Chapter 7

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

The theme of the second episode is jungle trekking. Two hundred people are divided into forty teams, with five people a team. The first twenty teams to reach the finish line passes.

Team 40 is the last team to enter, and because they’re mostly people that would bog down others, their progress is slow. They’re behind everyone at dead last.

They reach the shore of a great lake. The lake is wide and appears calm. There’s shallow beach around it and the mark of the finish line can be seen across the lake. Thick jungle lies on either side of the lake.

Thin Bamboo is the first to break the team’s depressing silence, “Are we going by land or lake?”

The most senior member analyses the situation, “Although the goal is right across the lake, and the shortest distance between is a straight line, the show will definitely not let us pass this easily. Underneath the water lurks great danger.” Compared to waterborne monstrosities, humans hold hardly any advantage in the water, and survival will be more difficult.

For this very reason most teams chose to go by land, they believe the way across the lake is an obvious trap.

“Then let’s go quickly, or we won’t make it,” urges the storehouse manager, he points to a side, “this way.”

Bright spares a glance at him, not moving.

“Go by water.”

The storehouse manager says anxiously, “are you kidding? The old man said there’s things underwater. We don’t even have a boat!”

Bright looks about, indicating with his eyes that trees could be cut to make a raft.

The storehouse manager loudly objects, “tree cutting? Raft building? You think this is a camping trip? We don’t have that much time for you to waste!”

Bright has lost his patience. Arguing with him is a waste of time.

“Team members can be replaced.”

As he said that, he attracted the attention of all team members.

The show only gave each member a card identifying their team, and did not specifically forbid stealing other’s. Theoretically, reaching the end alone, then stealing someone else’s card is a valid way to pass. The arena is certainly very dangerous, and people can easily become casualties. Then where does that leave incomplete teams? Let’s just say, it’s fine as long as you collect five people before the finish line.

This is what ‘making one’s own team’ meant.

It is teamwork on the surface, but it doesn’t conceal the fact that it is survival of the fittest at its egoistic core.

There are surely smart people who have deduced the malicious intentions of the show, but decided not to speak up. Bright declared it loud and clear because he wasn’t interested in teaming up, anyway.

Treating everyone as opponents will make killings weigh less on his conscience.

This is his way of protecting himself.

What Bright meant by saying that out loud is, if you don’t agree with me, feel free to reach out to other teams; feel free to leave or join.

What others understood is, if you don’t agree with me, I’d kill you. It’s not like you’re any use, anyway.

The Old Veteran concedes first, saying, “I’ll go see if there’re any tools fit for cutting trees.”

Thin Bamboo says, “I’ll scout out the lake.” He leads the Big Retard to the lakeshore.

“Hey! You…” The storehouse manager’s complexion changes rapidly, paling and reddening, and glares ferociously at Bright for a second before following behind the Old Veteran.

Bright did not overlook the ferocity of his glare and raises his vigilance inconspicuously.

It’s much harder than the first episode. Besides the show itself and the beasts, he has to be on guard against team members too.

He is actually quite sad no one left the team.

A competition slimming 200 down to 100. Elimination rate 50%. The show is getting rid of many cannon fodder, and is actually pre-eliminating people before the group making officially started. They’re all people left over, so they can’t despise anyone else.

Thin Bamboo has a grin on his face, “we found something good at the shore!” He carries three enormous eggs here, “it’s buried in the sand next to the lake. We found this next to it too.”

It’s a tough black scale.

Bright’s intuitive guess is validated. It’s alligators.

One of the fiercest beast in lakes. Hard armour all over its body, with jaws which have 50 times the crushing power of that of man. It’s the reptile with the hardest bones.

The Old Veteran is also back. He made two axes with some materials. One he holds himself, one he gives to Bright. Thin Bamboo smashes open the egg with his hand and hands it to Bright. He and Big Retard shared the two remaining eggs.

Their actions showed that they acknowledged Bright’s leadership position.

It can’t be helped, so Bright divulges his plan.

“Alligators are nocturnal. They rest underwater during the day and search for food at night; it’s safer to move by day. It’s about an hour and a half to two hours by water to the finish line. We need to finish the raft by evening and reach it by dusk.”

To ensure the creature in the lake is alligators, and that the show didn’t do any strange modifications to them, Bright takes Thin Bamboo and Big Retard to the lakeshore for further reconnaissance.

“I’ll go underwater, you two be on the lookout.”

Bright undresses completely – clothes, trousers, shoes. His attention is solely focused on the camera which is flying in all directions surrounding his body and unceasingly taking photos, and so he kept his underwear on after a bit of internal struggle——if he were to be so unfortunate as to die here he wanted his last bit of dignity respected. In this way he failed to notice the strange expression of Thin Bamboo.

When Thin Bamboo was interviewed afterwards, he comments, “oh yeah, he called me [and Big Retard] to the shore and started undressing. I thought he wanted to screw me, but I didn’t think his target would have been alligators.”

To that, Bright goes, “…”

The water is murky, and visibility is low. It is consistent with living habits of alligators. They can’t adapt to water that is too clear or clean.

The body given by the zombie apocalypse mobile game is very physically fit. It can hold its breath for 5 minutes. Bright is being cautious of others though and comes out for air every 2 or 3 minutes.

Bright didn’t swim far, and when he sees something approaching rapidly he immediately retreats.

A 5 or 6-meter long adult alligator chases Bright and rushes onto the shore. Then its brain got smashed in by Big Retard’s fist.

Bright thinks, how brutal.

He quickly dresses and turns the alligator around. He lightly sighs with relief after checking its belly.

An alligator’s head, back and tail are almost all covered by a thick layer of hard skin. Normal blade and gun are ineffective against it other than against its underbelly, which only has a very thin layer of skin on, penetrable with only normal weapons or even just sharp twigs or stone. This alligator has a soft underbelly. The show did leave them with a way out. It’s probably in pursuit of realism or the cost of genetic modification is too high.

Starting from the belly of the alligator, Bright dissected it with the makeshift axe.

Thin Bamboo thinks, how brutal.

He is eating grilled alligator meat while grumbling.

“What in the world are they doing? Open-air barbeque?!” Staff member George has already added dissing number 199 to his list of daily activities.

The leader has also noticed their dereliction of duty, that is, having a barbeque in the middle of the day. He is speechless for a few seconds, but then remarks, “There’s a sense of humour in this stark contrast, a subversion of tropes. It can be a selling point; call it the seniors sightseeing tour.” The premise is that they have to pass. Otherwise, it’s just a show by ignominious clowns.

“Keep eating and eating, and eat yourself to death!” George curses number 199, and asks, “why are our work meals not here yet? The contestants are feasting on alligator meat!”

The leader says, “alligator meat isn’t tasty. It’s odorous and hard. They don’t even have salt.”

“But it looks fantastic. They get grilled as skewers, and there’s natural alligator oil and fat.” Another staff joins their conversation, camera fixed onto Bright, and onto the grilled meat in his hands.

The man, as if to provoke, glances at the camera once, then opens his mouth wide, bite by bite, and finishes eating it with a poker face.

“Argh! He’s doing it on purpose! He’s 100% doing it on purpose!” George is livid, “I’m going to post his nudes onto the Internet. Damn it, why didn’t he take his shorts off!”

The leader says, “Switch to the frame when he was coming out of the water.”

George looks as if unwilling to admit defeat, “I tried it already. He’s too fast, there’s only a few seconds, and the cameras are all mainly focused on the alligators.”

In the screen, the man agilely dodges the alligator, the wet fabric clinging onto the organ in question closely. There is only an obscure silhouette. Fortunately, the camera managed to capture a side view. It is clear that he is extremely talented, and has a monstrous dragon on his body.

“Give me a copy.”

“Me too.”

Author’s notes: Bright is attracting fans by his genuine power, even though he doesn’t want fans like that.

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