Cold seawater and grimy seaweed covered the group's bodies.
Five men and three women appeared on the deserted beach.
Every one of them looked tense and exhausted. Jumping out of the small boat and wading ashore had drained all their strength.
As soon as they set foot on land, they collapsed one after another, gasping for breath as though they had just made a harrowing escape.
[Here we go, here we go! Checking in for the newcomer!]
[The streamer should be somewhere in this group, right? Let me guess which one.]
[Isn't it too early to guess? Even a newcomer wouldn't go OOC right out of the gate, right?]
[I'm here to cleanse my eyes. A pervert just polluted my soul!]
[Don't go, person above! Me too!]
[Is the streamer a man or a woman? What if they drew an identity card of the opposite sex?]
[It's possible. Identity cards aren't limited by gender.]
The group stayed on the beach to rest, and not one of them got up. The bullet comments were growing impatient.
[What's with these people? Why aren't they getting up? Are they planning to spend the night here?]
[According to the plot summary, they were shipwrecked and spent half a month drifting at sea. Maybe they haven't recovered yet.]
[Half a month? What did they eat and drink? Did that little boat have food on it?]
As the bullet comments buzzed with discussion, someone finally stood up. He was a two-meter-tall Black man wearing sportswear, his dreadlocks in disarray. Though his complexion was as sickly as the others', he looked relatively energetic among them.
He first helped the white woman beside him to her feet, then pulled the others up one by one.
"Everyone, we can't stay here. It's fine during the day, but there's no telling what might come out at night. Let's head inland and see if there's somewhere we can spend the night."
Brussels, the Black man, ran a hand over his dreadlocks and spoke without asking the others' opinions.
The others had no objections. They looked at a woman of Chinese descent among them, apparently hoping she would point them in the right direction.
The woman's expression was grim. She wore a black uniform, and her short brown hair clung wetly to her face.
She pursed her lips, forcing down her dissatisfaction with the others. "We're short of fresh water and food. I took a look along the coastline just now and didn't see any sign of people, so we can only head into the forest. Islands like this usually have freshwater lakes. Let's follow the animals' tracks and look for one."
The cruise ship captain was the only one with wilderness survival experience, so the others naturally did as she said.
They split into three groups: the Black man and the blonde white woman, the captain and a tall young man, and everyone else together.
The dense trees blotted out the sky and sun. Though night had yet to fall, stepping into the forest felt like entering a realm of darkness.
Their uneven footsteps broke the desolate silence, scattering the withered fallen leaves carpeting the ground. As they advanced through the empty expanse, low, raspy birdcalls occasionally reached their ears.
The blonde woman leaned against Brussels' arm the whole way, hunched over and afraid to look ahead.
Suddenly, she stepped on something and stumbled sideways with a scream. Brussels reacted in time and caught her.
"What was that? Ah, what was that?!"
Her hands and feet trembled, and her lips quivered incessantly. With her eyes shut, she shouted wildly, sending a flock of birds fluttering into the air in the distance.
"Shut up! Do you want to draw a pack of wolves here to eat you?"
An irritated male voice rang out. It belonged to a white-haired young man who, despite his disheveled state, retained the air of a superior accustomed to a life of privilege.
A black-haired man with glasses was beside him. With a serious expression, he crouched to examine the thing that had suddenly appeared, even turning it over with his hand.
Everyone saw that it was a decayed, rusted tin can lying on the ground, with several rusty shell casings scattered nearby.
"Someone's been on this island before!"
The man with glasses stood up and addressed the group.
"But those things look like they've been here a long time. Would anyone still be here now?"
A timid voice asked.
The man with glasses looked at the speaker, a small, pale woman with black hair. Rather than contradict her, he offered his analysis. "Judging by the model markings on the can and shell casings, these should be wartime supplies used by M Country soldiers during World War II. Since they ended up here, those soldiers were probably shipwrecked and stranded here, just like us."
"From the scattered shell casings, those soldiers may have been attacked by some wild beast. But any traces, like footprints, are long gone, so I can't tell whether they survived."
At the possibility of wild beasts on the island, everyone's faces darkened. The blonde woman was so frightened that she buried herself in Brussels' arms.
"All right, we have to go inland no matter what. If we really do run into a wild beast, we'll just have to hope for the best."
With that, Brussels put his arm around the woman and continued forward.
The others left standing there exchanged looks, then followed.
[This guy with glasses knows his stuff. He figured out so much from just shell casings and a can.]
[This instance looks like it's set a long time ago. A thousand years ago, maybe?]
[To be precise, it should be 1948 on the old calendar. That's more than 1,500 years ago.]
[Why aren't you guessing which one is the streamer? I'm betting on the guy with glasses. I think he has real protagonist vibes!]
[Are you out of your mind? The streamer's a newcomer. How could they adapt so quickly? I think the blonde woman's a strong possibility!]
[Huh? That woman? If it's really her, I'm out. Her screaming just now gave me a headache.]
[Let's keep watching. I think this group is pretty interesting: white, Black, and Asian people all mixed together. Everything's unified now, but I remember there were racial issues back then, right?]
[What's so interesting about racial issues? I'm looking forward to seeing the captain. It was no simple thing for a woman to become a captain back then.]
As the group walked on, the trees ahead suddenly ended as though someone had cut them off. Their view opened up beneath a sky blanketed in black clouds, and a mansion with an ancient air appeared before them.
Thorns covered its towering walls, and the spires at the top seemed ready to pierce the clouds. The windows in the walls were barred shut with iron rods, as if to imprison a monster hidden inside the castle.
The sight was too eerie. Even though they were cold and hungry and desperate for food, seeing such a strange castle on a deserted island still brought them to a halt.
Reason kept them from going farther, but fear had already taken hold of the blonde woman's mind. When she saw the castle before her, she immediately pulled away from Brussels and raced toward the front doors at the top of the stone steps.
"Stop! Can't you see there's something strange about this place?!"
"That fucking bitch is asking to die!"
Several of them cursed the woman, but they could only run after her.
The doors, decorated with intricate patterns, looked heavy, and the woman naturally lacked the strength to push them open. But as everyone gathered at the entrance, the doors opened on their own.
A cloud of dust blurred their vision. The captain coughed several times, then turned to look at the magnificent decorations inside.
Unlike the desolation and horror outside, more than a dozen people were there to welcome them. All wore matching uniforms, and their smiles were sincere and joyful as they spoke in unison:
"Welcome to Kanibari Villa, dear guests."