The tent creaked under the weight of the snow. Inside, a single lantern flickered dimly, painting the cramped space in hues of gold and shadow. Five students huddled close together on threadbare blankets.
They weren't just students. They were Outers torn from their old world and forced into the brutal reality of Masquerade of Dreams: Shattered.
One of the older boys, tall and wiry with a sharp nose and perpetually narrowed eyes, leaned forward. He was their de facto leader, the one who had pulled them together, taught them how to move in this world and how to cover for one another. His name was Radelis Crowne, a representative of the Bracelet Club.
The Bracelet Club is a strange little secret society formed the moment transmigrators began realizing they weren't alone in this nightmare. Radelis had been the first to confirm they were stuck and there was no respawn waiting for them if they slipped up.
He pushed his long bangs back, revealing eyes dulled by calculation.
"Thales Erdict is one of us."
The others stiffened. One of the girls, younger, her short hair sticking out beneath a makeshift hood, whispered harshly.
"You don't know that. He could just be an NPC following the altered script. How can you be sure?"
Radelis's lips curved in a humorless smile.
"Because the plot's been breaking apart since day one. Thales didn't meet the heroine Verdamona at the steps like he was supposed to. He didn't sit next to her during the Chancellor's speech. Every trigger that made him grow close to her never happened. And instead, she's been orbiting Phasnovterich Vecria Argemenes since then. It's a complete divergence. Tell me that's not the hand of a player bending the story."
One of the boys, broader in the shoulders but jittery, rubbed his hands together for warmth.
"I… I don't like it. If Thales is a player like us, why's he hanging around him? Why risk derailing the whole game if you can just coast with the heroine?"
The second girl, tall and wiry, scoffed.
"Because he's playing it differently. Maybe he thinks Phasnovterich is the key to better rewards. Think about it. He already went ahead with him, found clues about the Azure Sword, and now the damn Octopus Slime is awake. That's not luck. He's pulling the strings."
"Azure Sword…" the quieter boy muttered, his fingers curling into the fabric of the blanket. "One of the Hidden God's relics. That's not even early-game content. How the hell did we get dragged into this so soon?"
Radelis's expression hardened.
"Because someone interfered. A lecturer, most likely. Only someone with authority over the Fluve Fields could have wiped out the weak Fluviums ahead of us. They left only the most dangerous behind."
The younger girl shivered, but not from the cold.
"So we're just puppets then? Forced to dance around while the main cast gets all the glory?"
"Not puppets. We still have choice. We still have survival. That's more than nothing."
The group fell into silence for a moment, the sound of snow piling higher outside their only backdrop. Finally, the broader boy spoke again.
"Sixty of us made it in here. The odds aren't bad and we prepared. Food, supplies, blankets, we stocked up. Convincing the NPCs we just 'had extras' was easy enough. They bought it."
The tall girl leaned her head back against the canvas wall, her laugh sharp and humorless.
"Yeah, but extra bread won't matter when the Octopus Slime sends its minions crawling through camp. We'll be lucky to last the night when that happens."
Radelis nodded slowly. "That's why we don't play heroes. The plot demands someone face the Class Four, and Thales seems more than willing to wear that crown. Fine, let him. He's already tangled himself with the Azure Sword business and he has already turned the spotlight on himself. All we have to do is survive the swarm."
The quieter boy clenched his jaw, his voice cracking.
"That's easy for you to say. We're weak. You saw what happened earlier. Just one Class Three Fluvium nearly wiped out half a squad. We're cannon fodder here. If it weren't for supplies, we'd have frozen to death already. We're not Fluxers, Radelis. We're just… bodies."
The younger girl pressed her lips together. "Yeah. Meanwhile, Thales is out there rewriting the whole damn story. He gets to be a lead, and we… we get to die nameless."
Radelis's gaze swept over them. "That's exactly why we stick to the plan. Four more days. That's all we need. Four days of keeping our heads down, fighting only when we must, and letting the 'main characters' drag the narrative forward. When the field collapses and we're free, we'll have made it through. NPCs or not, weak or not, we'll still be alive."
His words settled over them like a command, though the air still hummed with bitterness. The younger girl bit her lip, the tall one exhaled sharply, the boys shifted uneasily.
"Four days," Radelis repeated, as if to hammer it into their bones. "The Octopus Slime is Thales's problem. Ours is surviving its minions. If he's so confident, let him be the hero. We just have to be smart enough to outlast the plot."
The lantern sputtered, its flame shrinking before flaring again. Outside, the wind screamed against the tent, but inside, their whispered pact was sealed.
°°°°°°
Searching for Verdamona had become a chore. She was always surrounded wnd burdened by the weaker ones she was trying to drag along with her sense of morality.
That's when I heard the faint, muffled chatter inside one of the tents. I stopped, tilted my head just slightly, my senses peeling through the canvas like it was nothing. My ears picked up every syllable. They were five voices huddled close together, whispering like conspirators trying to keep the wind itself from knowing.
Outers.
They weren't hiding it well.
Thales Erdict… an Outer?
I nearly laughed. The fact that they thought he was one of them was almost perfect. They were convinced that he hijacked the plot, changed Verdamona's orbit and was now steering the whole thing. They even called him lucky to be transmigrated as part of the main cast, not stuck as faceless extras like them. Pathetic. They weren't even close to the truth.
I was about to move when a flicker of movement caught my eye.
Radelis.
He slipped out from the tent flap, hugging himself against the cold, his breath fogging heavy in the air. His steps faltered when he saw me standing there. He froze and his eyes widened like he'd just caught me holding a dagger at his throat.
Before he could breathe a sound, I was already on him. My hand clamped over his lips, silencing him instantly. His muffled panic hit my palm as I yanked him off the snow, my body vanishing in a single leap. To him, it must have looked like I split into a dozen selves, each fading as the next moved faster.
By the time I landed, we were well outside the camp, the noise and flicker of tents swallowed by the snowstorm. I dropped him onto his feet. He stumbled, gasping, clutching his chest.
"Wh—what are you doing?"
"You're an Outer, aren't you?"
His whole face twitched, denial loading up in his throat. I didn't give him the chance.
"Don't bother. I already know. We're in MoDS. It's a gacha otome game with a female protagonist, five love interests and multiple routes. All of you Outers should know exactly where we are."
His mouth opened, then snapped shut again. He looked like a deer about to be gutted, his brain fumbling between instinct and logic. Finally, he whispered.
"You too?"
"Obviously, but here's the difference. I know what that means. You don't."
He hesitated, the word trembling at the edge of his lips.
"I thought… I thought it was Thales. Everyone said—"
I cut him off with a low, humorless laugh.
"Thales? They're eating out of his hand, sure. Let them. That's what makes this fun. If they want to believe he's the one pulling the strings, fine by me. It keeps them off my back. Now then, time to talk."