Chương 5: A New Game Part 2

Chapter Five A New Game When Karath first taught his friends how to play hide-and-seek, he added one rule that had not existed in the version he remembered from Earth. Ordinarily, when the seeker discovered a hidden player, the seeker had to reach the designated tree first, touch it, and call out the player's name. The hidden player could survive by reaching the tree and calling out before the seeker. On Earth, being discovered usually led to a simple race. Thud! Thud!

In the orc settlement, Karath had permitted fighting.

"Ha... hahaha..." Grandfather Jark watched the children exchange punches and kicks. Realizing that Karath had not lied about the game's usefulness, the elder forced an awkward laugh while wearing a complicated expression.

"But we do not fight merely to hunt! Our true duty is to protect the settlement from the terrible monsters that inhabit this forest. Back in my day..." Jark recovered quickly and began delivering the familiar lecture of an elder convinced that the younger generation had lost its way. Karath had expected as much. In a primitive society like this, logic alone would never be enough to convince everyone.

"Yes. Defeating those who threaten the tribe is the duty of an orc warrior. But does that mean we must fight every enemy we encounter?"

"What did you say?"

"Suppose everyone in the settlement is starving, and a hunter encounters a monster he has no chance of defeating. Must he still fight it? Even if his death means the villagers will receive no food and starve? Is that truly the action of a brave orc warrior?"

"Then he should become stronger than the monster! That is how orcs have always grown stronger! Avoiding battle merely because defeat is possible is unthinkable!"

"If an enemy approaches the settlement, Karath will fight with everything he has. As a descendant of great warriors, that is only natural. But there is a difference." Karath strengthened his voice and met Jark's eyes directly.

"When a terrifying enemy poses no threat to the settlement, risking one's life to fight it accomplishes nothing except depriving the village of another hunter."

"Even so..."

"And what happens when a real threat reaches the village later? If even one more warrior could have changed the outcome, would dying pointlessly beforehand not be an even greater offense against the tribe?" Jark fell silent.

"Karath believes true courage and pointless death are different things. That is why the children should begin training through games like this. More importantly..." The elder continued watching him with an unreadable expression.

"Karath does not want to watch anyone else in the tribe die." Jark's eyes widened. Karath held the elder's gaze without hesitation. Most of his earlier reasoning had admittedly been assembled to provide a respectable justification for hide-and-seek. His final statement, however, was completely sincere. That sincerity allowed him to look directly into Jark's eyes and speak with confidence. The monster-infested forest was an unbearably harsh environment.

The settlement's complete lack of hygiene and sanitation caused two out of every three newborns to die. Even Karath, who had been born with an unusually healthy body, had nearly died several times during infancy. Without Delina's devoted care, he would almost certainly have perished long ago. Ironically, the same brutal environment ensured that the orcs who survived infancy grew up with powerful immune systems and sturdy bodies. From early childhood, they strengthened those bodies through constant fighting.

Male orcs underwent their coming-of-age ceremony at fifteen, after which they were assigned the duties of hunting and scouting. Many of them died because they lacked experience. As members of a primitive hunting society, the orcs possessed almost no concept of controlling childbirth. Although the Bloodclaw Tribe contained only around one hundred orcs, more than ten children were born each year. Only six or seven of those children survived beyond the age of five.

Each year, merely three or four male orcs reached the age required for the coming-of-age ceremony. Of those, it was rare for more than two to survive until twenty. Any orc who lived beyond twenty was inevitably a brave warrior and a capable hunter. To Karath, however, a process that demanded so many lives merely to produce strong warriors was nothing less than horrifying.

"Hah..." Perhaps Karath's bold attitude had finally affected him. Jark, who had been lecturing him so stubbornly only moments earlier, closed his mouth and studied him with a strange expression.

"Very well. For now, I will watch and see what comes of this." Still wearing that peculiar expression, the elder turned and walked away. While Karath continued playing hide-and-seek, Jark entered the largest hut in the settlement. It belonged to Grild Bloodclaw, chief of the Bloodclaw Tribe, and his wife.

"What brings you here, Elder?" Although Grild possessed the greatest authority in the tribe, he spoke respectfully to Jark. Such behavior was only natural in orc society. The male orcs addressed as elders were warriors who had survived nearly thirty years of hunting and fighting after completing their coming-of-age ceremonies. They were true veterans who had defended the settlement and survived three decades within this merciless land. Even after their retirement, every member of the tribe continued to honor them.

The chief was no exception. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"I came because there is an important matter I must discuss with you, Chief." Respect did not change their formal positions, however. Grild remained the chief, so Jark addressed him with equal courtesy.

"Has something happened in the settlement?" Grild looked at him with concern.

"Garthon's son created a strange game today. Keh heh." Jark slowly explained everything that had happened. When Grild first heard about a game based on hiding, his face filled with the same anger and disappointment Jark had initially displayed. As the explanation continued, however, the chief's expression gradually changed.

"The boy said he wanted fewer people in the village to die. Keh heh heh." Grild remained silent. By the time Jark finished, the chief wore an expression that was difficult to describe.

"Karath never showed it openly, but it seems his father's death has weighed heavily on him."

"It appears so, Elder." At that moment, both orcs were thinking about the same person. Garthon, Karath's father, the hero who had died protecting the settlement nearly nine years earlier. Before they were an elder and a chief, Jark and Grild were warriors of the same proud orc tribe. Both carried a debt in their hearts toward Garthon. Under different circumstances, Garthon would have become chief by now. Like Karath, Garthon had revealed extraordinary talent from early childhood.

By ancient tradition, the strongest warrior in the settlement served as chief. Even Grild had believed that once Garthon passed twenty and gained sufficient experience, leadership of the tribe would naturally be handed to him. That future had ended when Garthon was eighteen. A starving ogre, driven from its territory after losing a battle, had attacked the settlement. On that day, Grild had prepared himself to die together with the monster.

As the tribe's strongest warrior and its chief, sacrificing himself to protect the settlement would have been the most honorable possible death. Garthon had moved first. Grild had always considered him too young to lead the tribe, yet in that decisive moment, Garthon proved himself the greater warrior. Grild had carried regret ever since. If he had died with the ogre that day and Garthon had become chief, perhaps the Bloodclaw Tribe would have prospered far more than it had under his leadership.

"What do you intend to do, Chief?" Jark's voice pulled Grild from his thoughts.

"For now, we will continue watching. I will speak to the other tribespeople myself, Elder." The chief decided to observe before making any judgment. Karath was the son of Garthon, the warrior who should have become chief. Grild and Jark believed the boy had created the game because he wanted to carry on his father's noble will. It was a profound misunderstanding. A month passed after Karath introduced hide-and-seek to the settlement.

"Son! Make sure you catch several of them this time!"

"Oh! That child has learned how to hide properly." At some point, the game had become a popular spectacle for the village adults. When Jark first confronted him, Karath had prepared himself for long arguments with countless elders. Instead, the situation had developed in a completely unexpected direction. Karath even began wondering, with a certain degree of disrespect, whether Grandfather Jark had simply been the most stubborn old orc in the entire settlement.

There was, however, a reason the adults had changed their minds. Karath had originally introduced hide-and-seek to obtain a legitimate excuse for quiet contemplation. He had overlooked one important fact. Every orc in the settlement carried the blood of warriors and hunters. The children who had initially stumbled around in confusion while learning the rules had disappeared. In their place were young hunters who behaved with startling experience.

At the beginning, some innocent children had genuinely believed that covering their own eyes would prevent the seeker from seeing them. Now, even the smallest mistake could determine whether a player survived. Karath himself was partly responsible for transforming the innocent game into such a dangerous contest. The first seeker was selected through finger, fist, and palm, the orc version of the simple hand game he had taught them. In other words, the role was determined by chance.

Even Karath occasionally became the seeker. Whenever that happened, he used every method he could think of to finish the round quickly so he could hide again and return to his thoughts. While the other children hid without much planning, Karath possessed the mind of a man in his thirties despite his small body. He began tracking them by reading the traces they left behind. The settlement belonged to a primitive hunting society, so every path between the huts consisted of exposed soil.

The children inevitably left footprints wherever they moved. By following those marks, Karath could discover three or four players within the first minute of a game. After he used the method two or three times, the other children learned it and began using it against him. Thus, Karath received further proof that orcs lacked knowledge, not intelligence. That was the moment he should have stopped escalating the madness. Unfortunately, the thought never occurred to him at the time.

Instead, Karath introduced new methods, such as erasing his tracks and deliberately leaving false trails. Before long, every child had learned those methods and incorporated them into the game. Strategy and tactics soon followed. The settlement contained only around one hundred orcs, so the number of available hiding places was limited. Once the children became familiar with the environment and the rules, the seeker naturally gained an overwhelming advantage.

To overcome that disadvantage, the hiding players began creating false trails, luring the seeker into traps, striking from behind, and cooperating in groups to overwhelm the seeker. They introduced every strange strategy imaginable. Naturally, Karath had been the first to use those tactics as well. He deeply regretted it. At some point, the game had retained the name hide-and-seek while becoming something closer to a survival exercise. Karath could no longer lose himself in thought.

If his attention wandered for even three seconds, the seeker might appear behind him and strike the back of his head. Concealed behind a hut, Karath watched the surrounding path. He raised one hand and signaled to the children hiding nearby. The seeker is coming. The demeanor of the hidden children changed instantly. A tense atmosphere settled over the area, as though they had become characters trapped inside a deadly hunting story. Karath watched the seeker approach. Ten meters. Seven meters. Five meters. Now.

Strike. The moment Karath gave the signal, the fragile silence shattered. Children burst from hiding in perfect coordination and charged toward the seeker from every direction. Jark and Chief Grild stood among the adult orcs watching the children's strange mixture of hide-and-seek and survival combat.

"Oh?" Grild's eyes brightened as he watched the children move in perfect response to Karath's signals. None of them had completed their coming-of-age ceremonies, yet their movements closely resembled those of adult hunters.

"I admit that I had my doubts when I first heard Karath's explanation, but is this not remarkable?" Jark appeared to recognize the chief's thoughts. He smiled with satisfaction and released a cheerful laugh.

"It certainly is. But if they all attack together, is the seeker not placed at too great a disadvantage?"

"Keh heh heh. I thought the same at first, Chief."

"You say that only at first, which means your opinion has changed."

"Indeed. Karath's game contains an unusual rule. Once the seeker sees a hidden player, reaching the tree first is enough to capture that player. That is why the children must do this."

"Catch him!"

"Do not let the seeker escape!"

"Krog! Block him with your body!"

"They must surround the seeker and prevent him from reaching the tree." Jark nodded proudly as the children formed a circle around the seeker and began beating him from every direction. On Earth, the scene might have resulted in furious parents and the arrival of law enforcement. Jark and Grild watched with increasingly satisfied smiles. To them, the sight was familiar. The children were reproducing the basic strategy used by adult orcs when surrounding and driving prey during a hunt.

"More importantly, whenever Karath becomes the seeker, he usually captures several children at once."

"How does he accomplish that?"

"As I explained, once a hidden player is seen, that child must reach the tree before the seeker. The hiding players therefore face severe restrictions on where and how they can move."

"That is true."

"The seeker has no such restrictions. Whenever Karath takes that role, he prepares traps in advance and deliberately guides the other children toward them. Then he captures them instead. Keh heh heh. And that is not all." Jark enthusiastically recounted every impressive tactic he had witnessed during the children's games, sounding like an overexcited fan praising his favorite performers. His excitement was understandable.

Karath was only eight years old, yet he repeatedly demonstrated methods that one would normally expect only from experienced hunters. In Jark's eyes, the boy had inherited the blood of both an exceptional warrior and an exceptional hunter. Such a remarkable talent had been born within their settlement. How could an elder of the tribe possibly resist boasting about him? Jark had no way of knowing that Karath's impressive performances had permanently destroyed the peaceful thinking time he originally wanted.

Nor did he know that Karath would regret introducing those tactics for a very long time.