Episode 147: Survival Dream Team (2)
"Whoa. This really does feel like some kind of resort."
We had arrived at the vast uninhabited island chosen as our survival site, and we couldn't help but marvel. It felt, quite literally, like a resort beach: a broad sweep of white sand, water so clear you could see the sand and coral beneath the surface, and a sky that was high and brilliantly blue. If a forest hadn't stretched out behind us without a single building in sight, it would have been a resort through and through.
We were still taking in the view when the cameras, their setup finished, came swarming over with the producer.
"All right, everyone. From this moment on, the five of you are superpowered individuals stranded on an uninhabited island. Your basic goal is to survive here. Your ultimate goal is to escape."
"When you say survive, what exactly do you mean?"
One of the two women on the cast shot her hand straight up as she asked.
"Make a fire, build a shelter, forage for food and eat, sleep... Put simply, just live an ordinary life."
He said it as blithely as if it didn't sound difficult at all. When we seemed to have no further questions, he went on.
"First of all, unless there's an emergency, the production team will not be offering you any help whatsoever. People who've been shipwrecked wouldn't have anyone around to help them, would they? You'll have to handle everything yourselves."
We'd already been told as much, so we nodded. That appeared to be everything he had to say. With a light laugh, the producer told us to start surviving.
"Are we still allowed to use our phones?"
"Sure, why not. This isn't an area with cell service anyway. Just use the satellite phones somewhere the cameras won't catch you. And please refrain from looking anything up on them."
We had each brought a satellite phone of our own, so we nodded in relief. Filming alone was scheduled to run close to ten days, and it was a comfort to know we wouldn't be completely cut off the whole time. Even so, we agreed to stash the satellite phones somewhere out of the cameras' view and use them only when we had to, and then we started filming at once.
The moment the producer finished and the cameras rolled, though, silence settled over us. On the plane we'd chatted about this and that without a problem, but now that the stage was actually set, the awkwardness was killing me.
"Um... should we start with introductions? Things feel a little awkward."
Someone who couldn't stand the silence any longer was the first to break it.
"I'm Kim Son, twenty-five, and I joined with a handicraft superpower. I run a Mytube channel focused on miniatures, plastic models, and stop-motion, and the channel's called GoldenHands! If you just tell me what tools you need to survive, I'll make anything!"
Starting with Kim Son, the woman who had joined as the holder of a handicraft superpower, we each gave a brief introduction in turn.
"I'm Ha In-du. I work as a wild ginseng digger, and I have a detection-type superpower. I mostly use it to find wild ginseng. Oh, and I'm thirty-eight."
"I'm Kwon Seol-do, holder of a construction-type superpower. I'm twenty-six, and with a late enlistment coming up, I joined to try something a little different."
"I'm Geum Ba-ri, and I'm twenty-six! I have a superpower for catching fish really well, and I run a Mytube channel called DageumbariTV. Oh, Dageumbari was my nickname when I was little. It's a kind of grouper."
Once they'd finished their quick introductions, they turned to look at me. Honestly, there wasn't a single person among them who didn't already know who I was, but it didn't seem like I could just skip my turn.
"I'm Shin Suhwan, better known as the Druid. I run a zoo and a Mytube channel."
At that, Geum Ba-ri clapped, carefully. It was exactly what you'd expect from someone who had been asking for my autograph and a photo since the plane, insisting she was a fan.
The moment the introductions ended, though, silence fell again, and everyone started watching everyone else. The teammates, in particular, seemed to be watching me more than anyone. For a second I didn't understand. Then I did.
They were all celebrities in their own right, but most of them were known within their particular fields. I knew it sounded like I was praising myself, but there wasn't anyone here famous on a level that could compare with mine. That was why they were watching my reaction. They were clearly worried that if they stepped forward carelessly, my fans might find something to pick at. There were more than one or two of those fans, so nobody wanted to take an unnecessary risk.
My fans weren't quite that extreme, but I figured there was nothing to be done about it and opened my mouth.
"Shall we get a fire going first? Back when I used to watch Jungle Survival, they always started with a fire."
"Sounds great!"
"Let's. Charcoal makes a decent building material, too."
The words were barely out of my mouth before my teammates brightened and nodded.
"...Except how do we light it?"
We ran into trouble immediately. None of us had any idea how to start a fire. We had brought luggage, but it had all been confiscated on the way here. The concept was a shipwreck, so everything except what an ordinary traveler would carry had been taken from us. There had even been a lighter, but under the premise that it had fallen into the water during the wreck, they had soaked the flint until it was useless.
"How about we make a bow drill? If we can find the right materials, I can put one together in no time!"
Still, true to people whose superpowers had made the public's Top Five You'd Want If You Were Stranded on a Desert Island, a suggestion came quickly. We got moving at once and started searching for the materials Kim Son had described: a branch that was reasonably hard yet bent or springy, and something like a tough vine. Maybe because the island had barely been touched by human hands, it didn't take long. We found what we needed almost the moment we stepped into the forest just off the beach.
"Tie it here like this, hollow this part out a little... done!"
The moment we handed her the materials, she produced a bow drill in a flash. It was exactly what you'd expect from a superpowered artisan whose gift lay in making things by hand.
"A bow drill holds the top and bottom in place, and you loop the spindle through this bow-shaped piece and saw it back and forth. You get a lot of friction for the effort you put in, so it's an easy tool for starting a fire."
Having whipped the drill together, Kim Son set the spindle against a stick split down the middle and started working it. In an instant, thin white smoke curled up, and the smell of scorching wood filled the air.
"Grass! Grass! Somebody give me grass!"
She had an ember in no time. She tipped it onto the dry grass, and the fire whooshed to life.
Everyone lit up at how fast it had caught. I glanced at the producer, and even he looked as if he hadn't expected us to get a flame going this quickly.
"Ah! Unni, oppas. Shouldn't we have picked a spot for the shelter before we lit the fire?"
"Ah..."
"We were so focused on getting a fire going that the shelter never even crossed our minds."
There was a small problem, but the fire itself was a success.
"We can always move the fire later, so why don't we look around? We should see if there's anything worth eating nearby, or, like Son said, a place we can use for a shelter."
My teammates nodded that it sounded good, and we immediately started exploring the area. We had no choice but to be impressed. You could honestly call it an island optimized for survival. Close to the beach, trees stood heavy with coconuts, and deeper in the forest there were plenty of what looked like fruit trees as well. We smiled brightly at the thought that we at least wouldn't have to worry about going hungry, and kept wandering.
Once we'd noted where the various fruits were, we moved on to finding a site for the shelter, and not far off we found a suitable spot.
"This should work. The trees out front will block the gusts, the sunlight comes in well, and even though it's a bit of a walk, there's a small stream."
We nodded at Kwon Seol-do, who would be in charge of the building. Honestly, none of the rest of us knew the first thing about construction, so the architect among us was far more trustworthy.
We moved the fire we'd started on the beach, picked a few pieces of fruit along the way, and got straight to work on the shelter. There wasn't much daylight left, so we'd decided to get a house up first.
"For today, let's build something simple and improve it later. If it rains tonight, we'll need something to keep it off us."
Kwon Seol-do's plan for a temporary dwelling was a kind of brush hut, something like an A-frame tent made by lashing wood and leaves together. We immediately started cutting the bamboo growing nearby. We didn't have a blade among us, but Kim Son whipped up a stone axe from a broken rock, a stick, and some vine, so it wasn't difficult.
Then, while we were chopping the bamboo with heavy thuds, a sound that didn't belong reached us.
Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok.
It was a tapping that came and went, falling quiet and starting up again. At first I thought a teammate was cutting wood somewhere else, but when I listened closely, it wasn't the sound of a stone axe taking down a tree.
"I'm going to check where that sound's coming from real quick. I think there's something there."
I excused myself from the teammates still hacking at the bamboo and headed for the source. There I found a woodpecker drumming on a tree. Every time it snapped its head forward, chips of wood fell to the ground.
"Oh?"
Watching it bore a large hole into a thick trunk, an idea flashed through my mind.
"Hey, woodpecker! Come down here for a second!"
"Takk?"
At my call, the woodpecker that had been craning its head around spotted me and came fluttering over. I wasn't adored by animals the way So-eun was, but they still tended to take a certain liking to me. The bird settled onto the finger I gently raised and stared straight at me.
"Mind helping me out? I'll give you something to eat."
"Something to eat?"
"Yeah. I've got fruit and things. I'll give you some. How about it?"
"Okay!"
At my words, the woodpecker flapped its wings in agreement. I took it straight back to where my teammates were chopping bamboo.
"Oppa, where did you go...?"
When I got back, the team's youngest, Kim Son, was tapping away at the bamboo by herself with the stone axe. She spotted me, saw the woodpecker perched on my hand, and her mouth fell open. She froze. I waved a hand in front of Kim Son, who stood there stunned and motionless as if she'd short-circuited, and immediately pointed the bird at the bamboo.
"Could you break that one down around the base? We need to cut it, but it's a little tough for us."
"There's nothing to eat in that tree, though."
"We're not trying to eat it. I'm asking you a favor."
The woodpecker looked puzzled, but it flew over anyway and started hammering the base of the bamboo in a rattling tat-tat-tat-tat. Its head moved so fast it nearly left an afterimage. Every time that hard beak struck, the stalk split and cracked. In about the time it would have taken me to swing the stone axe five or six times, the bamboo was on the verge of snapping. A light tug would have broken it clean off.
"Agh!"
The woodpecker delivered one last peck to the stalk that was about to give, then darted back to me to avoid the falling bamboo. I gave it one of the fruits I'd picked up earlier and asked it to do the same thing a few more times. Between filling its belly and beginning to fall under the influence of my superpower, the bird started snapping bamboo at an incredible speed.
"What in the..."
The other teammates, returning after hauling bamboo over to the building site, stared at me in shock.
"Oh, there happened to be a woodpecker. So I asked it for a favor."
They looked at me as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Only Kim Son, who had been there from the moment I brought the woodpecker back, simply gazed at the bird in wonder.