What is the root of all evil?

Some may say greed, I say otherwise.

It didn’t take very long after the first person stepped out from behind the door for others to start making an appearance.

Who were all these people? That was naturally my first question.

Why are they here? Are they related to one another?

I had a plethora of questions, but I maintained my silence.

Altogether there were five people on this floor, six if I counted myself.

A young boy, an elderly woman, a high school girl, a thug, and a young man who had the looks of an idol.

It was an odd group of individuals. Hmm… I suppose I could make it work. I just needed to acquire lifespan from one of them somehow.

“Tch. Who the hell are you people? Why the hell am I here?” the thug posed his question in an interrogatory tone.

“Hah? What the hell do you mean? You jerk, aren’t you clearly the one who’s behind kidnapping all of us? Your appearance fits the bill for that type of roll?”

“What did you just say to me you tramp? Why the hell would I kidnap an old granny like her?”

“Isn’t it clearly because you’re that type of scum?”

“Bitch are you looking to die?”

The thug and the high school girl immediately broke into a war of words with one another. I found it childish.

For the time being I chose to ignore them. It would be best to not stick my head out to be put on the chopping block so quickly. After all, I was an outsider. I didn’t start out on this floor like they did.

Altogether 6 doors had opened, but only 5 people had shown their faces. Nobody exited from the door closest to me.

I wordlessly exited the elevator and entered the room that no one came out of. Was there someone still inside it, or was there some significance to the room? I wanted to first confirm this before anything else.

When I entered the room I discovered, dead center, were five pieces of paper and a knife.

What the significance of it was, I had an inkling of an idea. It also became very apparent to me what situation I’d found myself in.

It was undoubtedly in my mind nothing more than a sick and twisted game. We were being watched. I didn’t know from where as I hadn’t seen any cameras, but to abduct people and lock them in this barren hotel, what other reason was there but for entertainment purposes?

Just what did the observers want to witness though?

What were the rules of this game?

Five pieces of paper and a knife. The blood I saw in the first room. The contrasting memories in my head. The information I knew of, but did not know why I knew it.

You didn’t need to be a genius to figure it out.

We’ve been brought together to accomplish some sort of objective. Be it simple entertainment or something of greater significance I did not know.

The only thing I knew for certain was that this was dangerous. Why were these people in particular chosen to be a part of this?

They were hiding something as well. What were they hiding though?

Could their situation be similar to my own? With their lifespan almost fully depleted? The old lady I could easily see that being the case, but the others… it seemed unlikely.

However if we assumed it were truly the case… could it be we’re being given an ultimatum?

Who among us deserves to live?

Then the five pieces of paper and knife were intended for blood contracts?

This was troublesome. I wanted to extend my life in a short amount of time, but I was met with this ultimatum.

“Big brother, what are those for?”

I turned around and saw the young boy from earlier peeking into the room.

“They’re the items that will decide who among us gets to live.”

The child’s eyes opened wide in shock.

“Kid, how much is your remaining lifespan?”

“Eh? I have a lot of course. I’m young and have many years ahead of me.”

“Really? Would you mind letting me borrow a year then? I can pay you back with 2 years in interest at a later date.”

“Mister, are you dying?”

“Can’t you tell by looking at me? I’m skin and bones. I could fall over and kick the bucket at any moment. To be honest, I only have 3 days left to live.”

“What? Only 3 days!”

“Haaaaah. Yes. That is correct. Only 3 days left. You see, I have a wife who fell ill. Her disease consumes her lifespan at a rapid pace, to be precise, at 100 times a normal person’s consumption. I’ve been working myself to death at my job providing for her for all these years, but her condition recently worsened and made it so I could no longer support the two of us. I’ve been providing her with more and more of my lifespan to compensate for her worsened condition, but I’ve reached the limit of what I can provide for her on my own.” 

The kid’s eyes turned watery about to cry.

Of course everything I said was naturally all a complete lie. I had no wife as far as I was aware. When you only had 3 days to live though you had to do everything you could to survive.

“Mister if it’s just a year you’re asking for I don’t mind at all.”

“What? Really? I wasn’t serious when I was asking just now. I couldn’t really take a year from a child. That would be too unjust.”

At least I couldn’t do that just yet. If I did, I’d become the enemy of everyone else here.

The reason I announced all this was so this child could spread this fictitious story to the others. It was the most convincing and moving to others when they heard such a story from the mouth of a child.

Essentially, my intent was to use this naive ignorant child to achieve my objectives. This child really was a complete and utter fool, he had no idea…

“Hey bastard, what are you doing sneakily in here? Hah!”

“Oh, sorry if I gave you the wrong idea. I left my room a bit earlier to check out the elevator. Initially my room was empty, but when I came back I found this knife and five pieces of paper.”

“What the hell? A knife and five pieces of paper? Are you fucking with me asshole? Do I look like a joke to you? Do you want to fucking die you piece of shit?”

“Leave Mister alone! He’s a good guy unlike you jerkface!”

“A good guy? Would a good guy be holding onto a knife?”

“Oh? This knife? Sorry about that I’ll put it down right now. I really don’t mean any harm. Here kid, you take the knife. I don’t really think giving it to him would be the best idea.”

“You’re giving the knife to me?”

“Yeah you’re the best choice since you’re the weakest here, right?”

“Oh! I see! That makes a lot of sense when you put it that way.”

I held onto the blade and handed it over to the child. When the child took it out of my hand, “Ssss. Ouch.”

“Mister, sorry! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just a small cut. I didn’t think it was that sharp. It’s really unbelievable how sharp it is, it cleanly cut through my skin like butter.”

Of course, this was all just part of an intentional act to make myself look as harmless as possible.

“Just what the hell is going on here? You know something don’t you?”

“I’m as clueless as you are. Why we’re here I have no idea. Don’t you think we should try to figure that out rather than jumping to conclusions in the heat of the moment?”

“Yeah, you stupid thug. Can’t you see how malnourished this guy is? Don’t you think it’d be unreasonable to think he has the ability to kidnap everyone here?” The high school girl chimed in in my defence.”

“Yeah like that big sister said, Mister is such a caring person. There’s no way he could be a bad guy. He’s sacrificed all his lifespan to his wife and only has 3 days left. When I offered him a year of my lifespan he even turned it down saying how he couldn’t really take lifespan from a child.”

“What? 3 days… it must really suck to be you right now.”

“You asshole! Do you have no respect for anybody but yourself?”

“Respect? Respect is earned, not given little girl.”

“You’re really the worst type of trash in our society. It’s people like you who should die the most.”

The thug and the high school girl broke out into another verbal bout.

Meanwhile, the old lady in the background kept to herself quietly observing with a discerning eye.

The pretty boy idol was the only one out of sight. There was a bunch of blood on my finger, without much thought I wiped it off on the paper.

“Hey Mister, about your lifespan, it’s really fine if you take a bit of my lifespan you know. I really don’t mind.”

“I already said I can’t do that. Look once we leave here I’ll make sure to increase my lifespan. I don’t need a kid worrying about me.”

“What do you mean you won’t take any from me? Would you take it from me if I wasn’t just a kid?”

“I still wouldn’t. My wife is soon to die either way. At this point I’d just be prolonging her pain. If I live while she dies I’ll only feel more pain. I’m content with dying here. I won’t take your lifespan.”

“You can’t give up like that! What if they find a cure for your wife’s condition just one day later? Wouldn’t you regret it for the rest of your life? Look at least take half a month from me. That’s barely anything.”

“Fifteen days is too much to take from a kid like you. You should treasure your life and not take it for granted. In the future when you’re an adult you’ll regret every second of your lifespan you gave away when you’re being taxed by the government while just barely managing to scrape by.”

“Then if that’s too much, how about just 3 days? Like that you can double your lifespan and next to no cost on my part.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Just do it or I’ll use this knife on myself! I’m saying to take it so take it! It’s my lifespan and I can use it however I want to! You four as well should also pitch in.”

“Hmmp! To think there was a man so bad off even a little child like this would be offering his lifespan up to another person.” The pretty boy idol stepped out from behind the door frame while he brushed his hand through his hair.

“Kid you don’t need to offer up any of your lifespan let this big brother handle this instead.”

He looked pretty confident when he said that, but to me, it felt more like he was only putting on a show to make himself look benevolent in everybody else’s eyes. He was the arrogant type that just wanted to be the center of the limelight at all times. Some might look at him favourably, but his motive was obvious to me right from the start. I didn’t bother to say a thing about it though.

“Hmmp. If a pretty boy idol can donate to charity so can I.” The high school girl seemed like she didn’t want to be 

“Hah? Are you brain dead you stupid chick? You’d give up 3 days of your lifespan to some pathetic loser who’ll kick the bucket in 3 days?”

The high school girl looked back at him with disdain and said, “even a kid has more balls than you. Aren’t you actually just so afraid you’ll be unable to ever get a job to increase your dwindling lifespan which is why you’re such a stingy petty person? Or could it be that your dick gets smaller and smaller with each passing second and you’re afraid your dick will get so small that it will shrink to microscopic levels with the sudden loss of three short days of life?”

Ouch. Even I felt the sting from her vicious words just now. My scrotum actually shrunk a little bit when I heard it. To have such a talent with her words, it was really a bit of a shame.

“Bitch, you think I’m afraid of giving up three days? HAH! Try me! After I give up three days I’ll show you just how large my dick is when I shove it down your throat.”

“Sorry, did you say something? I couldn’t hear it because I was too distracted trying to use echolocation to locate your microscopic penis.”

Sssss. I could hear the rage burning inside him. The thug suddenly redirected the topic towards the old lady. “If we’re all doing it, what about that old lady? She can’t be the only one who doesn’t have to sacrifice anything.”

“Are you really that pathetic? She’s already that old, she probably hardly has any time left and might even be closer to death than this guy is.”

“Hohohoho. Child that’s a funny joke. This grandma still has plenty of life left in her. A short 3 days is no problem at all for me. If youngins can pitch in, an old woman like me can’t sit back and do nothing to contribute when there is someone in need of a helping hand.”

“Mister hurry up and write up the contract.”

“Wait, hold it, he only has five peices of paper, right?”

“Obviously. What’s wrong with that? Is your brain so small that you think because we have 6 people we need 6 pieces of paper for each of us to make a contract with him?”

I immediately interjected, “what he means is that because we have five peices of paper, he’s concerned about using them all up in one go. In the event the five pieces of paper have some sort of significance, if we blindly used them all up we might find ourselves in trouble. Not to worry though. We can just use half of each paper. Just cut it in half with the knife and we will still have the same number of pieces of paper that we started with.”

“Oh, that’s what the idiot meant?”

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“I’m not an idiot. You’ll be the idiot when you’re moaning out in pleasure on the ground begging me for more later.”

“Get lost loser. I’d rather be raped by that disgusting pretty boy than you.”

“I’ll fucking kill you!”

The pretty boy stepped in with a benevolent smile on his face without any sign of cracks on his face. “Now. Now. There’s no need to fight. Let’s just help this poor man in need and then peacefully figure out why exactly we’ve been brought here.” 

I folded each paper in half then started writing out a contract on one side of each paper. We could cut them afterwards in case there was extra space on the paper we could save from it..

I wrote out each one identical to each other in my own blood.

‘I solemnly agree to oblige unconditionally in adherence to the contract blood pact governed by the laws of this world. I agree to gift 3 days of lifespan; upon signature, my 3 days of lifespan will be transferred to the contractor by blood. In return for this, I will receive information from the contractor by blood.

I, _____________________, have read and understood the contents of this contract by blood.’

It was short, but that was all I could fit with the limited space.

I handed one over to everyone except the child.

“Hey, what are you doing! I’m also signing one. Did you forget about this knife, old man? Do you really want to watch me kill myself?”

“Haaaah. I was hoping you’d forget about it. Fine. Here you go.”

The kid punctured his finger and without even reading the contract he carelessly slapped it down onto the ground and signed it.

The thug bit down on his finger hard enough to draw blood and followed suit as if to prove his manliness.

The highschool girl pricked her finger on the knife and the pretty boy idol did the same. The old lady with a shaky hand followed shortly after. I watched as they all signed the contract. The only one who took a while to sign was the old lady. 

As expected of someone her age, she read it thoroughly from beginning to end to make sure she fully understood it unlike the ignorant youth who signed away their lives without ever realizing it. Her actions were truly a sign of wisdom to not jump into things without first reading what was outlined.

Before she signed it she even asked me, “what information do you plan to provide us with?”

My answer was an obvious one, “I need something to trade for it to be established as a contract. Information is just about the only thing I have to trade. I’d rather not trade my memories, all I have left aside from information are the memories together with my wife. If I lost that I wouldn’t be able to live anymore.”

My answer seemingly struck a chord with the old lady. She held the contract up to hide her face and signed it without another thought. When I heard her sniffle from behind the piece of paper I averted my gaze to the side. Even I felt low from that lowball. I took advantage of her knowing fully well that she likely had a husband in his late years of age who may or may not already be dead.

She would understand that sort of sentiment the most and undoubtedly let her guard down.

Haaaaah. It was over. To be honest it was too easy.

While I internally remorsed over this group’s naivety, a loud high pitched cackle that resembled nails against a chalkboard resounded inside the room.

“KYAAAAKAKYAAAAKAKYAAAAKAAAKYAAAAKAAAAAKYAAAKAAA.”

When I turned around I was met with a knife pointed at my throat only inches away from me.

As for the person’s identity, it was the little boy who’d played along with my nonsense story from the start that helped me deceive everyone.

“What the hell? Did the kid suddenly lose his mind?”

“No, he didn’t suddenly lose his mind.”

A wide grin appeared on the little boy’s face. He tilted his head to the side with eyes opened wide without ever blinking. He spoke out and asked, “Oh? What do you mean I didn’t suddenly lose my mind, Mister?”

“This child is half a murderer of sorts.”

The room fell into complete silence.

“HYAAHAHAHAHIAHA! Mister! Well I’ll be damned. How’d you know? Aren’t you pretty amazing? I thought my acting was pretty world class.”

The thug, unentertained, clicked his tongue in annoyance, “Tch. This kid is really starting to piss me off.”

“Little boy are you alright? Did we do something wrong to make you act out like this all of a sudden?”

“Hey big sister.”

“What is it little brother?”

“Shut up you stupid cheap whore. Why don’t you just get raped by that dumbass thug you’ve been dicking around with from the start? Even better, when you’re done with getting his fist up your ass, do the world a favor and just die.”

Flabbergasted by the child's extreme change in temperament, the high school girl was left with no words. This brat really didn’t hold back any punches.

As for the last two, the old lady remained silent while the pretty boy idol had discretely stepped back, clearly afraid he’d be involved in the trouble.

I watched everything as it transpired with a relaxed expression.

“Hey, Mister.”

“What is it?”

“Do you know what everyone’s lifespan is right now?”

“Yes. I do.”

“Oh really? What is it then?”

“From the time we woke up here everybody had 3 days of lifespan remaining.”

“Hahaha. Is that so? Really? How interesting.”

When the thug heard that he screamed out “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!”

“You shit head! What is the meaning of this! Why do I have only 1 minute of my lifespan remaining?”

“Because I’ve provided you with information and completed the contract. Three days of your lifespan has been transferred to me.”

“Give it back to me! Give it back to me right now! I can’t die like this. I’ll fucking kill you right now!”

“If you kill me you won’t get your lifespan back. It will also take longer than a minute to write out the contract with your blood. By the time I signed a contact to give your lifespan back it would be too late. It’s too late for all of you. You are all about to die. However before you die, I’ll be kind enough to shed some light onto the biggest murderer here who is about to die that assisted with orchestrating all of this.”

“About to die? Are you talking about me Mister? If you are I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re mistaken. Three days isn’t enough for me to die. But man, I am really thankful to you, Mister.”

“Oh? You’re thankful to me? Why is that?”

“Because a malnourished weakling like you was here, killing off these fools was so much easier than I ever imagined. Now that they’re destined to die I can just collect their lifespan from you, the weakest link among the group that even a child like me can easily handle. You’re in the worst condition out of everyone here. If it wasn’t for how good your pathetic story about your wife was I would have used the old lady over there instead.”

“I see, but you signed the contract as well you know. Just like them you are definitely going to die. You do realize that, right?”

“Were you even listening to what I said just now? Fine, I’ll repeat myself since it seems you’ve got dementia. Like I said before, I have longer than 3 days to live.”

“Are you sure you have longer than 3 days?”

“HAHAHAHA! Of course I’m sure. I’ve already collected 3 days from 4 other people already. I bet you’re shocked right now, aren’t you? Guess what, Mister.”

“What?”

“I came from another area. I was originally on Floor 20-F. Do you know what I did on that floor?”

“How would I know?”

“I bet you would never imagine it, but I deceived 4 dumbasses into believing I was a sickly child who only had 3 days left to live. When I woke up I immediately realized I only had 3 days left to live. When those fools signed contracts shortly after they collapsed. Can you guess what sort of fun I had after that?”

“You took off your clothes, cut them to pieces and danced around, tossing their limbs all over the place like a perverted freak while drenched in their blood. You painted the walls in blood and really had a field day, didn’t you?”

The kid’s eyes opened wide when he heard my guess.

“How did you know? This isn’t fair at all. No fun. No fun at all. I wanted to see the look of shock on your face as I recounted every vile deed I did to their corpses. How did you know? HOW DID YOU KNOW!”

“Hey kid, do you know how many doors are open on floor 20-F?”

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Five.”

“Sorry, you’re wrong. There are a total of six doors open.”

“That’s completely wrong, there are not six open, there are five. Don’t try to lie to me, I killed everyone on that floor. There were only five open doors.”

“Kid, I was in the sixth door. I wasn’t conscious at the time, but when I exited the room I saw the mess you left behind. Kid, I’ve known everything since the moment I laid eyes on you. Right from the start.”

“How? How could you know it was me? That’s impossible!”

“At first I was confused why the blood was there. It was only when I put the pieces of the puzzle together I formed a picture of what happened. You took your clothes off to avoid them getting stained. You could easily wash the blood off your body with water, but you left plenty of evidence behind. The handprints on the wall were child sized. There were also footprints on the ground, a child sized foot. I didn’t think much of it at first until I saw you at the start and grew suspicious.”

“According to theory, the blood shouldn’t be visible to me if they were murdered and you assimilated with their existence. As a naive child you wanted to admire your little work of art and didn’t want it to disappear, so you chose to not assimilate with their existence. You didn’t kill them directly, you merely took their remaining lifespan and let them die of natural causes. Once they were dead you were free to go all out and do whatever you wanted with their bodies.”

“Kid as for when I first arrived on this floor from floor 20-F, the moment the elevator doors opened, you weren’t actually in a room at the time. You were just like me, you’d recently arrived on this floor from floor 20-F. You were dragging the bodies around and you intended to store them in one of the rooms. You were checking for open rooms and you’d gotten all the way down to the end of the hall by the time I showed up. 

“You just so happened to be in my blind spot when the elevator doors opened up. The doors in the hallway were already almost halfway open by the time I took a good look at the hallway. You were close to the wall when the doors opened up which was why I didn’t notice you immediately. You used a short minute to quickly shove the bodies inside the room then peeked your head out and found me. You just assumed I was in the room that opened closest to the elevator and that in a panic I’d gone to check on it first, right?”

“Wow. You really got me there Mister. But even when you know all that, what does it matter if you can’t stop me? I’ve already won a long time ago, Mister.”

“AHHHHHHH!” An anguished cry sounded out from the thug as he fell to the ground head first with a thud.

“Hahahaha. One bites the dust Mister. Tik tok. Tik tok. Who will be next?”

“Ugh.” The old lady clutched at her heart and collapsed  onto her side.

“Die. Die. Die! DIE! DIE! DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE! HAHAHAHA! EVERYONE DIE FOR WOE IS ME!”

The high school girl still in shock opened her eyes and fell to one knee. She coughed up a mouthful of blood onto her hands before she fell to the ground listless, devoid of any life.

The last one, the pretty boy with his back up to the wall repeatedly muttered to himself, “I can’t die. I can’t die. I’m too attractive to die. How can I possibly die? I still have so much to do. So much to accomplish. I’m supposed to be the main character everywhere I go. Looked up to by all. This can’t be happening.”

His eyes rolled back while he hyperventilated in panic. His body spasmed violently and he began to foam at his mouth.

Completely unfazed by their deaths I continued calmly. “You’ve won? Are you sure about that kid? Like I said before I already knew everything from the start.”

“Even if you knew you only put 3 days in the contract. That was the only thing I needed to confirm before I signed it.”

“Haaaaah. You really are a mindless idiot to the very end kid. Check your lifespan.”

“What are you talking- wh-wh-what is this… This is- It can’t be. No. No. NONONONONONONON! HIGYAAAAAA! KIKYAAA! Why do I have so lit- haaaaaaa. I-I’ll k-k-k-kill yyyyou.”

“What’s wrong? Is time up so soon?”

“In a snake like hiss he asked venomously, “how?”

While he struggled to breathe I lifted up the contract he signed. The front potion had written:

‘I solemnly agree to oblige unconditionally in adherence to the contract blood pact governed by the laws of this world. I agree to gift 3 days of lifespan, upon signature, my 3 days of lifespan will be transferred to the contractor by blood. In return for this, I will receive information from the contractor by blood.

I,         Jeffrey Edwards         , have read and understood the contents of this contract by blood.’

I then unfolded it and revealed the back of the other half. Written on it was:

‘I solemnly agree to oblige unconditionally in adherence to the contract blood pact governed by the laws of this world. I agree to gift 12 days of lifespan; upon signature, my 3 days of lifespan will be transferred to the contractor by blood. In return for this, I will receive information from the contractor by blood.

I,         Jeffrey Edwards         , have read and understood the contents of this contract by blood.’

The boy’s, or should I say Jeffrey’s eyes shot open wide when he saw the one difference here.

His eyes looked like he couldn’t understand a thing. I knew he would never be able to rest in peace unless he knew the answer so I kindly explained to him.

“I cut myself intentionally at the start, it was no accident. Shortly after I was cut I wrote 12 out in my blood right where it would fit when I wrote out the full contract. I made sure the blood soaked through the paper to the other side when I wrote your contract out.”

“I told you, didn’t I? I knew everything from the very start. You were entangled in my web the moment you stepped into the room. The one who had been in complete control over the situation was me all along. It was never you kid.”

“You know, if it wasn’t because you were so eager when you thought your plan had succeeded when everyone was signing, this entire little plot of mine would have crumbled to pieces. If you didn’t put the paper on the ground and press down so hard from the excitement at the thought of victory, you would probably have only lost 3 days of your lifespan.”

“Kid, if there is a next life, always scrutinize everything down to the finest detail. If you miss even one minor detail, ten times out of ten, it will spell your death.”

Jeffrey fell to his knees. He wrapped his hands around his throat desperately clawing and gasping for air. 

With rage in his eyes, choked he spit out,“Y-ou ba s trd. I- Ki- l y-”

Thud. Clangggggggg.

A thud echoed out followed by the high pitch clang of the knife he dropped when his body hit the ground. Without remorse I picked up the knife and turned away from his corpse.

I headed towards the exit and stopped in front of the old woman’s body. I looked down and called out, “Old lady, I know you’re still alive. Did you really think I wouldn’t check and notice the lifespan I received didn’t add up?”

“Haha. Of course not. I just wanted to see how things would play out before I died was all.”

“You didn’t actually sign the contract, did you? Were you suspicious of me from the start?”

“That is correct, I didn’t sign it. I wasn’t suspicious. Rather than suspicious, I was just wary.”

“Are you that attached to life?”

“Not really. I’ve lived a long enough life already.”

“I see. Do you have any last words?”

“Oh? You’re actually interested in hearing the last words of an old woman like me?”

“The fact that you were the only one who wasn’t a naive fool that blindly signed away your life warrants my respect.”

“Last words, huh? I don’t really have any last words, but I do have a question.”

“A question? Sure, if I know the answer to it I will answer you.”

“Why did you opt to kill everyone?”

“Haha. That’s a silly question. You should know the answer. It’s pretty obvious.”

“To live, is it?”

“Yes, but not quite. To live and minimize squandering lifespan on someone who will inevitably die soon. The longer I waited to kill, the less total lifespan was available. There would be more and more wastage the longer it took to decide. If we acted like goody two shoes and spent too much time figuring out who got to live and who had to die, the overall lifespan would deplete much more quickly while all of us were alive. With such limited resources at hand, the less mouths to feed the better. It may be heartless, it might be ruthless, but it was a necessary decision that had to be made.”

“You don’t feel anything about their deaths?”

“The boy, definitely not, he was a complete psychopath. The thug, not in the slightest. The pathetic vain pretty boy who only cared for his looks, never. The high school girl, she was naive and foolish and would have died in no time in this sort of environment. It was best to let her die a quick painless death like this. It would be cruel to let her suffer though what is most likely to come after this.”

“As for you, you’re too old and feeble. You would die sooner or later. I’m not an idealist who believes everyone can be saved. If I do find someone that isn’t a burden, whose utility outweighs their cost, then I’ll naturally consider keeping them around.”

“I see. You’re not so evil after all, you’re just a realist.”

“Yes. More or less. Besides, the root of evil lies not from my greed to live. It is something else entirely.”

“Haaah. I see.”

“You’re not going to ask anything else?”

“No, I’ve had about enough. I’m a bit tired now.”

“I see.”

“I think I’ll take a nap.”

I’d intended to end her life with the knife since I figured she wouldn’t sign the contract, but against my expectations she took out the contract and signed it of her own accord.

“I suppose I’ve now joined the group of those fools.”

“Why did you sign it?”

“There’s no need for you to stain your hands with my blood for no reason. If I’m destined to die, then so be it. I’ll die of my own accord, not by someone else’s hands. It’s exactly as you said, I wouldn’t make it out of here alive. It would also be a waste of valuable lifespan if you killed me off. With the way you are, you probably wouldn’t have just left me here to die a prolonged painful death from starvation either. So you would have definitely chosen to kill me with your own hands.”

“Sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologize. Just make sure you survive and don’t die a senseless death. The world as it stands takes life for granted since it’s so readily available on the market. However, even death has meaning to it. Living an eternal life without death has only made life amount to nothing in this twisted world. The wealthy who have amassed so much lifespan that they can never run out have sunk to the level where they even pit those less fortunate than them against each other just for entertainment.”

“You already realized why we’re here as well?”

“Of course. It doesn’t take much thinking to figure what this whole situation is really about.”

I looked up at the ceiling with an empty feeling inside and muttered, “yeah. You’re right. It really doesn’t take much thought. I don’t know where we’re being watched from in all of this, but it’s really the worst.”

“...”

Silence was the only thing that remained. 

I didn’t stick around any longer. Without looking at the old woman again I exited the room and returned to the elevator.

The root of all evil was not greed. It was something else entirely. It was the people mindlessly living under them who chose to allow for things to reach this state.

The incompetence of naive fools,

living in ignorance,

of the constantly evolving world

around

them.