Guan Tong figured there might be a clue somewhere on the island. But after thinking it over, he first found a hidden spot to take cover, then took an item out of his storage box.

It was the [Guiding Flashlight] he had obtained from the Survival Treasure Chest, his reward after the fourth rule.

’I wonder if this will work...’

Guan Tong tried to use the item, but a prompt indicated failure. He had to silently state the target location in his mind first.

He vaguely remembered the hidden rules mentioning a location. Opening his terminal to check again, he saw that, sure enough, the rules stated the Holy Grail was in the island’s "Holy Grail Secret Realm."

’Guide me to the Holy Grail Secret Realm,’ Guan Tong recited in his mind, trying to use the item again.

CLICK!

The flashlight switched on, casting a dazzling yellow beam that spread across the ground, extending into the distance like a road sign and pointing the way to the "Holy Grail Secret Realm."

It worked!

Guan Tong was delighted. He had thought "Holy Grail Secret Realm" might not count as a proper place name and that the attempt would fail, but it had actually succeeded.

Looking at the bright yellow beam on the ground, he now had a clear objective. All he had to do was follow it to find the Holy Grail Secret Realm, and the Holy Grail itself!

Guan Tong set out at once.

If he could, he would have sprinted the whole way, maybe even using his Hooked Claw to speed things up—but that was undoubtedly too dangerous.

The island was crawling with Ascenders, and since they were all enemies, he had to move cautiously and watch out for traps.

At that thought, Guan Tong took out the [Corpse Whistle]. He spent 20 points of Psychic Power to blow it softly, and three Living Dead, their eyes glowing with a faint red light, immediately clawed their way out of the ground.

"You, go up front. You, take the left. You, take the right."

Guan Tong gave the three Living Dead their orders, having them spread out around him. With him in the middle, they would serve as a buffer in case of a sudden crisis.

Upon receiving their orders, the three Living Dead immediately formed a perimeter around Guan Tong and advanced with him at the center.

He hadn’t gone far when he noticed something happening up ahead. He immediately commanded the three Living Dead to hit the dirt and take cover with him so they could observe from concealment.

Not far away stood a wooden house. Surrounding it, a group of more than a dozen Ascenders were locked in a chaotic free-for-all!

’One squad, two squads, three squads...’

Based on their positioning, Guan Tong determined there were three squads in total. Their fighting had no discernible strategy; it was a pure melee where everyone was attacking everyone else.

People soon started getting defeated and eliminated. One of the squads was the first to collapse and be completely wiped out.

Of the two remaining squads, one primarily wielded melee weapons and fought with vicious aggression. The other squad was no match and was quickly whittled down to just two members. Seeing they were outmatched, the two exchanged a look and simultaneously turned to flee. The melee squad refused to let them go and gave chase.

The two squads quickly disappeared into the distance. Just as Guan Tong was about to emerge, three other people beat him to it, appearing furtively from the other side of a slope and creeping toward the wooden house.

’So I wasn’t the only one watching from the shadows...’

Guan Tong watched the three-person squad, issued a command, and his three Living Dead immediately moved toward them.

The trio thought no one else was around and had let down their guard. Just as they were about to enter the wooden house, three figures suddenly lunged at them!

"Watch out!"

One of them shouted a warning as a sandbag materialized in his hand, which he then threw with all his might.

The sandbag, seemingly one of his Psychic Power items, swelled to the size of a basketball in mid-air. It knocked one of the Living Dead to the ground with a loud THUD.

The other two also took out items to fight back, but they were stunned when they saw the red glow emanating from their attackers’ eyes.

"Not Ascenders! These are... Living Dead?"

"What the hell? Why are the Living Dead from the fifth rule on this island?!"

While the three were still bewildered, two gunshots rang out from behind them.

They didn’t even have time to turn around before a wave of pain washed over them. Then, they lost consciousness and were eliminated.

[Points +3]

Guan Tong lowered the muzzle of his Silver Shotgun. He had used two rounds of Scatter Shot to ambush and eliminate all three from behind.

’Using the Living Dead as bait to distract the enemy works surprisingly well.’

Thinking this, Guan Tong slipped into the wooden house.

The first floor of the house was completely empty. He went up the stairs to the second floor and found a gray box sitting in a corner.

’This must be the item box the Fire Thief mentioned in the rules, the kind that randomly spawns on the island.’

Guan Tong wasn’t sure and worried it might be a trap, so he had one of his surviving Living Dead try to open the box, but it wouldn’t budge.

Guan Tong approached it himself. The moment his palm touched the box, a prompt appeared.

[Opening the map supply crate requires 1 key or 1 Multi-functional Lock Opener.]

’So this is what the Multi-functional Lock Openers from the shop are for,’ Guan Tong thought. ’As for keys, I’ll probably have to find them somewhere on the island.’

He didn’t have a key, but he had six Lock Openers in his storage. Not one to be stingy, he used one to open the box and retrieve the item inside.

[Jammer]: When used, jams enemy drone scans for 3 minutes. Single-use item.

Guan Tong was pleased with the item’s effect. He placed it in his "temporary backpack" and quickly evacuated the wooden house.

He figured it out then: the probability of item boxes spawning inside buildings was likely higher than in the wild. That’s why the Ascenders had been fighting over it.

Two minutes after Guan Tong left, the squad that had given chase earlier returned. Upon entering the wooden house and seeing the opened box on the second floor, they were dumbfounded.

"Fuck! Someone stole the item!"

"This pisses me off! We worked our asses off to wipe out two squads!"

"We got caught up in the chase! We should’ve left someone behind to open the box first!"

"After them!" one of them shouted angrily. "The vulture who stole it can’t have gotten far! Let’s hunt them down and kill them!"

"Let’s go!"

Filled with resentment, the group ran out and gave chase toward the center of the island. However, Guan Tong was still following the path laid out by his [Guiding Flashlight].

The path wasn’t leading to the island’s dead center, but rather to a location slightly west of it.

Guan Tong followed the light for some distance, encountering other Ascenders fighting along the way. But unless the conflict was directly in his path, he did his best not to get involved.

To him, finding the Holy Grail as quickly as possible was far more important than fighting other contestants for points. That was the real grand prize!

But he soon discovered that reaching the Holy Grail Secret Realm wouldn’t be so easy.

The path ahead led directly through a small town filled with dense clusters of houses. Going around it would take far too much time.

’A place like this must be crawling with Ascenders,’ he thought. ’More houses means more items, so the competition is bound to be fierce...’

Guan Tong checked the time. There were about forty minutes left until the first time the safe zone shrank. He didn’t know how much smaller it would get, so if he took a wide detour and got caught outside the new safe zone, all his effort would be for nothing.

That settled it. He had no choice but to cut straight through the town.