and went away even faster.

In the end, two or more cupids were observing this second stage personally. If Jeremy could somehow access this giant blue Crystal via an organizer's access, he might receive unwanted attention from the betting cupids in no time.

"Sure, go ahead..." Morgan assured Jeremy with a light smile.

"Alright..."

Replying briefly, Jeremy reached out his hand to touch the blue Crystal.

As Jeremy was looking at the interface before him, Morgan suddenly spotted someone he knew at some distance away, so he suddenly spoke up,

"You take your time and look at it by yourself; I will go talk with another scout team's leader in a jiffy..."

After finishing his words, Morgan patted Jeremy's back lightly before walking towards the blue Crystal's left side, where a man and a woman stood.

Simultaneously, Jeremy looked to his left side momentarily, only to see those two were not someone he knew, so he shifted his attention back to the interface before him.

In front of Jeremy were one set of numbers and two options to be chosen from, which were [General Information] and [Exchange].

As for the set of numbers, it was showing [Day 3, 19:03:42].

One day within this second stage was equal to 24 hours, similar to Earth. According to the set of numbers, it meant the time was roughly 7 p.m. on day 3.

Upon seeing the two options, first, Jeremy decided to check the general information as the interface swapped into another one...

...

[General Information]

Name: Jeremy Caesar Lakota

Kill Counts: 5

Ranking: 9th (Joint Rank)

Survivors: 2,048

...

After seeing the interface, Jeremy raised his eyebrows in wonder.

After all, Jeremy had killed a whopping five kenkus, yet at least eight people within the camp had killed more than him, making him ranked in the joint ninth.

If the 'joint rankings' for the other eight rankings were counted into the calculation, then there should be more than 15 people who had killed more than six kenkus, which was the lowest estimation as there might even be more than that amount.

Nonetheless, Jeremy only looked at his ranking briefly as he didn't care about it that much. His ranking was destined to rise up through the roof in no time anyway.

The thing that was truly important within the interface was the last section...

'Hmm... 2,048 humans are surviving right now; I wonder if that number includes Kahn or not. But that is not the point; the actual point is that if I don't remember incorrectly when I was within the dark space, there were still more than 2,200 people.'

'Only fifty or so hours have passed, yet another 200 humans' lives are lost...'

Having thought until this point, Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows profoundly before continuing his thought in puzzlement,

'Something is wrong... really wrong here. The death toll wasn't this high in my past life; such a number is almost two times the amount of deaths compared to that time.'

'Is this truly the result of Eddie, Mitchell, and some other people surviving and creating butterfly effects? Or is it induced from something else I'm not aware of entirely?'

'Also... why do my hunch seem to be telling me that I am the one who causes this result?'

Jeremy thought hard about some possibilities.

Alas, the plausibility of those things happening was too unlikely and absurd, so Jeremy decided not to dive deeper into the topic for now,

'It looks like I have yet another mystery to solve...'

Jeremy could only shake his head left and right while keeping those thoughts and questions within his mind for now, as he still had too few clues to solve the so-called mystery.

'Alright, let's take a look at the last option...'

Having kept those puzzling thoughts within his mind, Jeremy commanded inwardly to access the [Exhange] option.

Simultaneously, the interface changed into another one.