Becoming the Dark Lord

Yut wandered through the village his men had seized the moment they appeared on the island. A few hours earlier, he had been in Bangkok, in the district of Phra Nakhon, when the system started spamming his vision with frantic notifications. By the time he understood what was happening, he was already plummeting out of the sky toward an unfamiliar island.

Now he walked slowly, taking in the scene. His crew had secured everything. Severed heads were mounted on stakes like a grotesque perimeter. Yut had cut most of them down himself with the Krabi krabong blade he’d found in a chest. One of his favorite weapons back in Thailand.

“Yut,” Naront called.

He clicked his tongue. “You broke my train of thought, Naront. A man who doesn’t think can’t plan.”

“Somchai brought another one for you,” Naront murmured, clearly uneasy.

Yut headed toward Somchai. No one climbed the ranks in Bangkok without real brains for business. The other players there were sharks, not fish. You didn’t step into the drug trade without drawing the attention of gangs funded by one of the daimyos. And yet Yut had carved out space for his own empire to grow.

When he arrived, he found a captive tied up on the ground.

“Well, well, look at this. A fat bastard,” Yut said, tapping the man’s cheeks lightly. “Tell me something, porky. What crime did you commit to get thrown into this hell?”

“I-I-I didn’t do anything. I’m innocent. Please, don’t hurt me.”

“Pigs always squeal at the slaughterhouse,” Yut muttered, pressing the blade against the man’s neck. “How many skills do you have?”

“I can be useful! I can help you! Please!”

“How many skills, little pig?”

“Just one! Please don’t ki—”

Yut’s sword flashed once. The head fell.

His men roared with approval as blood sprayed across the dirt.

[You have slain a Human…]*67,129 IP earned*

“Still leaking all over the ground. The fat one really was a pig,” Naront scoffed.

While they laughed, Yut did the math in his head.

A human gives fifty thousand CP. Because he had a skill, that adds another ten. And the extra seven thousand… that must be what he earned during his time on the island so far.

Yut checked his total.

[Yut Saeten 2,377,936 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)]

If that’s accurate, then hunting bracelet users is more profitable.

Now that he had a bracelet of his own, he would earn not only kill bonuses but also absorb the points of anyone wearing one. He removed the dead man’s bracelet and pocketed it.

Might be useful later.

The day slipped by. He and his gang of more than a hundred worked methodically, gathering every chest in the region and locking down the surrounding territory.

User Rankings! These are the participants with the highest point totals and therefore the greatest chance of winning the challenge!

1st Place: Ivor Aaberg: 4,581,848 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)

2nd Place: Yut Saeten: 2,377,936 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)

3rd Place: Luke Moon: 1,516,371 IP (Bracelets Found: 0)

4th Place: Antonio Brandt: 1,123,888 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)

5th Place: Gabriel Domínguez: 1,119,334 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)

This place fell with us, prison inmates or at least people with a System. The ones at the top must be them.

Yut smiled. It meant the island held more people worth playing with.

The more points they gather for me, the better.

Now he could take other people’s points. The next thing he needed to figure out was whether he could steal points even from those who didn’t have a bracelet, simply because he had one.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He was dying to know what those points could eventually grant him. The system had been very clear: only one participant would survive the Battle Royale. He and his men understood perfectly well that, in the end, they would have to turn on each other… but that would come later. For the next few months, their focus was simple. Wipe out every other bastard on this island.

If only a handful were meant to reach the final stretch, then it would be the Five Street Youths, not the other scum.

“We’ll hunt the other sharks soon, boys,” Yut announced. The group roared in agreement.

“Can’t wait to watch those inmates crap themselves after we beat down a few more of them,” someone added.

To them, this island was their own personal Phra Nakhon. The celebration died abruptly.

“Someone’s coming!” Surachai shouted as he rappelled down from a half-collapsed building. “It’s one of ours!”

“Just one?”

The man staggered into view, beaten bloody, barely standing. He told them what happened. He and his squad had been ambushed.

“We found the guy hunting the beasts in our territory. And the foreign bastard fought back and took everyone else out. He sent a message, Yut… said he’d come here to kill you. And us,” Manop said.

“A foreign bastard? Coming here to kill me?” Yut grabbed Manop by the hair. “You’d better explain this damn story properly.”

So Manop told him everything, starting with how they ambushed the outsider inside a cave.

“The bastard killed four of my men.”

“And what the hell did this guy even look like?” Yut demanded.

“I-I don’t remember, it happened too fast.”

Yut shoved him away and pressed the edge of his blade against Manop’s neck. “Was he Mexican, Lebanese, Asian? Speak. Give me something. Unless you want me to crack open your skull to help you remember?”

“He was white!” Manop screamed. “Some pale guy. European, maybe?”

“This island is full of pale guys,” Yut muttered, slowly dragging the blade along his skin. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

“H-he had one black eye and one blue!” Manop yelled.

Yut froze.

“Now that’s useful,” he said, grabbing Manop by the hair again. “Come on. You’re going to take me to the spot where you found that bastard.”

He turned to his men. “We’re hunting, boys. We’re going after the foreigner.”

Their cheers rose instantly, savage and eager.

***

Luke stood before a chest he’d found hidden in the forest. Inside, he discovered a loaf of bread and a bundle of arrows. Not much, but enough to expand his measly stock of thirteen arrows to twenty-five.

“Hellish island,” he muttered.

He grabbed everything, then climbed up to one of the thick branches of an old tree. Settling there, he tore into the bread. The Baumanns drifted into his thoughts again. They always did. He wondered where they were, if they were alive. It was one thing for him to walk through hell. His family? That was different.

“Bartholomew, you always tried to stop this crap,” he whispered around a mouthful of bread.

If the tutorial hadn’t ended, the 51 wouldn’t have activated. And if anything happens to my family, I swear I’ll wipe out every bastard on the other half of the planet, then hunt down every King of the World and anyone living under their banners.

He dropped from the tree and moved on toward his next objective. Far in the distance, a faint green shimmer pulsed across the landscape. That was where he’d find the next bracelet.

Second Bracelet: Green Bracelet

You are outside the challenge zone. All potable water on the island has vanished outside the Green Bracelet region. No rivers, wells, or rainfall exist beyond that boundary.

Reach the mission zone to attempt to obtain the bracelet and survive death by thirst along the way. Good luck.

[Time Remaining: 2 Weeks : 5 Days : 15 Hours : 37 Minutes : 23 Seconds]

Even the water in my canteen vanished. Would I die of thirst if I went three weeks without drinking water?

Considering the effort it took just to stay alive in this hostile environment, he figured that kind of death wasn’t just possible. It was likely.

***

Luke spotted a chest falling out of the sky. He sprinted through the forest, bow in hand, and when he reached it, someone was already rummaging through the loot.

He drew, released, and the arrow found its mark.

[You have slain a Human…] *51,728 IP earned*

He dashed to the chest and scooped up whatever was inside, then bolted away from the clearing. Climbing a tree, he moved across the canopy, hopping branch to branch to avoid leaving tracks on the ground.

Only then did he check the item he’d grabbed.

[Hunter’s Green Cloak (Common): A green cloak that offers slight camouflage in the forest. Comes with a hood that helps protect against rain.

His old cloak was torn to shreds. He swapped it out and stuffed the ruined one into his bag. Cloth was always useful, even as firestarter. The damn river had dried up. He stared at the place where water should have been rushing by, now nothing but cracked earth.

He kept moving.

Killing humans gives at least fifty thousand IP. That’s probably the minimum.

User Rankings! These are the participants with the highest point totals and therefore the greatest chance of winning the challenge!

1st Place: Ivor Aaberg: 4,963,848 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)

2nd Place: Yut Saeten: 2,522,112 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)

3rd Place: Luke Moon: 1,678,937 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)

4th Place: Gabriel Domínguez: 1,324,111 IP (Bracelets Found: 2)

5th Place: Antonio Brandt: 1,173,901 IP (Bracelets Found: 1)

Someone managed to get a bracelet within a single day of the challenge? Must’ve been lucky enough to spawn close to the mission area.

The gap between first and second place was massive.

This Ivor must have killed a lot of people to rack up that many points. I’ll need to be careful with every single one of these top players.