Just as Ulrich was once again getting used to the idea of colour, he was once again sat in a room that was grey and metallic. Pretty much the same as the one he was interrogated in, but slightly larger, and without the chairs, and a slight breeze courtesy of an air conditioner. A few people silently sat down, and Ulrich did the same. Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes, with the only real noise being the occasional cough.
"Come on, guys!" Leonie yelled over an intercom. "We got viewers to keep happy, do something!"
"You guys want some Gong-Gong?" Silvia asked, removing her hat. Her light brown hair made a transition to green, and what looked like a marijuana leaf quickly grew on her hair. Or at least one according to all those anti-drug videos shown it to be. Ulrich never actually saw one in real life.
"Don't think I can grind it, but what can ya really do?" She shrugged.
"Can you guys not do that?" Yun-Yeong asked. "My lungs are already crumbling."
"Damn, really?" Silvia replied, putting the hat back on.
"I think I can do something." Amber asked, scratching her purple hair. "Mind if I borrow your shadows?"
"Our shadows?" Wendy asked, letting an electric shock out on Eric's blue hair.
"Yeah, I'll need them for this to work. As long as you don't stand up, there won't be any issues."
"My shadows are yours." Lloyd said, nonchalantly throwing his hands in the air.
"Same here, babe." Aurora replied.
"If it won't hurt, you can have it." Wendy replied with a thumbs-up.
There was a chorus of "Yeah, sure." "Go ahead." And "Whatever." And finally, a "No."
Ulrich looked over at the source of the "No." and it was the Indian looking guy. Kapil, he was pretty sure his name was.
"Damn, brother." Lloyd smirked. "Any reason?"
"What, like giving this stranger a power source is a good idea? What's stopping her from randomly killing one of us?"
"I mean, painting a target on her back on day two doesn't seem like a sound strategy, but what do I know?" Lloyd shrugged.
"And also, she's like, the nicest café owner on level three!" Micah yelled out, accidentally hitting his head on the grey metallic wall as he moved his head upwards. "I went there all the time!"
There was another small symphony of mumbling, before Amber just cut through all of them with "Okay, who's shadows can I borrow? Raise your hand if you're cool with it."
Ulrich, Silvia and Timothy raised their hands, as did Micah. Lloyd, Aurora and Gemma all raised theirs afterward, and Eric and Wendy a small bit after that.
"Cool. Don't stand up."
Amber flicked a hand upwards, and Ulrich felt something slide out from under him. His shadow stood up, alongside everyone else's who consented. The shadows all gathered to each other, melting in an inky black mass. Once they were all combined, they moved towards an empty corner, forming a box, which opened a door.
"Alright, it's done."
"So that's it. Nobody's dead?" Akemi asked.
"Alright, seems I doubted you." Yun-Yeong breathed. "Hey, hat lady, need something to cut that stuff from your head?"
"Why, ya got something?"
Yun-Yeong walked up to her casually, presenting her with a switchblade. Silvia took a look at the blade, and it seemed new to her. The steel reflecting her face perfectly.
"Damn, where'd you get this?" Timothy asked.
"Ordered it this morning." She replied, before walking back to her place on the floor. Silvia gave a thumbs-up, and her and Timothy entered Amber's shadow room.
"So what's with the knife?" Odebode asked.
"Self-defence. Like I said, my lungs are kinda waiting to die on me. So if someone tries something funny, I'll at least be able to get them off me."
"Are we sure about that, milady?" Leonie yelled from over the intercom. "Or is there perhaps an ever so small chance that you're lying? Because guess what the great people at NeoBunny are letting me do?"
"Uh, what would that be, exactly?" Yun-Yeong asked, moving a long black strand of hair over her ear.
"Oh, you know. They said if things got too boring I could expose one crime. And I think I know who to go with..."
"Shut up. Shut up shut up shut up." Yun-Yeong muttered, getting more manic with each time she repeated that phrase.
"Well, I think that it's time to reveal what our first criminal did! To all our level two viewers, your fears can be silenced, as Ms. Brightside has been found! Everyone, meet Yun-Yeong Yi, our resident serial killer!"
Yun-Yeong felt multiple pairs of eyes fix their gazes on her. She tried to make a noise, spluttering out several noises as her mouth failed to move.
"You…you there were…there were reasons…" She squeaked out. But her eyes shrank, and she looked at the floor, heaving a puddle of blood. Ulrich looked at it. on first glance, it looked like blood, just an extremely concerning amount to throw up. But looking closer, what looked like small sparks were shooting out of it.
Odebode shot up, summoning the outline of the sword and pointing it directly at her face.
"She's a blood type!" He yelled, his stance firm, but his lips quivering ever so slightly. He made a slashing motion towards her, ready to end this challenge right now.
"Aight, knight. Let's cool down here."
Odebode tried moving his sword but couldn't. He opened his eyes, and it was lodged in a thick bubble of water. And the man with the blue mohawk in front of it, one hand holding it, one casually tucked in his jeans pocket.
"You wanna sit back down?" Eric asked calmly, with a sense of tranquil rage in his face, ready to kill at any moment.
"But she's a blood mage! A-and she's a criminal!"
"We're all criminals, dumbass." Eric sighed. Huang and Micah also stood by Eric's side. "And to be honest, you seem like the more dangerous person right now."
"Are you serious?" He screamed. "And why are you two defending her?!"
"I have made it my duty to make a game with honour and stability. You, sir, are providing neither." Huang replied, his face losing all sense of joy it seemed stuck to.
"You got something against blood mages, you got something against me, my man!" Micah yelled out. "Besides, maybe you're so ready to kill her because you did something worse!"
Odebode panicked, thrusting the sword further and moving it upwards. The water orb fell to the floor, and Eric stumbled back. Odebode suddenly felt a giant pair of arms wrap around him, and he was lifted off the ground.
"Okay, sir. You don't exactly seem like someone who should be roaming around here, so we're gonna sit down, okay?"
Andrei sat on the ground, putting Odebode under his arm.
"You know, we're gonna have to kill someone anyway." He snarled.
"Yeah, I'm aware." Eric replied flatly, clutching his forehead. "And I think I know who I'm voting for."
Yun-Yeong started breathing heavily, falling to the floor. Valentina ran over to her, checking her pulse.
"She's still breathing, don't worry." Leonie said over the intercom. "If it actually gets too much for her, she'll automatically be moved on."
"Awfully nice of you." Cyrus replied sternly.
"Oh, this is Ms. Brightside we're talking here! of course I wanna keep her around!"
"Ah." Cyrus sighed, adjusting his hat. "Naturally."
Valentina moved to where she was sitting, and Cyrus followed, walking with his hands behind his back until he sat next to her. Eric lightly tossed her a water bottle he brought in, giving a slight nod. Valentina squinted at him but went to feeding Yun-Yeong the water.
Silvia and Timothy came out of the shadow room, giggling to themselves, before Silvia saw what was happening. Odebode looking agitated under Andrei, Yun-Yeong passed out on Valentina's lap, and Eric's forehead bleeding.
"Dude, what happened?" Timothy whispered to Ulrich.
"A bunch of stuff, man." Ulrich sighed. "Yun-Yeong's a serial killer, and Odebode tried to kill her, and then Eric defended her."
"Is Yun-Yeong passed out?" Silvia asked.
"Yeah." Ulrich replied.
"Alright." She nodded slowly. "I'll give this knife back when she gets up."
A while passed, and Silvia took some of Ulrich's water, and opened the bag of food she brought with her.
"You into AquaB's?" She asked, taking a handful of them.
"Is that a brand?" Ulrich asked back.
"Nah, a flavour. Pretty sure it's a man-made fruit, too. But it's good shit."
Ulrich took a chip, putting it in his mouth. It tasted like a bunch of different seasonings were on it, with salt and paprika being two of the main tastes he was getting. But above that seemed like a layer of sweetness, like a small coating of honey was put over it. Overall, it was actually pretty solid. He took a couple more, and the three of them ate in silence. There wasn't much in the way of conversation for a while, everyone just stuck to themselves. Ignoring the state Eric and Yun-Yeong were in, it was just like the beginning.
And naturally, Leonie started saying things over the loudspeaker.
"So, things were pretty tense over the last while, huh? Odebode, any ideas on giving out justice?"
Andrei held Odebode tighter, while Odebode just sighed.
"Alright, alright. Network guys say I can't expose anything else yet, gotta steady myself. But I can provide an incentive. So, anyone who lands the killing blow on somebody gets one hundred coins extra, gracefully provided by the team at NeoBunny."
Nobody did anything, outside of what seemed like uncomfortable shuffling from some people. Huang, Gemma, and Eric all moved ever so slightly at that news.
"Wow, some extra made-up currency, what an incentive." Kapil mumbled, rolling his eyes.
"Oh wow, a wiseguy. Well, I should be able to add a little extra spice to this challenge, so hold tight!"
A loud mechanical thud was heard from the other end, and then silence. Yun-Yeong jerked slightly at the noise waking up in a coughing fit.
"Are you okay?" Wendy screamed out, letting a shock into Eric. He didn't seem to notice.
"Yeah? Yeah, I'll be fine." Yun-Yeong nodded, clutching her head and still looking on the verge of death. "Did I miss anything?"
"Apparently, candyfloss is getting something prepared that'll make us kill each other."
"Oh, great." Yun-Yeong moaned.
"Relax, if you die, then…I'll make them twice as dead, or something."
Yun-Yeong gave a slight smile, before holding her head harder.
"Oh, wow. Brightside got up. Well, I wonder if she'll be able to survive what I got coming up." Leonie said, looking annoyed. "Anywho, y'all should get ready! Actually, I'll count down first. Ten, nine, eight, seven..."
Huang hugged Vanessa tighter as fear started welling up in her eyes. Amber started looking around at the others
All of a sudden, the room went black. There was a scream heard, alongside sound of body parts hitting metal.
"In the darkness, nobody can see the actions you take. Well, we can, due to cameras. But can you survive another sixteen hours like this, or will someone die?"
"Yo, violet? You able to gather the darkness into a corner, or something?" Eric's voice yelled out.
"I control shadows, not darkness. I can't do anything about this!" Amber's voice screamed back.
"Yo, Ulrich. You got fire powers, right? Mind lighting up for us?" Timothy's voice yelled out.
Ulrich tried lighting a spark, but felt something close in on his left hand before he could, then felt a human hand on his right hand. Then felt a human hand close in on his mouth. He tried making a noise, but nothing came out. He slowly felt himself go numb, his ability to breath fading.
Then he heard a scream.
Then another.
The scream reached his oxygen deprived brain, and then Leonie brought it back fully.
"We have our first kill! Bringing the power back in five, four, three…"
The attacker took their hands off him, and Ulrich fell to the floor, still unable to use his powers. The lights came back, and everyone was sitting where they normally were.
Minus one person.
Well, one and a dead body.