I nodded at Ayame in approval, and then we were suddenly teleported to the third floor. Since there had been an elimination, a rule could now be added. Ayame seemed to have decided not to question me any further. When we were teleported to the floor, everyone was waiting for the new rule to be announced.
"Since there has been an elimination, a new rule will be added to the third floor!"
"On the third floor, if a voting ends and a scenario occurs where the person with the most votes will be eliminated, then everyone who did not vote for the person with the most votes will be eliminated!"
When the new rule was heard, everyone seemed to experience a brief shock. The rules were becoming more and more aggressive, as if they were trying to make passive moves on the third floor impossible. After the rule was announced, Alice suddenly shouted at Maria with all her strength. She seemed to have realized the deception that had been turned against her.
"YOU WHORE BITCH! YOU TRIED TO SECRETLY ELIMINATE ME, DIDN'T YOU? THE THREE OF YOU WERE GOING TO WIN!"
"No, there's no such thing..."
"FUCK OFF! YOU'RE STILL LYING! IF VIOLENCE WEREN'T PROHIBITED, I'D BEAT THE HELL OUT OF YOU!"
Maria was aware of what she had done. She shot me a brief dirty look because I had prevented what she did, but she couldn't say anything against the other woman, after all, she was in the wrong. The schemes she had turned had come to light, and now she was paying the price. Alice turned her face to me and, despite her earlier angry attitude, showed a soft smile.
"If Rei hadn't done this, I wouldn't have been able to get rid of that old bastard. And he protected me, even if unintentionally. Rei is my savior!"
Alice suddenly came next to me and wrapped her arm around mine. She had medium-length brown hair and green eyes. She was looking at me with curious and attentive eyes. When she wrapped her arm around mine, I could understand the situation, she felt grateful to me for having protected her. Since I wanted this to continue, I didn't say anything about her touching me, not minding it.
"Don't look at Rei, you whore Maria! Fuck off!"
Ignoring what the girl said, Maria slowly stood up, she seemed tired. She withdrew to a corner she deemed suitable for herself and sat on the ground, leaning her back against the long white wall. She took a deep breath, she might have been stressed. I had watched her find a suitable place for herself.
While Alice was wrapped around my arm, Itsuki, Daito, and Zei looked at me. Itsuki was watching the girl wrap herself around my arm with amused eyes, as if he found it funny.
"You always have women around you, Rei, am I wrong?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Anyway, forget that. You made a good move. I had actually calculated that you could do something like this, though I wasn't sure if you would, of course. But you could say I set the stage for you to finish off the old man. I could predict that you'd understand the situation, good job, partner."
Itsuki was calling out to me as "partner" in a mocking way. As he said this, he made a fist sign toward me, as if he expected me to make a fist and bump it. But I didn't give him what he wanted. Daito and Zei, being unrelated to the topic, were watching the situation like everyone else. Some were already starting to head to their rooms. Ayame, meanwhile, was by my side.
"How rude you are, Rei, make a fist already!"
Itsuki pulled his hand back, then he and the others with him headed toward the corridor as well. The others seemed to be dispersing too. Ayame and I were left alone in the hall. Before either of us entered any room, the system voice was heard again.
"This time's voting period is six hours, don't forget!"
It was stated that the time was six hours this time, which was again a short period compared to the previous hours. After hearing the time, Ayame and I walked toward room number seventeen. There was a red carpet in the corridor, the carpet was long, extending to the end of the corridor. There were various small coffee tables around, with flowers in vases on top of them, there were various details. These hadn't been there before, as if they had tried to beautify the surroundings. We arrived at the door of room number seventeen, the door was made of quality wood. We opened the door and entered the room, the layout of the rooms was the same. We both sat on the bed. Ayame seemed lost in thought, she appeared a little quiet.
"Rei, you took into account that those women would feel this way too, didn't you?"
"I mean, there's nothing special about it, I expected her to feel this way. It'll be to our benefit, we won't have to search for buttons on the first floor."
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"You're right."
Shortly after, a sound started coming from the wooden door, as if someone was knocking. Right after knocking on the door, it was slowly opened, and the person standing in front of us was Alice. She showed me a sincere smile, then entered and closed the door, quickly sitting next to us.
"Rei, I got bored, I wanted to see you. Thank you for saving me."
"You're welcome."
"I know, you didn't do it on purpose, but if it weren't for you, my end would have been very bad. So I'm grateful."
"Do you want to win this game?"
"Yes, why do you ask?"
"I was curious about your determination. After all, strong teams seem to have an influence in this game. If we look out for each other, the three of us can finish the game, can you understand that?"
"I can understand, Rei."
Ayame joined the conversation.
"Let's sit and rest for a bit."
"Alright."
"But after that, let's go find the buttons. Maria will be left alone on the first floor, let that bastard struggle!"
"The person who won't be able to form a team will probably be her, so she'll have to search for buttons alone. She'll be in a difficult situation."
"Let that asshole always be in a difficult situation, Rei!"
"You're right..."
We had fallen a little quieter. As I looked at the ground, I started thinking to myself.
It seems like we no longer need to struggle to search for buttons, we're in a good position.
While we continued sitting together for a while, we were suddenly teleported to the hall of the first floor. Apparently, someone had searched for buttons because they wanted to return to the first floor. After returning to the hall, everyone started walking around the corridors as if nothing had happened. I had noticed that Itsuki was moving particularly fast this time, as if he was planning something.
After coming next to Alice and Ayame, we quickly formed a three-person team to avoid wasting time. We no longer had to search for buttons ourselves. Meanwhile, we had seen that Maria had already started rushing around, quickly going through the rooms in the corridors, we could hear her running footsteps. After all, she must have been the only person left out. The tattooed man and the twins must have been one team, and Daito, Zei, and Itsuki must have been another team. Together with our team, there were three teams in total, and Maria was the only person left out. I was thinking to myself.
As I expected, with this girl trusting me, Maria will be in a position close to elimination. Itsuki will probably proceed in the way I foresaw, and Maria will be forced to be eliminated from the game. The single move I made wasn't just to eliminate the old man, I had aimed to both gain an assistant and eliminate Maria. Itsuki will think what I thought, I don't need to do anything. Once Maria is eliminated in this way, my vote move will end.
Our situation was comfortable, so we didn't have to do anything. Time continued to pass. After a while, Maria encountered the trio of Itsuki, Daito, and Zei in a room. They were lying down in front of a wall. After thinking for a short while, Maria had realized that they were trying to hide the button, and she aimed to push them aside and touch the last button. For this reason, she started walking slowly toward the area where they were lying.
"Are you really going to try to push us? What if you get eliminated for violence?"
Maria had understood what Itsuki's side was aiming for. Violence was prohibited in the game. To get past Itsuki's side and touch the button, she would at least need to push them hard or hold them for a few seconds and pull them aside, which, along with the players' own complaints, could be considered violence. Itsuki was using the rule to his own advantage.
"Don't mess with me! Pushing doesn't count as a rule violation!"
"Try it then, you know best. We're not moving."
Maria approached Itsuki to push him. Just as she was about to extend her hands, she realized she was hesitating, she herself wasn't sure whether it would count as violence or not. If Itsuki resisted, she would have to push him even harder, she would probably have to press her body firmly. Therefore, she definitely had to push him hard. And when she pushed him hard, it could be perceived as violence by the system. But to touch the button, she needed to push Itsuki to a certain degree, a light push might not be enough. Either she would push Itsuki and touch the button, or if she didn't touch the button, when an hour passed, she would be eliminated from the game because she couldn't form a team. She had to take the risk. After thinking for a while, Maria made her decision and initially tried to gently push Itsuki from where he was.
"Are you sure? You'll be eliminated, I think?"
Even though Maria hesitated, she had no other choice. She continued pushing Itsuki by his shoulder. Zei and Daito were sitting further aside, it seemed like she didn't need to push them, or they could be preparing to take his place if she pushed Itsuki. Maria ignored these possibilities for now and continued pushing Itsuki slowly. Itsuki, on the other hand, was tensing his body as much as possible to ensure a rule violation occurred, he was holding onto the wall, leaning his back against the wall.
Realizing that he was holding on, Maria had no other choice, she had to push harder. Just as she started pushing harder, Itsuki suddenly relaxed his own body. With Maria's hard push and him deliberately throwing himself to the ground, he deliberately fell. Itsuki had lightly hit his head on the ground, it was obvious to people that he was acting. He made a sound as if he was in pain. Daito and Zei were calling out to the system, stating that there had been violence. The moment Maria pushed Itsuki, she pressed her hand hard on the button, but they weren't teleported to the other floor. The system voice was heard.
"A player has been eliminated for violating the violence prohibition!"
Even though Maria's hand had pressed the button, nothing had changed, she was in a completely hopeless situation. At that moment, she had begun to fully understand that even these parts were something that Rei had arranged. How could he influence so many things with a single vote move? She cursed Rei in her mind, but her face wasn't very angry.
"If it weren't for Rei, we would have won the game, damn it..."
Maria suddenly disappeared from the game area, teleported away. There were now nine players left in the game. Itsuki calmly stood up, Daito and Zei seemed happy that the plan had worked. But Itsuki wasn't very happy, nor was he unhappy. But he was aware that he shouldn't be happy, after all, this situation had been arranged by Rei. They were proceeding on the path Rei wanted, he was indirectly controlling the game. The system voice was heard.
"Nine players remaining!"