Chapter 99 (1/2)
Episode 6: Mafia Game / Chapter 99: At the Ruins (5)
TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk
A dark night. When he got on the elevator, the child tightly held onto his mother’s hand.
“Mom, mom, there’s no ghost, right?”
However, the mother didn’t reply. Her hand was unusually cold.
“Mom!”
The child pulled on his mother’s leg. His mother’s leg was cold and rigid.
“Mom?”
For some reason, he couldn’t see his mother’s face clearly. Like a foggy mirror. The child’s neck suddenly became cold.
The mother said.
{Do I still look like your mom?}
This was a moment that made people recall those ghost stories of their childhood.
“… It’s scary.”
A weak-hearted person eventually spat those words as he steadied his shoulders. The doppelgangers were different from any monster they had faced until now. They were scarier than any foe.
It was as if they were standing in the valley of death. They couldn’t see the ground, as it was covered by a thick fog, and if they took a wrong step, they would fall endlessly and die. The hairs covering their bodies were raised. They were suspicious that their comrades, who were protecting their backs, might be monsters. They were dismayed as if the ground they had always walked on had disappeared.
The colonizers were stricken with fear.
Still, they clenched their teeth as they began to question each other.
“What monster killed your grandmother?”
There were only two points that could be used as clues.
Confusion in their memories.
Reduced ability.
“My grandmother? I didn’t personally see it so I don’t remember exactly.”
“… Use all your strength and activate your karma.”
“Why, why are you like this? You know me! I’m not one of them!”
“Be quiet! Quickly activate your karma!”
“Why are you all like this? Are you acting like this because my fighting skills have dropped recently? You know me! It’s a commonly experienced s.p.a.ce syndrome!”
“Shut it! Your grandmother wasn’t killed by a monster but pa.s.sed away from cancer! Much before all this mess!”
“… Wh-what?”
Clang, clang, clang!
A plenitude of weapons aimed at him.
“W-wait! Don’t be like this! You! You’re the one that’s strange! You’re just trying to push me to a corner to kill me! I’m not a doppelganger!”
Panic obstructed one’s ability to make rational decisions.
Paang!
The person who started the questioning activated his karma to his fullest. His karma had become stronger due to the recent battles against monsters. There was no reduction in its capacity.
“You see it, right? Now it’s your turn.”
“Don’t joke with me… There’s no way you can pick out who’s a doppelganger by activating your karma!”
His words were true. The ‘your abilities will drop’ was only a statistic, a common opinion. When looking at specific cases, there were countless exceptions. There was no way they could confirm whether someone was a doppelganger by only questioning them and making them reveal their karma. If it was that easy, then the alliance wouldn’t fear doppelgangers. This was a matter the alliance had already thoroughly investigated and was one that Richard already knew. However, Richard didn’t tell them details like this. The game Richard had started was a cruel tactic where it would b
e sufficient to sacrifice 5 people to take down 5 doppelgangers.
Yet… It seemed they were right this time.
“Kuaaah!”
He didn’t reveal his karma in the end and slashed his sword at the person next to him. It might have been because of panic, but in this case, it only made the others feel stronger about their suspicion that he was a doppelganger.
Puscht! Slas.h.!.+
At the same time, the weapons aimed at him stabbed and slashed at his body, turning his body into tatters. Especially his head, which was where a doppelganger would reside, that was sliced into three to four times. Brain matter dripped. Looking at the cross section of his gray brain, which had been split into multiple sections… They saw the appearance of a bug.
“Euwack…”
Someone vomited.
“Lao Min… Lao Min…”
Someone sobbed. Then-
Blink.
Darkness fell. They could hear Richard’s voice in the darkness.
“Be careful of the darkness! Doppelgangers will look for another host within the darkness!”
“Aaack!”
Screams erupted all around them at the same time. Low level people couldn’t even sense anything in the darkness, let alone see, as the doppelgangers attacked those near them.
Some died, and others became infected by the doppelgangers while attempting to block their attacks.
The darkness cleared up. People’s faces were pale.
“Ahh…”
A more intense fear overcame them.
Just now, some were attacked by their comrades standing next to them and had become cold corpses. They didn’t know whether others were infected either.
“Who is it… Who is the doppelganger?”
Their comrade had died after being suspected of being a doppelganger, but the situation didn’t improve in the slightest. The divisions of 10 had instantly turned into 8, but their suspicions only deepened.
“I’m… I’m really not one of them! Alexei! Alexei! Split my head and confirm it! I’m not a doppelganger!”
A Berserker grabbed onto Alexei, who was patrolling as a member of the observation team.
“Nuna…”
Alexei looked at her with sad eyes. Although he was at the rank of a team leader, Alexei was still only a middle schooler. There were considerate Berserkers who were like older brothers and sisters to him. Even the currently suspicious Cao Lu was one of them. However, Alexei couldn’t listen to her request.
“Sorry, nuna. Just endure it for a bit longer. There is a limited supply of medicine, so we can only use it during critical moments. It’s not like the group vote is in, and they are only suspicious of you. If we kept using it for situations like these, then the medicine would quickly become scarce. I’m really sorry… It’s a guideline I received from the higher ups.”
He said this to her while tightly holding her hands. However, she shook her head.