[5 points added.] [Current points: 5.] The instant the ancient sorcerer’s blood erupted from his body, a voice sounded nearby.
A strange, insect-like creature abruptly appeared and announced the result in a loud voice.
This was a Kogane, the judge responsible for monitoring the Culling Game.
Whenever a player was killed, it announced the points awarded.
Players who gathered enough points also had to use it to propose new rules.
In theory, any participant in the Culling Game could summon their own Kogane.
Since it had confirmed the points, the ancient sorcerer was undoubtedly dead this time.
There would be no second surprise revival like before.
Mayoru realized he had been far too careless earlier.
When the building collapsed, no Kogane had appeared, yet he had still assumed the battle was over.
‘I let my guard down too much.’ ‘Maybe I should use something more direct next time.’ It would have been a lie to say he felt nothing about killing someone for the first time.
The man’s blood had reversed, bursting his organs apart and scattering them everywhere.
The sight had certainly left a powerful impression.
However, Mayoru had already done it, so he had to accept it.
Even as nausea churned faintly in his stomach, he forced himself to face what had happened.
In truth, it was not quite as difficult as he had expected.
When he cleared out groups of cursed spirits earlier, some of their deaths had been just as gruesome.
Compared to that, Mayoru was more concerned about Kei, who stood nearby.
He respected the girl’s strength of character.
The Shirogane family’s enormous debt was no secret, yet she had still earned admission to Shuchiin Academy.
She was certainly not fragile.
Even so, the Culling Game had arrived far too suddenly for an ordinary person.
One moment, she was told cursed spirits existed.
The next, she was forced into a death game where people slaughtered one another.
Very few people could accept that immediately.
To Mayoru’s surprise, although Kei’s face was pale and her body still trembled, she bit her lip and controlled her emotions.
The sudden collapse of her normal life had not broken her.
Perhaps it was because she had already seen many corpses along the way.
That ancient sorcerer had clearly been no decent person.
The bodies scattered throughout the area were most likely his victims.
Otherwise, Mayoru could never have killed him with such a clear conscience.
He walked over and gently patted Kei’s shoulder.
One convenient feature of reflection was that it operated through a whitelist.
Others could not touch Mayoru without permission, but he could simply adjust the conditions whenever he wanted normal physical contact.
“Thank you…
If you hadn’t appeared, Konoe-nii, I probably would have died.” Kei first bowed with admirable grace, then lifted her small face to look at him.
The wind stirred her silver hair.
Having survived the ordeal, she finally relaxed enough to show a faint bitter smile.
“I never expected you to be trapped here too, Konoe-nii.” “Neither did I.
I certainly wasn’t expecting to meet someone I knew.” Truthfully, Mayoru understood her feelings because he also felt somewhat relieved.
Humans were social creatures.
Yesterday, his ordinary life had abruptly vanished.
Today, he was being told to participate in a battle royale and kill others to survive.
That was enough to test anyone’s ability to endure pressure.
Having a familiar person nearby naturally brought some comfort.
“I wonder if Dad is all right…” Kei murmured, unable to hide her worry.
“If he wasn’t beside you when this started, he was probably sent outside the barrier.
He should be safe.” Although Mayoru was comforting her, he was not lying.
The Culling Game automatically treated sorcerers as players, but ordinary civilians were given one chance to leave the barrier.
Before yesterday, Kei had been a complete muggle like him.
Her father was most likely the same.
Not everyone had the potential to become a sorcerer.
If Kei had not found him inside the barrier, he had probably already escaped.
Seeing that her mood remained low, Mayoru changed the subject.
He was also genuinely curious.
“Kei, did you awaken a cursed technique?” “Ah…
Yes.
I can sense cursed energy, so I think I have a technique, but…
I can’t seem to use it.” That was perfectly reasonable.
Both Kei and Mayoru had their brains altered yesterday and were forcibly awakened as sorcerers.
Before then, neither of them had received any training.
Mayoru’s use of Vector Manipulation was also a complete mess.
The technique itself was simply so absurd that even his crude applications remained powerful.
Learning to manipulate cursed energy within a single day was already proof of considerable talent.
Even Mayoru relied heavily on the fact that cursed energy itself could be treated as a vector.
Not every newly awakened modern sorcerer was Higuruma Hiromi.
For a complete beginner like Kei, who had only just received cursed energy and had no chance to study it, being unable to activate her technique was probably normal.
“But Konoe-nii, your technique is incredibly powerful!” Kei exclaimed sincerely.
They had both only recently awakened, yet the difference between them was like heaven and earth.
Whether it was launching a vending machine or collapsing a building with one touch, Mayoru had accomplished things Kei could not even imagine doing.
Her reaction was understandable.
However, her praise left Mayoru feeling rather embarrassed.
Only he knew how ugly his performance had truly been.
The ancient sorcerer had read the preparation behind both the stone and vending-machine attacks.
He had even successfully defended himself from the collapsing building.
Had the man simply turned around and fled instead of attempting an ambush, he might have escaped.
Unfortunately for him, he had insisted on charging forward and killing himself against reflection.
Reflection was simply too absolute.
The more powerful an opponent’s technique was, the more devastating the reflected counterattack became.
Had the ancient sorcerer not been struck by his own technique, Mayoru might have struggled to capture him.
Modern sorcerers aside, those incarnated ancient fossils were truly not to be underestimated.
Objectively speaking, however, the battle had still been extremely useful.
At the very least, Mayoru believed his next fight should look a little less embarrassing.
He had never considered himself a battle maniac during his sixteen years of life, nor did he suffer from any strange obsession with becoming a lone, invincible powerhouse.
Still, after gaining this kind of strength, it was impossible not to feel eager to test it.
Before doing that, however, he needed to ensure Kei’s safety.
Over the past year, Mayoru had eaten plenty of meals at the Shirogane household.
As long as it remained within his ability, he would not refuse to help her.
With that thought, Mayoru raised his gaze toward the sky.
Every player in the Culling Game was trapped inside the barrier and isolated from the outside world.
Many ancient sorcerers were roaming within it.
Mayoru trusted his technique to protect himself, but with his current level of control, he could not confidently claim that he could protect someone else.
Vector Manipulation was terrifying even in terms of raw power.
Its real difficulty lay in precise control.
The technique made killing almost too easy, but using it to protect another person required an entirely different level of skill.
Therefore, if Mayoru wanted to ensure Kei’s safety, he could not leave her trapped inside the barrier.
Escaping would most likely require adding a new rule, which meant gathering one hundred points.
One hundred points meant killing one hundred ordinary people or twenty sorcerers.
“So in the end, I still have to fight.” It was an obvious conclusion.
However, Mayoru’s thoughts became clearer.
He had returned to his original answer.
Rather than worrying about how to protect someone else with his current abilities, what he needed most was to become stronger.
“So I need to find my next opponent.” “Once I fully master Vector Manipulation and truly reach special-grade strength, I’ll finally be able to do whatever I want, right?” …