The mechanical hum of the chamber deepened into a low-frequency vibration that rattled the players' bones. Above them, the verdict burned in glowing, sterile text.
「Vote process completed.」
「Eirene Xu, the Harlot (Survivor), is voted off.」
Eirene's eyes snapped toward the glowing display, her breath catching the moment the verdict registered properly in her head. For a second, she just stared at it in disbelief before looking back at the others around her, searching their faces as if expecting someone to say it was a joke.
"Wait… what?" she said quietly. "They actually voted me off?"
The shock barely had time to settle before the red circle beneath her chair began pulsing violently. The floor vibrated underneath her feet, and the sharp hiss of pressurized air echoed through the chamber as the hatch mechanism activated. Fear flashed across her face for the first time before it twisted quickly into furious disbelief.
"Whoever the fuck voted me off," she spat, her voice rising to a snarl even as she gripped the armrests of her chair, "fuck you! Every single one of you!"
The floor panel beneath Eirene split apart with brutal suddenness. Her composure shattered instantly as the chair tipped backward beneath her, panic overtaking the rage on her face in one violent shift. A raw scream tore from her throat, sharp enough to ricochet through the metallic chamber, before the darkness beneath the hatch swallowed both her and the sound whole.
"EI—!" Kusako screamed, lunging forward. Her fingers raked the empty air, the phantom heat of the red circle still searing her palms. Vanitas was right behind her, her own hand reaching out toward the void.
"Wait—!" Vanitas cried, but the hatch sealed with a terrifyingly efficient click.
Shun stood frozen, his pupils blown wide. "An opening? I didn't notice that," he thought, his analytical mind already racing to calculate the physics of the floor, wondering if the very ground he stood on was a predator waiting for his own misstep.
"What the hell was that?!" Ace roared, standing up so fast her chair nearly toppled.
A heavy, suffocating silence followed. Fuji lowered his head, his mouth pressed into a tight line. Inside, his stomach churned; the mechanical coldness of the elimination felt uncomfortably familiar, a jagged reminder of a dark past he had tried to bury. He looked unstable for a fleeting second, his hands shaking, before he forced himself to look away, hiding his face behind his hair.
"Oh dear~ It always looks scarier than it is." Tallia's voice, sweet as poisoned syrup, drifted down as she floated above the group. "Don't you worry! Eirene has been safely transferred to a private resting chamber. She's no longer in the game, but she's perfectly safe and well."
Fuji blinked hard, his voice small. "So she's just… out? Not dead?"
"Not even a scratch!" Tallia reassured them. "She'll be observing from a comfortable space for eliminated players. Think of it like… early retirement!"
Vanitas let out a long, shaky exhale, her shoulders relaxing just a fraction. Shun looked away, his expression grim. "She didn't deserve it… But at least she's fine," he thought.
"Now then~ Let's not fall behind, shall we?" Tallia tilted her head. "A new day means new challenges!"
A portal of warm golden light bloomed behind her. As the players stepped through, they felt a jarring sensation—as if they were being pulled apart and reassembled molecule by molecule—before rematerializing in the Resort Lobby.
The lobby was eerily perfect, smelling of artificial jasmine and bathed in clinical morning sunlight. The System projection hovered overhead:
「All participants must resume gameplay. Mission objectives remain in effect.」
Suddenly, Akhina's watch pinged. Her eyes widened as the display flickered:
「Status Effect Lifted: Silence → Cleared」
She gasped, clutching her throat. For a moment, she just stood there. The silence had been a mental cage, a void that swallowed every warning she wanted to scream. She felt the phantom weight lift, and the relief was explosive.
"MY VOICE IS BACK, BABY!" she yelled, her voice cracking slightly before finding its full, boisterous volume.
"You can talk now?" Asher asked, startled.
"HELL YEAH I CAN!" Akhina grinned fiercely.
As Silver turned and walked toward the hallway, her measured steps echoing in the quiet lobby, Akhina's expression shifted. She reached out, grabbing Vanitas and Asher by the sleeves and pulling them back into a quiet corner.
"What's up?" Asher asked after Akhina dragged both him and Vanitas into the quieter corner of the lobby.
"Shh. Don't you guys think it's funny?" Akhina crossed her arms before looking between the two of them. "Like, what did you guys actually think about that back there? The vote."
Asher rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Huh? Her aggressiveness took me out, honestly. Then, everything became messy, so… I don't know. Even I started doubting if I did the right thing."
Vanitas stayed quiet for a moment, her gaze lowered toward the polished floor beneath them.
"I still think the whole thing feels strange," she admitted. "Not the vote itself, because I can understand why people ended up suspecting Eirene." She paused slightly before continuing. "What bothers me more is Silver."
Akhina frowned. "Silver?"
Vanitas nodded slowly. "She kept steering the conversation back toward Eirene every single time it drifted somewhere else." Her brows furrowed slightly in thought. "And now Eirene ended up being innocent."
Asher stayed silent beside her, listening.
"But the thing is, I still don't think Silver's a Hunter or anything," Vanitas continued quickly.
"Honestly, she feels more like a Survivor to me." She exhaled softly. "That's why I can't tell if she genuinely believed Eirene was dangerous or if there's something else we're missing."
Akhina clicked her tongue. "Bruh, that's what I'm saying! The whole vote thing was fucked up. We don't even know how the abilities work yet."
"Exactly." Vanitas finally looked up at them properly. "That's the problem."
Her expression tightened slightly. "Everyone's just going off assumptions right now. If somebody acts strangely for five minutes, they immediately become suspicious."
Akhina's eyes narrowed. "I know, right? It didn't make any damn sense to sus Eirene out like that. I mean, maybe she really was hiding something, but she was on our side, and we don't even know what the Hunters can actually do yet."
"We can't just point fingers every time somebody looks guilty. For all we know, half the abilities in this game prolly look sus from the outside." Her jaw tightened. "It was basically 50-50, and we still threw her to the wolves over a hunch."
Vanitas gave a small nod. "Fear spreads fast when nobody knows what they're doing yet."
The conversation slowed down for a moment after that.
Vanitas looked calmer now that she was focusing on the logic behind everything instead of the elimination itself, but Asher still noticed the small things underneath it. The way she kept rubbing at the fabric near her wrist unconsciously. The slight tension in her jaw whenever Eirene's name came up. The way her thoughts kept circling back instead of moving forward.
Asher didn't point it out. Instead, while she kept talking, he silently reached over and slipped his fingers loosely around her hand where it rested near her sleeve. Vanitas paused slightly at the contact, her eyes flicking toward him for a brief moment before looking away again.
Asher still kept his gaze forward, his thumb brushing slowly across her palm in a small, familiar motion that carried more warmth than words ever really could.
Vanitas narrowed her eyes after a few seconds. "…What are you doing?"
"Drawing rocks on your palm," Asher answered casually, as if that explained everything.
Akhina blinked once before a laugh escaped her. "What kind of nonsense is that?"
"They're calming."
"Okay, but ROCKS?" Akhina pointed out. "Of all things, bro."
Vanitas looked down briefly at the slow patterns his thumb traced before the corner of her mouth twitched upward slightly despite herself. It was oddly specific, silly of him, and somehow that made it feel more genuine than if he had actually tried comforting her directly.
Akhina was still muttering under her breath about "rock therapy" while Asher kept tracing lazy shapes across Vanitas's palm until he noticed the tension in her shoulders easing little by little. Only then did he finally let go of her hand.
Asher smiled faintly at the change before looking back toward Akhina properly.
"What if this is all part of Princess Kaguy█'s plan?" Asher muttered absentmindedly, speaking as though the comparison made perfect sense in his head before realizing a second too late that nobody else would understand what he meant.
Akhina stared at him. "Who is that?"
Vanitas blinked once before tilting her head slightly. "Who…? Silver?"
"I keep forgetting her name," Asher replied. "Her hair is so blue, she should've been named Sapphire or something."
Akhina let out a loud bark of laughter. "How did you even connect Silver to some princess story?!"
Asher frowned slightly, trying to explain himself while gesturing vaguely with his hands. "She just reminds me of one."
"But a princess?!" Akhina snorted.
"A moon princess," Asher corrected defensively. "It makes sense in my head."
Vanitas raised a brow. "You brought it up yourself."
"No, it's the hair, the whole vibe… she looks weirdly untouchable." He paused briefly, searching for the right comparison. "Like some kind of nymph or mermaid or something."
Akhina laughed again. "A MERMAID?!"
"Don't ask my brain... She looks like she belongs on the moon or underwater, not walking around a murder competition with the rest of us." Asher protested.
Vanitas covered part of her smile with her hand while Akhina shook her head in disbelief.
"I wanna open your head sooooo bad one of these days," Akhina muttered between laughs.
"Your brain needs to be studied, too."
"Mine makes sense at least."
"Debatable."
Akhina clicked her tongue dramatically, though the laughter lingering in her voice softened some of the heaviness sitting between them. But after a moment, Akhina's grin slowly faded as the conversation circled back toward the vote again, the earlier tension creeping back into her expression.
"Still…" She crossed her arms tightly. "Something about Silver feels off to me now."
Vanitas glanced toward her but remained silent.
"Whatever it is, we should keep an eye on her," Akhina continued. "And honestly? I don't even care about that as much right now."
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Whoever the hell muted me…" A sharp scoff left her. "I'm killing them the moment I find out who it was."
A chill ran down Asher's spine at the statement, and he immediately looked away before Akhina could notice the guilty tension creeping across his face.
Vanitas sighed softly. "Let's not suspect around unnecessarily unless we have something concrete, but… we should also keep that in mind."
Behind the three of them, Noah lingered near the quieter end of the lobby, his gaze drifting across the scattered groups forming around the room. Some were still trying to joke through the tension, while others had fallen unusually quiet after the vote. Even Shun, who normally would have tried steering the situation toward something calmer or more reasonable, had said almost nothing since leaving the chamber. The silence around him felt deliberate.
The others were harder to read. Most of them were still practically strangers, connected only by forced conversations and the pressure of the competition itself, which made every reaction feel uncertain. Some looked genuinely shaken by Eirene's elimination. Others were already trying to act normal again, a little too quickly.
Eirene getting eliminated changed things faster than Noah expected. They thought removing one suspicious player would stabilize the group. If anything, it only made things easier.
He looked down at his watch, which blinked with a new, absurd command:
「Mission: Carry an egg with you all day. Treat it well and protect it like your child.」
"And now there is this. Bloody hell," he muttered.
Akhina and Asher began walking toward the exit, deep in their own hushed conversation. Vanitas followed several paces behind, her walking speed agonizingly slow as she stared at the floor, lost in the suffocating loop of her own guilt.
Noah began to move forward, his stride long and purposeful. He gained ground quickly, passing the lagging Vanitas. She didn't even notice him until he was right beside her.
"I didn't think she'd actually get voted out..." she mumbled to herself, the words barely a breath.
Noah didn't slow down or look at her directly. He simply flicked his eyes toward her as he drew level, his voice a low, freezing blade that sliced through her spiraling thoughts.
"Don't think."
He took another step.
"Start observing."
He didn't wait for a reaction, accelerating his pace until he was a dark silhouette moving past Asher and Akhina. The two of them jumped slightly as he walked past them, heading straight for the open field beyond the resort entrance.
Vanitas stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide with surprise as she watched his back retreat into the bright sunlight.
Asher and Akhina turned around, noticing how far she had fallen behind. "Vanitas!" Akhina called out, gesturing for her to hurry. "Pick up the pace!"
Vanitas took a shaky breath, smoothed her clothes, and hurried to catch up, leaving the shadows of the lobby behind. Noah kept walking without looking back, the bright sunlight swallowing most of his silhouette while he observed the subtle shifts already spreading through the group.
The moment fear entered the equation, people became far easier to read.