Filler chapter here with nothing much to say.

I'll be updating less often although it's the school holidays now (yay). Reason is, I have to catch up on my schoolwork. Also, this story has been getting very little readership. I've somewhat lost faith in writing in general but I know I have to finish what I started.

Bear with me for just a little bit more, please?

Note: Beaten Up actually came from KoL, not Battle Royale. This error has since been rectified. Sorry!

Review reply to mozzi-girl (Molly):

Heh, thank you! I've always liked memes.

Disclaimer: I do not own Cause of Death and its affiliated characters.

xxxxx xxxxx

Mal paced about the meadow outside the forest in circles, trying to think. When he finally got tired, he slumped down onto the grass and stared daggers at the tiny scroll unfurled before him.

If only the piece of paper was alive! Then Mal would grin sadistically as he ripped it into bits. He realized that would be useless though, and pushed the thought back into the dark recesses of his mind.

The clue read: Where can a garden be blue?

How could gardens be blue?

Mal lay down, staring up at the azure blue sky. That was out of the question; the next location had to be somewhere on the ground. Then he looked about him, but there seemed to be nowhere that fit the description.

You need a new perspective, a voice inside his head whispered. What you really need right now is a nice stroll around the other side of the –

Then the voice went quiet.

"Other side of what?"

Mal checked the map on his electronic gadget. What were his guts telling him? There were so many 'other sides' on the island. He could go on the other side of the forest, the residential area, the hilly area… there were so many possibilities, he could not fathom which of them the answer was.

I'll just go for a 'nice stroll' nowhere, then.

He chucked the electronic gadget back into the day pack. That was when he noticed the two booklets Blaise had bestowed on him. He reached into the day pack and held them up.

Looks like I have to postpone my plans.

xxxxx

Mal had grown.

It was not physical growth. Rather, it was his development of skills in the last two hours that led him to experience growth of a very different kind.

Unlike his previously 'newbie' self, he had the power of Instinct. He could actually decide what to do without needing external prompts. His thoughts were also more coherent. Whatever gut feeling he had, he trusted. Now he knew how to proceed on his quest to find Natara Williams.

He must find Amy Chen, the highly intelligent (and probably mystical) being the Even Greater Man had told him about.

Sometime during his reading of the Instinct booklet and honing of his skills, he had what someone could call an epiphany. Sure, it was choppy and there was room for improvement, but Mal was only just beginning to be able to think like… a smart person.

Gardens are ponds.
Ponds are blue.
Therefore, gardens are blue.

That argument was not logical in the first place. Since when were gardens ponds? But then no one explicitly stated instinct had to involve intelligence.

Now Mal stood up and holstered his all-new Ingram MAC-10 machine gun. He had seen one some back in San Francisco, but had never touched, let alone used one. After having attached the relevant booklet to his existing book on his pixel sword, he read the resultant manual and managed to turn his pixel sword into this awesome machine gun (to top it off, there was an accompanying holster too). Then, looking towards Mr Bighead's castle, he started walking.

His newfound instinct had told him it was risky to pass by the residential area for something bad would happen. Just seeing the castle in the centre of the island was even worse; he would be severely punished in ways he did not know were possible before, and he was too preoccupied with other matters to think about this now.

It would be safest to head to the hilly area with cottages, where the gardens there would probably have ponds, bypassing Mr Bighead's castle; he was sure there were no monsters lurking around there.

Maybe it was Mal's increase in strength, but it took him only an hour to get to the Hills. Just as he was about to give himself a private celebratory toast for having survived eleven hours into the game, he noticed something wrong again.

From his point of view, the hills looked twice as intimidating as before. They had appeared deceptively green the other time, but now the grass were falling to the ground at his feet and what was left of the hills were mounds of soil.

"CLIMB THE HILLS AS FAST AS YOU CAN. IF YOU DO NOT COMPLETE YOUR COURSE WITHIN AN HOUR, ALL THE HOUSES WILL COLLAPSE."

Damn, it's Mr Bighead! Breathe, Mal, breathe. You can do it.

Still, Mal found himself literally quaking in his pixel shoes as the hills began to fall apart.

Climb! Climb!

Weird things started happening as he started up the hill to a cottage, which he judged from instinct to be the one he had to get to.

The grass was falling off the hills. Some of said grass started to plaster themselves back to their original positions. The green substance stuck to Mal's body too. In frustration, he hastily took out his Ingram MAC-10, turned it back into his pixel sword and started waving it around to deflect the attack as he attempted to continue climbing.

Fucking bastard, I'll stab you in your metallic head with this sword!