Chapter 8
+25 BONUS
I didn’t want to watch how D met his end.
The players wouldn’t spare him. Even if they did, he would be drowned by the ridicule and scorn once he left the
game.
I had already recorded everything and sent it to the only young man on the bus who had helped me stop Aleena from grabbing the steering wheel.
I asked Axel to give more food to the new players, so they could survive.
Standing atop the highest observation tower, I saw the ocean had turned black.
I should have guessed long ago who or what–the fourth boss was.
Axel’s raging winds, Aria’s thunderclouds, and Grandpa’s earthquakes were no different from the disasters unfolding in the real world now.
Then there were the mutated monsters and the radioactive rain happening in the game now.
It was nuclear radiation.
The fourth boss wasn’t a person. It was the sea.
“Don’t go, Heidi. Stay here. I’ll protect you, and you can live forever in this place.”
Axel embraced me tightly. For the first time, his voice was full of sorrow.
Aria didn’t know what was going on yet. She was just watching us, thinking we were showing off affection.
Grandpa didn’t stop me, though he couldn’t hide the tears in the corners of his eyes.
I had already realized that my mind–reading skill was actually just others reading my mind. Fearing they might try to stop me, I’d turned the skill off.
“System detects that you have found the fourth boss’s location. Would you like to increase its affection level?”
“Yes,” I replied.
Axel held me even tighter, as if prepared to share my fate.
“Axel, if you could leave this place, what would you want to do?” I asked him.
He froze. I noticed the tide swelling and the waves roaring even more violently.
He stayed silent, but Aria chimed in, “I want to be a bird. I want freedom!”
Right, staying in the game forever wouldn’t mean true freedom.
Axel and I had a deal. I would increase their affection levels and save them.
I turned to Grandpa. Tears streamed down his face as if he had already resigned himself to what I was about to do.
Not knowing how to say goodbye, he simply murmured, “I’d choose to be a tree, so Aria can have a place to rest when she’s tired.”
Alright then. Let’s begin.
