Eric Bennett: "What is that?"

　　"Maybe." Grace Cooper said gently, "It means a new beginning."

　　Eric Bennett frowned.

　　At this moment, only the two of them were left in the living room; everyone else had gone back to their rooms to rest. After what happened today, everyone was exhausted, so Adam Grant decided they would take an hour to recover before discussing what to do next. As for what to do, everyone actually knew in their hearts: if they wanted to leave here as soon as possible, they still had to go cut trees, even if something even more terrifying might happen next time.

　　"Go on." Grace Cooper said, "I'm hungry."

　　Eric Bennett got up and went to the kitchen.

　　Grace Cooper watched his back, a smile of unclear meaning appearing on her face.

　　The noodles tasted good. After the two finished eating, everyone else had more or less rested up. So they gathered in the living room again to discuss the next steps.

　　"They must have been possessed when they went down the mountain," said team member Brian Carter, who was calmer than the others. "I saw the two people in front pause for a moment."

　　"There are all kinds of bizarre ways to die here. There's no point in worrying about exactly how they died," Adam Grant said bluntly. "The problem now is the conditions for death."

　　Whether it was cutting trees, carrying wood, or traveling in the snow, any of these could be the conditions for the ghosts to kill.

　　"Let's use the process of elimination," said Little Scott. "Everyone cut trees, but only those three carried the wood."

　　"Then why were Adam Grant and I fine when we carried wood?" Eric Bennett asked.

　　"There are two possibilities: one is carrying the wood, the other is that there are additional conditions," Adam Grant said. "Because the ghosts have a limit to how many people they can kill each day. They can't kill us all at once." That was also why he had the courage to carry the wood back with Eric Bennett.

　　"But how do we verify it?" Little Scott asked.

　　"Why bother verifying?" Grace Cooper played with her hair, saying unceremoniously, "We just need to avoid those conditions. None of us can afford the price of a failed test."

　　"Oh." Little Scott replied coldly. She had always had a bad attitude toward Grace Cooper, usually ignoring her. Well, it made sense—girls like Grace Cooper, pretty and sometimes a bit dramatic, often weren't very popular with other women.

　　"Then tomorrow, no one will carry wood," Adam Grant said. "We'll make a tool and drag the wood down the mountain."

　　The others agreed.

　　"What about the one who ran off?" someone else asked, worried about the teammate who had broken down emotionally. "Are we just going to leave him?"

　　"What can we do?" teammate Brian Carter said. "Look at the sky outside—it's about to get dark. Who knows what will happen after dark? Are you going to risk your life to find him?"

　　Everyone fell silent, which was as good as agreeing.

　　In a world like this, no one's life was guaranteed. Just surviving was already a luxury, let alone saving someone else.

　　"Let's go, get some rest. We have to keep going tomorrow," Adam Grant said, standing up to return to his room.

　　Grace Cooper glanced at the weather outside and said, "I wonder if the snow will stop tomorrow."

　　As it turned out, her words were prophetic.

　　The snow fell all night and showed no sign of stopping in the morning.

　　Maybe because someone died yesterday, nothing terrifying happened last night, and everyone managed to survive another night.

　　The snow was so heavy that even going outside was difficult, let alone cutting down trees and bringing them back in such a blizzard. But compared to the harsh weather, the hidden ghosts were clearly more frightening, so despite the terrible weather, no one suggested delaying for a day.

　　A silent morning, a silent departure—everyone seemed to have lost the ability to speak after what happened yesterday.

　　The only one who kept her spirits up was Grace Cooper. She walked in the snow, humming a song, as if this trip was nothing more than a trivial outing.

　　Author's note:　　Eric Bennett: Why do you like eating noodles so much?

　　Grace Cooper: Not really, I just like eating your noodles.

　　Eric Bennett: Hm??

　　Grace Cooper: Oh, I mean the noodles you cook.

Chapter 5: The Dry Well

　　The snow was so heavy that walking on the narrow mountain path was almost impossible.

　　Eric Bennett was worried that Grace Cooper couldn't handle it physically, so he protected her the whole way. Little Scott commented from the side, "You two have a really good relationship."

　　"She's a girl," Eric Bennett said. "It's only right to take extra care of her."

　　Grace Cooper leaned weakly against Eric Bennett, glanced at Little Scott, and put on a pitiful expression.

　　Little Scott just looked away expressionlessly, clearly not fond of her.

　　They finally reached the place to cut trees, and everyone got to work again. This time, they chose two trees that weren't as thick, planning to finish cutting them all at once today. Although the weather was cold, after chopping for a while, his body started to warm up. Eric Bennett reached out to undo the buttons on his coat and stood there resting for a bit.

　　Grace Cooper leaned against a nearby tree, looking at Eric Bennett thoughtfully.

　　Eric Bennett glanced at her. "What are you looking at?"

　　Grace Cooper: "Nice butt..."