Three Ways of Survival (2)

Did someone hack my phone? That spooked me out. No no no no no, my phone! And then I lamented my hacked phone. I needed my phone so I could read.

Well, I can work around that. That was my third thought. But perhaps all three of them were the wrong things to think about at the time.

[BI#-8657 channel has opened.]

[Ah, ah, test, 1, 2, 3, can you earthlings hear me? Yes? Ok, then let's begin the scenario!]

My head snapped up in surprise at a foreign voice suddenly pronouncing loudly in the classroom.

For a unified moment, all my classmates were silent.

Well, I could understand.

After all, the creature floating before us did not exist on Earth. There was an instinct within all of us that classified it as a foreign entity.

That foreign entity, not caring for the flabbergasted earthlings, continued,

[Thank you for choosing to listen. What I'm about to tell you will now change your whole world, and your fate. Perhaps, one day each of you may become the protagonist, soaring above all others in a world filled with magic, mystery, fantasy and adventure!]

The thing did a short bow as it continued on with its nonsense.

[Constellations, please hit the subscribe button, each one is greatly appreciated. I will not disappoint you! Now, let's get on with the action! It will really do you all earthlings good if you read and do whatever the scenario says. Or you might not know what hit you~ Haha!]

It giggled and moved with great dramatic grace, a wicked light in its dark eyes as it snapped its fingers crisply and an holographic screen floated before everyone present.

[The main Scenario has appeared!]

[Main Scenario #1: Proof of Value]

Category: Main

Difficulty: F

Clear Conditions: Kill one or more creatures.

Time Limit: 30 minutes.

Compensation: 300 coins

Failure: Death

+

[Hehe, I will not bother you earthlings any farther for now. It may take some time for you to adjust to. I look forward to your opening story!~]

And with a wink, the halo above the creature's head swayed, and then it disappeared, as if the last few moments were a mirage.

But this screen was not.

[Main Scenario #1: Proof of Value]

I blankly absorbed and collected the images captured by my retina, and the sounds by my ears as I waited for my emotions to catch up to me.

Then the dam around me broke, and the flood gates were let loose.

The sudden chattering of the people in their groups trying to make sense of it all competed with one another, amplifying the waves in constructive interference, letting me slowly come back down to earth, surprisingly.

I read the screen with surprising calm, but the information it had was anything but pleasant. And just like a person who read hundreds of novels, I instantly caught onto a loophole.

'one or more creatures'. Does that mean anything, like a plant or bacteria? But no, if that is the case, I have been killing bacteria all the time, yes?

The sudden screaming broke my concentration.

"Pl-please!" A desperate plea was heard from a girl who was being slugged by her bullies.

"Haha, look at this rat scream! Just die already!"

"Yeah, just die!"

Cruel words were being spoken by these teenagers, but there was a madness in their eyes that looked even more desperate than the girl, and even somewhat pitiful.

I was gobsmacked, more shocked than anything as my eyes widened. Beneath my exterior, my heart rate sped up.

With every punch, throw and kick, I paled further. The drumming of breaking bones sickened me.

Were humans really this cruel? To take the words of the unknown, and before thinking things through, begin to hurt others? Was violence the answer instead of just communication?!

I couldn't understand, no matter what. But I knew that there were always psychos who I couldn't understand, nor wanted to. Life was just like that. There would be people with something different about them.

My hands twitched as I failed to comprehend myself. Why was I just standing here? Injustice was right in-front of my face, and there was anger bubbling in me, was there not? I should help, right? That is the ethical way, right?

I'm afraid. My inner voice answered. If I intervene, I'll become that girl. I'll be the one to die.

I didn't want to die. I'm afraid.

Reading was different from things directly in-front of your eyes.

But someone would be brave enough, yes? A hero, a protagonist...just someone, please end the misery.

But no one jumped out heroically. They all stared, plastered with the same expression. Maybe that's what I looked like in their eyes as well.

We all...

"Stop!"

Liberation came with the voice.

"Huh? You wanna die too?" They all stopped at the voice. Perhaps it was their shame and guilt that led to this action. But in false bravado, one of them bellowed out.

However, the threat was still effective. Well, except for one person.

It was a girl who had a cute pair of twin-tails paired with a delicate face and frame. Her skin was pale, and for some reason she was missing a button on her blouse. At first, she looked like the well-behaved weak girl, but there was a lively light in her eyes, though they were also frightened.

"Na-Na bori!" The alarmed voice came from the person beside her, who had her hair up in a ponytail. The taller girl's hand pulled on the shorter one's sleeve.

Na Bori ignored her friend's exclamation, attempting a smirk that was clearly uneasy, but also strong,

"We-we are all classmates, so we should all calm down and not attack each other! Oh, so don't try to hit cute lil ol' me, ok?" Na bori attempted a teasing and funny joke to lighten the mood, which worked.

To an extent.

"B****, if someone doesn't die, will it be you?!" Agitated, one of the bullies rushed over, pushing the people and chairs out of the way.

Na Bori paled even further, now resembling chalk-white, as she started trembling and flinching with each slam of a chair to the ground. But even as she bit her lips, she shielded her taller friend behind her and drummed up her courage,

"BUT CAN YOU LIVE WITH THE GUILT OF BEING A MURDERER?!" The first shout overwhelmed everyone present, striking into the center of everyone's hearts. This first shout bolstered Na Bori's courage.

That was right. Could people live trapped forever in a mire of guilt?

The bullies couldn't help wavering, their eyes seemingly conveying a confused sentiment, like a lost lamb, 'then what should we do?'.

"LET'S ALL CALM DOWN AND TALK ABOUT IT! WE STILL HAVE 27 MINUTES!"

However, Na Bori made the mistake of talking about time.

Because everyone awakened to the cold, hard truth. In 27 minutes, life and death would be decided.

They would die if they did not kill.

"I-I don't want to die! I'm too young..."

"M-mom, dad, what should I do?"

"Y-Yi Namsoon, you're my best friend, we-we shouldn't hurt each other..."

"Calm down, let's be civil here..."

A spiel of madness was beginning to descend on the crowd. It was a seed, but panic once again was planted. While no one acted, staring vigilantly at each other, that chaos could begin at the simplest trigger.

The bully that had ever-so-slightly hesitated no longer did so under the pressure and stress of her literal countdown of life.

"AHHH! SHUT UP!" With a roar, she lunged over at Na Bori.

Na Bori shut her eyes tightly, whimpering, but still not moving out of the way, for her friend was still tucked behind her.

"Don't you dare hurt her, ya bastard!" A hoarse voice was thrown out, as arms from behind Na Bori pushed the bully away.

Not expecting that at all, the bully lost her balance, stumbling back over the chairs as her head smashed against the edge of the desk, hard.

Blood bloomed from the back of her head and she groaned, but the injury was not life-threatening.

I watched this happen, rooted to my spot. The world stopped mockingly at the silly humans as their morals, history, civility, and democracy crumbled down in these three minutes.

In the end, humans were still animals.

I wasn't exactly sure what transpired in the next few moments. Screams and flurries of figures scratched, punched and kicked, some banging on the doors for freedom, some hiding under the desk as if having a cover over their head protected them, and others, like me, watched despairingly as life cracked apart.

I quietly stood there, reality separating itself from me.

"This isn't real...When I wake up, I'll be dreaming..."

"Who believes in this nonsense? Scenario?"

"Nothing is real, nothing is real!"

"I don't want to be here...I want to go home..."

Those mummering's' laced with desolation reached my ears.

If I was a character in that novel...The thought I had flashed across my head for some reason as I watched this scene. And it was that thought that saved me.

[Three Ways to Survive In A Ruined World]

It felt like my vision opened up after a lightning bolt struck my mental facilities. Although the wildly beating heart I was attempting to contain with controlled breaths made it hard to think, I no longer stood around staring.

[Kill one or more creatures.]

...came next as I actively searched around.

Inexplicable understanding washed over me. Calm down. Panic is panic, but it will not help me survive.

Not good, my mind was blanking out again and I couldn't think of anything. Focus.

I turned on my phone, this time with the white screen gone and everything restoring their functions. Swiftly, I dialed my family member's phone number.

The ringtone calmed me down somewhat.

But no one picked up.

Damn it, how silly of me. They would also be facing the scenario right now. I gritted my teeth and chucked my phone back into my pocket. I couldn't remember right now, but I had a strong inkling that my phone would play a big role later.

Next, I ran through the panicking crowd, snatching snacks from student's desks, my water bottle and stealing the teacher's bag left forgotten to put them into. I threw out the contents that would be useless in the future and left things that would be useful.

Then I stopped at the fish tank we had.

Sorry fish.

Then I took the net and scooped up one of the fish. It flopped crazily, panicked at whatever this human was planning, but I clumsily ended its misery with the multi-purpose knife hidden deep within the teacher's small bag.

Darn, its struggle left a cut on my hand. Fins hurt.

Notifications were quickly delivered.

[You have achieved the first kill achievement!]

[100 coins have been earned as extra compensation]

And then I fell into another thought.

Surveying the people writhing about like animals, I questioned if they were worthy to be saved. That notion of mine was slapped out of my mind. News flash, I am the same as them.

I thought I would have frozen up as usual under stress and panic, but I learned that the new side of me would do anything to survive without hesitation.

"Invest 100 coins into physique."

[Insufficient funding]

F me.

I killed another two fish.

[200 coins have been earned as extra compensation]

It would have been better if it was like that grasshopper that had multiple eggs- wait a minute, where did this thought come from?

FOCUS! I berated myself.

I wanted to invest it into physique. It was the most useful attribute at the moment in my opinion. However, it would not help at all at the current moment.

strength lv3 --> strength lv4

Ok, then.

No matter how loud the human voice, it still could not drown out the loudest sound in a classroom.

SCREEECHHHH

The annoying and painful sound of a desk scratching against the floor was heard, even if not everyone was paying attention due to their panic.

But what if I said it was not just one desk, but several?

The horrid noise could not be ignored any longer as a train of desks annoyingly scrapped against the ground and everyone's eardrums.

They all looked over, more irritated then ever at the sound, some wanting to outright pounce straight over after their sense of reason snapped in the current environment.

I wavered again at the gazes of hungry wolves, wanting to slip into a panic like the rest of them and become inconspicuous.

But this was something I had to do. Mind being assaulted by waves of nausea and threat of fainting, my voice contrarily came out strong.

"Remember, a fish is also a life! The requirement was "creature" not just a person." I shouted after I got their attention, waving the fishing net.

Some people lost their reason, lunging at me instead, but not everyone was like that. Some of them remembered the twin flies present earlier, the cobweb in the corner everyone had tacitly ignored, and then pairs of eyes glowed eerily as they watched the fish tank.

It was the same as me. Their visions widened, then narrowed again as they rushed over like a tsunami of bodies. The flies were hard to get, the people difficult to kill, but these fish were literally fish on a chopping board.

I ducked out of there swiftly.

An apathetic rationality told me. Not everyone can live after killing a "creature". After all, they were still limited in number.

Take the fish for example. Now only 6 small ones and a snail remained in the big tank, darting to and fro.

In fact, to get ahead, I shouldn't have said anything. I should have killed all the fish to get the coins.

Na Bori's words flew through my head.

["BUT CAN YOU LIVE WITH THE GUILT OF BEING A MURDERER?!"]

If I killed all the fish, I would be indirectly killing others.

Mm, to preserve myself, I need to make this decision, even if the later scenarios would bite me in the arse.

And, there was another tragedy I wanted to prevent, right here, right now.

But first, I needed to calm myself down.

Although I seemed tranquil on the surface, my shaking was so bad I thought I would drop anything that entered my hands. My heart bumped painfully against my ribcage, and I had to fiercely control my breathing to prevent hyperventilating. If I lost control of breathing, my source of calm, it was all over.

"Are you alright?" Na Bori whispered, crouching beside me and soothingly patted my back and drew circles.

I looked at Na Bori, the person who would have died at her best friend's hands. And a moment ago, I could have sworn she never existed.

Maybe this comfort was something I needed, because my nausea subsided.

"Thanks." Is what I said, but the solemnity on my face did not fade away. "Na Bori, Lee Jihye, were you able to find a "creature" to kill?"

Their faces twisted as they shook their heads, unable to get words out amidst the horror.

I paused, momentarily at a loss in what to do. I should have brought two more fish, but alas even my widened vision did not take that into account.

Panic bubbled up again, but I forced it back down, directing my attention instead on the things I could do right now.

"I would say the safest bet right now are the two flies buzzing around. No one's going after them because they are too hard to catch, but us three can cooperate to get them, right?" I started, but to be honest, I had no clue if what I was saying could be considered a viable plan.

Thankfully, I found no objections to hunting the flies. The big struggle at the fish tank was one thing, and the spider?

Wait, did someone already take the spider?

I pulled the two's arms and went to the cobweb without explanation and gestured to the web. The spider was indeed gone, but for an indeterminable time, a fly was caught in the web, getting more and more tangled as the wings buzzed in an attempt to free itself.

It was lucky.

Na Bori scaled the cabinet at the back of the classroom but as she stared at the cobweb, she hesitated. Looking at the struggling and gross thing, and then thinking that she would grab that thing made her shudder.

She looked back at Lee Jihye, and then handed the fly to her, closing her lips tight at feeling a living thing writhing in her hands. Na Bori hoped it would not burst free and then slither through her ear or mouth, which would be scary.

"Take it, crybaby. I'll get the next one." Still, Na Bori wanted to be strong for her friend even in this situation.

"No, Bori you take it-"

"Ahhh, I don't want to hold this creepy crawly for another second!" And then Na Bori shoved the thing into her friend's hand and snapped it shut so the fly could not escape.

[100 coins have been earned as extra compensation.]

Lee Jihye looked at her hand, very moved. I could see the faintest red appear in her eyes, and then she wiped it off into a serious face as well.

"Let's go catch the other fly!" Lee Jihye announced, taking off while wiping the fly juices on the wall.

And so the fly hunt began.

Shards from the fish tank scattered onto the ground as people dove to catch the fish slipping through the other classmates' hands. Others tried to knock the other down for less competition. Mayhem covered the entire classroom, obstructing the three of us at times.

It didn't make it any better with the fact that the fly was an escape artist because even if it was bumped into at times, it showed no signs of injury, drunkenly flitting about the classroom.

[5 minutes remain!]

I felt an extra restriction weighing me down at the declaration. It was my psychological dread rearing its head.

Would we fail here? Would the predestined events of the novel precede my pathetic actions?

I slowed down and looked at Na Bori still trying to swat the fly, and then at Lee Jihye who was holding a meter stick at some point, still as water as her eyes closed.

"...Lee Jihye?" I murmured in confusion more than questioning.

Where did you get that meter-

Lee Jihye's sharp eyes snapped open.

[Skill Kendo lv2 has been activated!]

The meter stick slashed through the air crisply, smacking the fly mid-flight onto the ground, then stomped on ruthlessly by Na Bori.

The notification sounded out.

[100 coins have been gained as extra compensation]

And the moment of which I let down my guard, I felt an inorganic object crash into me, sending me collapsing to the ground.

What hit me?

Disoriented, I looked at the to-be murder weapon, a chair, and the person behind that chair. Perhaps it was the way that no one resembled themselves anymore, or the fact that the true primal selves had been released, but I no longer recognized who that face belonged to.

Her eyes glinted with the desperate light of a dying animal, and she was panting roughly, the chair slipping from her grip from her sweat and shaking arms, but she brought the chair up once again.

I couldn't stay still.

With the fire burning to stay alive, I grabbed that chair coming down and hooked one of my feet behind her leg, kicking hard with the other.

The girl stumbled in surprise, falling backward on my foot after she let go of the chair.

I was now the one to look down on her, casting the clunky chair aside.

A voice brought on by rage spoke: She tried to kill you, so you should do the same to her.

And that intention washed through my hands. These hands clamped around her neck as I sat on his chest, but then I came back to myself.

How could I even think that way...?

I was suddenly a stranger to myself, terrified at the unknown me baring their fangs through the chaos. Was it because I suppressed my emotions too much?

[The given time has run out.]

I looked at the girl blankly, and she looked back just as blankly, before her lips curled and trembled, and her face twisted in absolute fear.

She must have heard it too, the inclination of her certain death.

[Paid settlement will begin.]

Before my eyes, I watched as the girl's head burst like a watermelon, the blood spraying out onto my clothes and onto my face.

Nausea once again washed over me, and I retched to the side, emptying my stomach's contents.

Screams erupted all over the classroom once again as people looked at the dead bodies near them, who were living, breathing humans just thirty minutes ago.

"ha..ha..." There was tinnitus in my ears, and I sagged weakly with a desk as a support, not one part of me still intact with the me of before. I trembled as my limbs lost their energy.

As I looked around at the survivors, a catharsis washed over me.

But I didn't like this ending. However, there was nothing I could do about it. Now, our lives were handed over to the scenarios.

[You have killed 3 living beings.]

[Kill history: 3 fish]

[You have killed non-resistant living beings-]

My arse they were non-resistant. They even cut my hand.

And then a sinking thought fell over me.

[...reviewing...]

[statement has been retracted.]

[A total of 300 coins have been acquired.]

A portal blinked before us as the accursed creature from before appeared. It had a blinding halo on its head like it was an angel, a small chibi stature that was innocent, gestures that were cute, but the twisting feeling when looking at it was anything but that. A mischievous, cruel grin seemed to perpetually be on its face, with a sharp tail with a spade on its end swaying with its movements, and along with large claws, said its aura screamed evil.

If it was neither "angel" nor "devil", then what was such an existence?

It was a Dokkaiebi.

[Has everyone come to gripes with the situation now?] Its eyes squinted into crescents while it surveyed the quietly listening crowd.

I couldn't blame anyone for not speaking out, for not questioning or challenging its statement. And what right did I have to even be here?

[Thank you to the 11 constellations who subscribed! Oh, but it seems the mental facility of this time's candidates does not seem so good. It's alright everyone, now is the time to power up! Yes, yes, cheer up, you have created such a great achievement for surviving! Fight on!]

It pumped its fist, as if it were on our side.

[Number of survivors of the first scenario, class 2-B Daepong Girl's High School: 9]

[Incarnations, the time for your sponsorship has come! Let your choices unfold your story.]

No one knew what a "sponsorship" was, and not one cared. But if this was the chance for them to survive, they would grab it.

But then again, to survive, we stomped on another's life. No matter if the life was not "human", what defined a murder?

So, I can only say now, it's natural.

In this broken world, the ugly truth reared its head. Humans thought they were high and mighty. Constellations thought they were high and mighty. But through it all, it all boiled down to nothing.