Chapter 53
Kim Woong ate every turban shell Rils handed him.
Munch, munch.
‘Sitting here like this, I feel like a baby bird being fed by its mother.’
When was the last time someone had taken care of him like this?
No matter how hard he searched his memories, he could recall only his infancy and the early years of elementary school.
He had never been taken care of after he grew taller.
If anything, he had always been the one to take care of others.
He carried heavy loads for them and did difficult things in their place.
Even in unreasonable situations, he was the type to simply let things slide.
He had lived his entire life thinking that was only natural.
After joining Rils’s party, Kim Woong had one realization.
‘This is way too comfortable.’
All he had to do was whatever Rils told him to do.
That was the entirety of his role.
Rils handled everything else.
It felt like being an employee working under a competent boss.
Kim Woong lifted his head and looked up at the night sky.
Countless stars glittered across the black sky.
It looked as though someone had sprinkled white sand across a black cloth.
‘I feel like it’s been a long time since I last looked at the night sky….’
He got up in the morning, exercised according to his routine, and edited YouTube videos.
Then he ate chicken breast and lay down on his bed, bringing the day to an end.
Why had he lived so busily, without even having time to look at the sky, when he had no idea what kind of wealth or glory he hoped to enjoy?
Once the content ended… perhaps living with a little more leisure wouldn’t be so bad.
Thinking that, Kim Woong looked at Rils sitting across the campfire.
She was a girl cute enough to stir anyone’s protective instincts, but everything she did was completely wild.
After meeting Rils, Kim Woong realized how ridiculous his old values had been.
‘Who’s protecting whom? Unless my benefactor is protecting me, that is.’
A hollow laugh escaped him.
It was funny that he had lived like an idiot all this time.
Just looking at Rils and Yerin proved that being a woman didn’t necessarily mean being weak.
If anything, they were stronger than he was.
The pushover known as Kim Woong had long since disappeared.
@
“Ugh.”
If I kept trying to enjoy the atmosphere, I was going to freeze to death.
The night wind was bitterly cold.
It had been so hot during the day, but once night fell, it became insanely cold.
Even so, returning to the cave wasn’t an option.
In the pitch-black darkness, moving around carelessly would be a perfect way to get lost in the jungle.
It would be much safer to hold out near the campfire until daybreak.
Whoooosh~
A strong wind blew again.
Chatter, chatter.
I heard someone’s teeth chattering beside me.
“Rils.”
“Yep.”
“Aren’t we going to freeze to death like this?”
Yerin was trembling as she hugged herself with both arms.
Watching her, I spoke without much concern.
“Humans don’t die that easily.”
“You’re cold too, Rils.”
“You’re just weak, Ms. Yerin. I’m not cold.”
“Don’t lie. I saw you rubbing your arms earlier because you were cold.”
Had it been that obvious?
The night wind was cold enough to freeze me to death.
Even though the campfire was radiating heat, the chilly sea breeze quickly stole our body heat.
It would have been nice to have a decent shield to block the wind….
There was still quite a while until sunrise.
“Mr. Kim Woong.”
“Yes.”
“Please gather some branches that have fallen nearby.”
“Understood.”
Kim Woong immediately got to his feet. He lit one of the remaining torches, then walked around the area before returning with both arms full of branches.
“Benefactor, is this enough?”
“Yep.”
I stuck a few branches deep into the sand, then walked around near the palm trees with Yerin and gathered leaves.
“What are you making?”
“A windbreak to protect us.”
I pointed toward the sea.
“The wind is blowing in from the sea right now.”
“Yeah.”
“Blocking just that direction should make things much better.”
I layered and interwove large palm leaves over the branches I had stuck into the ground.
Before long, we had completed a rather unsightly windbreak.
It had a similar feel to the shabby shelter Kim Woong had made.
Still, it was better than nothing.
We were about to freeze to death.
Whoooosh~
The strong sea wind blew again, but this time it felt completely different.
The palm leaves caught the cold wind, greatly reducing the amount that reached our skin.
It was surprisingly effective.
I had also put plenty of firewood on the campfire, so it wouldn’t go out for a while.
It was late, and sleepiness was slowly creeping over me.
Besides, we were already full after eating the turban shells.
“Yawn….”
Yerin yawned first.
Kim Woong was also half-asleep while squatting nearby.
“Baby.”
I pulled Baby into my arms like a doll and lay down on the sandy beach.
For our first night camping, we had achieved quite a satisfying result.
We had managed to secure a large amount of food.
Slowly closing my eyes, I sank into a deep sleep.
@
Mystery Rich sat in the conference room aboard the ship, tapping a finger on the table.
A meeting had been called to discuss how to deal with the sudden situation that had occurred today.
“There are only eight people left already.”
One of the employees sitting at the table muttered.
There had been twenty participants when the content began.
And now there were eight.
The participants were dwindling at a rapid pace.
At this rate, a winner might be decided before they could even bring out the final event they had prepared.
Having many people eliminated wasn’t unexpected, given the nature of a survival program.
Rather, the Mystery Rich team was concerned about something else.
“What should we do with today’s footage?”
The conference room fell silent for a moment.
Everyone was recalling what had happened today.
Park Jun-ho screaming and collapsing after being attacked by a stonefish.
Fortunately, the situation was brought under control quickly. The safety team was dispatched immediately, and treatment was administered swiftly without any problems.
But uploading the video was another matter.
“Should we edit out that part?”
“Hmm.”
Mystery Rich tapped the table with his fingers.
There were all kinds of people in the world, and all kinds of opinions.
That was separate from the fact that every participant had signed a consent form agreeing to take part in the content.
-Do we really have to air such dangerous content?
-You’re sensationalizing an accident for views.
Such criticisms had always existed.
Professional complainers.
In recent years, their misbehavior had grown even worse.
There had even been times when they attacked the websites of famous terrestrial television programs and submitted statements demanding that the content be canceled.
They were the reason all broadcasts had gradually become more sanctimonious.
Regardless.
It was also true that their opinions represented a voice that couldn’t simply be ignored.
A tower painstakingly built might be difficult to raise, but it could be toppled as easily as a sandcastle.
“I think we should air it as it is.”
When an employee spoke up, Mystery Rich asked in response,
“Why?”
“Because it’s educational, if anything.”
Everyone in the conference room focused their attention on the employee.
“The viewers learned how dangerous stonefish are. We explained the danger posed by the stonefish, and the safety team responded appropriately. There’s nothing problematic about it.”
Although the accident footage was sensational, the entire process—from recognizing the danger to the safety team’s swift rescue—had been captured on camera.
In a way, it could be considered a perfectly normal scene for a survival program.
Mystery Rich thought for a moment.
Since the program had been broadcast live, some viewers had already seen the accident.
But far more people would watch the video through the edited YouTube version.
The more people who watched the video, the more professional complainers there would naturally be.
‘What a headache.’
Mystery Rich pressed his temple.
“What should we do?”
After pondering the PD’s question, Mystery Rich opened his mouth.
The accident had occurred during the content.
It would be stranger to cover it up as if it had never happened.
Deleting all accident footage from a survival program would also go against its purpose.
The important thing was how it was presented.
“Let’s include the accident footage.”
“Yes.”
“But don’t overuse it.”
The employees in the conference room nodded.
“The part where participant Park Jun-ho keeps screaming could make viewers uncomfortable, so use as little of it as possible.”
“Yes.”
“Edit it so that the captions explaining the danger of stonefish and the Mystery Rich safety team’s response receive more attention.”
Show the danger through the accident footage without turning it into mere sensationalism.
Instead, show how perfectly the production team handled the situation and earn the public’s trust.
It was a moment that showed how Mystery Rich had become Korea’s number-one channel by subscriber count.
“Understood.”
The meeting concluded under Mystery Rich’s direction.
@
“Ugh….”
Camping really was too cold.
Even a windbreak had its limits.
How many times had I fallen asleep, only to wake up because of the cold?
When I opened my eyes to the icy wind, the sky had turned bluish.
“Hup!”
I got up and stretched widely.
People really ought to sleep in beds.
Sleeping on the ground had left my body so stiff it was killing me.
“Wake up.”
“Mmm….”
“Ms. Yerin.”
“Five more minutes….”
“Let’s go sleep in the cave.”
“The cave?”
At those words, Yerin’s eyes flew open.
Kim Woong soon rubbed his eyes and got to his feet as well.
“Benefactor.”
“Yep.”
“What are your plans for today?”
“We’re short on sleep, so we should go back and sleep for now.”
We began cleaning up the beach.
We put out the fire and gathered the shellfish we had left purging in the bamboo tube.
We also collected the salt and coconut chips.
Crunch, crunch.
As we traveled, we chewed on dried coconut flesh for breakfast.
It tasted much sweeter than it had when eaten raw.
“Oh.”
“It’s good. It tastes like some kind of snack.”
Before returning to the cave, we headed to the water source first.
We washed our faces and roughly wiped down our bodies.
We brushed our teeth with salt and checked the traps while we were there.
“I wonder if anything got caught.”
When we reached the water source and checked the trap with light steps,
“…?”
Something about it was strange.
I crouched down and examined the trap closely.
If an animal had been caught and escaped by force, it should have left traces behind.
A broken branch or a snapped cord—there should have been some sign of it, but….
The only thing left was the neatly untied knot.
What was this?
It looked like someone had tampered with the trap.