Setsuna Held the Future in His Hands

Four people chose to stay at the villa and fight against the unknown Monster.

Shawn, Annie, Rohard, and Smith.

To some extent, they all had something in common: their anger overshadowed their fear.

Rohard is Bob's Friend, and Smith is Eric's childhood friend. The successive tragic deaths of their friends and the provocations of the Unknown Monster have left them no time to think about anything else.

What they wanted to do now was to shove their Hunting Rifle into the Monster's mouth.

Bai Zhi and Shana expressed their understanding of the two men's desire for revenge, so they readily handed over their Hunting Rifle to them.

"A story needs a main body and multiple supporting parts to exist. If we consider everything we are experiencing now as a Horror Movie, then this is the standard style of a Western horror film."

After yawning and glancing down at the window, Bai Zhi deliberately lowered his voice.

"Judging by the pacing of the story, the story we're experiencing is still in its early stages of setup. As things stand, we're the safest place until all those who fled have been dealt with."

"... Do you think these people are real people or NPCs?"

After a moment of silence, Xia Wen suddenly spoke up and asked a question.

What do you think?

Turning to look at the other person, Bai Zhi raised an eyebrow slightly.

I think it's human.

Taking a deep breath, Xia Wen spoke earnestly.

"Everyone in this story except us is a human being captured by the Anomaly."

"What, you want to save them?"

After staring at Xia Wen for a while, Bai Zhi suddenly laughed for some reason.

"... That's right, don't you think it's pathetic that their lives are controlled by Anomaly?"

Gritting his teeth, Xia Wen began to speak.

"Everything here is an illusion, they..."

Even if it's all fiction, as long as you live authentically, who cares?

Bai Zhi shook his head slightly, interrupting the other person.

"Furthermore, your perspective is far too one-sided. For example, are you so certain that the humans here were forced rather than acting voluntarily?"

"... voluntary?"

Seemingly surprised to hear this word from Bai Zhi, Xia Wen was slightly taken aback.

"In a world on the verge of destruction by Anomaly, common live in constant fear, their lives and everything they own in the world at any moment... Under these circumstances, suddenly, someone appears who can gain the right to live in a peaceful world simply by selling themselves. What do you think those common would choose?"

While wrapping strips of cloth around a wooden stick to make Torch, Bai Zhi spoke calmly.

"So don't take things too seriously. What you think is good intentions might be seen as malicious by others. Even if we rescue everyone trapped in the book, what then? Are we just going to send them back to that world rife with Anomaly and on the verge of destruction? They could have lived peacefully for a while longer. So, are you saving them or harming them by doing this?"

"I..."

He opened his mouth weakly, recalling the vast collection of hundreds of thousands of books in that Grand Library. Xia Wen seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he couldn't say anything at all.

"Don't worry, I don't mean to blame you. In fact, it's a good thing that you have this kind of thought in your heart. It means that your heart has at least not become cold or numb."

As Bai Zhi soaked the wrapped strips of cloth in fuel, he pursed his lips.

"Actually, before this, other people had asked me the same question... and that guy's tone was much more aggressive than yours."

"... Setsuna? When you went to get the Hunting Rifle with him before?"

After thinking for a moment, Xia Wen was slightly taken aback.

"So the reason he chose to leave the villa in the first place...?"

"Oh, perhaps he holds the future in his hands."

He then reached out and pressed his forehead, Bai Zhi reply extremely perfunctory.

Xia Wen: "..."

Three people chose to leave the villa in the snow: Joshua, Abel, and Claude.

To minimize the number of people targeted, Claude chose the opposite path from Joshua. In terms of wilderness survival skills, Claude was one of the best among them.

However, he was quite unlucky. Not long after setting out in the wind and snow, he accidentally fell into a large pit because of the accumulated snow.

Although the snow cushioned the fall and the thick clothing I was wearing prevented me from getting seriously injured, I did twist my left ankle.

Forced by circumstances and knowing he could not go any further, he had no choice but to find a place of shelter nearby. In the snowy wilderness, if he did not find a suitable refuge soon, he would freeze to death.

However, he was quite lucky. Despite his physical condition, he found an abandoned Small Wooden House nearby in a short time. Based on his judgment, the cabin must have been left behind by hunters who had come into the mountains to hunt.

The cabin was quite dark; even his special flashlight couldn't pierce the darkness. However, compared to the Icy Snow Land outside, the cabin was much drier, and the temperature had risen slightly.

After bracing the door with a stick, Claude sat down against the wooden door and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

But at that moment, he clearly heard a second sound coming from inside the cabin besides his own.

... It's hard to describe the voice with specific adjectives, but after hearing it, Claude felt a chill run down his spine, as if a faint electric current had passed through his body, leaving him feeling tingly and numb all over.

Just as he realized something was wrong and hurriedly tried to open the door to escape, seven or eight hands suddenly reached out from the darkness and grabbed his feet.

Claude could clearly sense that what was grabbing his trouser leg was a human hand... but what human Guild Master have seven or eight hands?

Just as he screamed and was dragged into deeper darkness by those hands, the Small Wooden House he was in was suddenly kicked open violently, and a figure reached out and grabbed him by the back of his collar at the last second.

At the same time, a Molotov cocktail that looked like it was made in a simple way was thrown into the darkness by the figure that suddenly broke in.

As flames rose, Claude felt the seven or eight hands that had grabbed his feet vanish without a trace, and he and the other hand fell into the snow outside the wooden house.

When he turned around, still slightly shaken, he saw Abel's expressionless face as he got up from the ground.

--The other person just saved him.