In a Civilized Manner

[FINAL EXAM] LECTURE HALL. LABYRINTH 53.

PLAYER [EDRIS] 'S MAIN QUEST:

Confess to your unrequited love during the [FINAL EXAM]!

TIME LIMIT: 00:01:16:03

Updating [MAIN QUEST] status now…

[MAIN QUEST] status updated!

Congratulations! You have completed the [MAIN QUEST]!

Updating [PLAYER PROFILE] now…

Before Edris could close up the message, another popped up on his profile and overlayed it.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE HIDDEN QUEST “Find out the [PRINCIPAL]’s secret!”

TIME LIMIT: 15 minutes

REWARD: The Real Story of Weisha

He paused mid-movement. Since he and Ace were bound together in this Labyrinth, the former’s actions were reflected in the latter’s interface. Especially in situations like this, having an additional hand proved to be especially useful.

“Looks like he succeeded.”

The last time he was in the Principal’s Office, he noticed a book on the back shelves that was slightly different from the rest. He figured it might have something to do with the [HIDDEN QUEST] and, if lucky, the Labyrinth as a whole, so the plan was for Ace to retrieve it while all the professors were preoccupied with the [FINAL EXAM].

They had agreed on the entrance of the academic building as their meet-up point once Ace had gotten hold of the book.

Edris stepped off the stage and was confronted with Owein’s gaze. The man bore a complicate expression on his face, and his lips parted multiple times in an attempt to say something, but no words ultimately came out.

Edris pressed a hand on his shoulder, smiling.

Owein’s expression only worsened.

Ignoring the man’s reaction, Edris calmly minimized both messages on his interface and redirected his attention to the situation at hand.

All students must follow Rule #5 of the academy, which included praying at the sound of the [BELL]. But he didn’t expect the [BELL] to exert the same effect on professors as well.

In the original plan, he would activate the [BLAZING TORRENT] to hinder the professors if they were to get in his way, but with the current outcome, he ended up with a card to spare.

Not bad.

Edris nodded in satisfaction and took off his [EARPLUGS]. He skimmed the rest of the room.

The ringing of the [BELL] had ceased, but it still took some time for students to snap out of the daze. Among the students, he caught sight of the seven-year-old. As if sensing his gaze, Ives looked back with a nod.

Near the window, one student managed to pull himself to his feet. Mind still foggy, he peered through the window, blinking rapidly to adjust to the light outside.

The music tower was in utter shambles. The [BELL], an irreplaceable part of their daily routine for the past months, now suffered countless cracks and crevices as it laid toppled near the academic building.

He then turned his gaze to the ink spilt all over the table and floor, the shreds of test paper on the ground…

The test papers that he and many other students deemed as equivalent to their lives up until this moment. He stared at the pieces of paper for a long time, half expecting them to become shards of knives and come for his throat.

However, nothing happened.

After all, it was just paper.

The student’s nose grew sour.

Why didn’t he realize this earlier?

It was just paper.

A delayed rush of adrenaline ran throughout his body, and he felt as if he could accomplish anything.

He felt a light tap on his shoulder,

The student turned around to a young man peering towards him, a gentle smile on his face. Behind him stood a bob-haired girl, looking no older than an elementary school student.

“You good?” The girl asked.

Although harsh, her voice was a familiar one. The student blinked. If he recalled correctly, prior to all the chaos that unfolded, the one who spoke up first and told them to fight for their freedom seated in the row behind his own.

At the time, he’d been too afraid to lift his head in fear of himself being accused of cheating, so it was only now it hit him that the first cry of change belonged to someone so young.

He must have been zoning out, because the older man was waving a hand to his face. He tilted his head to the side.

“Are you alright?” Different from the little girl, his tone was much more soft-spoken.

“Yeah.” The student cleared his throat. “Yeah, I am.”

At his response, the man's eyes curled into crescents. “Good! I just wanted to say that I was quite impressed after seeing you rip up the test package earlier.”

His compliment seemed so out-of-nowhere yet genuine that the student found heat rushing to his cheeks. During the protest, he was so caught up in his head that he didn’t even register himself mimicking the actions around him. He awkwardly rubbed the nape of his neck.

“My efforts are nothing worth mentioning…”

“C'mon, no need to be humble.”

The next second, the student found the man gripping onto both his shoulders.

“Everybody’s efforts make a difference. Yours especially.” He stared intently into his eyes. “This is only the beginning, but it is a good beginning. We need people like you to make things change for the better. Don’t you think so?”

“Y-yeah!” The student nodded along with his words. He didn’t expect his own presence to hold such an impact, but what would someone like him gain by lying?

The man stepped back with an amicable smile. He glanced over his shoulder to the little girl behind him. The latter only scoffed in response. Under the student's confused gaze, she dug into her blazer pockets and pulled out a sticker. She tossed it to the dark-haired man, who turned to him once more.

“Please accept this honour badge as a token of our admiration." He said. With a wink, he then leaned forward in a whisper, "I hope you understand. My little sister there is a bit shy, so she dragged me here to ask you on her behalf."

At his words, the student glanced down. The sticker was half the size of her palm and hand-drawn in the shape of a “thumbs-up.” However, the thumb was disproportionate to the rest of the hand, giving it a caricatured appearance. The lime green fill-in did not help with the aesthetic.

That is a damn ugly honour badge—was the student’s first thought upon seeing it.

However, he glanced around and witnessed many other students wearing the same sticker. Not wanting to disappoint the young girl’s good intentions, he took the sticker from the dark-haired man's hand and, under the two's anticipatory gaze, pressed it onto his left chest pocket.

“Thank you for this badge.” He mustered a smile.

“You’re very welcome.” Edris did the same.

As the two parted ways, his smile dropped immediately. He turned back to the seven-year-old with a small thumbs up.

Since they were in the public with both players and natives, Ives still had to maintain her [ROLE] to prevent her [AFFINITY] from dropping. That said, actively going around and handing out stickers wouldn't align with her given personality, hence she’d asked for Edris’s helping hand.

At that moment, she heard a monotone voice echo in her head, along with a message that filled the centre of her vision.

PLAYER [IVES] 'S MAIN QUEST:

Establish a secret organisation!

TIME LIMIT: 00:00:19:03

Updating [MAIN QUEST] status now…

[MAIN QUEST] status updated!

Congratulations! You have completed the [MAIN QUEST]!

Updating [PLAYER PROFILE] now…

Ives’s [MAIN QUEST] was to establish a secret organisation. She didn’t forget.

Edris had suggested she prioritise her own [MAIN QUEST] first before participating in the plan, but Ives refused. Although she knew Edris had good intentions, she didn’t want to left behind.

For her, being useful to the team was more important than surviving on her own.

Fortunately, both proved to be a success.

During the past two months in the Labyrinth, she’d been testing what kinds of actions count towards creating a “secret organisation.”

What comprised an organisation? Naturally, it was the people in it.

However, the way the Labyrinth was structured made it bound to be difficult for her to recruit others to voluntarily join, especially with all the clashing interests. Rather than coming up with sign-up sheet or recruiting students by telling them to “join this secret organisation!” Ives thought it’d be better to re-evaluate the task.

That is, to the advantage of the other portion of the quest.

Secrecy.

She was going to create an organisation so secretive that even the members themselves didn’t know they were a part of.

“Hey!”

Her thoughts were interrupted as No. 39 jumped into her view. The woman swung her arm around her shoulders and pressed her palm onto her head, ruffling her hair in the process.

“Look at you, Miss Change Maker.” No. 39 beamed. You’ve got some mighty aspirations for such a tiny body.”

On her left cheek was the sticker symbolic of Ives’s secret organisation. No. 39 was the first person that Ives reached out to recruit.

Ives lowered her gaze, a light pink tinting her own cheeks.

“I can’t wait to see how MW will be reformed,” No. 39 continued to speak. “We’ve kicked off a revolution in such a prestigious academy. Maybe it’s the start to changing the world!”

Ives’s smile faded as she felt a tug at her heart.

Indeed, to the native students and players like No. 39 who had assimilated into their [ROLE], Labyrinth 53 was their entire world.

How would she act if she learned that, to people like Ives, the Labyrinth was merely an obstacle they must surmount to return to the real world?

Edris watched as the seven-year-old seemed to be deep in thought. He didn’t approach her and instead steered his gaze to the outside.

After surfing the [BELL] across the campus, Celio had crashed into the base of one of the buildings, burying himself under the debris. Knowing that Edris was watching, the boy’s arms pushed through the mountain of rubble and gave a thumbs up.

After making sure Celio was alive, Edris retracted his gaze.

It was then he realized something was wrong.

His smile stiffened halfway. Edris swerved his head around and scanned the lecture hall.

All the professors were gone.

An ominous feeling rose within him, and the next second, his premonition was verified by the subtle rumbling beneath their feet.

There was no mistaking it.

Although the damage caused by the [BELL] didn’t reach their floor, there was an undeniable shake below their feet.

This floor—no, the entire building was on the brink of collapsing.

Edris attempted to open the lecture hall’s windows, only for his efforts to be futile. Even when the explosion earlier sent pieces of the tower flying against the sixth-floor windows, these seemingly brittle barriers had shown no signs of caving in.

The entire student body was locked in, and the professors knew that.

Edris let out a cold laugh.

“So this was what the Labyrinth was waiting for.”

He should have considered this earlier.

If a certain number of people—players or not—were required to die every Labyrinth, the players’ completion of their [MAIN QUEST] no longer guaranteed survival.

Edris and the others managed to sabotage the [FINAL EXAM], therefore severing the main pathway in which Labyrinth would reach the death threshold.

So, the Labyrinth resorted to a Plan B.

Within seconds, Edris had reached this new conclusion. He contemplated using the Tempest as a distraction to escape, but he doubted it’d do any practical harm since the Tempest’s strength largely lay in inflicting psychological illusion.

Did the Labyrinth even have a mind?

The rumble beneath him was growing more prominent by the second. Edris quickly glanced across the room and made eye contact with Owein, who, by the look on his face, had reached the same conclusion.

Without hesitation, Edris lunged forward.

Ives was still conversing with No. 39 when she felt an arm wrapped around her waist. Before she could process the situation, Edris had yanked her over and carried her out like a log.

Both Owein and Edris dashed towards the door.

Their abrupt movement caught the attention of some other students, and it didn’t take long for them to catch on to what was happening.

“The building is falling apart!” Someone yelled.

The first voice shot out, chaos followed.