After hiding the items in the pit, Everly tidied herself up.
She wrapped the fishing line around the wooden bracelet on her wrist, and tucked the curved blade, a thin wooden stick, and sulfur into the left and right pockets and side pocket of her work pants respectively. From the outside, she now looked like an empty-handed contestant. Then she picked up a wooden stick and began moving.
Her target was the northwest second ring of the island.
As ntioned before, the killing ga had five butchers.
Among them, “Turret” mainly operated around the southern foothills at the border between the first and second rings. “Hunter” was highly mobile and road the entire island at all tis, but he only went after participants caught in traps. As long as one avoided falling into traps, Hunter would not attack. “Judas” had already been seen earlier; based on his direction of movent, he was likely now near the abandoned hospital, joyfully engaging in combat with soone.
The remaining two butchers were a pair of half-brothers.
Both brothers inherited genetic defects from their paternal line and had strong antisocial tendencies. Perhaps because of similar temperants, although they had different mothers, they actually got along quite well.
The older brother had a burly build, knotted muscles, and physical strength and recovery ability far beyond that of normal humans. His mind was not fully sound; he was extrely aggressive and was suspected of having XYY syndro. He enjoyed the sensation of slicing down with a blade and watching blood spray everywhere—a complete and utter murderer. Only his younger brother could restrain him.
Fans of the original work generally called him “Cleaver,” because his signature weapon was a thick-backed butcher’s cleaver.
As for the younger brother, he was a premature baby. He grew up with a relatively delicate appearance, a thin build, and a short stature. His personality was also quite gloomy—he was the type of man who was very unpopular in the United States, often mocked and b*llied at school. Even though his family was wealthy, he still didn’t attract any favor from girls. However, he was unexpectedly intelligent.
Probably influenced by his upbringing, the younger brother grew up to develop an intense hatred toward won.
He blad all of his failures in relationships and romantic pursuits on them.
His favorite activity was to use sweet talk to lure various won to his residence, then incapacitate them and subject them to extre ab*se. Several girls were t*rtured to death by him. Yet because his family was powerful and influential, a bit of money was enough to cover everything up, allowing this murderer—stained with blood—to continue living freely to this day, enjoying a life of privilege.
Fans of the film generally looked down on him and called him “Bean.” This is a slang term derived from an emoji, often used by certain incel communities to refer to n who are unpopular with won, implying smallness and worthlessness.
In the movie, Bean plays the typical disposable antagonist often seen in splatter B-movies. From start to finish, his scenes consist either of pretending to be a contestant to deceive female players, or of using various cruel thods to abuse them. The director seems to use excessive explicit imagery and flying gore to stimulate the audience’s senses and attract more viewers.
In order to deceive female players, Bean made a risky decision—like Judas, he also put on a neck ring and disguised himself as a contestant.
To ensure the safety of the sponsors, the organizers also prepared a remote control for Bean. Everly’s target from beginning to end had been Bean’s remote control.
Compared to Judas, who had already ford an alliance early in the ga, Bean was a much easier “persimmon” to squeeze.
In the film, Bean and Cleaver mainly operate in the northwest second ring area of the island. There, they forcibly occupied an abandoned house as their base. The house is located beside a winding river and is easy to find on the map.
Everly’s current position was on the southern side of the island, roughly at the intersection between the third and fourth rings.
From here, the fastest and most efficient route to the northwest second ring was to go straight through the forest.
But even with a simple thought experint, it was obvious that the closer one got to the island’s center, the more people they would encounter.
With this in mind, Everly removed the sheath of her Nepalese curved blade and used the reflective surface of the bare blade to examine the neck ring around her throat. Through the reflection, she could see the countdown on the neck ring: 22:49:13.
More than an hour had passed since the official start of the ga. Aside from a few individuals who were clearly not sharp enough, most players had already managed to leave their cells and scattered into the forest.
Most spawn points were located around the border between the second and third rings. From there to the boundary between the first and second rings was one of the most resource-dense areas on the island.
Those who made it out were likely split into two groups: a smaller portion would head straight toward the peak, while the vast majority would cautiously explore nearby buildings around their spawn areas, gathering supplies needed for the next three days while staying alert for other players.
The island’s outer edges were far from the central peak, and buildings were sparsely distributed there, so very few people would imdiately move outward. Instead of cutting diagonally across, Everly chose to follow the edge of the forest clockwise, minimizing the chance of combat.
Moreover, vegetation along the forest edge was noticeably thinner than in the interior, which reduced the ti and effort needed to check for traps. By slightly increasing her pace, it might not actually be slower than going straight through.
As it turned out, Everly’s decision was very sound.
After just over ten minutes of moving along the forest’s edge, she heard a sharp, piercing scream coming from deep within the woods. Looking up, she saw birds suddenly burst into flight above the treetops in the direction of the sound.
The disturbance was too large to be a simple triggered trap—it seed more like several people were already engaged in combat inside the forest.
She had originally thought that everyone would start fighting each other a bit later.
After all, before being abducted to the island, most of the participants had been living in a civilized world governed by order. For them to imdiately abandon their human morals and conscience and plunge into bestial slaughtering would require a period of psychological struggle.
But on second thought, given that there was a particularly troublemaking “Judas” lurking among the contestants, maybe he had already stirred things up… Though it had been years since she last watched the film, and this detail hadn’t been in the ga, Everly couldn’t be certain.
In any case, she would avoid such aningless fights whenever possible. She had no intention of getting involved lightly.
With that in mind, Everly increased her pace and continued through the forest.
The island was large, and the forest covered nearly two-thirds of its total area. Traveling from the southern region to the northwest took a considerable amount of ti.
During her journey, Everly encountered two separate groups of people and passed three buildings.
The first group consisted of three n. Two of them appeared to have ford an alliance, while the third was a lone wolf.
When Everly passed by, the lone wolf was clutching supplies like biscuits and blind boxes, stumbling in her direction. The other two were chasing after him, waving sticks and shouting “Don’t run!”
The commotion they made was loud enough that Everly noticed it early and climbed into a tree to hide, where she happened to witness one of the n picking up a stone and knocking the lone wolf to the ground.
Even after being struck in the head and bleeding heavily, the lone wolf still refused to let go of the supplies he was holding.
The two pursuers quickly caught up. After chasing him for quite a while, they were clearly frustrated, and they began kicking and punching the curled-up lone wolf on the ground.
The lone wolf turned out to be a tough one after all.
Clutching his head, he appeared to have been beaten to the brink of death. But in reality, using his body as cover, he secretly hid a small knife from the supplies in his hand.
When the thinner of the two allied pursuers lifted his leg to kick him again, the lone wolf suddenly erupted into action. He wrapped his arms around the man’s lower leg, while his other hand gripped the knife tightly, stabbing into the calf and dragging it hard.
“Aaaaaah! My leg!”
The attack was brutally vicious. In the sumr heat, people wore little clothing, and the blade easily pierced through the fabric of the trousers, tearing into the calf muscle and shredding it into a bloody ss—almost carving away a large chunk of flesh. A massive amount of blood poured out, quickly staining half of the lone wolf’s body red.
The thin man collapsed from the pain, screaming in agony. He kicked at the lone wolf with his remaining strength while reaching out toward his companion, desperately trying to get help.
But he had overestimated human nature.
The two had only t by chance in the forest and ford a temporary team. They had known each other for a very short ti and had no real bond. Seeing the horrifying sight of his bleeding companion, the other man was completely terrified. He abandoned even the supplies and turned to flee into the forest.
“Ber… Bert, you…!”
The injured man stared in disbelief at his retreating teammate. Because the pain in his leg was overwhelming, he failed to notice when the blunt knife that had shredded his leg was pulled out.
And now, the man holding the blade had eyes twisted with hatred and excitent, raising the knife high with one hand, the tip aid at his completely unguarded neck—
“Thwip!”
The sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh rang out. The thin man’s eyes flew wide open, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood through his open lips.
He pressed trembling hands against his bleeding neck, slowly turning his head. Before he could even make out the expression of the person behind him, another blade ca straight down.
“Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip…”
The lone wolf gripped the knife tightly, his expression distorted, stabbing the man in front of him again and again.
Because his throat had been torn and he had lost too much blood, the thin man had already stopped breathing. He slumped limply to the ground, becoming a lifeless corpse. Once no vital signs could be detected, the neck ring on him “clicked” and fell into the blood-soaked grass, its countdown frozen at 19:46:11.
But the lone wolf didn’t seem to notice at all. He continued chanically stabbing downward, as if trying to vent all the fear, rage, confusion, and despair he had accumulated since entering the ga onto the body before him.
With every thrust, his expression grew more and more excited, as though with each spray of blood, sothing human inside him was being stripped away.
He had already been completely eroded by this ga…
Noticing the lone wolf’s head injury, Everly judged that he no longer had the strength to pursue anyone else. So she revealed herself, dropped lightly from the tree, and—under his wary gaze—slipped quickly into the forest and vanished.
She had no interest in taking the lone wolf’s ager supplies, nor the 20-hour neck ring.
Those were his spoils. She had her own plan for getting out; there was no need to steal resources soone else depended on to survive.
After traveling through the forest for a while longer, Everly encountered a second group of people heading toward the outer edge of the island.
Two figures appeared ahead—one walking, the other being carried. It was the mother and child she had once shared a ride with.
The mother was still young, in her early thirties. In Everly’s mory, she had been a refined, pretty woman. Her child, around five or six years old, had been very lively, constantly asking his mother what this and that was in a soft, childish voice that was not irritating—strangely, even sowhat endearing.
But now, the child had several sharp wooden spikes lodged in his chest. Blood flowed from his mouth and nose. His eyes were closed; he was already dead.
The mother, too, was no longer the elegant woman from before. Her hair was disheveled, her gaze hollow. There were injuries on her forehead from an unknown source, and her entire body was stained with blood.
Seeing them face to face, sothing flickered in Everly’s mind—long-buried mories resurfacing.
Yes. In the film, there had indeed been such a mother and child pair. Because the child was too young, they had been placed in the sa cell.
The mother had done everything she could to crack the password and brought her child out of the cell. Terrified of being alone, she instinctively headed toward the mountain peak after leaving the prison, hoping to find her husband.
But before she could reunite with any family mber, the child stepped into one of the “Hunter’s” traps.
With a trigger, countless wooden spikes shot out. The spikes were designed to hit only at adult leg height to disable movent—but the victim was a child.
The spikes struck his heart. He died instantly.
In that instant, the mother’s heart died as well.
She no longer tried to search for anyone else. Overwheld by guilt, self-bla, and despair, she chose to carry her child into the sea and end her own life…
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