The yellow-haired boy had drawn an unremarkable R-rank card at the start.
『Smell enhanced fivefold. Effect lasts 5 minutes.』
Honestly, in most Death Games, this would be a pretty useless card. It wouldn’t do much at all.
But this was a game where they had to find people. The yellow-haired boy was already a Killer, which meant his physical abilities and five senses had been doubled. With his sense of smell boosted another five times over, it was practically on par with a dog’s.
Amid the heavy smell of dust, the yellow-haired boy easily picked out several scents. One of them, like gardenias, immediately led him to Dusk.
There were four people in the tunnel to the left, and only one to the right.
Without hesitation, the yellow-haired boy chose the direction Dusk had gone.
His card’s effect lasted five minutes—not very long, really. But he strolled along without a care, dragging his cleaver behind him and swaying like he was taking a walk in his own backyard.
The door to the room next to the starting room stood slightly ajar. Inside, all was pitch-black.
The yellow-haired boy stopped there. He glanced farther down the mine tunnel, then at the crack in the door, and burst into delighted laughter. “Hahaha... There you are, my little darling~”
“You went all the way to a farther spot on purpose, so why come back to this room?”
“Hehehe... Hiding and thinking you can fool a Killer?”
“The most dangerous place is the safest place?”
“Hahaha...”
“You have no idea how wonderful it feels to have your physical abilities and five senses doubled!”
“It’s like you’ve got the whole world in your hands~”
“You’re right there... behind the door!”
As he spoke, the yellow-haired boy pushed the door open and swung his cleaver, pretending to hack at the figure behind it.
“Whoosh...!”
But...
The figure behind the door moved first. The instant it swung open, a dazzling white flash streaked through the darkness.
It was a dagger, thrust straight at the yellow-haired boy’s heart by the red-eyed girl!
The attack was incredibly fast!
Only his doubled physical abilities let the yellow-haired boy react in time. His body instinctively shifted back and to the side, trying to dodge the strike. Cold sweat ran down his forehead.
If his physical abilities hadn’t been doubled, Dusk’s strike, aimed right at his heart, would have killed him for sure!
But Dusk didn’t follow up. She suddenly pulled back her dagger, spun halfway around to slip past him, planted her leather shoe on the doorframe, and sprinted down the mine tunnel.
“Shit!”
“Survivors can’t attack Killers!”
The yellow-haired boy watched Dusk escape from the sealed room, then finally remembered the game’s rules. He couldn’t help shouting in anger.
He knew the rules, of course. He hadn’t forgotten them.
Even so, when a dagger suddenly came hurtling toward his heart, his instinct to survive made him dodge without thinking.
“As I thought... you’re a real threat...”
Two seconds later, the yellow-haired boy came to his senses and began racing through the uneven mine tunnel after Dusk.
But the longer he chased her, the more uneasy he became.
Dusk moved nimbly through the dim tunnel, incredibly fast—only a little slower than him.
And she made up even that small difference by landing steadily with every step, as if she were running across flat ground.
He stayed right behind her, but he just couldn’t catch up completely!
The yellow-haired boy figured that, no matter how nimble she was, she was still a woman. She couldn’t keep up this pace as long as he could. So he didn’t give up—and even laughed teasingly as he ran.
“Hahaha... Go on, run as much as you like!”
“When I catch you, I’ll make sure you experience the most painful way to die!”
“You’re good. Really good...”
“How many games have you played? A dozen? Twenty?”
“You must’ve been through a lot to get this good, right?”
“Hahaha... It’s okay... It’s okay...”
“You’ll never have to struggle like this again...”
“Killing a strong player feels so much better than killing ten noobs... So much better...”
“Hahaha...”
The yellow-haired boy kept talking, but never let his attention slip. He was trying to make her lower her guard with the conversation. Even the smallest mistake could be fatal.
But...
Dusk wasn’t affected in the slightest!
The yellow-haired boy had to keep acting like he was having a great time, even though he was getting more and more annoyed.
Still, it was fine. He’d noticed that Dusk was starting to slow down!
There was a fork in the tunnel ahead. Dusk abruptly turned left without hesitation. Afraid of losing her, the yellow-haired boy gritted his teeth and sped up to catch her.
This time, he’d learned his lesson. He absolutely wouldn’t let instinctive fear make him fall for Dusk’s trick again!
Hmm...
This time, Dusk didn’t ambush him.
The left-hand tunnel at the fork was less than ten meters long. It ended in a pitch-black dead end!
In the darkness, Dusk held a hand to her chest and panted. Sweat clung to her forehead, with a few strands of pink hair stuck to it. The exhaustion from running at full speed made her legs tremble slightly.
“Oh?”
“Nowhere left to run?”
“Clatter, clatter, clatter—!”
The sound of the yellow-haired boy dragging his cleaver across the ground rang harshly through the silence. A glint of red in his eyes was eerie enough to make anyone shudder.
When he was three meters from Dusk, the yellow-haired boy looked her over. The more he stared, the prettier she seemed. He clicked his tongue and taunted her. “Well, well~ A dead end~”
“How do you want to die?”
The yellow-haired boy could attack whenever he wanted, but he didn’t hurry.
Dusk had run so desperately that she probably didn’t have an Exorcism Talisman. Still, he didn’t mind asking a few more questions to make sure.
Besides, if she didn’t have an Exorcism Talisman, then in a game with no time limit, once he’d locked onto his target, he was guaranteed to win no matter what!
But, to his surprise, the girl pulled a golden wooden talisman from the pocket of her JK uniform and stared coldly at the yellow-haired boy. “You can’t kill me.”
Wait, what...?
The yellow-haired boy was dumbfounded.
“Damn it, you’ve got an Exorcism Talisman! So why the hell were you running so hard?!”
“Are you crazy?”
“If you’d just kept it hidden, you might’ve tricked me, you bitch!”
“Heh... A lunatic, huh? That’s actually kind of terrifying.”
“I’ll kill you in a bit!”
The yellow-haired boy’s stamina had doubled, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get tired!
He was so furious that he ended up laughing instead.
After all, he’d almost been played by this girl called Dusk!
Well... better go find someone else first.
That was what the yellow-haired boy thought. But Dusk looked at him like he was already dead. She put the wooden talisman back in her pocket and took a metal lighter out of her own. As the wheel turned, a weak flame lit her face. The yellow-haired boy’s reflection appeared in her crimson eyes, as if he were standing at the bottom of an abyss.
“Survivors can’t attack Killers.”
“But what if a Killer is struck by something else they can’t defend against?”
“Do you think they’d die?”
At the sound of Dusk’s somewhat deranged voice, the yellow-haired boy froze. A sense of foreboding welled up inside him. “You bitch, what kind of joke is this?!”
He said that, but the recent sprint had left him just a little less alert. He hurriedly looked around. Beneath the heavy smell of dust, he caught a faint, pungent scent.
It was so faint he’d never have noticed it if he hadn’t deliberately sniffed for it.
Wait... is that...?
“Gasoline! What did you do?!”
The yellow-haired boy shouted and looked at Dusk. She was staring coldly at him, as if he were garbage.
Then she tossed the metal lighter from her hand. It landed a short distance from his feet.
“Before I entered the game, I wondered: if this is a Killer in a mine tunnel...”
“Then could there be explosives?”
At the girl’s contemptuous words, a blinding line of fire raced toward the yellow-haired boy.
It was far too fast to react to!
“You’re crazy! I might not die, but you definitely will!”
The yellow-haired boy instinctively took a few steps toward Dusk. He turned to watch the flames race past his feet, then stop at the dark rock wall a meter from where he stood.
The next moment—
“Rumble—!”
In the cramped space, rocks burst through the air as scorching tongues of flame surged toward the yellow-haired boy.
The mine tunnel shook violently. Dust rained from the ceiling, and the area around the explosion had already partly collapsed. The exit was about to be buried!
It’s fine!!! This must’ve been caused by a Survivor, too!
As a Killer, I can’t possibly be hurt by it!!!
The yellow-haired boy was starting to panic. He prayed desperately as the nearby blast and shaking ground made him instinctively step back, watching the flames rush toward him.
“Crack...!”
He watched black smoke appear in front of him, blocking the flying rocks and flames from the explosion. At last, he couldn’t help laughing. “Hahaha... I’m fine!!!!”
“Are you really fine?”
Just then, the yellow-haired boy heard that mocking voice beside his ear and jumped in fright.
He instinctively turned around.
When had that bitch run over here?
What was she trying to do?!
Was she using him as a shield to escape that terrifying explosion???
But he’d only just halfway turned, his thoughts still in a jumble, when he saw Dusk looking down at him with a mocking expression. As he turned, he dragged his cleaver across the ground.
The girl—
—kicked the blade of the cleaver with all her strength!
“Shit!”
The yellow-haired boy understood what Dusk was trying to do and tried to let go of the cleaver. But the sudden change left him no time. Dusk had already kicked the blade hard.
Dusk wasn’t hurt. Golden light enveloped her, while scorching flames began to engulf the yellow-haired boy. He covered his face and screamed in agony.
“Why?! Why is this happening?!”
“Did you do all this just to set me up?!”
“You were the one who attacked me! Why does it count as me attacking you?!”
Dusk looked at the dying yellow-haired boy on the ground. She casually swept her pale-pink hair back over her shoulder and smoothed it into place before answering in a flat voice, “I didn’t kick your blade. I just happened to trip over a rock when I was in front of you and bump into the cleaver you were dragging as you turned.”
“If you’d had a little more control over yourself when you came out of that room—if you’d counterattacked instead of dodging—it wouldn’t have been this much trouble.”
The yellow-haired boy lay on the ground, his face already disfigured. Even as he was dying, his lips moved. “How many games... have you played...?”
“Why... did you target me... like this...?”
“Was I... good enough...?”
Dusk looked at him but didn’t respond. When the system notification sounded, she picked up the cleaver from the ground and left.
Before the game began, Dusk had actually brought a gun, a lighter, and a few other things.
She’d also bought detonators and other items from the game shop.
But the only thing she actually brought into the game was the lighter.
As for the gunpowder, Dusk had found it in the mine tunnel as soon as she left the room, then used it to set this trap.
Dusk didn’t leave through the collapsed section of the mine tunnel. Instead, she went all the way to its deepest point and slipped out through a small path hidden behind a piece of cloth coated in black coal.
“It’s only meant for the Killer.”
A somewhat deranged voice echoed through the pitch-black, eerie mine tunnel.
