Fate Online: Shadow

The sun had long set in the horizon, and one corner of the island was brightly illuminated by the few campfires that the student had started.

The sound of the talking and laughter filled the campground, along with the few campfires that illuminated their faces and their surroundings, creating this carefree mood.

Giving them brief respite from societal problems, family pressure, or just the overall stressful environment of the current society where you need to almost please anyone just to be successful or to look good to your so-called friends who don't really care about your feelings.

Michael and his group ate the large fishes he had caught using the meat of the smaller fishes as baits, while the dead shark on the other hand was thrown into the sea to be fed on the scavengers of the ocean, like the large groupers or other similar fishes that have the same trait.

He wanted to cook the shark meat though, but he didn't have the necessary ingredient to eliminate the smell of ammonia and gamey flavor of the meat, so he had no choice but to throw it into the sea, a wasted effort after he had taken it down only to remember that he didn't have any milk.

"Michael, are you coming? We're going ghost hunting!"

Brandon's cousin, Mary, suddenly came over and invited Michael to go ghost hunting with them while holding two torch lights in her hands.

Michael looked up and replied with a smile, "Don't mind me, I'm not really into those kind of things"

Mary raised an eyebrow and with a teasing smile on her face, she said, "Oh really? But I heard from Brandon that you're into that paranormal stuff, so I thought you'd be interested"

Michael scrunched up his eyebrows and slowly turned his head to the side, and saw Brandon acting like he's oblivious to the conversation taking place before him as he whistled away.

Michael looked around him, but didn't see the two girls and when he looked around, he noticed that both Lisa and Maine had actually left and joined another group of students as they disappeared into the dark forest with the torch light in their hands.

Initially, Michael wanted to refuse, but when he saw the two girls had actually joined the rest of those dumb students, he could only let out a sigh and said while standing up, "Alright, I'll go with you and your group. I don't really know what's going on with your heads for thinking that there are even ghost in this island that's clearly lacks the presence of human"

Mary laughed and replied, "Of course, I know that. It's just for the fun and thrill of doing something in an unfamiliar environment"

Hearing her, the edge of Michael's lips couldn't help but twitch as he thought inside, 'The thought process of the kids from rich families are really peculiar and willful sometimes. I guess they wouldn't know what death is until they come face to face with it'

"Alright, I'll come with you guys then. In case, you start causing trouble" said Michael.

"What do you mean trouble? We're just gonna walk around" replied Mary with a mysterious smile on her face.

Michael just shrugs as he already knew what her smiles indicate, because he had long noticed that Chad and his friends have been missing for a while, and he figured that they must be planning to scare the people going to the forest, which is just childish in his eyes as they're just wasting their energy.

Then Michael walked over towards Brandon and stared down at him, causing Brandon to be flustered as he stuttered, "W-what is it?"

Pak!

Michael lifted one of his legs and lightly kicked him and said with an irritated tone, "Get up, you're coming with us"

"W-why? I'm scared of the d-dark boss" Brandon hurriedly said as he didn't want to go with them!

"Tsk!"

Michael glared at him as he clicked his tongue before turning around and followed Mary and the rest towards the direction of where Lisa and the rest had disappeared to.

Brandon looked at them, then at the instructors who were watching them from different corners of the campground, he hesitated for a bit before letting out a sigh of defeat, grabbing the torch light in front of him, he stood up full of reluctance and quickly ran towards Michael and the rest while yelling anxiously, "W-wait for me!"

Few reasons that he dared to go was not only because Michael had silently threatened him, but also because the instructors had already told the students the rough distance from the campground that's considered safe.

After all, the island was cleared out just a few days ago before the arrival of the students, and the presence of humans would still linger, which would certainly make the animals living on the island avoid those places for the time being.

One of the instructors looked at their disappearing back and muttered, "Such troublesome kids"

Meanwhile,

"Why are we even doing this Chad? Did you guys not hear from the instructors that there are large saltwater crocodiles that live on this island?" said one of Chad's friends as they hid behind the bushes or trees.

The man wasn't worried about the snakes though as they had brought snake repellent with them, as he's only worried that they might unknowingly encounter a crocodile in the dark as they are known for being nocturnal and light sleepers.

With the help of the moonlight, they could barely see each other, but their eyes had already adapted to the dark so it's like they're inside a room with only dim light as a source of light.

"Because we don't have anything to do, and besides, we're still in the safe area, and did you really think we'd still be able to do leisurely things like this starting tomorrow? You guys probably already had an idea of what would happen tomorrow, so let's just enjoy tonight and let's worry about tomorrow" replied Chad to his friends' question.

"There's no snakes here, right?"

Chad and his friends were about to continue talking when their first customer finally appeared before them, and all of them immediately shut their mouths as they got ready for the jump scare, but unbeknownst to them, a pair of eyes were silently watching them from the dark.