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Jeong Gyeoul, who had been nibbling on snacks, leaned towards the monitor showing the blue team.

“Looks like the blue team has caught on, huh?”

“Faster than expected. They must have good instincts.”

Park Seol-hwa reached for a plate floating near Jeong Gyeoul.

“My snacks… I only brought a little.”

“…You have twelve plates and you’re being stingy?”

Thanks to the massive production budget, there were almost no blind spots in the filming.

There was no need to fly around aimlessly to get a good view.

In fact, the dense forest trees made it easier to watch through the monitor.

“Does the red team still not know?”

“Once the red team rescues the hero, they’ll probably figure it out, right?”

Among the heroes, there are traps.

A hero pretending to be a villain acting as an injured hero.

The mission for both the red and blue teams isn’t just about rescuing heroes.

It’s also about capturing all the villains on the uninhabited island.

Rescuing a hero: 1 point.

Capturing a villain: 1 point.

Only two types of points are set.

The judges score the events in real-time, which will determine each team’s score.

Of course, there are also penalties.

Transporting team members to the base camp without distinguishing between heroes and villains.

Team members subdued by villains in the process.

The blue team started with a penalty of -1 point.

Unaware of this, the blue team silently moved forward.

“For now… since there are 48 of us left, we’ll divide into eight groups of six. Gathering information should be our top priority.”

At Shin Hyeon-joo’s words, the team members nodded in agreement.

In this situation, the power of information is immense.

But they knew nothing.

As a result, two team members had already disappeared.

It’s possible they had an accident on the way or while returning.

“Two groups will search for the missing members. The other six groups will investigate the island’s situation. If you see any injured heroes, just remember their location. We won’t launch a rescue operation right now.”

“Okay, I’ll just mark it.”

“But what if our assumptions are wrong and it’s a rescue mission? If we keep dragging our feet like this, we’ll fall behind the red team.”

They understood the importance of gathering information, but it seemed they weren’t sure if they needed to be this cautious in a non-real situation.

“Cameras are set up all over the forest. Drones are following us. Action cams on our vests. The judges are watching us.”

“…So shouldn’t we be more bold and show off our skills?”

“I heard something from Hero Jeong Gyeoul.”

“…?”

Shin Hyeon-joo mentioned the judge Jeong Gyeoul’s name.

Jeong Gyeoul, who was listening from the base camp, was startled.

Jeong Gyeoul hurriedly tried to explain, but Shin Hyeon-joo couldn’t hear her.

Shin Hyeon-joo looked seriously at the participant who had voiced the opposing opinion.

“If the result was all that mattered, they could have just gathered all the Awakened Ones and boosted their magic power to finish it.”

“…Not wrong, considering what Hero Jeong Gyeoul did in the first round.”

Participants who had met Jeong Gyeoul and Park Seol-hwa in the first round shivered.

The scene of them pressuring participants by boosting their momentum flashed through their minds.

“This program values the process over the result. It’s not about selecting the strongest, but about finding those with the qualities of a hero.”

“Understood. Then let’s proceed as Shin Hyeon-joo said.”

Shin Hyeon-joo had become the leader of the blue team.

Ragna, who was also a team leader, didn’t seem to mind.

As for the red team…

Cha Seo-rin and Hwang Bo-seung were fiercely competing for the team leader position.

“Moving forward recklessly doesn’t seem meaningful. Something’s off. The island’s environment suddenly changed… and the MC seemed to be hiding something when explaining the rules.”

Cha Seo-rin, who had been moving cautiously, now suggested they stop altogether.

Hwang Bo-seung, who had been slightly dissatisfied with moving slowly, looked at Cha Seo-rin with disapproval.

“It’s a variety show. It’s possible the MC is hiding something. We’re already wandering around here at dawn, which feels like a betrayal… We don’t need all that. Rescuing should be our top priority, right? We need to move faster to score higher than the blue team, and now you want to stop because of some traps?”

“Ugh… As I said earlier, what seems like a trap now could turn into a bomb or a blade. We don’t even know where or who the enemy is right now.”

Cha Seo-rin sighed and spoke clearly.

She seemed to be holding back her frustration.

“Sigh… A bomb? A blade? This is a broadcast. Even if something grazes us, blood will spill. Do you think they’d easily show that on broadcast?”

“They can just edit it out. Besides, after the preliminaries, you came back covered in blood, and now you’re making excuses?”

“That was… because of fists…”

Kim Yu-shin and Hwang Bo-seung’s team had a thrilling fight.

Despite the talk of blood, it seemed Hwang Bo-seung was just a hot-blooded fool who wanted to fight.

Cha Seo-rin gave him a look of disdain and turned her head away.

“For now, our team will start with gathering information.”

Both the red and blue teams made the same decision.

Rather than wandering aimlessly around the uninhabited island with no information,

it was better to take a bit more time to understand the situation.

They also thought the production team didn’t give them 12 hours just for fun.

***

Both teams gathered information, but their methods differed.

The red team fully utilized Cha Seo-rin’s abilities.

They sent a team member who could move as stealthily as possible towards the blue team.

They also used talismans to hide their magic power and presence.

The cameras were rolling, but they disappeared in an instant.

Even the judges watching the monitor and the team members next to them were surprised.

Upon closer inspection, they blended into the natural colors.

They were like human chameleons and human eavesdropping devices.

After sending them, Hwang Bo-seung led the uninhabited team.

Their plan was almost identical to Shin Hyeon-joo’s.

If they found a hero, they would just remember the location and return.

They would never act on their own.

“Got it? Absolutely, absolutely do not make decisions and move on your own.”

“…I got it.”

Especially Hwang Bo-seung, she repeated it multiple times.

It seemed the leadership as team leader had already shifted to Cha Seo-rin.

‘…For now, I’ll use her, and I’ll take control of the flow in battle.’

He believed the true quality of a leader lies in the art of using troops.

No matter how great, one can’t handle everything alone.

Properly managing subordinates to fill in one’s shortcomings.

That’s the path of an emperor, the power of a leader, thought Hwang Bo-seung, who planned to use Cha Seo-rin.

He didn’t even consider that to anyone on the red team, Cha Seo-rin was the captain and he was just the action leader.

“Let’s meet back here in 30 minutes. When the time comes, the talisman will burn, so take this with you.”

“Wow, this is really useful. That ability.”

“I’ve only used one percent of it so far, so you can expect more.”

Her expression was the complete opposite of what she showed Hwang Bo-seung.

Cha Seo-rin smiled brightly and handed out talismans to the team members.

“If something happens, tear the talisman. Then let’s move.”

After 30 minutes, the talismans burned.

Both the red and blue teams returned at almost the same time.

Each team held a meeting to plan their next steps.

The blue team moved a step faster.

The judges, who had been watching from the beginning, were impressed not by the blue team but by the red team.

“Is that a hero or a villain?”

The human eavesdropping device overheard all the information and plans gathered by the blue team.

Shin Hyeon-joo almost noticed, but they held their breath and even slowed their heartbeat to get through the crisis.

No matter how much Shin Hyeon-joo considered every situation…

It was impossible to predict that an Awakened One would come to spy on them with this level of stealth.

“Cha Seo-rin’s ability is good, huh? At this level, it could be considered a buff. She can be the main or the support, she’s just all-around.”

“I told you, she’s a strong contender for the win, right?”

When Cha Seo-rin was praised, Jeong Gyeoul got excited.

She sat in her chair, swinging her legs back and forth and nodding her head.

She seemed unaware of her actions.

Of course, she also didn’t notice the camera capturing her.

Meanwhile, the human eavesdropping device returned to where the red team was waiting and relayed all the blue team’s information and plans to Cha Seo-rin.

After hearing everything, Cha Seo-rin’s lips curled up.

“We’re going to win this game.”

 

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