The National Survival Challenge an inexplicable phenomenon that appeared on Blue Star three years ago.
It takes place once every three months.
Each time, contestants are randomly selected from every country, and the fate of their nations is tied to their performance.
If a contestant excels in the challenge, their country reaps rewards. But if they die before earning any rewards, calamity descends upon their homeland.
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis natural disasters like these… or, as in the case of Hai City today, a beast outbreak.
"Beasts" are the collective term for interdimensional monsters unleashed as punishment when a nation's contestant fails. Born from other dimensions, they come in countless forms.
Some wield overwhelming power, others grotesque and bizarre abilities. In one infamous outbreak in Australia, the beasts wiped out half the continent's population. It took the combined might of the world's nations half a year to reclaim the lost territory.
Ruan Mei found these creatures fascinating after all, they were lifeforms that Earth could never naturally produce, and thus, of immense research value.
Unfortunately, beast outbreaks were rare. Few corpses had ever been collected, and as for capturing a living specimen? Impossible.
As for the Survival Challenge itself, Ruan Mei had never once been chosen. Unlike those cliché transmigration novels, she hadn't landed in this world only to be thrust into the event as some "chosen player."
But today, things seemed different. The Survival Challenge had brought a beast disaster right to Hai City the very place Ruan Mei called home.
"Well then, let's go, Mimi." Ruan Mei's lips curved in a faint smile as she turned toward the door.
"Mimi! (Wait for me, partner!)" The pink creature twirled in the air before flitting after her.
"Warning: A beast disaster is imminent."
"Warning: A beast disaster is imminent."
Half an hour had passed since the first alert. The once-wide avenues were now clogged with abandoned cars, yet eerily, not a soul could be seen. Not a single figure on the streets.
Suddenly, the loudspeakers blaring evacuation orders gave way to harsh static. Then, in the sky above, a massive spatial rift tore open. A moment later, a colossal head thrust through.
ROAR!
A dragon large enough to blanket a football field burst from the rift, its arrival a declaration of dominion. Its flesh appeared rotted, its body draped in a layer of white fungal growth. As its wings unfurled, shimmering motes of light rained down like malevolent snow.
"These mycelia… hmm. Parasitic, infectious, controlling similar to a zombie pathogen. Reminds me of The Last of Us. Intriguing." Standing beneath a tiled eave, Ruan Mei extended her pale right hand. A few white motes drifted into her palm.
"Mimi! Mimi! (Wait zombie virus?! We need to act now, partner! If we don't, everyone will be infected!)" Mimi's ears drooped in panic, her round eyes wide with urgency.
"Very well. We'll do it your way." Ruan Mei gave a slight nod. With a flick of her right hand, the air before her rippled like the surface of a lake.
"An afternoon tea's worth of time will suffice."
She moved to the great wooden doors of her estate. They creaked open, and with one graceful step over the threshold, she passed from a serene garden of timeless beauty into the chaos of a modern city in uproar.
By now, panic ruled the streets. Just moments ago, every broadcast television, radio, the net had confirmed the impending beast disaster. Order crumbled instantly. No one wanted to end up a name etched on a gravestone.
Cries, frantic shouts, the shrill chorus of car horns all tangled together in a cacophony of fear.
Amid this stampede of headless flies, Ruan Mei stood out in stark contrast. Her expression was placid, serene, as though nothing were amiss.
Yet the strange part? Not a single person seemed to notice her. It was as if she didn't exist in their world at all. Without realizing it, the fleeing crowd parted around her like water around a stone.
"Mimi! (I've found the source of the outbreak! Let's move!)" Mimi's voice rang out urgently.
Ruan Mei inclined her head, and with a single step, the world shifted. The courtyard vanished. She now stood atop a towering skyscraper the closest point to the heavens Hai City could offer.
Above her, the sky churned, and there it was: a monstrous four-legged dragon, its body a grotesque ruin of rotting flesh and fungal bloom, wings slicing through the clouds.
The architect of this disaster.
"A specimen worth studying," Ruan Mei murmured, lifting her right hand. Palm open, aimed at the beast.
For a heartbeat, nothing stirred. Then her fingers clenched.
The heavens split with a soundless tear. A black rift yawned open behind the dragon, widening like the maw of an ancient predator then snapped shut, swallowing the beast whole.
"Mimi! (Partner, you're incredible!)" Mimi squealed in delight, looping giddy circles around her.
From its arrival to its annihilation, scarcely ten minutes had passed. The dragon creature enough to plunge a city into apocalyptic ruin was gone without a trace.
But Ruan Mei's gaze had already fallen below. Past the railing, she could see the choked streets, the scurrying masses.
The fungus was already at work. Though it had not yet reached the point of zombification, clusters of victims had collapsed, clawing at their throats as they retched and choked.
To save them, it wasn't enough to eradicate the fungus. She would have to repair the damage it had wrought within their bodies. Otherwise, purging the parasite would only hasten their deaths.
A daunting task yet for Ruan Mei, child's play.
She closed her eyes. For several heartbeats, silence. Then, a slim glass vial shimmered into being before her, brimming with amber liquid.
"Mimi, drop this."
"On it!" Mimi clutched the vial in her tiny arms and zipped beyond the railing, selecting a clear spot below before letting it slip from her grasp.
The vial plunged hundreds of meters, shattering against the pavement in a sharp crack. Its contents burst forth, vaporizing in an instant.
White mist surged outward like the shockwave of a detonated bomb, rolling across the city at speeds many times faster than sound.
Those infected inhaled the mist, hacking violently as streams of red-and-white bile spilled from their mouths.
The vaporized serum coursed through their bodies scouring away every trace of fungal rot, knitting together ravaged tissue as if time itself had rewound.