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Democracy?! Alex thinks, a confused look on his face. What the hell is that supposed to be? An election? This sounds bad!

Bushidora steps forward further to explain the rules: "For now, you 50 examinees will be randomly assigned to one of the 5 buildings you see in front of you. This will be your playing field, so to speak. Each of you will randomly draw a ball with a number from this bag. You! Bring the bag and let them draw."

Alex silently pleads to the system and his LUK stat, No Shalnark, no Melody, no Palm—I don't care about the rest.

A man walks from examinee to examinee, each pulling a small ball with a number. Finally, Alex—who positioned himself at the very back—draws the last ball. He pulls it out and sees the number 1 written on it.

"Now, each of you, go to the building corresponding to your number. I'll explain the rest of the rules once you're inside. Before you enter, grab a wristband placed in front of each building—you'll need those."

Alex walks toward his assigned building, a big smile spreading across his face. He watches as Shalnark, Melody, Linus, Patricia, Eirini, and—thankfully—even Palm head toward different buildings. Looks like Melody, Shalnark, and Palm are all separated, he notes. Eirini and Patricia are in Palm's group, and Linus isn't with any of them.

The only person Alex recognizes in his own group is Emma. Taking a good look at the other examinees walking beside him, he notices they all seem weak. Not bad. I can handle this!

But something feels off. Every single candidate, including Emma, is smiling—and they're all glancing at Alex in particular.

Alex can only quote Obi-Wan Kenobi in his head: "I've got a bad feeling about this." He silently whispers the line to himself.

The groups enter their assigned buildings. Each building is circular, with a smaller, equally round structure attached to it—about four times smaller than the main one.

Alex grabs a wristband labeled 7 and steps inside. The room is unremarkable, though he notes 10 beds arranged in a wide circle, spaced apart from each other. There's a small amount of food, drinks, and basic supplies for daily life, along with some cleaning items.

As everyone settles in, Bushidora's voice echoes through speakers installed in the building:

"Now, this exam is called Democracy, as I've mentioned. The rules are very, very simple. Each day, every one of you must vote twice. First, you'll vote for a leader for the day. Second, you'll vote to eliminate someone from play. Needless to say, anyone eliminated is out of the exam. You must vote every day at 12 AM, and you'll have exactly one hour to cast your votes. So the next exam will be in around 18 hours. The door to the voting room will open at 12 AM and close at 1 AM. If you don't leave the voting room before the door closes, you will also be eliminated."

"There's also a special vote you must hold right now to decide your leader until the next vote. You have less than an hour until 7 AM. If anyone fails to vote, they will be immediately disqualified."

"Here's an important detail: you are required to vote every day. If you fail to vote on both questions, you will be eliminated immediately. Votes are registered using your wristbands. Each wristband has a visible player number, and you are not allowed to hide it. You must also allow others to see your number."

"To vote, stand near the console in the voting room and input your vote using the wristband."

"One final rule: if the person elected as leader also receives the most votes for elimination, they will be spared, and the person with the second-most votes will be eliminated instead. If there's a tie in any of the votes, the results will be decided by random chance."

He goes on: "The leader gets to decide any other decisions that happen inside this room: who is in charge of cooking, cleaning, and even who is allowed to access food and drinks. The leader is essentially a king who can dictate anything, though they are not allowed to force others to perform physical actions related to other examinees."

"If you have such thoughts," Bushidora continues, "raise your hand now so I can eliminate you on the spot! However, the leader could, for example, order someone to clean the entire day, forbid them from sleeping, or force them to starve. Be very careful about who you select as a leader. The leader, however, can't order others to give up the game, surrender their possessions, or refuse to vote. During voting time, the leader loses all power."

"We are monitoring you, and if someone disobeys the leader, we will call them out, and they will be eliminated. Of course, you can give up at any time and simply leave. In fact, it might not be a dumb idea if you know you will lose. Save yourself some time and dignity, and leave with your pride intact."

"Attacking other players inside the building—where you will be sleeping and spending most of your day, is also not allowed. Any such attack will lead to immediate disqualification."

"Now, the only candidates moving on will be the remaining five examinees, 1 in each room, after 10 days. As you may have realized, there is only one outcome: in essence, only five examinees will remain in 10 days. All other 45 will be eliminated."

"The game begins… now!" Bushidora's voice slowly begins to fade away leaving the room silent.

Alex stares at the group and the room, cursing inwardly. I hate these kinds of games! I'm not allowed to attack, and I hate group-related games… I always suck at them. Mafia? Among Us? No way! I'm always voted out first if I open my mouth—or voted out right after if I stay silent. I'm a bit untrustworthy, I guess. Hopefully, Emma will at least cooperate with me.

Suddenly, Emma begins laughing loudly and says, "Wow! I can't believe nine out of ten members in this room are already allied with each other. Looks like destiny has finally decided to punish you for your arrogance, Alex."

"What the fuck do you mean? What alliance?" Alex asks, clearly confused.

"In fact, over 60% of the examinees were allied during the last exam… looks like your small group took out three entire teams, but it still worked out just fine. Now, how does it feel to lose against me?"

"Are you some kind of fifth-rate movie villain or something? Is this some sort of grand plan? Only one person can win this game. Why would these other people work together with you?" Alex turns toward the other examinees and asks them.

"Forget it!" Emma responds arrogantly. "We might eventually have to eliminate each other, but we'll let random chance decide! So, anyone has a shot at moving on. However, before that, you will be eliminated first. As for the rest of us? We'll each vote to randomly become the leader and vote for the person beside us to be eliminated. We all have a fair shot at winning this way. Do you all agree?"

They all nod, seemingly having already built some trust in Emma.

"I hate cheap and stupid manipulators like you the most!" Alex exclaims. "Look—she's going to scam you and secretly work with someone else! If you trust her, you will lose without a doubt. Only the results are revealed, not who voted for whom! She has already secretly made a deal with a few of you! If you trust her, you won't have a small shot, you'll lose 100%. Look at this woman. Throughout the entire exam, she's manipulated other people, including myself, so she can advance. Do you honestly believe someone like this—someone who deceives others, will just accept a one-in-nine shot at winning? She blackmailed me during the last exam to win! You all saw it! She threatened to kill my family! Do you trust someone as vile as this?" Alex says, making up outright lies to bolster his arguments.

A few examinees look at Alex with shocked expressions, but others remain unconvinced, clearly already siding with Emma.

"You have 30 minutes to cast your vote," a voice booms through the hall.

"For now, vote for me. The eliminations only start tonight," Emma says.

"See? She's already setting herself up as the leader and manipulator she is. Don't fall for it!" Alex tries again, attempting to sew doubt among the group but he just gets ignored.

Finally, everyone moves into the small attached room through a narrow tunnel and enters the round voting room.

For now, only one machine is active inside the room. The other machine is apparently not operational. Alex walks up to the active machine, and a text is displayed on his wristband: "LEADER SELECTION: INPUT NUMBER." Alex inputs his own number, 7, and then takes a good look around the room. It is completely empty.

Time passes, and a voice comes through the speakers: "Voting room closes in 1 minute. Any candidate remaining will be disqualified."

Alex leaves and the door closes a few seconds after him. A few seconds later, a screen near the top of the building lights up with text: "ELIMINATED: NO ONE - LEADER: NR. 1."

Alex glances at Emma's wristband and, sure enough, it reads 1. Fuck, she actually did it, he thinks.

Emma laughs and says, "Now… how about this. Number 7, immediately clean this building! Everyone else, please relax and enjoy the show."

Alex shakes his head, grabs a broom, and starts sweeping the spotless room. Vile bitch. Now she's showing her true character… what should I do?

Time drags on, and Alex keeps cleaning the same spots over and over. Five hours pass. Alex is trembling with rage while the others, including Emma, laugh at his expense.

As Alex sweeps, wicked thoughts swirl in his mind. I'm going to fail 100% at this rate. I don't see any way out of this. I might as well kill this vile bitch. At least then she can't mention my Annihilation Grenade innate skill. Maybe she even saw Mustrano during the battle in Tribaio Village. If I kill her, I'll get disqualified, but I'll still leave this mission and world without any real losses. My rewards will suck, and I'll get a low rank… but if I can just get rid of her…

Alex forces a twisted expression onto his face and says, "I think you win, 'leader.' I don't see any way I can turn this around."

Emma smirks. "Hehehehe, so you've finally realized it. Follow me—I have something to talk to you about."

Alex follows her to a secluded corner, where she leans in and says, "30,000 FC per day, and I might give you a chance after all. How about it? I can easily manipulate these fools into letting you stick around a bit longer. Give me 30,000 FC, and I might just let you stay."

"Are you fucking retarded? No way in hell am I paying you. How about this—you stop giving me orders, and you tell your people to vote for someone else," Alex responds coldly.

Emma sneers. "Have you gone insane, you dummy? Why would I ever do that?"

Alex replies with a sinister smile and a menacing gleam in his eyes. "If I fail this exam anyway, I don't need to follow the laws or rules anymore. I'll kill you. If I fail, I'll take you down with me. The only difference is, you'll be dead—and I'll return to the Realm."

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