With the appearance of Rule 6, the game had now changed from a battle of wits built on mutual deception into the simplest kind of survival game.

Three minutes to run. Then survive for fifteen minutes without being killed by the Killer.

Simple?

Not simple. It was incredibly difficult.

Against that crazy woman—his so-called girlfriend—it was simply impossible.

The difference in their physical strength was just too great!

Yimo knew that better than anyone.

Three minutes to run? She’d probably catch up to him in less than one!

Once he’d thought it through, Yimo ran for two minutes, then casually opened the door to a room and quietly shut it behind him.

Crash—!

He turned around and saw a breathtaking scene.

It was a classroom. Neatly arranged desks and chairs filled the room, and math problems were written on the blackboard.

He could tell it was a high school classroom.

That wasn’t anything special. It was the dazzling sunset outside the window, framed by the branches and leaves of several large maple trees swaying gently and rhythmically in the late-autumn breeze, their leaves whispering with a soft rustle. It was truly beautiful.

It stood in stark contrast to the dark, haunted-looking mine they’d been in before.

Yimo was momentarily lost in thought. Then he covered his face with his right hand, clutching the little jade pendant the Solo Fan had given him, and couldn’t help bending over with laughter.

“Hahaha, the irony!”

“They let someone who never even went to high school see a scene like this right before he dies.”

“It’s just so twisted.”

“Trying to make me want to survive?”

“I’ll survive. I definitely will!”

Yimo looked completely unhinged. After laughing in a wildly chuunibyou way a few times, he looked around the classroom, then hid inside a storage cabinet in the corner.

To put it simply, hiding was all he could do for now.

In this pitch-black, cramped space,

he quietly waited to die.

He’d tried to see if he could get out through the window, but he couldn’t, so he’d resorted to this.

He opened the system’s game rules, took another look, then closed them and stared at the countdown in the upper-right corner of his vision.

The hunt had begun!

Thump… thump…

In a cramped space like this, your senses seemed to grow infinitely sharper.

Compared with the rustling maple leaves outside, Yimo could hear his own heartbeat much more clearly.

He was still alive.

Eight players had been dragged into a Death Game for no apparent reason. He was one of the only two still alive.

No.

If that crazy woman with the knife was the ghost, then he was the only survivor!

Just like his faction.

At that moment, he prayed over and over in his heart, and repented.

He prayed that the crazy woman wouldn’t find him.

He repented for the wrong he’d done out of selfish desperation to survive!

It was very quiet outside.

With the door shut, sound was completely cut off between the room and the mine tunnel, as if they were two entirely separate worlds.

Fifteen minutes. He only had to last fifteen minutes.

Hide until the timer hit zero!

Every so often, Yimo looked up at the time in the upper-right corner, checking it again and again.

But time, which usually flew by in an instant, dragged so slowly now.

It was even slower than sitting through the class he’d hated most in this very classroom!

Tick…

At last, the countdown went from two digits to one.

Nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds left!

Yimo kept trying to reassure himself. “Don’t come. Don’t come!!!”

Creak—

And yet, under Destiny’s merciless iron hand, the things you least wanted to happen were always the most likely to happen.

The sound of the room’s door opening reached Yimo’s ears.

“Nine minutes left~”

“Let me guess. Is the man who somehow became my boyfriend in this room?”

Her voice, laced with a sickly giggle, echoed through the room.

Whoosh—clatter—

Then came the sound of a cleaver scraping across the floor tiles. It pounded against Yimo’s heart, as if urging it to run faster.

Gulp—

But humans had their limits. Yimo didn’t know how fast his heart was beating now, but at least it was still beating.

He covered his mouth, his throat bobbing despite himself.

“Huh?… Huh, huh?”

“Seems like he’s not in this room…”

Scrape… scrape…

The sound of the cleaver drew closer, then receded. As Yimo listened to the girl’s puzzled voice, he felt like an ant in a pan of hot oil, tortured by the suspense.

He glanced at the system countdown in the upper-right corner.

Eight minutes left!

He frowned slightly.

He suspected she’d found him and was deliberately tormenting him.

Tormenting him on the edge of life and death!!!

He couldn’t help wanting to burst out of that cramped space, where he could barely move, and fight the crazy woman to the death!

But he couldn’t!

Hold it in!

“Well… seems like he’s not here. I’ll check the other rooms.”

At last, Dusk’s slightly disappointed voice faded away. The sound of the cleaver scraping across the floor grew more and more distant, then came the sound of the door closing.

“Phew… am I safe?”

It didn’t feel quite real, but Yimo’s heart suddenly eased. He whispered in a voice so faint only he could hear it.

Then—

Creak—!

“No, you weren’t. My boyfriend—the player who somehow became my very first boyfriend…”

The cabinet door opened, and a voice with a hint of allure, yet cold as the abyss, reached Yimo’s ears.

The sunset suddenly shining into the cabinet was blinding, and Yimo instinctively raised a hand to shield his brow.

He looked up. Dusk stood there, her body giving off an unnatural black mist, scarlet pupils glowing with a blood-red light.

She was bathed in the classroom’s sunset, as if draped in a vivid wedding gown.

Beside the sunset, she looked even more beautiful, her face sickly and strange.

Like a newlywed bride gazing lovingly at her beloved.

Except…

He wasn’t her beloved. He was someone she hated!

The joy of victory mingled with her laughter, and she couldn’t help letting it out.

To Yimo, it sounded especially grating.

The person blocking the cabinet’s exit wasn’t some charming bride.

She was just a crazed Killer!

“I’m not your boyfriend. Why don’t you just kill me?” Yimo looked away from her and lowered his head, his voice cool.

Dusk froze. She couldn’t understand why the man who’d always been crazy about her wouldn’t admit he was her boyfriend now that the system had assigned them to each other. She was caught off guard.

“Oh?”

“No, no. The system is absolute.”

“For example, you have to take part in these ridiculous games. You have to kill people. And if you lose, you die.”

“And when the game began, I actually got a system notification telling me you were my one and only boyfriend.”

“Hehehe… It even told me to enjoy the fun of falling in love. Isn’t that hilarious?”

Dusk glanced at the countdown. She wasn’t in a hurry at all.

“Six minutes left, my boyfriend. Take a guess—which second will I bring this blade down?”

Dusk turned toward the window, enjoying the beautiful sunset and the thrill of victory to come. Her pale pink hair swayed over her shoulders.

Then she thought it would be a shame not to admire the way her very first boyfriend struggled as he died on such a sacred occasion.

So she walked over to the cabinet and bent down.

She slowly ran a finger over Yimo’s chest and teased him. “You’re actually pretty good-looking. Your hair’s just a little long.”

“Hehehe… what a shame~”

“Tell me, what second do you think I’ll strike?”

The Killer faction had affected Dusk to some extent. Under normal circumstances, she would’ve struck already instead of teasing her enemy like this.

Perhaps being a Killer really did amplify the desires in your heart until you went mad.

Just as the Killer’s description said:

『When someone takes up a knife and kills, are they human—or a ghost?』

Dusk waited eagerly for her boyfriend’s answer.

“If you were my girlfriend, I’d guess you wouldn’t kill me.” Yimo kept his head lowered, his eyes hidden beneath his bangs. His voice grew colder and colder.

It was as if he didn’t care about dying at all.

The moment Yimo finished speaking, the red glow in Dusk’s eyes intensified to its absolute limit. She swung her blade at him inside the cabinet!

“Wrong. It’s right now!”

“Huh?”

But… the scene of blood spraying everywhere never came.

Instead, Yimo’s laughter echoed through the beautiful classroom.

It was sick, it was mad—impossible to describe or understand.

“Haha… hahahaha…!”

“So, which one of us is the Killer?!!”