The silence didn’t last.

  Outside the arena, the eliminated competitors struggled to their feet, coughing, swearing, staring back toward the jungle in disbelief.

  “What… just happened?”

  “We… we underestimated him…”

  “He’s not human.”

  Inside the arena, I walked calmly, hands in my pockets. The red moon and lingering crimson light bathed everything in an eerie glow. My body ached. Internal damage, bleeding I couldn’t see. I ignored it.

  From a distance, Tatsuya leaned against a broken wall, arms crossed, dust still settling around him.

  “Sooo cool,” he muttered, eyes fixed on the fading crimson sphere.

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  I glanced at him. “Not panicking?”

  He shrugged. “Why would I? I figured you had something crazy hidden. Still… seeing it? That was next level.”

  I smirked faintly. “Glad you approve.”

  “Dude,” he said, laughing under his breath, “you really are the type to rewrite the rules and not even break a sweat.”

  “Rules are suggestions,” I replied calmly.

  The commentators were losing their minds.

  “He invented that spell?”

  “He just wiped ten competitors out of the arena!”

  “Look at the red moon, it’s still there!”

  From her home, Hoshino Akari watched the broadcast, wide-eyed and pale.

  Her childhood friend, the quiet nobody she had grown up with, stood calmly beneath a red moon, blood on his face, a faint smirk on his lips.

  “W-what… what is he doing?” she whispered, hands gripping the edge of the screen.

  He wasn’t cruel. He wasn’t reckless. But the control, the calm amusement in his eyes, terrified her.

  I didn’t know then that someone important was watching.

  The match ended shortly after. Victory was declared. The money was transferred. Cameras followed me everywhere.

  By nightfall, my face was everywhere.

  That’s when I decided to disappear.