Chapter 28: Wilderness Survival Training Kit

Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Wilderness Survival Training Kit

[Basically, we can determine that Wendy Aldridge deliberately framed Renee Morgan, but it’s not the kind of thing you can convict someone for. The producers are worried about bad publicity, so at most they’ll go easy on her. Renee Morgan is really unlucky.]

[Demand severe punishment for Wendy Aldridge. Make her quit the show, or else we’ll boycott it.]

[...]

The instructor’s gloomy vibe swept over everyone else, and he spoke: "Renee Morgan’s right. This is a base unit—there’s no distinction between men and women, just comrades, and enemies on the battlefield."

"Wendy Aldridge, write a 1000-word self-reflection. Hand it to your squad leader for review, and tomorrow, recite it on stage and apologize to Renee Morgan."

"Also, the final competition is based on points. Wendy Aldridge loses twenty points."

After the instructor finished speaking, he seemed to remember something and turned to Renee Morgan: "Who locked you in your room this morning? I’ll get to the bottom of it for you."

Renee Morgan hurriedly replied, "Thank you, instructor."

The instructor strode away.

Lynn Miller watched the instructor leave, glanced at the camera, and ultimately didn’t ask why Renee Morgan got locked in her room, or why the instructor came to unlock the door.

Zara Chapman wasn’t ready to let the opportunity slip by, and spoke up: "I remember everyone surrendered their phones when we entered the unit. If Renee Morgan was stuck in her room, how did the instructor come to unlock the door?"

Does Renee Morgan have special privileges on the show? Did she have a phone?

The others didn’t say anything, but their faces showed confusion as they looked at Renee Morgan.

Renee Morgan looked at her PD staffer rushing over—the one assigned to her. She answered calmly: "We were filming behind-the-scenes segments this morning. I got locked in the room with the crew. I didn’t have a phone on me, but someone in the crew did."

When the door got locked, Renee Morgan immediately sensed something was off. The PD wanted to call other crew members for help, but Renee Morgan told him to call the instructor instead.

This matter could be handled either privately or publicly, but Renee Morgan wasn’t about to let it slide.

Renee Morgan’s PD ran over and said: "I’ve already organized the full account of the event and all the footage from the time, and sent it to the instructor."

Renee Morgan smiled: "Thanks for your hard work."

The PD shook his head. At first he hadn’t thought much of it, but while he was gathering materials on his computer just now, he saw Wendy Aldridge leading a "cheating bust" in the livestream chat, and realized there was more to the story.

Wendy Aldridge overheard their conversation and never expected Renee Morgan to be so ruthless. She must have guessed Wendy was the one who locked them in, and purposely called the instructor to escalate things.

How could Renee Morgan be so vicious?

The instructor had just received the crew’s report, hadn’t even opened it yet, when Wendy Aldridge sought him out and confessed she had locked the door. She said she did it because she saw Renee Morgan and her PD being ambiguous and wanted to set them up for a chance—not out of malice—and admitted she’d made a serious mistake. She hoped to privately apologize to Renee Morgan and the crew, and asked the instructor to help smooth things over and keep it quiet. (If it went public and everyone knew, netizens wouldn’t let it go. She still wanted to be an actress and a star, and didn’t want her career destroyed by a blemish like this.)

The instructor didn’t expect Wendy Aldridge to be so cunning—to come and confess.

But whether this matter would be made public was not his call. If Wendy Aldridge could get Renee Morgan’s consent for a private settlement, he could stay out of it. Otherwise, if it was up to him, he wouldn’t cover for Wendy Aldridge and would make sure she was punished.

The incident of Renee Morgan and the crew being locked in the room even trended online, but since nothing was confirmed yet, netizens were just speculating.

At seven, everyone assembled downstairs on time. After coming back from the instructor, Wendy Aldridge rushed to the meetup point, face calm and smiling as ever, but inwardly wishing Renee Morgan dead, frantically strategizing what to do if Renee wouldn’t settle privately, and how to minimize the fallout if she refused.

Renee Morgan knew this show would never be smooth sailing, so she stayed on high alert. Arriving at the assembly field on time, she breathed a silent sigh of relief.

If she could tough out a few days of boot camp, she’d get eliminated and be able to leave the show.

She was determined to keep going and get through training smoothly.

After everyone assembled, the squad leader announced the boot camp tasks: walk one kilometer to the live ammo shooting range, do fifty push-ups, run one kilometer, practice live-fire shooting for half an hour, run another kilometer, hold your breath in a bucket for thirty to sixty seconds, then practice shooting for another half hour.

The full order: walk a kilometer to the site, do fifty push-ups, run a kilometer, practice shooting for half an hour, run another kilometer, minimum thirty seconds breath-hold in water, practice shooting for half an hour.

Before others could object, the squad leader continued: "Every team member who completes training within the set time will get a survival kit for tomorrow’s wilderness challenge. If you fail to finish in time or quit midway, you’ll enter the forest empty-handed for boot camp tomorrow."

Wilderness survival boot camp?

Everyone immediately pictured Bear Grylls’ wilderness survival show—all those shocking scenes of eating live insects, swallowing scorpions.

Zara Chapman was just about to say something, but the squad leader had already started the timer: "You only have three hours. If you can’t finish within three, tomorrow’s wilderness survival will..." He didn’t spell it out, but his cold demeanor made it clear—they weren’t just fighting for a survival kit, but for their lives.

The First Squad members shot out ahead—they were obviously trained, even their running was smooth and fast.

Lynn Miller, who’s pretty bold, watched the First Squad sprint off, raised her brow, then called out to the Second Squad: "What are you still waiting for? Want to be beast-food in the wild? Let’s go!"

Everyone in the show had signed contracts and received a hefty paycheck. Lynn Miller’s not greedy; to her, high pay isn’t easy to earn. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even offer it. Since they’re not here to enjoy being pampered rich kids, it’s time to compete. Even if it’s just to avoid embarrassment on camera, you have to give everything you’ve got, fight for your best performance.

Miles Yates and Zara Chapman, on the other hand, didn’t have Lynn Miller’s clear sense. In their minds, the reason they chose this show wasn’t just the high pay. There’s also the production’s strength, novelty, whether the show could break out, whether it could revive their careers, and more.

Of course, the premise is their personal safety must be ensured. That safety doesn’t necessarily mean life-threatening. It could be physical overload—and that counts as harm to them.