The users eliminated in <Ride the Rainbow> had turned into ghosts, floating in the sky with confused expressions.
“Ah, so the answer was yellow. Damn, I was torn between red and yellow and chose red.”
“But… we can’t log out right away?”
“They said if you leave, you can’t log back in. Let’s just hold on for now. Maybe there’ll be a losers’ revival round?”
“A revival round, though…”
The users couldn’t finish their thoughts. Their corpses, crushed beyond recognition, lay on the ground—resurrection was clearly impossible. Blood had stained the clouds crimson during the process… Some of the ghostly users couldn’t bear the gruesome sight and squeezed their eyes shut.
Just then, a mustached guide-ghost wearing an armband approached and greeted them.
—New ghosts, all of you, follow me.
“Okay, okay.”
—In line now, choo choo, ding, cluck cluck!
“Where are we going?”
The guided ghosts arrived at the First Skeleton Exhibition Hall. Each entered in order and received a lump of shadow, bundled together like a charm.
“What’s this used for?”
***
[Ghost Quest: Guess the Final Survivor!
You are dead.
However, that doesn’t mean you left no trace behind.
Your shadow, preserved and displayed in this expo, is proof of your existence.
Make your guess for the final survivor, and gift them your shadow.
Your gift will be a helpful boon as they tackle the remaining quests and fight for survival.
Rewards for correctly guessing the final survivor:
1) A permanently bound item upon official server launch
2) Access to the ‘Prophet’ occupation]
“Ah~ So we’re supposed to pick our winner.”
“I have a feeling PeeledGarlicUnpeeledGarlic is gonna win, which is why I’m definitely not picking them.”
“Same here.”
“Ugh, who do I give this to? Is there a survivor list or something?”
“Whoa, the Prophet class sounds hella sexy though…”
It was a night of deep deliberation for the ghostly users.
***
[Shadow Expo
The Shadow Expo has opened.
Animals leave behind meat and hide when they die. Players leave behind their shadows!
Pay your respects and say goodbye to fallen comrades by taking their final shadows with you. All deceased players have been given a Shadow Resonance Pill. Each will gift this to a player they support.
Try to gather as many as you can—these little bundles of shadow may prove incredibly useful down the line.]
It wasn’t a bad event. Many grains make a mountain. Shadow Resonance Pills were small clumps of shadow, but tens, hundreds gathered together could become a formidable force.
“If he hadn’t betrayed the group, the expedition leader would’ve cleaned house.”
Now that public opinion had completely tanked on PeeledGarlicUnpeeledGarlic, the door was open for others—including me.
Nyang, nyang nyang.
I entered the expo hall in my transformed form—a flower fox wearing a rare flower necklace.
—Tap tap! Welcome, flower fox!
A skeleton raised its thumb at me as I walked by.
[System]: Skill ‘Protective Instinct’ has been activated.
I forcibly triggered the skill and stepped inside.
The moment I entered the exhibition hall, a chilly aura wrapped around my fur. This place was supposed to feel like a dinosaur museum, something heavy and imposing— but the way preserved specimens flitted through the air alongside ghost-users, the whole thing felt more like a kids’ indoor playpark.
“Dear dead users, please just give me one shadow poop@@@”
“Okay, okay, ghosts! If you give me your precious vote, I’ll track down and pummel PeeledGarlicUnpeeledGarlic myself!”
“To every ghost who gifts me a Shadow Resonance Pill, I’ll send you a banana milk gifticon!”
Inside the expo, surviving players were pulling out every trick in the book, desperately wooing the ghosts to receive their shadow tokens.
—Whoa, it’s the fox.
—Holy… It’s a fox!!
The ghost users, blissfully enjoying the floating freedom they could never feel in real life, rushed toward me.
—Fox, I’ll miss you.
Nyang nyang.
—Baby fox, I love you.
Nyang nyang nyang.
[System]: You have obtained a Shadow Resonance Pill from player ‘BoriDungdung’.
[System]: You have obtained a Shadow Resonance Pill from player ‘GodDa-hye’.
[System]: You have obtained a Shadow Resonance Pill from player ‘CannotBeTwo’.
[System]: You have obtained a Shadow Resonance Pill from player ‘BangtanFairySquad’…
“Here, take my shadow poop and brew yourself a damn coffee with it!!”
In an instant, four plump shadow pills clung to my tail.
[System]: You’ve taken out a Bluetooth radio for foxes. Would you like to connect to the server’s music player? (Yes / No)
I pressed Yes and flashed a bright smile at the users. A mournful dirge began to play. I started to dance—a slow, sorrowful motion in tune with the melody.
♪Just one word—farewell?♪
Hearing the music, more users gathered and began to shake their Shadow Resonance Pills in the air.
It was a farewell performance. And with each beat of the song, the number of shadow pills hanging from my tail grew.
—Was that a performance just for us leaving? That’s… so touching…
—Long live the fox!!
The reaction was explosive. Some ghosts even snatched back their shadow pills from other players just to gift them to me instead.
“Hey… I already sent a milk coupon in exchange for that shadow pill! You can’t just take it back!”
The living players who had their gifts stolen fumed with frustration—until they realized those stolen pills had gone to the fox. Then they fell silent.
“Damn, that was cool, fox.”
Some users who had already given me their pills handed them back to me again in the form of duplicate gifts.
At last, the dirge came to an end.
Clap clap clap clap.
The hall filled with applause, and in that moment, the majority of the Shadow Resonance Pills were now in the fox’s possession.
Then, the pale fog turned blood-red.
“What the hell?”
Even the ghosts didn’t know what was happening. Murmurs spread through the crowd.
[System]: A murder has occurred during the Shadow Expo!
“Whoa, what the—?”
—What? What?
—This is nuts.
“Holy crap, PeeledGarlicUnpeeledGarlic is dead? There’s a killer among us…”
Panic broke out at the sudden murder.
“Looks like GodInja is still alive. Definitely a player’s doing…”
The fog blanketing the floor of the expo began to lift.
—Damn, it says we’re about to be forcefully logged out.
—This sucks, I wanted to see the results.
As the fog vanished, the ghost-users began to disappear as well. And when it cleared completely, only the corpse of PeeledGarlicUnpeeledGarlic and about eighty survivors remained standing in the now-empty space.
Amid the chaos, I quietly blended in with the others and started rummaging through his corpse. It was pretty much first-come, first-served—but I, as a Thief, had access to ‘exclusive items’ only I could loot. That’s what I was after.
I stuck a paw into his bag and pulled something up with it.
[System]: An empty vial of poison. The contents have all been used. It can no longer be used.
An empty bottle of poison rolled out of the expedition leader’s bag.
‘…This. I saw this on the day I became Snake Rim’s semi-son.’
It was the same poison from the day of Snake Rim’s shedding, the one that was slipped into his water.
So it was the expedition leader who had tried to poison Snake Rim? That was unexpected.
He must’ve kept it hidden all this time, afraid that his failed poisoning attempt would be exposed once Snake Rim survived. Later, when the quest came around, he even added a unique trait to the item to keep it hidden during inventory checks. What a nasty bastard.
‘Meticulously planned, huh.’
As a new realization dawned, I turned to look at Jung Da-hoon.
‘The perfect atmosphere for a murder.’
He must’ve made his move the moment I started to draw attention. With the fog obscuring visibility, he must’ve decided it was safe enough.
At this final stretch of the survival match, most remaining players were elites. We knew each other’s class—but not which sub-skills each person had picked up. That uncertainty made everyone more cautious.
Jung Da-hoon, too, had been acting far more carefully than he had in the early game. And now, finally, he’d chosen the ideal place and timing to fill his kill quota—right here, today, amidst the fog.
***
[A Special Quest Has Arrived!!
A murder has occurred during the sacred farewell expo. Identify the killer.
All players who successfully identify the culprit will receive the Eye of Truth as a reward.
Time remaining to accuse the culprit: 11:59:53 (+ See more)]
Jung Da-hoon wore a mask of feigned shock. Honestly, I felt the same way. Who would’ve thought that one particular act in a certain location would trigger a quest like this?
And the item up for grabs—Eye of Truth—was a rare artifact that let the user detect lies up to three times.
“Alright, alright. Let’s gather around.”
The two factions, once split, murmured as they began to merge. The group once favored by PeeledGarlicUnpeeledGarlic stayed quiet, observing the situation and following the lead of the larger force. Their leader was dead, and it was now clear that the murderer remained alive on this side—so they, too, sensed they were royally screwed.
“Damn, the killer’s seriously something else. Still alive after all this.”
“After offing PeeledGarlic, there’s no way they’re gonna stop… If we don’t expose them, someone else is next.”
Jung Da-hoon sidled over in a crab-walk and gingerly picked up my small body. He leaned in, whispering into one of my ears.
“I didn’t think it would come to this. What should I do…”
I tapped [+ See more] and finished reading the rest of the quest details.
[You may nominate one player as the murderer.]
I clamped my jaws shut. This quest had a guaranteed winning method to uncover the killer— Each player picks a number through a draw, and then accuses the person with the number directly behind them. That way, someone is guaranteed to receive the Eye of Truth, and once it’s used, the murderer will inevitably be exposed.
Both Jung Da-hoon and I knew this. That’s why we were both tense.
“First of all… I fully understand your anger over PeeledGarlic’s death.”
Just then, the deputy leader approached the united users, stepping past PeeledGarlic’s corpse with a warm smile.
“You should’ve said that earlier. Why now? Scared all of a sudden because there’s a killer in our ranks?”
The user alliance, long fed up, raised their chins with scorn.
“Ugh… It’s not even Friday. What the hell is this drama.”
A few users facepalmed at the sudden triggering of a major quest.
“Yeah, we’re scared. That’s why we’re ready to drop to our knees.”
Without warning, the deputy leader of the Garlic faction knelt on the ground. The rest followed suit without hesitation, slamming their heads to the floor.
“Wow, so our ‘Gaksital’ really is scary, huh?”
Gaksital… A nickname for the murderer seemingly born in the moment. Jung Da-hoon muttered it under his breath, seemingly pleased.
“Yes, very scary. Which is why… how about we join forces and find the killer?”
Both Jung Da-hoon and I swallowed hard. If that proposal was accepted, his identity would be exposed in no time.
“Phew…”
Jung Da-hoon’s lower lip trembled. And then—
Bori Noona, who had been silently observing the whole time, suddenly stood up with a burst of fury.
“And just who exactly would benefit from us outing the killer, huh? Tch. Let’s be real—you’re only doing this because if we don’t catch them now, you’re scared you’ll be next, right?”
“You’re right.”
The other side admitted it without resistance. Then added:
“But think about it. The killer will be caught eventually. There’s barely half the players left—if we just target your group one by one, we’ll get there regardless. We just thought, since we lost our center, maybe it was time to unite.”
Bori Noona scoffed.
“What a joke. You’re kneeling there like beggars and talking like you’re doing us a favor? Sure! Y’all go ahead and work real hard within your own team to find the killer. We, on the other hand, will not be hunting down the murderer who sent PeeledGarlic to the grave!”
“……”
“So! Anyone from the Garlic faction not in leadership—if you wanna live, join our side. Come over, and our dear killer won’t touch you! What’s it gonna be—die next, or switch to the user alliance?”
At Bori Noona’s sharp invitation, the Garlic faction’s players started shifting their butts, inching their way toward her side.
