Chương 587: The Bracelet That Decides All

Sixth Bracelet: The Red Bracelet The island's final challenge has arrived. The eleven of you are the only survivors out of the three thousand who arrived on the island two months ago. Beyond this place lie the mysteries and open seas of Sunken Realms, but only one of you will leave this island. For one month, you may explore this zone of the island in search of resources, treasure chests with items, and, of course, time to rest. None of you may kill each other during this period.

When the time limit ends, a single Red Bracelet will appear randomly somewhere within this zone of the island. Once it is found, a one-hour countdown will begin as the island starts sinking into the ocean. Only the person holding the Red Bracelet when the time runs out will be teleported to a safe location, completing the island challenge and escaping this place. May the best one win. Good luck.

[Time Remaining: 3 Weeks: 6 Days: 23 Hours: 59 Minutes: 59 Seconds]"Well, that's that," Oliver said, standing and stretching.

"This is the last time any of you are going to see me. Because when that timer hits zero, I'm putting a bolt through every one of your foreheads." The others began to rise as well.

"Wait, wait," Father Brandt called. No one listened to the old man. Luke glanced back once and saw Zoe still by the fire beside a woman, staring into the flames. Then he kept walking.

"I have a plan," Father Brandt said louder, "one that could help all of us escape this island." That made a few of them stop.

"A plan?" Roger asked.

"A plan my followers and I worked out on the very first day."

"The barrier can't be broken, old man," Oliver replied.

"And we still don't even know what's on the other side. Trust me, I already tried to escape this place. Doesn't matter how hard you attack the barrier. It's pointless." The old man let out a slow breath.

"My plan is simple. What if none of us takes the final bracelet?" That got everyone's attention. They all looked at him. Then most of them started walking again.

"Wait, listen!" Brandt insisted.

"This is something my followers and I figured out over all this time t."

"When time runs out, anyone without the bracelet gets dragged into the abyss and drowns with the island," Ivor said flatly.

"No," Antony Brandt replied.

"That's exactly what gave me hope. The notification said the island only sinks once the bracelet is found. So what if we do nothing? What if we simply stay here? If none of us touches it, maybe the challenge becomes impossible to complete, and we all stay alive." Zoe stood up.

"He has a point." Luke looked at her, then back at Brandt.

"This man will trick anyone who follows him, then kill them. Just like he killed his own followers, and just like the people his group murdered throughout the challenge."

"Listen to me," Brandt said.

"My followers and I only killed because everyone else was already playing the bracelet challenges. If no one had completed the Green Bracelet challenge, we would all still be back in the first zone. We had to reduce the number of participants as much as possible before offering this solution to everyone. Now, with so few people left, the plan is much easier to carry out. Cindy, you know that."

"That might have been true before," the woman answered, "before people started bringing victims to you so only you could survive long enough to reach this part of the island." Brandt gave her a patient smile.

"Well, Cindy, only eleven people were ever allowed to reach this zone. If it had been up to me, all of us would have made it here. But I will save them. One day, I will become a god, and when I do, I will bring my followers back to life." Luke let out a short laugh.

"I'm out. Odds are this island kills us first. And even if delaying it is possible, I don't believe for a second that nobody will eventually go after that bracelet."

"I'm out too, old man," Oliver said.

"I made it this far. Why would I gamble my life on your little theory?"

"Please," Brandt said, voice tightening.

"Trust my plan."

"Luke," Zoe said, stepping closer.

"It's a good plan. Try it too. If all of us give up on chasing the bracelet, maybe it really can work." Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Luke looked at her for a moment.

"No. And don't trust anyone. The second you let your guard down, you die." Then he turned and walked away.

Over the next few weeks, Luke spent his time hunting for chests. Some of them fell straight out of the sky. He only crossed paths with two people the entire time. Once, from a distance, he spotted Zoe at a stream with Cindy. Other than that, each participant stayed in their own corner of the island. Oliver had taken the highest hill for himself. He stayed there constantly, maybe because he wanted to be seen, maybe because he was just that confident.

Either way, no one on the island had a better view of the area than he did. Luke found two healing potions, arrows, a decent pair of boots, gloves, and a set of daggers. Everything else was canned food. He ate sausage, beans, corn, peas, whatever he could get his hands on. The island had a twisted sense of humor, like it was giving a death row inmate his favorite meals before the execution. There were animals on the island too, but none above level five. They were useful for hunting and nothing more.

No dangerous snakes. No predators. Nothing Luke could turn into an advantage. Staring at the countdown, he took one last drink from his canteen. Then he slipped the bag from his shoulder and dumped everything onto the ground. The healing potions came in thin glass vials, so he fastened them securely to his belt.

"It started." The timer hit zero. [Killing between participants is now permitted!] [The Red Bracelet has been placed in a random location! Its marker is now visible on the map. Good luck!] The island trembled. Far away, Luke saw a plume of neon red smoke.

"At the beach." He broke into a run through the forest. The waiting time had not been wasted. He had already ranked his ten remaining enemies by threat level. Three stood above the rest.: Ivor, Oliver, and the other assassin. Ivor and Oliver were marksmen, both specialized in long-range kills. The other assassin was worse in a different way. A stealth-class opponent in a place like this could become a nightmare depending on what skills he had. The others were dangerous too, of course.

Just not in the same category as an arrow punching through Luke's skull from a distance too great for him to even spot the shooter. Then he heard it. A shot, loud enough to crack across the whole island. Like a sniper round. Luke instantly crouched and rolled to the side on instinct. Birds burst into the sky. That was loud as hell. He looked toward the sound. It came from the hill where Oliver had been staying. What's this idiot playing at? What's the plan? He's been sitting in that damn spot for days.

Everyone knows he's there. The sniper-like shot rang out again. Can he see the beach from there? Can that shot reach all the way over? As strategies went, the marksman's was brutally simple: Camp. If he and Ivor both have line of sight on the bracelet, whoever goes for it dies. And who in their right mind was going to approach those two in an open green field with nowhere to hide?

"Shit." Luke knew how to use a bow. That wasn't the same as having an archer class and the skills that came with it. Then he looked up, and something in the sky caught his eye. Five chests were falling, each one trailing a streak of blue smoke. Skill chests! There were five of them. And eleven participants left. Luke glanced toward the red bracelet, then at one of the chests dropping nearby. Do I prioritize power? He weighed it in his head, already knowing the others had to be thinking the same thing.

A newly unlocked skill could be what wins this. If he had deadly skills, so did everyone else. By simple logic, claiming a chest did more than make him stronger. It kept that power out of someone else's hands. Clicking his tongue, he took off toward the falling chest. The crack of sniper fire kept echoing across the field. I need that knife-generating skill back, or an Acid Blood Arrow. There were too many possibilities, too many useful pulls. He couldn't even decide what he wanted most.

If I find a Witch skill, I've got a wand. Luke spotted the chest descending and slowed just before reaching it. He pulled out his bow and slipped behind a tree. Then he heard it. A buzz. A bee hovered near his ear, and before he could react, it stung his arm.

"Damn it." A second later, he heard another buzz. Then another. More bees were coming. And more. They spread through the area until the whole place seemed to turn into a field swarming with them. Luke jumped down from the tree. Bees? Why are there so many? Then, through the swarm, he saw a figure. The assassin. A black dagger in hand, a yellow half mask covering part of his face. He extended a finger, and a bee landed on it.

Then the assassin turned and looked straight toward Luke, right at the exact spot where he'd been hiding. The bees reacted at once, all of them shifting toward him. The assassin is from the Order of the Queen Bee!