I asked, "Who's this 'we'?"

His face and Elena's stiffened at the same moment.

Elena said, "Lea, don't get the wrong idea. We were going to come find you the second we finished cashing in the rewards."

"It's my fault. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"I didn't think about how you'd feel. Are you angry?"

Arthur's face darkened. "Why are you apologizing to her?"

I nodded like I agreed. "Right. Why are you apologizing to me?"

"Might as well just burn some funeral paper for me instead."

"You—!"

I spread my hands. "Didn't see that coming, did you? I had one point of HP left. I wasn't going to last. But I happened to be holding one very nice little item."

Arthur's disbelief was thick with rage.

"We had a stack of meds. We could've topped you right back up to a full hundred. What garbage are you spewing?"

I clapped and laughed.

"Yes, yes, we had so many meds."

I pointed at Elena. "Except the meds were all with her!"

I pointed at Arthur. "And she ran off with you!"

"You hear yourself yet?"

They both looked awkward, glanced at each other, then shifted their eyes away, uneasy.

I gave a cold laugh. These two didn't actually think I was shipping them, did they?

Things got a little awkward after that.

Arthur and Elena walked in front. I trailed behind.

The two of them had fought side by side countless times and cleared more high-level stages than they could count. They'd assumed a beginner mission was a sure thing. Both of them had badly underestimated what losing fifty percent of their talent points would do.

Not just stamina, endurance, defense, intelligence, luck—all slashed by half.

Even their starting HP was only fifty.

After one more hit from the flying small fry, another point gone, Arthur finally snapped.

"Aaaargh!"

"Leona!"

"I should've just let you die in that stage!"

Elena had stopped bothering with pretty words too. She agreed with him.

My blade came down, and I took the head off a small monster trying to sneak up on me.

"Finally saying what you really think?"

Arthur's pupils quaked.

"Why isn't your agility affected?"

Because I'd made a deal with the devil, of course. In exchange for never being able to leave the game for the rest of my life, I got to ignore the item's downside.

I gave a slight smile.

"Secret."

The moment I said it, both their expressions twisted for an instant.

What followed was jealousy and resentment they couldn't hide.

They couldn't stand it—that the person who'd dragged them back down to hell hadn't been touched, and was now standing above them.

In that one shared glance, they'd already made their decision.

The same sly curl at the corners of their mouths.

Every time they wanted to hurt someone, or seize someone else's item, they always fell into this same silent, practiced move.

The habit probably went back to a stage a long time ago: the mirror stage.

It was a stage that only allowed teams of two, and the two of them used the bonding item at the same moment.

Back then, I'd thought that one was my boyfriend and one was my best friend, and both of them would want to pick me.

I didn't know how the stage would make its choice. I only worried for whoever would be left out.

I never imagined the one left out would be me.

The mirror stage was a six-month survival game. It made two teammates live through everything the other had lived through, so the two of them could read each other's unspoken pain, ache for each other, worry over each other, and at the same time learn each other's strengths and weaknesses.

At the end of the game, they had to kill each other.

Some couldn't bring themselves to do it. Some fell together.

And me, I had my finest hour in that game.

I killed so fast, so surely, that my other teammate couldn't believe it. "Why?"

"Why didn't you hesitate, not even for a second?"

I answered him, "I always knew. No matter what feelings the game grew in me for you, you were never going to be my teammate."

But once I cleared the stage, I found out. Arthur chose to kill himself. Elena chose to die with him.

I stood in the game lobby, staring at the two names gone gray, and said nothing for a very long time.

In the end I entered the cruelest one, the thousand-player deathmatch, to buy them two chances at revival.

And I accepted the penalty of never being able to add talent points again.

After they came back, Arthur and Elena wouldn't say a word about what had happened in the game.

They only said I was their savior, and that they'd protect me with everything they had.

Protecting me was a very convenient excuse.

So they had endless things to talk about, and called it discussing tactics.

They kept secrets I wasn't allowed in on, told me I didn't need to know, that I only had to sit tight and wait for the game to be cleared.

Always the two of them, side by side. When I asked, they both smiled with contempt. "Please. We're the ones going out to fight. Not like you, breezing through a clear without lifting a finger."

In that moment, it wasn't jealousy I felt. It was shame.

I was a game-certified player too. I'd survived a thousand-player deathmatch, which proved I was no dead weight.

How could they talk about me that way?

But I could no longer add talent points, which meant that as the game grew harder, my position grew more dangerous.

All I could do was stay silent, and let them mock me, belittle me, and, laughing all the while, strip away my chances to grow, all under the name of protecting me.

Swallowing humiliation to carry the load is a required course in a survival game too.

Right now, I wore the exact same smile.

I'd watched it too many times. I'd learned it.

Arthur said, "Leona, we're a team. Before, you were weak, so we protected you. Now that we're… shouldn't you be the one protecting us?"

He swallowed the word "weak." His pride wouldn't let him admit he'd become weak.

I nodded.

"Weaklings, get behind me."

Both their faces went dark, and in the same stride, at the same moment, they stepped back.

I rolled my eyes.

I swung my dagger, the wind whipping off my hand.

My experience points and contribution points kept climbing.

Even so, they still ended up battered down to 30 HP.

This was only the first day, and the survival mission ran seven.

Time in the stage moved fast. As their stamina dropped, they both started to feel hunger.

According to the prompt, the supplies were hidden in the cellar.

Looking at the pitch-black hole with no bottom in sight, the two of them turned to me at the same time.

I was the only one who could go down.

Gripping the moss-slick ladder, I climbed for about ten minutes before my feet hit the bottom.

The game stocked its rookie missions generously. There was none of the late-game desperation, ten people clawing over a single dry ration cracker.

Still, I gathered every last supply and pulled it all into my personal inventory.

Elena's voice drifted down from above. "Lea, are there supplies?"

I didn't answer. I bit into a soft bread roll and waited.

Arthur's voice came next, edged with impatience.

"Leona, toss the supplies up here first!"

I cracked open another electrolyte drink.

"Leona, listen to me. If you know what's good for you, throw the supplies up. If you don't, we'll seal this cellar shut."

"The exit for clearing the stage is back at the island entrance. If you can't get out, you'll stay in this dungeon until you die."

I took my time. "And if I hand the supplies over, what happens when you two go back on your word?"

"You don't have a choice! Leona, you owe us this!"

"If it weren't for you, how would we have ended up back in this hellhole?"

Full and satisfied, I leaned against the wall to rest and let Arthur shout and rage.

Eventually he stopped. "Leona, come up. Elena and I are both critically low on stamina. We need the supplies."

I still didn't so much as flinch.

Arthur tried a few more times, then lost his patience and turned to Elena. "Let's find a torch and burn the cellar down. We'll look for another supply point."

"Lea's still down there."

"Forget about her. She doesn't care about us either."

I smiled.

One playing the villain, one playing the friend.

Then Elena started coaxing me. "Lea, come up quick. I can't hold Arthur off much longer."

"Ah——"

A giant wild monster came lunging out, and it took everything the two of them had to put it down.

【At nightfall, small monsters appear on the island, and the temperature drops. Player HP falls by 1 point per hour. Please find a safe house for shelter.】

【Nearest safe house: the cellar.】

Arthur and Elena scrambled for the opening. The moment they touched the wet, slick ladder, it slipped right out of their hands.

Arthur nearly fell straight in.

If his talent points hadn't been slashed, a tumble into the cellar wouldn't have mattered.

But the Arthur of now would shatter to pieces from a single fall.

"Leona!"

I answered, all smiles. "Yes?"

"Should I toss a torch down into the cellar now?"