Chapter 292: Death Arrives
As the vine moved, the knot came untied and the stones wrapped in the jacket fell to the ground. Su Jin had also placed several rocks at the bottom where they would land. The collision made not just one bright sound, but several in a row.
The bees were quickly attracted to the noise and ran toward the stones. Su Jin seized the chance to run out, but just when he was about to get past where the bees were earlier, something grabbed hold of his ankle.
“What the…” Su Jin’s heart pounded in horror. He looked down to see that it was Kevin. The man wasn’t dead yet, and he had grabbed hold of Su Jin’s ankle as Su Jin was running past.
“Save… me…!” Kevin uttered with great difficulty. His body seemed to be numb and his cheeks were trembling slightly.
Su Jin glanced at where the bees had gone. He could hear them coming back here. He could have chosen to kick Kevin’s hand away, but… he decided to pick Kevin up and carry him out.
Before this, one Kevin wouldn’t have affected Su Jin’s speed at all. But things were different now. If he still had his previous abilities, he wouldn’t have to go through so much trouble just to avoid a bunch of monster bees either.
Kevin was a typical muscular Caucasian man and was much heavier than Su Jin. Su Jin used to work out regularly as well, but carrying someone heavier than himself was still hard on him.
“Damn it, why are you Caucasians naturally so much bigger,” spat Su Jin through clenched teeth. He was on the verge of just throwing Kevin aside already.
“I’m… sorry…” said Kevin very softly. He didn’t want to lose his chance to survive.
The sound of the bees grew louder. Su Jin knew that if the bees discovered them, they were both going to die. He carried Kevin up a small slope and the bees had returned to their original spot. They walked through the forest, and the two men were within their line of vision.
Su Jin felt like his heart was about to stop, but he remembered that these bees couldn’t see, so all wasn’t lost just yet.
He continued to walk carefully, but with 100 kilograms on his back, walking carefully was much harder than walking quickly. If he wasn’t careful enough, he might end up tripping and falling, which was definitely going to get them killed.
As he continued to inch his way up, he finally managed to move past the peak of the hill and clenched his teeth as he soldered on. He could see the rocky area ahead and could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
He started moving faster and left the forested area. He quickly found a large rock for them to hide behind, then threw Kevin onto the ground and panted heavily.
When he had great strength, facing such terrifying bugs would not have been stressful or frightening to him. But when he didn’t have that sort of strength, he couldn’t help but feel all these negative emotions.
“Are you alright?” Su Jin wiped away the sweat dripping down his face and turned to look at Kevin. Kevin still couldn’t move, but he could speak better now.
“Thank you for saving me!” Kevin thanked Su Jin sincerely.
Su Jin waved it off and let out a sad laugh. “I was afraid that if I left you there and you called out after me, we’d all be dead meat.”
“You didn’t have to worry about that. It was too hard for me to even utter one word, never mind call after you.” Kevin smiled with great difficulty, then said, “I’m Kevin, team leader of Team Black-headed Gull.”
“Su Jin from Team Boning Knife.” Su Jin nodded in return. They were now fellow sufferers on this island.
Kevin said, “I’ve heard of Team Boning Knife before. Your team completed a few Challenges perfectly and you guys are pretty famous.”
“Thanks.”
“So… we’re a team now, right?” asked Kevin a little nervously.
Su Jin knew what Kevin was afraid of. Kevin couldn’t move at all, so if Su Jin wanted to, Su Jin could kill him easily and easily gain one point from that. But Su Jin did not intend to kill him at all.
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. Given our current situation, keeping more of us alive is more important. These points are meaningless,” said Su Jin as he shook his head. “The Handbook is just trying to use these points to get all of us killed. We’re supposed to be able to revive one person with ten points, but there are only 36 of us and some of them have died at the hands of monsters immediately after landing on the island. It’s hard enough to ensure that half of us are still alive, and if owners start trying to kill each other, it’s impossible to get ten points.”
Kevin nodded in agreement. “That’s exactly the case. But I’m afraid that there would be some who are completely insane, or some who are too dumb to realize this and try to kill everyone.”
“I agree. Actually, if all of us were on the same page, we could help each other out and we might survive the next three days. The owners are the most precious resource in this Challenge!” Su Jin nodded as well.
The both of them were in agreement, so they could both breathe a sigh of relief. They rested for a while more and Kevin was finally able to move his limbs.
“Very good. Looks like the venom from those bees doesn’t affect one for too long.” Kevin was delighted when he realized he could move now.
“Yeah, about that. How did you get attacked by those weird bees?” asked Su Jin curiously. He didn’t have anything else to do anyway.
Kevin sighed and said, “There was a bright flash and when I opened my eyes, my body was numb all over and I couldn’t move at all. I think I was teleported straight into their nest.”
Su Jin sighed inwardly. In other words, the Handbook did not actually have any protections for the owners, not even for the first few minutes of the Challenge. If the Handbook could send owners straight into the mouths of these monsters, then the chances of owners dying immediately was extremely high.
“It’s only been an hour and we have to survive 72 hours on this island. What do we do with the rest of the time?” Kevin wore a mechanical watch, so he could tell the time very accurately.
“Let’s try to gather more people,” said Su Jin with a sigh.
Kevin hesitated, then said to Su Jin, “If… it’s just the two of us, wouldn’t it be easier to get through this Challenge by finding a good place to hide ourselves?”
Su Jin looked at Kevin and shook his head. “That’s impossible. This island is filled with monsters, so it’s impossible for just two people to survive. Besides, did you think the Handbook would allow for such a loophole? If we stay in one place for too long, I’d argue that doing that is the most dangerous thing to do. Besides, my teammates need me, so I will not try to survive on my own.”
Kevin nodded after giving it some thought. He stretched his legs out, then nodded at Su Jin. “Give me a little while more. I should be able to move soon.”
Su Jin nodded slightly, and the two men did not speak anymore, choosing to close their eyes for a while to rest. Su Jin didn’t really trust Kevin and had saved him almost instinctively. If he was allowed to choose again, he might not have chosen to save him.
After a short while, Su Jin suddenly got up. He suddenly realized that something was amiss. Their surroundings were very quiet. Too quiet, perhaps. He finally took a good look at the rocks around them and gasped. The rocks looked like they had been carved into a similar shape by humans. These were… gravestones.
“This is a graveyard!” Su Jin was horrified. The most dangerous type of Challenge was the one that contained ghosts and other such supernatural beings, because this was the type of Challenge where owners could lose their lives without knowing when and why.
“Let’s go!” Su Jin pulled Kevin to his feet. They couldn’t stay here any longer.
Kevin had no idea what was going on but managed to stand up. He asked Su Jin, “What’s wrong?”
“We need to leave right now! This place is a graveyard, so we can’t stay here anymore!” said Su Jin to Kevin as he observed his surroundings.
Kevin was horrified as well and quickly made sure he followed Su Jin closely. Su Jin knew he couldn’t return to the forest, since that place was no safer than this place. The forest was north of the rocks, so he had to choose to go either east or west.
He eventually chose to head east, since he would be able to move further from both the forest and the graveyard. But a white mist blocked their path after they had walked a short distance.
“Damn it,” cursed Su Jin. It was common for such things to happen in those supernatural Challenges.
“Mr. Su, let’s turn back! If we keep going, something bad will happen.” Kevin’s expression was equally grim. He had gone through more Challenges than Su Jin, including the supernatural ones. He knew that they were in a dangerous situation.
Su Jin stopped walking. Turning back was a good idea, but what if this situation occurred even after they changed directions?
“AHH!” Kevin suddenly let out a shout and pointed at something behind Su Jin in horror.
Su Jin felt all his hair stand and ducked. But immediately after he had squatted down, a terrifying face appeared in front of him.
Thud! Su Jin landed on his butt. He meant to move backward, but his body was no longer that strong and couldn’t move the way he wanted, resulting in him landing on his butt instead.
The terrifying face was veiled by the mist, but the thick mist turned into a pair of large hands that grabbed Su Jin’s neck. Kevin kept moving backward in fear. His own legs were weak, so saving Su Jin was out of the question. Su Jin himself was slowly finding it harder and harder to breathe.
Su Jin’s tongue stretched outward helplessly from inside his mouth and his eyes rolled upward. Kevin screamed as another pair of large mist hands dragged him into the thick mist.
“AHHHH!” A terrible shriek came from the mist, followed by a spray of warm blood. It sprayed onto Su Jin, who had already stopped breathing, and into his eyes that had rolled upward.
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