A Deadly Game of Tag
“Nepos! Nepos! Answer my call!”
Han Mir shouted in frustration. Yet his panicked expression only made the already uneasy people’s nerves even more frayed.
“A high-schooler with middle-school syndrome, huh.”
“I’m not that bad either, middle-schooler.”
“Um, Mir student. Are you alright?”
“Tsk tsk, that one’s completely lost it.”
Accusations rained down from every side. Han Mir pursed his lips and glared at them.
“Haa… I didn’t want to say this, but he’s the hero.”
“Hero? Hero~?”
Kang Hyun-soo doubled over laughing, clutching his stomach.
“Puhahaha! Hero, hero! Where did you come from to save the other world? I thought the most useless guy here was the old man, but this high-schooler is the craziest bastard!”
“Hey, calling him a hero. Even with middle-school syndrome, it’s a bit too serious…”
“In my opinion, he’s definitely from the mental hospital.”
When they called him “hero,” the crowd treated him like a lunatic and furrowed their brows. Han Mir had sworn he would never get involved in anything troublesome after returning to the real world, but this time he simply could not endure it.
“Show me proof.”
He declared arrogantly, stretching his hand into empty air. His eyes flashed, he took a deep breath, puffed out his chest, and roared until his eardrums felt ready to burst.
“HELLFIRE!!!”
Surprisingly, nothing happened.
“Puhahahaha! H-hellfire, what a fuss, puh, puhihihihing!”
Han Mir dropped flat on the floor and rolled around, staring at Kang Hyun-soo with a deadpan laugh.
This guy will never help me.
The distrust and wary stares pouring onto him. Since he could no longer use the holy sword or magic, he had been labeled a delusional mental patient lost in serious other-world fantasies. It was pointless to keep trying to prove himself.
He simply sat down quietly.
People instinctively backed away from Han Mir, creating a wide gap around him.
No matter how hard he thought, it still didn’t make sense.
The holy sword was said to cross dimensions, so failing to respond to a call was understandable. But why couldn’t magic be cast?
Han Mir frowned and muttered the magic chant under his breath.
Yet no spell took effect.
It seemed this space carried an incomprehensible power that blocked both holy-sword and magic energies.
“Oppa, oppa.”
When everyone avoided the boy, a cute lizard appeared.
“Oppa is the hero?”
“…Yeah.”
“Waaah! I’ve never seen the hero before! Look, I’m a dragon!”
Han Areum spread her fingers like claws and opened her mouth, flaunting terrifying cuteness.
“That’s not a dragon, but a lizard… Yeah, a cool dragon.”
“Kwaaaang!! Not scary!!!”
Han Mir nodded with a relieved expression.
“Everyone!”
Clap!
A massive hand suddenly appeared in the air and clapped once. The single clap sent a tremendous wind pressure through the crowd, making their bodies sway. Han Areum tumbled straight to the ground.
“The mood’s a bit down! Shall we lift it again!?”
“Waaaaaaa-!”
An unidentified, booming shout echoed from somewhere. Han Mir scanned the surroundings but found no one there.
“Alright, enough jokes. Send us back to our original world!”
Lee Ji-han spoke with courage, the heavy armor clanking loudly. Bani tilted her head with a mad smile, then turned her neck a full 360 degrees in a grotesque manner.
“Oh? Back to the original world? Now this place is your world!”
“W-what are you saying?! Send me back right now, you crazy clown! I didn’t want to come here!”
“Shh, Teddy Bear. Too harsh language. Chat restriction for a while!”
Bani looked at Do-gwang-sik and placed her index finger on her lips.
“Eup eup eup!!!”
A bang effect sounded, and an X-marked mask was forcibly slapped over Do-gwang-sik’s lower jaw. He panicked and tried to rip it off, but the mask wiggled even against his skin and refused to budge no matter how hard he pulled.
“Kyaruruk! It suits you really well!? As expected, Teddy Bear has to keep his mouth shut to stay cute!”
Bani smiled sweetly and glanced at the participants.
“You all didn’t come here by choice. You participated in my game because you wanted pleasure! You chose it yourselves! Other games are all boring, so you wanted a truly fun game! That’s why I appeared before you. And you appeared before me!”
“R-really because of that game…?”
Kim Min-jeong muttered with a despairing face. The others stared in shock, unable to move. They could only watch Bani’s nonstop talking mouth.
“Yo! This place is a party hall of madness where pleasure-addicted fanatics overflow with hope, vomiting blood while playing! I’ll give you the true pleasure you’ve longed for so much, to the point of being horribly killed! So, who are today’s participants!?”
The lights suddenly dimmed, then flickered like before an award ceremony, repeatedly shining on the participants’ faces before vanishing.
Pa-bat!
The lights that had been moving in unison finally stopped and illuminated each participant.
“Cool Knight Sir and Lovely Teddy Bear! And the prickly Charm Dork Hedgehog Guy and the Priestess Lady with a dangerous smell, Dream World’s Mascot Baby Lizard, Gecko!”
Bani’s eyeballs rolled quickly and stopped on Han Mir.
“Lastly~ the unidentified mysterious boy! The boy who was thought to be a clown’s true identity is none other than the hero! The last participant is the hero himself!!”
“Waaaaaaaah-!!”
Bani still treated him as a hero. But Han Mir twitched one eyebrow, his expression uncomfortable. It felt like he was being mocked.
“W-what the hell is happening.”
Lee Ji-han brushed his helmet back anxiously and spoke.
“This smells dangerous.”
Kang Hyun-soo flashed a dangerous look and clicked his tongue. Kim Min-jeong clutched her hair in panic, trembling. In the middle of it all, Han Areum proudly declared her identity.
“I’m not a lizard, I’m a dragon!”
Amidst that, Han Areum demanded her true identity as a dragon.
“Alright, shall we start the game?”
But her opinion was easily ignored.
“Huh! Ignored!”
Han Mir realized he had no choice but to follow the rhythm and calmly waited for Bani’s explanation.
“The first game to play is the Killer and Fun Tag!!”
A man with muscles swollen like they were about to burst floated in the air. His face looked like something the creator had made, eyes and eyebrows at the ends, nose curved in an S-line, lips completely gone, dirty yellow teeth showing.
The screen showed the killer crushing people’s heads with one hand, kneading them with an electric saw, dragging them to the basement torture room, slicing their bellies open live, pulling out intestines, and wrapping them around their necks.
“U, uwoop!”
Kim Min-jeong couldn’t hold back and vomited on the floor. But her vomit disappeared in one second as if evaporated.
The scenes on the data screen felt nothing like a game or CG, but rather like showing the real act of killing nakedly.
“These are the appearances of the players from the previous round! Unfortunately, after the first game, everyone was eliminated. Boo hoo!”
Bani pretended to cry and shook her head. A person-sized funny tear picture was created from her eyes and fell.
Then, as if she had never been sad, she smiled brightly and leaned her face in.
“But don’t worry! This time there’s a special handicap for the beginner participants! If even one player dies to the killer, the game ends!”
“H-only one person dies?”
Lee Ji-han looked at the participants and said. Do-gwang-sik’s face was pale, Kang Hyun-soo kept muttering to himself, and Kim Min-jeong closed her eyes tightly saying this was a dream. In the meantime, Han Mir and Han Areum had expressions that could not be read.
“Yes, that’s right! Only one person! But it’s not that the game ends with only one person dying~ It wouldn’t be fun then? Your victory condition is to use the escape elements somewhere in this place to escape! Maybe everyone can survive? Kyaruruk!”
When mentioning escape, the data on the screen briefly showed cars, keys, underground passages, and other escape methods before disappearing. The people watching the scene were all the men except Kim Min-jeong in panic and Han Areum jumping happily.
Bani twisted her body as if she couldn’t hold back anymore and bloomed a sinister smile flower.
“Alright, good luck! Enjoy the best pleasure!”
Click.
Sudden blackout. But no one opened their mouth. Like actors before the stage starts.