Author's Note: Unedited Chapter A gentle reminder not to purchase privilege until I announce that it is ready for purchase. ------------------------- The group began clamoring the moment Gutav arrived back at the Zero Haven. "I finished the race and couldn't keep waiting for you guys so I went ahead to purchase some food... kinda got sidetracked but here you go guys," Gustav responded while tapping on his storage button. Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ Snacks in transparent plastic bags began to appear in everyone hands including Planet Ozious participants. "Wow, cool man, than... what the hell is this!?" E.E yelled the last bit with an expression of horror as he noticed the contents of the snack bag in his hand. Every earth participant except Glade had their faces drained of excitement as they stared at the snack bags with disgusted expressions. They were filled with brown eyeballs and purplish noddle like tissues. The brown eyeballs had some unknown and thick greenish liquid splattered all over them. It was like sauce but this sauce was unlike anything that existed on earth. The internal state of the snack bags looked extremely groggy and one might retch at the sight of it if they were an earthling. For the Ozis on the other hand, this was a heavenly snack. -"Thanks Gustav," -"These are my favourite," -"You got the one with the gravy flavour," -"Awesome," They appreciated Gustav's thoughtfulness and dug into the snack bag. E.E had an expression of betrayal and indignation as he pinched his nose while holding the bag up like it was a pile of shit. "Bruh come on," His eyes watered. "Bottoms up," Gustav responded with a crafty smile. The group were trying to contain their disgust but at the same time didn't want to look rude to the Ozis so they tried to make subtle gestures at Gustav to get them out of the situation. "But where is yours?" Teemee questioned. "I already ate," Gustav replied. "What a coincidence, I already ate too," E.E cackled nervously while trying to return the snack. "But you were with us all through E.E, you couldn't have possibly eaten," Vice Captain Aiel said with a concerned tone. "I..." "Now now don't be shy E.E, you can eat our food and enjoy it without shame," Another Ozis participant voiced from the side. "I..." E.E was once again interrupted but this time it was Gustav. "At the very least this looks similar to your cooking so enjoy it," Gustav patted E.E on the back twice. "kuuukkk!" E.E nearly puked out blood upon hearing this. "Oh does that mean E.E is a great cook?" "His dishes must be truly wonderful," Ths Ozis voiced with intrigued expressions as they flocked around E.E. 'Quite the contrary!' Every earth participant yelled in their minds, deciding to keep quiet since they felt Gustav had damaged E.E enough for the day. Eventually E.E was fed the snacks by one of the female Ozis who felt he was being shy and they all laughed and joked as the exploration continued while E.E felt like burying himself. The group went on to a different level to partake in a new activity. They spent a couple more hours at Zero Haven before deciding to explore a different location on Planet Ozious. The day was still very long so they decided to enjoy every bit of it before the night came. ######### "Fortunately we managed to rank in the 191th place before the second disqualification in the versus battle challenge," A humanoid looking figure with cone shaped head and transparent skin voiced. "Truly, we managed to pull it off but we need to go higher in the coming challenges or we will fail," Another one with similar body structure responded. "By the way, Orimon, why did you keep challenging earth participants? You don't really believe you can win against them do you?" The largest in their midst questioned with a tone of bafflement. Orimon who was on the other end of this accommodation space, could be seen twiddling a trinket of sorts. He slowly raised his face up with a disparaging expression before replying. "Captain Ilumo, just because you're scared of them doesn't mean I am. I am no coward," "Don't be a fool! The other time we had an encounter with one of them, we were all put down with little to no effort. It isn't cowardice to avoid them in a one versus one battle... in truth, that is the best move to make," Captain Illumo voiced with a logical tone. "That was their captain... and he may be a freak of nature but the others aren't. You're just too fearful Captain," Orimon replied with a ridiculing tone. "The others aren't weak either. It is foolhardy to engage when a physical battle will most definitely end in a loss. If we are going to win against the earth and take first place in IYSOP it won't be through engaging them in a regular way. We would have to be smart about it because whether we choose to admit it or not, they are stronger than we are," Captain Illumo stated strongly without getting angry. "Whatever you say Captain... I won't be a coward," Orimon stood to his feet at this point and began heading out. 'I will make sure i get them in the next challenge... with or without your help. They will pay,' Orimon swore as he placed the ring like trinket on his finger. "*sigh* I hope none of you think like he does?" Captain Ilumo questioned with a tone of concern. 'What a wimp,' 'I'm with Orimon,' Nine other Xionsis had the similar thoughts in mind as they stared at Orimon heading out but they decided not to air their thoughts. ######### The day soon came to an end and by the time it did, news had already spread of the fifty planets who won the disqualification stage of the battle challenge. Planet Ruhz which became one of the spectators favourite during the battle challenge was amongst the fifty who were to proceed to the next challenge. The spectators had overall had a good time even though the disqualification round was set to be amongst the weaker planets. The thrill of the unexpected had made things even more fun. Now only around two hundred and fifty planets were left participating in IYSOP. This was a far cry from the nearly three thousand planets at the start. The next major challenge would signal the beginning of the end of IYSOP. Handler One went on to address the entire arena about the next challenge, saying it would be announced two days from now. This meant that the main candidates for each planet had two days of rest. Although for the ones who were already in top two hundred, this would make it a total of three days. Gustav already knew what he would spend the next two days doing. The group of course were ecstatic when they heard this news and still wanted to go out for more exploration but Gustav announced that he wouldn't be joining them. He of course gave them an excuse mentioning that it had something to do with his bloodline channels and the group ate it up... except Endric. Endric didn't choose to confront Gustav yet since he knew there were still things he was figuring out himself. ... At the dead of night Gustav pulled a blueish cube out of his storage device and placed it on a platform etched to the wall of his room. Thrrihhh~ The cube unfurled while emitting a spectrum of light before turning into a computsrised monitor. "System, transfer the data that contains the memory here," Gustav instructed. ("Are you sure you're ready to see this?") The system inquired internally. "Hmm? By your tone, i take it you already know the contents of the Handler's last memory and it is going to be quite the stuff to take in when i see it... am I right?" Gustav questioned. ("...Yes...") The system responded bluntly. "I don't wanna think about it, just show me," Gustav stated while placing his hand on the monitor. "Transfer the memory," Gustav commanded. [Data Transfer From Archive 023524477219583 In Process] 'Hmm the numbers have increased so much since the last time... oh well, the system probably gathers universal data by the day so I guess this is normal,' Gustav decided not to give the numbers much thought as he focused on the transfer process. In a few minutes, a notification popped up on the computerised monitor before him. [Video File Received] "That felt like it took forever..." Gustav muttered as he tapped on the notification. The display quickly transformed as the start of a footage appeared on the monitor. "Time to find out who the culprit is..." Gustav muttered. Tssshjsskkkkk~ The footage began with a loud noise that sounded like a mixture between claws scratching on hard surfaces and wet flesh wriggling together. What appeared in his line of sight was a cascading darkness surrounding a figure. The point of view from the person witnessing this could be seen quaking intensely. Ths surroundings were obviously affected as well. -"Hey, Hey are you okay?"