Veridian Isle, a solitary island on the border of Z country, is more commonly referred to as the Forbidden Zone.
Because those exiled here are all elderly without support, severely disabled individuals who cannot care for themselves, and mentally ill persons who could harm society.
There is nothing here that is needed for daily life.
No legal control, and even less a moral baseline.
It can be described as a living hell.
The gloomy and dark sky churns with thunderclouds, shrouding the entire island like a black curtain.
Under an old tree with twisted, gnarled branches, a young girl sits curled up with her knees hugged, her long hair splayed on the ground alongside her skirt, and a blood scar stretches across her small palm-sized face.
She sits beneath the tree, her eyes indifferently gazing toward the shoreline.
Someone is crying hysterically;
Someone is smashing stones wildly, indiscriminately attacking friend or foe;
Someone is jumping off the reef, letting the sea swallow them up.
Such chaotic scenes unfold almost every day.
Since she was abandoned here by her adoptive father three years ago, she has grown accustomed to it.
She is the adopted daughter of the Redgrave Family.
Three years ago, she learned that her adoptive father had adopted her because of a fortune teller's advice.
The fortune teller had read a divination for the unborn eldest daughter of the Redgrave Family, Diana Redgrave, predicting she would be plagued by misfortune, illness, and calamity, and at the age of eighteen would suffer great misfortune and die in a foreign land.
Only by finding a girl born on the same year, month, and day could they transfer the misfortune to her and allow Diana Redgrave to escape this disaster.
And she, Seraphina Redgrave, was that person.
Since childhood, her adoptive father would give her peculiar medications, causing her constant illness and pain.
At eighteen, she was forcibly sent to be engaged to an old man.
She fought back with her life, stabbed the seventy-something old man, yet still could not escape.
Her adoptive father sent people to capture her and sent her to Veridian Isle.
She has been here for a full three years.
She knows the Redgrave Family wants her to die here, but unfortunately, she has not obliged them.
"Boom! Boom!"
The thunderclouds in the sky roar with a tremendous rumble, followed by an even more piercing sound.
Seraphina looks up to see dozens of helicopters flying grandly over the island.
Is it the military?
Seraphina frowns, her petite body shrinking back under the tree.
Meanwhile, helicopters have already landed on the shore, the huge commotion instantly drawing the attention of others on the island, who frantically rushed forward, surrounding the aircraft closely.
Even those without any mobility dragged their twisted bodies with broken legs towards that direction, gazing from afar as if zombies surrounding a city.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Accompanied by several deafening gunshots, a flock of birds is startled from the jungle, while those at the very front fall down one after another.
Everyone is splattered with their brains and blood, and screams erupt one after another.
Seraphina narrows her eyes to look closely, and sees a group of men in black disembarking from the aircraft, each with a gun at their waist.
She curls her body tighter, slowly pressing her lips together.
Has the nation finally had enough of the existence of this island, intending to destroy them all?
In the end, does she still have no escape?
What's the point of living twenty-one years, just to take misfortune meant for Diana Redgrave?
She is unwilling, how can she resign to this fate?
She wants to survive; she wants revenge!
"Young Master Sterling, in the Forbidden Zone, it's survival of the fittest. Those at the coast are mostly the weak driven out by other forces on the island, either mentally ill or severely disabled, they won't live long."
Along with the voice, a row of men in black are the first to walk over in her direction.
Seraphina clenched her fists, there is no cover here, she has nowhere to hide.
A line of men in black exudes an overwhelming presence, the dark gun muzzles appearing like declarations of death.
She lowers her head, watching a pair of Chelsea boots walk past her.
The fallen leaves crunch underfoot, but the sound suddenly halts.
The pointed toe of the boot turns to face her.
Seraphina looks up, meeting the gaze of the shoe's owner directed at her.
A domineering and intense sense of oppression makes it hard for her to breathe.
The man's voice, cold as ice and innately noble, seems to send a powerful electric current directly from her ears down the entire length of her spine.
In a deep voice, he asks, "Is she also a mental patient?"