The rabbit man glares at me.

It scratches its chin and thinks deeply. Hessien and Vacinay are both biting their lips in fear. Ghomas is trying to remain calm, but it's clear that he's anxious, judging by the sweat running down his face.

The mere fact that it understands what I'm saying is still unbelievable to me. If it's capable of such intelligence, then it must have a damn good reason for trying to kill us! Though, whatever that reason could be wouldn't change the fact that I want it dead!

It leans in closer and speaks, “I like that.”

WHAT THE HELL?!

I gulp subconsciously while desperately trying to maintain my composure.

Hessien points at it in bewilderment. He turns towards Vacinay and asks, “Am I… Am I hearing things?”

She responds, “I think I am hearing things too…”

Ghomas mutters, “We are all crazy.”

The rabbit man laughs. “I am very damn real, you filthy creatures!”

Ah… that must be why it's trying to kill us. He is species-ist. Wait a second.

I quickly bring up a fact: “We are not like the others! We are humans, a foreign species to this world. You hate those flow pattern guys, not us! We are a friendly, nice, encouraging species!”

The other three aren’t sure how to respond. I'm not sure if it's because what I said is too much bullshit or if they actually think they're hallucinating.

Ghomas shakes his head with a smirk. “Man… I am tired of all this. I am going back to our home.”

He walks away confidently, or at least attempts to.

What is he thinking? Does he want to die so that I would be forced to loop and save him?

I haven't even measure how far back looping sends me. But it seems it's less with each loop.

I highly doubt that's the nature of the passive skill. It must be associated with a condition or connected to the amount of energy I got. Unfortunately, I don't have time to check such things.

The rabbit man grabs Ghomas by the arm. Before Ghomas can react, a snapping sound reverberates.

“Argh! It’s real! It’s really real!” Ghomas yells in pain and surprise.

Dumbass! Why did he just try to walk away?

The rabbit man throws him to the ground near us.

Afterwards, he crouches low and gets straight to the point. “Humans, I have no idea what that is. Neither do I give a flying FUCK! All of you came here and made my damn drinking water taste like shit!”

He punches the ground repeatedly as he complains, “Do you know how disgusting that was?! How damn traumatizing that was?! I always come here for a good drink at this time. I go much lower down and start drinking the pure, sweet nectar that is water… but then, brown… and disgust…”

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His eyes twitch frantically. “Even… now, I can still remember the taste.” He raises his head towards us, his eyes pure red.

Oh… Wait a second! That makes no sense.

The spring is so large that anything of that small magnitude would have been diluted!

Vacinay mentions that. “Um… how did you taste that from such a massive spring? It's probably deeper than 30 meters and is for sure more than 50 meters wide!”

He glares at her and then points at his tongue and nose. “I was created by the ‘monster creation’ skill to be a creation that uses its senses to track people down, thus I have extremely strong senses.”

While this is serious, I swear I hear Vacinay stifle a laugh. "Oh, he actually tasted it... haha."

When it locks its eyes on her, her face turns serious.

So it was created by some skill, huh. Could creations just become rogue? I thought there would be some kind of limitation.

It then says in a mocking tone, “So, the game you want to play. To be honest, I should just torture you and force you to give me the information I want.”

He contemplates far longer than I want, so I shut it down quickly. “Wouldn’t work. Due to measures for such situations, when I am being tortured, I explode.”

“I doubt it.”

I grin. “Try it.”

Actually, please don’t try it.

His head tilts to the side as he thinks it through. “Okay… the game we will play will be rock, paper, scissors!”

A game of pure chance? Well, it's meant to be one of pure chance anyway.

I agree. “Sounds good to me.”

He restates the rules that I mentioned. "If I win, you will bring me to a civilization of your kind, and if I lose, I kill myself."

I nod. Wait a second, why would he care to kill other human-like beings? Wait a second, he did also target me—someone that didn't even go in the damn spring! This dude wants to kill everyone because of what a couple of people did?!

Wait, no, I did go in the water to assist Ghomas…

I ask just to be sure, “By the way, do you desire to kill those guards too?”

“Oh hell yeah. They look like you. I am making sure no one is ever going to pull that stunt in my damn drinking paradise ever again.”

When he says this, a cold shiver runs down the guards' spines.

That's an interesting reason to want to commit genocide…

Imagine this going down in the history books.

‘Why did he want to kill all human-like species?’

‘Ah, I am glad you asked. You see, there were once four people who got into a spring, and they were dirty. Because of this…’ It sounds ridiculous and stupid!

I should have really learned those flow pattern guys' species name, but whatever, at that moment, what was important was this game of rock, paper, scissors that would determine if a great genocide would happen tonight or not.

I take a deep breath and ask another question. “How am I sure you will keep your end of the bargain?”

Really, I couldn't imagine someone actually following through with it. ‘Oh damn, I really lost. Despite the fact I could kill any of you right now, I am going to keep my word and kill myself even though I want to live.’

What was I thinking even asking that? What else could I have asked? To spare us? I thought of that, but I thought I would sound way more daring to ask for something so ridiculous.

I thought it would pique its interest, even if it was just to toy with us.

He gently touches his chest and says with a serious expression. “Due to how I was created, whenever I agree to a contract, whether verbal or not, I must comply.”

Oh? That sounds good!

“I see! Okay, let’s start this!” I quickly say.

Even if I were to lose, it wouldn’t matter since I would just loop. But, I am going to try my best to not lose both the game and my damn head.

He agrees.

We ready our fists as we shake them.

What would he play? Maybe he thinks I would play rock since I appear to have a hardened personality. That sounds ridiculous. It's impossible for

me to have an idea.

Wait, he has sharp senses… Also, I just remembered something.

While shaking my hand, I open my system settings and look for the party options.

Please tell me there is a mind-typing option!

I scan the corners of the virtual keyboard that is only visible to me, hoping for some kind of mind-reading option. However, there is none. There is a speech option… but that's pointless! There goes my pla—

Ghomas whispers, “Use rock…”

There doesn't go my plan!

I'm not sure if he's being stupid right now or just knows what I'm thinking, but I'm happy he said that. Sure, he ‘whispered’ but this rabbit fella here for sure hears it.

His eyes even shift a bit.

To make it even more convincing, I nod and mutter, “Got it…”

The rabbit man counts down, “Three, two, one!”

His hand opens to paper, and I choose scissors.

He stares, baffled as if he's seeing something wrong. Oh my, what is it, poor boy?

You fell for that basic trick?

I smile confidently as I announce, “I win—“

Splat!