Chapter 2

Isolde stepped into the game before I could even continue to dissuade her.

At first, everything went just as the comments had predicted.

The moment King Ragnar saw her, her atonement score jumped to 95%. After a few sweet, affectionate lines between them, it rose to 99%.

Everyone was thrilled. We were one step from victory.

Meanwhile, the others were doing well too.

Asher, who played the chancellor, managed to raise King Ragnar's atonement score to 80% by speaking blunt truths. Another classmate, playing King Ragnar's biological sister, gained 50% just by acting cute.

The others who'd stayed behind and not entered the scenario block began to regret it.

"I would've joined and played if I'd known it was this easy to have King Ragnar atone."

But the unease in my chest only grew. A nagging feeling told me that we'd overlooked some detail.

We waited from day until deep into the night. While Isolde's atonement score stayed stuck at 99%, the others had increased a little.

We guessed that maybe we had to wait for King Ragnar and Isolde to get married to fill the atonement score.

Some of us grew tired and lay down to rest.

I pulled out my phone and texted Isolde, just to check in on her. But she never replied.

The next morning, we saw her body.

The comments kept pouring in.

"LOL. Isolde picked the deadliest role. She might have saved King Ragnar once, but she only took him home to vent her anger on him. King Ragnar had never stopped searching for her because he hated her.

"And the chancellor? King Ragnar has never wanted a blunt minister. The fact that he embarrassed King Ragnar in court meant he was doomed for death.

"As for the princess King Ragnar kept alive… It wasn't because of their biological ties, but because he resented her for being born into comfort and wanted to slowly torture her."

That was when I saw a text Isolde had sent me in the middle of the night.

It was just one word. "Run!"

Before anyone could react, the system's voice rang out again.

A 90-minute countdown timer appeared in front of us, glowing with intensely unsettling stark red digits like a death sentence.

Someone finally snapped and shouted at the system, "What do you want from us? Why did you trap us here?"

The system didn't answer, but the questioning shouts continued, "Why did they die? Why are they dead? You only said we'd die if we fail the game, but you never said King Ragnar would kill us!"

Still, the system said nothing.

"I quit! I'm done! I'm going home!" another yelled.

That was when the system finally responded, "Player 18, do you confirm to exit the game? Your body outside the game world is dead. Exiting before the atonement is completed will result in immediate death."

Some classmates tried to warn him not to act rashly, but he'd reached his limit and roared at the system, "I'm sure!"

The next second, his body split cleanly in half. An eyeball hit the floor and rolled away.

He slowly reached out toward the nearest classmate, but his body was shredded into pieces before he could even make a sound, and chunks of his limbs were flung away.

The classmate standing closest to him was splattered with blood. After standing frozen for several minutes, they seemed to finally process what had happened and screamed.

The comments exploded with wild excitement.

"Beautiful! The blood splatter pattern is chef's kiss. Looks like the system's punishments keep getting better."

"Look! Someone actually wet themselves! This is nothing; the longer they wait to enter the game, the harder their atonement routes get."

"King Ragnar knows the Atoners exist now. I can't wait to see what will happen to the players next."