It was a horrific cry full of pain and terror. Fisher immediately snapped toward the direction where it came from, his expression turning sour immediately.
Unless he was mistaken, the voice should belong to a subordinate that had been with him for a long time before this. It was just the first night and he had already lost one of his members.
After hearing the man’s scream, the safe zone rose into a great clamor. Dozens of people who were gathering resources on the edges of the safe zone immediately retreated as fast as they could. Even after entering the safe zone, they continued pressing toward the middle.
Both the howl of the monster and the scream of its victim sounded like it came from somewhere close by. This meant that the massacre everyone heard only took place several ten or twenty meters away from where they stood.
“The monster has arrived here to hunt us down!”
“Don’t panic, this is the safe zone. According to the rules, the monster shouldn’t be allowed to come inside!”
“Are you sure about that?”
The situation spiraled out of control quickly. Everyone rushed toward the direction of the spire in fear of the giant monster leaping out of the darkness to claim its victim.
Fortunately, no monsters made their way into the vicinity of the safe zone in the end. The blood-curdling scream had passed and all that remained was the desolate silence in the nightmarish jungle.
Regardless, nobody dared to approach the deeper parts of the jungle anymore. Due to the previous commotion, everyone was gathered together now. They silently looked on together as the scarlet-red hue of the sky dissolved into a solid patch of dark indigo.
After some more time had passed, the island was plunged into a pit of darkness. Even after night had fallen, there was still the occasional survivor trudging their way through the jungle and into the safe zone.
Most of the new arrivals were the environmentalists. After stepping foot into the safe zone, their legs gave up on them and they crumbled lifelessly onto the ground. Surely enough, they had exhausted every ounce of strength they had in them just to get here.
“Help them.”
Fisher thought about it for a moment before giving the order to save their lives. Torches were prepared for them as well as a small portion of food to supplement them.
However, their food reserve was exhausted quickly, so all they could do was treat their wounds as best as they could and prepare a place for them by the fire.
Fisher and his crew continued laboring away until the following dawn. By then, there were more than four hundred survivors gathered in the safe zone, significantly more than there were just last evening.
Amid their laborious effort, none of them had noticed the dozens of invisible drones patrolling above them all this time, recording and taking pictures of all their activities.
“Impressive leadership qualities. His swift decision-making abilities allowed him to quickly reestablish himself as the core of this group.”
While everything was going on on the surface, there were several scientists huddled together just twenty meters below their feet. They observed the group of survivors from an array of hundreds of displays. One of the displays showed a close-up highlight of Fisher’s face.
Professor Erickson who was in charge of psychology studies reflected thoughtfully. “Exactly what you’d expect from an elite coming out of a family of a powerful financial group. No matter where he goes, it’s only second nature for him to prime himself to excel as a leader.”
“That’s true, but it’s a shame that most people here would still hold a grudge for him since he’s the one responsible for putting them into their current predicament.”
Adenauer nodded before turning to Yoru Kamidera next to him. “Mr. Consultant, is this the experiment that Mr. Chen Chen spoke of? A social experiment of survival on a deserted island?”
“Of course not.”
Yoru Kamidera shook his head. A sheet of shadow met his eyes as he said this, “We’re just getting started. The real show begins when people start sacrificing themselves to light up the signal tower.
“That’s when the nightmare truly begins…”
…
None of Fisher or any of the others knew that all of their activities were being closely monitored by a crew of scientists in a laboratory just roughly twenty meters below where they stood. As it was, they had no choice but to head into the deeper parts of the forest to alleviate their food and water shortage issue. The people who remained in the safe zone were in charge of cutting down the trees along the edges of the safe zone. The branches served them as firewood while the trunks were used to craft tools and make containers for water.
Even the mercenaries who were glaring at Fisher with dark animosity had joined in as well. After all, humans were inherently social animals and many of them had accepted the fact that being a lone wolf was not going to cut it in this place.
Perhaps a guardian angel was watching over them as for the entire day that followed, not a single person ran into the tyrant-like monstrosities. On top of that, they managed to rescue more than dozens of people who were stuck in the jungle, effectively bolstering their numbers to more than five hundred.
As for the ones who were not found yet, everyone more or less knew what happened to them.
The next day, before darkness had fallen, everyone quickly retreated to the ring of the safe zone. Piles of bonfires were set up as they started to cook the food they had gathered during the day. This included all sorts of fungus, berries, and the occasional game like squirrels and bird eggs.
While Fisher was perched by the campfire and eating his food while plotting their way out in his mind, he overheard the conversation between two people nearby.
“Hey, buddy, where did the ‘butchers’ go today?”
“Butcher?”
“I meant the monsters with giant pale hands like tyrants. Didn’t you notice that everything we’re doing now is extremely similar to the game Dead by Daylight?”
Fisher suddenly perked up when he overheard their conversation. He immediately went toward them and asked in a whispered, urgent tone, “Please tell me the clear details of the rules of Dead by Daylight!”
The two of them were startled when they saw Fisher suddenly arriving, one of the men still abided and started to explain it for Fisher.
“Mr. Fisher, the players in Dead by Daylight are separated into two camps, which are the survivors and the butchers. Right now, we’re the survivors while the monsters are the butchers hunting down the survivors. This makes the signal towers the generators inside the game. Inside the game, survivors can open the gate to their salvation if they manage to repair a certain number of generators. Then they get to escape from the place and the pursuit of the butchers.
“Each survivor in the game has different skills, just like how there are many types of butchers as well. The butchers used to be human but had become corrupted and turned into evil spirits due to a multitude of factors. They keep the humans as hostages in the world they created so they can enjoy the excitement of the hunt and torture.
“The most harrowing fact in all of this is that it doesn’t matter whether the survivors successfully repair the generators and escape through the door or get hunted down by the butcher. One way or another, they’ll end up in the same place, the bonfire on the title screen of the game. Everything that just happened becomes like a distant dream as they get hunted down again, get killed again and escape again. It never ends…”
For some reason, he could not place a chilling bite of anger risen in his heart when he heard this. “It’s an infinite loop?”
“Yes, that’s the dark premise of this game because according to the setting of the game, the evil spirits are doing this to collect the human’s ‘hope’…”
