A pin-drop silence fell on the building as the two people in front of the screen – Levin and Mira – leaned forward instantly as they wanted to see the content of the diary. However, they frowned immediately, realizing that they couldn't understand anything about it.
"Uncle, are you sure this is a diary? This looks like a child's random drawing, right?" Mira asked skeptically.
"Oh, of course, you will say that. You don't understand the gravity of those childish drawings, after all." Chen Ze patted her head gently. "Let me tell you that this is exactly the method of how cavemen took note about everything since their brain was in its early development. So many archaeologists have been trying to investigate every cave art in the world, trying to figure out if there is a pattern or not. They found out that the cavemen in their early age just drew whatever they had seen outside! If that elephant really acted the same as humans at an early age, we will be able to figure out its early age, including how this battle royale game went in the past!" He explained it passionately.
Levin was still quiet, his brows meeting each other on the bridge of his nose. He crossed his arms, trying to interpret what he saw. There, on the left part of the cave, the drawing of a round creature with a unique trunk could be seen with so many traces of it being fixed, which – if he was right – showed the elephant's confused state. Well, that should be the case for any creature who suddenly could think like a human.
Then, after that, a new creature that was far leaner but a little bit taller appeared, and the next drawing was done by two people. There, with grey chalk, the elephant drew about exploring their surroundings, finding a waterfall, gathering the other animals, and also observing the pattern of the stars. As for the brown chalk from the second creature, it was just a bunch of completely random lines that Levin didn't know the meaning of – if there was a mean, of course.
The left part of the cave was filled with the elephant and his friend's exploration, finding a new place, and making new friends. However, what caught Levin's attention was the presence of something resembling the stereotype of a UFO there, which was followed by all of the animals there falling unconscious.
"Really?" Levin crooked one of his eyebrows unconsciously. "A UFO? Can this be more cliché than this?"
"Well, it is a cliché for a reason, you know? There is always a grain of truth in such a widespread conspiracy like this." Chen Ze just shrugged nonchalantly. "Just watch the next part." He nudged his head forward, pointing at the screen for Levin to watch the rest of the drawing.
In the next part, Levin could see a fight broke between humans and the animals there, with the elephant – Azzar – drawing himself as a massive creature against humans who could throw fireball and thunder so seamlessly. This seemed to be the first battle royale game that Azzar had experienced in the past.
Still, Levin couldn't help but frown. There was still a hole in this timeline, such as what happened with the UFO and what triggered the animals' transformation into the gigantic creatures that they portrayed themselves to be. Also, did the presence of the UFO mean that the ruler came from space? Some sort of alien? Honestly, after everything that happened in his old world, Levin didn't have a good impression of anything that came from space, and if he had a choice, he wanted to avoid anything about that for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, it seemed that this wasn't the case right now.
As Levin turned his eyes to the last part of the cave art, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine. There, he saw the illustration of the human who could throw a fireball before now using thunder to fight while the other human who was portrayed as the thunder user fell on the ground. Not only that, the illustration portrayed the fireball user to have an eerie glow out of nowhere, and the animals drawn in that part were also far lesser than before, with some that were still drawn there lying lifelessly on the ground.
"Is this some sort of power stealing? Or did that fireball user suddenly awaken a new power inside him?" Levin couldn't help but ask.
"I know you will reach that question as well!" Chen Ze exclaimed happily. "I don't really know what happened because the cave art just ends in that part. It seems that the giant creature didn't update his diary for a long time after it survived its first battle royale game. However, I think receiving a new power will be the key for the second-round game. If we know what is that new power and how the fireball user in the illustration receives it, we will be one step ahead of the other players!"
Levin saw the excitement in Chen Ze's eyes and couldn't help but shake his head in amusement. Well, he could understand why the scientist was excited. After all, he was not a fighter, and to advance to the next round, he had to rely on cooperating with the other players. This kind of method was too risky since he would have to reveal his trick first to make the others attracted to his ability, and this kind of cooperation also led to a betrayal more often than not. That was why the thought of gaining the power to fight back was something that he wouldn't let slide so easily.
They spent the entire night discussing the possibility of gaining a superpower ability, and as a normal human from a modern world, it would also be a lie for Levin to say that he wasn't attracted to it. Somehow, he didn't notice that Mira had been so quiet since they started talking about the possibility of gaining another power in the future. It was just after they – Levin and Mira – left to go back to their own residence that the girl finally spoke her mind.
"Uncle Levin, what if the condition to gain the new power is to kill the animals? Would we break our promise to Uncle Azzar and Uncle Arjit?" She bit her lips, hesitated to ask.
Levin was stunned, realizing that Mira had a point here. He and Chen Ze discussed a lot of possibilities of how they would gain their new ability, and they two were convinced that the new power would be the ruler's reward for advancing to the second round. However, he forgot about the possibility that they would gain their new ability by killing the animals in the second round. If so, that would also explain Azzar's wariness over him earlier.
Levin also had a hard time answering the girl. He couldn't promise her that he would still help the animals, especially when the condition to advance to the next round was to kill them. He would still prioritize his and Mira's lives over the animals he had just met no matter how friendly they were. However, to go back against his words would break his principles, and he didn't want to do that. Also, if the animals could survive, they would be a strong ally in the future, something that would probably be a bigger help compared to gaining a second power out of nowhere without knowing how to use it.
After pondering over the pros and the cons for a moment, in the end, Levin sighed helplessly, patting the girl's head gently before saying, "It still depends on the condition to win the game, but if we could, we would definitely help them. How about that?"
Mira's eyes lightened instantly at the promise, knowing that this was the compromise that Levin thought about this situation. "Um! Don't worry, Uncle! I will also help you save them all!" She gripped her wooden staff with eyes burned in determination. Levin just chuckled lowly before leading the girl back to their residence.
Little did they know that a small bird was watching their interaction from afar, and after listening to their last conversation, it took off from its spot, flying back to its home on a chill night alone.