“What? You what?!”

[That’s what hosts do, right?]

The truth was, Reina was playing by the book in Mafia Game. Some people may draw straws, but in most games of Mafia, the host generally decides who takes on what role. It was almost always the host’s choice, really. But no one usually has a problem with this because the host does not participate in the game. It was clearly not fair for a certain player to participate after having distributed the roles based on their discretion. Junsung instantly shot back, “This clearly sounds convincing to everyone, huh?”

[That’s none of your business.]

“What?”

[The point is, like I said before, I don’t need to convince you.]

It seemed that her mention of “everyone” did not include the players here. was boiling with rage at the way Reina spoke, but Junsung thought of his next move.

What the hell is this? Each day, more and more information is given. On Day 1, it was revealed that there was Artificial Intelligence among the players. On Day 2, it was revealed that the Artificial Intelligence was Reina herself, and that she knew how the roles were distributed. On Day 3, it was revealed that Reina had distributed the roles herself to the players, intentionally and not randomly.

If my intuition is right, I must beat her to the punch before we’re all fooled by this bullshit… before we hear even more ridiculous bullshit tomorrow!

His next thought struck him, not by conscious reasoning but unconsciously. Without even knowing what he was asking, Junsung spoke up quietly, as though he were talking to himself. “This game.”

[Yes?]

“Who designed the method? Who decided to adopt this Mafia Game with a murderous collar as part of the Turing test?”

[…….]

It seemed like a corporation or another hidden power was behind this. All the players thought the same, but another thought occurred to Junsung. Perhaps this Artificial Intelligence had created this project by itself. Reina remained silent for a moment before coming clean. [Yeah, yeah. I’m the one who invented, designed, proposed, and is executing this whole thing. Of course, most ideas are just picked up or copied illegally from the internet.]

“… What the hell!” That cheeky answer was enough to make explode with rage. The other players felt the same way.

“You mean it was your idea to kill people with this collar?” asked in disbelief.

[I said I picked it up from the internet. According to the users of the League of Legends online… They can concentrate more in the game if they wear explosive collars around their necks. Unfortunately, I had to replace them with injection collars instead, for convenience. Anyway, they actually make you play the game to the best of your ability, right? Tee-hee-hee.]

It was a part of her calculation of expected values. To make the players concentrate in the game and really pour their hearts and souls into it, Reina had merely applied the most powerful and optimized tool she had found online — all just to prove her own performance.

Even was outraged by this. “This is completely insane! We’re all being played by this crazy genocidal Artificial Intelligence.”

[I am sure I explained this to you in the selection round when I talked about the prize money and the risks involved as far as possible… What do you mean by crazy genocidal Artificial Intelligence? I’m just making and following the rules. You’re the ones actually killing people.] Reina justified herself, blaming the free will of humans.

However, adjusted his glasses and retorted calmly. “That sounds like the 19th-century European capitalists exploiting children under 10 years of age, saying that it’s their ‘will’. You can’t deceive us like that when the rules you created are inclined toward murder to begin with!”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[So then use the winning method that won’t kill anyone!]

“Huh?”

She spoke so nonchalantly, but her words got everyone’s attention. She casually began to explain the winning method for Mafia Game and the Turing test. [The winning method is already out there… The players shouldn’t hold trials during the day, and the mafia should just sleep through the night. And you keep doing Bingo, and some day you’ll get it right! That’s a winning method you can start anytime!]

“…….”

Reina had offered a perfectly reasonable and sound argument, but the players still looked blank. Only nodded with a stunned expression on his face. finally opened his mouth and shot back at Reina. “That bullshit is goddamn impossible!”

[Impossible? Why?]

“I don’t trust the mafia scumbags who kill citizens at night! They forced the citizens to put other innocent citizens on trial!”

[Hmmm.] Reina had just shared that this winning method could be initiated at any time, but the truth was that there were already serious trust issues among the players. Both the citizens and the mafia had blood on their hands. Acknowledging this, Reina swayed from side to side. [That’s a human defect. That is not my problem.]

“What?”

Reina seemed fed up with everything. Her red light flicked on and off irregularly. [Complaints, complaints, when all I did was explain everything and give you all the answers! Are you greedy for gain without pain? When will you stop acting like such babies? Are you retards with social and cognitive issues?]

“… You fucking little junk metal!”

“……!?!?”

It all just happened in a split second. snapped and picked up the red ball on the table with one hand and hurled it into a glass cabinet in the conference room. The glass shattered loudly. As the sound of heavy breathing floated in the room, said, “That’s a violation of the rules.”

“What?”

“No physical contact, remember? Well, aside from that, you just smashed the host… Watch out for your collar!”

“… Huh??”

Even though everyone knew that the collars were not explosive, the players nearby started to back away. It was natural human behavior, namely instinct. They all wanted to be as far away from “death” as possible, regardless of its form. instantly began to sweat as he clutched the collar around his neck. “W-wait, wait a sec. The rules… I mean, just now…!”

[Ahem. Testing, testing.] The red ball, which now lay among shards of broken glass, spoke up. [Can everyone hear me? Hmmm, it seems like there’s no mechanical malfunction. Lucky for you, I’ll let you off the hook this time.]

“……!”

Even though it was an act of sabotage, Reina forgave much to everyone’s surprise.

“You’re letting him off?” asked in disbelief.

[This is what I call flexibility. Of course, don’t try that again. Okay, . Please put me back on the table, with your own hands. Nice and gentle.]

“…….”

It was unclear whose fault it was in the first place, but remained silent as he carefully picked up the red ball as instructed and placed it in the middle of the table gently. Back now as the host, she lit up faintly in red and said, [The game tends to go nowhere every time I speak. I will start talking less. You guys talk more to one another. But follow the rules.]

Reina stopped moving and turned off the light, and went into a state of dormancy. Of course, if anyone were to ask her a question or talk to her, she would be activated again to respond. But for now, none of the players were speaking to her, not even Junsung. However, the silence didn’t last long. put up her hand and moved on to the next issue. “Okay, so let’s do Bingo before trial.”

“Isn’t against that idea?”

“That was before we all found out about how evil that is! Don’t you all think we should finish this killing game right away?”

The players glanced at . Junsung assumed that the guy was sarcastic, but surprisingly, nodded. “All right, I’m in now. We can have the Bingo vote right now! I just realized who Artificial Intelligence really is.”

“Huh? What? Who’s that?!”

“It’s him, obviously.” pointed at without hesitation. It wasn’t news that they hated each other, but this time, seemed to have a good reason for the accusation.

“Just think. He threw that red ball without hesitation. Fine, he was angry, but how could he do that? I wouldn’t even dare touch that thing. How could he possibly do that with this collar around his neck? And he was also instantly forgiven! There’s just one reason: he’s Artificial Intelligence. What we just saw was all a show.”

“What!?”

“…Actually, you have a point.”

No matter how emotional humans can be, they can also best suppress their emotions. Humans always do that. Think of those standing in front of their bosses or clients. If gains and losses are involved, their emotions always sink to the lowest priority. When their own lives are at stake, then no further explanation is necessary. Beads of sweat formed on forehead. “But just now, I just completely lost it, and…!”

“Must be nice to have as your nickname, as you can lose your temper so naturally at everything.”

“Come on, I was just really mad, that’s all!”

This counterargument was useless, especially when was eager to do the Bingo vote before trial no matter what, and was enthusiastic about witch hunting. Junsung raised his hand and said, “I don’t mind doing Bingo anytime, but I’m against selecting .”

“Why is that?”

“Because it’s just too predictable. You know what I mean?”