As the tir hit zero, the world flickered again.
One second, we were standing in the ruined streets of our district; the next, our bodies were swallowed by the sa blinding light that had dragged us away before.
The arena.
"Not this place again," Ye-rin muttered beside , her axe already materialized in her grip.
But this ti there was no crowd, no fake fanfare, no cartoon mascots waving us into slaughter.
Instead—sothing worse.
Floating in the middle of the arena was a red eyeball, as large as a person’s head, its pupil slit like a beast’s. Veins twitched along its surface, and every ti it blinked, I felt like it was peeling layers off my soul.
A mory stabbed .
This eyeball looked the sa as the one that appeared in the sky a couple of weeks ago.
The Eye of Judgnt—and now it had returned.
The voice wasn’t booming or grand. It was like a whisper pressed directly into the back of my skull:
"Players. You wonder why you have not found others. Why only your small groups wander the city while the rest vanish. The answer is simple."
My stomach clenched. I realized what he was about to say next.
"We hid them. The system divided you. Segnted you. Until now."
Hana gasped softly. Ye-rin cursed under her breath. Seo-yeon narrowed her eyes, fists tightening.
I clenched my jaw. So all this ti... survivors had been there, but locked away from us by the system itself.
"You played hide-and-seek with people’s lives. For what? Entertainnt?"
The eyeball blinked slowly, its pupil widening, and for a second, I swore it smiled.
"Entertainnt is incidental. What matters is balance. Too many gathered in one place... survival becos trivial. Too few, and survival becos impossible. Division maintains the test."
"Test my ass," Ye-rin snapped, stepping forward. "You’re killing people like they’re disposable."
The eyeball turned—or rather, it didn’t turn, but we felt its gaze shift. Straight onto her. She flinched but didn’t back away.
"Disposable? All things are disposable. That is the purpose of the ga."
I raised a hand to stop Ye-rin before she rushed in and got herself obliterated. The last thing we needed was her charging an eyeball with god-knows-what kind of power behind it.
The air vibrated. A system panel flashed into existence before us.
The system’s blue panel flared in front of us:
\[Mission 5: Invasion]
\[Vampiric aristocrats from the neighboring district have unleashed their spawn.]
\[Through infected insects, they seed your kind with hunger and thirst.]
The walls of your district no longer protect you. From within and without, the invaders co. Survive until dawn and eliminate the infiltrators. Fail, and your district will fall.
Objective 1: Identify and eliminate infiltrators.
Objective 2: Defend the district from external assault.
Failure Condition: Entire district consud.
"Infiltrators?" In-ji muttered, eyes narrowing.
The eyeball pulsed, veins twitching, and its whisper pressed deeper into our minds.
"Insects?" Eun-ha’s voice was small, uncertain. "Like... mosquitoes?"
"Let give you a hint, little girl." The giant eye dived toward Eun-ha and paused in front of her face. "Closer to wasps. Their sting festers. Hours, days... then flesh rots and the heart drinks blood. The turned look as you do. Pale. Fragile. Until the mont cos."
My mouth went dry. So it wasn’t even imdiate. Soone could be bitten and walk among us, looking perfectly fine—until the hunger hit. Then it was too late.
"Clever bastards," I muttered. "They’re turning paranoia into a weapon."
Ye-rin spun to , face tight. "How the hell are we supposed to fight enemies when we don’t even know who’s on our side?"
The eyeball blinked again.
"That is the trial. Trust no one. Not even yourselves. If you wish to prove humanity, you will show it beneath the sun. Until then... suspicion is survival."
A cold shiver ran through . Show it beneath the sun. So the only way to be sure soone wasn’t infected... was daylight.
Seo-yeon’s voice cut through the silence, sharp as glass. "So you’re telling us—anyone could be a vampire. And we’ll only know when it’s too late."
The eyeball didn’t answer. Its pupil constricted, and the arena trembled.
Cracks spidered through the stone beneath our feet.
"Brace yourselves," I muttered, already feeling the pull.
The eyeball’s whisper ca one last ti, heavier than the rest, sinking into bone.
"Survive three dawns."
And then the floor gave way.
The arena shattered, stone crumbling into the abyss.
When my eyes snapped open—we were back.
But this ti was different. When we were teleported before, we returned to the exact sa ti. But now night had already fallen, though it had been midday before the teleportation.
Ye-rin cursed softly beside . Mother’s hand tightened on her scythe. Seo-yeon and In-ji exchanged tense glances.
Hyun-tae, who had been quiet this whole ti, stood up and said, "Let’s return first and survive the night."
In-ji, who was near , whispered in my ear, "Hey... not that I want to sound an, but wasn’t his ntality unstable when we first t him? He seems kind of calr now."
I chuckled lightly. "Maybe, unlike us, he survived the golden hell by himself. And now that we’re near him, he’s starting to recover. After all, humans are a species that depend on each other."
We moved through the streets with blades ready. The air carried a strange stillness.
That was when we saw them.
A group huddled in the ruins of a nearby building.
Seven in total. Three n, two won, one kid, and an elderly woman leaning on a cane.
But sothing was off.
The kid clutched at his mother’s sleeve, skin pale, lips almost gray. The old woman’s hands trembled unnaturally, eyes glazed, her complexion drained of life. Even the two won looked pale.
Ye-rin whispered near , "They already look half-dead..."
Vampire signs. Or maybe just hunger and exhaustion. The problem was, we couldn’t tell.
We didn’t need to say it out loud. We all knew.
After that announcent, we couldn’t trust anyone but ourselves.
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