"Traitors!"

  "Let's kill the traitors!"

  Their shouts filled the room. Faces of pure ecstasy moved like disgusting pigs, mimicking a laughter scene from hell.

  "We'll go down to the first floor and kill the traitors! Only by killing them can we live!" Harin shouted at the top of her lungs like the leader of a barbaric tribe leading them to battle.

  Some rushed to the kitchen drawer and armed themselves with well-sharpened knives and cleavers, some went to the chairs and tables and broke their legs to arm themselves with their sharp ends, and others took any objects or blunt weapons they could find.

  'I'll have them commit mass suicide, and kill the three wandering in the hallways using Yurim's 'Sacrifice to The Deformed'. After that, to atone for my sins, I will…'

  Harin gazed upon her hand that shook in fear. She had yet to use the skill again but just the thought she just had turned her as pale as a ghost.

  'I don't want to do this… but I have to… for Yurim…' The image of her horribly deformed sister came to mind whenever she looked at others.

  'I shouldn't have brought her here. I should have left her at the farm… with mom and dad…'

  "Um… But why can't we just break through the windows to the outside or something?"

  "?!"

  The voice came from within the riled-up crowd, Harin turned around to face it, and a short kid wearing the school's uniform paired with broken glasses came to view.

  'A first-year?' She thought.

  "Yeah, can't we just do that…?" And another contributed to what he said.

  'I just had complete control over them. What just happened?!'

  The red hue around their eyes was slowly fading.

  'Is it too lacking?! Do I have to continuously release it like Yurim?'

  +

  [You have activated the skill 'Otherworldly Mist'.]

  +

  She hurriedly replied with a stiff expression on her face and a drop of sweat sliding down her neck.

  "We can't. The school is closed by some magical-looking bars and nothing we have can break through them."

  "Have we even tried?"

  "We did. But if you still doubt it, we can always try again, with everyone watching." She said.

  'It looks like they don't believe it, even after experiencing it themselves. Well, it doesn't matter anyway, because having them despair at unbreakable jail bars while trapped with a monster should make it easier for me to control them. Permanently.'

  They looked at each other in silence, gaze meeting another, before nodding in unison.

  "Yeah, we want to try our chances with that."

  +

  [The effects of your skill are being resisted.]

  [Warning! Targets that fully resist the mist cannot be affected by it again. Stop the resistance before it succeeds.]

  +

  The blue screen she hated so much appeared once again in front of her and the unaware students.

  Clenching her hand hard, almost spurting blood out as her nails went in, she read through the lines written on it before she spoke.

  "Feel free to use whatever you want, in fact, do you want anything specific to use?"

  "Thank you, but I already have one of my own." He said as he showed what he was holding behind him, a metal hammer that exuded a sense of durability and power just from its appearance.

  'This brat… you can't just back down, can you?'

  And just like him, the other students held up their weapons.

  Harin spoke to the first-year student, a tag stuck out from his uniform's jacket with a name written on it was visible around his collar.

  "Then, let's go. I know of another safe zone, a classroom with windows this time. But remember, they're closed, so we won't be able to leave, either way, Jaesung-ssi."

  "You know me?"

  "I'm the vice president, I know my fair share of students."

  "Hmm… I thought only Hwasung-ssi cared to remember names?"

  "Most of us. We just don't show it as much Hwasung-ssi used to."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  'As if. I obviously do remember some, but I can't be bothered to remember every single one like he did.'

  Harin gestured to the path the students that had moved out of the way made.

  "Shall we go and get this over with now?"

  They followed behind her closely, led by the short first-year student, with their weapons in hand.

  The sound of metal clashing against each other and steps rang through the corridor as sweat dripped down their foreheads in tension.

  “Are you sure you’re going the right way? Should we be worried whether the monster would show up or not?”

  "Why, do you think I'm going down the wrong path?" She asked sarcastically.

  "I'm just ensuring our safety. I'm sure everyone agrees, right?" He said as he looked behind.

  Behind him were the rest of the students nodding their heads.

  "Is that so? Well, don't worry about it, it is the right path. How do you think I survived the monster?"

  "I see. That does make sense." He said as he followed behind her.

  His eyes, like the rest, were going all over the place. From left to eight, and right to left, their eyes followed the sounds coming from something moving in the vents.

  The ground shook under them as they walked, urging them to ask a certain question.

  "Are you really sure?!" Said Jaesung as he fell over to the side.

  "Just follow me and you'll be fine. We're almost there." She answered back at him.

  'The monster should be boiling in anger underneath us since it can't get to us. According to Yurim's system windows, it can't get to the second floor yet.'

  Remembering her time with Yurim, Harin clenched the air in anguish. The words they exchanged hours ago came to mind.

  ???

  "Don't worry, Yurim. Big sis is going to take care of this! We'll get back to mom and dad in no time!" She spoke while wearing a smile.

  A warm feeling radiating from her presence brought down thin tears from Yurim's beautifully large eyes.

  "Together…?"

  Harin looked at her little sister as she posed a question that choked her airways with thorns.

  "Yeah, just leave it to me!" Unable to utter the word 'together', she put her hand on Yurim's small head as she stroked down her hair.

  "Harin, here! I also got this small pouch and another screen not that long ago!"

  Yurim handed Harin a small pouch, as a system notification rang in her ears.

  +

  [You are trusted by 'Lee Yurim'. Their system prompt screen will be shown to you.]

  [You are now able to access 'Lee Yurim's entire system at will.]

  +

  Harin read through some of the prompts that appeared in front of her before stopping and looking down at the strange pouch holding beautiful, yet creepy and horrifying, marbles inside.

  The silky feeling at the touch of the pouch yet its cheap, common, appearance that seemed out of a game was unreal.

  Inside it, marbles glowed in a red light, similar to the color of the mist Yurim exuded. And inside said marbles, an atrocity was running loose.

  Disgustingly deformed beings danced in chaos inside of the marbles, the sight nearly made Yurim puke as even she began to feel dizzy when not so long ago she was completely unscathed.

  Ding?!! A sound rang in her ear while she was busy holding onto her consciousness.

  Looking up from the marbles, there was something else she had to care of.

  +

  [Your trust level by 'Lee Yurim' is at 100%. All her system prompts will be sent to you as well.]

  [Stage instructions have been sent.]

  ['Hope High school', stage 1 has finished.

  Number of kills by you and Rebertha: 157.]

  [Stage rewards have been delivered.]

  +

  ['Hope High school', stage 2:

  Rebertha, The Deformed, will no longer be trapped within the first floor of Hope High school, but she still cannot go into the safe zones.

  Using the stage reward, assist Rebertha from the inside of the safe zones.

  Objective: Help Rebertha harvest the rest of the survivors.

  Difficulty: A

  Reward: ???

  Failure Penalty: Death.]

  +

  [Time left until Rebertha can access the second floor: 05:47:31]

  ???

  Their steps came to a halt right before the door of a certain classroom.

  "Here we are. Shall we go in?"

  "You go in first."

  Harin raised her eyebrow and opened her mouth at his reply.

  "You don't trust me that much?"

  "Naturally. You've been acting weird."

  She scoffed at his words in ridicule as she turned towards the door, putting her hand on the knob and turning.

  Swish?! Harin opened it, but behind it was nothing.

  They relaxed some of the tension at the sight of empty seats, clean floor, and silence within the classroom.

  She went in and stood on the side before speaking again.

  "Well, why don't you try breaking out, then?" She said.

  Jaesung held up his hammer with his tensed muscle as he walked towards the window. There was nothing special about that window, it looked completely normal, even a bit rusty and worn down.

  "You said we can't break out, huh?" He stood there and took a stance with his hammer about to swing away at the window.

  "Well, why don't you watch as my hammer brings this stupid wall down?" His muscles tensed up and his grip clenched the hammer's handle with great strength.

  "I'm going to prove that you guys are murderers who held us in here just to be slaughtered for god knows what reason!!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as everyone else watched.

  His hammer smashed through the air and into the window's glass, he smirked even before the hammer could connect with the wall.

  'I'm not about to be included in your kill list, you bitch!'

  But instead of smashing down the bricks making out the wall and shattering the window's glass, it instead rebounded his strike back at him before it glowed in a blinding green light, revealing jail-like bars containing the entirety of the wall.

  "Aghh? my fucking arms!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

  The hammer that was supposed to bring a wall down, shining with durability and power, was now dust on the ground after a single strike.

  And similarly to the hellhounds, Jaesung's arms turned into ashes after one swing.