As darkness overwhelmed the scarce light of the moon, Zhen Yu along with Lin Huiyin hid with the male with a skinny frame and hair covering his eyes. The male who Zhen Yu now knew was named 'Bai Lang' from the name floating beside the man's head, was completely different than how he seemed earlier in the classroom. The trembling, wimpy boy from before was now replaced by a smiling man.
"You're really different from before," Zhen Yu commented, unable to grasps how the man's personality could change so quickly. He must be a magician of some sorts…
"I've honed my acting skills from years of experience newbie," the man said proudly, "even if I was told to act as a dog I would be able to." … Not sure if that's something to be proud of… Though is he able to recreate the different dog sounds? A bulldog- no, a chihuahua too? Now Zhen Yu was really curious…
"You're very confident compared to how you seemed as a teen," Zhen Yu really hoped that that didn't come out as offensive- he truly was intrigued by the big change. Of course, people do change over time, but it was a bit unbelievable from how much of a cry baby and scaredy cat Bai Lang seemed to be in the classroom with others earlier…
"What is there to be scared of? I've been through numerous games and besides, I am dead anyways, should I be scared of ghosts? There's nothing scary about them, they are quite annoying." Zhen Yu didn't know whether to feel offended or agree with Bai Lang's words as a ghost himself. "I'll tell you this newbie, ironically, I have never been better in my whole life- well, not really life but still. When I was alive, I could barely live and starved to death, but here I am, getting more chances and earning better than I ever will while alive. This is a opportunity, do you get it? Why should I not enjoy myself here?"
"You speak too much," Lin Huiyin grabbed a key out from the cabinet under the teacher's desk and locked the classroom door. "If you keep speaking, a player will hear and the first one to leave will be you."
"Why can't I speak when we're all actors here? I had to hold back so much in front of players already," Bai Lang grumbled. "Anyways, find a good spot to pass out, if we get knocked out in a bad position we'll wake up with sore backs."
DING DONG! DING DONG!
At the sound of the bell ringing, Zhen Yu felt his eyes get heavier and his vision began to darken until he finally fell asleep. Before fully falling asleep however, Zhen Yu could spot Lin Huiyin pressing something on her phone in the corner of his eye, but what she was doing was completely unknown to him. The noise of something hitting the ground sounded in the class right after, but Zhen Yu couldn't open his eyes to see what it was as he was one second away from sleeping. It was completely up to chance and luck on whether the people in the room with him were reapers or not.
When the next morning arrived, Zhen Yu found that he was still alive. It wasn't just him but both Bai Lang and Lin Huiyin who hid in the same classroom with him were still alive as well. They were safe. Either the reapers didn't find them or they couldn't get in because of the locked door.
"Did anyone else hear the loud bang from last night? Something hit the floor right?" Zhen Yu questioned. Yes, he was only one second away from sleep that time however, he's sure that he was not imagining that loud bang.
"I don't know. I already fell asleep by then. You must've fought back hard against the signal in your brain to stay awake longer," Bai Lang let out a yawn. "So what was it?"
"It was me," Lin Huiyin spoke up. "I was sitting on a chair right before 10pm hit. While in the middle of getting knocked unconscious, I fell off the chair and it made the loud noise."
"That's why I told you to find a good position to pass out," Bai Lang shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you. It's- augh," Bai Lang covered his ears as the speakers came on with a loud screech once again.
['Shen Chi' has been killed last night]
[Shen Chi was a human]
[A curse was used on the student 'Zhen Yu' last night]
[The guardian angel protected Zhen Yu and dispelled the curse, saving his life]
[Students remaining: 18/20]
In the cafeteria, the players who had all agreed to gather there as soon as they woke up the next morning were all bewildered. Was the guardian angel a seer? How did they know who was going to be targeted!?
"Hah… why waste the protection on an NPC? Why not a player?" a man, looking like he was in his late 20s with short gelled black hair and black eyes cursed under his breath. The red lipped purple haired woman who sat next to him also let out a scoff.
Seeing the players begin to mumbled and complain to themselves, Zoren fixed his glasses and took charge of the meeting. "With one curse left and two reapers remaining, even the lives of NPCs are important if we want to win. As I said yesterday, the reapers would win in less than a week, so the more that they fail to kill someone the better it is for us. Furthermore, the guardian angel might not be a player. Think about it, the NPCs like Zhen Yu the most, so who else but an NPC would protect him randomly on the first night? If we think about it, the safest person in this school is undoubtedly Zhen Yu."
Hearing his words, Cheng Ming huffed and crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair with an irritated expression, "tch… an NPC's life, more valuable than a player's. What a joke." He then dug his hand into his pocket, but upon finding nothing, his expression became even more annoyed, "can't even smoke."
"Are you new? Only relics won in a game or bought by the game system could be brought into games aside from necessities like glasses," the westerner kindly tried to explain to Cheng Ming, but the man who fully discarded his uniform and now only wore his wife beater shirt only sneered. "…Sorry."
"Be careful," Zoren warned, "don't go anywhere alone. Team up with someone trusted. The rules didn't explicitly say that the reapers could only kill at night. The 10pm knock out just makes it easier for them to kill. Now that a new day has come, the cap of two kills per day has reset… two people may die at any time."
'He's smart…' Zhen Yu silently watched from the cafeteria entrance. The players didn't seem to mind, probably only thinking he was a 'dumb NPC', so they didn't shoo him away for their discussion. Because of that, he could observe the players better.
Zhang Ruonan, the purple haired woman who clearly only had her own best interest in mind, and looked down on NPCs like Cheng Ming seemed to be teamed up with the man with gelled back hair, Li Huohuo. It made sense, they were definitely two peas in a pod. They probably knew each other before entering this game as well, or most likely entered together.
Then there was the only westerner, Richard Green, who Zhen Yu could tell was probably a pushover, but kind. He had tried to calmly explain things to Cheng Ming, but after the rude man sneered at him, he nervously apologized. Richard, there was absolutely nothing to apologize for! In fact, sneer back! Assert your dominance!
As for the other players, they didn't really stand out much or give him any new information about them. Zoren was leading the discussion as always, the others were complaining about how unfair things were, and Kang Yumin was just silently watching. She honestly didn't seem like she wanted to be there, but the information that could possibly be exchanged was probably too important for her to skip.
"Zhen Yu," Lin Huiyin suddenly appeared from behind him. Her suddenness honestly shocked him, he didn't even hear her footsteps coming. "Come with me. I want to talk in private."
Zhen Yu gave a nod and followed Lin Huiyin to the library where no one was at. When they arrived, he asked her, "what did you want to talk about?"
"I wanted to tell you to be alert. If you die before you complete your task, you won't get paid even if you went through hell. Also, the NPCs are supposed to be your supporters. The fact that you were targeted means that at least one of the reapers is a player. Watch your back, it could be anyone, no matter how close they may seem to you," Lin Huiyin turned to leave.
"…. 'No matter how close they seem to you'… Wait Lin Huiyin, how do you think the reapers activate their curse? Do you think it's from a tap of their phone on the game website?" Zhen Yu questioned.
Lin Huiyin who was walking to the exit paused in her tracks, "…probably." She walked away.
Now left alone in the library, Zhen Yu decided to grab a random book out from the bookshelf to read. There was nothing else to do, and his phone could only access the functions that don't require internet or the Reaper Game website anyways. Coincidentally, it happened to be a book he was annotating for a high school assignment. Looking at the cover, he got flashbacks to the tiring nights where he stayed up late and shivered. 'Not good… anything else is better than this…' he put the book back.
"Finding something to read?" a voice asked from behind him. "Was that book not to your taste?" It was Kang Yumin who walked into the library.
"Gave me ptsd. I was annotating that book for the final year assignment, but now I guess all that hard work went down the drain. I died," whoops, he accidentally let that last part slip out.
"You mean you think you're going to die in this death game?" Kang Yumin raised her eyebrow. "I can guarantee you that you're probably the safest person in this game. Most people like you."
"And yet I was targeted on the first night," Zhen Yu shrugged. "They won't stop after one night, they'll probably try again after the first failure. Stubbornness is what makes a human."
"I promised that I will protect you till the end of this game. Put some trust in me," Kang Yumin walked closer until she was standing opposite of the blond male. "I've thought about what you said yesterday. Though Cheng Ming is arrogant and I dislike his personality, wanting to live is not wrong. However, actions from malicious intent and not out of survival are."
Zhen Yu did not argue with her. Her words were very reasonable and true. It's one thing to want to live, but it's another thing to carry out malicious deeds for personal enjoyment or benefits. From her words, he could tell that she really cares about this topic.
"It seems I have wronged many in my life." Kang Yumin took a moment of silence after her sentence then began to speak again, her voice filled with regret, "there is no way for me to make it up to them. I am guilty of injustice."
"Why have you wronged people?" Zhen Yu questioned. He could tell, she was definitely talking about her life outside of the games.
"I… I always wanted to achieve justice," Kang Yumin spoke, a sincere look in her eyes, "my father was a judge who taught me since I was young. I wanted to be great, following behind his footsteps and carrying on his legacy, so I was always strict on myself but…. then I had a dream. I was a judge on stand, the defendant was accused of murder. The defendant killed her boyfriend brutally, claiming it was out of self defence but I, as the judge, gave her a heavy sentencing. I regret punishing her so harshly. I know it's not my fault that the jury decided she was guilty but still, I had the power to make things even just a little better for her, but I didn't- I only saw her as a murderer and overlooked the true purpose of her actions. A couple months later… I truly found out he was abusive. The justice that she needed- the weak needed, was not achieved. The one harmed by the sword of lady justice was the innocent instead."
"A dream huh…?" Zhen Yu knew that it was not a dream. Kang Yumin's voice was filled regret and frustration- perhaps angry at herself. Her story was a reflection of her real life. She was the punisher. Holding a hammer, she sent those accused of wrongdoings to their punishments, but as time went on, she must've noticed the rotting insides of the legal system and felt that justice was not real.
Some criminals can't be sentenced without enough evidence, and not all innocents could be saved. This must be why she suggested the murder of Cheng Ming who fit her definition of 'evil'. Over her years of being a judge, she must've developed the thought of, 'if you don't punish the wrongdoers yourself, the law won't do it for you'. That was her way of justice.
"You are right, no one has the right to decide the life of others, but I think that those who see other's lives as indispensable should know what it really feels like to be indispensable," Kang Yumin spoke, her voice unwavering. She stood firm on her beliefs, not backing down. She won't change her mind, no matter what.
"If that's what you truly believe in, then no matter what I say, you won't change your view on what 'justice' really is. I won't stop you, but you should remember your own humanity. If you don't on your pursuit of justice, then you will go insane," Zhen Yu reminded her.
SCREEECH!
[The student 'Lan Ying' has been killed]
[Lan Ying was a human]
[Students remaining: 17/20]
"… I guess that means we're both humans. We both have alibis," Zhen Yu broke the silence that overtook the room after the announcement. The sound of the speaker turning on wasn't as loud this time, seemingly abiding the 'quiet in the library' rule. "Let's find the others and see what's going on."
Finding a crowd gathering outside a classroom, Zhen Yu and Kang Yumin stopped to take in the scene. The players and NPCs were once again divided into two factions, arguing with each other non-stop. The actor with black hair and blue eyes that Zhen Yu had to stop from charging at Cheng Ming a day earlier was alone this time, not accompanied by the girl with pigtails that was always with him. Next to him displayed the name 'Xu Mingzhe'.
"I would never kill her!" Xu Mingzhe shouted in frustration. From his words, it wasn't hard to guess who died. Lan Ying was the brown haired girl with pigtails.
"Weren't you together before she died? It's so obvious that you killed her," the player with gelled back hair, Li Huohuo did not hesitate to accuse him. Beside him, Zhang Ruonan nodded in agreement.
"Initiate the voting. He's clearly guilty. NPCs are so stupid, they don't even know how to kill without ratting themselves out," Zhang Ruonan grabbed out her phone and was about to initiate the voting, when another player stopped her.
"W-wait… should we really initiate the vote? Only one could be started per day and there's no skip button. Someone getting voted out is mandatory every time," Richard was trembling in the middle of the crowd. His face was deathly pale as he shivered like a cold ghost.
"It's just an NPC. If he's really the reaper then it's even better for us." After speaking, Cheng Ming looked the terrified Richard up and down then asked him, "have you never seen a dead body before? You're shaking like a wet dog in the rain."
"T-this is the first time," Richard confessed honestly. "When I was on the North American sever, I've only played in difficulty C games before. They were only for solving mysteries but never included a… a dead body…"
"Weren't the rewards there decent enough? Why did you come here for huh? To make my games harder?" Cheng Ming scowled, which seemed to be the only expression he seemed to know. It was like he had an emote wheel but all the options were the same one, or extremely similar.
"I thought they were just a little more useful than average items. I've received a cream that could completely erase eyebags or dark circles, and a bar of chocolate that won't make me feel hungry for the next 24 hours, that's all. I heard other players discuss that higher difficulties are easier to encounter on the Asia server, so I came here for better rewards… I really didn't think that my first game here would be a S difficulty," Richard nervously explained. He seemed terrified of the potential anger from other players who were definitely more experienced than him from the way that he avoided looking into everyone's eyes.
"A complete newbie then? Hah, do you even know what the different difficulties require you to do? S difficulties require real human sacrifice and deaths to clear, is it worth your greed?! You're completely screwing all of us over with your inexperience!" Zhang Ruonan cursed the trembling man. "You do know that death here mean death in real life right? How could I trust others my life when it's in the hands of a most likely stupid teammate?"
"For our sake, you better be one of the reapers," Li Huohuo who stood beside Zhang Ruonan glared. "I hope you do know that your words are of no value anymore."
"Hurry up and start the vote. Get that NPC out first then we can discuss what to do with this westerner," Cheng Ming urged. "The more suspects we can remove the better."
"I'm not guilty! I could never kill her!" Xu Mingzhe exclaimed once again. "She was my girlfriend! We even planned to attend the same university together and get married after finishing school! My future always had her in it! I'd…. I'd never kill her," Xu Mingzhe's eyes were wet and completely red, he seemed on the verge of breaking down, but he couldn't even mourn Lan Ying's death properly as he was now being accused of her murder.
"Calm down," Zhen Yu placed his hand on Xu Mingzhe's shoulder. "Let's go to the classroom besides us, I'm sure we can get to the bottom of this. Let's talk about what happened in private," Zhen Yu then led his classmate into the next classroom and closed the door.
"Bro it really wasn't me," Xu Mingzhe spoke with a wronged tone. "Actually before me and her became ghosts, we were actually husband and wife. I'm deathly terrified of her even after dying, so why would I kill her? If I did then wouldn't she beat me up and make me kneel on a keyboard after this shift is over? Isn't that enough to prove my innocence? We're both NPCs, why would I lie to you?"
"I believe you," Zhen Yu assured, "even if I didn't, I wouldn't rat you out anyways. My job is to cause chaos and confuse the players to ensure this is an S difficulty game. I have a plan to save you for at least one round."
"What is it?" Xu Mingzhe questioned. "If it's a good one I'll follow all of your instructions word by word."
"We shift the blame onto a player." Zhen Yu let out a smile, "don't you think it's been going too smoothly for them? There were originally 20 students in total, 10 players and 10 actors. Three of us are dead but there's still 10 of them in total, that makes the game harder for us to control. It's easy for us to cooperate since we all work for the same company and don't seek personal benefits like them, but they will surely have disagreements with each other. We need to get in a better position so we could control the majority of votes."
"Hey, were you a psychopath when you were alive? You want to kill a player? Xu Mingzhe looked at Zhen Yu warily. "How many games have you participated in already?"
"We're not actually the ones with the final decision. There's only seven of us left, we're not the majority. If all the players vote for you then in the end, we can't change your fate. Really, the only ones killing people here are the players themselves. If they pick to kill someone else who seems completely innocent, then aren't they guilty? They're not being forced to vote, and they even have the majority. We have no right to control what they do. We're not killing them, they're killing themselves," Zhen Yu explained.
Honestly, it felt more like he was trying to reason with himself. Of course, he was working for his own goal, and if he did a great job, he could reincarnate faster. The thought of being able to live another life where he could be surrounded by a loving, supportive family… it was slowly eating his insides and overtaking his mind. He knew what this was, it was greed, but he just couldn't help it.
"Then… then who do we target?" Xu Mingzhe hesitantly asked. "I can signal the other NPCs to help when we head back there."
"There's a signal to let others know?" Zhen Yu raised an eyebrow in question. He was thrown into this game immediately after getting hired, so it wasn't wrong to say he was basically a baby chick amongst the more experienced actors.
"What? Are you not in the staff forum? We've developed a signal with our eyes to ask for help from other actors. You basically move your eye in a circular motion like rolling your eyes, it's very easy to do and undiscoverable if you're facing away from players. In cases if you can't do that, you turn your palm facing upwards and flick your index finger against your thumb thrice so it looks like you're itching a finger. Some experienced veterans even pretend to pick their nose and use the hand signal, pretending to flick a booger," Xu Mingzhu held his hand up and showed how the signal was done. "Really, the more jobs that you take on, the more shameless you get. They're not scared to be called gross by the players at all."
Zhen Yu took a step back. Brother, sir, uncle, grandpa- however old you are, please don't flick a booger at me. He wasn't a germaphobe, but he definitely was not into getting boogers flicked at him! Don't even pretend! Sticking your finger up your nose already covers it in slimy nose juice!
"It's not an actual booger! I told you it's pretend! Pre-tend!" Xu Mingzhe clarified. "But anyways, who are we going to target?"
"Richard Green."
"… Do you have something against the only westerner here?" Xu Mingzhe questioned. "How about we not do it anymore? Dying is fine but I'd rather not be charged for discrimination. The company is strict on this rule."
"… I'm not racist. He's a really suitable target, it just so happens to be that he's the only westerner…" Zhen Yu denied the accusations. "Richard is a new player and very unstable, if we accuse him then he'd fall apart trying to defend himself. Even if his story is true, his inability to give an alibi without looking suspicious of murder will sow doubt in people's minds. Trust me, I'll keep you alive for one more day."