For example, the Pterosaur that just captured and killed numerous birds—which should have been extinct sixty-five million years ago—was nothing more than an insignificant link in the food chain here.
In the deeper parts of the jungle, she had caught glimpses of Brontosaurs moving like small mountains, heard the roars of Tyrannosaurus Rex that made the earth tremble, and even seen giant mosquitoes the size of a fist by the water pools.
This was a lost World, a lonely island forgotten by time, and also a deadly arena.
"Whew..."
Alice exhaled a breath of turbid air, trying to dispel the heaviness in her heart.
She lowered her head and looked at her slender, white palms, even being able to see the faint blue veins under the skin.
If she relied solely on this body, she would absolutely not survive the first night on this island full of prehistoric monsters.
Even the smallest Raptor could tear her to pieces like eating a spicy snack.
The reason she had been able to live until now and establish a temporary base on this tree with a wide view was entirely thanks to the standard equipment of a transmigrator.
A Golden Finger.
"System, check status," she muttered in her heart.
No cool light screen popped up; only a cold voice responded in her mind.
"Ding, the sign-in cycle has refreshed. Today is the 30th day of survival. Congratulations, you have obtained [Misaka Mikoto Character Card Fragment ×1] through the monthly lucky draw."
That mechanical electronic voice, devoid of any intonation or emotional fluctuation, sounded abruptly.
Alice's originally expectant expression stiffened slightly, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but twitch twice.
"Another fragment, I knew it."
She helplessly held her forehead.
Yes, she carried a cheat called the [2D Superpower Gacha System].
The system's function was just as its name suggested: simple and crude.
It collected countless female characters from movies, anime, games, and light novels from her previous life and sealed their abilities within cards.
The so-called superpowers referred to the skills that came with these character cards.
For example, the fragment she just drew belonged to Misaka Mikoto, also known as Biribiri, a popular character from the famous anime works "A Certain Magical Index" and "A Certain Scientific Railgun."
She was one of only seven Level 5 espers in Academy City, ranked third, and held the title of Railgun.
If she could get a complete Misaka Mikoto character card, even if it was just a one-time experience card, as long as it was applied to her, Alice could immediately transform into the Electromaster who controlled a billion volts of lightning and could manipulate magnetic fields at will.
In the face of such power, let alone that Pterosaur just now, even if a T-Rex came, a single Railgun shot could teach it how to be a dinosaur again.
Unfortunately, reality was very harsh.
She only drew a fragment.
And the system's rules were chillingly ruthless: only complete character cards could be applied.
Ten fragments were needed to synthesize one complete card.
Even more despair-inducing was the system's draw mechanism.
The interval for a free draw was as long as one month.
In other words, she only had one chance to test her luck for every thirty days she struggled to survive in this hellhole.
So far, she had drawn a total of twice.
The first time was when she had just transmigrated and was facing a hungry Sabretooth that was salivating over her.
That was the first draw given by the Newbie Gift Pack.
That time, her luck exploded, and she drew a complete Blue Card—the heroine from "Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend," Kato Megumi.
The second time was this time, drawing a lonely fragment.
"Carrying a gacha system, well, it's very cliché and very tacky."
The girl leaned against the tree trunk, swinging her small feet, silently complaining in her heart.
"But I have to admit, if it weren't for that Kato Megumi card, this version of 'Robinson Crusoe: Girl Edition' would have turned into 'Alice on the Tip of the Tongue' long ago."
This wild and mysterious island was too dangerous.
As a girl without the strength to truss a chicken, she was at the very bottom of the food chain, a pushover in the eyes of all predators.
And the ability of the Kato Megumi character card—[Thin Presence] (also known as: The Main Heroine's Stealth)—was her only life-saving charm at present.
Although this card couldn't give her mountain-moving strength or allow her to fly, as long as she activated the skill, she would become extremely inconspicuous.
The feeling was like, even though you were clearly standing there, the surrounding creatures would subconsciously ignore your existence.
Even Beasts with a keen sense of smell would become dull to the scent on her body while the skill was active.
Relying on this near-magical version of optical camouflage, she had survived three night attacks by Beasts, escaped twice under the noses of large carnivorous dinosaurs, and successfully found a relatively safe habitat on this giant tree.
"But, I can't keep living just by hiding."
Alice sighed; the system wasn't without its flaws.
Applying a character card required consuming mental energy.
With her current mental strength, she could only maintain a non-combat card like Kato Megumi for three or four hours a day at most.
Once her mental energy was overdrawn, she would fall into a deep coma, which was no different from suicide on this island full of crises.
Moreover, the draw interval was simply too long.
If she wanted to have a character card with powerful combat capabilities like Misaka Mikoto to get rid of these days of living in fear, relying solely on the random draw provided by the system once a month, it would probably take forever.
After all, the 2D female characters integrated into the system were as vast as the sea, and Misaka Mikoto was just a drop in the ocean.
This time she drew a fragment of Misaka Mikoto, but next time she might draw a slice-of-life character with no combat power, or even a character from some strange anime who only knew how to be cute or cause trouble.
Actually, it wasn't like there was no way to make up for this shortcoming.
Alice closed her eyes, her consciousness sinking into the system interface in her mind.
At the very top and center of that UI, which was as crude as a mobile game interface, a line of golden, money-scented large characters was constantly scrolling—a friendly reminder from the system:
[Do you want to become stronger?]
[As long as you top up, you can become stronger!!!]
[First top-up of 100,000, take a top-tier waifu home! A ten-pull is guaranteed to give a combat card of Purple grade or higher!]
Looking at that line of text, Alice couldn't help but roll her eyes.
A gacha system that inherited the ugly face of card games—even after crossing time and dimensions, it still couldn't change its money-grubbing nature.