Chapter 30: Island of the Dead
Finally, after almost an hour, all the teams had arrived on the island. Most of them were exhausted.
Coach Hwan’s terminal crackled on each student’s belt. His voice rang out, clear and authoritative.
"Congratulations to all of you for making it across. Now, the second phase begins."
A map of the island appeared on our terminals, with our positions indicated by colored dots. Our team was a golden dot. The others were blue dots.
"As you can see, Kang Ji-Hoon’s team has the ’Bracelet of Domination’. This means two things. One: their position is visible to everyone, at all times. They are the target. Two: for every team they eliminate, they earn double points."
Murmurs rippled through the other teams. We were the main target, the grand prize.
"For the other teams," the coach continued, "your objective is to eliminate the bearer of the golden bracelet. To ’eliminate’ a team, you just need to take the bracelet from one of its members. Combat is allowed, but serious injuries are forbidden. Drone-referees are monitoring. The last team standing, or the one with the most bracelets at the end of the time limit, wins."
The map updated. Several blue dots began to converge on our position. The hunt was on.
"They’re coming," said Min-Soo. "At least three teams. From the south and east."
"What do we do?" asked Bora, her enthusiasm replaced by a combat-ready tension. "Do we fight? Do we hide?"
I looked at the map. They thought we were easy prey, cornered on the beach.
"Neither," I said.