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Now, with a clearer, much less inert mind, and only two weeks remaining until the transferral team would arrive to pick up Ruti, it was about time to act.

Ruti was still unaware that she was scheduled to move, but it seemed the Professors looking after her weren\'t and began acting strange since two weeks ago; as if collectively relieved about something. Picking up on that, she\'s been consistently pestering me to tell her if something is going on.

Of course, I don\'t tell her; I can\'t have Ruti get involved this time or else she\'ll bear part of the responsibility, so I have no choice, after all.

She seems to have reluctantly accepted my reassurance that nothing is wrong, but there\'s no telling how long she\'ll stay patient. Her senses are keener than I had anticipated; that, or she\'s just sensitive recently.

Still, things should remain on the down-low until it\'s too late for her to interfere, so it should be fine.

As for what I intend to do in order to attract the Wardens\' attention.

The plan is simple.

"Oh, Cipher? My. What brings you here?"

Head Professor Marcus Lynton spoke to me. We were not in his office this time, however.

"It\'s..."

"Why is he..."

Sitting around a table with numerous other Professors, among a vast eating hall with many other Professors and Playground staff, they were eating lunch. Seeing me, who definitely shouldn\'t be here, approach, they whispered to each other, but I only looked at the Head Professor.

"What might be the matter? You wouldn\'t have happened to change your mind about cooperating willfully, would you?"

"..."

Needless to say, that wasn\'t why I came here. He knew that, so I didn\'t feel the need to say anything. Still, I stared at him.

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"Hm? What\'s wrong?"

He wore an innocuous expression as if he had no idea, but I knew what he was doing.

Normally, the Head Professor eats alone in his office.

Recently, however, he\'s been eating in the staff canteen like this.

This sudden decision was purposeful.

"Can I tell you something in private?"

"I don\'t see why you can\'t say it here?"

"It\'s important."

"There are only Professors present, Cipher. I won\'t ask how you managed to sneak your way into the staff facilities, but there shouldn\'t be anything you cannot say in front of anyone here. Am I wrong?"

"..."

This sly old man.

Never leaving fewer than two people by his side, he constantly avoided a situation where he was left alone.

Being here, a situation where almost every other Professor was present as well as some other staff members, and looking in our direction, it was the most public place in the entirety of the Playground.

What\'s more...

"Oh, that\'s unusual. What do you have in that rucksack there? You don\'t usually carry one of those around, do you?"

Pointing out the rather weighty bag on my back, it felt like he was taunting me.

"...I was moving some stuff around my room."

Watching an almost imperceptible smirk rise on the Head Professor\'s face, I felt like sighing. Somehow, I felt like there was no chance of catching him alone today, or ever.

I don\'t think I let anything slip.

How did he figure it out?

「Individual Marcus Lynton thought it was a predictable series of events」

In other words, he saw right through me.

Huh...

Well, in that case, maybe I should adapt the plan.

If it\'s not going to be possible to get him alone, then I won\'t bother.

After all, it doesn\'t really matter if other people see me in the act.

The plan is for me to attract everyone\'s attention anyway, so rather, it might be the best course of action for me to carry out the plan in a situation like this, where everyone already has their eye on me.

That\'s right.

Instead of lamenting the Head Professor\'s cunning and guile, I should thank him for the golden opportunity he is presenting to me.

"Actually, Professor, there is something I wanted to show you."

Taking one strap of the bag off my shoulder, and then the other, I laid it on the ground with a light thud. The tool I made was bulkier than expected, so it provided much-desired relief for my small body.

"Oh...? A gift from Truth himself. What might it be, I wonder."

His smirk grew into a full-blown smile, which then deepened. It was clear he found the current situation entertaining, but I could assure that it wouldn\'t last for long.

Unzipping the bag by my feet, I cast a quick glance at the Head Professor sitting in the middle of a bench surrounded by other Professors, making it impossible for me to get any closer due to them being in the way.

Well.

If any of them were brave enough to actually get in the way intentionally, it would be a shame, but the plan should still work either way, at least to an extent.

Reaching both of my hands into the bag, I pulled out something heavy. As I did, I witnessed not just the Professors within direct line of sight, but even Marcus Lynton himself, have their eyes widen.

"I-Is that...?"

"What--"

Before too much time could pass, I pointed the end of the object towards the Head Professor and pulled a trigger on the underside.

Zz-- Bang-!!

All of a sudden, a spark exploded from the object, and something small fired out from the front, hitting a Professor in the head and penetrating deep into the skull.

Needless to say, the result was instant death.

Unfortunately...

"..."

"...Hah. Goodness. Cipher, do you know what you\'ve just done?"

It wasn\'t the Professor I aimed for.

Glancing down at the smoking weapon in my hands―a makeshift coilgun-like tool that shoots projectiles at high speeds using electromagnetism―I thought it was a pity.

Due to a lack of materials to make it with, it was only designed to fire one shot, which is why I intended to get the Head Professor. Seeing it now, though, I don\'t think it would be able to handle firing a second round even if it were able to.

Still, there\'s no need for lament. I managed to achieve my goal, somewhat.

"How did you even-- No, never mind. Everyone! Don\'t panic and call the suitable department. Cipher, you\'re coming with me."

"..."

Not replying to the Head Professor\'s words, who sighed and tried to calm the hectic employees down, I discarded the now useless weapon and followed him along as others swiftly arrived to sort the body of the deceased Professor.

"We\'ll talk about this in my office."

The situation wasn\'t too bad.

As I had hoped, directly killing a Professor with my own hands seemed to garner the attention of everyone in the room.

Although mine and Ruti\'s so-called "games" had resulted in numerous casualties in the past, none of them were really intentional, but rather accidents.

This time, however, I had gone with the purpose of killing from the start.

So, in that sense, it was my first time killing someone.

I had heard from Truth that it was something that, everyone who experiences it, experiences it differently, but I must admit it felt pretty underwhelming.

Though, I suppose that a lacking experience is, in itself, a form of experience.

It also seemed like even the Head Professor didn\'t expect that I would actually go through with such a plan and kill someone in front of everybody there, but he simply wasn\'t aware.

I said it before, didn\'t I?

Without Ruti, there is nothing interesting in the Playground.

Truth told me in the past that each person\'s experience is different when they die; some people go to a good place, some a bad place, and some people don\'t go anywhere at all. I\'m sure there is more to it, but I don\'t really understand how something can happen after you die, so I stopped asking questions about it.

At that time, Truth said something weird about not having the required level of access to that information. It\'s something he had never told me before, but I just ignored him and made him tell me anyway, and eventually, he did.

I thought it was strange, but it never happened again after that, so I forgot about it.

It\'s because I know that, anyway, that I\'m not afraid of death, nor killing.

In the Playground, we are taught that killing is bad. But, if people don\'t really \'die\' and just go somewhere else after their life ends, then why is it bad?

Truth is vague about it because it comes under an \'opinion\', and I couldn\'t understand the answer to that question by myself. Since the Professors, too, struggled to change my mind about it when I asked them, I gave up at that point.

That\'s all there is to it, in any case.

They want to separate me and Ruti, but I don\'t want that, and neither does she.

So, I simply will not let it happen.

If I need to make them go to that \'other place\' by killing them in order to prevent that from happening, then I don\'t see why I wouldn\'t do so.