Arthr waven her warto class when someone suddenly card her mouth and nose.
Dark quickly consumed her, and when the came to, she was standing In the middle of a sealed–off sports field.
A voice cracked though the speakers. “Welcome to a special game of Frere Tag. Here are the rides. 11 players will draw lots to determine their n
“Each round lasts the minutes. The tagger must catch the players. If a ragger fails to catch someone, they are eliminated. If a player gets caught, they are eliminated.
“It a protector has fewer than one player behind them, they are also eliminated
“Elimination means death. The surviving players will draw lots again and repeat the game until only three remain
“Now, please step forward and draw your roles in an orderly fashion”
But no one moved. One player, unwilling to comply, can toward the fence and tried to climb over.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and he dropped to the ground, blood pooling beneath him.
The voice returned. “Failure to participate or breaking the miles will result in immediate execution. Now, step forward and drew your roles.
“Any player who has not drawn their lot in the nest 60 seconds will be executed.
Panic immediately set in Some screamed and ran in all directions, only to be gunned down
Others froze in fear, and they were also shot down
In the end, only eight players clutched an identity card.
The broadcast continued, “Player, you are the first in line. Hold onto the protector’s clothing. Player 2 and Player 3, follow in sequence. Grab the shirt of the player in front.
“The protector’s job is to protect the players while the taggers job is to catch them.
“The first round will last five minutes. If the tagger fails to catch a player, the tagger dies. If the protector loses all their players, they die. If a player gets caught,
they die.
“Chimination means death.”
“The countdown begins now Enjoy the game.”
Aether drew the role of Player 1, which meant that she was positioned right behind the protector and was relatively safe
The further back a player was, the more dangerous their situation became
with execution as the consequence, the tagger had no option but to hunt the players
Meanwhile, the protector didn’t have too much to worry about. They were safe as long as they managed to protect at least one player.
Before long, two players were eliminated
The first round ended, and only six players remained.
The game continued.
As the second round ended, only four players remained.
Now, the third round was underway.
This meant that at least one person would be eliminated by the end of this round.
Either the Lagger would fail to catch a player and die, or a player would be caught and eliminated.
Those were the only two possible outcomes.
As for the player who drew the protector card, they were in a relatively safe position. They only needed to protect one player, and the other was on their man
However, if things played out well, all there could survive.
Aethet drew the tagger card this round.
The protector didn’t even besitate before speaking up. “I won’t move, just catch one of them and get it over with
“Pick whoever you want, I’m fooled to ”
One of the players was shiling from head to toe, pleading desperately with Arthur.
“Please don’t catch me. I don’t want to die.”
There were two players left–one male and one female.
The man looked angry and high string while the woman was utterly teritied
Then, the man suddenly pulled out a life from who–knows–where and pressed it against the protector’s throat
If you let her catch me, you’re coming down with me.
The protector paled, trembling. “okay! I’ll protect you! I promise!”
The woman stood helplessly behind them, her face drained of all color.
The man then bed his attention to her, his voice sharp and impatient. “Let go now. Don’t waste portima
Chapter 23 The Bendy Dane of Free Tag
“No!” The woman shook uncontrollably. “If I let go, Midie”
“one of us has to die. His voice was cold and forceful. “Instead of holding me back and dragging this eat, just let go already.”
“Why does it have to be me? Her voice cracked with sob. “I don’t want to die?”
Aetherlunged toward the other man, but the protector shielded him with everything he had, blocking every attempt.
The woman lost her footing in the chans and went crashing to the ground.
The protector and the other player witnessed the fall and took off
The woman collapsed, her whole body trembling violently. She burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably “Nol Please, I’m begging you! Don’t kill me!”
Aether took a step closer, and the woman Immediately dropped to her loves, bangling her forehead against the ground over and over.
Bloodtrickled down her fare.
Aether hesitated, anda pang of guilt struck her chest.
Then, the broadcast chimed in. “Countdown Te…. Nine… Bigli…”
The numbers ticked downward, but Aether stood still before the women.
All it would take was a single tooch, and the woman would be eliminated. She would die while Aether would live.
And yet, Aether couldn’t bring herself to–do it as she watched the beautiful woman cry so desperately. She wouldn’t hesitate if she couldn’t restart from a save point. Survival always came first.
did have that ability, and because of that, this choice wasn’t life or death for her,
So she figured that saying the woman wouldn’t be a big deal.
The broadcast continued. “Three. Two One.”
Timeranout. The protector and both players survived
The woman stopped bowing. She lifted her tear–streaked face and stared at Aether in stunned disbelied,
Then, she cried even harder the next instant.
Herlips quivered as she choked out an apology.
“I’m 100y. I’m 30 sorry… I didn’t want this either. I was just so scared. I didn’t know what to do.”
Aether helped her up and said, “It’s okay. Don’t be afraid I won’t die.”
The woman, Selene Hart, stood up and threw herself into Aether’s arms, holding her tight
will I ever see you again? +
“You will,” Aether promised, gently patting her back “I’ll find you. Don’t cry.”
Then, the started Aether and the other eliminated players away.
Russell chuckled as he watched the scene unfold through the surveillance monitors.
“So this is how you win people over? ”
Aether and the others were taken to Nell’s laboratory.
Their eyes were blindfolded, and their hands and feet were bound.
When Nellentered the storage room to pick up his test subjects, his gaze landed on a familiar figure–a delicate–looking young man. He was thin, pale, and almost fragile.
Neil mowed in, crouching to examine the figure more closely. It didn’t take long for him to recognize Aether
He then took her hand and led her out of die storage room.
He brought her to the lab’s experiment table, etfonlessly lifting her onto the cold surface. Next, he removed the blindfold covering her eyes.
When their gazes me ther’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t expected to ane Neil bere again.
The laboratory was lined with jars, each containing dissected body parts and preserved pleces of living creatures
Bring back hece triggered something deep within her. The memory of almost bring dissected last time surged back like a nightmare, making her instinctively shrink away, he body pressing back against the table
On the other hand, Nell greeted her with casual amusement
ancy seeing you again. So, how do you plan on pleasing me this time?”
Pleasing?”
Nelltwirled scalpel between his fingers. “You can either amnuse me, o
A shiver ran down Aether’espinathwords
‚or I can dissect you.
She lunged forward and kissed him without a second thought, just like the first time they met, just like the first time she “pleased him.
Neil the roughly enjoyed it, savoring her kiss while eagerly exploring more.
Cramer 21 The Deadly Game of Finem Tha
Lately, he had been studying “human anatomy“.
牛肉
Chapter 24 The Author Is the Ultimate Villain
Just as Neil’s hand started to wander, Aether panicked, gripping his arm tightly and abruptly breaking the kiss
“That’s enough I’maman.”
Neil withdrew his scalpel ““You can go.”
Arther was caught off guard. “I can leave? Just like that?”
“If you don’t want to leave.” Mell crouched in front of her. “We could go for another round.”
Arther shot to be feet interror. “Nope! Nope! I want to leave!
“Thank you for not dissecting me. Goodbye”
She bolted out of the lab, but she smacked right into Russell the moment she stepped outside.
This was their third encounter.
Since Russell was one of the male leads she needed to winover, Aether took the initiative to greet him. “We meet again.”
Russell barely spared her a glance before he stepped into the elevator, treating Aether like alc. He never expected her to be still alive.
Next time, he’d kill her on the spot and deliver the corpse to Neil instead.
Aether, oblivious to Russell’s merous thoughts, left the dormitory and made her way toward the academic building.
Then, that mechanical voice rang out again.
“Don’t waste your time. Even if you manage to make the other three members of the Fabled Four like you, Russell will never develop the slightest bit of favorability for you.
“He likes intelligent people like Gloria. Not an airheaded sweetheart like you
“Honestly, you just look stupid and laughable”
“Can you just make your post without the personal attacks? I have to try, even if I’m not sure I can win him over. I can’t go home unless case their favorability,
Aether was dumbfounded.
“Why do you have so much hostility toward me
“Because you’re so full of yourself! You’re so arogant and self–righteous! You’re always pointing fingers at others. Win do you think you are?
“You were brought into this world for a reason to teach you a lesson! You don’t respect other people’s hard work, and now you’re paying the price!” “Are you the author?”
“Of course not. I just despise you for reporting the author.
“Do you have any idea how much time and effort it took to write this on word novel? The author poured days and nights into it, which was already free to
read!
“They weren’t making much, just writing out of passion. But then you got it taken down and forced them to retum their earnings. Everything they did went to waste!
“It would’ve beenfine if it had been plagiarism. But every plot point in this book was something the author painstakingly came up with. It was from their blood,
“Then I’m sor
“Oh, now that you know the author trapped you here to suffer, you want to apologize and hope they’ll let you go?
“Not exactly I just feel that if my actions caused you pain or discordon, I owe you an apology.
“Because honestly, I had no idea my arport would cause such a significant loss for you. So, I really am so py
“But that doesn’t mean I’ve changed my stance. I still believe that the brine shouldn’t have been written to suffer from depression and die.”
“Oh, so many heroines die in stores, but you specifically had a problem with mine dying of depression?”
“Well, Composted all of them.”
“Yoo seriously love meddling in things, huh? some homies die for amason. You know that, dight
“I down. I just felt bad for them, so I reported it. Honestly, I’ve read plenty of forceful romance stores, but in matter how you Teude bead’s ending that tragic.
“It a forced romance ends in mutual love, then fine, it becomes part of the couple’s twisted dynamic.
write it, you shouldn’t make a
“But how can you make it nothing but sullering, only for the heroine to be turmented into depression and die in the end?“ **Tragedies air meant to end with the protagonist’s death Every author’s worst nightmare is readers who abuse the ceport button!” “Waders share it when the heroine’s en
all that effort ‘t exactly air.
ing is just her being tortured to death! But since it’s your hard work, it seems like reporting it and making you waste
*I’ll just leave reviews from now No mere orpoding.”
“Don’t think that just because you said that, you’ll get to do nothing and leave.”
“I didn’t say I was leaving I still want to try and change the heroine’s fate. You wouldn’t let me die, would you, Mister Almighty Author?”
“Stop acting oure. I’m not falling for that.”
The mechanical voice went silent, and when Aether tried to ask something else, there was no reply.
didn’t push it any further and went straight to the classroom.
As soon as she reached the door, the bell cang, signaling the end of class and marking the conclusion of the professional course.
The teacher left, and Arther entered.
When Gloria sacher, she walked over. “You’re usually never late, and you never sidp class. What happened today? Where were you?
Before Aether could answer, Selene ran up to her and threw her arms around her in a tight bag “You really came back! You didn’t die. Thank goodness! Thank goodness you’re still alive.
“Do you have any idea how scared I was? How guilty 1 felt?
*Leven had nightmares, Aether
was so worried about you! Gosh, you’re really back”
“I told you so.” Aether patted her shoulder and comforted her. “I’m not going to die!”
I believe it now.” Selene’s face tumed red she let go of her and looked at her with admiration. “You’re such a big
Aether’s face tumed red from the compliment.
Selene couldn’t help herself, and before Aether could react, she kissed the comer of her mouth and quickly pulled away.
(Gloria Anderson’s favorability–5 Current favorability: 40.)
Aether was left speechless
