The surviving students were herded toward the sports field.
No one gave instructions. No one needed to.
After witnessing what happened to those who tried to leave, everyone moved in silence. Their steps were cautious, eyes darting constantly as if the darkness above might suddenly collapse.
William followed the flow until the running track came into view.
He slowed, then stopped near a lamp post standing at the edge of the field. Leaning his shoulder against it, he let out a slow breath.
From there, he could see everything.
Students were scattered across the field in loose clusters. Some sat on the ground with their knees pulled to their chests, whispering in trembling voices.
Others stood stiffly, arms crossed or hanging uselessly at their sides, faces pale and unfocused.
Many of them were looking at him.
William didn't meet their gazes. He could feel them anyway.
Some eyes held something close to gratitude—relief, even. As if he had dragged them back from the edge of a cliff.
Others were sharper, filled with suspicion and measuring.
He ignored all of it.
Instead, he focused on the environment.
There was no wind at all—not even a faint breeze. Sounds carried poorly, as if the space itself swallowed them.
His gaze swept across the crowd again.
Small groups had formed instinctively, students clinging to one another like debris after a shipwreck. Still, no one stepped forward or tried to lead.
'There is no leader.'
Maybe it was because everyone was still in shock. Or maybe the people who would've taken charge had already died back in the auditorium.
William noticed something else.
Several students were tapping and swiping desperately at their phones, their expressions growing more frantic by the second.
William reached into his pocket and pulled out his own phone.
The screen stayed black.
He pressed the power button again.
Nothing.
"Of course," he muttered.
The device was dead—completely unresponsive, as if it had never held a charge to begin with.
He sighed, slipping the useless device into his pocket.
'So electronic devices are unreliable.'
Then he remembered about the status window.
'Right. I still have my status window.'
The thought had barely formed when the translucent window unfolded before his eyes.
[Time: Monday | 7:49 a.m]
[Name: William Quinn]
[Age: 16]
[Title: Protagonist]
[Disposition: Two-Faced Character]
[Innate Ability: Regression]
[Quirk: Last-Minute Genius]
[Additional settings]
[Click to view more information.]
It hovered calmly in the air, indifferent to his tension.
William's gaze fixed on a single line.
'Click to view more information?'
He reached out and tried to tap it.
His finger passed straight through the window.
A strange sensation crawled up his skin—cold, sharp, like touching frozen metal.
A new window flickered.
[8 Purchase Points have been deducted.]
William's eyes widened slightly.
Another window expanded beneath the ones he tapped earlier.
[Name: William Quinn]
[Explanation: This character's name is William Quinn. William means resolute protector, strong-willed warrior, and determined protector while Quinn means descendant of chief, leader, wisdom, and intellect.]
William skimmed through the explanation, his mind immediately registering it as useless information.
'So tapping gives a brief explanation.'
Without hesitation, he tried to access information that actually mattered. The regression.
[You don't have enough Purchase Points.]
William exhaled slowly.
His father's words came rushing back in his mind.
"Son, remember this—nothing in this world is free."
"What you gain without paying a cost will demand a greater price later."
"So don't gamble, or you'll end up buried in debt."
The meaning behind those words settled heavily in his chest.
Maybe that was why he never got to live a normal high school life. Or maybe this was simply the price he deserved to pay.
A small voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Um… excuse me."
William turned his head.
A petite girl stood beside him, her posture stiff with nervousness. Light brown hair was tied into twin braids that framed her pale face, and her blue eyes flickered constantly, never staying still for more than a second.
She clasped her hands together tightly.
"Th-thank you," she said softly. "For earlier. When you… pulled me."
William studied her quietly.
She looked fragile. Not physically weak, necessarily—but mentally. The kind of person who would freeze when real pressure hit.
Not an ideal ally. Potentially a liability.
Still, William answered calmly. "No problem."
The girl relaxed, just a little.
She hesitated for a moment, and then, almost shyly, introduced herself. "My name's Lily. Lily Bennett."
As her name left her mouth, a new window appeared in William's vision.
[Name: Lily Bennett]
[Age: 15]
[Title: •••••••••••'• •••••• •••••••]
[Disposition: ••••• •••••••••]
[Innate Ability: ••••• •••••]
[Quirk: •••• ••••••••]
[Trust: 15/100]
[This character has an important role.]
[Increase the character's trust to unlock more information.]
Most of the information was obscured—masked by dots like hidden passwords on a phone or computer.
'Important role?'
William stared at the window longer than he meant to.
"…Is there something on my face?" Lily asked, shrinking back slightly. "Y-You're looking at me really intensely."
William blinked and looked away. "Sorry. I didn't mean to."
"Oh. O-Okay…"
An awkward silence settled between them.
William broke it first, offering a small, reassuring smile. "Nice to meet you, Lily."
He extended his hand. "I'm William Quinn. But you can call me Will."
She hesitated, then took it lightly. "N-Nice to meet you too."
"Are you holding up okay?" he asked, softening his tone.
She nodded, though the tremble in her hands betrayed her. "I was really scared… but when you spoke back there, it felt like you knew what you were doing."
Her eyes lingered on him.
"I just made a guess," William said.
"A guess that saved lives," she replied quietly.
'Or just delayed their deaths.'
William didn't say that.
Instead, he said, "I'm just doing what feels right."
Their conversation paused there, the weight of unspoken thoughts hanging between them.
Lily hesitated, her fingers still trembling slightly, before she spoke again, her voice quieter this time.
"D-Do you think we can survive this… game?"
"And… can people from outside save us?"
William didn't answer immediately.
He looked across the field—the scattered students, the unnatural silence, the sky that didn't feel like a sky at all.
"I don't know," he said honestly.
Lily's shoulders sagged.
"But worrying about that won't help right now," he added. "All we can do is focus on what's in front of us and stay alive."
She nodded slowly, though her hands were still shaking.
"S-Sorry for asking such a question. I'm not good when it comes to conversation," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"You're doing fine," he replied. "Better than most people would be."
Lily didn't reply, but the tension in her shoulders seemed to ease.
Then a soft notification chimed and a new window appeared.
[Lily Bennett's trust toward you has increased by 10.]
'So trust could be raised through interaction.'
Before either of them could speak again, a childish mechanical voice boomed across the field.
『"Attention, participants. The first game is about to begin."』
Gasps rippled through the crowd when the ground beneath them trembled.
Students cried out as cracks tore across the sports field, splitting the earth open. Stone walls burst upward, twisting and spiraling as if guided by an unseen hand.
In seconds, the field was gone.
In its place stood a massive maze.
Jagged stone walls towered overhead, dimly lit by an unknown light source that cast warped shadows across the corridors. The air grew colder, heavier.
"W-What's happening?" Lily whispered, her grip tightening.
Before William could reply, a wall surged upward between him and Lily.
"Will—!" she cried, her voice muffled.
"Stay calm!" he shouted back. "Just be safe, okay? I'll find you!"
Her reply was drowned out by the grinding of stone as the maze rearranged itself.
'I hope she survives. There are many things I want to test with her.'
The voice echoed again.
『"The first game is Hide and Seek."』
『"Participants must escape the maze before 12 p.m. while avoiding the seeker."』
The voice sent shivers down his spine, but he forced himself to stay calm.
Then a familiar window popped up in front of him.
[Main Quest: Hunt the seeker.]
[Clear Condition: Kill the seeker within 2 hours (0/1)]
[Success Reward: 50 Purchase Points, 1 Lucky Draw]
'So I have a different objective.'
Other students just have to escape while avoiding the seeker. Meanwhile, he has to find and kill it.
William smacked his own face.
'There is no time for such useless thought.'
He exhaled slowly and stepped forward into the maze.
***
The stone beneath William's feet was uneven, sharp in places. The corridors were narrow, forcing him to stay alert.
The air grew colder as he ventured deeper. The oppressive silence broken only by the sound of his own footsteps and the strange dragging sound through the corridors.
William walked for several minutes, counting his steps unconsciously, until he reached a crossroads.
Two corridors.
William hesitated, glancing between the two.
There were no markings. No light. Not even a difference in airflow.
Identical in every way.
He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to decide his next move.
Two paths. Two choices.
William reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin.
'I have no time for this. Standing still too long feels worse than choosing wrong.'
'I need information—even if it kills me once.'
The thought didn't come from a lack of fear—instead, it came from a faint belief that he could restart again if things went wrong.
His fingers wrapped around the copper coin tightly as he considered the options.
'Head for left. Tail for right.'
With a flick of his wrist, the coin spun through the air, glinting faintly under the dim glow of the maze.
It landed in the dirt at his feet.
The result was clear. Tail.
William took a deep breath, sliding the coin back into his pocket and stepping toward the right corridor.
***
After a few minutes of walking, the dragging sound William always heard ceased, and a stone statue came into view at the end of the passage.
It was an angel statue, carved from the same stone as the walls. Its wings were spread wide as though caught in mid-flight, and its hands pressed delicately to its chest as if in mourning.
The statue's fingers were long—stretching past where the joints should have ended. Its head tilted downward, face obscured by shadows.
William slowed, his heart pounding.
Something about the statue felt... wrong.
It didn't move, didn't make a sound, but the air around it was suffocating, like the statue was alive in some grotesque way.
He took a shaky step forward, then another.
The statue remained still.
"…Just a decoration?" he murmured, trying to convince himself it was just a mind trick.
He walked past it.
But as he turned his back to it—
The air behind him shifted.
There was a sharp, sudden sound, like the scrape of stone against stone.
Pain suddenly exploded at the base of his neck, sharp and searing.
William tried to reach for his neck, but his body wouldn't respond. His vision blurred as he saw his body collapse to the ground, headless.
The world went black.
***
[You have died.]
[Restarting from the checkpoint.]
This time he could feel the words more than see them. They lingered in the void, oppressive, final.
[Loading…]
***
William gasped and jolted upright, his body trembling. Both his hands clawed at his neck, but there was nothing.
No pain. No blood.
The maze loomed around him, the walls as cold and unyielding as before. The two identical corridors stretched out before him.
William stared at them, his breath unsteady.
He was standing at the crossroads again.
The checkpoint had changed.