Shades of Wolves

Chapter 18: The survival decision

When I looked at those two little girls, my heart ached again. The memories when my friend and I signed up to participate showed up. We knew that, at some point, the two would go against each other, could die, or luckily, one would be the champion, but there was never a prospect of the two of us leaving here holding hands.

Mahoney's decision was correct. She needs to walk on her own, not to be a burden to someone. An early decision will make both of them understand that they are on the verge of death, not a relay marathon.

I really hope, when they meet again, both of them will become strong. And the thing I hope even more is that they don't get put into a 1-1 fight like I used to.

WIC is the devil. They want viewer ratings to reach to the peak. Letting two close friends s*******r and decide who goes next has always been their classic scenario. But the people who watched the show are in love withs that motif. The more tragic and painful, the more satisfied and happier they will be. That is the human race. If there is a chance to destroy someone without taking any responsibility, they are absolutely willing to do such thing.

Stacy

Mahoney stated her decision. Hoa who was standing just right behind her finding it confused and could not believe in her ears. She could not come up with why her best friend came up with such a decision. Apparently, she promised her and Sammul to be a team.

“Mahoney, are you not in your state of mind?” Hoa rolled her eyes at her best friend and the two people she chose to form a team.

“Hoa, the combination of me, you and Sammul is a terrible combination. We would go from a team with an advantage to the worst team. I will choose the persons that I think will help me increase my chances to live the most”

“It’s true. You’re smarter”

Ander smiled, then rubbed Mahoney's chin with his hand but was quickly pushed away. He didn’t mind, though. This girl did not like him, he knew it. The reason he got picked obviously was because he got the physical advantage. Right from the moment the judge gave the rules of the game, Ander guessed that he was likely to be the one left behind and received only a small amount of money. But unexpectedly, this girl chose him. It was true that talent was nothing comparing to luck.

“You are trying to separate yourself from me so that you are no longer a burden. But I never thought so. Mahoney, think carefully and choose again!” Hoa held her best friend's shoulders tightly. Her eyes were imploring her to make a wiser decision.

“No, I chose Peccinini and Ander. It is the final decision!”

“Mahoney!”

"Hoa!" Mahoney yelled back at her. Her eyes were colder. “Last night I said, don't ever be gentle with me anymore. Don’t ever hold back. You promised me. Now do what you promised!"

Hoa looked at her best friend. Her stubbornness made her understand that Mahoney was aware of what it was to live and die. She did not need her anymore. Hoa let go of her hand. She slowly backed away.

“Survive this challenge!”

“I will!” Mahoney nodded affirmatively.

“I can hear her blood pounding wildly, bouncing around and trying to break her heart. Your body has a wonderful melody.”

Puccinini laughed mockingly at Mahoney. He wanted to stay with Hoa more, but was unfortunately chosen. The tragically sadness from this little girl was not bad anyway. It was really worth the experience.

“Rest assured. We certainly won't let her die!"

Peccinini spoke to Hoa as well as to Ander standing next to him. This i***t was usually very violent. If he let Mahoney die, they're all over.

“Now for the second group. The next person to choose the team is Sammul. Who will you choose?" asked the judge.

He seemed excited to watch the fun. Who would have the misfortune of teaming up with this blind man? It was not only the speed which would decrease, but also the defense ability would also be limited. He might be the savior of the first round, but possibly the hell of this multi-terrain round.

Sammul smiled. He'd been thinking about it for a long time.

“I choose Hoa and Nabeya!”

A somewhat unexpected decision by Sammul when he wanted two girls on his team. A really terrible combination to be honest. There's no attack power, defense was even worse. Speed was nothing to talk about. The only thing they had was the mind. But this round only allowed three teams to pass. Could the mind possibly keep up with the feet?

“Wow, I feel bad for you two. Leaded by a blind man who would be nothing but a shackles of the team" Hwang Hee laughed loudly. He hated Sammul with all his guts. From the very beginning and even now, he had always suspected Sammul to be the one who killed Tajina.

“Those with bright eyes are sometimes blind. And blind people sometimes walk faster. Not sure if you can laugh longer. Maybe, in a few minutes, you'll have to cry!" Sammul coldly walked towards to Hwang Hee sarcastically.

"You son of a-" Hwang Hee wanted to curl his sleeves up and grand this dude some fist. But the judge spoke up and he stood by.

“Next is Bruno!”

………………………

Hoa's group was assigned by Malvis to go in one direction. She said they would have 1000 bucks and would go to the central warehouse to pick up items for this round.

“You chose me?!” Nabeya walked side to side with Sammul. Hoa walked behind them. She seemed to be still in shock at Mahoney's decision.

"Don't you want to be on the same team with me?"

“I never said that!”

"But this is what it is now." Sammul's answer was like if he had power, the he would have the right to dominate. That's it.

Nabeya smiled. Hoa was not a bad choice. Maybe from the start of the competition, this guy had not communicated with anyone but her. But Nabeya was a different case. Did he not have any precautions after she had given him that special gift? No, Sammul clearly saw her as a great threat and he purposely tied the two together. Because the rule for this round was three as one, no one could die. Even if she was a dangerous person, she must still support the other two in order to live. At least until the end of this second round, she could not stab Sammul just yet.

Sammul was really unpredictable. He did not talk much and worked without any specific principles. But she had a feeling that he had the best idea of the situation surrounding him and found a way to distribute it to each person to solve it. As for whether he was truly blind or not, she thought both she and Hoa wanted to know. For a blind man that could walk at such speed, perhaps, his brain was even more superior than his sense ability of smell.

He had the divine ability to smell a lot of scents. But the more important factor was to remember, identify and create images of locating objects in front of you to be able to walk, even dodge, it must be a powerful brain to process a huge amount of information. This guy was a mystery. He could be a good teammate, but also a demon that hid behind and manipulated.

……………….

Malvis took them to a very large barn. Inside there are quite a few shelves with countless equipment, supplies and coal for a preparation to start the long journey. Prices were listed and pre-glued on the product.

The three split up to go round. They had everything they need to buy in their heads. But something was very wrong. The price was kind of weird. Importantly, there was no sale of food except for bread, but the prices were exorbitant. That meant, they had to take advantage of the terrain to hunt if they did not want to die out of starving.

But that's not all. Many things had sky-high prices compared to reality. For example, medicine was extremely expensive. A common flu pill was already 100 dollars. The most expensive one was the all-powerful pill that could cure bites from snakes, insects, flu... was 1000 dollars. This price was equal to the money they were given. Surely no team would dare to buy meds, except Mahoney's team. They were given up to $4,000, but it was unlikely that three of them would touch it.

“Here is the map!” Hoa said. Nabeya and Sammul went to her.

“One terrain map cost $500. Here… there are dozens of different ones. WIC gives us seven days, but require us to get through more than ten terrains?” Nabeya pouted her lips. She put the maps back to their places.

Maybe in these terrains, there would be some that they would go and some not. It was like a gambling game. If they bought it right, they can use it. If it's not right, it's a waste of money. Moreover, they didn't sell the entire journey kind of map. It was just a piece of the puzzle that was split from the big map. If WIC changed one terrain to another every day, they would need to buy seven maps with $3500. It was extremely unfeasible. This meant, all three had to use their mind carefully to see which direction to go to the tower as fastest as possible.

“There are things that are there just for decoration and make it look prettier.”

Sammul snorted. Then he went to another counter and stood there choosing something. Hoa agreed with him, somehow. They're really just trying to diversify the shelves and also knew it clearly that players would not choose those.

In contrast to those too-expensive-to-be-true goods, there were things that normally were too expensive to afford that now were too cheap as if they were a free gift from the game. Guns and ammo ranged from 5 to 10 dollars. The most expensive type was only 20 dollars. Grenade and traps were similar. The most expensive being was the $100 illusion trap. Items such as knives, ropes, warm clothes, oxygen tanks, oxygen masks, boats, fire tools... were also available at the same price.

They were lucky enough to be at second place anyway. If it was the last team, there was no need to use mind to think about how tragic it would be. That person could not buy a piece of bread, even the Pepermint Ghost in here was already 10 dollars.

“The bottom ranked team only receives $25? How can they survive in this race towards the tower with that amount of money?”

Hoa found it not understandable at all. The amount of money’s difference between the top and the bottom team was too huge.

“Ain’t that pretty normal?” Sammul smirked. This little girl learned nothing from the first game at all.

“Normal?!”

“Food and medicine are super expensive. But look at the guns, grenades and traps. Their price is only from $5-$10”, Nabeya explained.

“So it means, this round is not just to find the tower…” Hoa slowly realized something.

“Exactly. Finding the tower is the main goal. The core of this game is to… hunt”, Sammul picked up a gun. It’s shine bright and full of murderous vibe.