Everyone inside the elevator held their breath and pricked up their ears, focusing on the announcement.
Even Yoon Ji-ho, whose madness was a default setting, did the same.
Rules were life itself.
This was something those who survived the 1st round understood in common.
I was no exception either.
[Game : Class President Election Game.]
-All players start the game at specific intervals within the game site.
-A ballot box exists in the center of the game site.
-A 'Class President Election' is held once every hour.
-Special privileges are given to the player who is elected and becomes the class president.
[Class President Privileges]
-Each time one is elected as class president, 500 million won is immediately given as prize money.
-The class president, each time they kill players, completely plunders the balance held by that player.
Earning 500 million won in prize money just by being elected.
On top of that, even receiving a bonus every time I hunted other players.
It was an enormous privilege.
However, a clear paradox existed between the process of being elected as class president and the class president privileges.
'To be elected as class president, I have to gain popularity. But the class president privileges are the authority to gain profit only when killing other players. How I utilize this paradox will be the key.'
The mechanical voice from the speaker continued.
[Game Progress Method]
-The Class President Election is held a total of 3 times.
-If one does not exercise their right to vote each time, a fine of 50 million won is imposed as a penalty.
-If the votes are tied, everyone with the same number of votes is appointed as class president.(However, the 500 million prize money is paid as 1/N.)
-The game ends 30 minutes after the last election is over.
There were a total of 3 Class President Elections.
Since it was 500 million per round, the total prize money of 1.5 billion won announced earlier matched perfectly.
A 'click' sound of the broadcast cutting off came from inside the speaker.
The announcement ended there.
I habitually swept my greasy bangs from right to left while thinking.
'I wonder how I can become the class president. It probably won't be about passing out hamburgers like a real class president election.'
The most general method would be scattering money to buy votes.
Since one is unconditionally elected if they exceed a majority, one can become the class president if they recruit ten people excluding themselves.
No, before that, there existed a method to share the money most wisely and safely.
I wasn't the only one who thought of that wise method.
Someone said from somewhere inside the crowded elevator.
"Can't we just all share and eat the 1.5 billion won together? It's not like our sides are forcibly divided into my side and your side like in the 1st round."
It was a correct argument.
If we cooperated, there was clearly a way to obtain the money without shedding a single drop of blood.
If twenty people divided 1.5 billion won, it would be 75 million won per person.
It was an opportunity to obtain tens of millions of won without putting in any effort.
However, knowing it in the head and actually doing it were separate issues.
Everyone gave Yoon Ji-ho a stealthy sidelong glance.
"It's good to earn money comfortably. 75 million won isn't just a cent or two, so it's worth cooperating."
"That's right. It's good if we survive and return. But the problem is that it's meaningless if even one person causes a disruption."
"It seems the person who will cause a disruption is already decided anyway... I'd rather..."
The most realistic peaceful(?) solution was for nineteen people to join forces to eliminate Yoon Ji-ho as soon as the game started, and then the remaining people share the prize money.
Yoon Ji-ho was someone who had done everything to make people frown since the beginning of the game.
Being isolated was a natural flow.
However, Yoon Ji-ho was no ordinary person either.
"Hehehe, I'll propose a mini-game for those of you who are having boring thoughts. I'll put a 500 million won bounty on Lee Ju-seong's neck. Of course, since I'm personally putting it up, whether you jump into the fray or not is up to your freedom."
In the chilling atmosphere, an alarm sound rang out informing us that we had arrived at the destination.
Ding!
The elevator door opened and the landscape of the game site appeared, but no one looked at the landscape.
Because Yoon Ji-ho's proposal was much more provocative than the environment of the game site.
Yoon Ji-ho exquisitely coaxed the players with a mysterious magical power.
"One more thing, if any of you, whoever it is, succeeds in bashing Lee Ju-seong before I do, I'll move according to your will. What did you say? Did you say let's not kill anyone and distribute the 1.5 billion won equally? That sounds good. Let's divide it equally."
It was an amazing proposal.
Whether everyone joined forces to kill Yoon Ji-ho or joined forces to kill me, it was the same that one person had to die.
However, the former had a total prize money of 1.5 billion won, while the latter had a total prize money of 2.0 billion won.
Since it even took on a gambling nature where one could earn 500 million won more than others depending on luck, it was an exquisite proposal with the added secondary effect of generating dopamine.
The bloodlust of the many that had been directed toward Yoon Ji-ho suddenly changed direction and poured toward me.
Eyes full of bloodlust.
The fact that I was standing in the middle of a battlefield right now was transmitted to my whole body.
Strangely, I could find myself feeling a sense of exaltation in the midst of this.
'A terrible harassment is also a form of interest if its interest. Having always lived in indifference, suddenly receiving so much interest makes my blood sugar spike. It's a pleasant overeating.'
While Machiavellianism was already rampant, the electronic display inside the elevator turned on and a map appeared.
[From now on, please move to the positions marked on the map in the order of the people I call. We will proceed with the game in earnest after all players have arrived at the starting points.]
I hoped to be placed in the later turn.
That way, I could move after checking other people's locations.
However, whether today was a day confirmed for headwinds to blow toward me all day long, even the luck of selecting the position was not on my side.
[Mr. Lee Ju-seong, please move to position number 1.]
Position number 1, of all things.
It was a turn where every other player knew my location, but I couldn't know any other player's location.
What use would complaining be.
I'd rather draw up one more plan in the time I'd spend on such a useless thing.
While moving, I utilized my peripheral vision to the fullest and closely examined the internal environment of the game site.
'A ruin-type game site. They've arranged the buildings in a complex way to take on the aspect of urban warfare.'
The ceiling and walls were a gloomy gray reminiscent of dark clouds, and the lighting was faint as if it had passed through a cloth once, in an attempt to stage cloudy weather.
The width was twice as large as the park-wide game site used in the 1st round.
Inside the game site, half-collapsed 1 to 3-story buildings were arranged in a grid pattern, and because of that, three-way and four-way intersections were commonly entangled in each block.
'It reminds me of a photo of a banner saying we are open hung on a half-collapsed ruin. Since there are many buildings with similar appearances, it'll be good to hide traps in the debris.'
A shop that presses sesame oil and perilla oil with only the letters '...reum Shop' remaining after being half-burnt.
Cultivator parts scattered after being smashed.
A hardware store with rusted farm tools and various tools.
It was like looking at the appearance of a rural town that had become a wasteland after a bombing.
A moment later, when I arrived at the location corresponding to the exact center of the game site.
I encountered a single-story rectangular building.
[OO Elementary School OO Branch School]
At the entrance, a stone monument with text including blank spaces was erected, and in the center of the branch school schoolyard, a wooden square box was installed on a tripod stand.
It was the ballot box, the core element of this Class President Election Game.
While passing the ballot box, I tapped it as if knocking as a test.
Knock knock.
No matter how I looked at it, it only appeared to be an ordinary wooden box.
However, it was clear that it was a very important object for this game.
As proof of that, a warning was written in red letters on the front of the ballot box.
-Do not put objects other than ballot papers into the ballot box.
-Do not touch the contents of the ballot box.
-Do not damage the ballot box.
-If you violate the above precautions, a fine of 50 million won will be imposed.
-If a situation arises where the ballot box must be replaced with a new one for some reason, the existing ballot box will be collected.
It was a measure to prevent applying tricks to the ballot box itself, rather than a strategic fight between players.
On the surface, it was nothing more than a conventional warning to prevent shortcuts.
It was a text that would be fine to pass by lightly, thinking just that there are such rules....
However, I was drawing an extraordinary picture in my head.
Grin.
When I finished assembling the puzzle pieces in my head, it was after I had already pushed up the corners of my mouth without knowing.
"What, they've provided a proper merit even to the player who entered first?"
Thinking conversely, it meant the first player also had the right not to show the warning on the ballot box to the people behind.
"Monopolizing this information will be the first step to increasing the winning rate."
Coincidentally, I had an object in my possession that was perfect for covering the warning.
Those were none other than the six blood bags I had prepared through the Doctor.
I pulled out one of the blood bags I brought and opened the inlet, then spread the blood widely over the area where the warning was written.
Red blood covering the red warning.
As one side of the ballot box was covered in red, it turned into an object that looked as if it had been painted over in red from the beginning.
Around the time I finished the manipulation, an announcement informing the entrance of the second player flowed out.
[Mr. Bang Su-hyeok, please move to position number 2.]
He was the original protagonist of this scenario and a player with a 2nd-rank ability.
His appearance was identical to my lifelong friend Kim Dong-won, but I was already aware that he was a person with a different core.
Regardless of old friendship, I had a reason to approach Bang Su-hyeok.
Because the next ability I have to copy is none other than Bang Su-hyeok's ability.
I left the branch school before other players, including Bang Su-hyeok, discovered my tracks.
My starting point was the edge in the 12 o'clock direction of the game site.
The wall painted over with plaster was as desolate as the outer wall of an iron fortress prison.
Looking at the wall, I felt like I was trapped in a cage.
Soon, a life-threatening cage match will unfold inside this cage.
[Ms. Lee Jin-ju, please move to position number 20.]
The last, twentieth player was called.
Not long after, an announcement informing us that the placement of all players had begun was heard.
[The placement of personnel is over. From now on, we will begin the Class President Election Game.]
[We will conduct the first counting of votes in one hour. Please put the ballot papers into the ballot box before the counting time.]
[The ballot papers have been hidden throughout the game site, and at specific intervals, we will transmit the locations of the ballot papers within a certain radius through the Money Watch.]
The game finally started.
As expected, what I was most concerned about was Yoon Ji-ho's move.
Yoon Ji-ho had been assigned a position as the eighteenth.
He must have coaxed the other players inside the elevator until the very, very end.
'He said he'd put up 500 million won as a bounty, but I'm not sure if he'll actually pay the bounty. The problem is Yoon Ji-ho's glibness... I can only hope there is no player who was tempted and fell for his glibness.'
I could realize that Yoon Ji-ho's glibness was no ordinary thing in less than a minute after starting.
The moment I was about to take a movement to leave my spot.
A gunshot rang out from a place not far away.
Bang!
At the same time, dirt splashed from a spot 5 meters away from me.
It was a shot clearly aimed at me.
Before the lingering sound of the gunshot could settle down, a warning flew from beyond a half-destroyed rural house.
"Raise both hands and turn your back, Mr. 500 Million. I don't have a hobby of giving pain unnecessarily. I'll send you off comfortably, so stay still."
With this, it became certain.
That the other players had been completely won over by Yoon Ji-ho's glibness and agreed to hunt me down.