They showed a different side from the ghosts who more or less ran the market, so I had hoped they belonged to the somewhat less intelligent kind, but not at all. After that, the game of Drop the Handkerchief went on, passing back and forth between the ghoul side and the human side, and the ghouls, as if by agreement, toyed with the woman who could no longer run and had fun doing it.
'It's a shame, but it can't be helped.'
That aside, it would be a problem if the people on the human side dwindled any further. This was a team game, after all.
The rule was that you won if more of you were still seated when ten turns had gone around. But only two turns had gone by, and the investors were having their legs eaten one after another. For all practical purposes, it was a failed game.
'Even if we can't win as a team, to survive I have to catch a ghoul at least once.'
Fortunately, it seemed some investor had the same idea as me, because the big man who got the handkerchief this time sprinted desperately to catch a ghoul. The man was a fairly fast runner, but it wasn't enough to catch up with the nimbly running ghoul, and after a moment's thought, the man pulled out an item.
"Extend 2 meters!"
The iron spear he had pulled out lengthened and pierced the chest of the ghoul running ahead.
There was a shing—! and the ghoul toppled over, flapping like a squashed mosquito before it stopped breathing.
"I won!"
The man shouted with joy, but Falsehood's snake wrapped around the man's waist in an instant and snatched him away.
[No. 4999, that's a foul.]
"What? Using items in the Colosseum isn't a foul!"
[That's right. Using items isn't a foul, but you broke the rules of Drop the Handkerchief. Killing is not allowed in this game. Drop the Handkerchief is about catching the one who is it.]
Every investor's face darkened. The ghouls, too, were keeping to the rules by eating only one body part at a time from each human they caught, never finishing them off. The face of the man who realized this had already gone so white it couldn't get any whiter.
"Th-that's ridiculous. I didn't know, so this time...."
[That won't do. You will be executed on the spot.]
"Ah! No!!!"
Falsehood's snake tail lowered the man, then lifted him high again and flung him into the middle of the ghouls as if feeding them, and they charged at the man, laughing.
"Aaaagh!"
Buried under the ghouls like a school of carp swarming bait tossed into a pond, the man couldn't be seen, and by the time he was visible again, only bare bones were left. He seemed to have tried to resist with the items he had, but because of the penalty, they apparently wouldn't work.
"W... we're going to die."
"Th-this is insane! This isn't a game anymore!"
The people who had fallen into a panic muttered and let go of the last of their sanity. I felt like letting go along with them, but I shook my head and pulled myself together. It wasn't as if I couldn't understand how they felt.
'What I've needed in the market so far is attack and defense items.'
Hardly anyone could compete with the ghouls and win without using either of those two.
Attack and you broke the rules; defend and, by the rules, you still had to have a part of your body eaten. Even I was half doubting whether the spare key's settings would work properly, my anxiety threatening to burst out through my heart, and those people couldn't even hold out.
CLICK!
At the shutter sound out of nowhere, I looked over at Kyung-jin, and he was capturing a ghoul sucking on bones with his camera.
"Good! Perfect!"
The investors' looks weren't kind as he zoomed in for shots, even changing his pose as he went. Nearly half of the investors had already vanished, but they knew Ahn Kyung-jin's behavior wasn't normal.
"You crazy bastard! Knock it off!"
An investor who had come back to his senses somewhat at his absurd antics spat sharp words at him, but Kyung-jin gave a thumbs-up and swept back his hair.
"It's fine! We will win! We Are the World!"
"......."
Anyway, having even one person winning in his own head wasn't a bad thing for the situation. I decided to think of it that way. About five people had briefly come to their senses because of Ahn Kyung-jin's behavior. Even that number was meaningless; at this point, it was no longer a team game but practically an individual one. Survive until the ten turns were over.
[Drop the handkerchief~ drop the handkerchief~♪ round and round it goes. It goes.]
When the ghouls finished their meal, the game started again.
[Drop the handkerchief~♪ drop the handkerchief~ who will catch it? who will catch it?]
A split second of silence came, and then Ahn Kyung-jin sprang up and started running. The handkerchief seemed to have gone to him this turn. It was hard to tell whether he was running or walking, but waddling along, running hard, he tossed the handkerchief behind a ghoul.
'Ah. He's done for.'
Seeing Kyung-jin drop the handkerchief from right in front of him, I covered my face with my hand. He had tossed the handkerchief so blatantly obviously that the ghoul caught on easily.
"Kyahahaha!"
The ghoul quickly got up and started running toward Kyung-jin, and I was sure he would die. If you weren't confident in your physical abilities, you had to excel at something else, but he had so many holes I couldn't even pick at them.
"Got you! Got you!"
The ghoul had chased right up behind Kyung-jin's back, and it was only a matter of time before he was caught. In that knife-edge moment, he shouted loudly and flung his hefty body with all his might.
"No problem!! Body slam!"
THUD!
The Colosseum floor rang, wooong, with a single tremor.
Kyung-jin, having shoved aside another ghoul that had been sitting there with his body, sat down in the seat where that ghoul had been.
'What the....'
The ghoul chasing him, Falsehood, and the seated investors were all equally stunned. At the utterly absurd situation, silence fell over the Colosseum for the first time.
"Me success?"
Success, my ass.
At Ahn Kyung-jin's question, Falsehood came to his senses and approached him.
[By the rules, this is....]
"It's not a violation! Isn't this how Drop the Handkerchief is normally played?"
At Kyung-jin's all-too-confident attitude, Falsehood's many snake heads fell into a panic and moved this way and that. He seemed to think it over for a moment, but then seemed to finish deciding and took up the microphone.
[From now on, this will count as a loss by foul. Everyone, back to your own seat!]
"Oh! Understood!"
[Then we'll start again from you, Investor.]
"Yes!"
It was a good try. Even I thought it was an ingenious method. It would have been nice if it had passed on to the next turn as it was, but Falsehood didn't allow it. Next time, Ahn Kyung-jin would surely die. He got to meet his death cheerful as could be, so I didn't think I needed to go as far as praying for his soul.
[Drop the handkerchief~ drop the handkerchief~♪ round and round it goes. It goes.]
The song played, and Kyung-jin got up from his seat again. Even as he ran, waddling slowly, the ghouls' eyes gleamed and they didn't let their guard down. And with reason: the ghouls had sensed danger because of the stunt Kyung-jin had pulled.
"Keuhaha!"
This time he didn't throw the handkerchief as obviously as before, but the ghoul caught it fast and ran toward Kyung-jin. Glancing back and seeing the ghoul following him, Kyung-jin ran hard toward his seat, which was still a long way off, but it was no use.
CRUNCH!
The ghoul bit into one of Kyung-jin's legs and started tearing it off and eating it.
"Agh!"
Kyung-jin fell about halfway there and screamed, and the ghoul smiled in triumph. Seeing that, I thought it was the end for Kyung-jin too. However.
RUMBLE—
"Kyeek!"
Fallen, with his leg being eaten, Kyung-jin started rolling his huge body sideways. Exactly toward the side where his seat was. Then the ghoul that had been eating his leg got flattened and squashed in the direction his body rolled, and started letting out strange groans.
'Wow.... A really creative... pig.'
He had taken advantage of the fact that the ghouls were as small as a 4-year-old child. Rolling over and over, Kyung-jin seemed to have picked up speed, because he reached his seat even while being eaten, and the squashed ghoul, which had taken about two bites, lay sprawled on the floor, out of it.
"Keuk! Huff huff. Me success?"
Once again, he looked at Falsehood for confirmation.
[Success.]
Falsehood acknowledged it. Kyung-jin became the first investor to succeed at the Drop the Handkerchief mission.
In the games that followed, the ghouls didn't go after Kyung-jin. Instead, they went after the other investors, the half who remained, gradually whittling down their numbers. It seemed to be the result of judging, after seeing Kyung-jin's way of playing just now, that it was better not to touch him.
'My turn is coming soon.'
Six people were left, including me.
The ghouls went after the youngest first, and women before men. They had changed their order of attack to fill their bellies and replenish their stamina as quickly as possible. Considering that everyone left at this point was a man, I judged the next target would most likely be me, with the scrawniest-looking build among us.
'Can I pull this off?'
Anxious, I took the silver marble a little way out of my pocket.
[Quest creation complete.]
[Quest in progress.]
[Quest active: Spend 24 hours with the Whispering Shadow.]
The anxiety hadn't gone away completely, but it was better than before I took out the marble to check. I had wondered whether Falsehood might notice the spare key's abilities, but he didn't recognize the key of Darkness, who outranked him. Also, when I looked up above the Colosseum, most of the ghosts, already bored, had left. It was the first time I had seen the Colosseum empty, but right now, it was better for me that no one was watching.
'The Guest ability is in effect too.'
Like Kyung-jin, I just had to stay alive. Making getting out alive my first priority, over points or anything else right now, I steeled myself and focused on the song.
[Drop the handkerchief~ drop the handkerchief~♪ round and round it goes. It goes.]
Before long, the shadow began to thrash violently. At last, in this moment, the handkerchief had fallen behind me. Not wanting to waste even the time it took to hesitate, I quickly grabbed the handkerchief, got up, and started running.
'My target is the Hungry Ghost.'
Slowly circling behind the Hungry Ghost, I casually lowered my hand to drop the handkerchief, but I ended up looking straight into the eyes of the Hungry Ghost, which snapped open.
Oops. The Hungry Ghost had eyes on the back of its head. I hadn't factored this into my plan; dropping the handkerchief behind a Hungry Ghost with eyes in the back was impossible. The moment I set the handkerchief on the floor, I would be caught.
"Whew."
It was all or nothing. Now that it had come to this, I changed my target to a ghoul. Not one of the healthy, energetic-looking ghouls, but the ghoul Kyung-jin had squashed earlier. With one lap left, I quietly set the handkerchief down and started running like mad.
"Hm? Kyahaha!"
It caught on in less than 5 seconds. A ghoul was still a ghoul, I guess, because it started coming at me at an absurd speed.
"Goddamn it!"
I still had a little further to go to reach my seat, but from the sound of its footsteps, it had caught up right on my heels. I had no choice but to speak to the shadow.
"Do what I told you earlier! Hurry!"