“Death isn't an escape…”

When he heard the tagline of the game from the other person's lips, Fisher felt an indescribable chill consuming him.

According to him, this phrase is the central theme of the game. If Dead by Daylight was the hint Fisher had unraveled, could this mean that the central theme of the game was Chen Chen's underlying motivation?

This meant that the plan never was to let them go…

When Fisher thought of this prospect, he felt his entire body collapsing on him as an overwhelming sense of despair took over. He sat on the ground with a thousand-yard stare. He wanted nothing more than to directly escape this island.

It was merely a momentary thought. He was well aware that his odds of successfully crossing the Atlantic Ocean without any proper equipment was abysmal at best. He was better off hoping that Blacklight Biotechnology found the goodness in their heart to let him go.

“Mr. Fisher?”

While Fisher was still petrified by this thought, he suddenly heard Jennifer's voice coming from beside him.

Fisher turned around and saw Jennifer approaching with the other blonde lady as well as several members of the Environmental Protection a.s.sociation. There was a steel-forged look of determination in their eyes.

“You guys…”

Before they even said anything, Fisher knew what they were thinking.

It looked like they were planning to sacrifice themselves to light up the signal towers.

Jennifer quickly announced solemnly, “Mr. Fisher, myself, Anthony, Walton, and the others would like to volunteer to become the first group to light up the signal towers.”

Fisher smiled bitterly when he heard this. He wanted to tell them about his speculation but stopped himself from saying it.

Although he had an idea that Blacklight Biotechnology was probably not going to let him off the hook, the tiny strand of hope he had left forbade him from saying something potentially despondent.

Besides, having the two women here made things a lot more difficult than they needed to be. They were the only two women here on the island and the mercenaries have had their eyes on them since the very beginning. Unless he could come up with a solution in time, they were going to be the spark to the confrontation between himself and the band of mercenaries.

When he thought of this, Fisher suddenly shut his eyes, clearly dealing with his inner conflict. “Perhaps there's still some other solution…”

“We don't have any other solution left.”

Jennifer shook her head, her expression was still calm. “This evil company wants to test our self-sacrificial spirit and mock us with it. In that case, we'll prove ourselves with actual actions.”

As she said this, she looked at the people around them who were either sitting or lying down. She announced at the top of her voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Jennifer. I'm sure most of you know who I am when you joined White Embers. What I'm trying to say here is faith and honor, bravery and freedom… How much are you going to pay for these attributes that are essential to a human's character?”

When they heard what Jennifer said, they turned to look with an ongoing numb expression on their faces at the hardy blonde-haired lady.

“Life is an invaluable object. However, when we humans live in this world, certain things are more important than life itself such as belief and freedom!”

Arriving at this mention, Jennifer started to look around into pairs of dark emotionless eyes staring back at her. “They want to toy with our resolution, challenge our belief. It's for this reason that we should be ever more united instead of guarding ourselves against one another and be viewed as a joke!”

As Jennifer delivered her speech, more people started to approach and formed a ring with Jennifer at its center.

“Today, we'll be the first batch of volunteers to light up the signal towers. I know there are not a lot of us but believe me, after we begin this venture, more people will join our cause and sacrifice themselves along with us so that the remaining three hundred can survive and make it out of here!

“They'll carry with them our collective wrath and exact revenge on this vile corporation!”

“Revenge!”

“Revenge!”

“Revenge!”

They roared ceaselessly.

With Jennifer's impromptu speech, a torch was lit in many people's eyes. In just several minutes, more than thirty people stepped out from the crowd and motioned to join the group and sacrifice themself to light up the signal towers.

Seeing this further inspired pa.s.sion in the gathered flock. Fisher felt compelled to step forward and stand beside Jennifer to announce, “Everyone, we must be grateful for this group who volunteers to sacrifice themselves for us. But please don't forget that inside that harrowing jungle are five monsters trying to hunt us down. Therefore, I hope that everyone can begin forming small teams to cover for them while they light the signal towers and then escort them back to the safe zone, can we do that?”

The crowd agreed with a collective grunt.

Fisher heaved a silent sigh of relief when he saw the reception.

It was certainly true that in times of trouble, the hearts of men were more p.r.o.ne to such s.h.i.+fts. Times like this were the ideal time to establish leaders.h.i.+p as people were more likely to band together.

Upon considering this, Fisher quickly pressed his advantage and used this opportunity to divide the volunteers into different groups and began drafting their plan for lighting the signal towers.

They formulated their plan from early morning until late noon and during this period, more people joined their cause either by way of choice or peer pressure. After all, as the people who joined slowly began to increase, they would naturally begin to suspect what the others were up to. Under this mounting s...o...b..ll effect, the lone wolf mercenaries saw how the situation was unraveling for them and had to join as well.

Of course, there was the occasional stubborn mercenary who expressed the slightest bit of interest in being involved with Fisher's crew. They ended up getting beaten to death by the enraged mob.

After the excited crowd got rid of two people who tried to step out of line, the rest were a.s.signed to tasks like scouting, collecting resources or guard duty. All in all, everyone had joined the crusade started by Jennifer.

At the end of the day, it was a tall task to convince people to sacrifice themselves. Most of them only gave their word to protect the volunteers who set out to light the signal towers and to safely escort them back to the safe zone.

After all, they were all informed of the rules of the game — in the event that the person who lit a signal tower died, the tower would also be extinguished.

In the end, thirty-three people in total volunteered to be the first group willing to sacrifice themselves.

Each one of them was a.s.signed to thirty-three separate groups. Apart from the volunteers, there were an additional five to six people in each group acting as their guard. If they ran into the wandering monsters inside the jungle, the sole duty of the guard was to ensure the volunteer made it back to the safe zone, whatever the cost.

“This is the most ideal solution possible when facing such a crisis like this.”

The sociologist Adenauer commended, “Humans can be extremely motivated creatures, provided that a suitable leader is leading them. Undoubtedly, Fisher is an extremely qualified individual with great leaders.h.i.+p qualities. Is Blacklight Biotechnology really not considering recruiting him at all?”

Samuel frowned when he heard this comment. “These people are as cunning as they come. They even went as far as to kidnap my daughter and threaten me. Professor Adenauer, I'm well aware that you yearn for the upper-cla.s.s life and want to fit yourself into the mold at all costs, but it's simply foolish behavior to plot little ideas like this on an experiment subject.”

“It's because we've already handed them their death sentence from the very moment they arrived at this island!”

Adenauer made a gesture and tried to counter his argument before Professor Erickson suddenly cut them off. “Alright, both of you, save your bickering for some other time. For now, let's just patiently observe how they progress from here on.”

With that, he directed his attention back to the giant display and suddenly stated loudly, “Look, they've divided themselves into smaller groups and are setting out now. Hold on, some of them are giving their communication devices to the volunteers?”

This came off as a shock to them as everyone turned to the display. Sure enough, many people were giving their communication devices to the volunteers.

“With this one maneuver, the people who don't have their communication device can stay in the safe zone without being hunted by the tyrants. Meanwhile, the volunteers won't be restricted to only lighting one signal tower but can light five or even ten instead…”

Professor Erickson quickly turned to Yoru Kamidera who held his silence all this time. “Mr. Consultant, does this count as a loophole inside the game? Should we report this?”

“No need.”

Yoru Kamidera held his still expression and shook his head. “The rules of the game were never something we needed to pay attention to. That's their game as far as we're concerned.”

After stating that, Yoru Kamidera looked at the first group approaching a signal tower as his expression became grave. “Our work has only just begun.”