Ishiki’s heart skipped a beat.
He gulped hard and took an involuntary step back. His heart had not yet cald from the nightmare’s residual terror. It still hamred against his ribs with percussion, like a desperate creature trying to escape.
’What is this fool saying? How could that be possible?’
He forced himself to look directly at the young girl and asked in a strained voice. "You... don’t know? What does that an?"
She clearly stated that two people were missing. So they knew, that individuals were absent yet, they don’t know who is missing?
’Huh? That’s so... confusing.’
It was, contradictory and paradoxical in its saying.
The young girl was silent for a long ti and then finally broke her silence. "Don’t waste ti here, let’s go to the eting."
Ishiki nodded and donned his worn-out shoes. The two of them navigated through the muddy ground, careful not to slip on wet earth that sucked at footsteps like it wanted to drag them down into sothing beneath.
The outside seed much more... silent than it usually was during this part of the silver night.
Normally, if Ishiki ventured out at tis like this, he would observe other Players engaged in various activities—routines that had beco integral components of their truncated existence.
So would be practicing with weapons, executing forms with dedication. So ditating.
This was what their life had been reduced to.
But it was fascinating, honestly—even when thrown into such severe, harrowing conditions, they lived and continued fighting with stubborn resilience.
Humans really are remarkably tenacious. Even after months of living in these harrowing conditions their will has not yet broken and then there is the fact that... all of them were among the younger generation.
The oldest person within this settlent was rely twenty-five years old.
’Has the system deliberately not chosen the elderly and very young? ’
There existed no proof of that hypothesis. Making assumptions based on examining only thirty individuals from population of two thousand would be statistically aningless.
Soon, they reached the house where everyone else had gathered. They were sitting with tense, clearly confused expressions painted across their faces.
As he and Nina walked inside, everyone looked at them... specifically at him, he could feel the gazes, so were even throwing strange looks.
’This... is not good.’
Ishiki counted everyone present, most faces had beco familiar even if he hadn’t established positive standing with all of them.
And when he finally included himself in the count, he was genuinely stunned.
’There really are twenty-nine of us. There were thirty-one yesterday.’
’I’m certain. I rember counting. I rember...’
’Do I rember?’
Ishiki fell silent, possessing no words to express what churned inside his chest.
There were clearly two people missing from their already devastated population. But for so inexplicable and disturbing reason—he didn’t know who?
The princess looked at him and let out a deliberate sigh. It was evident from her posture that she was relieved that at least one of them was here.
She turned to the other people once again and asked in her usual indifferent tone. "Did you find out who else is missing?"
The two individuals who had been searching through settlent shook their heads with synchronized negation. Then one of them spoke in voice almost inaudible—as if attempting to hide the fact that he’d learned sothing terrible:
"There... was no one else."
The princess visibly gritted her teeth, she was responsible for all these n after all, but the expression didn’t last long.
’As Expected.’
She took a deep breath and turned to the person responsible for keeping the list of nas.
That was thanks to his skill.
One by one... he called out every na on the list. Everyone was present at the place except for two unknown nas.
Alex and Jake.
These two nas were profoundly foreign to all Players inhabiting the clearing.
No one had ever heard them spoken before this mont. No one possessed any mory of interacting with individuals bearing those identities.
It was as if, until this precise instant, they had nad two imaginary people and were treating them as tangible reality.
Every soul present in that house shivered at the harrowing and utterly disturbing realization that they did not... know who Alex and Jake were.
Ishiki however was much more shocked than anyone else. He felt... wrong and empty. As if his mory... had a huge gap.
’A... Alex, ALEX!’
He frowned, repeating the na again and again in his mind. For so strange reason, the na felt familiar and new at the sa ti.
How could that be? How can sothing be both known and unknown?
’Am I really descending into madness? First the goddamn nightmare and now this—’
Suddenly his eyes widened with horrified realization.
’The nightmare.’
Who was the man that had shared the house with him in the nightmare? He... he didn’t know.
Ishiki gritted his teeth in frustration. It was... viscerally disturbing. For so reason... he could recall the whole nightmare with vivid clarity, the only thing he couldn’t rember was the na.
Na of the man who... killed him.
’Screw it.’
In that sudden, tense mont, one of the people who’d been sitting silently until now—contemplating on their own thoughts stood up and looked at Ishiki with narrowed eyes.
"You... What is your skill?"
Everyone startled, attention snapping toward the questioner with shock.
He was tall man with slender build, short black hair, and silvery pupils that caught light with tallic gleam.
Ishiki looked at him for prolonged mont, then winced visibly. "I refuse."
The other man took aggressive step forward, locking eyes with Ishiki’s blue iris. His gaze was undeniably intimidating.
But Ishiki was certain, for reasons he couldn’t fully articulate, that he wouldn’t encounter insurmountable problems in a confrontation against this individual.
Then the tall, slender aggressor gritted his teeth and spouted, pointing at Ishiki. "He is the culprit."
Ishiki’s eyes narrowed and he involuntarily clenched a fist. ’You... bastard.’
Ishiki recognized the fool clearly. He was the sa guy who punched him in the gut just so ti ago on the night they opened the temple’s gate. It was obvious the numbskull was carrying resentnt towards him.
His finger pointed dramatically toward Ishiki with a theatrical gesture. "See? He refused to reveal what his skill is. What if his skill is related to mories?"
He paused and gave Ishiki a side eye.
"He... he might have killed the two guys and altered our mory."
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