Book 1 Chapter 3: Coerced into Death

"Pa!! Pa!! Pa!!"

A few sounds of clapping rang through the bloody camp; signifying that the terrifying nightmare had finally come to an end!

The smell of blood in the camp was carried away by the caress of the sea breeze and began to permeate into the surrounding environment. Quite fittingly, rain began to fall from the sky onto the camp, splashing onto the faces of the trembling children. It washed the small corpses of the children lying in pools of their own blood, cleansing the blood off their bodies.

The camp began to turn muddy as the rain water and blood mixed together...

The ruthless Hunting Wolves were restrained by their Soul Pet Trainers. After the slaughter, there were exactly fifty people left, the remaining having been met with death; the Nightmare in there bodies had probably already devoured their souls. Later, their bodies would be brought to another area where the Nightmares, which had eaten their fill, would be extracted from the corpses which would then be thrown into the boundless ocean.

"Starting tomorrow, you can move independently around the island. The island contains myriads of Soul Pets which suit you, and you can choose to sign a soul pact and train on the island with them.

"In three months time, you will participate in a decisive duel. Those that finish in the top ten will be sent to another island where they will continue training their Nightmare. As for the others, hmph, you will be thrown into the ocean as shark bait!" The middle aged man pointed at the surviving children and spoke to them in a loud voice.

After speaking, the middle-aged man exposed a callous smile as he continued to speak: "Of course, you had better not neglect the Nightmare in your bodies. If you don't quickly increase your own Soul Power, then you will end up becoming pitiful food..."

When he mentioned the Nightmares in their bodies, the faces of the children paled many times over. Each of their expressions dulled, as they were engulfed by a feelings of both helplessness and despair at being chased to the bitter end by death.

"Return to your nests. You should feel happy about surviving... it's only a pity that tomorrow, you will once again face another death challenge! One more thing, a word of advice, don't enter the island's inner region; that place is a death zone for you guys!"

Without a shred of mercy, he instead sneered and the 13 foremen turned around and left. Left in their wake were the 50 corpses dripping in blood, on the camp ground.

The rain water continued to cleanse these petite corpses of blood. The surviving children could only step on their corpses to walk out of the campground and onto another location in the camp where they lived.

The lodging facilities were made up of 25 wooden houses; they could still be considered both durable and exquisite as they sat orderly next to the ocean. Thus it could be said that the environment wasn't bad.

Of course, the reason why the surroundings weren't bad wasn't because those cold-hearted people wanted to give the children a good lodging accommodation. Instead, this island was meant as a long term Nightmare training camp. When this batch of children either died or left, other children would be sent here and their tears and blood would reappear.

Chu Mu's back was already split open and returning to his own wooden house was clearly very strenuous.

Once he opened his door, Chu Mu felt someone splash water onto his back, causing a wave of searing pain to course through his wound

Chu Mu angrily turned his around and saw Zhou Shengmo wearing a smile that caused one to loathe him when looking at it.

"What luck you have. You didn't even die in this kind of way!" Zhou Shengmo sneered.

Chu Mu laughed grimly and couldn't be bothered to argue with this person. This was because in Chu Mu's eyes, sooner or later, Zhou Shengmo would be a dead person. Even if he wasn't slaughtered by the foremens' Soul Pets, Chu Mu would personally murder this bastard!

"Truthfully, when we were in field, I was helping you. Perhaps in a short while, when the Nightmare devours your soul, you will regret not being quickly killed by the Hunting Wolf's claws, as it isn't as bad as bearing the pain of having one's soul devoured! Hahaha!" Zhou Shengmo let out a loud laugh and once he finished speaking, he turned around and abruptly left.

Chu Mu watched the slightly plump and hefty person and let out a sneer. At this age, the expression he exposed shouldn't have been this shrewd.

The shrewdness Chu Mu possessed came from his clan's education coupled with being forced to undergo this sort of hellish activity. Any child that was sent here would have a dark and callous heart.

Chu Mu opened the door and walked into the wooden house.

Originally, there were three other people who lived in the wooden house. However, it was very clear that they could never return again. After all, those three were too weak and small.

Chu Mu didn't interact with them and only remembered that among them, there was a small girl. This girl's body was weaker than the males and the chances of the girl surviving under the onslaught of the Hunting Wolf's claws was next to nothing. Therefore, it could now be assumed that the wooden house belonged to Chu Mu exclusively.

Blood was still flowing from Chu Mu's back and he changed his wet clothing first and used water to wash off the filth on his body. Subsequently, he cleaned his wound and then, from his drawer, grabbed injury medicine for his wound left by the foremen.

It was evident that using the injury medication by himself to reach the wound on his back would be very hard. Chu Mu lay on the bed and seemed abnormally strained. He let out a loud shout and even managed to injure his wound more a few times. However, he ultimately wasn't able to successfully apply the medication to his wound.

"Let me help you..."

"Ah!"

The two sounds appeared extremely suddenly. The prior voice was comparatively exquisite, but because Chu Mu didn't realize that there was someone else in the room, he had jumped onto the bed with extreme vigilance. The reason why he let out a miserable shriek was due to the intense movement causing a wave of splitting pain to course through his wound.

"It's you... you didn't die..." When Chu Mu saw the dripping wet young girl ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) , he let out a bitter laugh.

"I survived by a fluke... let me help you apply it..." The girl said.

The girl's name was Ting Yu and she also lived in the wooden house. Chu Mu had believed that she was already dead and didn't expect that aside from a few scratches, there unexpectedly weren't any clear wounds. It seemed like she was also a smart child.

Chu Mu nodded his head and lay on the bed, letting Ting Yu help him rub medicine on the wound.

While the girl helped him to apply medicine, Chu Mu still maintained a trace of vigilance. After all, in three months, only 10 people would be able to survive. If this seemingly weak child was vicious and merciless, there was a chance that she would want to thin out the competition and kill him while using the excuse to apply medicine!

Ting Yu very carefully smeared the medicine. There were no sketchy movements during the entire process and Chu Mu slowly felt the pain alleviate.

"Today I helped you, so in the future, if I have any problems, you also have to help me. Is that okay?" After Ting Yu bandaged up Chu Mu, she spoke.

The girl was very realistic, but expressed that she didn't harbor any ill intent towards Chu Mu. She only wanted to maintain a relationship as an ally.

Chu Mu nodded his head and insipidly said: "I'll try my best..."

"My Cyan Nightmare's growth is very fast. In ten days, it has a chance of maturing into the third stage. I'm scared that my Soul Power isn't enough to supply it and that my own soul will be devoured by it." Ting Yu sat on her own bed and embraced her knees as she shivered with cold.

"Try your best if you don't want to die..." Chu Mu could only offer a phrase of comfort to Ting Yu's hidden bitterness.

Soul Pets had means by which they increased their strength; the demonic Nightmare Soul Pet was no different.

For instance, the Hunting Wolf in front of Chu Mu earlier. From birth until infancy, a Hunting Wolf would begin to experience its so called maturation and would start growing from the first stage.

The foremen's Hunting Wolves on Nightmare Island were all already of the fifth stage and their attack power was extremely powerful. Children, without the strength to truss a chicken, would definitely be unable to resist against them.

As for the Nightmares in Chu Mu and the other children on the island's bodies, they would also grow one step at a time. Currently, everyone's Nightmares had probably already entered the second stage.

Every time the Nightmare would advance a stage, the quantity of food it required would amplify. Before, there had at least been 200-300 people whose souls had been consumed when their Nightmares reached the second stage because their Soul Power wasn't sufficient to nourish the Nightmares.

"I feel as if you aren't even the least bit worried. Are you extremely confident in yourself?" Ting Yu asked.

Chu Mu bitterly shook his head, but didn't speak to Ting Yu.

Truthfully, among all the other children, Chu Mu was the least likely person to survive the onslaught of the Nightmare.

This was because all the other children had signed a Soul Pact with a Cyan Nightmare. Only Chu Mu harbored a White Nightmare in his body which was much more terrifying that the Cyan Nightmares.

While both were at the second stage, the White Nightmare would still eat a lot more than the Cyan Nightmare. Moreover, the more it grew, the quantity of food it required would also double. This was not something that a child could bear and this was also the reason why the foremen all firmly believed that Chu Mu was already a dead man.

The amount of people that managed to survive the White Nightmare's curse were almost zero. In other words, White Nightmares were fundamentally killers and Chu Mu's fate was already decided when he made a Soul Pact with a White Nightmare.

This form of being coerced into death could only force Chu Mu to unleash his greatest potential to raise his own strength!