"Ugh… ugh…"
Amid painful groans, the young girl with dyed yellow hair leaned against the desk, clutching her severed hand as her entire body trembled.
Not a single girl around her dared to step forward to help. Even those sitting relatively close to her moved farther away out of fear of the two severed hands placed on her desk.
Some girls were whispering among themselves, discussing what they should do next.
Fear, timidity, unease.
Everyone felt extremely uneasy about the situation before their eyes.
Some people looked at the game rule sheet placed on their desks, then looked at the writing on the blackboard. They hesitated, wanting to try leaving the classroom, thinking that completing this game might lead them to a way to escape. But when these people saw the corridor outside—densely packed with those strange students, some with several holes gouged out of their faces, others with the skin completely flayed from their bodies, and other various bloody and horrifying forms—they naturally abandoned such thoughts and could only obediently return to the classroom.
In the dark corridor, those students with broken bodies were still standing motionless.
Figures wearing duck-head and sheep-head hoods passed by, but were blocked by the students and had no choice but to retreat.
There was also a figure who seemed to be wearing a student uniform, standing at a distance and silently observing those students for a while before disappearing.
Meanwhile, Takumi and the others had already reached the stairway.
Tap—
Footsteps fell on the tiled stairs, producing a crisp sound.
Creak—creak.
The sound of joints grinding—belonging to that Aberration, the [Human Model]—also rang out at this moment.
Takumi's gaze turned toward the side of the stairs.
At this moment, that human model was on the stairway beside Takumi leading downstairs.
Together with [Teacher Turtle], it was being held in the latter's hand, struggling as it was dragged downward step by step.
[…Teacher… please… don't use me as… teaching material…]
It seemed as if many students' crying voices begging for mercy were echoing from inside that human model.
However, [Teacher Turtle] seemed completely unable to hear such voices. Holding the human model, it continued walking step by step, carrying it away until both gradually disappeared around the corner of the stairwell.
In the pitch-dark staircase, only the candle in Takumi's hand illuminated the surroundings.
The [Teacher Turtle] encountered this time was much cleaner—at least it was not carrying that pile of flesh-like aggregated matter. Probably because the game had only just begun, and Miko's classmates had been blocked inside the classroom by Takumi, so it had not killed anyone yet.
The few girls beside him all had pale faces. Even though this [Teacher Turtle] did not appear particularly frightening—merely a person wearing a hood—the aura of an Aberration, together with the hierarchical pressure of a teacher over students, still filled them with intense fear.
Except for Miko.
Only her reaction was different from the other three.
She lowered her head, closed her eyes, and then raised her hand to cover her ears.
Miko sensed something—something she did not want to know, yet could not stop herself from knowing.
It was inside a dark room.
A balding middle-aged man stood under the light, his face full of panic and fear.
And in the darkness beyond the light, one gaze after another was directed toward that man.
[You have disappointed us, Mr. Kameda.]
A voice sounded from the darkness.
[As a teacher, what you should have done was maintain the order of this school, not commit such an act of betrayal.]
[You clearly saw it, and experienced it yourself, did you not? The efforts we have made to step into the domain of the divine—and the results we have achieved.]
[The great nation of shared prosperity will soon be established. This world belongs to us. What meaning is there in leaking intelligence to those Americans who are destined to lose the war? You saw the battle reports from two days ago, did you not? Their aircraft carriers have already lost eleven. Soon we will achieve complete victory in the naval war—and yet at such a moment you choose to betray us?]
Amid the furious voice, the man under the light was drenched in sweat and could not help but kneel on the ground.
[N-no… that's not how it is!]
[I didn't do anything! I didn't betray you—I really didn't betray you!]
[I have always worked very hard to complete my duties! I really didn't do it, I really didn't do anything!]
[Whether it was provoking the students or creating massacres to select even more insane students, I completed every task excellently!]
[That wasn't me—absolutely not me! It really wasn't me!]
The man seemed already to know what he would soon face.
He defended himself hoarsely, almost tearing his throat apart.
Fear even made him wet himself, leaving a damp patch beneath him.
But the figures in the darkness merely remained silent. Not a single one was willing to step forward to protect this man.
And it seemed that other sounds began to mix with the man's pleading.
They sounded like the painful whimpers of many children.
Accompanied by the image of that man standing smiling in a blood-soaked corridor, with students collapsed on the ground, barely clinging to life.
[The tone of your greeting to me was not sincere enough. Pull out your tongue and gouge out your eyes.]
[The way you looked at me just now lacked respect. Come with me—today's biology class will use you as teaching material. Don't worry, I will use a small knife.]
[You saw me climbing the stairs and didn't even try to support me. Hmm, here's a spoon—use it to dig open your stomach and scoop out all your intestines.]
These were scenes from when that man had once taught at the school.
[This is wonderful. As long as I say the words, I can make those students die. No matter what kind of order it is, they will obey me.]
[Hahaha—look at the eyes of these little ones. This job is simply too satisfying. I love it. Hmm, there are already several "models" piled up in the office. When it comes to collectibles, it's better to keep just one. That's right—assemble the most perfect parts and keep only one.]
[Hmm, the third batch of sacrifices has been completed. The eleven Outstanding Students of this class have all died. This class's method of death was mutual slaughter. The final number is zero. Heh… what exactly is that old man trying to do, killing off every class of students by all sorts of methods… forget it. As long as I'm happy, that's all that matters.]
These were the words the man had once spoken during his most triumphant days as a teacher at this school.
But now, under the cover of darkness, he had become a traitor.
And what awaited him next would be the darkest and most cruel side of this school.
[Hiding intelligence inside a human model and smuggling it out of the school—an excellent idea. Over the years you made many "human models." Who knows how much intelligence you leaked? Then we shall execute you using your favorite method. With this spoon, dig out your internal organs and your eyes.]
Amid shrill and despairing screams, the hollowed-out corpse of that man was swallowed by the darkness.
Then it seemed that a girl could not help but let out a soft laugh before hopping away cheerfully.
The illusion-like scene had ended.
And after witnessing all of this, Miko felt an overwhelming dizziness, nearly collapsing on the spot.
"Yotsuya-san?!"
Walking beside her, Yoshino Rika quickly supported her.
"What did you see?"
Takumi had also seen a scene similar to Miko's, though he had not heard the voices clearly. Seeing her reaction, he immediately realized that she might have seen something slightly different from what he had, so he stepped forward and asked.
"I… I saw that "Teacher Turtle" was… I saw him being…"
The girl, her face deathly pale, looked toward the figure that had taken the human model and was heading downstairs. After trembling for quite a while, she finally described the scene she had just witnessed.
The three girls around them all more or less found it hard to believe. Rika worried that Miko might be having some kind of hallucination, while the Sanada Ai she had brought along was even more suspicious that Miko had been mentally stimulated into some sort of hysterical episode.
As for Takumi, he only paused where he stood for a brief moment to think, then signaled for them to keep moving and headed upstairs.
Truly interesting. Could some kind of "key information" really be hidden inside the body of a human anatomical model?
Miko in the previous loop had never obtained any information in this area at all. Was that because the human anatomical model and Teacher Turtle had never met? But making contact with the human anatomical model meant being attacked by its Aberration power, which was itself extremely dangerous. And in the first loop, I had once smashed the human anatomical model apart, so why didn't I see any informational evidence back then?
And this piece of information came at a very timely moment, almost as if it had deliberately jumped out—a deliberately pointed line of investigation. Wasn't that a little too convenient?
"Where are we going?" Seeing that Takumi was only having them continue upstairs, Rika could not help opening her mouth to ask.
"..." Takumi gave no answer and only kept going up.
"What was with those people wearing turtle head hoods just now?"
Rika hesitated for a moment, then asked again.
"..." Takumi still did not answer.
"You..." Rika still wanted to keep asking, but Miko reached out and tugged at her sleeve. When she turned back to look, she saw Miko shaking her head at her, so she could only stop asking in resignation.
At this moment, the five of them had slowly reached the level of the 7th floor.
Takumi used the candlelight to shine on the floor marker on the wall, then walked out of the stairwell and arrived at the place where the thing crucial to clearing the stage was located.
What he did not see was that, in a small corridor on the 5th floor he had already left behind, accompanied by a crisp ding sound, the elevator doors slowly opened, revealing the empty interior within.
Tap—tap—
Footsteps sounded in the corridor, yet no figure could be seen.
Only a faint voice echoed in the darkness, and no emotion whatsoever could be heard in that voice.
[Alice's friend... was stolen...]
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