NOVEL NEXT Chapter 293
[So! You’re not just doing this thoughtlessly, huh? After all, everyone here…]
[Sakuya~. I want to eat cheese katsu….]
[Cheese katsu? Hmm. It seems impossible today, but let’s eat it next week.]
The voice chat in the Star’s Flow organization Miscode server was more crowded than ever.
Right now, there were 16 people online.
That means every member was in the voice chat.
Today is Thursday, March 6th.
Only two days left until my graduation ceremony from Star’s Flow.
This was a group collaboration aimed at leaving a last memory before that.
[Today, I’m super excited!]
Everyone’s voices were as bright and lively as usual.
Over the past month… No, for more than that, we’ve had many conversations and spent time together, so I knew there was no need to feel down right now.
In fact, there was a suggestion from Senior Namikawa about doing an offline collaboration, but… unfortunately, that suggestion was dismissed due to various circumstances.
The biggest reason was me, though…
Anyways, thus began the 16-member offline collaboration.
The content was…!
[This time in “Jelly Killer,” I won’t go down easily! I’ll turn everything upside down and make everyone cry!!! #Star’sFlow#KainohIzumi]
That game… Jelly Killer, which had caused me immense shame in the past.
When I was a Citizen, I somehow kept being the first to be killed by the Killers.
And when I became a Killer, I was immediately expelled for suspecting the fact that I wasn’t dead.
Wasn’t that just too unreasonable…?
Well, anyway, the maximum number of players in Jelly Killer increased to 20, allowing Star’s Flow members, including me, to enjoy the game together.
There were also several new features added…
The most notable was that roles were created even within Citizens and Killers.
For instance, among the Killers, there’s a cleanup crew that can hide the bodies of Citizens they killed, a wizard who can transform into one of the Citizens, a serial killer whose cooldown for ‘murder’ decreases with each designated Citizen they kill, and an assassin who can go invisible for 5 seconds after killing a Citizen.
On the Citizen side, there was an angel who could shield a living Citizen once after becoming a ghost, a fixer who could carry out others’ missions, and a communicator who could initiate an emergency call even if they weren’t in a meeting room.
Of course, everyone saw that the roles on the Killer side were much more powerful, which led to many objections at first, but after implementing it in the game, most evaluations were that the balance was decent.
Basically, since the number of Citizens is much greater than the Killers, no matter how advantageous the roles are, over time, it remains the same that the Killers are at a disadvantage.
[Alright, then let’s all get ready to start!]
At Natsune’s words, everyone quietly took a deep breath.
And the moment the clock struck 6.
[Everyone, konhoshi! I am Natsune Nanase, coming from the shining star of dreams!]
With Natsune’s greeting, the broadcast began.
★
With 16 participants in Jelly Killer, there were twelve Citizens and four Killers.
Simply put, that meant three times as many Citizens.
However, among the Citizens, only three had roles. On the Killer side, four had roles.
In terms of ratios, it became 25 percent vs. 100 percent.
If we merely consider the expected output for one person, the Killers had a significant advantage.
That’s why the Citizens had to stick together to leverage their numerical superiority.
But the Killers had skills to disrupt that.
★
“Hah, hah….”
‘I’ held my breath and moved forward.
There was nothing visible around me.
The completely darkened sight ahead evoked primal human fear.
I want to live. I want to live. I want to live…!
I don’t care about anything else. Right now, I just want to survive.
Even if it means turning the world against me… my life is more important.
The single wish in my heart weighed heavier on my shoulders than ever.
How much time has passed?
At last… the light returned.
Though it was a desolate scene filled with only machines, I felt moved that I could take it in.
“I’m alive…”
Along with a sigh, I let slip my true feelings.
I quietly sighed in relief and smiled.
And then.
“Okay, then. Be careful.”
“Gah?!”
Thwack!
A mechanical sound pierced through my chest.
Slowly lowering my gaze, I saw red blood gushing from my chest.
The cause was the slender white arm of my ‘kind,’ protruding like a spear.
The once-pure white arm was now stained red with my blood.
“Ah, aah….”
Breathing had become tough.
Nevertheless, I silently turned my head back to identify the traitorous kind.
There stood a translucent figure of my kind.
For some reason, their body was slowly becoming transparent.
And right before I lost consciousness completely, I heard:
“Hehehe…”
The insane laughter of my kind.
★
“Whaaaa?!”
I was on my way to the electrical room to fix the broken light by the Killer.
Fortunately, it seemed someone arrived before me, and the light was soon fixed, illuminating the map.
Right then, I was stabbed with a knife and died.
The color of the jelly that stabbed me was white.
In other words, it was Suzuha Koga.
And Suzuha must have had the role of the assassin because she disappeared instantly, going invisible.
“I was betrayed…!!!”
Of course, the goal for an assassin is to kill a Citizen, so technically it isn’t betrayal…!
But if I were an assassin, I would’ve definitely killed Suzuha in the end!
The connection with Suzuizu… was obliterated here…
“Ha…”
Still, standing around doing nothing won’t do.
I began manipulating my ghost Jelly to undertake other missions.
The mission completion rate was still at 8 percent.
“I, I died super early again…”
As I lamented while doing the mission.
Beep beep beep beep!
[A corpse has been discovered!]
With a piercing sound effect in my ears, a message appeared.
★
[Find the Killer!]
Survivors: [Nanase] | [Hikaring] | [Hina] | [Jim] | [Suzuha] | [Yukari] | [Nekoto] | [Aoba] | [Shoko]
Deceased: [Tsubaki] | [Rinje] | [Izumi] | [Ayaka] | [Tsukasa] | [Sakuya] | [Kaede]
[What? Seven people are dead already?!]
Natsune’s shock echoed.
Of course, I was also surprised.
The mission completion rate was only at 8 percent.
Yet seven people were already dead.
In other words, that leaves nine people.
With four Killers among them, if we don’t find the Killer here and now, the Citizens are guaranteed to lose.
Even without voting, without the ability to vote out a Killer, the loss for Citizens…
Even if we vote to expel a Killer, after the vote ends, an emergency collect must be initiated again to expel another Killer.
We were in a situation that couldn’t be described as anything but the worst.
[The culprit is Aoba.]
The arrow of expulsion was shot towards Kaguya.
And the one who shot that arrow was Yukari.
[Aoba killed Tsubaki right before my eyes!]
[Huh?! Yukari-senpai, what do you mean?!]
Kaguya protested loudly, claiming it was nonsense.
[Yukari’s right. Jim witnessed it too.]
Senior Minazuki supported Yukari’s claim.
There were two witnesses.
In a desperate effort, Kaguya tried to deny that Yukari and Senior Minazuki were the Killers framing her, but no success came.
[Result: Aoba – Expelled]
And the game didn’t end.
Which means Kaguya was a Killer.
Well, I already knew that from Senior Namikawa.
The Killers were said to be Senior Amatsuka, Suzuha, Kaguya, and Mizuki.
Anyway, thus began a new game.
But as expected, Aki immediately pressed the emergency collect button once again.
Survivors: [Nanase] | [Hikaring] | [Hina] | [Jim] | [Suzuha] | [Yukari] | [Nekoto] | [Shoko]
Deceased: [Tsubaki] | [Rinje] | [Izumi] | [Ayaka] | [Tsukasa] | [Sakuya] | [Kaede] | [Aoba]
[If we don’t expel another Killer here, we can’t win.]
Thus began the righteous debate.
[But wait, is Izumi dead again…?]
[…Thinking back, she was always the first to die in the last collaboration too?]
In the middle of that, Koga said something.
“Koga, that’s not something you should say, right?!”
If the one who killed me says that, it’s just teasing!
i[Pfft?!]*
As I shouted, all the dead ghosts giggled.
This isn’t funny at all!
Once I become a Killer… I’m definitely taking Koga out first!
And luckily, thanks to Aki’s efforts, the Citizens were able to win.
★
I became a Killer.
Right in front of me stood Koga, and there was no one else around.
And my role was that of a cleanup crew that can hide the bodies.
In other words, if I kill Koga now, it will be a perfect crime no one knows about.
It was a chance for revenge.
If I drag this out and run into other people, it’ll be bad.
So now…!
[Are you going to… kill me, Izumi?]
“…Huh?”
Just as I was about to press the [Kill] button, Koga said that.
…How did she know?
Stunned by those words, my finger froze.
But quickly regaining my composure, I forced myself to sound nonchalant.
“I-I can’t kill you, Koga. Because I’m not a Killer?”
This was my first murder.
I had no evidence that I was a killer.
Koga was just trying to bait me.
[…] Maybe revenge? Is it because I killed Izumi earlier?]
Koga’s words struck me like a dagger to my heart.
“W-What do you mean….”
I felt like my thoughts were being read.
More than discomfort, I felt fear, and for some reason, I couldn’t press the [Kill] button.
[Sorry, Izumi. But just know this… that wasn’t what I wanted! Another me in my heart… took control of my body!]
That makes sense.
“So that’s why, the usually very mature Koga… sometimes acted like a real kid because of another Koga…?!]
[…] Yeah, that’s it. So, Izumi? Are you trying to take revenge?]
“I wanted to. But now that I know that…!”
[Got it….]
“Koga, can we go back to how things were before?”
[Of course. If Izumi wants to…!]
Well, I would kill her, but still.
Just as I was about to press the [Kill] button.
[Emergency Gather!]
With a piercing sound effect in my ears, the message appeared.
[Find the Killer!]
Survivors: [Nanase] | [Hikaring] | [Tsubaki] | [Rinje] | [Hina] | [Jim] | [Izumi] | [Ayaka] | [Suzuha] | [Yukari] | [Nekoto] | [Aoba] | [Shoko] | [Tsukasa] | [Sakuya] | [Kaede]
Deceased:
[Sorry, Izumi. I’m the communicator.]
“…Huh?”
[Everyone. Izumi is the Killer. Just now, she was about to kill me.]
“K-Koga? The promise to go back to how we used to be…!”
[Eh, Izumi just tried to kill me, right?]
“That’s true… but. …Ah.”
[This confirms her as the Killer.]
[Goodbye, Izumi.]
[Izumi-senpai….]
“Wait! This is slander?! Koga is the Killer…!”
[It’s too late for that, Izumi.]
[Vote: Izumi – 15 votes | Suzuha – 1 vote]
[Result: Izumi – Expelled]
“Ahhh?!”
[And Izumi. Shall we chat a bit later?]
Giggles.
I felt a chill at Koga’s laughter.
‘So, that’s why, the usually very mature Koga… sometimes behaved like a real kid because of another Koga…?!’
Then the memory from a few minutes ago came back to me.
I felt a premonition.
My life ends here…