Game-To-Death: Utopia

78%...82%...90%...94%... 99%...100%!

Just as the evolution progress bar reached 100%, a blinding flash of light covered the entire cage and a melodious chime was heard. Ally rushed towards the light, her heart palpitating.

Her finger reached into the light and a system prompt appeared with a flashing red '?' sign.

"Friendly Lifeform detected. Do you wish to make contact? YES / NO."

Ally was filled with excitement and selected YES without hesitation. As the light faded away, her eyes widened while she scrutinised the now-evolved H20. It was no longer a small, fluffy ball of fur but one that has grown to more than twice its original size. The dark silver fur had also gained a blue tint while its short fluffy tail had grown in length and doubled in quantity. The most glaring change is the symbol that had appeared between H20's pair of emerald green eyes that shone much brighter than before. It was as if a vertical eye had been tattooed onto the fur, a glaring red colour symbol with a lightning symbol in its pupil.

As her hands c.a.r.e.s.sed her now oversized pet cat, Ally could feel H20 purring in delight. It seems that there were no negative aftereffects from that evolution process. Ally exhaled in relief. Her fingers moved to touch that glaring red vertical eye symbol and to her surprise, a new prompt appeared in the form of a scroll.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You've achieved the required intimacy level with this intelligent lifeform to form a contract. Would you like to proceed? YES/NO

Ally was thrilled. There was a contract system available! That means they could recruit minions, pets, or even other lifeforms to help them fight in this New World, just as she had hoped. She selected YES immediately, and a screen appeared in front of H20.

Status: Evolved Lifeform

Intimacy Level with Player: 92%

Species: Mutant Cat

Element: Darkness / Spirit

Attack:

Defence:

Health:

Available Contract Options:

Intimacy will fall by 20%, Loyalty 80

Intimacy increase to 95%, Loyalty 70

(locked) require Player above Level 50

Ally read the information displayed on the scroll and rolled her eyes at the last line. Level 50 requirement? There's still a long way to go before that would be possible. Does that mean there is a chance to upgrade the contract later on? Nevertheless, she made her decision swiftly. She clicked on the option. Subsequently, an illusory dagger appeared in her right hand. Again rolling her eyes at the cliché system arrangement, she cut open her thumb and pressed her bloody thumbprint onto the first scroll. The scroll then turned completely illusory and disappeared into the vertical eye symbol on H20's forehead.

Test Complete! You've successfully contracted the Mutant Cat as your Equal Partner. It is now registered as part of your Party Member. You can click on the '!' icon to look at its information.

Beckoning H20 to follow her, Ally walked back to Kent's and Marie's side. Both of them have also received the notification of the newly added Party Member. On the upper left corner of their vision, a new transparent bar has appeared with a '!' icon next to it. However, it was slightly different from the player's bar as it is slightly indented and appeared right below Ally's info bar.

H20 (Contracted to Ally)

Dark Spirit Mutant Cat

Health: 120/120

Looking at H20's health value, all three Players gasped in surprise. It was much higher than they expected. Almost at the same time, they clicked onto the '!' icon with anticipation to find out more detailed information.

Name: H20

Species: Mutant Cat

Element: Darkness / Spirit

Attack:

Defence:

Health:

Evolution Stage: Beginner (88%)

Physical Traits: Can evade enemy attacks with more than 50% success rate. Additional 30% chance of landing critical hit when attacking in the cover of the night. (Bonus: Stats receive 5% boost in the dark)

Special Skills:

Shadow Merge (able to merge into shadows and disappear)

Spiritual Sense (able to perceive all danger within 50 metres)

The trio felt elated in having a strong new addition to their party and felt more confident in tackling their quest. However, on the flipside, they were also forced to accept the reality that Mutated Lifeforms will receive a significant boost in both attribute and power. This spells more trouble for their first dungeon clearing mission tonight as it might prove to be more challenging than they expect.

After solving their first crisis upon entering the dungeon, they are now ready to challenge the first part of their quest, which is clearing the dungeon. As the night gives considerable boost to H20's attack and stats, there was no better time to get on with their expedition.

Ally, H20, Kent and Marie were already in the dungeon so all they needed to do was to click onto their Quest '!' icon on the upper left corner and they are able to select the option of challenging the dungeon. When H20 was undergoing the Registration Test (Evolution Progress), an invisible wall had locked them in with the space around them separated from the other parts of the dungeon. Now that they had selected the option to challenge the dungeon again, the wall disappeared.

On the other hand, a prompt appeared to remind them about their quest and give them info on the dungeon.

Dungeon: Rooftop Garden

Completion rate: 0.01%

Information: The rooftop garden of the Echo Ark Residential Building has always been a favourite leisure spot for the residents to breathe in fresh air while appreciating the various flowers and shrubs in this green space. However, the plant lifeforms that had gained sentience wish to form their own kingdom and refuse to bow down to the ungrateful human beings. They are in the midst of staging a rebellion and is hostile to all non-plant lifeforms. You must defeat the leader of the plant lifeforms, Nefaria, in order to conquer the dungeon.

The four of them moved in a triangular formation while they explored the dungeon in a systematic order. H20 led the way in front while Marie follows a step behind. On her left is Kent while Ally walked on Marie's right side. As there was no map to refer to, they could only follow their instinct to move forward. Fortunately, although the dungeon was isolated from the outside world, it was lit up by the floating torches along the path as they walked, and they were not left completely blind in the dark.