Arrowhead

Having casually shaken off the furious pursuit of the Norwegian team, Yeon-woo and Kim Su-hyeok arrived at the predetermined rally point.

Park Jung-hyeon was already waiting. The moment Yeon-woo reached the site, he pulled out his operations pad.

The destination wasn't far from the rally point. They had deliberately set the meeting place near their objective, uncertain how long a fight with the Norwegian team might drag on.

If it looked like we wouldn't finish them in time, I was ready to just pull back and head for the destination. Luckily, we managed to take them out.

Yeon-woo dropped his gaze and checked the item window. The Radar Detector had switched to a state where a new target could be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠registered.

Now that Norway's out, we can lock onto another team.

As a reward for eliminating the Norwegian team leader, he had also gained one more Life Recovery Ticket. Of the recovery tickets earned from taking out five teams, one had already been used on Park Jung-hyeon, leaving four remaining.

If they timed them carefully and used one every time things got dicey, that was a staggering sixteen lives they could restore.

At this rate, we might be an even stronger life tank than Norway's mud tank.

Of course, if all five shots landed before they could use a recovery ticket, the whole stockpile would be worthless.

"I'll transfer one Life Recovery Ticket to each of you for now. Use them the second things get critical."

"Ah, yes sir."

"Understood."

If Yeon-woo was going to heal them after a fight, they had to still be alive first. But only seven teams remained. Excluding Yeon-woo's own, that left six enemies. Any of the top six teams still standing would be highly skilled — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bloodless victories without taking damage were going to be much harder from here on out.

He tapped the Life Recovery Tickets on the operations pad and used the transfer function. The remaining count dropped from four to two. All that was left was to register a target on the Radar Detector.

Hmm. Registering either Italy or Japan would probably be best for now.

As he moved toward the destination with his teammates, Yeon-woo weighed which of the two to lock onto.

Japan had racked up quite a few kill logs so far. Turkey — the team Yeon-woo had finished off by taking out Yunus Kabak — had already lost all its members to Japan from early on the first day. And just today, Yeon-woo had seen a kill log of Japan eliminating Brazil's Team Member C.

Hmm. Same pattern yesterday and today — they take out the members but never manage to eliminate the team leader.

Japan's kill logs had a distinctly unusual shape compared to everyone else's. When other teams clashed, one side usually ended up fully eliminated. That meant they'd run into each other mid-movement and closed to a range too tight for either side to retreat.

But Japan is different.

Looking at Japan's fights, they took almost no damage themselves while only eliminating opposing members.

It's not like they can just decide to only take out members and make it happen.

Everyone was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠covered head to toe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in protective gear, making it nearly impossible to tell a team leader from a regular member. But most people who'd received professional VIP-escort training — Yeon-woo and his teammates included — advanced in the same formation. The most important person, the team leader, was placed in the center, with the other two members positioned front and rear to cover against ambushes.

Which meant Japan's primary strategy was ambush. They hid in one spot and opened fire without mercy on the first enemy who came into view. The opposing team was forced to start the fight already down one member — the one who'd been leading. If the enemy chose to engage, Japan fought a favorable three-on-two. If they retreated, Japan took zero damage. And if the enemy successfully pulled back, that meant they'd been far enough from the ambushing Japanese team to begin with — the same way Yeon-woo and Kim Su-hyeok had just casually withdrawn from the enraged Norwegian members.

In that case, the places Japan sets ambushes are probably terrain boundaries.

Where coastal dunes ended and forest began. Where open plains gave way to cornfields. Those boundary lines were spots where the enemy couldn't see the ambush team, but the ambush team could see the enemy clearly.

Yeon-woo nodded and settled on Japan as the next target. If they could know in advance where Japan was lying in wait, both offense and defense became far easier. Knowing the ambush site meant no risk of losing a teammate to a surprise attack right at the start.

More than anything, if they stay put in their ambush position, the location data from the item will be extremely useful.

Yeon-woo selected Japan from the list.

Not long after, the round ended and Strategy Phase arrived.

Static crackled.

In one corner of the control room, legs crossed, receiving a stream of battlefield intel, John McCallan heard Sierra Team's transmission through his earpiece.

"Ah, this is HQ. Sierra. The Norwegian team leader's, uh…"

He trailed off, scratched his cheek, then continued.

"Ahem. That… medical test result. How did it turn out?"

Asking whether the man had been castrated felt a bit indelicate, so he'd dressed it up as a "medical test."

"Mmm. Well, that's a relief."

John McCallan meant it — both as a producer and as a fellow man.

"Hmm, does he? Put him on."

A brief stretch of static, then Gunnar's voice came through John McCallan's earpiece.

"Right. Glad to hear nothing's permanently wrong."

John McCallan let out a short snort of laughter.

The irritation in Gunnar's voice was unmistakable. John McCallan opened his mouth.

"Hey, Gunnar. So I've been reviewing your play with my staff, and we discovered a very strange phenomenon."

Gunnar, who knew exactly what he was talking about, got out ahead of him.

"Aha, so it was an accident, is that it? Of course, you're not wrong."

John McCallan cut him off cleanly.

"We'll let what happened during combat slide. But what about your behavior this morning, after receiving the new defensive gear — deliberately going off alone to find mud and keep rolling in it on purpose? How do you plan to defend that?"

John McCallan sliced through Gunnar's thin excuse without mercy.

"Aha, is that so? Then I'll give you a binary choice. Either we edit out the process of your elimination, or we edit out you getting your shooting form corrected this morning. Pick one. This is my final act of mercy, Gunnar."

When the filming contracts were drawn up, there was a clause stating that editing could not be demanded for anything other than conversations containing sensitive personal information. That clause appeared in most Hollywood reality shows, not just Global Match, so it could hardly be called a poison pill. John McCallan's demand that he choose one of the two was, in fact, genuine mercy.

But for Gunnar Hundsen, both roads were lined with thorns.

Become "the guy who went out looking pathetic," or become "a cheater."

It wasn't really a choice. Norway ranked number one in the world on both the Press Freedom Index and the Democracy Index — the major metrics for how clean a society was. In a society like that, the judgment handed down on someone who exploited the system to cheat would be merciless. That much was obvious.

His manhood wasn't the problem anymore.

"Ordinarily this would be a disqualification, but since you're already out, we'll go the kinder route. At the very least, I'd like you to voluntarily forfeit participation in the losers' revival match."

After ending the call with Gunnar Hundsen, John McCallan opened a channel elsewhere.

"Foxtrot, Juliet. Are you heading to the destination now?"

Scattered across the island, several small balloons tethered to drones drifted at low altitude. So far, only Japan had found and popped any of them — and each balloon contained a "Penalty Card" that inflicted a negative effect on an opponent.

John McCallan looked at the screen.

Japan had used the Penalty Card they'd acquired on the Republic of Korea. The Republic of Korea had chosen Japan as the next target for the Radar Detector they'd been running since the previous round.

Both teams' arrows were pointed at each other — and for now, the arrowhead Japan had already fired looked considerably larger.

"This just got interesting."

A low hum.

After arriving at the objective and letting time pass, the operations pad and smartwatch vibrated hard with the signal that the round had ended.

Yeon-woo nodded and put distance between himself and the other two.

Hmm. Japan was on the helicopter that headed north with Brazil.

Yeon-woo's current position was roughly the seven o'clock mark on a clock face. North was twelve. It was a fair distance, but if they circled the island clockwise, they could reach it within this round without much trouble.

Those guys will have moved at least a kilometer from their starting point too, so the estimated area is around here…

That was when it happened.

In the middle of studying the map and laying out a plan, an engine sound began to rise in the distance.

"Hm?"

Kim Su-hyeok and Park Jung-hyeon, about thirty meters away, both looked toward Yeon-woo. The distant engine noise grew steadily closer.

An off-road vehicle?

He spotted the vehicle cutting across the open field toward them. No matter how impressive a team's achievements, the production wouldn't hand out vehicles as items. That made production staff the most likely explanation.

So it's here. High probability of a debuff.

Sensing the bad omen immediately, Yeon-woo looked at Park Jung-hyeon and Kim Su-hyeok. Whatever effect the debuff carried, the basic information absolutely had to be shared with his teammates — the thought flashed through his mind.

"Our next objective is north!"

Yeon-woo shouted it across the thirty-plus meters separating them. Roughly ten seconds later, the vehicle pulled up right in front of him.

"Members of the Republic of Korea team, please cease all movement from this moment. The item 'Relocation Ticket' has been activated. The two of you excluding the team leader will each be moved to locations more than two kilometers apart."

With that, Park Jung-hyeon and Kim Su-hyeok followed the guides into separate vehicles. Climbing into his, Kim Su-hyeok shook his head slowly.

"Haa… I get kidnapped a lot since coming here. Used to be I was the one doing the kidnapping."

And just like that, the two of them were scattered to different corners of the island, leaving Yeon-woo standing alone.

In an instant, the team competition of Global Match had transformed into something that felt exactly like the solitary fight of Survival Island.

Staring blankly at the operations pad, tracking his teammates' positions in real time as the meter counts climbed, Yeon-woo muttered under his breath.

"…Look at these bastards. They're starting to piss me off a little."

And the light in Yeon-woo's eyes deepened.