"I am 47," the woman declared and then pointed at the two men behind her. "55 and 39."
A hushed murmur echoed within the hall hearing those numbers. It seemed these three had grouped and had somehow chosen 47 to be their leader, despite the number 55 being higher on the Points Tally.
The owner of Tablet-55 was a masked Shinobi, Kai noticed. 39 was a rough individual with gloved hands and hunched back. Both looked equally powerful to him. But then again, scarcely anyone could match Kai by oneself in this Tournament, especially with their Stats restricted and their rotten Luck.
"Some of us have yet to get our 10 points," one man said. "You better be quick about what you have to say."
Others nodded in silence.
47 giggled, quite unladylike. She looked over her shoulder at 55 and nodded. The ninja made an odd sign with his right hand and a thick stack of documents appeared in 47's hands with a puff of smoke.
"Every single paper in my hands contains detailed info on all the different stages of both species," she declared. "You can tell the value of such a thing in this Stage. I have called you all to sell it to you. The price would be 1 Uncommon Item."
"Impossible..." one cried.
"Liar..." another commented.
"Bitch..." curses flew under breaths.
"How am I to confirm that these details are true?" Kai asked, his voice tearing the buzz. "We all know nothing about them. What proof do you have?"
Kai had a way to tell. He, for a matter of fact, knew that none of these Candidates had encountered a Young-Blood Yautja so far; much less killed one. But it was best to rile up the crowd and see 47's reaction. How people handled themselves in such cases told much about them.
The Candidates, all experienced and veterans of the Primordial Tower, agreed with Kai, forgetting him almost instantly. But 47 eyed Kai like a hawk and then smiled at him.
"I am a Blessed," 47 proclaimed, bringing a choking silence in the hall. "And my Blessing is Download from the Matrix World. If I know the true name of anything, I can download its info. That's the only thing I would say about it. If you know something that only you know, then you can verify the documents using my Blessing."
What a monstrous Blessing?! All must have thought, their eyes wide, and their mouths open.
Which Temple? Kai's mind had only this question. By now he had got a pretty good idea to differentiate between Temples' Blessed and Deep Ones' Blessed.
Temples used the power of the Old Ones to bless a Contestant with a unique Skill or Ability from Random Worlds, much like Nyra from Kai's Pokemon World in his last mission. It was more precise. That's why Meg had falsely assumed Kai's use of Emotions Manipulation as a Blessing from another Temple.
Deep Ones' Blessings were more thorough, bringing changes at cellular and gene levels like Selena's Spawn Blessing. It was also the reason for Deep Ones' Blessings to be rarer than Blessings from the Temple. Not to mention, the price one needed to pay was unimaginably higher in the former cases.
So, when Kai heard that 47 had only an Ability as a Blessing, he couldn't help but relate her to a Temple. Contestants might or might not know about Temples' existence, but they did know about Blessed.
Those who had Blessings, their words carried weight.
Yet, even though all desired their hands on these documents, they seemed reluctant to part with a Uncommon Item when every single Item could make a difference.
"I have a name," Kai said, smirking. "Facehugger."
All Candidates, including 47, 55, and 39, showed confusion at the name. "For your sake," 55's heavy voice rumbled, "I hope you aren't making it up."
Kai just looked at 47. "Consider this as me showing my goodwill for you, my lady," he said. "You can decide later what to do with this info. But I would like to have the first claim on every knowledge you have about these species and more."
47 studied him and then nodded. "Guard me," she commanded the two Candidates standing behind her and sat down.
In a moment, under the shocked gazes, a thin tube with a metallic protrusion appeared behind her as if space itself had been punctured by it. Then, with a jerk, it lodged itself in the back of 47's head.
Kai's eyes narrowed as he observed all this, tapping his fingers on the hilts of his swords.
And then, with a sudden burst of Mana, 47's eyes snapped open, the tube lodged in her head vanishing like a blur.
Shocked, and now afraid, she gawked at Kai, sweat shimmering on her forehead as tiny pearls.
Kai smiled, confirming her Skill as true, and bowed to her.
With her chest rising and falling, 47 neared him and asked, "Who are you?!"
"If we are using our Tablets to address ourselves," Kai said, matching her stare, "then call me 89."
The shock on 47's face was palpable, and everyone backed away by one step hearing Kai's words.
This was the beginning.
"Your face tells me that these documents are genuine," Kai said. "I will buy this info if you can add all that you know you haven't mentioned in them. Price, yes. Here it is."
Kai's hand reached to his right, pulled out the sheathed One-Half of the Power Sword, and handed it over to her.
The moment 47's hand touched the sword absentmindedly, and her eyes landed on the Stats, she almost dropped the sword.
"Now," Kai whispered, as others readied themselves to trade the info, "let's hear what you have for me."
Kai was sitting on the roof of the same building where Candidate 47 had called the others to meet.
An entire day had passed since the events of yesterday, yet he had yet to step out into the jungle. His Points Tally still showed 67 points, and if he would not get another 10 points by midnight, then the Systems would forcefully teleport him out of the Tournament of Worth.
Yet, there was no hastiness about his actions, his yawns and nonchalant attitude speaking against the anxiousness he must have been showing by now.
There was a stack of documents in his hands, and it was the umpteenth time he was going through them. These weren't the documents 47 had given to the others at the price of 1 Uncommon Item each.
The documents in Kai's hands were more precise.
But that wasn't all that his Item, One-Half of the Power Sword, had bought him.
47 had told him in confidence that Candidate 55 knew the location of Queen Xenomorph's colony.
That's why they had come up with this plan of hoarding as many Items as possible before raiding the colony. She had even invited Kai to join her, 55, and 39, but he had refused her.
47 had taken Kai's refusal of joining her team as him looking down on her capabilities, and in turn, refused to divulge the location of the Queen's Colony to Kai.
Then she riled up the other Candidates, saying that they must remain in the group to counter their Bad Luck, and should instead raid the Queen's Colony as soon as possible.
Only Kai knew that remaining in a group wasn't enough to go against their misfortune. At last, they had left him behind, with his prized sword at 47's waist.
And the moment they had all gone out of Kai's sight, his lips had arched into a demonic smile.