A villainous girl created by paranoia

"Look, that old man must be playing this kind of game for the first time, he's terrified."

"That's right, that's right, this old bastard will get his comeuppance soon."

"..."

dong dong!

This is background noise. If this is the music he's conducting, I would definitely rush up to him and break his precious baton.

The faint, eerie groans of the mutated undead could be heard from afar...

dong dong!

No, the rhythm wasn't in sync with his commands.

The wind howls in the sky...

dong dong!

No, that's not it either; they can't keep up with his rhythm either.

dong dong!

!

For a moment I was stunned. I never expected that I was the one being conducted by him. No, to be precise, all twenty of us, including himself, were the ones being conducted by him.

I have perfect control over my own body, such as drug use. For me, drug addiction is something I can only indulge in if I allow it; without my permission, I don't have any addiction.

And now, a certain organ in my body is out of control; it moves rhythmically according to his commands.

That organ... was my heart...

The tremors of all our hearts resonated under his command, composing a long, epic masterpiece.

Just now, no one realized that their hearts had become the instruments he was conducting. It's hard to imagine that if he wanted to kill everyone here, all he needed was a rousing piece of music, and everyone would die without even knowing why.

The scariest thing is that this is not a superpower, but just an ordinary performance.

I didn't control my heart; I let it do as it pleased, because I was listening, listening to this epic masterpiece, simply...

Did he miss a beat? Did he make a mistake?

I opened my eyes and looked at the middle-aged man. His movements were still so precise, which meant that he had not made a mistake.

But... how come I missed another beat?

I glanced at the smiling young man next to the bespectacled youth, and felt a little displeased.

How can a musical instrument disobey the musician's orders?

Just as I was thinking this, the music missed another beat.

I started to get agitated, and I knew why. I was under the spell of that epic piece. That masterpiece should not have any flaws. If the performer made a mistake, it was clearly a desecration of that masterpiece. But I couldn't blame the conductor; it was his instrument that wasn't obedient enough.

"Ugh..."

With a slight sigh, I let my heart return to its normal rhythm. The middle-aged man paused for 0.05 seconds, and it was this pause that made his already imperfect performance even more flawed, and no amount of remedy could make up for it.

This is an epic that can only be played perfectly; it cannot have any flaws.

Seemingly realizing that continuing to conduct would only tarnish the masterpiece, the middle-aged man stopped conducting, and I walked over to him upon seeing this.

"Sir, it's very good music."

After hearing my words, the middle-aged man simply shrugged helplessly and gave me a faint smile.

"But it should have been a perfect epic."

"The problem with the instrument is not your fault."

"Haha, Miss, you don't need to comfort me. I'm not so fragile as to be discouraged by the failure of conducting a piece of music. But, Miss, can you keep it a secret? Keep it a secret from my teacher."

I was somewhat taken aback; I hadn't expected to encounter the disciple of some important figure in just the first game.

"Your mentor is..."

Before I could finish speaking, the middle-aged man made a shushing gesture.

"Hush, don't say anything, don't say anything."

I nodded without continuing the conversation. Seeing this, the middle-aged man handed me a gold-embossed business card and a concert ticket.

"Miss, this is my business card and a free ticket. With this ticket, you are free to enter and exit any of my or my master's concerts."

If I manage to leave this game alive, I hope I will have the honor of inviting you to my concert. I will play "Perfect World" for you again then. I swear, this time I will definitely have my instrument properly tuned, and it won't be like this time.

As he spoke, the middle-aged man with graying temples looked at the smiling young man over there, a flash of murderous intent in his eyes, but the young man still subconsciously turned his head to look at the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man didn't panic; he calmly nodded to him, and the young man returned the nod. I knew they had both added each other to their blacklists, and one of them was definitely going to die in this game.

After greeting the smiling young man, the middle-aged man looked at me again.

"Miss, I'm used to being alone, so I plan to leave now. I hope you don't mind."

"No, sir. I just hope we don't become enemies in this game."

"I hope so."

After giving such a casual reply, the middle-aged man turned and left. He glanced at the other middle-aged man, then looked at the gold-embossed business card in his hand.

[Music Conductor of the Eternal Sky]

Wang Sile

Phone number: 662069979

On the back of the business card is the logo of Eternal Sky, which is a pair of wings made up of various colored musical notes, and at the bottom of the business card is a line of small text.

[Note: It is Wang Sile (yue), not Wang Sile (le)]

Sure enough, he was the youngest apprentice of the Eighth Calamity—the Sky King—Sillia von Bismarck, and the song "Perfect World" was naturally the Sky King's work.

Not long after Wang Sile left, the last player finally came into my view. She was a little girl who looked about the same age as Ou Ya and the Executioner.

She had long, milky-white hair, snow-white skin, and large, ruby-like eyes. At that moment, she was looking at me nervously. She wanted to lift her leg and walk towards me, but then nervously shrank back.

This child...

I walked towards her. When she saw me coming, for a moment she wanted to run away, but she quickly calmed down. She tugged at the hem of her skirt and stammered.

"Y-you...hello...big sister, I'm Lily."

"Hello, my name is Hanamiya Karen."

I slowly squatted down, bringing my eyes to her level, and then gently patted her head.

"Lily, how old are you this year?"

"Lily is 9 years old this year..."

After hesitating for a moment, Lily finally asked me.

"Sister Hanamiya... the voice in my head is telling me... people will die in this game, is... it true?"

Judging from her tone, she was probably saying that she was a novice and didn't understand the rules of the game.

But of course I didn't believe it. Although she didn't give me any hostile looks, that didn't mean I simply believed her.

"It's true, Lily, are you afraid of dead people?"

"Grandpa... she died right in front of me... she can't talk anymore, she can't laugh anymore, she can't pat my head anymore."

"I'm sorry, Lily, I brought up something that upset you."

Lily shook her head, denying my statement.

"No, it's not Hanamiya-neechan's fault. It was Lily herself who brought up this topic."

This child evokes a strong protective instinct in me, so I've decided that I will protect this child as much as possible. Yes, I'm just overflowing with compassion.

You should know that I'm not someone who lies to myself, and I have nothing to hide from you, who has been observing my heart all along.

If Lily is really only nine years old, as she says, then how exactly do players choose in this game? Or is Lily lying to me, and she's not actually nine years old, just having this size?

She probably wasn't lying. As someone who lies frequently, I naturally know liars better. If I couldn't see through Lily's lie, it just means my lying skills aren't as good as hers.

The reason Lily went alone... or rather, was isolated was simple: she was such a small child, what could she do? Whose group could accommodate such a small child?

In fact, any team could accept such a tiny little guy, but no one would want to have such a burden.

Even I think Lily is just a burden because she can't use her powers, so even if her powers are strong, they are useless.

And as I said, the reason I protected her was because of my overflowing compassion. Compassion is my emotion, and I can crush my own emotions at any time. It's not impossible for me to use Lily as a shield in a critical moment.

Don't look at me like that; I really am capable of doing something like that.

"Um... Sister Hanamiya... Can Lily come with you? Lily... Lily doesn't want to be alone."

"Sure, but Lily has to help me with a few things first~"

"What is it? As long as Lily can do it, Lily will do it!"

Seeing Lily's excited expression, I just smiled faintly, patted her head again, and stood up from the ground.

"There's nothing for Lily to do right now, but she might need to do something later."

"Yes! Lily will be good!"

As I silently counted down to zero, a voice suddenly sounded in my head.

[Beep! The task log has been updated. Please pay attention to the task objective.]

--split line--

This is a special bonus chapter from [Night Rain and Annoyance V3]. It's a bonus chapter for a book review. Actually, there wasn't originally going to be a bonus chapter, but I promised him in the group, so I added one.

This is to let everyone know that there will be no extra chapters for the book review.

Also, there might be a lot of typos in this chapter. I'm just too sleepy to do anything else, so I'll check it tomorrow.

Also... it's not quite 4000 words yet, only a couple hundred words short. Can you all just turn a blind eye?

Chapter Six: Game Rules?