Wei Zhi, who had fled to meet the others, finally reached the location.
After climbing a lot of stairs, he arrived.
They were sitting at the top of a clock tower, where a huge clock was placed.
There was an open space where the clock hovered in the center.
The three figures sat at the edge with their legs dangling over.
Shae Harris and Ming Jun were pointing at the flashy lights.
Mori Aoi was sitting closer to the wall, not daring to look over the edge.
Unlike the other two, her legs were placed just in front of the edge.
"Why did you guys have to choose such a dangerous place?" Wei Zhi complained.
He took a seat a step behind them; he definitely wasn't going close to the edge.
"Are you okay?" Mori Aoi asked in concern—also using the opportunity to move away from the edge.
She stood up and sat down beside Wei Zhi.
"I almost died," Wei Zhi said, feeling like crying at the memory.
"Really?" Mori Aoi looked even more distressed and began to fuss over him.
She leaned closer and checked his appearance with her eyes.
Wei Zhi was enjoying it at first, but then he got shy from her focused stare—especially when she tried to lift his shirt after not seeing any external injury.
"I escaped before anything could happen. I think it's only this cut that I got," Wei Zhi said, pointing to a tiny cut on his cheek.
It had been caused by the wind blown by the teacher's attack.
Mori Aoi leaned in closer to see, but she couldn't spot anything.
The cut was originally thin and hard to notice, but it got worse as it ran into the area hidden behind his hair.
"I can't see it," Mori Aoi pouted and wanted to lift his hair up.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Wei Zhi said quickly, grabbing her hand and bringing it down.
Then he placed his other hand on top of hers and rubbed it to assure her.
Mori Aoi was still not at ease, but then she felt the slight pressure of his thumb rubbing on her skin.
She looked down and saw their joined hands that were almost entwined.
Mori Aoi: !!
"Well, it looks like you're fine," she stuttered and quickly dragged her hand away.
Wei Zhi blushed and avoided her gaze shyly.
In his head though, he felt at a loss.
He also belatedly realized that there were other people there.
"What?" He gazed at the two who were looking at them with mischievous smirks.
"Actually, I'm also really hurt too," Ming Jun said exaggeratedly.
He was practically swooning.
"I don't think I'm going to make it," Shae Harris said even more dramatically, clutching her chest with a grimace.
"Shut up!" Wei Zhi snapped, his hands twitching as he actually considered throwing them down.
"Look how you treat an injured patient," Ming Jun said weakly. He crawled over to Mori Aoi and hid behind her, looking wronged.
"Ugh, I think my illness relapsed. Oh, I'm so pitiful," Shae Harris said, staggering over to Mori Aoi and collapsing on her lap.
"That... maybe you were too much," Mori Aoi said, turning to examine the two in distress.
Wei Zhi glared at them and they both shivered even more.
"That's enough," Mori Aoi said, blocking them by putting herself in front of Wei Zhi with her hands stretched at the sides.
"I didn't even do anything," Wei Zhi pouted.
Mori Aoi hesitated.
"You damaged my mental health," Shae Harris said, hugging Mori Aoi's waist while lying down.
"That's worse than physical injury," Ming Jun added, wiping a fake tear.
Mori Aoi looked at Wei Zhi with a complex expression and doubt.
Wei Zhi: wronged pouty face
Ming Jun and Shae Harris: smirk
Wei Zhi: pleading face with puppy eyes
"We were just joking because you looked so cute," Shae Harris said, rolling her eyes internally and squeezing Mori Aoi's cheek.
"Really?" Mori Aoi turned to Ming Jun.
"Yeah, I just wanted to tease you a bit," Ming Jun said with a small laugh.
"It's good that you guys are okay," Mori Aoi sighed in relief.
Shae Harris squealed and hugged her head, muttering about how cute she was.
"I don't think she can breathe," Wei Zhi said, dragging Shae Harris's hands away from the suffocated Mori Aoi.
"You'll kill her, you maniac," Ming Jun said, also dragging Shae Harris back.
The three of them tugged for a minute before finally separating the two girls.
Mori Aoi took in a huge breath and hit her chest lightly.
"Are you okay?" Wei Zhi asked, rubbing her back.
"Um, it was fun," Mori Aoi said with a small smile.
Shae Harris wanted to hug her again, but Ming Jun held her back while Wei Zhi took Mori Aoi away.
"Stop that!" the two boys chorused.
"I think we should focus on more important things," Ming Jun said, pointing at the lights glowing from a distance.
Meanwhile, Wei Zhi was pouting at Mori Aoi and looking away with a sad expression.
Mori Aoi grabbed his pinky and tugged at it while smiling cutely.
Wei Zhi was instantly defeated; he gave her a head rub and smiled back.
"By the way, what exactly happened to you guys that it ended up like this?" Wei Zhi asked, removing his hand.
Mori Aoi looked at his fallen hand in a daze.
"I had an epic fight with a monster... until I was surrounded and had to flee," Shae Harris started, her voice proud and excited at first, but low at the end.
"I was the first to complete my task, so I guess it started from me," Ming Jun chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Let's arrange it by the sequence of events and try to see how it happened this way," Wei Zhi offered.
Everyone agreed, including Mori Aoi, who had finally snapped out of her daze.
Ming Jun went first, of course.
He recounted his experience from the very beginning—the analyzing in the library to searching for the protagonist using masks.
He only remembered going through the classrooms, and the next thing he knew, the students were fleeing in panic.
He managed to gather from those panicked students that a student who was a cult member had been discovered.
The exact process was confusing, but Ming Jun eventually figured it out.
Basically, they thought his Korean words were a special curse, and a conflict occurred, leading to the uncovering of the cultist student.
"So you're saying this all started because you shouted Korean foods into a classroom?" Shae Harris said, clutching her stomach while trying not to laugh.
"Yes," Ming Jun said, rubbing his nose.
Shae Harris burst into laughter and rolled on the ground for a bit.
"I personally think you're the first person to become popular by destroying a school," Wei Zhi snickered.
Shae Harris gave him a high five and both laughed at Ming Jun while pointing at him.
"Alright then, let's hear your story," Ming Jun said, glaring at them.
"My journey was pretty cool..." Shae Harris began, going on an exaggerated narrative about her battle while gesturing actively.
In summary, she had found the dungeon by accident and went on a berserk mode while activating her skill.
Eventually, she was surrounded and had to flee.
"Yeah, and you ran straight into the panicked students," Ming Jun snorted and rolled his eyes.
"They ran into me! Besides, the monsters went into a frenzy and ignored me, so it's not my fault," Shae Harris shrugged.
"Maybe the meat was too tiny for them to eat. It's like comparing a strip to a full cow," Ming Jun teased, pinching her arm.
"I can't believe you were body-shamed by monsters. Really pathetic," Wei Zhi said, shaking his head.
Ming Jun laughed at Shae Harris while pointing at her.
Wei Zhi gave him a high five before joining in.
"Look, they're bullying me again!" Shae Harris pouted and clung to Mori Aoi.
"Um... I think it's my turn," Mori Aoi said softly, raising her hand.
"Of course," Ming Jun said immediately, stopping his laughter and giving her a calm look.
"You can do it," Wei Zhi said, giving her a thumbs-up and a soft, encouraging smile.
"What's with the difference? Why couldn't you be like that with me?" Shae Harris glared.
"You should think deep within yourself, and I'm sure the answer will appear instantly," Wei Zhi retorted.
"You—" Shae Harris grabbed his collar and started shaking him.
"I haven't said my story yet," Mori Aoi said, grabbing her arm.
"You're lucky she hasn't spoken yet. If not..." Shae Harris made a swipe across her neck to threaten him.
Wei Zhi coughed and shrank back, hiding behind Mori Aoi.
Mori Aoi began to speak about her experience.
Obviously, she didn't mention what happened in the hallway with Wei Zhi—and Wei Zhi didn't give her a weird look for not saying anything, because he was happy with her decision.
It felt like that moment was something special between the two of them.
Her reason, though, was probably because she was too embarrassed to mention it.
Still, Wei Zhi was comforted that she at least felt something toward him.
Anyway, Mori Aoi was trying to find the heroines when they actually appeared.
After seeing her red eyes, they misunderstood and thought she was part of the attackers.
Following the instinct of a protagonist, they struck first without evidence or thought.
In their heads, the power output wouldn't kill her because they still had things to find out.
But to Mori Aoi, who was attacked, it must have been scary.
Mori Aoi subconsciously raised a hand to her eyes behind her bangs, and her expression went vacant.
It wasn't that vacant look someone gets when they're lost in thought or daydreaming—no, it was the dazed sight that comes from wallowing in sorrow and despair.
When you sink so deep that it's hard to feel anything else but despair.
"Looks like we had the same problem, but you didn't face them and I did," Wei Zhi said, poking her with his elbow.
"Huh?? You did?" Mori Aoi snapped out of it.
"Yeah, but I was attacked by the actual cultist," Wei Zhi sighed at the memory.
"Yeah, so don't think too much about it. Those protagonists would attack any student they saw in the building," Ming Jun said.
"Those guys must either be overconfident or just plain dumb," Shae Harris said with disgust.
"They're definitely overconfident, alright. I mean, it's obvious to any rational person that Mori Aoi could never be a cultist," Wei Zhi said, crossing his arms.
"Plus, the princess has red eyes, and a lot of people in this kind of world have red, green, gold—even purple," Ming Jun said indignantly.
"Thank you, guys," Mori Aoi said, feeling touched by their words. She smiled brightly.
"Of course," Shae Harris said, winking at her.
"It's only me left," Wei Zhi said, watching Shae Harris vigilantly lest she grab Mori Aoi again.
He spoke up at that point once he saw her attempt.
Wei Zhi explained what had happened.
He had been looking around for hidden rooms or triggers when he stumbled upon the classroom where the first attack happened.
Wei Zhi gave them his analysis to explain how he knew the corpse was suspicious.
Then he narrated his encounter with the protagonist group and the subsequent actions that happened while they were together.
"But I also investigated that corpse and didn't notice anything," Shae Harris said, shivering at the thought of being so close to the teacher.
"Maybe the teacher hadn't switched the body by then. He might have been hiding outside the school building, then followed the protagonists in," Wei Zhi analyzed.
"But the protagonist group never saw him," Mori Aoi said in confusion.
"He was a teacher, so technically his knowledge of spells should be high-tier, meaning he could teleport to the corpse and set a trap for them if they came to investigate," Wei Zhi explained.
They all said, "Ohhh."
"You're really good at figuring things out," Shae Harris said, slapping his back.
Wei Zhi coughed and moved away from the violent girl.
"Yeah, you're really smart," Ming Jun added with a thumbs-up.
"I'm not actually smart. I just learned to observe things because I used to live in the slums. If you ask me math questions, then I have no answers," Wei Zhi said, shutting down their praise.
"Still, you're really good," Mori Aoi said, grabbing both his hands and looking at him with awe.
"Thank you," Wei Zhi stuttered, looking away from her face.
Shae Harris and Ming Jun clicked their tongues loudly.
Mori Aoi jumped back and looked away.
"So what now?" Wei Zhi coughed out.
"Our tasks are done," Shae Harris said, bringing out her screen.
"It says that we were meant to have other linked tasks, but we somehow brought all the plot factors into play," Mori Aoi read from her screen.
"So what does that mean for us?" Wei Zhi asked.
"I guess we're going to stay till the end of the plot," Ming Jun said.
"Then let's watch the show," Shae Harris said, buying popcorn from the item shop.
The four of them now held a bucket of popcorn and watched the battle.
Ming Jun and Shae Harris sat at the edge with their legs dangling over.
Mori Aoi and Wei Zhi sat closer to the wall, their legs folded on the ground—a step back from the edge.