Screams, sobs, girls collapsing to the ground, others running wildly, some frozen stiff in place...
The moment the blonde girl's head exploded, the classroom erupted into chaos, each reaction vividly exposing their fragility.
Of course, these were ordinary people who had never encountered a [Sacrifice Game] before, abruptly dragged into a heavyweight scenario like [Cursed School Rumor]. Mocking their helplessness would just be cruel. Takakai had no patience for such things—he simply observed the blonde girl's final moments with detached focus.
From the candle's extinguishing to her skull shattering—less than three seconds.
Takakai saw nothing.
When the girl stomped out the flame, when her head burst as if crushed by invisible force—he witnessed no visible anomaly.
No.
Not entirely.
Looking down at the extinguished red candle on the floor, Takakai recalled something.
Right before the flame died completely, something had flickered at the edge of darkness—there and gone with the light.
A shadow?
Was the attacker shadow-based? Invisible while candles burned, only striking when light vanished? With no illumination, its movements would be undetectable...
As this theory formed, Takakai glanced at Yotsuya Miko beside him—pale, rigid, flecked with blood.
Most of the class was similarly splattered when the blonde died. Takakai barely registered the gore staining his clothes, but Miko's reaction intrigued him.
She'd seen something. Before the death, her expression had twisted differently from the others. Whatever killed that girl—Miko perceived it differently.
CRACK.
Another explosion of gore. A second girl collapsed, skull shattered like a melon.
This one had fled screaming after the first death, abandoning her candle. In the panic, someone knocked over her desk—extinguishing the flame. The girl made it several steps before her head imploded.
This time, Takakai saw it.
A shadow. Massive, wolf-like, quadrupedal.
Because this victim had run farther, other candles cast both her shadow and the thing pursuing her. Takakai watched in clinical detail as the shadow-beast clamped its jaws around the girl's shadow-head—and her real skull burst in perfect synchronization.
"Don't let your candles go out!"
Miko finally found her voice, shouting desperately to her classmates.
But against twenty panicking girls, her warning vanished in the din. Within seconds, more desks toppled. More candles extinguished. More blood painted the classroom.
All this—within ten seconds of the first death.
"Silence."
Takakai's voice cut through the chaos.
A crimson glint flashed in his eyes.
The blessing of Hredal—overflowing with slaughter—radiated chilling suppression. Even the most hysterical girls froze mid-scream, muscles locking as if the air itself solidified.
Four students dead.
Their headless corpses twitched occasionally, still fresh.
Takakai dismissed the blessing instantly, surveying the scene with detached pity.
A Red Moon-class scenario.
Even among veteran players with supernatural abilities, this ranked as top-tier difficulty—the kind only elite teams equipped with speed enhancements, defensive artifacts, spatial manipulation tools, and perfect coordination dared attempt, and even then with high fatality rates.
And here? Twenty ordinary high school girls.
"Pathetic" didn't begin to cover it.
Creak—
Chair legs scraped floorboards as Takakai stood.
"I owe you no protection. Here, I'm barely surviving myself." His voice carried absolute finality. "Listen carefully—this is your only warning. First, guard your candles. When the flame dies, something kills you. You've seen four examples. Return to your seats. Hold your lights."
"Second, memorize the rule sheets on your desks. Follow them and you might live. Ignore them and you'll die horribly. That's all."
As he finished speaking, Takakai was already moving toward the first victim's corpse, candle in hand.
He spared no further attention for these coddled girls who'd never known true horror. Even the few smart enough to protect their candles—potential survivors—received no special notice.
Truthfully, in a lesser scenario—a Midnight-class, perhaps—he might have shepherded them like he'd done for that explosives expert Wang Gui in his second game, safely stashed in a checkpoint until extraction.
Lower-tier games had safe zones. Hiding spots. But Red Moon? Between the entity that had bypassed his sensory blessings and the maliciously worded rules, Takakai doubted this place offered any sanctuary.
Even talented newcomers would die here—except maybe Miko with her supernatural sight. This class was already doomed. Hell, Takakai himself might perish multiple times before escaping.
In his view, suppressing their panic and delivering basic survival instructions constituted extraordinary kindness from a stranger. Yet several girls glared at him with undisguised suspicion.
"You did this, didn't you?" A girl stepped forward accusingly.
"These are actors, right? Some sick reality show? My father knows politicians! Let us go!"
More joined the chorus:
"Yeah! You're the only outsider here!"
"What did you do to Xiao Li and the others?!"
"Open the doors right now!"
"I'll call the police—damn it, no signal—"
The accusations crescendoed into outright insults. Yet none dared approach—not after experiencing his oppressive aura.
"Takakai-san is a victim too! The Alice Game's supernatural—"
Miko tried defending him, explaining how the ritual's "make friends" mechanic had dragged him in.
But the mob wasn't listening.
"Liar! You're in on it!"
"Now that I look, Yotsuya-san's been looking exhausted lately..."
"Ew, doing that with an older man while still in school?"
Miko's fists clenched. Despite having only Hanazawa Hana as a real friend in class, she'd never imagined her peers could be this cruel.
A few voices of reason emerged—like Vice President Shigeno Rika defending Miko's character—but even these girls eyed Takakai with distrust.
"You... you all..."
Miko bit her lip, at a loss.
"Waste of breath."
Takakai, utterly ignoring the commotion, picked up a dead girl's candle.
Flick.
His lighter reignited the wick.
The headless corpse twitched—then lurched upright.