Episode 316: Surplus Humans (3)
[3rd floor ‘Familiar Land (2)’]
Only then did the 68 survivors gathered here fully understand their situation.
“shit. Food, thermal insulation, etc., are you saying that you have to worry about your life tomorrow first?”
“Did everyone see the video earlier? Fighting back is impossible in the first place.”
“Then, first of all, we have to decide who will be our prey… … .”
“Who are you going to sacrifice?”
Rather than eating something right away or warding off the cold, we must quickly find a way to soothe the hunger of man-eating flowers tomorrow.
Daylily of blood.
It is said that this dangerous beast will become calm if it can only eat one person a day.
If there is a lot of movement in catching prey, more prey is needed, so I had to make it so that it could eat it with minimal movement.
“That means… … One of us has to make a sacrifice.”
“shit. It’s unity and everything is destroyed.”
“This is the devil’s ploy to alienate us!”
“so. What would you do if you were cheating? You don’t want to follow me?”
“… … Who said that? That’s just how it is.”
No one disputed the idea that human sacrifice should be performed by selecting one person from the group.
Then, the question now is to whom, how much, and how to decide the offerings.
“The one who will volunteer as a sacrifice… … won’t there be?”
“How are you going to select the offerings in the first place? designation? vote? Or on terms that would benefit the community?”
“Shouldn’t we first decide how many people to hire before that?”
Food and drinking water here are limited. Even most of them are rotten or contaminated.
If you hold on and hold on, you might be able to survive for about two weeks.
In order to shorten 68 days to about 14 days, more than 50 people are needed.
“shit! 50 out of 68? Almost done then!”
“That was also minimal. You may need to make more sacrifices. I can’t stand being hungry for even three days.”
“You idiot, what are you going to do? Shall we throw everyone but you as food for those F*cking flowers!?”
“Who said that!? It’s just that each person has a different tolerance for hunger!”
“This fat bastard is real! Anyway, since I was in school, I only knew how to grunt when I was hungry!”
Fights intensify everywhere. And one of them screamed in anger.
“Then it could eat you!?”
In an instant, the atmosphere in the audience turned cold.
The student who spoke out also noticed that he was taken aback and stuttered.
“uh? Uh, what is this atmosphere? I just did it, kids… … Of course not. just… … just… … .”
But everyone had a gut feeling. What to do to survive two months here.
It is not the end of deciding the ‘food’ to feed the daylily of the blood tree.
They also had to decide what to eat.
Cannibals. An old taboo of mankind. However, a way of survival that was once familiar enough to be taboo.
The message the devil was throwing was simple.
‘ Eat each other ! ‘
Falling into mere prey in front of an absolute being was not the true bottom.
What is below that is the basement, the secret room where the brutal fratricidal predation takes place.
“… … .”
“… … .”
“… … .”
One by one, the students were realizing the devil’s goal.
No one said it out of their mouth, but the increasingly heavy and bloody silence shows it well.
After a long silence, one of them stepped forward.
It was Arthur Gordon Pym, a third-year student who was the leader of the aristocratic faction.
Gordon opened his mouth in a heavy tone.
“Guys. We are forced to make tough decisions.”
At that, everyone raised their heads.
Gordon continued.
“Severe decisions will continue to be required in the future. … … But, but for now, let’s just focus on our immediate problems.”
At that, all the students nodded their heads.
Let’s set aside for a moment the scary and terrible thoughts of food, drinking water, feeding, sacrifices, cannibalism, fratricide, and so on.
What was urgent right now was ‘feed’ to soothe the bloody daylilies tomorrow.
Gordon said, swallowing dryly.
“I have to decide what to offer to the man-eating flower tomorrow. Do you all agree?”
Everyone nods. Gordon said again.
“Does anyone have any ideas on what criteria to select the offerings for?”
“… … How about voting?”
Someone raised their hand and said.
vote. good night. A good way. Usually, students have decided many things in this way at school.
However, voting is basically a process of producing a result of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when there is a specific agenda.
“In order to vote, the person or conditions to be prey must be presented first. That way, we can vote on whether or not to follow it.”
A specific person can be chosen by vote to be offered as a sacrifice or not.
However, it is too direct and aggressive, so it is impossible with normal mental strength.
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The students chose the way to avoid guilt as much as possible, that is, by pointing at the target by ‘turning around’.
“excuse me… … How about this?”
A hulking man full of muscles opened his mouth with his arms crossed.
“Even in nature, weak individuals are weeded out and only strong individuals survive. therefore… … They will be sacrificed in order of least strength. Even if a dog fight happened anyway, there is a high possibility that those with weaker powers would have been sacrificed. therefore… … .”
“Nonsense!”
Then, an immediate response came from the side.
A female student with a neat hairstyle and glasses argued in a clear voice.
“We are human! You are a civilized and intelligent person! That’s not it! What kind of power is it, not some kind of wild animal!”
“Then, on what criteria do you want to choose tomorrow’s offering?”
“that… … As I said earlier. We are civilized and intelligent, right? So, I wonder what it would be like to be sacrificed in order of bad head. Shouldn’t it be based on school grades?”
Opinions came out that they should be sacrificed in order of weak strength or poor study.
The big boy who had been screaming earlier shouted with his arms crossed.
“It is right to sacrifice the weak first! For example, such a stupid guy!”
Where he looked, there was a male student crouching with a small body and a timid impression.
However, when he was in school, he would usually cringe at the cry of a big boy, but he didn’t cringe anymore.
“Am I weak? well. Do you think you will outnumber you now?”
“What, what?”
The tall male student flinched momentarily.
The shy male student slowly got up from his seat.
Then she looked at the big boy with bloodshot eyes.
“Unfold your arms.”
“… … .”
At those words, the tall male student only broke out in a cold sweat and was unable to say anything.
… puck!
In an instant, a timid male student rushed at me.
A large male student freaks out and folds his arms in a defensive posture.
I saw a large boy with his arms undone, with one of his wrists amputated and wrapped in a dirty cloth.
It was the student whose wrist was eaten by the mimic that came out of the random box given to him by the fairy earlier.
The timid male student grabbed the large male student by the wrist, shook it, and gnashed his teeth.
“how is it? I don’t know if it was when I was at school, but I think I’m stronger than you right now. Do you still want to do it in order of strength?”
“Quaaaaagh! You, you bastard, don’t let go of this!? it’s crazy!? Don’t you know I’m an official of the Hujok faction!? Just say one word to my father and I can get your father out of business!”
“Try to fold it. Where? Do I have to get out of this F*cking tower to do that? Let’s try it! huh?”
As if they had a lot of resentment, the two boys started fighting after hitting each other.
Actually, it was not a fight, but rather a unilateral beating of a male student with his wrist cut off.
Maybe because he ate a few red candies? The fists thrown by the timid male student were quite fierce.
Then, Gordon interceded between the two.
“Come on, stop it. Now is not the time to fight among ourselves. Otherwise, the atmosphere will get out of hand.”
When Gordon, an officer of the aristocratic faction, said this, even the timid male student sighed and stepped back.
The hulking man with his wrists cut also hurriedly crawled back on three legs.
The groin was already yellow and wet.
Since then, numerous issues have emerged.
“As expected, it would be better to become prey in order of strength.”
“Let go of the things you can’t study! Are you going to waste your brains?”
“Where is the lower school year going on the sidelines! I have to sacrifice the lower grades first!”
“It’s not a bit of a grade! I’m older because I’m three! Do it by age! Shouldn’t we give preference to the elders!”
“Damn it! Age is free, but what kind of treatment do you want for it! I’m not saying this on my knees, but let’s do it in order of grade!”
“money! How about doing it without money!? It’s that simple!”
“Do you want to do it in order of the most friends? Let’s sacrifice the friendless child first! Friendship Vote! Friendship Vote!”
“Ba, you know that our family is the best when you go outside, right? The world is originally a personal network~ Think about it even when you go out of the tower~ I will remember the real faces of the kids who sacrificed themselves for me and will not forget them later and take care of them… … .”
The hotter the atmosphere gets, the faster the guilt evaporates.
At first, the students, who hesitated because of guilt, were now spitting with bloodshot eyes as if they were bargaining at the Dottegi Market.
“Vote like an intellectual! By voting!”
“good night! Let’s decide democratically!”
“Majority is best!”
“okay! Try it until unanimity comes out where!”
Befitting cadets of the Colosseo Academy, the most prestigious university in the empire, intellectually, democratically, and through discussion.
As a result. It has been decided that one of the students will be the daylily’s food tomorrow.
A first-year student who can’t remember his face or name.
I can’t study, I can’t exercise, and I don’t have a special appearance, and I don’t have friends who can protest instead of me at times like this.
He cried out a wail, no, a protest close to a scream.
“My, it’s unfair that I was chosen!”
“shut up! It was a majority vote! You were chosen unanimously!”
“You guys colluded with your friends! I’m a bad person, so I don’t have any friends to support me!”
As the student who would become ‘prey’ desperately shouted, the faces of the other students hardened.
“Hey, are you proud of not having friends?”
“Networking is also a skill. I don’t know?”
“What is a worthless bastard like you doing alive? What good can you do for the community?”
“… … with stupid words. If we treat you here and now, make you an idiot, and throw it to that flower tomorrow. What are you going to do?”
“Just go quietly to the seaweed that was picked. You can reward your family when you go out of the tower later. Let me tell you that you were a hero. huh?”
Threats and appeasement continue everywhere.
Those not chosen desperately tried to secure their safety by building walls.
“Ugh… … no. I have parents at home… … younger siblings… … .”
The male student who was chosen as food began to cry.
And everyone who saw his tears looked away, albeit for a moment.
I hate to admit it. That the male student who had been reduced to mere ‘prey’ is also someone’s precious child and brother.
But what? If others don’t die, I die. This is such a place.
… … No, maybe the world outside the tower was actually like this?
Everyone retched almost simultaneously.
In the midst of huge contradiction and confusion, the atmosphere was getting more and more distorted.
Right then.
“stop.”
The madness that had swelled tautly subsided for an instant.
There was one hand that caught the attention of all the students.
“… … I will be the food.”
The footsteps that struggled through the crowd.
Black hair, red eyes, and an expressionless expression that made it impossible to read what he was thinking.
It was Bikir.
