It was the fifth day of the wilderness survival challenge. Our food supply was completely gone, and everyone was sinking into hunger and despair.
Just then, my best friend, Chloe Miller, came back, clutching a huge cluster of vibrant red mushrooms. A savior-like glow radiated from her face.
“Everyone, come quickly! These are edible red mushrooms; I used to forage for them back home! We’re saved!”
Crazed with hunger, the others immediately swarmed around her, showering her with praise.
“Chloe’s our lucky charm! Way more useful than some stuck-up beauty queen who’s all looks and no substance!”
But I rushed forward, knocking the poisonous fungi from her hands. “These are deadly poisonous mushrooms, the ones that kill you!” I yelled.
Blinded by starvation, no one believed me.
Chloe, especially, picked up the mushrooms with a wounded expression, ready to distribute them again.
Seeing I couldn’t convince them, I snatched all the toxic mushrooms and threw them into the bonfire without hesitation.
She froze for a moment, then her eyes welled up, and she turned a tearful gaze to the camera. “Cassie, I know you’re popular, but you can’t bully me like this. I was just trying to help…”
Everyone looked at me with disdain. The live chat instantly exploded with comments like “Bitch,” and “Get out of the show.”
That night, while I slept, she sneaked a hidden mushroom into my drinking water.
As organ failure set in and my consciousness blurred, I heard her whisper mockingly in my ear:
“I could have won first place tonight… Why were you stupid enough to compete with me? Remember this in your next life: don’t stand in my way!”
When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the moment she was about to hand those poisonous fungi to everyone.
“Cassie, this one’s for you. I picked out the biggest one.”
Chloe stuffed the most vibrantly colored poisonous mushroom into my hand.
I stared at the bright red mushroom in her hand.
I pinched my waist, hard. The sharp pain was real.
It wasn’t a dream.
I was really back. The agony of my previous death still made cold sweat trickle down my back.
A few male contestants around me were still muttering crude remarks.
“Look at Chloe, so beautiful and kind-hearted! Unlike some cold beauty, who’s just a pretty face when it really matters!”
“She’s probably waiting for us to starve to death so she can hog the five million dollar prize, right?”
I clutched the deadly poisonous mushroom, my fingertips ice cold.
In my past life, I was too focused on saving these fools, only to be doubted and hated by them.
Ultimately, I died because of Chloe’s venomous scheme.
The prize money? My dad invested a hundred million dollars in this show.
But I couldn’t just stand by and watch people die here.
“These mushrooms are poisonous.”
I held up the toxic fungi in my hand, my voice cold and hard.
“Don’t eat them.”
“Nonsense!”
An influencer, Chad Baker, immediately jumped out. A mini camera was clipped to his chest, and he yelled into his live stream,
“Guys, look at this! Some people get jealous when others are more capable. She’s deliberately saying the mushrooms are poisonous, trying to starve us to death! How disgusting!”
“Cassie,”
Chloe’s eyes welled up instantly, her voice trembling with a sob.
“I know you don’t like me, but you can’t joke about everyone’s lives! These really are edible red mushrooms; I used to eat them back home all the time…”
“Oh, really?”
I scoffed, done with the pointless chatter. I pulled the multi-tool from my belt.
“What are you doing?!”
Brock Jensen, a seasoned outdoorsman and Chloe’s blindly devoted follower, immediately stepped in front of her defensively.
“Are you going to pull a knife just because you got called out?”
I ignored him. My movements were swift, with practiced precision.
A pigeon dropped from above. I sliced off a small piece of mushroom, forced a bit into its beak.
The whole process took only a few seconds.
The pigeon initially flapped, but less than half a minute later, its movements grew stiff, it began to convulse, and then it simply collapsed dead on the ground.
Seeing this, everyone froze. They tossed their mushrooms away as if they were scorching hot.
“Now, does anyone still think these mushrooms are edible?”
“Chloe! You almost killed us!”
Someone snapped out of their shock, accusing her sharply.
Chloe’s body trembled, tears streaming down her face. She feigned a look of immense sorrow.
“I just wanted everyone to eat something… Maybe there are many similar varieties of mushrooms, and I made a mistake…”
Her story was full of holes, but paired with her pathetic appearance, it actually cooled some of the men’s anger.
Suddenly, she looked up, and abruptly changed the subject:
“But Cassie, why do you carry a knife with you? Are you secretly hiding it, planning to use some special trick to win in the finals?”
Predictably, the others, who had just been pointing fingers at Chloe, immediately turned their questions to me.
“Yeah! Why do you have a knife?”
“Bringing a weapon to the competition is against the rules!”
Chad Baker yelled excitedly at his live stream, “Guys! We’ve got a major scoop here! A beauty contestant caught with a weapon!”
Brock Jensen even took a step forward and shoved me hard. “Hand over the knife! And your bag, we need to check it!”
Caught off guard, I stumbled and fell to the ground.
Brock unceremoniously snatched my backpack and dumped all its contents onto the dirt.
“Enough.”
Julian Thorne, the wealthy heir who had been leaning against a distant tree trunk, strolled over slowly.
“I’ve seen this kind of charade played out a million times at galas.”
“But for a bunch of hunger-crazed idiots, I suppose it’s effective enough.”
His words caused the restless atmosphere to quiet slightly.
“If she really wanted to harm you, wouldn’t it have been easier to just watch you eat the poisonous mushrooms?”
Chloe, seeing herself being challenged, cried even harder, tears rolling down her face.
“I read a report once, someone put razor blades in another person’s sleeping bag, or on the edge of their water bottle… I never thought you could be so vicious. As your friend, I can’t condone this!”
Her words were pure manipulation, and the men who already doubted me instantly changed their expressions.
I scoffed, my gaze sweeping over the fools.
“Are you out of your minds? If I really wanted to harm someone, would I have shown it this early?”
“Who knows if this isn’t some kind of reverse psychology!”
Brock yelled sharply, clearly now completely on Chloe’s side.
I was about to retort when a mournful wolf howl echoed from the distant forest.
Everyone’s faces paled.
“It’s a wolf!”
Someone’s voice trembled.
Chloe shrieked in terror, instinctively hiding behind Brock, but not forgetting to blame me. “It’s all your fault, Cassie Blackwood! If you hadn’t wasted everyone’s time with this pointless drama, we’d at least have some strength to run! Now look what happened…”
I cut her off coldly.
“You see a wolf and you still want to run? Are you insane? Running makes you a sitting duck!”
Brock immediately shielded Chloe, glaring at me furiously.
“You shut up! If it weren’t for you—”
“You want to draw them closer, why don’t you?!”
I lowered my voice, warning him sharply,
“Are you trying to attract the whole pack? The only thing we need to do right now is find somewhere to hide!”
Fear overrode the argument.
Everyone frantically began to gather their meager equipment.
As Brock packed, he still couldn’t resist questioning me in a low voice.
“I just can’t understand why you’d be so kind as to warn us? Shouldn’t you be wishing we’d all die so you could take the prize money?”
I stopped, staring at him, and shot back.
“What about you? Why are you helping Chloe so much? In just five days, have you fallen so in love with her that you’d willingly die for her?”
“Or are you just completely under her spell from her tearful act?”
Brock choked, his face turning ashen, unable to speak.
Not far away, Chloe was looking at her heroic defender with eyes full of worship and dependence, tears still glistening.
After becoming best friends with Chloe, I always thought she only had romance on her mind.
And also, some vague, unspoken jealousy towards me.
Before, I just thought she was a bit petty, nothing major.
But this wilderness trip had completely opened my eyes.
We hadn’t gone far when a dark, narrow cave mouth appeared on the side of the mountain, just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways.
From deep within the cave, a faint sound of flowing water could be heard.
“Water!”
The influencer gasped in surprise, his parched lips trembling with excitement.
He quickly adjusted the camera on his collar, lowering his voice but unable to hide his thrill as he spoke to the camera: “My loyal followers, do you see this? God hasn’t abandoned us! We found a water source! When I win this competition, I’ll hook all my subscribers up with a bonus! Haha!”
Desperate for views, he didn’t think to assess the situation before entering.
He had barely squeezed half his body into the cave entrance when a loud rustling sound came from inside.
“Ah!”
A short, sharp scream suddenly rang out, followed by the sound of something heavy being dragged away.
Right behind the influencer was Chloe.
Half her body was wedged in the narrow opening of the cave entrance, her huge backpack making it impossible for her to move forward or backward.
She had clearly seen something inside the cave; her entire face instantly lost all color, and her pupils dilated to their widest extent.
“Chloe!”
Brock’s eyes widened, and he lunged forward, grabbing her arm and pulling her desperately.
“Get out, fast!”
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