Chapter 38
“That really works?”
Yerin looked at me skeptically.
“I saw it in a documentary.”
“......”
Yerin looked even more uneasy after hearing that.
I said lightly, like it was no big deal.
“The principle is simple.”
“What is it?”
“Buoyancy.”
The tendency for your body to keep floating upward once you get into the water.
Kim Woong had said it took him a long time to get all the way down because of buoyancy too.
I picked up a rock lying nearby.
“Then we just need to add weight so it’s less affected by buoyancy.”
“Ah.”
“Divers use weights sometimes too. The Bajau do it as well.”
Yerin still looked half-convinced, and Kim Woong, who had been listening beside us, stroked his chin.
“Benefactor.”
“Yes.”
“But there is one problem.”
“What is it?”
“It’s not that I doubt your words, Benefactor. The method is definitely a good one, but....”
Kim Woong continued with a serious expression.
“How do we get a rock that heavy out to deep water?”
Well. That part was easy.
All I had to do was make a float to carry the rock.
“We can just float the rock out on the water.”
“Float it?”
“I think tying together a few pieces of bamboo would be enough.”
“Ah.”
Kim Woong nodded as if he understood right away.
This wasn’t some ordinary ingredient. It was crayfish, for heaven’s sake.
Even if it took a bit of work, we had to try it somehow.
A while back, I watched a video of my older brother catching crayfish and grilling them over charcoal.
He took a huge bite out of the plump meat and looked so happy.
‘Wow, that looks insanely good.’
He ate so deliciously that just watching the screen made my mouth water.
That night.
I immediately looked up the price of crayfish. Then I quietly closed the browser window.
‘It’s way too expensive!!!’
That’s just how life is when you’re broke.
After making a reasonable compromise with reality, I went to the convenience store and picked up a pack of imitation crab sticks.
I still remember that clearly.
After roughly finishing our meal with the fish Kim Woong had caught, I immediately stood up and pointed toward the jungle.
“Then let’s go.”
“Where to?”
“To make a float.”
@
Mr. Rich was not someone who startled easily.
He was the kind of host who always ran his broadcast with an easygoing smile.
But.
Right now, even his poker face was wavering a little.
“Hmm.”
Mr. Rich tapped the table as he stared at Reels on the screen.
“This is a new variable.”
The survival expert sitting beside him asked with a puzzled look,
“Why do you say that?”
“Haha. It’s nothing.”
Mr. Rich smiled vaguely and let the matter drop.
After staring blankly at the screen for a moment, he asked the expert,
“But does that method really work?”
The expert looked at Reels on the screen and let out a small laugh.
“It does work.”
“Oh.”
“More precisely, it’s one of the very old methods used when buoyancy makes diving difficult.”
“So it was real.”
“Yes.”
The expert pointed toward Reels, who was busily chopping bamboo with her small hands.
“You said Reels’s hobby is watching documentaries, right?”
“That should be right.”
“Then... I think she must have seen a documentary about the Bajau people.”
“The Bajau people?”
“Yes. They’re a seafaring people who live around Southeast Asia, and they learn to dive from childhood in order to catch fish.”
“I see.”
“They hold their breath, go down into the sea, and walk along the bottom hunting fish.”
Mr. Rich looked intrigued.
“That’s fascinating.”
The expert pointed at the ocean on the screen.
“In fact, some Bajau use rocks or weights to get down to the bottom faster. So Reels’s idea itself is actually quite realistic.”
The expert paused, then added with a smile,
“Of course, actually copying something you saw in a documentary is a different matter.”
“Hahaha.”
Mr. Rich ended up laughing too.
Reels clearly had excellent survival knowledge, but she also seemed to have a habit of personally testing things with her own body.
“The more I watch her, the more unusual she seems. First she sticks her foot into her own trap....”
“Puhaha. Exactly.”
Reels’s antics filled the cruise ship studio with laughter.
@
“Kim Woong-nim.”
“Yes, Benefactor!”
“What’s your total on the big three?”
As if he’d been waiting for that question this whole time, Kim Woong patted his bulky shoulders.
“I total 600.”
“......?”
Six hundred?
Was he a human, or some kind of superhuman?
He had to have a Viking somewhere in his ancestry.
Yerin looked just as dumbfounded.
“Wait. Is that even a possible number?”
“You just have to train hard.”
“How many people in Korea can say that about a number like that?”
I looked seriously at Kim Woong’s bear-like body.
Hmm.
Then maybe I could revise the plan a little.
Originally, I had been thinking of a rock around a reasonable size.
But maybe I could go with something a little heavier.
“Kim Woong-nim.”
“Yes!”
“Can we go with something heavier?”
“Works for me! It’ll count as strength training.”
“Then I’ll cut the bamboo, and you carry it.”
“Yes!”
As expected.
Overwhelming physical power solves most problems with ease.
If you don’t use your head, your body suffers—but if your body is strong, the people around you have it easier.
I chose a few thick stalks of bamboo nearby and drove my knife into them.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
After a few hard strikes, the bamboo fell over with a thud.
Kim Woong casually hoisted them onto his shoulder like they were Styrofoam.
“......”
It’s amazing every time I see it.
Is he a person or a bear?
Anyway.
After securing a few pieces of bamboo, I dusted off my hands and said,
“Let’s call it here for today.”
“Pardon?”
Kim Woong looked puzzled.
“Aren’t we making the float?”
“We are.”
I pointed at the bamboo lying on the ground.
“But there’s no need to make it here.”
“Ah-ha!”
The crayfish were at the shore anyway.
And the float was something we’d be using there.
There was no reason to make it in advance and carry it with us.
Even for Kim Woong, carrying a float made by tying several bamboo poles together through the jungle would be inconvenient.
“We can just bring the materials tomorrow and make it at the shore.”
“That definitely would be easier.”
“Yep.”
I nodded in satisfaction as I looked at the cut bamboo.
Now all that was left
was to catch the crayfish tomorrow.
@
On the way back to the cave after preparing the materials for the float,
Kim Woong was busily working on fixing up the shelter he had made.
He spread dry leaves across the floor, and added extra foliage on the sides to keep out the rain.
He was taking the decorating pretty seriously.
Yerin tilted her head as she watched him.
“But, Kim Woong-ssi.”
“Yes?”
“Couldn’t you just stay in the cave with us?”
I chimed in from the side too.
“Right. The cave’s big enough.”
At that, Kim Woong fell silent for a moment before speaking with a serious face.
“There’s a saying that once men and women reach seven, they shouldn’t sit together.”
“......”
“......”
Yerin and I looked at Kim Woong at the same time.
What was this?
It felt like some Joseon-era scholar had suddenly popped out of nowhere.
Kim Woong cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Ahem... it just doesn’t seem right for a man and a woman to sleep in the same space. Especially since Yerin-nim is a female streamer.”
So I’m fine, then?
This is seriously ridiculous.
And the group you were with last time had a woman too.
“Kim Woong-nim.”
“Yes.”
“Then how did you manage with your previous teammates?”
“We had two shelters.”
Ah, those sloppy shelters that looked like they took about five minutes to build?
But no matter how you looked at it, the cave had to be warmer than a shelter.
I was worried he might freeze to death in his sleep.
“We’re on a deserted island.”
“I know.”
“This isn’t the kind of situation where that matters.”
“Even so, I can’t.”
His stubbornness was something else.
I shrugged.
Well, if he wanted to make life hard for himself,
that was his choice.
There was no reason for me to stop him to the bitter end.
After that, we reached the cave and rested, and before long, night fell.
Crackle, crackle.
The light from the fire pit softly illuminated the inside of the cave.
I lay down on the bamboo bed.
Baby and Yerin had already settled in and were fast asleep, snoring away.
We’d been running around all day again, so I felt like I’d be asleep the moment I closed my eyes.
But then.
Rustle.
“......?”
I opened my eyes at the strange sound.
Something was moving.
I cautiously turned my head toward the fire pit.
I could see the familiar outline of a man.
‘Seriously, what is with that guy?’
Kim Woong, who had insisted men and women over seven shouldn’t sit together and gone back to his shelter, was crouching in front of the fire pit.
He had both hands stretched toward the fire, diligently warming himself.
Apparently, he’d tried sleeping outside and gotten cold.
Just earlier, he’d been pretending to be some kind of Confucian young gentleman.
It was honestly absurd.
Kim Woong kept rubbing his hands in front of the fire, not even noticing I was awake.
Crackle, crackle.
I held back the laugh that was trying to escape and turned over again.
Well, that much was cute enough to let slide.
And with that, I drifted back to sleep.
@
Day 7 on the deserted island.
What greeted us that morning was the familiar mechanical voice coming from the drone.
Beep.
[Hello, participants.]
Looks like there’s another announcement.
[This is Mr. Rich.]
Yerin mumbled without even properly opening her eyes.
“Five more minutes....”
Kim Woong, near the fire pit, got up with a yawn as well.
The drone slowly circled above our heads as it continued.
[From now on, I will inform you of the participants’ current status.]
Oh.
I’m a little curious about this.
[Day 7 on the deserted island. Already, half of the entire schedule has passed.]
It’s already been a week?
Time really does pass quickly on a deserted island.
Maybe it’s because every day feels so rewarding.
[There are currently 10 survivors.]
The moment I heard that,
the cave went quiet.
Ten people.
Just like before, five people had been eliminated.
Since the starting number had been 20, that meant exactly half were gone.
[There are 7 days remaining. We ask that all participants do their best until the very end.]
Mr. Rich paused for a moment, then added in a voice tinged with laughter.
[And among the participants, there is someone who has recently been engaging in dangerous behavior, like putting a foot into a trap. Please all be mindful of your safety.]
“...?”
Yerin immediately burst into laughter beside me.
“Pfft.”
Beep.
With that, the mechanical voice ended.
One week remaining.
Ten survivors.
Now the survival game was truly beginning.