I told my friends I was going to buy food from the market, and they approved. Within a short while, I returned to the room with the food. We spent time and took care of our needs. When we decided to go outside together around noon, we saw that tons of soldiers were attacking the village.
Haru was stunned when he saw the soldiers.
"What the hell is this? The dark soldiers have come here too! Let's run!"
We ran with all our strength toward the gaps in the forest.
"There's no one coming from behind, right?"
"No, there isn't."
"These dark soldiers turned out to be more troublesome than I thought."
After I spoke, a strange sound was heard from the area where the volcano was. Hearing the sound, the soldiers slowly became frightened and began to pull back.
Lie looked toward the volcano.
"What was that? Did you hear it? It came from the volcano."
We all nodded. I put my finger to my chin and thought for a short while, looking at the volcano.
"Maybe there's a strange creature living there that maintains justice?"
"But how would it live inside a volcano?"
"You're right, but there has to be something bringing control to this place. Otherwise, this area would descend into chaos. I'm just guessing randomly."
"I understand. I guess it's true that someone needs to maintain justice."
Akari, thinking practically, joined the conversation.
"Anyway, it works in our favor. Should we go back to the village?"
"I think we should camp on the opposite side today. Something could happen again. Plus, we'd approach the temple from the opposite side."
"Alright, let's do that."
We walked a bit toward the opposite side of the forest. We gathered the necessary materials to set up camp for the evening. We decided to hide the materials among the bushes. An hour had passed.
"Did we gather enough?"
"It seems sufficient."
After listening to the surroundings for a while, the time was gradually approaching nine. Haru wanted to talk with me about our strategies.
"Do you think something will happen at the temple tonight?"
"I don't think so. Everyone's organized, so they're not having friendship problems."
An idea came to my mind, and I continued talking.
"By the way, go talk to that orange-haired girl."
"Why?"
"I saw her looking at you. It would be good to get to know her for a bit. We might be able to figure out if she's a player or not. But she's probably a player."
"It's hard to tell because there are so many people during worship, but I think she's a player too."
Haru kept thinking.
"So can we say there are at least nine players among us now?"
"Don't be so sure about those two who checked their phones."
"Are you saying we should still be careful about that?"
"Exactly. They might have made a deal with the other guy to strengthen the lie. They have connections, after all."
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"You're right."
"I wonder if selfishness or aggression can exist innately in human nature?"
"Are you saying that because they're acting this way even though we could finish the game normally?"
"Yes. It's like we always want more. Anyway, speaking of the game ending, let me check my worship level."
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the level.
"It's not even halfway yet. This game seems long-term."
After spending a few more hours together, we headed toward the temple from the opposite path before nine in the evening. The inside had started to get crowded again. The old man who saw us smiled.
"Welcome again!"
I still responded so as not to reveal my thoughts.
"Thank you."
This time, the worship had lasted about twenty minutes. After everyone finished worshipping, some were heading to the rooms, others were talking with their friends in the hall and buying things from the cafeteria. Meanwhile, I was thinking about betrayal.
What exactly counts as betraying your friend? Maybe it's making two more friends without your friends knowing. Or maybe it's leaving your friends while you still have them. Which meaning does it carry?
Haru had started chatting with the orange-haired girl. I could watch them from a distance. I went over to them. The orange-haired girl looked at me.
"Who are you?"
Haru cut in and introduced me.
"His name is Rei, my friend."
"Nice to meet you."
I politely bowed my head.
The girl looked me over for a short moment, then said her own name.
"Nice to meet you too, I'm Yua."
"Yua, I see. I'll remember that. You're the granddaughter of one of the head priests, right?"
"Yes. What about it?"
"Nothing, I just heard about it. What do you think of your grandfather?"
"I don't know. He's an annoying person. Sometimes I have to put up with him."
Yua sighed to herself, as if old memories had come to mind.
"I see."
I saw that there was a new priest around. My eyes were on him. Yua noticed I was looking at him.
"New priests constantly come. They're like my grandfather's apprentices."
"I see, that's nice. I'm going to take a look around the cafeteria."
"Okay."
I headed toward the cafeteria alone. I examined the food around. Since everyone had teammates, today seemed to be passing passively.
I saw that the cafeteria worker wasn't inside. Curious, I wanted to check the back area. I secretly headed toward the cafeteria's kitchen section. The area was quiet. A smell was coming from the refrigerator. The refrigerator was large in size. I quietly opened the lid. When I opened it, I saw the cafeteria worker's corpse squeezed into the empty section. The moment I saw it, my pupils suddenly dilated. Then I tried to keep myself calm.
I examined the corpse. There were no signs of an attack. His body was cold from the refrigerator. I checked his left pocket—his phone was still in his pocket. I opened his phone; the game's icon application was there.
Was he killed because he was a player?
I turned around and smelled the food on the table. It seemed like I was getting a poison smell from the food. I thought he might have been killed by poison. Then I turned my face back to the refrigerator and began examining the man's corpse. He had a ring on his finger. Other than that, I didn't think there was any detail that caught my attention.
The underground corridors came to my mind. They might be continuing their conversations there, or I thought there might be hidden people. I was starting to realize I had been standing there too long. I closed the refrigerator lid and quietly left the cafeteria.
For some reason, I want this information to stay only with me for now. I don't have enough evidence—in fact, I don't even have any information. It probably wouldn't make sense to explain it.
I calmly returned to the hall. A young man who thought we hadn't spoken for a while came up to me and asked if I liked the place, trying to chat with me. While talking to him, I could pick up a similar smell to the one I had gotten from the food. I pretended not to notice the smell. After a while, I came back to my friends.
Deep inside, I kept thinking. I had shown them that I was intelligent. So them placing it deliberately might not have been enough. Knowing I would foresee this, he might have actually killed the person himself and was pretending to have deliberately gotten the smell on himself. I was calculating the possibilities in my head.
"Let's go home, it's late."
"Okay."
We all left the temple and headed toward the area where we had set up camp. The sounds of insects could be heard inside the forest. I mentioned the things I had seen to them.
Lie was surprised and reacted.
"You're not lying, right?"
"Why would I lie?"
"The people here might be far more ruthless than I thought. They're hiding their evil deeds with religion. Did they kill him too just because he was a player?"
"I don't think it's just killing. I sense something."
"You're right. It might not just be killing."
Haru joined the conversation. Akari kept listening carefully.
"By the way, Rei, while we were sitting, did you notice the smell of serpente herb in the air?"
"Serpente? What's that?"
"Don't you know? It's an appetite-stimulating herb. I wonder why I picked up this smell."
I hadn't picked up this smell, but the use of this scent brought new possibilities to life in my mind.
"By the way, what did you talk about with Yua?"
"Nothing special, just normal chat. But she doesn't seem to like her grandfather."
"I kind of noticed that too."
"Other than that, nothing. Maybe they were told to deliberately act like she doesn't like him."
"We can't know. Anyway, let's pass the time for now and sleep."
We built a fire and ate the food we had brought. After making sure there was no one around, we all slowly fell asleep beside the trees.