*tok**tok**tok*
"Heavien, Author's here!" It was Rochevel's voice, so Heavien ran quickly and opened the door for her.
"Rochevel, there's a boy here in my room!" she reported the unforeseen incident to her.
"Huh? Where?" Rochevel entered her room immediately.
"Over there… huh?"
When she pointed out to Rochevel where the boy was earlier, he disappeared in a flash!
"Come on, they're waiting for us." Rochevel pulled her hand, and they ran downstairs.
Where is that boy?
He was roaming around her room a while ago while she asked him a lot of questions, but he just ignored all of them.
What just happened?!
"Author is here. Gather around," Brenille announced.
"Greetings, everyone, battle 7!" Author greeted them.
Battle 7?
"Battle 7? Aren't there six of us? Must be Battle 6." Trake corrected Author, but he's puzzled.
"Why did you show up today?" Seyah questioned.
Seyah is becoming more confident day by day. Just remembering what she did… Heavien can't grasp how gruesome she was.
"I was not supposed to show you myself when you're in the middle of dreaming, but I must when the ex-player revealed himself to one of you," Author continued.
"Crying won't resolve a problem, but it can lessen the pain."
FOURTH'S / ROCHEVEL JAVINENDO'S POV
What is Mr. Author saying? Mr. Author—that's what I named him in my mind, even though I don't know his/her gender or if he/she has a gender. He is now in the middle of the mansion's living room, where we gathered.
"Reveal yourself," that's what Mr. Author commanded. It seems that he is waiting for someone to show up.
I was a little baffled when I saw a man in a school uniform, and at my age. He has semi-blonde hair, tanned skin, and his height was just right, but a bit taller than my brother's. His clothes were a bit torn and dirty.
"Greetings, peasants!" he greeted us, smiled, and waved a hand. No one reacted. We just stared at him from head to toe. It might be rude of us, so I waved back at him and smiled.
"Who're you?" Brenille interrogated seriously.
Brenille can be scary when he is serious. We also talked about my brother's death. It still haunts me, but I have forgiven him. He deeply regrets doing that to my brother. I understood Brenille's side. If I were him, I could do that too if I were brave, and I knew he did it to protect me because we were partners. I stared at the man. He seems to be familiar to me. I feel like I've seen him once, but I can't remember where and when.
"Y'all too serious. What a bore," He held out his right hand to everyone. "I'm Thirzen (13th), the luckiest number! The one you thought had died when a giant dog rushed into the forest."
I-Is that him?! Everyone's eyes widened, staring at him.
"Thirzen will be the new player of level 3. He, fortunately, managed to survive the Neinuko scene and lived. He will be staying with you for the remaining hours. Level 3, which is the time level, will start after 17 hours. Mechanics will be given when the game is about to start." And Mr. Author, the hologram is gone.
No one dared to ask further questions about the next game because we were all astonished.
"I thought you were 'game over'?" Heavien asked him.
"I've been game over at another level and stage. But at this level, not anymore."
"But, when Author projected a screen and gave us number names, your profile marked, 'game over'." Heavien must be referring to when we were in the castle. Mr. Author has shown us a screen with pictures of us on it. The two who were thought to be dead have a big red X mark on their faces.
"That thing only showed up once, right? It's supposed to be shown on every stage once y'all clear the game. The system got interrupted because of the hack I did."
I noticed that too. Mr. Author only showed us that profile screen once. I didn't think that it was supposed to be in every game. And the reason for it is that this boy hacked the game system.
"How did you live?" Trake asked.
"I escaped from that monster."
Heavien followed up. "Is that why Neinuko's shadow made you scare us?"
Oh, I remember now. He was one of the first to die on this planet. It was Eleventh and Thirzen in level 1, and we even buried a body. But only the body of one was found, and the other was not found. Then the one body we've buried must be Eleventh's. Everyone thought Thirzen was dead because we couldn't find him. The boys did the task of burying the body, that's why some of the girls didn't bother at all.
"Hehe, yes! I did it to be a clue that I'm Thirzen—the one who appears during midnight. Y'all have forgotten about me, so I made my dramatic entrance by scaring y'all. It didn't affect others, and I was ignored... but you're the only one who noticed me." And he winked at Heavien.
Oh my, oh my. Is there something between them that the way Heavien interrogates, they seem to be close? Oh, was that the reason why Heavien panicked this morning when I went to her room? Then, he must be the man she was referring to.
"How did you survive and manage not to come back to play?" This time, Brenille asked.
Thirzen sighed. He must be tired of us asking a lot of questions. "I didn't come back because I envisioned that this game doesn't make sense. I lived by just hanging out in the woods. Don't you know that you remain in the same place when you play? The background changes, and your eyes are deceived into thinking you're moving around from different places."
Wow, I just found out now. I just recognized that he has a reddish-pink scar on his left arm. Seems like a big scratch made by a terrifying monster.
"You've been just watching us the whole time? Why didn't you play?!" There was a threat in Brenille's voice. His current vibe scares me.
Thirzen scoffed. "Because it's not required to play. You were just told to play, and you believed it. You put too much effort into something that you have a choice not to. That's all there is to it. Y'all worked your ass up to reach this level, but me?" he sneered. "Hmp, that was a piece of cake."
So, this is what he meant by hacking the game system. The profile screen malfunctioned because of what he did. If he means what he said, I don't think that's fair for us.