“Ha….”
The sky stained gray was so beautiful it made me feel nauseous.
There was no one who could answer why the world had turned out this way.
Most of humanity was dead anyway.
Things like TVs or computers were completely unusable in this world.
There were no convenient preserved foods, no cozy beds to sleep in, and no clothes that fit the seasons.
In this world, I was just trying to survive.
“Lucky me.”
The pit I stumbled upon contained a shotgun.
A naked human is frighteningly weak; without weapons, you couldn’t even go hunting.
Even wild boars, once mere food, would almost certainly kill a bare-handed human on impact.
How fragile life truly was.
Yet such fragile beings once ruled this Earth.
It’s utterly surprising.
“Hmm….”
Fortunately, the shotgun functioned without any issues.
The trigger was just a bit rusty and stiff; nothing more.
It was still completely usable.
Clank, clank—
Suddenly, I heard the sound of hooves approaching from the left.
“…Damn.”
The sound wasn’t particularly loud, but I cursed quietly and hid behind a rock.
If it was just a horse coming this way, that wouldn’t be a problem at all.
After all, horses don’t just charge at you for no reason, and besides the shotgun, I had a rifle I brought just in case.
However, if the sound belonged to a human riding a horse, and it wasn’t someone from my faction, things would get very tricky.
I’d be better off as the last survivor in this ruined world.
But I wasn’t the only human left alive in this world.
And humans, when it comes to survival, become more ruthless than anything else.
The moment the protection of laws vanished and survival wasn’t guaranteed, how many people fell to their deaths?
The fact that I survived was purely down to luck.
Clank, clank—
The sound of hooves was now close enough that peeking out from behind the rock would reveal its identity.
Should I continue hiding?
While horses are typically a means of transportation, in emergencies, they can be used as food too.
So when survivor groups formed, securing horses was usually a top priority.
“Could it be, them…?”
I uttered that hope but shook my head immediately.
I had come out here on my own accord today.
More importantly, the direction we were patrolling today was the exact opposite of this place.
There would be no way they’d ride over here.
The probability was 50%. If I succeeded, I’d hit the jackpot, but if I failed, I might die.
Of course, I could just wait for the sound of hooves to pass, but for some reason, I didn’t want to do that.
“Phew….”
I quietly sighed and raised my head above the rock.
What I saw was—
Clank, clank—
A wild horse, with no one on its back and without a saddle.
In other words, I had won the gamble. A jackpot, indeed.
“Huuh…”
I steadied my breath and took out my rifle, aiming it at the horse.
Of course, I had no intention of shooting it dead.
I just wanted to fire in front of it, to startle it into stopping.
No matter how fast I ran, I couldn’t catch up to a horse.
As I aimed the barrel far ahead and was about to pull the trigger—
“I found you—”
I thought I heard that voice.
“…Huh?”
What was that?
I couldn’t breathe.
Before I knew it, my vision turned a deep red and began to blur.
As my gun, aimed at the ground, fell, a clank echoed.
No, it would have echoed.
I didn’t hear that sound.
With trembling hands, I clutched my chest.
My hands were stained bright red.
I covered the hole with my hand to stop the bleeding, but it wouldn’t stop at all.
As the blood flowed incessantly, beginning to soak the ground, a pain came rushing over me that was beyond description.
“Ugh, aaah…”
But no voice came out.
All I could do was roll on the ground, letting out what little breath escaped me.
And just like that, I died.
★
[【Gray City】Aim for Survival! #NamikawaTsubaki#StarsFlow#GrayCity]
“What was that?! What just happened?!”
– Laughs in disbelief
– Seriously, it looks like she shot without hesitation, haha.
Tsubaki, a first-year student of Stars Flow, was quite bewildered.
Her respected senior Natsune, her beloved peers, and even the cute juniors.
Of course, a few were missing, but Tsubaki was just happy to be able to play the game together like this.
Especially in a survival game.
Tsubaki, a novice at gaming, had been eagerly looking forward to the scene where everyone joined forces to overcome adversities.
So when she heard the sound of hooves earlier, she couldn’t understand the “Tsubaki’s” urging her to hide behind the rock for safety.
So far, she had met only her classmates Hikari and Linze.
Hikari had boldly insisted on surviving alone as a villainess and had left by herself, while Linze suggested they gather materials together before parting ways.
Thus, with a meeting point set, she walked all the way here and thought that if she met Natsune or her juniors, she could just ask them to join her like she did with Linze.
That was Tsubaki’s reasoning.
Still, adhering to the chat, she hid behind the rock.
And when she finally peeked out to look over, she saw a horse running all by itself.
Upon seeing the horse, the Tsubaki crew urged her to shoot in front of the horse, and without hesitation, Tsubaki aimed at the way it was running.
And in that moment, with a massive bang, Tsubaki’s character collapsed to the ground.
Her remaining HP was stained red, and she would die if healing wasn’t applied within 20 seconds.
But there was nobody around to heal her.
“There are enemies that can shoot with guns in this game?!”
– No way.
– Only players can shoot.
An incomprehensible situation and an equally baffling chat.
Dizzy, Tsubaki held her head and shouted for help in a loud voice, just to survive.
“Is there anyone who can help me?!”
[Um…]
At that, responding to her words, a voice came from behind Tsubaki’s character.
Adjusting the direction of her crawling character, she turned around and saw a masked female character there.
The character’s name that floated above the mask was [Izumi].
“Oh, Izumi.”
She was the only second-year junior with whom Tsubaki hadn’t yet personally connected.
But with this, they could converse.
Tsubaki thought as she spoke up.
“Izumi, could you heal me? I got shot suddenly and fell here. I don’t know who the opponent is.”
But Izumi just circled around Tsubaki without replying at all.
“Oh, did you turn off voice chat?”
The Gray City supported voice chat by default, but players could choose to turn it off at any time.
Given that Izumi was said to be awkward in conversations, Tsubaki thought that theory plausible and tried to engage Izumi using the normal chat.
[Tsubaki: Izumi, could you heal me?]
[Tsubaki: I suddenly got shot and fell. ]
[Tsubaki: Unfortunately, I don’t know who the opponent is (´･ω･`)]
Yet still, there was no response from Izumi.
And shortly after.
Bang!
With another gunshot, Tsubaki’s character died.
A message appeared on the screen that said [You Died].
“Ahhhhh?!”
– Haha, was it Mei-chan who was the culprit?
– Tsubaki’s so naive, haha.
– The person who comes back first to the crime scene is usually the culprit.
It didn’t take long for Tsubaki to realize the essence of the Gray City game.
★
[【Gray City】I, the Grim Reaper, Descend #KainohIzumi#StarsFlow#GrayCity]
Without hesitation, as I pulled the trigger, the sound of bang! rang out, and the character of senior Namikawa, who had already collapsed, met her demise.
“There’s nothing useful here, ha….”
– Killing a senior who begged for help, that’s quite Yeo-sang-esque.
– Laughs
– That was chilling, haha.
– She just killed a passerby and is complaining she has nothing to use, haha.
“Hmm?”
Looking at the chatroom, I confirmed what the Izutomo had said.
[Tsubaki: Izumi, could you heal me?]
[Tsubaki: I suddenly got shot and fell.]
[Tsubaki: Unfortunately, I don’t know who the opponent is (´･ω･`)]
…That reminded me of something the senior Namikawa had said earlier.
But I hadn’t been listening at all, too focused on checking senior Namikawa’s items.
None of them were even better than what I was carrying.
– Tsubaki seems completely clueless, maybe I should save her, haha.
“…The law of the Grim Reaper is equality for everyone.”
Right. After all, I’m a lawless being in Gray City now. My goal is to be the Grim Reaper of Gray City.
No matter if it’s a senior, death cannot escape from me.
“Hmm, ah, if Natsune-senpai gets caught in my trap, what should I do?”
– You’ll have to kill her.
– The Grim Reaper’s law is equality, right?
“Ugh…”
As the eighth star, I can’t kill Natsune.
Yet to let an enemy caught in my trap go would tarnish the pride of the Grim Reaper.
A purely catch-22 situation.
While I pondered over a problem I couldn’t solve with my own brain—
Biiing—
The detector began to wail.
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