The cafeteria went quiet when Akira's voice cut through.
Akira didn't start with answers. He set his spoon down and looked at Ichinose's group like they were a problem he had to solve before it solved itself.
"What do you know?" he asked. Flat. No preamble.
"Everything from the first trial. Hints. Rules. What happened in your room. Say it."
Ichinose hesitated, then spoke fast, summarizing the pop quiz, the janitor, the 80-point cutoff. Ike kept interrupting with complaints until Akira's stare shut him up. Karuizawa said nothing, just stared at the table.
Akira listened without reacting. When they finished, he nodded once.
"Good. Now shut up and listen."
He laid it out without emotion.
"The hints don't tell you how to escape. They tell you how to survive _that room_. Each room has its own rules. Break them and you're gone. Follow them and you live—for now."
He tapped the table.
"The only place without rules is the black fog. The hallways, the cafeteria. No hints, no restrictions. That's why it's the only thing linking every room."
Airi caught on first. Her eyes narrowed.
"You think the fog is the real exit."
"I think surviving the rooms doesn't guarantee escape," Akira said.
"You can play perfect and still be trapped here if you never figure out what the fog is."
Silence. Ike looked like he wanted to argue but didn't.
Then the clock on the wall seemed to skip.
12:47 PM.
12:52 PM.
12:55 PM.
Time was wrong. It was lurching forward.
Akira glanced at it and stood immediately.
"It's distorted. We're close to curfew."
Ichinose's face tightened. "We need to stay together. If we split up before 7 PM we might not find each other again."
"Then don't break the rules," Akira said.
He looked at the rows of dorm doors visible through the cafeteria's glass.
"Take your door's nameplate. Put it on a random door near mine. As long as your name is on it, it's your room. That's rule two from the quiz sheet. The room itself doesn't matter."
Ichinose blinked. "You want me to… change my room?"
"Effectively, yes," Akira said. "It keeps us close without breaking rule one. Do it before 7 PM."
He didn't wait for debate. He left the table, Airi following without a word.
---
*07:02 PM*
Akira woke up drenched in cold sweat.
The dorm room was dark, the air heavy. His shirt clung to his back. He didn't remember falling asleep, but he remembered the dream.
Screaming.
Ragged, choked, desperate.
_"Third year! Third year! It's in the—"_
The voice cut off in a wet gurgle.
He didn't know who it was. He just knew it wasn't Airi, Ichinose, or anyone in his group.
Akira got up, changed the nameplate back to his own door, and headed for the meeting point near the cafeteria. Airi was already there, pale but steady.
At 07:02 on the dot, Ichinose, Ike, and Karuizawa arrived. Ichinose had a new nameplate in her hand—room 48, one door down from Akira's 47.
No one spoke until they were all inside the fog-free zone of the hallway.
Akira broke the silence first.
"I heard screaming during curfew. Male voice. Kept saying 'third year' before it cut off."
Ichinose froze. Her face went white.
"Third year?"
Airi frowned. "There's no third year building in this dungeon. Hint four said only first and second year dorms exist."
Akira's eyes narrowed.
"Then who was screaming?"
It hit him a second later.
The voice. The tone. The way it choked on the last word.
Ryuen.
There were six players. Not seven. Ryuen had been swallowed by the fog right after the first trial. That wasn't a warning to stay away.
That was him trying to scream the path out.
Akira exhaled through his nose.
"He wasn't telling us the third year building was dangerous. He was telling us it was the exit."
Ike stumbled back a step, shaking his head.
"No. No way. That's a trap. That's exactly what a trap sounds like. Ryuen's dead. He's one of them now. We follow that and we're dead too."
He was breathing fast, eyes darting to the black fog at the end of the hall.
"We stick to the dungeon's hints. We survive the rooms. That's the safe way."
Akira looked at him for a long second.
Then he said, quietly:
"Would you believe a kidnapper was trying to help you while holding a gun to your face?"
Ike froze.
Akira didn't wait for an answer.
"Think about it before 7 PM tomorrow. The fog doesn't wait."
He turned and walked away, Airi following.
Ichinose stared after him, torn.
Karuizawa said nothing.
And Ike stood there, shaking, as the fog churned like it was listening.
*End of Chapter 4.2*