The Culprit
The monsters wailed like children, begging to be spared. Well over twenty of them blubbering in unison was enough to blow out anyone's eardrums.
Han Mir's lips twitched as he mulled it over, then he glanced at Kim Min-jeong.
"What do you think?"
"Eh—eh!? M-me?"
He nodded at the startled girl pointing at herself.
"Yeah. In your opinion, should we let them live? Or kill them?"
"I-I..."
Kim Min-jeong's eyes darted anxiously. She swallowed hard and looked at the Anomalies. The instant they saw her, they wagged their tails like puppies greeting their owner, rolling onto their backs and putting on a full display of affection. The sight of those horrific faces trying to act cute drained every last drop of color from her face.
Unable to stand the agonizing indecision any longer, Lee Ji-han stepped forward.
"This isn't even a question. Those things are man-eating monsters. We only made it through this time because Mir was here. If it had been just us, they would have eaten us alive. Guaranteed."
"Th-that... does make sense..."
The moment Kim Min-jeong nodded in agreement, the Anomalies decided this wouldn't do. They slung their arms around one another's shoulders, produced an enormous broccoli, and sat around a table sharing it like a picture-perfect family enjoying a peaceful dinner together.
They really want to live, huh.
Kim Min-jeong pressed her lips into a thin line, falling silent as if lost in thought. The Anomalies swallowed in unison, hanging on the moment her mouth would open. And at last, her blood-red lips slowly parted.
"B-but looking at how far they're going... maybe it's okay? They've all switched to a vegetarian diet, too."
"What!? No—I mean, are you serious...?"
Lee Ji-han shook his head in utter disbelief. The Anomalies erupted in cheers, throwing their arms around each other and weeping tears of joy. Han Mir nodded, looking satisfied.
"Alright. Let's spare them. But their argument that they won't kill any other participants who show up later also has a point, so I'll be taking measures accordingly."
The festive mood among the Anomalies froze over in an instant. They trembled, swallowing hard. In their minds, they could already see Han Mir "sparing" them in the most literal sense imaginable — tearing off their limbs, yanking out their teeth and eyeballs, all while giggling to himself. Ashen-faced, they blubbered snot and tears, pressing their heads to the ground and begging him not to do that.
Han Mir grinned and pointed behind him.
"You guys get out of here too."
When the inevitable blackout lifted, the first thing that came into view was Bunny's incredulous face. She furrowed her brow, one corner of her mouth twisting upward as she glared at the Anomalies who had crawled all the way into the players' space. Dozens of them sat there waiting with blank, bewildered expressions.
And the culprit behind this utterly absurd situation was beaming straight at her.
Bunny ground her teeth, seized by the urge to grind them into paste and drink them on the spot. She bit her lower lip until it bled and held herself back. Then she clapped her hands, welcoming the safely returned participants.
"Wow! You guys are really something, huh!? You escaped again without a single person getting eliminated! But I can't allow you to bring the monsters that lived inside the game all the way out here~"
She said it with a smile, then snapped her fingers.
BANG—!
Iron bars rained down from the sky like a steel downpour. In a heartbeat, the Anomalies were locked inside a cramped cage.
"Wow, it's a zoo!"
Han A-reum bounced around excitedly, staring at the Anomalies behind the bars.
"So I guess we have to vote on whether to play the next game again?"
At Han Mir's words, Bunny's eyebrow twitched. What the hell even is that thing? A genuine monster that carved through Anomalies no human power could touch as easily as slicing tofu. She had no idea what to do with this creature wearing human skin. But she couldn't give up. No matter what happened, she had a duty to fulfill.
Bunny smiled brightly and nodded.
"That's right! We'll be voting again this time!"
"Don't tell me another 'no' vote is going to show up?"
Lee Ji-han said it with a piercing glare locked on Kang Hyun-soo. The boy who had been playing unconscious was already on his feet, pushing his glasses up with his middle finger.
"Would you cut the bullshit? Still playing politics, tsk tsk."
"Oh! The weird guy who face-planted into the wall and passed out woke up!"
"..."
Kang Hyun-soo looked away toward the corner, avoiding Han A-reum's eyes.
The vote went quickly. The result was the same as before.
FOR:5 / AGAINST:1
"Who the hell is doing this!? Fuck, it's you! You're pulling this shit because you're embarrassed about the humiliating stunt you pulled all by yourself, so now you want everyone else to suffer too!?"
"Ah, quit your bullshit! That's why you only crawled out of some no-name college!!"
"Mmph—mmph—mmph!!!"
Lee Ji-han and Kang Hyun-soo's feud boiled over, and Do Gwang-sik finally snapped, swinging a fist so plump and fluffy it barely looked like a real punch. Nobody knew who had voted against — but they had no choice except to play the game.
"This game is a hunt for the lightning-fast Thunderbird!"
No matter how strong you were, catching a Thunderbird that fled at overwhelming speed was a completely different problem. Bunny smiled, certain this was her trump card. And then—
"Kieeeeh..."
"Oh, this thing's feathers sparkle like lightning. Pretty. Want one each?"
The instant the game began, Han Mir launched himself with an impossible jump, seized the Thunderbird by the neck, and slammed it into the ground.
The vote that followed produced the exact same result. But this time, Lee Ji-han and Kang Hyun-soo's feud didn't escalate. They had realized a simple truth: no matter what game Bunny threw at them, there was nothing Han Mir couldn't clear.
"Th-the next game is the Winding Maze Great Escape. Find the correct path and escape from a labyrinth with no end in sight."
KWAANG—!!
Han Mir smashed every wall in front of him and sprinted, escaping the maze in under thirty minutes. Everyone else sat around chatting among themselves — except Kang Hyun-soo, who just sprawled out on the floor and went to sleep.
"...Th-the next game is, uh, well, a m-mystery game. Find the killer hiding in the village."
The moment the killer moved to murder an innocent citizen to signal the start of the game, he was spotted by Han Mir, who had been ceaselessly patrolling the village with lightning-fast movements. By morning, the killer was found as a cold corpse.
"Next is, uh, an eating contest..."
Han Mir demolished a mountain of food in under a minute. And when it came time to face the champion, the man went deathly pale the instant their eyes met, trembled from head to toe, and forfeited on the spot.
"Huum. I slept well."
Kim Min-jeong stretched with a satisfied sigh as she sat up. The terror that had once consumed her face was gone, replaced by something calm and peaceful.
"Hey. How about you just stop already? Honestly, you've been shut down at every turn."
Lee Ji-han looked at Bunny as if the whole thing had become a chore. Bunny said nothing.
"..."
She knew it too. Because of the cheat named Han Mir, the participants were going to win no matter what game she threw at them. Originally, the further the games went, the more the survivors should have been trembling under the psychological weight that they might be next to die — suspecting each other over every opposing vote, betraying one another, driving knives into each other's backs. Instead, their faces were only growing more bored. And Bunny's will, watching it all, was crumbling to pieces.
Han Mir sat leisurely atop the iron cage holding the Anomalies, wearing the most punchable expression imaginable.
"What? Not running the vote? Don't tell me you're already out of games. You said you'd give us the greatest entertainment there is — turns out you're just a liar, huh?"
Bunny's fist trembled. If it weren't for that thing — that damned monster — none of this catastrophe would have happened. She couldn't take it anymore. Recruiting the next batch of participants would be a far wiser decision than wasting time like this.
The moment she started to glance away—
"Kyaak!"
Han Mir's face appeared right in front of her nose. He had closed the distance without a sound, and the sheer terror of that face sent Bunny crashing down onto her backside. He grinned and flicked his tongue across his lips.
"Aah. That look on your face. You're dying to get permission from your master, aren't you?"
Bunny flinched hard.
"Wh-what are you talking about? I am the master of this place!"
"Back in my hero days, I got hit with this exact trick by a subordinate of the Demon King of Pleasure. No matter how many games we cleared, an opposing vote would somehow keep showing up."
"Wh-what are you saying right now?"
Han Mir flicked a freshly torn, still-warm white scale from a Human-Faced Snake between his fingers.
He snatched the scale out of the air and hurled it straight at the one responsible for everything.