You Can't Escape, Boy♂
"Hmm-hmm-hmm~ Hmm-hmm~ Hmm-hmm-hmm~"
Humming to myself, I walked forward. As I reached the center of the map, the sound of a survivor's footsteps began to reach my ears.
Listening to those footsteps, I started singing once again.
A song that surely lingered in everyone's childhood memories.
"Hide~ and~ seek~ I can see your hair~"
"Hide~ and~ seek~ I can see your head~"
"I can see your head~ about to be pierced by my knife~"
"Hide and seek~ I'll find you anyway, so just come out and die quietly~"
The viewers reacted instantly to my bizarrely twisted version of the song.
Spurred on by the viewers' enthusiastic reactions, I walked slowly toward the source of the sound.
And then, I saw it.
'ViniVini'
ViniVini. Lee Yebin, that is.
"You can't escape, Boy~!!!"
"You crazy psycho! I'm a girl! I'm not a boy!!"
"If you're not a boy, then what are you, a girl? Come on, Boy~♂"
"Has this bastard completely lost his mind...?!"
If you're a girl, I'll eat my hat.
You, a girl? That's about as likely as me donating a thousand dollars to your stream.
I immediately started chucking knives at Yebin.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Stumble!
"Kyaaa?!"
"Okay, that's one hit!"
For the Trickster, landing six knives counts as one basic attack hit.
And if you land enough to count as two hits, you can down the survivor.
"Get over here!"
"Get the hell away from me, you crazy pervert!!!"
Why was it so fun to hear Yebin scream? Why did it bring me such joy to see her terrified of me?
Was I actually a monster who fed on Yebin's misery? Honestly, there was no other logical explanation.
Indulging in these bizarre reflections, I kept spamming knives at her.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The knives flew in rapid succession. She tried to juke and dodge, bless her heart.
But every single knife found its mark, and Yebin finally collapsed to the ground.
"Heyyyyyy!"
"Yes? What seems to be the problem?"
"Give me a break just this once!"
She was so shameless it was almost dumbfounding.
"Give you a break?"
"Yeah!"
"Are you out of your mind, Boy?"
"Call me a girl, you lunatic."
"Screw~ you~"
"I seriously hate you so much."
With Yebin's final grumble, I hoisted her onto my shoulder.
"Now~ which hook shall we go to~ Should we head to the basement~?"
"You are seriously out of your mind!"
"Welcome to the basement~"
I carried Yebin toward the basement.
To put it simply, the basement is the hardest place for a survivor to escape from.
Why?
Because it refers to the underground cellar of the shack, which has only one entrance and exit.
I was planning to lock Yebin away down there.
But then...
Stab!
"Ugh...!"
Yebin successfully pulled off a Decisive Strike.
To put it simply, Decisive Strike is a perk that allows a survivor carried by the killer to escape. Lore-wise, the survivor stabs the killer with a pocket knife to create a brief opening and run away.
That's why it's nicknamed "the stab."
"Oho~ Decisive Strike?"
"Kyaaaa! Save me! Somebody save me! Marty! Ggumyong! Aris!!"
As Yebin fled, screaming every name she could think of, I yelled back with absolute confidence.
"Ggumyong already sold you out!! You've been traded!"
"Stop lying, you jerk!!"
"But I'm not lying..."
"Don't act cute, it's freaking disgusting!!!"
Hearing Yebin's rage-filled voice made me feel strangely good.
At the same time, I think I finally understood why Yebin occasionally pulled that disgusting aegyo. If someone reacted like that, even I would be tempted to act cute just to annoy them.
Maybe it was because I had successfully mirrored her disgusting tactics, but my mood doubled. So, riding this high...
"Time to die!!"
"Kyaaaaa!!!"
I had to kill her again.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Since Yebin hadn't healed yet, I only needed to land six knives.
But then...
Thud-thud!
Thud!
Someone suddenly jumped in the way.
The person who bodyblocked was none other than...
"Aris?!"
"Vini, run!"
"Ah... okay!!"
It was Aris.
"Hey now, Aris. Is this allowed?"
"I don't make a habit of turning a blind eye to domestic violence."
"It's not domestic violence, it's just regular violence."
"Ah, should I have just ignored it then?"
Watching Aris reply so shamelessly, I decided to switch targets.
It seemed like taking Aris out of the equation first would make things easier.
I headed to a locker to reload my knives.
Aris had run away in the meantime, but I could guarantee one thing: Aris would definitely protect Yebin.
Since they were an experienced player, they knew that keeping Yebin alive was the key to victory.
Why?
Because as long as I kept tunneling Yebin, keeping her alive as long as possible would buy the other survivors time to find the hatch key and escape.
In that case... wouldn't it be better to get rid of Aris first, or go target someone else entirely?
My goal was to kill Yebin, but "killing only Yebin" meant "making sure Yebin dies no matter what," not that I would let the others go free.
"...Since Aris is being annoying, taking them out first sounds like a plan."
Aris was a streamer famous on Peonchi for being good at games—specifically, variety gaming.
Since I had declared war on such a player, the viewers watched the stream with bated breath.
Good. Now that the rivalry narrative was set...
"Let's do this~"
Time to hunt down Aris first.
Trying to protect Yebin? That's a capital offense.
Aris, who had saved me, approached me again.
They began healing me and asked,
"Vini, are you okay?"
"Yes, thank you... That crazy bastard is only targeting me..."
When I complained in a voice dripping with injustice, Aris replied calmly.
"Vini, Dodo is probably going to tunnel you the entire game."
"Probably. That dirty, rotten pervert..."
"Pfft... You two must be really close."
"What...?! No, we're not! Absolutely not!?"
Me, close with him? Did I have a different definition of the word "close"?
While I was questioning the dictionary definition of the word, Aris got straight to the point.
"I'll protect you, Vini."
"Me?"
"Yes. Just like earlier, I'll take some of the knife hits for you, and use pallets or flashlights to blind him. I'll do my best to keep you alive. If we do that, we'll definitely win."
"But his aim is way too good..."
I had tried my best to juke, but he predicted all my movements and landed every single knife. Honestly, it felt like hitting a brick wall.
He had a reputation for being good at games among the guys back in school, and he really was skilled. Which only made it more annoying.
"It's fine. If it were a killer with one-shot potential like the Huntress, or someone with crazy chase power like the Ghoul, it would be impossible. But we can manage against the Trickster."
Aris's explanation was simple. By taking hits for me and using flashlights, we could easily counter him.
Feeling a surge of hope, I spoke cheerfully.
"Okay...! I'm counting on you...!"
"Just scream if the Trickster shows up. I'll run over to help."
As I replied, I couldn't help but think how cool Aris was. Even though we were both girls, I felt like I was falling for them.
I didn't know what they looked like in real life, but if we met, they'd probably be like a prince charming.
I was lost in those thoughts when...
"Wait, he's targeting me here?!"
"Aris~? You have to pay the price for interfering, don't you?"
Do Gyeong, that crazy psycho, had downed Aris first instead of me.
Taking hits for someone only works if the killer is chasing the other person. The moment Do Gyeong ignored me and tunneled Aris, bodyblocking became useless.
As a result of Do Gyeong switching targets, Aris was the one who ended up on the ground.
Do Gyeong immediately hooked Aris on a nearby hook, and I watched the whole thing unfold.
"Hmm-hmm-hmm~ Hide~ and~ seek~ I'll pierce your head~"
Singing that creepy, perverted song, Do Gyeong walked away. I carefully checked my surroundings before running over to Aris.
"Aris, I'm here to save you...!"
"Ah, thank you... He's really unpredictable..."
Unpredictable was an understatement. He said he was only going to kill me, so I never expected him to suddenly switch targets to Aris.
I couldn't understand him, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
If he was going to target someone, he should have just stuck to me. Why go after Aris? It was just annoying. Everything about this was annoying.
"Aris, let's go look for the key again."
"Okay. But I don't think I can protect you anymore."
At Aris's words, I moved my mouse to make my character nod.
"It's fine. If he's not just targeting me anyway, there's no reason for you to protect me."
Right. If he wasn't tunneling only me, there was no point in Aris protecting me. He could just kill Aris first like he did just now.
A few minutes after parting ways with Aris...
...News arrived that Ggumyong and Marty had been caught back-to-back.
Seriously, how did he even pull that off? Do Gyeong, you absolute psycho.