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“I still want to stay behind and help you guys!” Isamu suppressed his inner fears as he spoke loudly with excitement and idolization. “If it’s more dangerous with killing more players, will it be fine as long as I try my best not to kill them?”
“Logically, that should be the case, but I can’t make any guarantees that you’ll be safe just by doing that. Quitting the game is the safest,” Seiji told him.
“Quitting this game is only a temporary band-aid fix for tonight. That won’t free me from this nightmare, and I’d still face danger again, wouldn’t I?” Isamu looked directly at Seiji.
Seiji fell silent for a moment.
“You’re certain that you want to stay behind?”
“I’m certain,” Isamu answered adamantly. He then suddenly thought of something…
“If I stay behind to help you, will I be troubling you?”
“Of course not, you were a great help just now.” Seiji chuckled. “But, you’re still an ordinary person. Although it’s brave of you to want to risk your life to battle with us, this isn’t something that should be decided on an impulse… have you really resolved yourself?”
Resolve… Isamu felt as if this word was so heavy as to be physical.
His earlier resolution was already shaken. However, he soon firmed his resolve again.
He had resolved himself already. No matter what happened afterwards, he would be mentally prepared!
Isamu took a deep breath to help calm himself down.
“I’ve resolved myself… probably.”
‘What’s with that probably of mine!’ Isamu commented on himself after saying that out loud. ‘Why did I say ‘probably’ after such cool-sounding words!? That ruined the great impression I gave!’
Earlier, he had been commenting on how the angry demon mask boy didn’t sound confident enough. He didn’t think that, ironically, it was now time to comment on himself.
Seiji chuckled after hearing these words and sensing Isamu’s embarrassment.
“So you’ve only probably resolved yourself… Well, I suppose that’s fine.”
Being brave enough to fight for real was quite courageous already. He could understand even if the resolve wasn’t one hundred percent.
“Since you’ve resolved yourself, then I’ll be counting on your assistance. But as your resolve seems insufficient, if I judge that you shouldn’t stay any longer, I’ll be having you leave this dream immediately. Will that be alright?”
“That’s fine… Thank you, White Night-san.”
“I should be the one thanking you for being willing to help us. Also, there’s no need to address me with the -san suffix.”
“Alright, White Night… and Knight of Zero-san, please take care of me.”
“No need to use honorifics with me,” Shika told him. “Thank you for your help, Owl.”
“No need to be polite.” Isamu smiled as he felt that he had obtained recognition.
“Two people are coming over… They’ve been watching us for a while,” Shika stated as she indicated towards the left.
Seiji and Isamu looked there, only to see two people walking over: a fat man wearing a horned rat mask along with a woman wearing a half green and half black snake mask.
The fat man was actually wearing pajamas, together with a bulletproof vest on top. It seemed rather strange. The woman was wearing an ordinary shirt and jeans, also with a bulletproof vest on top.
“They’re Horned Rat-kun and Double Snake-san. I recognize them. They’re both reasonable players that we can talk to,” Isamu told Seiji and Shika.
“Hey, Owl-kun.” The rat mask pudgy man greeted them as he got close. “I and Double Snake-san both saw your battle just now. Could I ask what that was about?”
Isamu looked at Seiji, who nodded.
They spent some time explaining the situation to Horned Rat and Double Snake.
“Owl-kun is really so brave… I don’t have that type of courage.” The pudgy man sighed after hearing the situation. “I want to quit this game immediately.”
“Sure.” Seiji raised his hand. “Please relax yourself and try not to think about resisting, Horned Rat-san.”
“Wait a moment… can I really quit the game just like this? Nothing bad will happen to me?”
“Probably not.”
“I don’t want to hear ‘probably’, I want a guarantee!”
“I’m sorry, there’s no guarantee.”
“I don’t want to do it if there’s no guarantee! You’re saying that I can quit tonight’s game immediately, but it looks more like you’re about to kill me…”
“Horned Rat-kun, White Night is trustworthy. He’s a good person,” Isamu spoke up.
“I don’t believe in trusting others so easily… what proof is there that he’s a good person?”
“There is no proof. It’s your own choice if you don’t want to accept.” Seiji put down his hand. “It’s for your own good to quit this game, but if you don’t believe me, I won’t force you. At any rate, it’s your own problem if you die because of your decision.”
Horned Rat was rendered speechless.
“That’s not something a good person would say,” he retorted angrily.
“I never said that I’m a good person,” Seiji told him calmly.
There would always be people suspicious of others’ good intentions. Seiji understood this, but he wasn’t willing to explain himself to them.
“What about Double Snake-san? Are you willing to believe me?”
“I’d like to ask a question,” the snake masked woman said. “What meaning is there for the crow-masked person to do all this? Giving special powers to the players can’t possibly be just to add another layer to the game.”
‘But, that might really be the case. Kamitani seems like the type to do things just for fun.’ Seiji recalled his conversation with Kamitani.
“This power… the Mask of Sin… could it be possible that it’ll become usable in real life after it becomes powerful enough?” Something flashed in the snake masked woman’s eyes.
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
“How is that possible?!” Isamu reflexively denied this. “We’re all dreaming right now. It doesn’t seem possible that a power obtained in a dream can be used in real life.”
He looked towards White Night for agreement.
But, Seiji didn’t say anything.
“White Night?”
“…I don’t know.”
Seiji honestly admitted this when confronted by Isamu’s gaze.
“I don’t know if that will be possible or not. It’s impossible to say since there’s insufficient information.”
Kamitani had only mentioned the word “experiment”.
The experiment was regarding the Mask of Sin’s Sin Activation. Yet, Seiji didn’t know what the purpose of this experiment was.
Kamitani only said that people who couldn’t withstand the Sin Activation would die. Then what would happen to the people that could withstand it?
Kamitani even said that the person Seiji knew might receive “benefits”. What benefits could there possibly be?
Seiji was completely unable to deny the possibility of the Mask of Sin being used in real life once it grew strong enough!
That was why he said that he didn’t know.
“If you don’t know, doesn’t that mean it might be possible?” The snake masked woman became excited. “As long as we kill enough people in here, we can truly obtain the mask’s power and become Spiritual Ability users in real life!”
These words shook Isamu.
Become a real Spiritual Ability user? Just imagining it gave him an indescribable feeling.
“Please calm down, Double Snake-san. This is only your guess,” Seiji spoke in a heavy tone. “There’re many things possible in the world. It’s also possible that you’ll win the lottery right after you wake up from this dream, but the probability of that happening is miniscule.”
“That’s not the same!” Not only did she not calm down, she even became more excited. “It doesn’t seem possible that this entire dream game was created just for all of us to have some fun! There must have been some important purpose behind creating all of this. And, doesn’t it seem likely that an experiment to help ordinary people like me gain supernatural powers would be a possible goal!? It’s quite fair that people who can’t withstand this power should die. Obtaining an incredible power should have an associated price with it. I bet that’s exactly what it is… this is a chance! A chance to become a Spiritual Ability user instead of an ordinary person! The price is to gamble with your very life!!”
The snake masked woman even sounded rather fanatical.