[Thud! Thud!]
“W-Wait a moment!”
As a woman ran towards me with a pink knife, I knew it instinctively.
They were trying to reduce the number of men, even if just a little.
To avoid being eliminated from the game later…
[Thwack!]
“Jiyoon! Are you okay?”
Sungho pushed the woman with the knife, knocking her over.
Did he already know this would happen…?
“Sungho! What on earth is going on?!”
“Just be quiet…”
Covering my mouth and looking around, I saw a few other men also wielding knives at the women.
Where did they even get those knives in the first place, and why were they all attacking each other? It was utter chaos.
“Oh? A man!”
One of the women spotted us and raised her voice.
[Thud! Thud!]
“Why are you doing this?!”
Seeing the knife-wielding person in front of me made it hard to even take a step.
Just then…
[Stab!]
“Seongho… Why that knife…?”
Seongho pulled out a knife from his pocket and stabbed the woman in the side.
It was similar to the pink knives the women were carrying…
Could it be that they were placed in every participant’s pocket?
…I checked my own pocket, but there was nothing there.
“I’ll explain later. More importantly, let’s move somewhere else.”
[Shuffle… Shuffle…]
Each time the lights flickered, I could see the surroundings, but it was worse than I imagined.
Choking, thick fog, women running towards men with knives, flickering lights…
I followed Seongho, thinking about this and that, but I couldn’t come to any conclusions.
[Thud! Thud!]
Just then, a woman next to Seongho raised a knife to strike.
[Whirr-]
“Seongho! Watch out!”
[Squish!]
“Aaaargh…!”
My left arm was stabbed instead, but the pain was beyond imagination.
It felt like my skin was burning…
[Thump- Thwack!]
“Eek!?”
Seongho belatedly stabbed and pushed the woman away…
“Jiyoon!? Are you okay?”
I squeezed my eyes shut at the unimaginable pain.
Still, I needed to see the wound to know how serious it was.
I endured the pain and slowly started to open my eyes.
“W-What is this…”
There wasn’t a single wound or any bleeding on my stabbed arm.
Instead… something that looked like pink grains was stuck to my arm.
“Kaaaaah!”
An even greater pain than before surged from my arm.
This time, it felt like my skeleton was being formed from scratch.
[Tear… Tear…]
Before long, the grains began to penetrate my skin as if they were alive.
“What is this…”
Before I knew it, my arm had become slender, like a woman’s.
More than that… the grains inside my skin were gradually climbing up my arm.
“S-Sungho! What do I do?!”
I felt like something would disappear if these grains penetrated to the center of my body.
“Jiyoon! Just a moment!”
[Rip… Rip…]
Sungho started tearing off the end of his training suit with force.
But… the grains were climbing up faster and faster.
…It was like a virus.
“Jiyoon! Quickly, spread your arms!”
The cloth had become a string.
“Ugh…”
[Swish!]
Enduring the pain, I spread my arms, and he quickly tied the cloth between my armpit and shoulder.
As my arm rose, the grains seemed to move even faster.
“Ugh! You’re tying it too tight…”
“…Just bear with it a little longer…”
[Snug-]
As he tied the last knot, my arm was tightly constricted, and at the same time, I felt the grains climbing up.
I wondered if this knot would really be enough… I was anxious.
[Crackle…!? Crackle…!]
The grains reached the area right in front of the cloth and seemed to panic, as if trying to find an opening.
Thankfully, the pain gradually subsided.
“Haa…”
Looking around, the entire auditorium was still filled with chaos.
The smoke seemed to have cleared a little.
But the fact that the smoke had cleared was actually disadvantageous for us.
Our location would soon be discovered…
Even with Seongho and me, I wasn’t confident that we could stop dozens of women.
Just then…
“You nooobs~!”
Everyone’s eyes turned to the source of the voice echoing from above.
“At this rate, you will all get it!”
[…]
[Thoom-]
An announcement came over the speakers, and at the same time, the doors to the stage began to open.
What on earth was going on?
[Bang!]
[Bang!, Bang!]
The sound of gunshots echoing throughout the auditorium made me lose my balance.
It wasn’t a real gun, but the sound was still terrifying.
[All participants, raise your hands and do not move.]
…
[Participant 33 eliminated, participant 49 eliminated, participant 191 eliminated, participant 311 eliminated…]
As the announcements of eliminated participants echoed from the speakers, the masked figures were rummaging through our clothes.
Turning my head, I saw that Seongho’s knife had also been confiscated by the masked figures.
Turning my gaze back to the monitor, I saw three numbers changing.
[29 : 144 : 253 : 23]
[Shuffle… Shuffle…]
[Thoom-]
[Bang!]
Once the verification of all participants was complete, the masked figures disappeared as quickly as they came.
“Haa…”
My arm was still throbbing… I couldn’t understand the situation…
I couldn’t wrap my head around anything that had happened.
Judging from the fact that my body was still okay, the emergency treatment seemed to have been successful.
I guessed that if those grains had penetrated my entire body, I would have been eliminated for sure.
“Seongho… What was that knife?”
I wondered where he had gotten that knife.
“Ah… You know the Ganggangsullae game…”
“They gave us both knives right before the final round started.”
“I figured it out first and swung it at number 122…”
“Ah…”
I couldn’t believe they would do something like that in the final round.
The strength of number 122, who had become a woman, wouldn’t have easily pushed Seongho over, even if he was tired.
And he brought that knife straight to the auditorium…
Nothing surprised me anymore.
From the start, this was a crazy group that kidnapped and modified people as they pleased.
Even the technology was beyond human capabilities.
I used to think about whether I could escape from here, but there was no way.
But looking at my ruined left arm… I wanted to escape as soon as possible.
But how could I escape?
What if I got caught while escaping?
Maybe I would end up like that person, number 64… Seungcheol.
I was so anxious. I might be modified here and become someone else.
Ah… I must have been too anxious looking at my arm.
But it reminded me of my ‘purpose’ once again.
I will never lose my identity here and will win.
I will do anything to avoid being eliminated.
Even if I am eliminated, I will never become a sex slave…
I am a proud South Korean man.
…
After everyone scattered and I lay down on my bed, I couldn’t feel my left arm properly.
It seemed to be gradually going numb from being tied so tightly with the cloth.
At this rate… there was a risk of necrosis.
I had to loosen it before morning at least.
But… what if I loosened it and the grains came out again?
The only good thing was that I couldn’t see the pink grains that had been there earlier.
Maybe that virus-like thing had died…?
I couldn’t be sure.
The possibility of my dick being cut off vs. the necrosis of one arm.
It was an extreme balance game.
What if I loosened the knot and the grains came out again?
Hmm…
I should wake up early tomorrow.
✦✦✦
Perhaps it was because of the anxiety about my arm, but thankfully I seemed to have woken up early.
Looking around, the lights were off, and most people were asleep.
[Swish…]
[Shuffle… Shuffle…]
First, I should go to the bathroom and loosen the knot.
[Creak-]
…
Looking in the mirror, only my left arm was noticeably slender.
One arm was muscular… and the other was slender…
It looked like I had only worked out one arm.
“I need to loosen the knot, but…”
Anxiety struck me once again.
…Still, if I had tied my arm up this tightly, the grains wouldn’t be in a normal state either.
Maybe my appearance would be that of a woman, but with my dick still intact…
I hated that even more.
“Hoo…”
I had to do it anyway.
First, I decided to loosen the knot little by little and see the reaction.
“Okay… one… two… three…!”
[Swish… Swish…]
After being tied for so long, I could feel the blood flowing as I loosened it little by little.
Thankfully, it seemed okay so far…
[Swish…]
The cloth was completely loose, but the grains still weren’t coming out.
My prediction was correct. The grains had all died.
“…”
The cloth was loose, but my left arm was still slender.
It seemed that what had already changed couldn’t be undone.
Still, if one arm was slender, I could just work out when I got back and it would recover.
…I decided to think positively.
Anyway, I threw away the tied cloth and was about to leave the bathroom when…
[“Aah…♡ Aah♡”]
[Bang… Bang…]
Suddenly, a sound came from inside a locked stall.
