"Now, from this mont, we will start the 7th ga."
Before long, the Cuttlefish ga reaches the seventh ga.
"Are you okay, kid?"
"Heheok...yes."
Kim Hae-seol worked together as a team with the person called Yang Ji-hwang, and he was able to keep winning and rising.
She is incredibly lucky.
For example, in the dice ga, the number she rolled never drops below 4, and even in probability gas like coin tosses, only the side she wanted always ca up.
Kim Hae-sol lost once or twice in the gas and, because of Kim Runi's incitent, participated in the losers' revival match and won, but...
Yang Ji-hwang has always survived with a frightening montum even without anything like that.
And in this Cuttlefish ga, Kim Hae-sol has already discerned the normal survivors, and decided to save four or five people for sure.
"You look like you are trying to save those four or five people from before. Is there a reason?"
At Yang Ji-hwang's question, Kim Hae-sol nods.
"Yes. Actually, the vast majority of the ga participants who ca in here don't seem to be normal people. Most of them are addicted to drugs, or addicted to gambling...or they are people who used to work in so dark place...but the people I'm trying to save have lived diligently and got scamd, or they ca in here because they truly have no choice...they are those kinds of people. So I think it would be good if people like that could live...so I'm helping as much as I can."
"Hmm, is that so?"
Yang Ji-hwang nods, then asks him a question.
"Then, you?"
"Pardon?"
"In your opinion...do you seem like soone who is worth making it out alive?"
"Uh..."
At those words, Kim Hae-seol feels a little awkward and speaks.
"Honestly, when I think about it, I don't think I have done anything really bad in my life..."
"Hmmm..."
Yang Ji-hwang nods at his words.
"Yeah, it seems that way to too. All right, you make sure you get out alive."
"Hehe, you too, noona."
"Hm... Well, I don't really care whether I die or not."
"Pardon?"
"In your opinion, what do I seem like?"
Kim Hae-sol is flustered by Yang Ji-hwang suddenly leaning in close and eting his eyes.
"Um...you're too close."
"Look into my eyes."
"Pardon...?"
And as Kim Hae-sol looks into her eyes, he feels an ominous premonition he can't put into words.
'What...is this? A murderer? No.'
Kim Hae-sol knows what kind of feeling cos from murderers or from people with jobs that stain their hands with blood.
A chilling, gloomy feeling.
'No, no...'
But what he feels from Yang Ji-hwang isn't that.
The texture is strangely similar, but it is far more unfathomable.
Not simply a level of getting blood on one's hands a few tis, but humans who literally commit mass slaughter.
For example...it is similar to what he feels when he watches footage of dictators like Hitler or Stalin.
'No, it's not even that.'
In footage of Hitler or Stalin, he feels sothing like a pitch-black sea, but the karma he feels from her is, rather, sothing cosmic.
It is on such an enormous scale that it almost feels not like murder, but like a natural disaster.
"I, I..."
"I know your nature is kind. I like people like that quite a lot. So, to give you one piece of advice...if a situation cos where you have to save , or where you have to agonize over sothing like that, choose to abandon without hesitating. No matter what happens to , don't worry about it."
"..."
"Your answer?"
"I, I will. But noona...from what I see, you seem really good at this ga, so won't you probably win?"
"Of course I will win. But I'm talking about after the win. So..."
She forms an ominous smile that he can't understand.
"For example, after I win, sothing sudden could happen, right? In that case, if a situation cos up where you have to save , and even if you feel like you want to save , don't look back and run. I'm not sothing you can save."
"..."
"Answer."
"...I, I will."
Kim Hae-sol answers as if he is bewitched by that ominous smile.
She is beautiful.
But at the sa ti, she holds an unknown ominousness.
Thump, thump, thump...
Kim Hae-sol clutches his pounding chest and thinks about what, exactly, this ominousness he feels from her is.
"Then the seventh Cuttlefish ga is...hide-and-seek!"
When the host claps, a hulking figure wearing a mask cos up onto the platform.
In the brute's hand is a huge chainsaw, and the way it buzzes nacingly...it looks like it stepped right out of a famous chainsaw slasher movie.
"From now on, you will all hide yourselves all over the island, and for two days, you must run away while avoiding this 'It'. If you succeed in surviving by running for two days, you win! But if you lose...who knows whether there will be a losers' revival match. You have to be alive first to even have a losers' revival match, after all."
At the host's words, all the remaining survivors swallow hard, and the five people Kim Hae-sol has kept alive so far crowd around Kim Hae-sol and stare at the chainsaw killer with anxious faces.
"Of course, since this ga's penalty is not 'testing the reagent', and instead it's a penalty that stakes your life...you will also get a very special benefit. Are you curious?"
"...Yes..."
Because the survivors know it is disadvantageous not to respond to the host's words, they respond weakly, and the host claps and continues the explanation.
"The benefit is this: if you succeed in combining your strength, or hunting, or setting traps to neutralize this 'It'! The person who makes the greatest contribution to neutralizing it will beco the winner of the Cuttlefish ga, receives the prize money, and will be released imdiately. And the rest of you won't be winners, but those of you who survive this round will be allowed to leave the island without receiving money. Of course, if you want to remain on the island, we will let you participate in the next ga, and we also intend to give special benefits. Sounds good?"
At the host's words, people murmur. So people gather together and discuss sothing, as if they are trying to catch the It.
However, Kim Hae-sol shudders at the ominousness he feels from the 'It'.
'Everyone is crazy. That thing...it isn't human!'
The bizarre, twisted feeling he senses from the tagger.
It is the sa kind of bizarre feeling he senses from the tentacle monsters the organizers make out of the people they 'punish'.
Kim Hae-sol decides that once the ga starts, he will lead the survivor group he has to protect and hide themselves tightly.
"Everyone, first..."
As he tries to state his opinion like that, an opinion cos from the group Kim Hae-sol saved.
It is Mister Park, the man who said he was dragged here after being scamd.
"H-Hae-sol... In my opinion...that tagger looks threatening, but...if we have tools, it seems possible for several of us to catch him, what do you think? For example, if we can get ropes or nets...this is an island, so there should be a dock, and if we go toward the dock, it seems like we can get that kind of thing...how about it?"
"Mister, why are you doing this? We should only worry about getting out with all our limbs intact!"
"B-But, they say if we just catch that, they will give the winner's prize money... Let's all catch him and split it, Hae-sol. Even if we can get released...we ca all the way here, so getting released with nothing and being empty-handed feels a bit of a waste, isn't it?"
"Mister! Are you crazy!?"
But not only Mister Park; the other survivors Kim Hae-sol saved all nod as well.
"Honestly...at that level, doesn't he really seem catchable...?"
"It's just one, Hae-sol. And is it really going to be so superhuman monster like in the movies? If several of us throw ropes or a net from far away...we can catch him."
"Wh-Why is everyone like this...?"
Kim Hae-sol realizes sothing is wrong.
They are certainly people who were dragged in unfairly.
But their eyes are gradually turning over from the greed the Cuttlefish Ga gives them.
The feeling that, after surviving all the way to here, they cannot possibly leave without taking sothing becos greed and boils in their eyes.
'Th-This...no. If we rush that tagger, we're all dead.'
It is when Kim Hae-sol trembles, sinking into an ominous premonition.
Yang Ji-hwang pats his shoulder and smiles.
"Don't worry too much. It looks easily catchable."
"N-Noona, why are you like this too!?"
"Ah, I'm saying this just in case, but...I'm not really going to do a team battle. I plan to catch it alone, so later, no asking to share the prize money, okay?"
Yang Ji-hwang says it like a warning while looking around at the people who follow Kim Hae-sol, rather than at Kim Hae-sol.
At that warning, Mister Park snorts.
"Miss, don't go and hold us back for no reason. If you co to us later begging us to save you, that'll be a problem, got it?"
"Kekek."
As if sothing is funny, Yang Ji-hwang ignores him and takes out the ballpoint pen she received in the previous ga, spinning it on her finger.
"Now then, ladies and gentlen. The Cuttlefish ga's the seventh act, the 'hide-and-seek' ga begins! The 'It' will not move from this auditorium for twelve hours, so during that ti, please hide yourselves tightly all over the island."
Wiiiing!
With those words, the tagger lifts the chainsaw with a vicious air and starts to approach the people.
For twelve hours, it cannot go outside the auditorium, but it can 'hunt' those inside the auditorium, and the people are also allowed to try hunting the tagger.
Of course, since most survivors have no weapons yet, they try to retreat for now and run outside the auditorium.
It is then,
Vioooom, shwook!
Pukwak.
A sound like sothing tearing through the air rings out.
The next mont, the inside of the auditorium freezes.
A ballpoint pen that soone throws drills straight through the tagger's neck and rips open the carotid artery.
"Kkeuk, kkeureureureuk!"
After a while,
The tagger spits up bloody phlegm from behind the mask and collapses on the spot.
They are dead.
"..."
"..."
Everyone, with faces gone cold and with looks that say they do not understand, looks toward the place the ballpoint pen ca from.
There, Yang Ji-hwang wears a sneer and is crooking her finger.
"I caught the 'It', huh? Send the prize money to my account."
"...Ah, ahahaha...yes, congra...tulations."
It seems even the host is seeing sothing like for the first ti, as their voice is a little flustered.
"Th, then, the winner of this installnt of the Cuttlefish Ga is Ms. Yang Ji-hwang, here!"
The host claps with a dazed expression, and the agents bring boxes in from outside the auditorium.
"Inside these boxes are your personal belongings. Phones, wallets, bags, and so on are all in here. Those who are leaving, please take your belongings from the boxes. However, this is a place where you can't get a signal to the outside anyway, so even if you turn your phone on, it won't do you any good. Now, those who will participate in the next ga, receive the handout, read it, and follow the agent over there to line up. Those who are leaving, please co to the boxes."
At those words, Yang Ji-hwang goes to the boxes without hesitation, takes out her phone and handbag, and imdiately turns on her phone and checks sothing.
"Hey, host. When do you pay the prize money?"
"Ah...the mont you are confird as the winner, the transfer to your account goes through imdiately."
"Hm...oh, it's real."
She opens a mobile banking app, checks that the money ca in, and smiles as if satisfied.
"You took out the taxes, right?"
"Yes, even the National Tax Service won't make an issue of it. The Cuttlefish Ga proceeds by the will of those high-ranking people...wait. How is the banking app...hey, you didn't turn on the signal jamr?"
"The...the signal jamr is running without issues. Our phones don't work either."
"Huh? Then how..."
It is when the host approaches her with a puzzled face, trying to find out how Yang Ji-hwang is checking the transfer in her banking app.
Shukwak!
Yang Ji-hwang pulls sothing from her handbag and swings it at the host.
The next mont, a thin red line appears on the host's neck, and then the host's head drops away from his neck.
Cheolpeok—
Hwiririk!
What Yang Ji-hwang pulled out is a small jackknife.
She swings the jackknife with a sneer and laughs.
"Ah...that feels refreshing. You pissed off by grabbing people and making them do this ga or whatever nonsense, but I endured it since you said you'd pay... Now that I got the money, there's no need to endure anymore, right?"
A thick killing intent settles in her eyes.
While the agents still cannot grasp the situation and just stare at her blankly, she snatches the host's microphone and opens her mouth.
"To all the surviving survivors. And to all you organizers who dared to kidnap up and make play this annoying ga until now. And to the hosts who put on this bullshit moronic ga, and to the high-ranking audience who watch the arena in comfort on this island.
"We are all people who are playing a death ga. But honestly, since earlier, haven't you found it boring to play childish gas like towel passing, tug-of-war, dice, coin tossing, and tag?"
She kicks the face of the chainsaw killer lying nearby, boots the faceless mask the chainsaw killer is wearing up into the air, catches it, and puts the mask on her own face.
The mont Kim Hae-sol sees that, goosebumps start rising over his whole body.
'We, we need to run:'
What is standing there now is not sothing like the 'older-sister participant he got close to inside the ga' that he knows.
In Kim Hae-sol's eyes, a strange divine spirit wearing a mask and dressed in a silver ritual crown and ceremonial robes is reflected.
It is a divine spirit that passes judgnt.
With the blade of judgent it swings, whether he gets swept up in it or not is sothing anyone knows.
Just as Kim Hae-sol, by instinct, recognizes the masked Yang Ji-hwang as the divine spirit of judgent' and is about to run.
Tang, tadatang!
Only then do the agents co to their senses and start firing at her.
After a while, blood fountains from her entire body, but sothing strange also seems to be stuck in her.
"Hey, you bastard, how can you shoot that!?"
It is sothing like a small syringe.
"S-Sorry. The host died, so I panicked and fired..."
"Tch, if she mutates, we have to subdue her again!"
It is a small syringe ampoule fired from a tranquilliser gun.
And Kim Hae-sol can tell what it is.
'Th-That serum that mutates you into a monster?
When the host suddenly died, the flustered agent seed to have fired the wrong one.
But Yang Ji-hwang, who is hit by the serum, does not mutate into tentacles.
Instead, she lets out an ominous laugh and continues speaking.
"Then from now on. For you audience mbers who have been bored, I will begin the 'real' death ga. Since hide-and-seek is already over, let us continue it. The 'It' is , and you all just have to run hard. The point when the ga ends is...either everyone on this island disappears except , or I disappear. Then...shall we now start hide-and-seek?"
Bo-oong!
Imdiately after, she swings her hand.
Her hand mutates into a silver sword, and in an instant she slices the nearby agents in half.
"Wh-What...a compatible subject!? Damn it, run! She's a serum-compatible subject. Tell the compatible-subject response team to hurry and co..."
Pukwak!
The one who seems to be the agents' captain hurriedly gives an order to sowhere, but the next mont he is split in half and dies by the sword she swings.
Her slaughter does not end with killing the agents.
Another participant closest to her.
A participant who is an illegal gambling den operator, soone Kim Hae-sol did not particularly try to save, has his neck severed and dies.
Squirm, wriggle...
At the sa ti, from where her blood drips, other versions of her begin to grow, wrapped in silver bandages, with one hand transford into a sword.
"Uh, uaaaaaaaah!"
"Run awayyyyyy!!!"
Kim Hae-sol and the survivors start desperately running away from the real death ga.
***
"D-Damn it, all audience mbers! This is a real situation. Please proceed calmly to the Heliport according to the agents' guidance. A helicopter is on standing. We must evacuate right now!"
Kim Runi, the Anomalous Phenona Managent Bureau agent who infiltrates the organizers, evacuates the Cuttlefish Ga organizers and the death ga spectators, clenching his teeth.
'Damn it, this is an unexpected situation. Was it Kim Hae-sol...? I hope he is safe. Those damned Cuttlefish Ga operators. They turn people into monsters with an unidentified serum, and they don't even make a way to control it?'
In Kim Runi's eyes, the woman nad Yang Ji-hwang was just a woman from the underworld who fought a bit well and held a grudge against the organizers, enough to kill the host.
But the mont she put on the mask and got hit by the 'serum' the ga organizers were developing, he realized the situation had gotten out of control.
The danger-detection artifact Kim Runi brought from the Bureau.
The 'Glasses That See Death' tells him the level of danger the monster Yang Ji-hwang has beco.
'That...is a monster at least as dangerous as the Bureau Director, Kang Min-hee...'
Even at the minimum, the danger rating is J-class.
It's beco a grueso anomaly on the sa level as the Bureau Director.
'If we stay like this, we'll all die!'
But even at Kim Runi's words, the high-ranking people laugh loudly and sit back in their seats with leisure.
"Don't worry too much. We've already set up a serum-compatible suppression team for a situation like this. She seems like a compatible subject with a pretty high serum-compatibility rate... If anything, I'm looking forward to it. The suppression team are all semi-compatible subjects who were fed diluted serum too, so it feels like we'll get a really splendid action scene, doesn't it?"
"Ahaha, you are right. It's not even a movie, it's real action, isn't it? I want to keep watching."
'You fucking morons with nothing but shit in your brains!'
Kim Runi hurls curses inwardly at the spectators who cannot grasp the situation.
And the next mont, inside the screen where the audience watches the ga, the ones called the 'suppression team' appear.
They are people who ingested diluted serum made on this ghost island and gained transcendental bodies.
It seems like, if it's them, they can sufficiently subdue that 'variable'.
That is how it seems.
But the scene that follows is shocking.
There is no battle at all.
Pukwak!
When one of Yang Ji-hwang's split clones casually swings a blade, without even the process properly visible, the entire suppression team gets diced apart.
"..."
Only now, as if they finally grasp the situation a little, the spectators' expressions darken and they rise from their seats.
"Uh, ahem...all right, guide us. Let us evacuate first."
"...Yes, understood. Everyone, quickly to the Heliport..."
Kim Runi leads the audience toward the Heliport.
It is then.
The mont Kim Runi steps out to the Heliport, he sees sothing horrifying.
"...Huh?"
The Heliport is clearly far away from the Cuttlefish Ga arena.
Since it is from one end of the island to the other, he thought it would take ti to get there.
But there, a masked woman waits, her whole body wrapped in bandages and one hand transford into a blade.
"Hey, what's going on? What are you doing at the front? Hurry..."
The spectators behind Kim Runi, who shove him aside and try to head for the Heliport, freeze.
At the middle of the Heliport, they stare at Yang Ji-hwang's clone, holding out in front of the helicopter.
The next mont, the bandage-wrapped woman charges in, and a storm of blood begins to whip through.
"Uaaaaaaaah!"
"Kyaaaaaaaak!"
Kim Runi imdiately abandons the spectators and runs elsewhere, and so of the spectators run after him.
The bandage-wrapped monster glances toward Kim Runi, catches sight of the secret mark of the Anomalous Phenona Managent Bureau on his wrist, and then, without paying him any more attention, starts slaughtering the spectators.
Fleeing while avoiding that bandaged monster, Kim Runi looks toward the pier.
Sea fog blankets the island, so everything around seems washed in a pale whiteness, but...
Wearing the 'Glasses That See Death,' Kim Runi can see the island clearly.
And he realizes that at the pier as well, a bandaged monster has suddenly appeared, waiting for the victims who will flee that way.
"...Damn it, is there really no way to escape at all...? You stupid staff bastards. First I have to turn off the signal jamr...I need to contact the Director."
To live, he needs the Bureau Director.
"A-Agent. G-Go with us. Save us. Please save us!"
Kim Runi looks at the spectators' young children following him, and at a few spectators, and at the several male and female strippers who have been entertaining the spectators.
'At least save these people and find a way to contact the Director. Then hide out across the island and wait, and et up with Kim Hae-sol and join together.'
The Cuttlefish Ga, which at first was a death ga for debtors, has beco a real slaughter ga forced on everyone gathered on this island.
'On this island...I have to survive. No matter what.'
A ga far more intense and grotesque than the Cuttlefish Ga begins.
The na of the ga is 'Island Survival'.
The audience who until now sat high above, laughing as they watched the debtors suffer, the participants who felt relief because they barely survived, and the staff who ran the ga as well...
A ga of surviving from the unidentified monster that wears bandages and a mask and keeps splitting more and more—for all of them equally, a real slaughter ga begins.
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