Chapter 119

  this is a fictional story by realTensai

  Their once beloved student council office had long become a graveyard of bad news. This time was no different, as Alvis, Lia, Maya, Chao, the three first years, Sekki, and Dane gathered inside, weighed down by the silence.

  Alvis could barely force himself to stop trembling as his heart ran havoc. Seeing Maya and Dane alive again made him almost tear up. Yet it was Lia who had his nerves on edge. Visions of her losing her mind kept switching with reality, and her words on that day just wouldn’t leave his mind.

  “Boss, are you alright?” Lyon whispered, his eyes soft yet concerned. “Your face turned pale.”

  “Y-Yeah, don’t worry,” Alvis answered with a smile that looked better in his imagination.

  He shook his head, took a deep breath in and out, and steeled his gaze.

  Focus!

  “Let’s start the meeting,” Lia said, her voice lower than usual. She didn’t even try to hide her distress behind a smile, which made everyone realize just how dire their situation had become.

  Alvis’ eyes quickly wandered to Maya next to her, but even she could only bite her lip in frustration. The same went for Sekki, whose eyes already looked deep into the realms of despair. Yet his clenched fist showed that he didn’t want to enter it yet. The same couldn’t be said about Chao. He sat still, only staring at the desk, his mind not in the present.

  “We all just heard the announcement, and to be honest, I still can’t believe it. However, we’ve seen the scenes, so we can’t deny it. But first, I want to say that I’m sorry that you had to witness this cruelty. Al, Lyon, Dagon, Bero, I’m happy you survived.”

  Her tired eyes gained life as she spoke these words, and a smile, more valuable than anything in this game, appeared on her face. Met with her sincerity and love, the three first years couldn’t help but shed tears. Their guilt had convinced them that their survival was a crime against those they swore to protect, but Lia’s simple words of gratitude destroyed that fallacy.

  Even Alvis’ hardened heart softened as he remembered once again why he decided to never leave that girl’s side. No matter how many deaths he would have to endure, he would protect that smile.

  “The things that just happened proved that the students will do anything to survive, even if it means killing others. Mr. Woltzer isn’t here anymore, so no one can stop them either.” She gritted her teeth whilst rubbing her forehead and shaking her head. “To be honest, I don’t know what to do,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “I… I’m scared. I don’t want to see how my schoolmates turn on each other, but I know that I’m too weak to inspire them. If even Mr. Woltzer couldn’t stop them, who am I to think that I could? Ha, I’m sorry…. But I don’t know what to do.”

  Lia lowered her trembling eyes and sank her head as if she had committed a crime. No one spoke, and they just stared at her with wide eyes as her words had caught them off guard. Even Lia, the girl who always had everything figured out, a student whose charisma was only matched by their principal, even that perfect girl, didn’t have an answer. Because of her incredible achievements and character, it was easy to forget that Lia, too, was just a regular teenage girl. This realization hit them, rendering them all speechless.

  Stolen story; please report.

  All but Alvis.

  “You don’t need to be sorry, Lia,” Alvis said, his voice steady. “It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay not to have the answers. There’s no shame in admitting that.” Lia looked up again, and Alvis could see his reflection in her watery eyes, strengthening his resolve all the more. “Everyone, listen to me. I have a plan to save this situation.”

  Now every gaze landed on him, but he was ready to shoulder that responsibility.

  “We will form a student council team and increase our size by taking on more people via quests. Our goal will be to protect those who don’t want to take part in this game, and our mission is to keep the casualties as low as possible.”

  “You realize forming a team means leaving others out, right?” Sekki said quietly. “No matter how big we grow, we can’t take everyone in. It’s just unrealistic. And you said our goal is to keep the casualties as low as possible,…. but not zero. So you already know we can’t save everyone. I can’t say that I didn’t think about that too, but is that really the method you want to choose? Are you really ready to accept that?”

  The room went silent once more as everyone understood what Sekki meant. He posed the question to Alvis, but he was asking everybody.

  Were they ready to sacrifice others so they could survive?

  In the last run, they had tried to protect everyone and that led to their downfall within two days. Their ideals had led them to believe the impossible, and whilst dancing with hope, they got backstabbed by despair. Now that Alvis knew that saving everyone meant getting people like Gilsymbato, William, and Charles on his side, he knew that this wasn’t something they could achieve. He had tried it once, and only a fool would repeat the same thing over again and expect a different outcome.

  “We won’t sacrifice others,” Alvis said, his words causing everyone’s eyes to widen.

  “But you just said---”

  “I know, but I think you misunderstood something. The student council would never give up on our students.”

  Lia, Maya, Lyon, Dagon, Bero, and even Chao simultaneously answered.

  “Never!”

  Seeing their reaction, Alvis just nodded with a smile.

  Even if it’s tempting, I can’t sacrifice others.

  “I said that we have to keep the casualties as low as possible because I know a way to end this game. We just need to break this barrier, and I know how.”

  Alvis could see the others open their mouths, wanting to ask questions, but he didn’t need to hear them to respond to them.

  “Contrary to your beliefs, this barrier is based on science and not magic. I took some time to analyze it and I’m fairly confident about my statement. And if it’s based on science, only my mentor, Mr. Zweistein can break it. That’s why the WRO couldn’t help us, because the only one who could is also trapped in this game. I’ll talk to my mentor and convince him to free us.”

  “Wait, if what you said is true, then this could actually work.”

  “I don’t get it,” Dane said, speaking up for the first time. His sharp eyes resembled those of a seasoned warrior, and Alvis couldn’t help but bite his tongue to suppress the guilt building up within him. “If Mr. Zweisten was capable of breaking the barrier, why didn’t he do it yet? Why did he just hide in his bunker and let so many students die?”

  Alvis couldn’t respond.

  It was such a logical, simple question, yet Alvis had never asked himself that. Right after he had found out that the barrier was made by using science and that Elise was the only one who could save them, the commotion had broken out. And after that, the killing started, and he didn’t even have time to think about Elise. But even if he thought about it now, how could he possibly guess her reasoning?

  He knew nothing about her.

  But that didn’t mean he would give up.

  “I don’t know,” he responded to Dane. “But I know for sure that Mr. Zweistein is the only one who can save us. And I’ll do whatever it takes to convince him.”

  Seeing Alvis’ resolve, they just had to trust him. After that, they discussed how they would act on the next day when the fighting for quests would break out. Alvis gave them valuable insights disguised as good guesses on what would happen, as he had already lived through it once. It took them around an hour to discuss everything, but it was worth it.

  “Take care of yourself,” Lia said as she embraced him. “Do your best.”

  Even though it was already long past the curfew, he would visit Mr. Zweistein now.

  “You too,” Alvis replied, gently stroking her hair. As he held her, one prayer echoed through his mind: Let this be the run that ends it all!