John sighed and looked at the sky. Having just been claimed by Fateweaving, he was lying back in the intermediary barrier, his HP nearly depleted. Since Gamer’s Body prevented that from being a debilitating issue, Undine was prioritizing fixing up those girls that had visible injuries. Fateweaving pulled away from the moment of death, but previous injuries were still maintained while they remained inside the Illusion Barrier.

‘I suppose knowing that Fateweaving triggers before my Second Wind is valuable information,’ he thought and sat up. Undine had split to tend to everyone at the same time and John’s mana regeneration aided her in that task. Once they were stitched back together, the harem discussed what to do next.

“So, we trying that again?” Rave asked the most important question upfront.

“Hmm…” John crossed his arms and finalized his thoughts. He had considered the question while waiting and had a definitive answer ready. “No, let’s not,” he said. “We probably could beat that first mob pack if we tried a couple more times. I don’t think that’s an effective way to spend our time though. I doubt quite a bit that the rest of the Raid is going to be any easier, so let’s revisit this during the next grinding session.”

“So ya gonna go Assaulting now?”

“Let’s check out the Adventure first,” John responded. “We can check that out quickly, might be worth the detour. Plus, we might be able to take Eliza and Scarlett along.” He got on his feet and pulled Rave up after him. “But if that fails, it’s just Assault grinding, yeah.”

_____________________________________________________________________

John scratched his head and looked over all of that. Then he looked around. They were inside a space station of some description. Everything had that sci-fi gleam to it, plastic and polished metal being the dominant materials. There was a fair bit of charm to the furniture though, couches, wooden shelves and potted plants standing around everywhere. There were two gates, sealed by interlocking plates of metal. Evidently, they weren’t supposed to learn about the environment ahead of time. As for the button the rules mentioned, it was a comically large red one at the centre of a white conference table.

Circular windows of varying sizes let the group look outside. The vastness of the universe expanded beyond the glass, black and covered with stars. Despite this, John and everyone else walked around as if this was earth.

To some, this was an odd experience.

“I can’t fly, I can’t fly? I can’t fly!” Sylph blabbered while hopping on the spot. “That’s weird. I mean, I walked around normally before, but I could always fly if I wanted to. Would have been stupid, really stupid, but ya know how it is. It’s weird, really weird.”

“Pretty weird, yeah,” Salamander agreed.

“Unfamiliar to say the least.” Siena looked at the shadow she couldn’t sink into.

“It is very weird,” the Gamer agreed, holding his head. All mental connections were dulled to the point he could only sense their presence. By the way the rules were formulated, John guessed he wouldn’t even be able to feel them ‘die’. All of that was necessary to maintain the fairness of the game. Not even the Mandala Sphere worked. His contact lenses still did, albeit without all of their enchantments.

Eliza sniffed, blinked and rubbed her ears, mumbling a number of curse words about the weakness of her senses. John could empathize with that as well. His own senses were vastly inferior to hers, but they were still superhuman. Now they were brought down to somewhere in the average human ballpark.

It was an odd experience, but it was also unnerving. Although he believed Gaia that she did this only to ensure the game was fairly played, it still served as a reminder of her all-encompassing power. Just by her willing it, they were demoted to regular people. All work, trials and tribulations amounted to nothing when the supreme deity wanted something.

‘Finding myself incredibly thankful for that non-involvement policy again…’ the Gamer thought. He had been used and thrown around by many powers above himself. Difficult as it would be, retaliating against the Horned Rat or Romulus was at least possible. There was no defeating the mind that dreamed up reality. “Do we want to play a game?” John asked. “Chances are we can’t leave after it starts, but the rewards may be worth it.”

“My personal opinion on the matter,” Lydia said, “is that we might as well.”

“Yes, we should,” a deep voice chimed in. Stirwin wagged his tail with anticipation. The crocodile was Unleashed in Stage 2, making him a very impressive, golden-scaled lizard. In terms of size, he was still in the reasonable category, but the long limbs and sharp teeth elevated him above the respect one would give a regular water dragon. “A game sounds fun.”

“It does indeed,” Copernicus added. The two light spirits seemed rather eager to engage in a round of deception. John understood that. They were honest by nature, so having a sanctioned way to go and cause some mischief was likely of interest to them.

“I say,” Siena’s sensuous voice cut into the conversation, soft like a midnight black veil settling on their heads, “we need,” she practically moaned that word, “to play it.” The shadow spirit just generally revelled in spreading confusion, so it was no surprise she jumped at the opportunity.

“You are aware that you have a lower chance of being Imposter than Crewmate, yeah?” John asked.

“I’m willing to take that risk.” Siena grinned.

“Regardless of Siena’s m-m-murderboner,” Gnome stumbled a bit over the embarrassing word (at least she seemed to find it embarrassing), “we need to get the Adventure done to open the next one so… we might as well…?”

“Well, guess we’re all on the same page then.” John looked around to check for any last-minute disagreements. “Let’s play a game.” He walked over to the large, metal table in the middle of the room. There was a comically big, red button at the centre of it, covered with a glass lid. It was secured on the table on one side with a hinge, letting John lift the cover and then hit the button.

BEEEP!

The alarm sound seemed to ring directly in John’s ears as he was suddenly teleported to another position at the table. No matter where in the room they had been previously, the remaining fifteen players were all conjured to a position along the oval curvature. Copernicus was the only one who was summoned on top of the table, while Stirwin was given a podium to stand on.

John looked up from his window to see everyone else stare at something in the air in front of them. “Just to confirm, you all got a Quest that rewards a level and some permanent Stats, yes?” he asked.

“Yup,” Scarlett confirmed. “Complete with a ‘do not ruin this’ warning.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. “Let’s hope this’ll be entertaining.”

Siena clicked her tongue.

‘Alright, Siena is clear then,’ John thought to himself but kept that information to himself for the moment. There were four Imposters among them and there were a couple of women here that John knew could come up with plots complicated enough to smash his own. Worse than that, there were a couple of girls that would be impossible to read.

“Imma go, go do my tasky tasks, tasks over in a part of the ship, yes, yes, I’ll go there and get done and get this game won by doing my tasks!” Sylph declared and started marching away from the table with rigid motions. That would have been incredibly suspicious with other girls. With Sylph that didn’t differ at all from her normal behaviour.

Metra slammed the button.

BEEEEP!

Sylph was teleported back to the table. A menu opened before everyone, listing everyone alive and showing a little icon of their face next to it. Above the button hovered a cube, every side of it showing the same number, counting down from sixty. That seemed to be the countdown until they all had to have voted. John also found himself unable to move more than half a step away from his spot at the table.

“Let’s vote off Beatrice!” the First of Wrath declared.

“…Why?” John asked.

“Because fuck her, that’s why.” The blonde berserker grinned from ear to ear. “No, but seriously, I want to see what that ejection would look like and I think it’d be funny.”

“Statement: Metra wasted a precious resource for a joke. Alternative explanation: she is trying to make herself look innocent by pulling a stunt early.”

“So ya saying Metra is sus?”

“Sus?” John asked.

“Suspicious but short and sweet.”

“Ah… well, I don’t think Beatrice said Metra is suspicious at all. She was just presenting different viewpoints.”

“As Master wisely presents,” Aclysia chimed in, “we must weigh the different possibilities.”

“I vote Beatrice!” Sylph declared and hit the menu in front of her.

“Fucking same!” Eliza shouted.

“At least some people have a brain.” Metra grinned.

“Declaration: you have Sylph on your side and you do not possess a centralized nervous system. Talking about intellect is not suiting your side.”

“I agree with Beatrice,” Aclysia remarked.

Stirwin chuckled, “You are all insane, no offense.”

“Maybe we should vote off the crocodile?” Copernicus suggested.

“How about we vote you off, cat?” the infinity elemental returned with a growl.

Undine tilted her head. “Why did you instantly deflect?”

Before Stirwin could come up with an answer, Nia chimed in, “No accusing the cute animals.”

“E-everyone...”

“Giving Stirwin and Copernicus carte blanche will not aid us,” Undine responded to the blonde.

“You know what? This game is already catering to all my desires,” Siena giggled.

“S-seriously…you ne-need to listen…”

“I still think we should all vote Beatrice.”

“Response: we should skip.”

Aclysia shook her head. “No, at this point Metra is making herself too suspicious. I say we vote her out.”

“Listen to me!” Gnome raised her voice loud enough to overpower the chaos for a moment. “Whatever you vote for, you need to do it now! We’re almost out of time and if you don’t vote at all, that’s worse than skipping.”

John had been so distracted with internally chuckling at the arguments that he had forgotten to check the timer himself. Hastily, he hammered the skip button, barely getting it in at the last second. The countdown finished and everyone’s icons appeared underneath whoever they had voted.

Most people hadn’t voted at all, which meant their votes weren’t doing anything, but they also didn’t counteract the votes someone else had accumulated. Only John, Gnome and Beatrice had voted to skip. That, as it turned out, was not enough to overcome the votes to eject the passive maid. There were the outspoken three, Eliza, Sylph and Metra. If it had been limited to them, then the tie would have meant that nothing happened. However, Siena and Salamander had joined the vote.

A tube lowered down on Beatrice, out of nowhere. “I’ll be diligently finishing my Tasks,” the passive maid said with a bow before being vacuumed out of the room at a comically quick speed. Several screens across the room flickered to life, or just appeared in the middle of the air, showing the passive maid tumble through the nothing outside the space station. She was as rigid as a salt pillar. That was normal though. She didn’t seem to be in pain, despite what the emptiness of space should have done to her.

‘I guess Gaia is being nice to us for being her private game show,’ John thought while looking at Metra. He spared himself the question of why this had just happened. The First of Wrath was struggling to breathe, held onto the table as she kept laughing. Salamander cackled and Siena giggled behind a raised hand. All of it didn’t hold a candle to Eliza crazily screaming her glee at the world.

‘Beatrice was NOT an Imposter!’ the screen spelled out.

“My bad, I guess,” Metra managed to say.

“Yeah, you’re bad, alrighty,” Rave drily returned. “Note to self: don’t forget to press the skip button.”

Despite the stupidity of the situation, or maybe entirely because of it, John couldn’t help but grin. It wasn’t as if they were going to lose anything valuable by playing optimally. They would all get the level, which was the best reward. The one extra Stat Point gotten by staying alive, at their level of power, wasn’t worth any feelings of regret.

“Well, let’s keep that this just happened in mind,” he said.

“John is happy that someone was voted off, that’s sus!” Sylph declared.

“Kinda is,” John admitted. “Anyway, we have too little information to work with, so I guess we should just go do our Tasks. That’s the sure-fire way to win the game anyway.”