“Not really”, River admitted. “I am the weird little brother of the popular guy. I’m gloomy and quiet.”
“I like weird”, Aspen said in an unexpectedly strong tone. “Don’t make it an insult.”
“Being different is bad on this planet”, River whispered softly, correcting him. “Humans like things when they are as usual, so they know what to expect and how to treat it. Humans don’t like different for longer than a short look.”
“That’s fine with me. I don’t like humans either.” Aspen snorted. He sounded defensive. “I will spend all my living days in a prison below the sea, chained to a wall. If I’m there anyway, I might as well live out all my different-ness.”
He raised a hand and curled it into a fist that he lightly punched against River’s shoulder.
“But if you plan to run, tell me, then I’ll ask the Gamblers to teleport me to you or something. We can live in some forest. I know how to skin and gut animals.” In all honesty, Aspen would be very ready to live with this quiet but interesting guy. He wasn’t worried about the noise.
“I did not need that information”, River said, his face revealing a bit of disgust, but the hand hiding in his sleeve clenched into a shivering fist.
For him, the kindest person in this world was a murderer.
That sure said a lot about humanity.
“We’ve been standing around for too long”, he said in a slightly hoarse voice.
Aspen did not call him out on it. He stretched his arms and took a step back. “Following your lead, Sherlock.”
According to the feeling in his gut, River decided to leave Bun behind and check out Skirt more. He had a strong feeling that she might be the main character this time around.
They lost her several times during the twelve hours, often left wandering around after the group of people had cleared.
Within hundreds of students, even her distinction wasn’t enough to make her stand out so much that they wouldn’t have issues following her. He originally thought it’d be easier once school was over and something like clubs started, but he still lost sight of her, all until the sun began to set.
Everything was ridiculously peaceful. Except for Skirt being introverted, he didn’t notice anything weird going on at all – very different from the past two games.
But when the clock was just before the end of its round, he and Aspen stood inside an art room. Aspen’s expression was awkwardly twisted while River was wide-eyed.
The creaking sound was much more eerie than it would be in any other situation. It was quite suffocating in the room that smelled like paint.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“P tjnf jyrbieafis cb lvfj ktja tjqqfcfv”, Crqfc rjlv, tlr fsfr kjcvfglcu vbkc ab atf abqqifv mtjlg islcu yfcfjat atf qjlg bo ribkis rkjslcu offa tjculcu lc atf jlg. “Pr atlr-”
-atf fcv?
Dfobgf tf mbeiv jrx, atf kbgiv jgbecv atfw gfrfa.
Ktf riluta vfijs mjwf jr j regqglrf ab Elnfg, yea cba ab Crqfc – tf tjv rffc atf rwjii aklamt bo tfg olcufgr atja reuufrafv atfgf tjv ralii yffc atf alclfra yla bo ilof lcrlvf tfg ktfc atfs fcafgfv atf gbbw jcv bcis vlfv atfc.
They shook themselves at having been thrown back into the safe-room during the reset. While they were still disoriented, someone next to them had already darted back outside, the door slamming shut behind them.
The third person – or fourth, counting the corpse at the ground – wasn’t interested in interacting with them.
…Maybe because of the corpse on the ground. That was a likely possibility, actually.
Like a wild dog spotting running prey, Aspen ran a few steps after her into the hallway. He only stopped when she started darting down the stairs – this didn’t seem like worth the hassle and River wouldn’t follow him on a wild goose chase.
Giving up, Aspen returned to River, who had likewise hurried out. The easterner was touching his head which was still a bit uncomfortable from the reset.
“Skirt committed suicide? Or was murdered and it was covered up?”
“Did you see a letter lying around? Or a note?” River frowned and rubbed his temples. He had been too shocked at seeing the hanging body to look around. Well, hanging Actor. Thanks to that, they were spared of seeing her expression at the very least.
“Didn’t see one, but didn’t look. Why did she hang herself? It’s a slow death. She’d suffocate since her neck wouldn’t break from such a small height.” Aspen looked out of the window. “Why not jump off the building?”
“Destructive suicide methods usually hint at some sort of anger. Letting people see, wanting them to be troubled. Many people that choose a method that leaves their body intact simply want to end their lives, without causing too many issues”, River habitually explained. “Of course there are always exceptions – humans can’t be explained that easily. But that’s the gist of it.”
“My random knowledge of the day”, Aspen acknowledged. “You think she chose this because she didn’t commit suicide out of anger?”
River shrugged. “It also might be that she doesn’t know hanging is a slow death, or that she didn’t care. Maybe jumping off a rooftop would have taken her too much courage. Kicking a chair away is easier. Let alone the fact that depending on how you fall, you might survive. Even above 20 meters is possible if you fall ideally.”
“Pills?”
“What if it was a spontaneous decision? …Don’t actually kill in many cases, just make you feel miserable. Increased heart-rate, cold sweat, vomiting, symptoms like that. Depends a lot on the exact pill and how high a dosage you manage to swallow before you start throwing up, as well as your own constitution.”
Aspen blinked his wide eyes. “Uhm… Pesticide?”
“Miserable, very miserable. And where do you think she’d suddenly get pesticide from?”
“But it kills?”
“Everything kills you if you take enough, but can you actually manage to swallow that many prescription-free pills or that much pesticide without a lot of determination? She acted very timid, like someone who wants to live in peace and without pain.” A bit too familiar.
“Hmm. Considering her death was the endpoint, does that mean we have to stop her?” Aspen blankly looked at River, his face lost. “How do you stop someone from committing suicide?”
River stared back and pursed his lips.
…How would he know?
“Solve their issues, probably. Keep them safe.”
“Permanently? For the moment? What’s her issue? How do we tell what’s the deciding factor?”
“Do I look like I know humans well enough to judge it?”
“Hey, better than me.” Aspen lifted his hands. “I’m the guy who kills people, not helps them. I have no idea how to make someone happy.”
“Why are these cases based on social issues”, River lamented under his breath. The little lady and her butler had been a different thing, closer to a puzzle, and he hadn’t needed to worry about things like watching out for relationships. It had all been quite clear.
Then again, if it was just relationship management, this game would be manageable. They only needed to find out which relationships exactly troubled her.
“Okay, Boss. What now?”
“Considering we lost sight of her despite trying our best to trail her, I believe we aren’t supposed to see her story in full. We might have to follow others around to gather clues. There should be something we can do to ensure she won’t be harmed by anyone.”
“How about Bun?”
“She…” River frowned. “It didn’t feel like she was bullying Skirt. If we follow her, we might be able to guess what she had been talking about with Skirt.”
A blank gaze.
“…You remember? When Bun stopped Skirt and said something to her, then Skirt ran away?”
“Man, that was hours ago. I wouldn’t remember an unimportant scene like that.”
River’s expression turned a bit offended. How could you not remember a scene as suspicious as that?
“Alright, alright! Come on, we have to get into position!” In a bad attempt to switch the topic, Aspen pushed River forward.
“Wrong direction”, River commented dryly.
He got an awkward cough in return.
Due to the setting of the Play, there was a constant switch between high-intensity scenes where people were actively running around and class-times in which nothing happened. Personally, he could deal with that very well – he just sat down and waited.
Aspen wasn’t as patient. He wandered around, staring outside or into the classrooms while pulling a face. “This is boring. Can’t they do something?”
“No.” River spoke with his eyes closed. “You can wander around a bit, or cut my brother’s corpse into pieces.”
“…Is that hope I hear? I’m actually not too interested in corpses. They don’t do anything anymore, after all.” Aspen plopped down next to River and groaned in boredom. He tugged at his top.
For once, River actively checked out Aspen’s clothes.
They were modern clothes, in no way similar to a prison uniform. At first glance they looked perfectly normal, but River noticed a thin line at the side.
Author’s Note
Google was very concerned while I was writing this chapter. There’s sadly no “It’s okay, I’m just a writer and checking info for correctness” option for Google.
Readers: Can’t Aspen just permanently kill off that guy???
Me: No I’m still busy torturing my MC
Yay!
Thanks for the update! This has become my favourite novel on this site. Love it! 🙂
Thanks for the chapter
I kinda felt the whole “being different” thing- even tho I’m not as different as Aspen and River i guess
~~please kill his family soon-~~
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
Dondon: I’m not as different as Aspen and. River
Also Dondon: please kill his family soon
in a singining voice jk
On another note thanks for the chapter
I love this story! Thank you very much for the chapter ♡
Ahah, feel the Google thing.
That’s why I’m doing all my researchs on private mode XD
There is a big difference psychologically between being rescued and saving yourself. The first may sound more romantic… but it is also very likely to leave the survivor perpetually trapped in a passive ‘victim’ self perception and also to have ‘normalised’ behaviours in others that most would not accept and so to fall into abusive situations in the future.
I know it’s your story so this obviously you can ignore to your heat’s content… but your level of insight, especially into learned helplessness, really has me hoping for a story that breaks the mold and has the survivor free themselves for once with Aspen playing the supporting role rather than the ‘hero’.
Thanks for the story, loving it however you choose to resolve things XD
Let’s say I have something very special planned for the matter of River and his family….. 👀
Have to say that you also really nailed autism with Aspen as well. Especially the sense of being amoung an alien species, the impact of having heightened senses and just how difficult that can be to cope with when surrounded by ‘loud’ and ‘bright’ normies, and how devastating it can be to find that no matter how you try to pretend to be normal it will never be enough and the huge amount of buried anger that can build with constantly being moulded to be something you’re not and realising that you will never be accepted as you are.
Yes I’m also autistic.
And it’s very common for autistic people to be subject to abuse either because our differences make us vulnerable to manipulation, draw predators, make neurotypicals uncomfortable or under the guise of therapy.
I don’t know if you intended for Aspen to be autistic… but your depiction is spot on. Especially how for us all social norms are arbitrary and they make no sense to us. Although most of us aren’t pushed to the point of a full psychotic break it can and does happen, we are no more immune to it than neurotypicals.For a long time I’ve wanted to write a story with an autistic MC where the character’s autism isn’t the story, isn’t inviting pity or understanding and doesn’t even necessarily even need to be stated, it’s just who he is… you know… like we’re real people lol 😉 Loving what you’re doing can’t wait to see what comes.