I once again witnessed just how brutal this game was. The tension that had already been stretched tight inside me pulled even tighter.

“Today’s notice: The church is a sacred place. Anyone who lies here will have their tongue cut off.”

I clamped my mouth shut after hearing that, no longer daring to say the words “I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Are you an impostor?”

The hot-headed guy in chains grabbed someone at random and barked the question.

“I’m not.”

Nothing happened. The man was not lying.

The hothead shoved him aside and grabbed another by the collar, asking the same question.

“Are you an impostor?”

…

He went through ten people in a row and nothing happened.

This was until the eleventh.

“Are you an impostor?”

“I… I… I…”

“Talk! Or I’ll kill you!”

As he spoke, the hothead slammed the man to the ground, straddled him, and wrapped both hands tightly around his throat.

Within minutes, the man’s face turned ashen, barely clinging to life.

With the last of his strength, he forced out three words,

“I’m not.”

The hothead let him go after that.

The man finally got a chance to breathe, but what came next was far worse.

Foam poured from his mouth as his whole body convulsed on the ground, like he was having a seizure.

After a series of spasms, he suddenly went still. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and a chunk of flesh about the size of an egg slipped out.

If I was not mistaken, that chunk of flesh was his own tongue, bitten clean off.

That was the price of lying in the church.

Seeing that it worked, the hothead grew even more energized and continued questioning.

This is bad! He was going to use this rule to check everyone.

I briefly thought about faking a faint to get out of this.

Still, after thinking it through, that would not work. It would only be a temporary escape.

Even if I avoided it today, the next round of voting would definitely target anyone who did not answer.

In the blink of an eye, he had already gone through more than half the group. If I did not figure something out, I would end up just like that guy.

“Are you an impostor?”

Perhaps my guilty expression gave me away. He skipped past several people and came straight for me, asking with absolute certainty.

I did not answer for a long time, which only deepened his suspicion.

He used the same move again. One hand clamping around my neck.

“Last chance. Are you going to answer or not?”