The rabbit man glared at me, his eyes intense.

  He scratched his chin, deep in thought. Hessien and Vacinay nervously bit their lips, while Ghomas struggled to maintain his calm—though the sweat trickling down his face gave away his anxiety.

  The fact that it understood me was still unbelievable. If it possessed that level of intelligence, it must have a damn good reason for trying to kill us. Though, whatever the reason was, it didn’t change the fact that I wanted it dead.

  It leaned in closer and spoke. “I like that.”

  WHAT THE HELL?

  I swallowed hard, desperately trying to keep my composure.

  Hessien pointed at it, bewildered, and turned to Vacinay. “Am I… Am I hearing things?”

  She hesitated, then replied, “I think I’m hearing things too…”

  Ghomas muttered, “We’re all crazy.”

  The rabbit man laughed, a sharp, mocking sound. “I am very damn real, you filthy creatures!”

  Ah, that must be why it wanted to kill us. It was species-ist. Wait a second.

  I quickly blurted out, “We’re not like the others! We’re humans, a foreign species in this world. You hate those flow-pattern guys, not us! We’re friendly, kind, and encouraging!”

  The others hesitated, unsure how to respond. I couldn’t tell if it was because my words were utter nonsense or if they actually thought they were hallucinating.

  Ghomas shook his head with a smirk. “Man… I’m tired of all this. I’m going back home.”

  He turned and walked away confidently—or at least tried to.

  What was he thinking? Did he want to die just so I’d be forced to loop and save him?

  I hadn’t even measured how far back looping sent me, but it seemed to be less each time.

  I doubted that was the nature of the passive skill. It had to be tied to a condition or my energy levels. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to test theories.

  The rabbit man grabbed Ghomas by the arm. Before Ghomas could react, a sickening snap echoed through the air.

  “Argh! It’s real! It’s really real!” Ghomas howled in pain and shock.

  Dumbass! Why the hell did he try to walk away?

  The rabbit man flung him to the ground near us.

  Then, crouching low, it got straight to the point. “Humans, I have no idea what you are. Nor do I give a flying FUCK! You came here and made my damn drinking water taste like shit!”

  It punched the ground repeatedly, its frustration growing. “Do you know how disgusting that was?! How traumatizing?! I come here every day for a good drink. I go deep down and savor the pure, sweet nectar… but then—brown… and disgust…”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Its eye twitched erratically. “Even now, I can still remember the taste.” It lifted its head toward us, its eyes burning red.

  Wait a second—something didn’t add up.

  The spring was massive—anything that minor should’ve been diluted!

  Vacinay voiced the same thought. “Um… how did you taste that in such a huge spring? It’s at least thirty meters deep and fifty meters wide!”

  The rabbit man shot her a glare, then pointed at his tongue and nose. “I was created by the ‘Monster Creation’ skill to be a tracker. My senses are far beyond yours.”

  Despite the gravity of the situation, I swore I heard Vacinay stifle a laugh. “Oh, he actually tasted it… haha.”

  The moment its gaze locked onto her, her expression turned serious.

  So it was a created being, huh? Could creations just go rogue like that? I thought there were supposed to be limitations.

  Then, in a mocking tone, it said, “So, the game you want to play… Honestly, I should just torture you and force you to tell me what I want to know.”

  It deliberated longer than I liked, so I shut it down quickly. “Wouldn’t work. I have countermeasures. If I’m tortured, I explode.”

  “I doubt it.”

  I grinned. “Try it.”

  Actually, please don’t try it.

  Its head tilted, considering. “Okay… The game we will play is rock, paper, scissors!”

  A game of pure chance? Well, it was supposed to be, anyway.

  I agreed. “Sounds good to me.”

  It restated the rules. “If I win, you take me to a civilization of your kind. If I lose, I kill myself.”

  I nodded.

  Wait a second—why did it care about killing other human-like beings? And why was it targeting me—someone who hadn’t even gone into the damn spring? This bastard wanted to kill everyone because of what a handful of people did?

  Just to be sure, I asked, “By the way, do you want to kill those guards too?”

  “Oh, hell yeah. They look like you. I’m making sure no one ever pulls that stunt in my damn drinking paradise again.”

  A cold shiver ran down the guards' spines the moment he said that.

  That was an interesting reason to commit genocide…

  Imagine that in the history classes:

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

  ‘Ah, well, you see, there were these four people who got into a spring, and they were dirty. Because of that…’

  It sounded ridiculous.

  I should’ve learned the name of those flow-pattern guys’ species, but whatever. The only thing that mattered now was this game of rock, paper, scissors—the game that would decide whether a mass slaughter would happen tonight.

  I took a deep breath and asked, “How can I be sure you’ll keep your end of the bargain?”

  Like hell I could imagine him actually going through with it. ‘Oh damn, I really lost. Despite the fact that I could kill any of you right now, I’m going to keep my word and off myself even though I desperately want to live.’

  The rabbit man gently touched his chest, his expression turning serious. “Due to how I was created, whenever I agree to a contract, verbal or not, I must comply.”

  Oh? That sounded promising!

  “I see! Okay, let’s get started!” I said quickly.

  Even if I lost, it wouldn’t matter—I’d just loop back. But still, I had no intention of losing this game or my damn head.

  He nodded in agreement.

  We readied our fists, shaking them in preparation.

  What would he play? Maybe he thinks I’d choose rock, since I seem like the hardened, stubborn type. That sounds stupid, though. There's no way for me to predict it.

  Wait. He had sharp senses… and I just remembered something.

  While keeping my hand moving, I discreetly opened my system settings and navigated to the party options.

  Please tell me there’s a mind-typing feature!

  I scanned the virtual keyboard for any sign of a telepathic input option. Instead, I found a speech function—completely useless for this situation.

  There goes my pla—

  Ghomas whispered, “Use rock…”

  There doesn’t go my plan!

  I wasn’t sure if he was being reckless or if he somehow knew exactly what I was thinking, but I was glad he said that. Sure, he whispered, but this rabbit bastard definitely heard it.

  His ears twitched slightly, and his gaze flickered toward Ghomas.

  To make it more convincing, I gave a subtle nod and muttered, “Got it…”

  The rabbit man began the countdown. “Three, two, one—”

  His hand snapped open—paper.

  I chose scissors.

  He froze, staring in disbelief as if he had just witnessed something impossible.

  Oh my, what’s wrong, poor boy?

  Did you really fall for such a basic trick?

  I grinned, brimming with confidence. “I win—”

  Splat!