Aether opened his eyes, finding himself seated on a seat with many others like him. He tried to get up, but he was stopped by the chains that locked him to the chair. Tensing his muscles, he tried one last time, but to no avail yet again.

He sighed, looking around at his surroundings. He was seated at a table, with many other humans, also strapped to their own seats. Some looked confused, some were nervous, and some were even breaking down in front of him.

But the most important thing in the room was the cards sitting on the table, twenty to be exact. Yet they were flipped head down, so he wasn't able to see what was said on it.

They were also conveniently just in reach.

Nothing happened, well, at least not until all of them woke up, which was when they heard a voice from above.

"Please, pick up a card. Do not show anyone else."

Aether was surprised by the voice, since it belonged to the fisherman. Yet he was nowhere to be seen. But he wanted to win the game as soon as possible, to now only to get out of that place, back to Azel, but also finally find the whereabouts of the second-to-last Knight.

So he reached with his hand, many following his lead, until no card rested on the table.

There was one thing he had noticed when picking the card. There were no shadows in this place, for whatever reason.

He had wanted to ask them which card was best for him to choose, but since they were nonexistent in the room, he just trusted his gut.

Taking one deep breath, he flipped the card, revealing a king of spades.

...

"Now that each has a card, I'll explain the rules. There will be two murderers, who will be able to kill someone. But only one at a time, they can't both kill someone on a night, but they can't communicate without telling others that they are the murderers, so it won't be so easy. If it does happen that they both choose someone different to kill, no one will die. After someone is killed, or if the murderers fail to do so, a voting round will start, where you will be able to vote someone off, or just skip it. The card you have represents a role; there are 7 different cards. We have The Abyss, which is the king of spades; they are the murderers."

...

'Shit.'

Aether tried not to frown, cursing his bad luck. He knew what kind of game this was, and he knew that being the murderer was never ideal. Yes, it was harder to die, but you won't ever win. And did they really have to name the role The Abyss? Things were also worse since there were two. Yes, having someone to help you was nice, but the rule about choosing someone different made things more difficult than they needed to be.

It also seemed... that he won't know who the other murderer is...

He tried to keep his face from frowning, so that no one would be suspicious of him at the bat.

"The jack of hearts, Praise. The hero of the people, who will have the ability to make someone reveal their card to them between each round. Yet, looking at cards too much, their card will also be revealed.

What kind of addition was this? Why were the roles named after the gods of the world?

"The ten of diamonds, the mayor, his vote will count as two."

So not all were changed, interesting to say the least. But either way, in his opinion, this was one of the best roles to have, since it allowed you to more over vote whoever you want out. Even if most people were voting for someone else, if the votes are close, yes.

The mayor was a very powerful role in the end game, since not only did having two votes make Praise want to work with you, but it wasn't such a scary role for the Abyss for you to be targeted if you did tell everyone what card you had.

"The ace of hearts, the doctor, his life is worth millions, since he can save someone each night. But only if the one they chose is targeted by the Abyss. He also can't save himself."

While the mayor was a role that wasn't always targeted first, the doctor was.

For the Abyss, killing someone each round was very important; yes, there were times when not killing anyone was worth it. But letting Praise more time to use their abilities was not something smart to do. And while in this addition, their card is also shown if they stare at cards too much, whatever that means, it was still not something he wished to do.

"The six of clubs, the journalist, someone with the abilities to talk to the dead, and ask questions, yet the dead aren't always the nicest, they have just been killed after all. They may hold a grudge against whoever talks to them. And only between rounds."

This was also a role he loved to play. It was balanced in his opinion, but it was also a role that was targeted quite a lot by murderers who were scared of being found because of the dead. Not knowing that the dead don't usually know who killed them.

"The two of hearts, the twins, while they gain the advantage to automatically know the other. If one dies, then so do the others."

He went back on his word; this was the worst role. It was strange, since normally, when one twin dies, the other remains alive. But this was a different addition to the game, so it would make sense that not everything was the same.

Still, he was happy he hadn't gotten that card, since if he had, then he wouldn't have survived for long, he was sure of that.

"And finally, one of the diamonds, the civilians. They don't have any kind of ability in the game, they just have to survive..."

There were seven roles, with twenty people, and two mafia. Which meant that there were sixteen civilians, which was... a lot to take care of.

...

"Many of you may have already guessed the game and realized it was different from normal. And that... some roles were missing, specifically those to help the Abyss. It's because this addition is supposed to make it harder for them to win. For the others, you will all survive if the Abyss is voted out.

...

Good luck."

...

'Bastard...'

What were the chances of him getting the role that was hardest to win when the game host wanted him to lose?

It was rigged from the beginning!

And to make it worse, he couldn't even use Shadow Speech to help him escape from this situation. So how was he supposed to win this game, without even knowing his own teammate?

He had said that the game was made for the Abyss role to be harder, but wasn't this too much? Not only were there so many roles against it, without any to help it, but you also didn't know who else got it.

What if he killed his teammate?

He sighed, looking at the others to see if there was any sort of giveaway.

In this game, there was a teenage boy, around his age, an old grandma, a mother with her child in her arms, a man who seemed to be in his twenties, an adolescent girl blowing chewing gum, a farmer, an office worker, and many others.

There was information, and many speculations could be made from just looks or acting, but those could be wrong. Anyone here could be a good actor; no one knows who is telling the truth and who is lying.

So while someone like the teenage girl who seemed confident and arrogant looked like they would be someone with an important role, maybe even his teammate, she could be trying to hide that she was a civilian.

Looks, acting, and words can be deceiving; the best way to win, at least for him, was to plant traps and figure things out with the game, never at the beginning.

...

"So... why don't we try to figure everything out together..."

The office worker was the first to break the silence, something that automatically made him suspicious, at least in his eyes, the one to say the first word always had a reason. But most wouldn't consider this.

The mother looked at him with worried eyes, nodding her head, as she slowly calmed her baby.

"Yeah, let's just get this over, shall we?"

The girl said, hitting the table with her hand repeatedly, showing her impatience and desire to speed things up. And while this had made her the target for most, thinking her insolence was going to be a nuisance... he was actually on her side.

It was the first round, they knew nothing, and had just met each other; it was hard to say who was who. That way, the best decision was for everyone to skip the voting. Of course, he was the Abyss, so if he had the chance to try and get someone out, he was going to do it.

...

But as I was about to add salt to the wound, the man in his twenties spoke up.

"Wow, wow, let's calm down a little. It isn't good to vote for someone this early. Do you want to give an advantage to the Abyss? We will skip the voting, trust me. I'm a detective in real life, so I know what's best."

'Damn it.

...

Just when he tried, things would go his way... this guy came out and got everyone on his side. So no one was voted out.

...

But... it was his time.

...

The light went out as someone spoke to him.

"You are the only one to hear this. Who do you wish to kill? Just point to someone."

He grinned, finding his target.

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