Is This All Real?

As soon as she stepped forwards a certain person stepped in to stop her or me or both, I don't know.

"Zen step aside..."

"..." he doesn't move an inch.

"Emma, say something to him." The girl looked troubled.

"Don't look at me solve it yourself," by their conversation, I reckon the girls don't get along with each other.

"Tsk."

"Ahem...! May I have your attention," I said, "Why don't you all just pay me half of your total points? It's a waste of our time, right?" all this is kind of a stupid dispute if I say so.

They can't force me to leave this place so I came up with a scheme to satisfy both but they don't want that.

Even if I back down and leave this place they still need to find another spot since the maximum capacity is two.

"Look, even if I back down here, what will happen to your group?"

"What do you mean?" they must have not noticed that they have to leave a person to take this spot.

"Even if I give you the spot, what will happen to your group? You still have to let go of one person, yes?"

"..."

"If any two of your group members take this spot one will be left behind and have to find another hotspot and above that he/she will be alone."

"... Alice, we didn't think of it." Her name is Emma I guess.

"Yes, wouldn't it be more beneficial for you if a person who you know stays beside you in this unknown place?"

"... even though I don't want to accept it, what he is saying is true." Emma said.

"Alice!"

"What!"

"You stay here and I'll go and find another place with Zen."

"Huh!?" No way, if it's decided that one will leave I shall be the one who goes with him." Do they both like him?

For me, I don't consider love or like as a feeling, I see it as a commitment in how I choose to think about someone else.

Personally, I don't feel attached to anyone. I try to pretend but deep down I know I don't feel for anyone. Does this mean I am emotionally detached from everyone, I wonder...

"Alice, please stay here... I don't want you to leave a safe place..." Zen said as he stopped Alice.

"B-but..."

"Yeah, don't make Zen worry you understand Alice."

"Zen..."

"Alice, we will be leaving, and maybe we can meet you in the future." Why does he sound like he is going to die?

"..."

I saw them leaving as their bodies vanished behind the bushes and the leaves of the trees.

...

I used to believe that if I sit beside an unknown person then it shouldn't be awkward but I might have to change that thinking.

We have seen sitting ideally without even exchanging a single word but only exchanging slight glances at each other.

This is going to be a drag...

I should think about our situation and not waste my time on this...

First of all, what is happening? What is happening? I mean we got abducted and sent here, on this unknown island also this whole island seems strange.

The water is not salty, not a single insect insight, and above all a dead body ah, also a plastic wrapper how can I forget that. All this seems Intel. but at the same time, the sense of touch and smell all feel real.

Also this strange feeling about this place and Mr. X.

If I could get a single hint about what's this all about then maybe I can find a little bit of information.

Also now that I have settled down, why did Selene get disqualified?

It doesn't make any sense.

First of all, we spent almost two whole days and it should be around 30-32 hours so we must have spent 4 complete cycles of 8 hours but we only got 300 points... maybe when I went to find Selene they skipped both of our one cycle of 8 hours?

Also, I didn't receive another 100 points while Selene got... I should have been rewarded another 100 points but it didn't happen. I would have asked that time but because of the problem with Selene and the spur of the moment, I also forgot.

Just by thinking that I shook my head up and down. What am I doing? I don't know myself.

Yes, I could ask the machine now but didn't Mr. X said something earlier? 

That the machines will be reset, which most probably means that the earlier data must have been deleted.

But if there is a chance that the data is still saved since he directly doesn't mention that the data will be deleted, I could ask but not in front of her. If she knows how many points I have right now or what happened at my previous camp it would be troublesome.

There is still more, even though Selene had 350 points why did she still get disqualified? Wasn't the minimum requirement 350 points?

Their sense of reasoning, I don't get it.

"Hey are you listening!?"

"Huh!?" what? what? I feel like someone is shaking me.

"What are you thinking so hard about?"

"When did you come here?" She was sitting just beside me.

Maybe I was too deep in my thoughts that I didn't notice her coming closer.

"What are you saying? Weren't you the one who agreed?"

"What do you mean I agreed?" I didn't say anything, right?

"I asked whether I can sit beside you and you shook your head, that's why I sat here." what?

Hmm... oh that's right I just shook my head while thinking about something else... talk about bad timing.

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Hmm..."

"Wasn't it that you wanted to ask something when you came here?"

"Yeah, that right, I wanted to know how you survive till now?"

"Why do you ask?"

"So that I can evaluate whether you can be helpful to me or not."

"Aren't you a straightforward lady..."

"I don't like to complicate things."

"Ehh... Don't worry, I won't drag you down at all. More importantly, shouldn't you worry about how you would survive at night?"

"Don't worry about me."

"Why?"

"Since I got a tent."

"What?"

"You might not remember it but during the first task there was a special condition task, I don't remember the complete details but if I complete one of those tasks they would provide me food and shelter," I remember that but...

"I somewhat remember that but how did you complete it? I don't even remember the complete details but as far as I could recall it was impossible."

"It was quite simple."

"..."

"You just need to share your points. If you are in a group with understanding members you could easily pull it off." ah, now I could match all the dots.

There are merits in a group but it comes with demerits also.

In a group, you can share points but those special conditioned tasks only benefitted a single person, letting the other members left out.

In her case, I can imagine her group sharing points without any dispute.

"That's nice."

"That's for me but what about you?"

"All I need are some dried stickers for burning and I would be able to go through the night," I said.

"That's dumb."

"Maybe."

...

It was about to get dark and fortunately, I found a quiet sum of dry sticks.

"This much should be enough for the night."

As I was making my way back I saw something strange.

A few spots on the leaves are colored red and it's definitely not the leaf's natural color.

"What's this?" I stepped closer and saw something that shouldn't have been on this island.

TO BE CONTINUED...