POV Jacob

  I had never been a morning person, and I passionately believed that waking from my slumber sucked, but waking up after being knocked out by a brass knuckle-wielding friend with a lot of pent-up anger towards me was surprisingly tolerable. Although I'm not sure what to think about the young blonde-haired woman glaring at me with her pale blue eyes as I lay in my bed, looking around in confusion.

  While the assumed healing did wonders for the headache and grogginess of waking up with a head injury, it didn't help my scattered memories that slowly trickled into my head. 'Oh, right, adaptive training before bed. I got my ass kicked in all the spars and ended up knocked out.'

  Once I had finished my pleasant trip down memory lane, I had to deal with an angry Ella, who was far from pleased with my behaviour, calling it reckless, selfish, and idiotic to tear myself apart while encouraging others to do the same.

  All of which was fairly annoying, but I was glad she was doing it herself now rather than outsourcing her complaints, so I just half-listened and nodded along when the moment seemed right. It took a few minutes, and all it really did was motivate me to move various plans forward so this one-sided issue could be resolved. Or I could be less reckless and try to understand people's feelings. 'Hmmmm, nah, finding a way to cheat death sounds easier,'

  "But that's not an excuse to do what you did. Do you understand?" Ella asks with all the seriousness of a heart attack.

  'Not at all.'

  "Yes, I am sorry to cause problems," I answer, in the tone of a heavily chastised child I had practised over the years of not understanding what people expected of me.

  "Good, because I will start charging if you keep messing up," She stares intently at me before changing the subject, apparently satisfied with my chastising. "I came to get you because it's almost 4 am."

  'Oooooo shopping time'. I may have hated shopping with all the people, the exploitation of workers' labour, and the overpriced goods, but that was before shops were owned by magical Gods in the apocalypse, and I was excited to see what they had. That's if the whole thing wasn't a trap.

  After agreeing again to be more careful, I told her I would get changed and join the others shortly, which finally prompted her to leave and allowed me to put my armour back on. After securing the various straps composed of repurposed belts that held the armour in place, I looked at my watch and, blinking in surprise, I had been asleep for approximately 9 hours. 9 whole hours wasted. 'Just means I need to train more. We have two days until the next event. I need to fit in training, weapon making, if I…The store…Parkour in… Ok, one thing at a time. Store first, then training regime, then actual training.'

  With my mental to-do list put on hold, I headed out of my room and down the stairs, missing the last two squeaky steps out of habit, and into the living room where the others were waiting. After a few questions about how I was feeling and vague guesses about what would be in the store, the visual prompt we had all been waiting for appeared, sparking a murmur of excitement and surprise throughout the group. The shop itself was a floating, transparent, pale-blue, screen-like hallucination the size of an A4 sheet of paper, with a simple design that was easy to navigate.

  Interdimensional shop:

  User ID: Jacob Willmore, soul number 39856

  Danger rating: Mundane ★★★★★

  Points total: TBD

  Challenge Rewards…

  Selling…

  Buying…

  Inbox…

  With a thought, the odd screen disappeared and reappeared at will, allowing its users to avoid being partially blinded for the two days they had access to the store. We all took a moment to wait for any ambush, but nothing happened. Both Mia and Sam failed to detect anything abnormal, so we began looking at the store with renewed interest. Everyone had a danger rating, but nobody quite knew what it meant. "Mundane" appeared to be the weakest category, and both Noah and Mia were common half-stars. Ava shared the same rating as me, while Sam and Ella were mundane, 2.5 and three stars, respectively.

  It looked like 5 was the maximum number of stars per grade but that could just be our monkey brains liking the familiar system. With no more information available and feeling slightly annoyed that I wasn't the highest-rated member of our group, I turned back to the store and looked at the options before ultimately deciding to access the challenge tab, as I had eaten most of what I could sell.

  Challenge Rewards:

  Survive: 10 points

  Kill a Cave Crawler: 15 Points

  Travel 100 Miles of The Endless Caves: 100 Points

  Discover And Survive The 11/11 Creatures Of The Caves: 110 Points

  Kill A Brood Mother: 150 Points

  Kill a Sky Lurker: 500 points

  10% All challenges Completed Bonus: 88.5 Points

  Total: 973.5 Points Rewarded

  I look at the total for a moment, not knowing whether that was good or bad, and then move on to the selling tab. This time, instead of a list of information and text, it showed an open box with a cute little GIF of a humanoid with bunny ears putting things into the box and earning points in return. Not questioning why the human-like creature had large impractical bunny ears, I took out a few crystals I still had and deposited one of them in the box. This, in turn, produced a receipt detailing how much the crystal was worth, with a little image of the monster it came from. At the bottom of the receipt, it showed my grand total of 1 point in bright gold letters, along with the option to make the receipt visible to others. I tried to sell some of the other items in my inventory, but only crystals would be swallowed into the magic screen, and I wasn't willing to sell the sky lurker crystal just yet.

  Going back to the front page of the simplistic store, I saw my total of 974.5 points, which, compared to the group's average of 365 points from challenges, 330 points for the crystals, and 670 in total, put me in a good position. At least in theory, we didn't yet know the buying power of the points. But we did get the point values for each monster when Sam shared his simplified receipt with the group to make sure all the values were the same.

  Receipt Break Down

  Bats - 0.5 point value

  Barnacles - 1 point value

  Cave Crawlers - 1.5 points value

  Cave Spider - 2 points value

  Pale Ones - 2 points value

  Tarantula - 2.5 points value

  Stalker - 3 points value

  Stone Worms - 4 points value

  Brood Mother - 10 points value

  The others did not have any Leech or Spear Tongued Leech Queen crystals, so I sold one of each out of curiosity and received 0.5 and 5 extra points, bringing my total up to 979.

  Weirdly enough, this value system seemed to correspond to the body enhancement increases I would gain from eating each crystal, which, with the group's average as a reference, I was about 320% stronger than I was. I don't really know if that's accurate, but it felt roughly on the mark. It was an interesting piece of information, but I couldn't quite figure out its relevance, so I made a quick note in my potential mystery notebook under my brief speculation on cultivation and moved on.

  With the points gathered, it was finally time to see what I could buy from the Interdimensional shop of wonder and mystery to find out whether risking our lives was a waste of time. The immediate results were lacklustre and required more navigating to bypass, but at least it was well organised.

  Buying:

  Set Items

  Weekly Items

  After mentally navigating through the simplistic design to yet another page, I was rewarded with mild confusion and disappointment. While the set items appeared promising, it had only three options.

  Set Items:

  Set items are items that can be bought any week while the store is open. More set items may be added if certain events or requirements are met.

  Point Credit: A small disk reminiscent of Earth's old coins that can be bought and sold for 1 point each. Credits can be condensed into different aesthetics at the value of 10. For example 10 singles, copper, credits create 1 Iron credit. Note credits are not made from these metals; they are a representation of their value. Credits can not be altered or damaged in any way. Credits can not be used to block attacks of any kind and attempts to do so will result in the credit becoming intangible and unsellable for 10 Earth minutes.

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  Cost: 1 point

  Sustenance Goo: One packet will provide the minimum water, calories and nutrients to last two Earth days. Warring, the Sustenance goo is not a substitute for a well-balanced diet and may cause side effects from continued use.

  Cost: 1 point

  Info Ink: A tool to help the surviving game show participants keep track of challenges progress and understand new languages.

  Cost: 100 points

  The options were useful, with credits serving as a stand-in for tangible currency for trade between survivors, and the Sustenance Goo allowing those who couldn't, or wouldn't, gather their own supplies to survive. The fact that you could get 20 points for surviving two weeks and only need to spend 7 points to feed yourself should allow them time to adapt. If they don't succumb to the vague side effects.

  'Or if they are weak enough to need the goo to survive, they could be harvested for their points in a human battery farm…Hmmm, probably not worth the effort unless you already had the people to police it and were confident that an event wouldn't allow them to escape.'

  Moving on from that logistical nightmare, the Info Ink had the potential to help me navigate the events with more information and confirmation that I was actually on the right track to completing them. This could prove invaluable if event completions continued to pay so well and pushed me to become stronger.

  But I wanted to check all the available options, and blindly willing every part of the screen to produce a super secret, powerful Easter egg isn't generating any results, so I had a look at the weekly items tab, only to become more confused.

  Weekly Items:

  Weekly items are restocked randomly each week with at least three separate items, each taking up a single item slot within the weekly item page. More slots can be purchased for points. Purchased slots will be added to subsequent weekly item tabs within the store and will have a higher chance of having high-value items.

  A stick: A wooden stick from a willow tree broken off by high winds. Approximately 23 cm long and 2 cm thick.

  Cost: 0.1 point

  Live flamingo: Flamingos are large, pink-wading birds with long legs.

  Cost: 6 points

  Imbued wet stone: A wet stone that makes items hold a sharper edge for longer through the use of enchanting runes. Can be used up to 500 times.

  Cost: 35 points

  New item slot: 50 points

  'So when it says random items, it truly means random items. What would I need a regular stick for? At least the wet stone looks useful, and Mia may be able to use the flamingo.' Without much thought, I buy the magic rock, which will apparently appear in my inbox tab, and purchase the new item slot, bringing my total to 894 points. Crossing my fingers in the hope that it would be worth it, I have another look and take note of the new item and slot cost.

  Feral Claw learning disk: A fighting technique from the *Retracted* People where the user lives for the frill of the fight. The Feral Claw was made to turn its users into living weapons that knew how to hunt and kill any opponent by any means necessary. The learning disk will provide holographic lessons along with a rudimentary AI to determine how the owner is progressing. This item is on a limited first-week sale and the odds of it appearing again on this planet are extremely low.

  Cost: 275 points

  New item slot: 75 points

  'Well, that's more like it!' I grin upon seeing that the new item slot only increased its cost by 25 points. I was concerned that it would double in price or something ridiculous. As for the suspiciously tailored item that just happened to be on sale, I was, well, suspicious. That doesn't mean I didn't buy it, just that I was sceptical about whether it was as good as advertised or whether the shop was as truly chaotic as it appeared.

  After some thought and a quick discussion with the group to see if anyone needed a loan, I also bought the Info Ink, as knowledge is power, as well as the new item slot, bringing my total to 444 points and revealing the new item. Something magical, something that looked the part of a fantasy story I grew up reading, something completely useless.

  Dragon tongue earring: An earring imbued with some of the mystic powers of a dragon, allowing the wearer to understand any and all verbal communication.

  Cost: 20 Points

  New item slot: 100 points

  Even though it told me that dragons were real, the earring wouldn't do anything the Info Ink couldn't do, making it useless to me, which was very disappointing for something with "dragon" in the name. Even if it only mentioned the tongue. Despite my disappointment, I didn't purchase the new item slot, so I could save my remaining points for next week or help my friends buy any items they needed.

  I did, however, exchange 300 points for credits, leaving me with 144 points. If we couldn't access the store during the week, it was useful to have something with trading power on hand. Retrieving them from my inbox, the small coins pooled in my hand before quickly falling to the floor as the sheer amount of them filled my open palms. Upon closer inspection, their coppery surface revealed a slightly raised C against a slowly spinning, segmented wheel that occupied half the token's centre. When I tried to scan its structure with my power, it appeared as a void, as if it were a living, breathing thing. Mia couldn't access a mind, and Sam mentioned it had no body heat, and that the spinning backdrop was an illusion similar to the event wheels and even the shop we were now using. It was interesting information, but not super helpful. We just assumed, since it was blank to our powers, that it was an anti-tampering system and left it at that.

  Although the tests and localised hallucinations were fascinating, carrying around 300 coins was impractical, so I condensed the small pile of wealth into 30 more intricate Iron Credits that felt and looked like the cast iron of a saucepan, with small markings now between the tokens and the spinning wheels' edge. When condensed again, they made three shiny, bronze-looking coins that were even more detailed, but I still couldn't make out what the shapes were meant to be, so I put them in my inventory and tuned back in to the others' conversation.

  Most of the stuff they had access to was similarly useless, ranging from a pebble to a plastic wrapper from a sweet, but there were a few standouts. Ava was able to get a magic pocket tent that, upon activation, would be large enough to comfortably fit 10 people, with a functioning shower and air conditioning, allowing us to save space in our inventory by not carrying around the large tents. Upon setting it up outside and doing some testing, we discovered that it stored anything placed in its cupboards in its magic subspace when it shut down, allowing Eva to essentially have a second inventory, albeit one hard to access.

  Mia, who didn't want the flamingo, managed to get a scent lure that, depending on its three settings, could attract multiple types of animals, from bugs and birds to small mammals. She planned to use this to gather more pets and feed her existing ones, even if the idea of eating bugs and other live animals made her gag. Ella got a metal bat that could unravel into a bladed whip, along with a learning disk for a breathing technique that could temporarily supercharge your mind.

  Sam managed to get a candle that, when lit, would ward off small life forms, including bacteria, viruses, and bugs, allowing us to sterilise an area and stop small creatures from watching us as Mia could. Lastly, Noah got a high-value electricity gem that could be attached to a weapon, making it act like a taser, and fireproof paper that wouldn't burn. Sadly, the gem was the size of a large apple and wasn't much use in most weapons, but I was sure I could make something work.

  We all agreed that I would give the Info Ink a test run before the other bought it, as I had the most points to spend. Going to my inbox to extract my purchased items, I was concerned when the Info Ink simply disappeared instead of appearing in front of me like the pale blue wet stone with a big 500 written in bold letters and a small metallic disk that fit comfortably within my palm.

  To add to the confusion, my chest started to itch violently. In a panic, I remove the top part of my armour and clothes in a flash of blue and stare at my bare chest. "Oooooh, Ink as in tattoo ink, not Inc as in incorporated." I say aloud while looking at my new tattoos that now claim a part of my chest in mild surprise.

  "You know your inability to read truly astounds me sometimes." Mia giggled, but I wasn't listening as I tried to figure out what had marked my skin. It looked like a long, convoluted path that wrapped around itself, with multiple rooms, forming a maze-like structure with countless little icons scattered around. Above the maze, floating ominously, was a giant jellyfish that reminded me of… "It's the challenges, the 100 miles, the sky lurker... It's the route we took and the monsters we killed." I proclaimed to the group who were staring at the map on my chest.

  "Then that's a cave with the dark moss," Ella says, tapping at a partially dark spot before I move away from her finger.

  "And that's a Brood Mother," Noah points to a little icon of a spider that was bigger and meaner looking than its counterparts.

  "That is such a weird way to display information," Mia says.

  "Maybe it gets more detailed and clearer as you make progress on the challenge?" Speculates Ava.

  "Didn't it say something about languages?" Asks Sam, prompting me to ask Ava to try speaking to me in Korean, knowing she picked up a little bit in preparation for going on holiday before the world became more interesting.

  "Jeoneun hangug-eoleul jal moshaneunde yeong-eoneun hal jul aseyo?" Ava struggles to say in a foreign language, not that I could judge, I could barely speak English and failed at any other language I tried to learn.

  Yet despite the questionable pronunciation and accent, I could almost feel the words enter my ears. It felt like the letters were shoved into a blender inside my skull, spun around, mushed together and came out as something I could remarkably understand. "I don't speak much Korean. Do you speak English?" I ask her as I try to translate the unknown dialect.

  Ava just nods with wide eyes before pointing at my ear. "It looks like um, there's a tattoo going into your ear when I spoke Korean, it looks like a snake's tail, oh, it's fading, umm…" She pauses for a moment before saying something else in Korean, "Yogsil-eun eodie issnayo?"

  "Where is the bathroom?" I translate while the others marvel at my ear tattoo, which seems to somehow translate the new language.

  "Noah, could you try German?" I ask him, excited to test out this new ability.

  “Mein Vater ist Deutscher und meine Mutter ist Franz?sin, aber ich kenne nur die Grundlagen,” Noah says without missing a beat.

  'I wonder if I can speak German back?' Then, with little thought, I focus on the words he is speaking and try to speak a language I only ever half-assed in secondary School. “Ich frage mich, ob ich antworten kann?” It felt like my tongue was possessed and unusually heavy, but it worked.

  "Holy shit, I just spoke German," I mutter out loud while Noah starts laughing.

  "Stick out your tongue," Ella hastily asks, causing me to show everyone my tongue before even questioning why I would do so. "The snake's head is on your tongue, that is so weird," Sam says as he shakes his head.

  After a few more minutes of experimenting, we discovered that I could only speak a new language if someone else initiated it, but once I heard a language, I could speak it as long as I could remember one word from it to give Info Ink a head start. I was also able to read the little German Noah could write once a tattoo of a serpentine iris appeared under my left eye, but I couldn't magically write it myself. The tattoo eye also appeared when Mia did some basic sign language she learned to try to engage with her non-verbal cousin, and I was able to interpret it just fine. The tattoo was unable to translate gibberish or made-up words, which we noted for potential future use.

  It was a fascinating feeling to suddenly be able to speak any number of languages my friends threw at me, from French, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin. If I had this a few months ago, I could have aced quite a few exams and coasted as a global translator. It's a shame it wouldn't have as many applications pre-wheel apocalypse. But it was still a useful tool, and I was interested to see how it would track the challenges' progress.

  We also discovered that I could shrink, grow, and move the challenge tattoo's position, but could not change what the tattoo showed or alter its colour. All of which was good to know, considering I was planning to complete every challenge I could and did not want every inch of my body covered in invasive Ink.

  After our little experiments, I put my armour back on, and the others debated whether to get the Info Ink themselves. On one hand, it allows you to communicate better and keep track of challenge progress. On the other hand, I could be used to do those things for the group as long as we remained together, and they could save 100 points. In the end, they decided to get the Info Ink after I argued that we have no idea what the wheels will do next, and we may be separated, which had nothing to do with me not wanting to be the team's scoreboard and translator at all. Yup, definitely wasn't me being lazy and antisocial and had everything to do with the group's best interests.

  Then, while everyone was looking pained at spending 100 points on fancy tattoos, I traded my sharpening stone for Sam's magic candle and stored it in my inventory, with plans to commission a copy of the anti-spying device or attempt to recreate it myself. Not sure how, but I couldn't let the possibility go to waste.

  Once everyone got their surprise group tattoo, we moved on to the important tasks of what to do over the next two days to prepare for the incoming event, as we speculated on what the gods would make us do next.