Villain’s Favorite 249

Chapter 249 A Shift in the Food Chain 

She scanned the treeline for a long moment, but there was no sign of Onyx. 

Finishet 

“Number 4 ran off ages ago,” Button said. “He’s always the first to bolt when things go wrong. Biggest coward out of all of us.” . 

She had stopped expecting anything from that coward a long time ago. 

Maya didn’t ask anything more. Her silhouette dissolved into the fading dusk like smoke into twilight. 

The island’s terrain and climate were, if nothing else, advantageous for the children. The forest grew thick and tangled, sightlines fractured by a hundred trunks and a thousand low-hanging branches. 

Adults moving through this kind of cover were at a greater disadvantage than the kids they hunted. 

And yet these people had been arrogant enough to schedule their hunt for the night, when visibility went to pieces. 

Maybe they thought darkness made it more entertaining. Maybe they liked the idea of children huddled somewhere out there, shaking, waiting to be found. 

In their minds, this was a game. Cat and mouse. Simple rules. 

Maya thought the rules of that game might need some revision. 

She moved across the branches with å lightness that left no mark on the air, settling into a waiting position. before any of them arrived. 

Some carried their rifles with two hands. Others slung them over their shoulders like they were out for an evening stroll. One walked with a cigarette pinched between his fingers, his posture so loose and careless it bordered on insult. 

They weren’t taking this seriously. 

Because why would they? 

A pack of kids. No weapons. No training. Barely enough food to keep standing. 

Against ten fully armed adults, what could any of them possibly do? Run a few yards before their lungs gave out. Hide until morning, when the light dragged them out of their holes like roaches from a cracked wall. The hunt wouldn’t take long. 

Maya tracked their entry vectors, watching how they fanned out into the forest. One of them moved more slowly than the rest. She followed him. 

“You’re afraid, aren’t you?” 

The system asked, startled. It had only just seen her trembling. Now she was stalking someone like a blade drawn in the dark. 

Maya didn’t miss a step. She borrowed her father’s easy cadence, the way he used to toss out words as if they cost nothing. “Of course I’m afraid. But if they’re here to kill us, I’m not going to lie down and wait. You look 

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Chapter 249 A Shift in the Food Chain 

out for yourself. That’s how you survive.” 

Those who live by the sword die by the sword. 

Morality and good sense didn’t operate here. 

Well, they hadn’t operated in the world she came from either. 

Finishert 

This strange comic-book reality had zero order. No black, no white, just the long gray smear of survival. You killed, or you waited to be killed. 

The night lay quiet over the island. The ten hunters split apart, and Maya followed her target without a sound. 

Her father had taught her that once. “If you don’t want someone to hear your footsteps, don’t make a new sound. Become part of theirs. Your rhythm should belong to them.” 

The first time she ever put that lesson to use, it was here. 

She closed the gap fast, so fast that the man only had time to register a rush of air at his back before he was driven face-first into the forest floor. 

He didn’t even see what hit him. 

Maya adjusted her balance the instant she landed, driving her force into his cheekbone with ruthless precision. 

The impact made a sound like two stones cracking together. A dull, sickening crunch that the quiet trees seemed to swallow whole. 

The man got out one mangled scream before his hand came up, fumbling blindly for her ankle. 

Maya slid off his face, repositioned, and drove her heel into his temple. 

Then again. 

The movements were clean. Nothing fancy. Nothing wasted. 

Just force transferred along the shortest possible line to the most fragile point she could find. The man stopped moving. Then he stopped breathing. 

She recognized the model. Moderate recoil. Decent range. More than enough stopping power up close. 

She checked the magazine, worked the bolt to chamber a round, then slung the rifle across her shoulder and ran for the nearest tree. 

Three steps up the nearest tree trunk, fluid as a cat pulling itself onto a high shelf. 

From the fork of the branches, she braced the rifle and pressed her eye to the scope. The crosshairs swept across the moonlit gaps in the canopy, searching. 

Nine left. 

The wind came off the sea, salt-heavy and damp, rustling the leaves just enough to mask small sounds. 

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Chapter 249 A Shift in the Food Chain 

Fin F 

Somewhere deeper in the forest, a twig snapped under a careless boot. Her hunters were still out there, still searching, still playing. 

Still enjoying themselves. 

Maya pressed her eye to the scope. The crosshairs drifted slowly across the shadows, patient, unhurried. 

Her breathing stayed even, her finger resting just outside the trigger guard. 

You like hunting kids at night? 

Her finger curled around the trigger. 

Psychopaths. 

Go to hell. 

Gunshots ricocheted. 

Aside from the first man, who’d died under her heel, the next two dropped to her shots. 

After she’d collected their rifles, Maya tucked them away where only she would find them. 

Tonight was an opening. 

Not just for her, but for the others, too. 

A plane had already come down. If that was possible, then escape wasn’t just a fantasy. 

The hunting ground had only one real rule, when you stripped away/everything else: whoever held the gun held the game. 

The shots echoed through the trees, sharp and unmistakable. Nearby children heard them clearly. Around here, gunfire meant only one thing. Another body was already cooling in the dark somewhere. 

“They’re starting early this time,” someone whispered. 

Usually, the hunters liked to toy with them first. Let the kids turn on each other before the adults ever lifted a weapon. Why rush it this time? 

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