"Top of the morning viewers. We bring you devasting news of a fire erupting in a house on Maplewood Avenue this morning. Emergency services are at the scene combing the remains. Unfortunately, the fire has claimed the lives of four people living in the house with several injuries..."
Ethan's actions had made headlines in the morning. Despite having spent the night being an arsonist, he was awake at 7:30 am.
He wanted to go to school today as he didn't want to draw any more unwanted attention to himself.
The first thing he realised when he woke up was how numb he was to death. The image of his first kill no longer bothered him, while his second kill barely occupied his mind.
Even him burning the innocent twins didn't matter to him. Killing others was becoming natural to him. It was almost scaring him. But he knew he had to continue this way if he wanted to win.
While Ethan was thinking about his attack, his attention was drawn to the system message when he killed Lila Chambers.
It read: You have received 1200 coins.
It didn't mention his target being killed. It only told him he received money. According to Sia, he could send another money if he knew the name and face of the person he wanted to send it to. The message would read the same.
This meant that Ethan couldn't be sure if a person was actually dead unless he saw the body. Ethan also realised the potential uses for it.
Ethan was 100% sure that he had actually killed his target. First of all, the tracker disappeared when the system notified him of the target's death. And secondly, the reporter announced there were four victims.
Ethan also realised that committing such a high-profile crime was a bad idea. There were probably other players watching the report and having their own suspicions of what had occurred.
It's not about just hiding his own involvement. It's also about making sure that the crime itself isn't found out and reported.
So next time he decided he would take more time to analyse his targets and their habits. Ethan setting fire to the house could have gone wrong in so many ways. He could have been seen by or witnessed or the family could've woken up are some of the ways his plan might have failed.
As he was going to leave school, his mother stopped him. "I have several questions, young man."
"What... mum?" Ethan replied. Out of all the times she had to act like a mother, this was the time.
"Don't WHAT me! What have YOU been doing these past couple of days? I heard you shouting in the bathroom, you've barely been and have skipped school!" Ethan's mother spoke sternly.
Ethan sighed and gave an excuse. He very well couldn't say he was out trying to kill people. His mother reluctantly accepted Ethan's answer.
Ethan could tell his mother was worried. Ethan's actions were definitely out of the ordinary.
She definitely suspected he had fallen into bad company. And she would be the cause of it. She wasn't the best of parents. Ethan knew this but couldn't comfort her. Because he would be lying.
He would keep killing. And he would need to live on the run.
'I'm sorry.'
After apologising inwardly, he left for school. But, going to school to felt more stressful than it had ever been before.
Ethan was looking around constantly, being aware of all possible targets. He could have a tracker on his back he would never know.
It was very mentally taxing. And he had to endure an entire day of school after that. He was not looking forward to it.
When school started, he bought a tracking compass and crushed it. This served two purposes. Firstly, it allowed him to check if anyone at school or near the school was his enemy. Since he would spend six hours here, he needed to make sure it was safe.
Secondly, he would be searching for his next target after school, so he wanted to ensure they were the closest to school. He packed a change of casual clothes he could wear after school.
The school periods went by quickly. Ethan barely paid attention to class, mostly thinking up strategies on ways he could kill the other players. But it wasn't turning out well on that front.
His lack of sleep and stress from the morning was taking a toll on him. So when lunchtime rolled around he was nearly half asleep.
There was a place in the school at lunchtime where you would actively avoid. It was an unspoken rule. It was where the majority of the bullies and jocks hung out. It was also where they specifically targeted the weaker students for their money.
Ethan knew this rule as well, but in his sleep-deprived state, he accidentally walked through the territory. One of the bullies saw Ethan and immediately approached him.
Ethan just now realising the situation, understood his mistake. He could just apologise and leave. He'd either have to pay them or have to deal with getting beat up.
He was not fond of either of those situations. But Ethan couldn't run. The bully in question was stronger than him. Ethan was pretty weak for his age, so he wouldn't stand a chance.
If it was Ethan from before the battle royal, he would've begged to be spared and hopefully be let off. However, Ethan changed after his first kill. He knew about his reputation at the school. So he hoped that would intimidate the bully.
It took a single glance. That's all it took for the bully to hesitate and back off. Despite being a bigger person, he backed away from Ethan. The bully's friends knew Ethan's friends were scared.
Ethan the rumours about him were scary, but not to this extent. But Ethan didn't know it wasn't just his reputation that scared them off.
It was his eyes. Ethan had the eyes of a killer. It was a human's instinct to avoid danger. Paired with the survival skill, which taught him how to intimidate other creatures, dark circles due to a lack of sleep and his reputation, the bully had to reconsider their actions.
It was the same reason humans feared animals like snakes and spiders.
Before the bullies could recognise what just happened, Ethan had disappeared.
Ethan finished the rest of the day with no other problem. The only issue was that he kept whispering about his actions throughout class, which constantly distracted him. Since everyone was scared to ask him, it resulted in a lot speculation.