Chapter 249: Concentration and Focus

As the military base 2 students were unpacking, more and more students were coming in from the other bases, including those of the participants.

One of the reasons why Layla had to get shipped off before the others was because the participants container was filled with students from all the bases. As a result, they arrived later than the others.

On her left, she could see a bunch of second year students sitting near the back of the train. She could tell with how they wore an arm band signaling their seniority, and on her right were the first years, which included Logan.

She didn’t go over to him just yet as she was trying to focus on controlling Luke’s body. Still, she was listening to the gossiping around her.

"There’s a level 2 here with us?"

"Is this some kind of joke? Do they think we’re so weak that we have to fight a nobody?"

"She’s probably just canon fodder. They probably didn’t have any good first years at her base."

The words everyone were saying bothered her, and in that moment, her concentration broke.

Inside of Luke’s room, his body tripped and bumped into the corner of a table, the sharp edge hitting his hip. Thankfully, Layla couldn’t feel pain from the bodies she possessed, but it was a reminder she needed to improve her focus.

"... She’s kinda creepy," A first year student near her whispered.

It was then that Layla realized she was accidentally staring at the poor guy. She blinked then wordlessly looked away.

As a result of turning into a vetala, Layla’s appearance didn’t make her look the most well kept. Her hair was slightly frayed, and her eyes had dark bags. With her odd staring, disheveled appearance, and her low level, a few of the students around her were starting to whisper more.

"Let’s soften her up, show her just what exactly she’s getting into."

"I bet she sucked up to a general so she could participate... If you know what I mean."

The train stopped, and they arrived at the arena. However, they wouldn’t be staying with their other classmates at the taller buildings. Rather, they were told to head underground into a training room.

Inside was a vast, high tech training center with a large variety of equipment as far as the eye could see. There was a shooting range, VR pods, walls of beast gear, gym equipment, and more.

"As you can see, several rooms are leading to this one, the entrance which you have entered from is now locked, and only military personnel who are authorized will be able to pass through," A solider explained.

"You are free to use this room however you wish before the event. The big day starts tomorrow, so you will have plenty of time to practice. To your right, through the doors are your sleeping quarters. Feel free to rest whenever you wish. Just behind me is the entrance to the arena. In a moment, we will split you up into groups according to your events, and we will have someone explain and go over the rules. Tomorrow when your names will be called, you will be escorted up to the arena."

The man then pointed to a large display that hung above on the wall, "We don’t want you to be left out of course. We will be displaying the event to all of you above. If you have any problems or concerns, do not hesitate to ask us."

With nothing else to say, the solider left to talk with his team about the next parts of the tournament. Meanwhile, the participants started to walk around, some exploring around the arena, others experimenting with the equipment.

One of the first things Layla wanted to do was find Logan. If they had any chance of figuring out what to do next, he was their best bet.

Looking around, Layla saw he was near the back where the gaming pods were, a place she’d expected him to be.

She started to head over to him, when a pair of students whispered something to each other. A taller looking guy nodded to his friend, and he lifted a tiny piece of earth right where Layla’s foot was. To a human, this would’ve been nearly impossible to avoid, but to Layla, her reaction speed was far more than it used to be.

She gracefully pivoted on her heel, and walked around it.

"Huh? How did she avoid that? I’m a level 8 ability user!" the boy harshly muttered.

Another student tried flinging a bullet of wind in front of her, but she paused mid walk, avoiding it all together.

"But how? She’s just a level 2."

All while avoiding their attempts at hurting her, she was still focusing on piloting Luke’s body. It was an incredible feat, one that made her feel a little proud of herself.

It didn’t take long for her to make it to Logan, who was in the middle of hacking the gaming pod. The machines were in the corner, far away from everyone else.

"Logan," Layla whispered, "Have you figured out where Quinn is located?"

Logan’s eyes opened, and he released his hand from the pod, "I already have a few possible locations where he’s imprisoned."

She was a little surprised by how quick he was able to gather this information, and wondered why the gaming pod was involved.

"These gaming pods have built in hardware to connect to the internet, but the ones here were disabled," Logan stated, "They’re distributed by my family company, so I know everything about them."

Logan then turned to Layla with a small proud smile, "All it took was a simple switch to turn the wifi back on, and it automatically connected to military base 1’s network."

It was smart, but Layla thought that this was incredibly sensitive information to casually tell someone, especially since she knew herself as an agent of Pure. Despite this, she didn’t bring it up.

Before the inter-base tournament started, Logan was already devising several plans on how to rescue Quinn.

His first thought was trying to locate where the school dungeon was using the spider’s GPS. The problem was, when Quinn disappeared along with his spider, the signal fully cut out.

He tried searching the history of the spider’s location, but all he could find was that it was last located in a place a bit far off from military base 2’s main building. Then, it suddenly vanished.

Logan concluded it was the result of Quinn getting teleported, and it had to have been deep underground. Otherwise, he would’ve been able to access the signal for far longer.

After attempting a bunch of other solutions, working day in and night. There had to be a way to gain some sort of map, or schematic somewhere within the databases of the military base, but despite his best efforts, Logan couldn’t find anything he could bypass.

Since he didn’t like sitting around doing nothing, he devised other plans.

He searched for records of previous contestants at the inter-base tournament online, as well as what they might’ve seen in military base 1. These were far and few, most likely deleted to keep the mysterious base as hidden as possible, but it told him enough that he could hack into familiar technology.

"I also figured out where all of the portal rooms are," Logan continued, "The easiest portal to access would be the ones in the hotel lobby, but not every portal is the same. Chances are, most, if not all, of the portals here are military owned."

That was another problem. They couldn’t send Quinn through any portal. If he went through a portal under the military faction, they would capture him the moment he was on the other side.

"What would you suggest be the best portal for Quinn, then?" Layla questioned.

"Easy," Logan said, "The portal that took us all to the last planet we went to, planet Amazonia. It was previously marked orange, and now, its a red portal planet."