บท 6: End of the world (6)
The black-haired man continued.
"'Win three times at a game of luck or kill someone with your own hands'. If we take the sentence literally, it isn't written to 'kill someone' but to 'kill someone with their own hands'. If someone murders another person indirectly, for example by shooting at them, they wouldn't know that they didn't meet the conditions of the scenario and would still die. The presence of guns is thus deliberately misleading us."
The guns were originally put here only to play games.
"Moreover, 'someone' should be determined by the people appearing in the rankings. We were eleven people at the beginning, so 11 people were in the rankings. Since the dog didn't appear there, it is proof that he is obviously not counted as a 'player'. Thus, killing it is useless."
It sounded like a reproach to me to keep silent about it.
"Finally, rule 1."
He turned his eyes to me.
"Since you showed you understood the rules, you should have noticed that there was a way for everyone to survive since the beginning."
His gaze was cold.
"Since the moment this scenario appeared, nobody had to die."
I stared back at him.
I know.
「1. The scenario will begin once the first game starts or someone dies.」
Each rule has a purpose.
「2. The scenario will automatically end 20 minutes from now.」
Regardless of rule 1, the scenario was going to 'automatically' end within 20 minutes. However, if no game were started and nobody died, the scenario wouldn't even have begun.
「3. If you meet one of the conditions of this scenario, you will survive.」
If the scenario hadn't begun, then rule 3 wouldn't have been valid, and everybody could have lived.
That's why I didn't do anything immediately.
"You could have prevented the others' deaths by saying it out loud before anything happened, so don't pretend to be nice by saving people now."
Then what about you? Why didn't you say anything? And didn't you say that letting the remaining people survive by winning three games against me was not necessarily good earlier?
Do you want them to survive or not?
"Since the beginning, you've only taken the easy way out. You made it seem like you were risking your life in games when you deliberately chose an inexperienced kid then someone who would overthink to be sure to win, only the third game was really won by luck. Moreover, you only picked the option to play games because you didn't want to kill people yourself, when playing three games would actually sacrifice even more people, albeit indirectly."
That was also true.
I was silent for a moment before refuting him.
"I didn't pretend to be nice."
Because I'm actually letting the young woman die, while the rich man believes he will survive.
The black-haired man didn't say anything more. He seemed to find my words ridiculous.
[0:19]
The scenario was nearing its end.
The black-haired man stopped looking at the scenario's rules.
I wondered what he was going to do.
He turned to the side and suddenly twisted the neck of the old man on his right without batting an eye.
I blinked.
…This man is dangerous.
He didn't even hesitate to kill someone when he could have used me to win three games and easily survive.
The black-haired man coldly glanced at me and I met his gaze.
Even if he doesn't trust me, what sane person would commit murder just like that?
This man is dangerous, handsome, smart and cool. Really, exactly my type.
I know I have twisted tastes.
[Game of Luck: Scenario 1 #26693
Win three times at a game of luck or kill someone with your own hands.
Additional rules:
1. The scenario will begin once the first game starts or someone dies.
2. The scenario will automatically end 20 minutes from now.
3. If you meet one of the conditions of this scenario, you will survive.
4. A game can start only when all the players of that game agree to play.
5. The loser(s) of a game will die and is/are thus counted as 'dead'.
6. There can only be one winner in the same game. If many people win in the same game or arrive at a tie, it will be counted as a loss.
7. Someone who is counted as 'dead' can't participate in any more games. If they do, the game won't start and its issue won't matter.
8. The only way for someone counted as 'dead' to live is to fulfill the second condition of this scenario.
9. Whether you live or die will only be revealed at the end of the scenario.
10. The higher your ranking is, the higher your reward will be at the end of the scenario. Winning against someone with a higher ranking than you or completing the scenario can increase your ranking. However, playing more than three games or killing more than one person won't give you any additional compensation nor increase your ranking.]
The scenario ended.
[20 minutes have passed.]
The hearts of the ones who had failed to fulfill the conditions of the scenario suddenly stopped beating and they fell to the ground.
The rich man fell down and his son died as well. The young woman with a bandaged arm also fell down from her seat.
I looked at the corpse of the dog on the floor, who had struggled to live like the humans here while being brutally assassinated.
There was also the red-haired nurse killed by the rich man. She had traces of being strangled on her neck as well as a bullet in her head.
If the rich man had finished strangling her instead of using a gun, he could have survived, but he didn't.
The brown-haired nurse was also killed with a gun by the man with a ponytail. Even if that madman hadn't died in the game, he wouldn't have survived.
There was the old man, apparently named Gérard Dantois, with a broken ankle who died with his neck twisted when he could have survived.
Finally, there was the man with a ponytail on the ground. A bullet lodged in his temple and a wide smile on his face as he still held the revolver. His eyes still open made the scene worthy of a horror movie.
There had been eleven people at the beginning of the scenario.
Now, only four of them were alive.
Me, the male nurse, the little girl and the black-haired man.
"Ugh!"
I put a hand in front of my mouth and repressed the surging nausea. It didn't depend on my mental condition, it was a physical reaction.
No matter how much I didn't care about their deaths, seeing these corpses made me want to vomit, so I tried to not look at them.
Moreover, the smell of blood was getting stronger. It was disgusting.
Trying to distract myself, I checked my wrist.
As I expected, a small string of numbers was present there, it was my player's number. I knew that it should only be visible to players.
Anyway, I always wear long sleeves so it shouldn't pose a problem.
I called out to the black-haired man.
"Hey, what's your name?"
He glanced at me.
"I won't tell you."
I slightly pursed my lips.
What? Why?
Is it because I let 7 people die?
If you don't tell me then I'll give you a nickname.
I'll call you Dangerous Handsome Black-Haired man (DHB).
"…Can I call you whatever I want then?"
"Whatever."
Okay, DHB.
DHB didn't intend to see me anymore after that, so what I called him didn't matter.
[The rewards will be given depending on the ranking.]
Different messages appeared in front of the four remaining people.
[1. Player #156574631: Ena James.]
I couldn't try to guess DHB's name since the ranking had disappeared. I should've memorized all the names earlier…
[The reward for the 1st place is 5 stat points and one item.]
I received 5 stat points.
You can usually receive skills, items or stat points as a reward for clearing a scenario.
For this one, the reward for the second place should be 3 points, the third place 2 stat points, then 1 stat point for the remaining people. There are also items for the top three of this scenario.
Low-grade items should have been distributed randomly or according to our personalities for people who already specialized in a weapon before or professionals in a field in particular. However, I wasn't one of these people.
[You have received an additional reward for becoming a player.]
And there was also that.
[You have received your first skill.]
A 'skill'.
At the end of the first scenario, in my novel, everyone receives one skill that corresponds to themselves the most.
For example, if someone spent their whole life practicing taekwondo, they would get a skill related to taekwondo; if someone was very lazy and only liked to sleep, then they would get a skill related to sleeping, etc…
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the male nurse attempting to leave the room and stopped him.
"Wait. Everyone, don't leave the room yet."
It was laughable since I would have to explain a situation that only 2 people in this room may not know yet.
"Why?" The male nurse asked.
The little girl also anxiously looked at me.
"Didn't the man with a ponytail say it earlier? This scenario is 'Scenario 1' number 26693. This means that there at least 26692 similar scenarios."
The male nurse didn't see my point.
I solemnly declared.
"This also means that there may be 'only' 26692 similar scenarios. At least, we can deduce that the scenarios aren't happening everywhere."
'Only' 26692 similar scenarios.
"A lot of people may have gone through scenarios, but probably a lot more people didn't. Even though you may think the deaths that happened here were justified, do you really think the police will think the same? That they won't arrest the ones who committed murders because it's the end of the world?"
The male nurse and the little girl finally realized the heaviness of the situation.
"Tomorrow, the police will search for players everywhere throughout the planet and investigate them because they are dangerous individuals who have potentially killed someone to survive."
That was the situation we were currently in.
"Let me give you a piece of advice. Even though you are innocent, do you really think the police will think the same? You'd better erase the contents of the video surveillance if there are any cameras here and carefully hide the fact that you are players who just went through a scenario."
That way, it would also be easier for me to hide that fact if there weren't any records of the previous 20 minutes. I was also careful not to let my DNA anywhere. Apart from touching the seat and the gun, it should be fine.
After wiping the armrests of the seat just in case and checking if no hairs had fallen, I picked up the gun I had touched earlier and wiped it.
Should I take it with me?
I decided to put it into my pocket. Anyway, there should be no metal detectors at the entrance of this hospital.
Then, we parted ways and I headed home.
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