“You will have three different goals in Evensong Forest to compete and win this competition. 𝒷𝒹𝓸𝓿𝓁.𝒸ℴ𝓶

The first goal will be collecting. There is a flower somewhere inside the Evensong Forest named ‘Calfury.’ It looks like this. If you complete this task, you will secure the third position safely,” the chief explained as he took out a purple-colored flower from his pocket and showed it to everyone.

“The second goal will be stealing. There lives a beast inside the Evensong Forest known as the Evan Eagle. They lay eggs in this season on the top of the highest tree in the forest.

You will have to steal its egg and bring it back to secure the second position in this competition. You can also bring more than one egg to get extra money for it. Here is a picture of how this creature looks like,” the chief spoke as he took out a scroll from his pocket and showed it to everyone.

On the scroll, there was a drawing of an Evan Eagle.

“The third and the last goal will be hunting. As you can already understand what this means. You have to hunt a beast and bring back its teeth in order to complete this task.

The beast you will be hunting is a very vicious one, known as ‘The Hell Hound.’

The Hell Hound is a very dangerous beast; they search for food in the darkness of night, and they can easily sense anyone approaching them.

Now if some of you must be thinking, why not just buy their teeth from the shop and give them to the chief? No, that won’t work. I can easily tell if the teeth belong to a freshly killed Hell Hound or a previously killed one.

So, don’t try to act oversmart with me. If you achieve this task, you will secure the first position in this competition easily.

One more thing, although this never happened, but since I have some very promising faces here, I will be adding one more rule to this task.

Suppose if two or more than two guys kill the Hell Hound. In this condition, we can have a difficult time declaring one of them the winner; that’s why you should try to kill as many Hell Hounds as possible.

The more teeth you have, the higher your chances of winning will be.

Now, you have 20 minutes to meet your families before you leave for the next three days.

Anyone who doesn’t return back in 3 days will be considered dead. Thank you, everyone. You can still leave the competition if you want,” the chief explained as he went down the stage.

As soon as he went backstage… He noticed the man who was threatening him before.

“I-I did it. I did what you told me to do. Now, please don’t hurt my family. Please.”

“Your work is not done yet. I need him inside the forest. You do it, or I will kill your whole family, and you know I can do it,” the man again threatened the village chief.

“O-OKAY… I will do everything you tell me to, but don’t touch my family,” the village chief requested.

The man covered in green clothes disappeared.

Anon returned back to Ian, Moon, and Hillary.

“Well, Dad… I think I will go for the second or the third position because the first position task is too dangerous, and I can’t risk it,” Anon spoke as he looked at Ian.

“Yes, son, you do that and only go for the safe tasks. I am not forcing you to do any tasks at all. You are free from my side. I just want one thing from you: come out alive from that forest, okay? Now you will meet your mom, and she will definitely cry. Just hold her tightly,” Ian spoke.

“Yes, father,” Anon said as he moved towards Hillary.

“Oh, mother, come here, give me a hug,” Anon said as he hugged Hillary.

“If you were my son, I wouldn’t have allowed him to go in there at all, but I hope you die a very painful death,” Hillary whispered in Anon’s ears.

“If I died, your son’s whereabouts would also be gone with me. Be careful of what you say next; your words can easily fire back right at your face,” Anon replied with a smile.

“Fuck you,” Hillary spoke.

“Oh, mom. Yes, yes, I love you too, and I will come out of that forest well and alive,” Anon said out loud as they separated from each other.

“Oh, I will pray for you, son,” Hillary said as she touched Anon’s cheeks.

After meeting Hillary, Anon moved towards Moon.

“Hey, are you alright?” Moon asked.

“Yeah, I am good. What about you? How are you feeling?” Anon asked with a smile.

“I want to stop you from going into that death trap, but I can’t because you have an iron will this time, and I can see it in your eyes. So, I want to say only one thing to you: be safe and return alive in one piece, okay?” Moon spoke.

“Believe me, I will. There is no beast inside that forest that can kill me, until Gin is with me,” Anon said as he pointed towards the puppy.

Woof

“Oh, his name is Gin, huh?” Moon spoke as she bent down and picked him up.

“You protect my brother, okay?” She said as she held Gin in her hands.

Woof-Woof-Woof

“Good… Now come here and give me a big hug,” Moon spoke as she hugged Anon.

“Okay, contestants, please come back to the stage. Your time to meet with your family is over. We will now begin the competition,” the chief announced as three big glass screens appeared hovering above the stage.

Anon and the other guys moved back to the stage.

“Follow me,” the village chief spoke as he took everyone to the entrance of the Evensong Forest.

“Contestants, your competition will start in 10 seconds.”

“10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1. Go.”

Suddenly, everyone started running into the forest. Suddenly, everyone noticed that one guy was walking very slowly and he wasn’t rushing like the others.

This guy was none other than Jule himself.

‘Let’s begin.’ Anon thought as an evil smile appeared on his face.