Chapter 276 - Securing All Flags!
After Felix regrouped with the rest, the team straightaway went for their backpacks. As Felix assumed, they were left untouched.
After he put the three flags in his backpack, he threw the 2nd tracker to Kenny and said, "Go look west for flags. If you found ones hidden, aim to secure them and bring them back. If you spot a team with flags, make sure to inform us first."
"Okay!" Agreeing at once, Kenny turned on the tracker and started sprinting west.
They still required 4 more flags and only three days were left. Scratch that, two days and a couple of hours.
It was already past noon and the team had no plans on searching during the evening. They always stop at 5 PM as they couldn't handle walking for more than 12 hours straight.
This meant, they were tight on schedule to find the rest of the flags.
Based on the way that all of the teams with flags had avoided them akin to a plague before, they knew that locating the rest of the flags was going to be tough.
Unless they managed to luck out on one of the top ten teams in the competition like the Brazilian Team.
...
Four hours later...
The team had stopped their search at once and placed a temporary camp to spend the night in.
Kenny had already grouped with the team after ending up not locating any hidden flag. The only red dots shown on his radar were moving ones.
He didn't bother to inform the rest about them since the moment Felix get spotted in their radars carrying six flags, they would not hesitate to bolt away.
Good thing he didn't inform them as the team had met with exactly the same situation in the past hours.
Now they were sitting in a circle around a burning campfire, attempting to create a new plan.
After all, relying on meeting up with strong teams to bully wasn't really a plan.
"I will suggest it again." Adam threw a twig at the burning fire and said, "Let's just dig the flags deep underground. Now that we have two trackers, we won't be screwed over if one of them was damaged or something."
This time no one rejected his plan as their worry was solved after getting the 2nd tracker.
"I agree." Lena, who objected to the plan before, raised her hand and supported, "I believe that if we dug all six flags in one hole, it will give the misconception that our team is still holding into them."
"That's right." Nathan chuckled, "Who would dare approach a team that has 6 flags in their possession?"
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement at the thought.
In their eyes, if those teams had that much courage, they wouldn't have been struggling to reach them.
This meant, burying those flags was actually the smartest move to do currently, especially when they only needed four more flags to get.
As the team was chatting and trying to discuss the details of the plan, Johnson suddenly suggested, "Guys, how about we give a tracker and those six flags to Kenny?" His eyes brightened up as he spoke, "Instead of burying those flags and keep constantly worrying about them, why don't we make Kenny split from the team with those flags and a tracker? With his invisibility, the teams without trackers wouldn't spot him and those with it will only see a whopping 6 flags on the move!"
Walton immediately exclaimed in surprise, "Yes! That's actually a hundred times better."
He knew that by doing so, Kenny will have a 1-kilometer safe area without anyone's ability to catch him!
The teams with one or two flags will avoid him at all cost, thinking that he was an entire team on the move.
Meanwhile strong teams like the Russian team or the Chinese team, Kenny would spot them at the edges of his radar. He just needed to keep his distance just like they were being avoided by everyone.
Adding his invisibility to the mix, he would be the safest bloodliner in the competition!
Everyone in the team noticed the benefits of this plan. However, Felix still didn't give out his opinion yet. And as the captain, it was up to him whether to consider it or not.
Looking at Felix, who was yawning in boredom while staring at the sky, they didn't even need to ask him.
It was clear that he wasn't bothered with any plan they agreed to. As long as it was viable.
Soon, they focused back on the details of the plan, chipping in here and there to make it somewhat perfect and truly safe proof for Kenny.
Getting bored by gazing at nothingness, Felix decided to enter his consciousness and play a couple of rounds with Asna and the J?rmungandr.
...
Next morning at 06:00 AM...
The team was already up and ready for departure after having a quick breakfast.
Since the boys were taking two hours shift between them to patrol the camp and keep it safe, they weren't really that tired by the time they woke up.
After seeing that Kenny had finished his preparation, Felix went to him and took out the six colored flags from his backpack.
Without hesitation, Felix handed them to Kenny with one tracker. He then told him to stick to the plan and went back in his place.
A few seconds later, Johnson came back from within the bushes while pulling the zipper of his pants.
"Sorry for the delay." He apologized while picking his backpack.
After seeing that everyone was ready, Felix gestured for them to move with his hand.
As they walked after him, they all turned their heads at Kenny, who was left behind and wished him good luck on his task.
They already decided yesterday that he would be left one kilometer away from them. This would place him on Felix's radar, making sure that he was always within sight.
With the Queen's messaging system, they could always tell him to stop when they notice a moving flag had entered their radar.
This way, Kenny would be always nearby but still not affect their ambushing methods!
After a while...
The first prey had shown itself on the edges of Felix's radar.
Although it was just a single moving flag, the team got pretty excited as they could see that red dot was actually heading in their direction!
This had never happened before when they were carrying six flags!
Felix swiftly ordered in his mind for Kenny to not get nearer. He then threw his backpack in the nearest tree like always and said, 'Prepare for an ambush.'
The team immediately started climbing trees akin to monkeys, even Olivia's movements were smooth and clean. They had been climbing trees for a while now to get the hang of it.
In a short moment, that team had reached the optimal range for Felix.
Without an ounce of difficulty, they had been taken care of in such a clean manner that left the American viewers amazed.
Felix literally just snapped his finger and engulfed all of them within his bloodish red poison pillars!
They didn't have their barriers on them as they couldn't afford to keep them on constantly.
This made it almost impossible for them to escape an ambush from Felix and the rest.
Soon, Adam went and scavenged their backpacks for food, energy stones, water bottles, one flag, and the tracker.
No one was surprised by finding the tracker as they understood that any team with flags at this point in time must have a tracker.
Since it was simply impossible to survive carrying a flag without it. Those who managed to luckily find a flag without a tracker would only get ambushed in the 1st hour it was in their possession.
The only defensive mechanism to this was the tracker.
This was one of the reasons why they never managed to ambush a team with a flag before.
Thankfully, Johnson's strategy has proven to be pretty effective and the team was eager to hunt for more.
Who knows they might finish getting ten flags and still have enough time to get more!
...
The last day of the competition, at 12:00 PM...
Thud! Thud! Thud!...
Ten bodies had dropped into the ground with their eyes closed shut. The culprits were ten red pillars that were in the process of disintegrating into particles.
Felix glanced at those bodies from on top of a tree with a bored expression. His team had already secured twelve flags successfully yesterday.
This left them with pretty much 36 hours of free time to do whatever they wanted.
Since Felix knew about the hidden points system, he proposed to hunt down teams without flags in those free hours.
He rarely joined the battles as he wanted to give the team more chances at shinning. Especially when the latest battles about flags were mostly dealt with by him.
That being said, he acts once in a while when the team was having difficulty. Like in this battle.
If they weren't worried about receiving a backlash, they would have carried on hunting other teams with flags.
After all, they already have twelve flags, and in the eyes of the world, there was no reason for them to rob others of chances at getting in the earthling's team.
"Dear participants, six hours are left before the competition finish."
An abrupt announcement resounded all over the forest from the hundred of drones in the air. It repeated three times before the forest's tranquility was back again.
Yet, Felix and the rest weren't surprised by it since this announcement was repeating every 3 hours on the last day.,
It was probably based on the good intentions of the Organization but it was merely stressing out the teams without flags.
Hearing that only six hours were left, Olivia and the rest couldn't help but smile in delight at the thought of their entire team making it into the earthling's team.
They ought to feel happy as not a single team had managed to achieve their result of gathering a whopping twelve flags.
The American viewers couldn't be any more proud and satisfied by their team's performance.
Especially when the Russian team only managed to gather eight flags after being touted for a month now as the strongest team in the world.
Although some were kinda disappointed that their team didn't meet up with the Russian team and trampled on them as they did with the rest, they were still pleased by the seven days journey.
Their cheerfulness wasn't shared by most countries who ended up either eliminated or worse, still in the competition without a single flag in their possession.
Right now, most viewers from those countries had already turned off the stream. They were too disappointed to carry on watching.
The fact that not a single individual from their entire country made it to the Earthling's team was hurting their pride immensely.
If only they knew that the flags had only a small role in getting a representative slot, they wouldn't have lost all hope in their team. Instead, They would have cheered them on to carry on fighting tooth and nail!