Two candidates—a boy and a girl—carefully snuck into the first floor of Examination Room No. 1.
By this point, most of the surviving players had gathered near the school gate. The rest of the campus was eerily quiet.
"Are you sure there's no danger here?" the boy asked, glancing around nervously.
"Jason said this place is safe," the girl replied with confidence. "If he says it, then it has to be true."
She directed him to begin setting up the equipment they had brought.
The boy nodded, reassured. "You didn't mishear him, right?"
The girl bent down to help with the installation.
"I heard him clearly. Jason's the only one we can trust."
Their eyes met, and in that brief moment, determination and blind faith passed silently between them.
---
Meanwhile, over at Teaching Building No. 2, the young representative led another boy into the corridor.
They, too, were carefully positioning what looked like wires and devices.
"Are you sure this is okay...?" the boy asked after connecting another wire.
The young representative, as always, wore a blank expression.
But in his eyes, a strange spark of hope gleamed.
"I believe in Jason," he said softly, almost to himself.
Soon after, he threw himself fully into the task.
"Hurry up. We still need to reach the other exam rooms before time runs out."
The boy straightened up, fumbling with the equipment. "Oh—right! On it!"
---
Elsewhere, Lucas stood alone in a dim hallway, having separated from the others.
He paused before a door marked: "Broadcast Room."
"So this is the place…"
Ever since the beginning of the test, the school-wide intercom had been active—announcing player deaths and deductions in real time.
To Lucas, that kind of access to information was too valuable to ignore.
"This broadcast station… isn't ordinary."
As if to prove his point, the announcement echoed once again:
"Candidate Mark of Room 3222 has died. Ten points will be deducted."
Lucas's eyes narrowed.
"Room 3222 again…"
Boom!
Without hesitation, Lucas kicked open the door to the broadcasting station.
The broadcast instantly went silent.
Inside the room: no one.
A microphone sat alone on the table—its head twisting slowly toward the door as though it had a mind of its own.
Then, just as slowly, it swiveled back, falling motionless.
[Broadcast Microphone: Low-level Danger]
Lucas raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? Playing dead, are we?"
---
Back at the school gate, the tense chatter ceased.
Even Blue Kill turned his head toward the school building, his brows furrowed slightly.
"What happened to the radio?"
"How come the announcements stopped?"
"Now we won't know if our teammates made it…"
Confusion spread through the crowd.
---
In the Dean's Office, chaos was erupting.
"What do you mean you lost him?!"
If the dean had any legs left, he would've leapt out of his chair in fury.
A faceless invigilator tried to explain.
"Jason separated from the rest unexpectedly. We tried to follow him but—"
"Spare me the excuses!"
A cold sweat trickled down the invigilator's back.
The dean stared out the window, dread beginning to crawl up his spine.
Then—
The broadcast system stopped completely.
Silence fell across the entire school.
Seconds passed.
Then minutes.
But the broadcast never resumed.
The dean's frown deepened.
"What the hell is going on…?"
---
Back in the radio room, Lucas gripped the microphone.
He yanked it off its mount with a powerful twist.
It felt… ordinary. Just metal and wires.
But Lucas knew what he saw. That microphone had moved on its own.
He narrowed his eyes.
"Are you… alive?" he asked.
The microphone didn't respond.
Lucas smiled and pulled out his kitchen knife.
The moment he did—
The microphone let out a piercing, mechanical scream.
Its flat, female voice warped and glitched:
"Warning! Warning! Do not damage school property during the exam!"
---
"Warning! Warning! Do not damage school property during the exam!"
"Warning! Warning! Do not damage school property during the exam!"
"Warn——!"
Then suddenly—
BOOM!
The broadcasting equipment exploded, shaking the entire building.
Candidates across campus flinched in shock.
"What the hell was that?!"
"The broadcast station just blew up??"
"Why does the system care so much about public property?"
Even Blue Kill, who had long doubted the system's motives, was taken aback.
Still, he remained calm.
"As long as it doesn't stop me from completing the main mission, it's not my concern."
Creeeeak—
A grating, skin-crawling sound echoed from the radio building.
Then…
Silence.
Total silence.
All eyes turned to the direction of the noise.
Suddenly—
Zzzhhht—
A crackle of static.
Then, a voice.
"Testing, testing… can everyone hear me?"
No one responded. Dozens of candidates stared at the speakers in stunned silence.
The voice continued:
"If you can hear me, good."
"Because I have something very special to give you all today…"
"——A truly magnificent gift!"
Blue Kill's expression darkened slightly.
Others began to murmur anxiously.
In the Dean's Office, the dean's face twisted with rage.
He slammed his fist down, cracking the brand-new hardwood desk.
"The radio station—GET ME THERE NOW!"
---
Back on the radio:
Lucas's voice rang out again.
"No need for a long speech."
"This gift will speak for itself."
He clicked a small remote in his hand, spinning it thoughtfully between his fingers.
"Get ready for the most visually stunning moment of your exam."
"Brace yourselves and enjoy—"
Zzzhhht—
The audio feed cut out.
In the dean's office, the old man grabbed his cane and stood shakily.
He took one step toward the door and muttered, "What is that brat planning—"
Then the ground trembled.
A low rumble shook the walls.
"What the...?"
BOOM!!!
A cataclysmic explosion rocked the entire campus.
The dean's world went black as the shockwave threw him off balance.
All around the school…
Every single teaching building exploded—simultaneously.
The glass windows shattered into deadly fragments.
Concrete and debris rained down from the sky.
Fire, smoke, and chaos erupted like a storm.
Lucas's "gift" had arrived.
---
The school… was in ruins.
---
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