701 I surrender! (1/2)

After saying that, the silver-haired boy chuckled again and vanished in a cloud of black mist.

Something flashed in Seiji's eyes.

”Brother…” Shika looked at him.

”The more players one kills, the more powerful this so-called Sin Activation will be, and the more difficult it will be to withstand… this will definitely include ourselves,” Seiji stated as he touched the mask on his face. ”If we do as he tells us to, our masks will finally be activated in the end, which will probably be terrible for us. But even so, I will choose to kill all the other players to make them leave so that I can save them—that's what he wants to see.

”However, he's wrong. I'm not the noble type who will sacrifice myself and my companions to save others I don't even know. Plus, acting exactly as the enemy wants, sacrificing myself to save others, is the most idiotic thing in the world!”

The important part was to think and figure out what the correct path was here.

”No matter how this dream was created, this is still only a dream,” Seiji stated out loud calmly. ”This means that all the other so-called players are just dreaming. Making them quit the game actually means to have them wake up. And, this doesn't have to be achieved only through the game's setting of killing them. Targeting their mental spirits or souls or giving them a sufficient amount of stimulation should also be possible…

”Isn't that right, Yomi?” Seiji asked his bonded female spirit.

Yomi answered with a chuckle.

”That's correct. Nice idea,” she praised him.

”I've only learned the most basic soul attack spell. It's probably insufficient with only this spell. I need your help,” Seiji requested.

He had only recently begun learning about the soul, so he didn't have much knowledge yet. He had just barely managed to learn [Beginner-level Soul Attack].

Seiji didn't have the opportunity to use this spell back at the Bloodwine Ritual tournament. It seemed like it would be useful here. However, Seiji was worried if that spell wouldn't be too weak against the other players.

”Rather than having me help out, you might as well have Shinobu-chan try,” Yomi told him.

”Shinobu-chan?” Seiji was surprised to hear this.

”Although she's still really weak, this is only a dream. She'll be able to use her skills with your Mana's support. It'll be perfect as light exercise for her.”

”Will it really be fine? Will this hurt her in any way?”

”There's some minor risk, but it's worthwhile. It's just like how human children need to take risks about falling while growing up and learning how to walk.”

”I see… What exactly should I do?”

Yomi told him the method.

After Seiji learned the method, he talked it over with Shinobu. She was highly motivated about being able to help her master.

Isamu felt that this crow-masked person was the host, or one of the hosts, of this slaughter game. Isamu wanted to ask just how he could quit this game!

But, would it really be possible to obtain the answer simply by rushing over and pointing his gun?

That would be impossible… the crow-masked person was just like a game administrator for an MMORPG. Even if a player had the strongest weapon in the game, that still wouldn't allow the player to threaten a game administrator! It might even bring great trouble upon the player.

Isamu ended up hesitating and didn't act on his impulse.

The crow-masked person talked to the two powerful players for a while. Isamu was unable to hear them clearly, but it didn't seem to be about introducing the game's rules.

Then, a wolf-masked man suddenly arrived and attacked the two players with an assault rifle. Black mist then appeared and transformed into a huge claw that caught the wolf-masked man!

This was the crow-masked person's power.

It was so easy to capture an assault rifle-wielding player, so it would obviously be far easier to deal with Isamu, who only had a handgun.

Isamu felt quite lucky that he didn't go rushing over there. Yet, the next instant, black mist suddenly appeared right next to him!

Before he could even react, a huge claw grabbed him into the darkness!

Isamu was unable to even move or make a sound. Yet, he was still miraculously able to breathe and hear things.

Was he going to be squeezed to death?

He hadn't experienced such a death in the game so far. If he was going to die, he wanted the claw to hurry up.