Across the Capital, the broadcast continued without interruption.
Inside luxury hos, restaurants, transport stations, and public halls, people watched the ga with growing excitent now that the first accusation had arrived.
Far away, in Sector 11, the atmosphere was very different.
The large public screen in the square still showed the ga clearly enough for everyone gathered there to see the argunt.
Among the crowd stood Kennedy’s wife, her face pale as she stared at the screen.
Beside her, her young son —barely seven years old —pointed upward, still not fully understanding what he had just seen.
"Mom... is Dad fighting?"
The question struck harder than the broadcast itself.
For a mont she could not answer.
Then she grabbed the boy’s hand imdiately and pulled him away from the square.
He protested, confused, but she kept dragging him until they reached their small house nearby. She pushed him inside, locked the door, and stood there only long enough to steady her breathing.
Then she ran back.
Because no matter how painful it was, she still needed to see what happened next.
---
"Stop dragging ! Why are you even accusing ?"
Kennedy tried to pull his arm free, but the grip holding him remained firm.
The one dragging him —badge 1, the Sector 1 participant Tyler had already noticed earlier —did not loosen his hold at all. His expression stayed cold, almost irritated, as though Kennedy’s resistance itself proved guilt.
"I’m doubting you because I watched you," the man said sharply. "During the tree-cutting task, you barely focused on the work. Half the ti you were looking around instead of cutting."
Only now did Tyler catch the man’s na from the AR identifier hovering faintly near his badge.
Dale.
Kennedy’s jaw tightened.
"I—I am not suspicious!" he snapped back, though his voice lacked its usual steadiness. "I was keeping an eye on people. That doesn’t an anything."
"Lies."
Dale’s answer ca imdiately.
"Complete lies. You were watching because you weren’t working. You were searching for soone to turn into Jobless."
The accusation landed heavily because the ga rules had already made everyone fear exactly that possibility.
Nearby workers who had been carrying tools now stopped entirely. Miners stepped out from the tunnel entrance. Hunters returned from the tree line. Even those near the river began approaching.
The clearing around the mine slowly beca crowded.
Kennedy looked around, realizing too late that every eye now rested on him.
"No," he said louder, panic pushing into his voice. "You’re accusing for nothing. You might be the Jobless yourself!"
That only made the surrounding silence sharper.
Tyler stood within the crowd, watching carefully without stepping forward.
He looked around instinctively.
Tansy and Rose were not nearby yet.
Victor was missing too.
Which ant they were still occupied with their assigned work elsewhere.
For the mont, Kennedy stood alone.
Then Tyler’s AR glasses flickered.
A small display window appeared directly before his eyes.
At the sa mont, similar windows appeared for everyone else.
Even Dale and Kennedy stopped arguing when they noticed the system activating.
The display expanded.
[We have two suspects.]
The words hung clearly in vision.
Then nas appeared beneath.
Who is the Jobless?
Chosen No. 1 — Dale
Chosen No. 55 — Kennedy
The clearing changed imdiately. Because now the accusation had beco official. Because they both accused eath other. The ga itself had accepted the conflict.
More participants arrived while the display remained visible.
Tansy and Rose erged from the forest edge together, both breathing slightly faster from clearly having co quickly after noticing system alerts.
Victor also arrived shortly after, awkwardly carrying a fishing rod almost taller than himself while following two others from the river side.
The system updated again.
This ti both n’s faces appeared in projection— live images drawn from hidden surveillance angles Tyler still could not locate. Beside each face, short video clips played showing Dale dragging Kennedy and both shouting accusations.
Tyler glanced upward again.
Still no visible caras.
Which only confird the obvious.
Everything here was monitored through systems hidden far better than ordinary optics.
The next line appeared.
[Vote for one.]
Who is the Jobless?
Option 1: Chosen No. 1 — Dale
Option 2: Chosen No. 55 — Kennedy
Option 3: Neutral
A tir imdiately appeared beneath the options.
[300 seconds... 299 seconds... 298 seconds...]
A second warning followed.
[Vote before ti ends.]
The pressure in the clearing changed instantly.
Now every participant was forced into decision.
Dale reacted first.
"Vote for him!" he shouted, pointing directly at Kennedy. "He wasn’t working properly. Everyone saw it!"
Kennedy’s face had gone visibly pale.
"No—vote him out!" he shouted back, though panic now made his voice uneven. "He’s lying!"
Dale did not stop.
"This guy didn’t even do his task properly. At least I was actually working!"
That line mattered because several nearby woodcutters imdiately nodded.
Apparently Dale truly had been cutting wood visibly enough to leave witnesses.
The tir kept falling.
[220 seconds... 219 seconds... 218 seconds...]
The pressure grew heavier because no one wanted to vote wrong.
And yet doing nothing also carried danger if suspicion spread later.
Participants began whispering among themselves.
"He did look nervous."
"But nervous doesn’t an Jobless."
"What if Dale is forcing this?"
"What if neutral vote gets punished?"
Tyler said nothing.
He watched both n carefully instead.
Kennedy looked frightened—but that alone proved nothing. Anyone falsely accused would fear death.
Dale looked too calm.
Not calm enough to prove innocence either.
But Tyler noticed sothing more subtle.
Dale never once looked worried about what would happen if he was wrong.
Instead Dale looked almost certain the system itself would reward accusation.
The tir continued.
[69 seconds... 68 seconds... 67 seconds...]
Now panic spread because most still had not voted.
The AR system waited silently.
Around Tyler, participants finally began making choices.
Hands lifted.
Selections were made through the glasses interface.
The last seconds vanished quickly.
[Voting ended.]
The display changed imdiately.
Results appeared before everyone.
[No. 1 received 18 votes.]
[No. 55 received 19 votes.]
[Neutral received 4 votes.]
A ripple passed through the crowd.
Only one vote difference.
Kennedy’s face lost all remaining color.
The next line appeared.
[No. 55 is selected as Jobless.]
Then another line:
[Verifying.]
For one second nothing happened.
Then Kennedy collapsed.
No visible attack.
No weapon.
His body simply dropped as though every muscle had suddenly stopped obeying him.
The sound of impact against dirt was sharp enough to make Rose gasp.
The AR system spoke again.
[No. 55 is eliminated.]
A pause.
Then:
[No. 55 is not Jobless.]
The clearing froze.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Even those who had voted stared at Kennedy’s body as if expecting the ssage to reverse itself.
But it did not.
He remained still.
Dead. No dramatic execution. No blood. Only absolute stillness.
And that sohow made it worse.
Because now everyone understood sothing horrifying—
The system would kill simply because the group voted.
Correctness ca second.
A false vote still killed.
Several participants visibly trembled.
One woman covered her mouth.
A hunter near the back lowered his bow completely.
Even those who had voted neutral looked shaken.
Because together they had just killed soone who had not been the Jobless.
Not through proof. Not through certainty. Only through fear.
Slowly, eyes turned toward Dale.
The atmosphere changed around him imdiately.
Unfriendly now. Suspicious. Cold.
Yet Dale barely reacted. He looked once at Kennedy’s body, then shrugged as though nothing serious had happened.
"Looks like he wasn’t Jobless after all," he said.
His voice remained almost casual.
"At least now we have one clue."
That line made Tyler’s eyes narrow.
Because the death seed to disturb Dale far less than it disturbed everyone else.
Then Dale looked around and spoke louder.
"Alright. False alarm. Go back and do your jobs."
The confidence in his tone sounded almost offensive now.
As if he expected everyone to obey him naturally.
So participants clearly hated hearing it, but fear still controlled them more than anger.
Slowly, people began moving again.
No one wanted to beco the next suspect.
Tyler remained still for two more seconds, studying Dale carefully.
One thing was obvious now:
Dale had not cared whether Kennedy survived.
That accusation had co too easily.
Too deliberately.
And whether Dale was Jobless or not, he had targeted Kennedy with clear intent.
Why Kennedy specifically?
Tyler did not know.
But for now, he decided not to chase the answer too early.
Inside this ga, chasing every suspicion could beco another trap.
So he turned and walked back toward the mine.
Behind him, Kennedy’s body still lay where the vote had ended him— silent proof that in this ga, fear could kill faster than the hidden enemy itself.
Soon after,
Without warning, the ground beneath Kennedy’s body split apart with chanical precision. A narrow section of earth opened directly under him, the movent so sudden.
Kennedy’s body dropped straight down into the darkness below.
There was no ceremony.
No retrieval team.
No delay.
Only a clean disappearance, as though the ga itself had already decided that even the dead should not remain visible long enough to leave weight behind.
A second later, the earth closed again.
The split ground sealed perfectly, leaving no crack, no stain, no sign that soone had just died there monts earlier.
Only flattened dirt remained.
Kennedy’s wife collapsed to ground and wailed.
User Comments
0 comments from readers