Chapter 192: Battle Royale 2.0 Goes Live
"What's going on? Why are the test subjects out of control?"
At this moment, humanity had no time to worry about the seismic tremors caused by Godzilla's struggles, because something far worse had happened.
Every single one of their human experiments had gone wrong—every test subject had turned into a monster!
And not just a few, but hundreds of Titan behemoths appearing all at once. These creatures seemed to combine the characteristics of two different monster kings, making the situation even more despairing.
They had created an army of enemies for themselves. Now what?
"It's okay! We still have 'God'!"
"That's right, the Creator will surely save us!"
The humans tried to console themselves.
Meanwhile, Chang Wei had no interest in their plight—he was having too much fun playing with the mercenaries on Skull Island.
For instance, right now, he had taken out a prize.
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"What is this…? Such a strange fruit."
The mercenaries discovered a peculiar fruit, about the size of a watermelon, but with an odd shape. Unlike ordinary fruits, it was covered in spiral patterns from its peel to its flesh.
Stranger still, the other fruits on the same tree looked completely different from this one.
"Since this is the Creator's island, maybe this is the special item our employer is looking for?"
The mercenaries weren't entirely clueless. In fact, apart from them, some military personnel from other countries had also infiltrated the island. Through painstaking investigations, they had confirmed that Skull Island was the birthplace of both humans and Titan behemoths—the Creator's island.
However, despite spending so much time and manpower here, they had found nothing—except for the countless mercenaries and soldiers who had become food for the island's bizarre creatures, essentially turning into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Chang Wei had no intention of letting them take the fruit off the island for research. That would be a waste, benefiting the outside world.
These fruits could only exist on Skull Island, serving as bait to attract more people into his battle royale game.
So, they could only be eaten on the island—not taken outside.
Under Chang Wei's persuasion, a white mercenary suddenly took a bite of the strange fruit.
"Tom, what are you doing?!"
"That fruit could be poisonous!"
Then, they watched in shock as Tom's hair transformed into a pair of cat ears, and his body started displaying feline characteristics.
"Tom?!"
Everyone was stunned. What the hell was happening?
Tom… had turned into a monster?
Did that fruit have the power to turn humans into beasts?
"I feel… meow, an unprecedented… meow… surge of… meow… power! Meow!"
Tom had fully transformed into a large blue cat. Though he resembled big cats like leopards or lions, his features looked uncannily like a British Shorthair—blue and white in color.
More importantly… he could still talk?
"Calm down, Tom."
The mercenaries exchanged glances, silently reaching an understanding: subdue Tom first, then take him back. Maybe he could be studied.
But with the outside world in chaos due to the rampaging super monster kings, their communications had been cut off. Even though Tom was cooperative, they had no way to contact the outside world and were stuck on the island.
Over time, Tom discovered he could actually switch between his human and feline forms at will.
Then, they made another shocking discovery: even in human form, Tom's strength and speed had far surpassed normal human limits!
"Could it be… that fruit is a gift from the gods, granting humans power?"
Everyone was thrilled.
"But then… why don't the island's native inhabitants have special abilities?"
Some of them found this suspicious.
"Maybe they never found these fruits?"
Tom had only just gained his powers, and his mind was filled with fantasies of becoming a superhero. No, wait—if this were ancient times, wouldn't he be considered a demigod?
So, he wouldn't tolerate anyone questioning his newfound strength.
Originally, Chang Wei had planned to turn Tom into a puma or a North American gray wolf—something easy to identify. But when he heard the guy's name was Tom…
Well, with a name like Tom, how could he not turn him into a cat?
Thus, he had become the real-life version of "Tom Cat."
---
"We've been searching for so long and only found one of these fruits. Could it be that they're incredibly rare?"
Tom became more convinced as he spoke. Unlike the native islanders, they roamed all over the island, constantly being chased by monsters. The natives, on the other hand, never left their safe zones, treating large areas as forbidden territory.
Perhaps, generation after generation, they had never even encountered these fruits.
"Tom, how do you feel now?"
His teammates were curious. This sudden transformation—turning from a human into a cat—did it really have no side effects?
"…I can't eat hot food anymore."
Tom looked regretfully at the grilled meat in front of him. The delicious, fragrant meat—he now had to blow on it to cool it down before he could eat, because his tongue had turned just as sensitive as a cat's.
"If I could gain the strength to punch through a tree, I'd gladly give up grilled meat forever!"
"Yeah! God, please grant me a fruit too!"
"Tom, you're being way too greedy."
"By the way… are there more of these fruits?"
"No idea. A hundred of us have been searching for so long, and over fifty died before we found just one… If there are more, they're probably somewhere else on the island."
"I wonder… can Tom still have children with a human woman? Or does he have to find a female cat? Hahaha!"
"You bastard! But honestly, I'm curious too. Tom, do you still like human women, or are you attracted to cats now?"
Tom glared at his laughing teammates, feeling irritated.
Of course, he knew they were just trying to lighten the mood. They were stranded on the island, unable to contact the outside world, and had just witnessed something utterly bizarre. Their anxiety and stress levels were through the roof.
"But even if the natives never found the fruit, shouldn't they have some kind of record of it?"
"Who knows? We don't understand their language."
"Didn't we bring a linguist? Let's ask him when we return."
Finally, the soldiers and mercenaries made their way back to the native village—the only known safe zone on Skull Island.
At least here, they didn't have to worry about parasites burrowing into their bodies or basketball-sized mosquitoes draining them dry.
So, both the mercenaries and military personnel had designated this place as their base camp while they continued exploring other areas.
They had set a scheduled return time since this place also stored a large supply of their provisions.