I Was Kidnapped By The Strongest Guild
Chapter 242: The Contest Begins

For the remaining time, we finalized the tournament rules, and the guild wizard prepared the illusion magic.

Participants had already been accepted for several days, so all that was left was to wait for the day of the competition.

One week passed.

Then two weeks.

Time flew by, and the tournament day arrived.

We drove south for about three hours.

Our destination was a small, unfamiliar port.

"From here, we'll take a boat to that island over there," Yeoreum said, pointing to an island in the distance.

It was twice as big as I had imagined.

"Once all the participants gather. Shall we rest for a bit until then?"

"Okay."

I wandered around the port with the children.

Levinas's eyes sparkled at the vast expanse of sea.

Saebyeok seemed to enjoy the sea breeze, wagging her tail.

"Woah," Levinas exclaimed as she climbed onto a tetrapod.

Afraid to go too far out, she only stepped on the front part.

"Levinas, that's dangerous. You shouldn't step on it," I warned.

"Really?! Levinas was a bit scared too!"

Levinas came down from the tetrapod, but her gaze was fixed on the holes between them.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"There are fish under there!"

"Do you want to catch them?"

"Yes! It's what the kings like best!"

Ah. She wanted to catch them for us.

Her thoughtfulness was touching, but I didn't want Levinas to get hurt.

"It's dangerous here, so let's forget about the fish," I said gently.

"Is it very dangerous?!"

"Yes. You might get bitten by a shark and not be able to get out."

Levinas's eyes widened like a horned rabbit's at the mention of sharks. She also tilted her head curiously.

"But sharks are Levinas's friends?! They won't bite Levinas, right?!"

Perhaps influenced by Sophia, Levinas didn't seem very afraid of sharks.

As I pondered what to do, Saebyeok spoke up first.

"It's not just a shark, it's a whale shark. It's a mix between a whale and a shark."

"Whale shark...!"

"Sharks are your friends, but whales aren't yet, right?"

"That's right...! Levinas isn't friends with whales...!"

Trembling, Levinas took a step back. She seemed to fear whales more than sharks.

"King! Is a whale shark a whale or a shark?" she asked me.

"Hmm? I guess it's half and half?"

"Like the king?!"

"Me...?" I was confused. What part of me was half and half? I'm clearly a feline beast-kin. It was a puzzling statement.

"The king is a cat mixed with a dog!" Levinas declared.

"A dog?" There's nothing dog-like about me at all. What part of me looks like a dog? I reflexively raised my hands to my head. My ears were perfectly feline.

"I'm a cat..." Just as I was about to say I was a cat, Yeoreum picked me up. My tail started wagging just from being in her arms.

"Shall we gather now?" she asked.

"Okay."

Come to think of it, I hadn't rubbed my pheromones on my family today. On the way, I rubbed my ears against Yeoreum's face. Hearing her laughter, we arrived at the port square where many people had gathered. They all looked like professionals.

'Wow,' I thought. These were the kind of people you'd only see in movies or dramas. Their equipment was uniformly tactical.

I looked down to examine the gear I had brought. Most of it was my usual worn bag and items.

"Gyeoul, shall we stand in line?" Yeoreum asked.

"Okay."

I got down from Yeoreum's arms and stood at the far right of the line. Yeoreum greeted everyone and began a brief explanation.

"Remember the dungeon that removed mana that opened recently? Today's competition is held to prepare for that."

Fighting and surviving without mana. Yeoreum explained that the competition was to gather data for this. She also mentioned that while the guild would participate, they wouldn't take the prize money.

"The goal is to reach the destination within three days. A little hint... it would be good to search the surroundings thoroughly." Yeoreum emphasized the word 'thoroughly'. It meant to farm diligently.

"Any questions?"

Someone raised their hand at Yeoreum's question. It was a man with fierce eyes.

"We won't die, right?"

"Right. Even if you're stabbed with a knife or jump off a high-rise building, you won't die."

Since it was a competition using illusion magic. I'm not sure how they did it, but I heard that the weapons you could loot weren't real.

'This will be fun,' I thought. It would be scary if it were real, but this was all fake. I decided to immerse myself and enjoy the competition.

---

---

We took a boat to the island. Levinas and Saebyeok came along.

"King, King," Levinas called, leaning her face out of the boat. She gestured for me to come over while peering into the sea.

"What is it?"

"Look and see if there are any whale sharks down there!"

"Hmm..." Would whale sharks even be in a place like this? I leaned my face out of the boat with Levinas. The sea was too blue to see anything.

"There must be a whale shark under here!"

"Yeah. It's probably following us because it wants to be friends with Levinas."

"Hehe!"

Levinas took out a carrot stick from her bag. Saebyeok stopped her as she was about to throw it into the sea.

"Whale sharks don't eat carrots."

"They don't?!"

"No. The carrot is for Levinas to eat."

"Okay!"

Crunch crunch-

By the time Levinas finished eating the carrot stick, we had reached the island.

At that point, we had to put on bracelets that suppressed our mana. Participants could break the bracelet whenever they wanted. But that would surely lead to disqualification.

"Hmm."

"Tch..."

Unfamiliar with the situation of having no mana, the participants let out sighs. It had been a while since I had a body without mana, so it felt strange to me too.

"Now, I'm going to blindfold the participants," Yeoreum announced.

We put on blindfolds and earplugs and got on a bus. I was surprised to find custom earplugs that fit my ears.

'...But where are we going?' Just as I was wondering, someone took my hand and led me off the bus.

They said we could remove the blindfolds after getting off the bus. I took off my blindfold and looked in the direction where the bus should have been. Surprisingly, there was nothing there. Not even the person who had helped me off.

"Wow..." A city devoid of any signs of life. Among the old buildings, I could see collapsed and tilted structures. They'd perfectly recreated a post-apocalyptic world.

As I was looking around, the bracelet on my wrist started flashing blue. It was the signal for the start of the competition.

"Grrrr?" An inhuman sound came from somewhere.

I hurriedly crawled under a broken-down car. Being small, I could easily fit underneath.

'Zombies...!'

I could see zombies wandering the road in the distance. They seemed less scary than the zombies I knew. They were less cruel and grotesque. They felt like zombies from a family-friendly movie. The zombies only looked less scary to me.

'Still, they are scary.'

My body trembled slightly.

Should I quietly slip out and check a nearby building?

As I was setting my next goal, I heard Levinas's urgent voice from somewhere.

"King! Kiiing!"

Even without mana, the ears of a beast-kin were still good. It was coming from quite far away.

Did Levinas enter the competition? She didn't say a word to me about it.

I hurriedly crawled out from under the car.

"Le-Levinas..."

I ran towards Levinas's direction. My feet were slow due to the lack of mana, but still faster than the zombies. I tracked Levinas using the unique footsteps of felines.

"Levinas!"

"Kiiiing! Kiiiiing!"

Levinas, having spotted me, came running quickly. She was bringing a horde of zombies with her. There were zombies crawling on the ground, zombies walking slowly, and zombies running surprisingly fast.

Fortunately, horned rabbit beast-kin were as specialized in running as cats.

"Levinas, this way!" I grabbed Levinas's hand and ran to a spot I had noticed earlier. It was a large trash can at a corner.

"Let's hide here."

"Okay...!"

We got into the trash can and closed the lid. At the same time, we could hear the zombies entering the alley.

"Graaaah!"

The zombies ran down the alley, howling. Luckily, they didn't touch the trash can we were hiding in.

"Phew, phew..."

Thank goodness. As I sighed in relief, Levinas started giggling.

"...Aren't you scared, Levinas?"

"Nope! It's fun playing hide-and-seek with the dolls!"

"Ah..."

I had wondered how she ended up in the competition. Do the zombies look like dolls to Levinas? It was an impressive illusion magic in many ways.

"Levinas, we must never get caught by the dolls."

"Okay! I know!"

"Shh... we need to speak quietly."

"I know...!" Levinas spoke so softly it was hard to hear.

It seemed I needed to teach Levinas some basic knowledge. The first thing was...

"...Are you two okay?" Just then, someone opened the lid of the trash can we were hiding in. It was a woman I had never seen before.

I hid Levinas behind me and retreated to a corner of the trash can.

"D-Don't come near us..." The first rule for survival: Never trust anyone.

Blink blink-

I could see drone cameras observing us in the sky. With eyes watching, they probably couldn't easily rob or kill us. I just hoped they would pass by without incident.

3/6 Enjoy the chappy!

Please give the book a rating and a review on NovelUpdates.