As his sight slowly returned, Victor saw that the space beneath him was covered with a spell formation. The formation broke and a thousand golden sparks floated upwards. The sparks surrounded Victor, and he noticed that Reunion had disappeared. The sparks slowly disappear, and Victor found himself back in the basement.

“What the hell was that?” Victor murmured.

“That was me reaching Level Two!”

Reunion’s unmistakable voice rang in Victor’s head. He looked around, but he was still the empty basement. A feeling of dread rose within Victor.

“Reunion, are you in my head?”

“That’s right! I’ve gotten more powerful, and now I shall be with you all the time.”

“Oh no.”

Victor put his head in his hands again. Reunion sounded like a young girl in his head, but the idea of Reunion’s cheerful voice living in his head was…horrifying.

“Do you have to? Don’t you want to stay in this nice basement?”

“Ha! Host, I didn’t know you could joke.” Reunion cheerfully rebutted. “Look on the bright side. With this upgrade, you no longer need to come back to this dump to get your prize. Getting rid of the travel time alone makes the upgrade worth it. Besides, you also get a prize for upgrading the system and we both know how much you like prizes.”

“Are you trying to bribe me?”

“It’s not a bribe. It’s an incentive.”

“Babies like you should not be learning to bribe adults.”

“Host, are you saying you don’t want the prize?”

“I did not say that.” Victor grunted in response. Victor did like prizes, and the fact that he didn’t need to come back to this building did make things easier. He looked around and felt a little sad though. This place was never a big part of the Candy Crew, but it did belong to them. Now it, like the crew, was a ruin. A thing of the past. Much like Victor.

“So, what is the prize?”

“You get an island.”

Silence filled the basement. Neither Victor nor Reunion spoke. Victor slowly came to his senses.

“What? Can you repeat that?”

“You get an island.”

“Wha…why? How?”

“Well, through my research of your world, I found that a lot of villains have their own bases. So, I figure you will need one. No host of mine is going to use this dump as a base, so I figured having an island base…sorry, it should be lair right? Having an island lair would be perfect for you.” Reunion corrected herself. “By the way, you need to explain that to me. Heroes have bases; villains have lairs. I don’t quite get the difference.”

“There isn’t one. Villains usually have their…lairs in dark secretive places. So that’s what we call it.”

“But I found records of villains who operated in mansions, skyscrapers, and even space stations. Yet their base of operation is always called ‘lairs’. Why?”

“It’s just tradition.” Victor dismissively explained. He wasn’t in the mood to explain the matter. Not when his prize was an island! “You are giving me an island? Where is it?”

“Notice the plaque in front of you?”

Victor looked down and saw it. It was a wooden plaque about twenty centimeters long. There were some strange writings on it, and the Blue Dive ring was place on top of the plaque. Victor put the Blue Dive into his storage ring and lifted the plaque.

“Gather your qi and push it into the plaque.” Reunion instructed.

Victor did as he was told. By now, the gathering and using of qi was almost second nature to him. The plaque glowed. A light shot out from the plaque, and a man-sized portal appeared before Victor. Without any prompt from Reunion, he stepped through it.

Victor appeared on a beach.

In front of him was a jungle of vines and trees. It was quiet, and only the steady rhythm of the ocean waves could be heard. Victor turned to the ocean, and the water was the purest blue he had ever seen. The sun was shining overhead, and on the horizon, Victor could see wisps of smoke. Victor took a breath to steady himself. He had seen some crazy stuff as a villain, but this was overwhelming.

“I knew you would like it. Welcome to the mystical island of...well, you need to name it.”

Victor cursed as Reunion’s voice rang in his head. He was going to need some time to get used to having a voice in his head.

“Can you speak a little softer? You’re in my head.”

“That is a problem that is easily solved.”

A loud sound from behind surprised Victor. He turned and blinked as he saw a huge armored figure. He was standing on the beach and striking a pose. It took Victor a moment to realize this was the figure Reunion had taken in the summoning circle. This was so bad!

“Uh…you can appear in real-life now?” Victor was dreading the answer, and Reunion did not disappoint him.

“Yes! I am now more powerful thanks to the level up, but because I am still at level two, I can only appear on this island at this time. You can even call me The Spirit of the Island!”

Victor’s mouth twitched. The figure’s voice was deep and booming, but Reunion was hopping foot to foot and clapping his hands like happy seal.

“Not on your life!” Victor turned away from Reunion and looked at the jungle in front of him. He wanted to steer the conversation away from the system’s silliness.

“It’s great, but where are we? The sun is up. It was evening in Velocity City. And this place looked like a tropical jungle!”

“We are in the middle of nowhere. I placed the island in the middle of the Neptune Ocean, halfway between the continents of Arces and Pandal.”

Victor looked at the plaque that was still in his hand. “That’s hundreds of kilometers from Velocity City. What is the range on this thing?”

“There isn’t one but don’t be too happy about it. The plaque can only create a portal that could transport you to this island, and it has a five-day cooldown. After five days, you can use it to transport you back to the basement in Velocity City.”