The place where the accusation happened was not close.

Tyler realized that almost immediately when the alert appeared in his glasses and the distance marker shifted on the edge of the AR display. The system showed that the voting site was happening somewhere deeper beyond the fruit-gathering zone, near one of the eastern forest paths.

Too far to reach before the opening exchange finished.

So instead of wasting breath immediately, Tyler slowed just enough to watch the live feed projected inside his AR glasses while moving through the trees.

The display opened in front of him like a transparent floating screen.

The system updated.

[Who is the Jobless?]

Then the names appeared.

[Chosen No. 5 — Vivi]

[Chosen No. 53 — Tansy]

Tyler’s eyes sharpened.

Not Dale this time.

The live visual expanded.

He saw Tansy standing in a clearing surrounded by participants already gathering around the vote zone. Her posture was steady—arms folded, shoulders relaxed, no visible panic.

That alone immediately made her stand apart from Kennedy yesterday.

In one hand she held a large blue flower.

It resembled a sunflower, but the petals were sharper, darker, and almost metallic in tone beneath the light.

Rare enough that Tyler guessed it matched her assigned task exactly.

Beside her stood the accuser.

A woman unlike most participants Tyler had seen so far.

Tall and lean, carrying herself with obvious cultivated poise rather than raw survival instinct. Her hair was dense and curly, shining with an unusual gold-silver tone under the filtered forest light. Around her eyes lay silver-colored cosmetic lines, carefully drawn like ceremonial markings. Even here, inside a survival game, she still held an old-fashioned folding hand fan in polished gold.

Sector 1.

Tyler recognized the number first.

No. 5. Vivi.

She lifted the fan slightly and pointed toward Tansy while speaking.

"I saw her. She was acting suspicious."

Tansy did not react emotionally.

Instead she asked calmly:

"What exactly was suspicious?"

The tone alone made Vivi hesitate for half a second.

Then she pushed forward anyway.

"You said your task was flower gathering. But you were—"

Her voice caught slightly as though she realized mid-sentence that the accusation sounded weak.

Then she forced it out.

"You were just holding the same flower."

Tansy looked at the flower in her hand once.

Then back at Vivi.

"Yes. Because I needed to collect that flower. It’s rare. I couldn’t find enough."

The answer came too naturally.

Too simply.

But Vivi refused to let go.

"You’re lying. I saw you. You picked one randomly and stopped searching. You weren’t even trying properly."

Tyler continued moving through the trees, but his pace slowed.

Something about the exchange already felt wrong.

The accusation lacked force.

Too weak.

Too rushed.

Yet before Tyler could decide whether to step in immediately, the scene changed.

Tansy tilted her head slightly and asked:

"You’re from Sector 1, right?"

The question hit differently because the crowd around them already knew what had happened yesterday.

Vivi straightened.

"Yes. So what if I am?"

Tansy’s eyes sharpened.

"And I’m from Sector 11."

She did not raise her voice.

But everyone around them heard clearly.

"Yesterday, the person eliminated from my sector was accused first by someone from your sector."

That changed the crowd instantly.

Because Kennedy’s death was still fresh enough that nobody needed reminding.

Vivi visibly stiffened.

The golden fan rose quickly to partly cover her mouth.

"So what are you implying?" she asked, though the slight shake in her voice had already appeared. "That Sector 1 is plotting against you?"

Tansy answered without hesitation.

"Isn’t that obvious?"

The sentence landed perfectly.

Vivi’s eyes widened.

"Slander! Why would we do something like that?"

Tansy did not blink.

"Who knows?"

Then she lifted the blue flower slightly.

"Maybe because all five of us from Sector 11 survived the previous game."

A pause.

"Maybe that annoys you."

Now several nearby participants began looking at Vivi differently.

Because this explanation matched what many had already quietly suspected after Kennedy’s accusation.

Tansy pressed further.

"You people expected Sector 11 to lose first."

Vivi’s breathing changed visibly.

"N-no. That’s not—"

"Maybe you’re targeting us because you want our number lower than yours."

Now the crowd fully shifted.

Because unlike Vivi’s weak flower accusation, Tansy’s logic connected directly to yesterday’s death.

And once that happened, Vivi lost control.

"Lie! Lie!"

The fan shook in her hand now.

Tyler had already reached the outer edge of the clearing, but seeing the momentum turn, he stopped behind the tree line instead of stepping in.

A faint smirk touched his face.

He had underestimated Tansy.

She was not merely defending herself.

She was reversing the entire accusation with frightening speed.

The AR system activated immediately, accepting the confrontation.

[Who is the Jobless?]

[Vote for one.]

Chosen No. 5 — Vivi

Chosen No. 53 — Tansy

Neutral

The timer began.

[300 seconds... 299 seconds... 298 seconds...]

The pressure returned instantly.

Around the clearing, people began whispering.

Some looked at Tansy.

Some at Vivi.

Some already seemed convinced.

And then Vivi looked desperately through the crowd.

Her eyes found someone.

Dale.

Badge No. 1 stood near the outer side of the gathering.

For a moment relief appeared on her face—as if expecting help.

But Dale only glanced once. Then turned around and left

"Useless," he muttered under his breath.

That single action destroyed whatever little confidence Vivi still had.

He raised his hand slightly, selected his vote inside the glasses, and began walking away.

Dale had voted against Vivi. He abandoned her instantly.

Panic finally took over Vivi.

"No! I’m not Jobless!"

Her voice cracked now.

Then she shouted the worst thing possible:

"It was Dale! Dale told me to do this!"

The crowd reacted immediately.

Vivi stepped forward desperately.

"He said we should reduce Sector 11 first! He said their numbers should fall below ours!"

Silence followed.

But it was not the kind of silence that helps.

Because Tyler understood instantly what Vivi had failed to understand—

Those words would not save her.

They would destroy her faster.

Tansy looked at her with almost pity now.

Because once someone accused another while sounding desperate, truth no longer mattered.

And worse, Vivi had just confirmed that Sector 1 had indeed discussed targeting Sector 11.

Whether Dale truly instructed her or not no longer mattered.

To everyone listening, she now sounded like someone dragging another name down while drowning.

The timer continued falling.

And Tansy did not need to say anything more.

The vote had already begun turning.

---

A few minutes later, the result appeared exactly as everyone expected.

The floating display inside every AR lens brightened.

[Voting ended.]

The clearing fell silent again as the numbers began to appear one by one.

[No. 5 received 39 votes.]

[No. 53 received 1 vote.]

[Neutral received 0 votes.]

No one looked surprised.

By the time the timer had nearly ended, Vivi had already lost the crowd completely. Her panic, her confession about Dale, and the way she kept glancing around for help had only pushed the remaining undecided people further away from her.

The next line appeared immediately.

[No. 5 is selected as Jobless.]

Then:

[Verifying.]

For one second nothing happened.

That single second felt longer than it should have, because everyone had already learned that verification did not mean mercy.

Then the final judgment arrived.

[No. 5 is eliminated.]

A pause followed.

And then the line that froze several people where they stood:

[No. 5 is not Jobless.]

Even though many had expected it, seeing those words still made the clearing colder.

Another wrong vote.

Another innocent person gone. Well not exactly innocent. But people didn’t care.

Vivi’s body collapsed before she could say anything more. The golden fan slipped from her fingers and spun once in the air before falling beside her. Her knees gave way first, then the rest of her body followed, dropping heavily onto the grass.

No scream lasted long enough to matter.

No protest came after the verdict.

The system gave her no dignity beyond the announcement.

As though nothing had happened.

The ground split apart directly under the corpse.

Her body dropped into the darkness below.

Then the opening sealed again, smooth and perfect, as though the forest itself had swallowed her without leaving a trace.

Only the fallen fan remained for half a second before a small mechanical arm rose from a hidden slit, retrieved it, and disappeared again.

The clearing became silent.

No one spoke immediately after witnessing a second vote end in death.

Because now the pattern was impossible to ignore— whether the accused was guilty or not, the game accepted death as part of its rhythm.

Tyler watched the sealed ground carefully, his expression no longer neutral.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

Two accusations and Two eliminations.

And both had revealed something more dangerous than the hidden Jobless itself.

People could now be guided into killing one another through suspicion, panic, and timing.

That meant the true center of this game was no longer labor. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

It was manipulation.

And if that was the real structure, then simply surviving tasks would not be enough.

Tyler quietly turned away, as a new plan had already begun forming in his mind.