Hunting Game

At that moment, he also heard the two men talking. "Haha, this time we'll have some fun. There are four people in that family over there. Too bad only the middle-aged man is a cop. The other four are ordinary people. They'll definitely be as boring as those weaklings before."

The other man said, "Don't be so dissatisfied. There are two women here, especially that high school girl. She has a really nice figure."

"Hehe, but that girl won't be your turn. If you're lucky, you'll get the middle-aged hag at most."

In that short time, Link sensed more people arriving. Judging from their voices and footsteps, four new people had appeared.

That meant there were six people here in total. From their conversation, Link realized they had only come to capture him and the others. The real members of the group had not all shown up yet.

The car soon started moving. Link fought the effects of the anesthetic with all his strength, and as time passed, his body recovered rapidly.

This was thanks to Link's Constitution having reached 14.2 points. It was not merely related to health and endurance as shown on the panel; invisibly, it was also tied to his body's resistance. In other words, his resistance far surpassed that of ordinary people.

Otherwise, Link would not have been startled awake in the room. Now, he could already feel sensation gradually returning to his body, and the heaviness in his eyelids was no longer so severe.

From what these people had said earlier, Link confirmed that this was not their first time doing something like this. They had even developed a routine for it. It reminded Link of movies from his previous life, about people who enjoyed torturing others for pleasure and thrills.

Many crime movies in the United States were made to be shocking and thrilling, but they were actually based on real situations. Some people even went directly to prisons to understand criminals' mindsets. Naturally, that made them realistic and impactful enough.

Twenty or thirty minutes later, the car stopped. Faint voices speaking rose from all around. None were loud, but judging from their number and directions, Link realized there had to be at least several dozen people nearby.

The car door opened again. Link and the family were all carried out. A moment later, a man said, "Wake them up. I want to tell them the rules of the game."

A cool sensation soon washed over him, and Link's mind snapped awake. However, he did not move immediately. Instead, he watched the people beside him. Only after they began making groggy noises did he likewise open his eyes, pretending he had just woken up.

After confirming that all five of them were awake, the man from before said, "Welcome to our playground. You're honored to play this game with us. Congratulations."

Link said nothing. He narrowed his eyes as if he had not fully awakened. At that moment, Bob spoke. "Who are you people? What do you want?"

"Hehe, now that you've joined our game, do you want to know what game it is?"

Bob said, "What game? What you're doing is illegal, do you know that?!"

The man burst into laughter. "That's right, we broke the law. But who would know? This isn't your police station."

After a pause, he continued, "All right, back to the point. Congratulations on becoming participants in the Real Person Hunting Game. Your role is that of prey."

Bob said nothing, and Link was even less likely to be the first to stand out. Only by acting like an ordinary person would he have a chance to catch others off guard.

Perhaps feeling that this was too boring, the man said directly, "Listen up, all of you. In five minutes, the game begins. In this game, you are the prey, like wild boars or elk. If you don't try your hardest to run, you'll be killed!"

By then, Link understood. These people were a group of twisted lunatics who enjoyed the process of killing people as though they were prey.

Still, Link felt somewhat fortunate that he had not run into people like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre killers. Otherwise, if he had been trapped in a house full of mechanisms, his chances of survival would have been even lower.

Through careful observation, Link spotted at least a dozen vehicles within his field of vision. There were at least thirty or forty people, perhaps even fifty. He truly did not know how they had managed this for so long without being discovered.

But Link quickly figured it out. It really was not that surprising. Texas was vast and sparsely populated. As long as no concrete evidence was found, what did a few missing people matter? Every year, the number of people who disappeared while traveling across the United States could not even be counted.

In such vast, sparsely populated places, it was not strange to occasionally find unidentified bones from decades ago. Such things happened too often—so often that even the police had no way to investigate them.

Once he understood what was happening, Bob began cursing furiously. His wife and two children cried and shouted in confusion, clearly having been severely traumatized.

"All right, we're leaving now. You have five minutes to hide. Then the hunting game officially begins. Only the winner gets to live!" After saying that, the man whistled, and the surrounding cars started up and drove away one after another.

Only after darkness returned to the area did Link carefully survey his surroundings. It was wasteland with quite a few trees, but the woods were neither dense nor large. If someone hid inside, they could be spotted at a glance from outside.

At that moment, a system notification suddenly appeared before Link's eyes:

Evil Hunting Game quest activated. Objective: Escape the hunt. Evolution Points will be awarded based on performance!

The sudden system notification nearly made Link cry out in surprise. He had been thinking about how to obtain Evolution Points, but after trying many methods without success, a quest had suddenly appeared now.

This delighted Link, while also reducing some of the fear in his heart.

It was his first time encountering something like this across both lives. It would have been a lie to say he was not afraid.

He had simply regained consciousness earlier and had already considered the worst-case scenario, setting up a mental defense for himself in the face of danger. Otherwise, he might not have been much better off than those two high school students.

At the same time, the system notification seemed to give Link greater confidence. Simply put, it gave his mind another pillar of support. He could not help muttering softly in Chinese, "I'm someone with a system too. How could I die at the hands of a bunch of trash like this?"

With more confidence in his heart, his mind became more agile. Link began recalling the weapons in those people's hands. Most carried bows and crossbows. Some had pistols at their waists, but they held bows or crossbows as well.

Clearly, these people truly regarded this as a hunting game.

Link stood up and took two steps, then immediately frowned. He had been carried here while asleep and had not been wearing shoes. The ground was littered with small stones and dead branches. Running over it would be little different from the torture of stepping on shards of glass.

After thinking it over, Link took off his undershirt, tore it apart, and wrapped layer after layer around his feet. Only then did it feel a little more comfortable.

Although that man had said only the winner could survive, Link knew they would not let anyone live. Otherwise, if this was not their first time doing it, how could no rumors have spread until now?

As for the other family, Link himself was not even sure he could survive, so how could he possibly help them? After briefly identifying the direction, he entered the small woods nearby.