Finding Too

Death

[-You had died in Murder Island-]

The message lit up in the void, illuminating the floating body drifting in the darkness.

[-Because you finally died on more than 50 resets, you will be checkpointed to 50 resets! However, if you die before you get 65 resets, the total would be subtracted by 15!-]

Soon after that message, the system switched to a small wall of text, showing a brief summary of his status.

[-Player #3 STATS:- ]
Resets: 50 (highest score: 64 )
Currently using: Cameron
Killed by: Peyton
Deaths: 1

{Spectate?} {Start a new round?}

The man stared at the system blankly, mainly looking at the name of the person who killed him. Peyton... Peyton? Barely he had any idea whatever happened, nor even knew how he ended up here. It felt like he is lacking some memories. Everything felt blank. Not long after that, a pop-up appeared in front of him.

[-A missing file was found! Would you like to open 'Cameron's Memories?'-]

Before he could accept or dismiss, that file was forced into his mind, shoving every single moment at once, before passing out of overload.

+

"A- ah...C- Cameron- I'm- I.. I'm sorry-"

A huge thud was heard as Peyton let go of the bloodstained dumbbell. He covered his mouth realising what he has done, seeing Cameron lying on the ground, bleeding from the blow. No- Why him..? The boy dropped onto his knees, unsure of what had gotten to him and desperately shook the body, hoping that he is alive.

But everything paralyzed. Not even he could lift his finger. All Cameron could hear was Peyton's sobbing, although unsure why. There was a throbbing pain on his head, along with the warm liquid pouring on his face, blurring his vision in crimson. He wanted to hold on his pain, or comfort Peyton, but all of it were put to a halt due to the paralysis.

'Before you finally die, they have this silly thing called game's punishment. I had some experience with dying, you know. But sometimes, paralysis happens if the system has a grudge on you.'

An ombre haired girl comes into his mind out of the blue. His mental capacity at this situation couldn't grasp who this girl could be. Considering he is paralyzed right now, is this what that girl meant by game's punishment?

He looked at Peyton, now anxiously crying and frantically wishing for him to wake up. Carefully, he was picked up to a hug in his arms, followed with a couple pats on the back as the boy wept on his shoulder. Peyton didn't mean to, he didn't mean to hit him. Cameron knew, he trusted his life on him. But deep down, he couldn't help but felt slightly betrayed.

"Cameron... I'm sorry- I... I promise- I will try to find you... N-next round! So please... Please..."

He clasped his hands on the blue man's cold hands, offering him the last bit of warmth through his fingertips. Peyton tried to inhale and exhale in between his sobs, mustering up the courage to say something with his hands shaking and trembling. Cameron could feel his consciousness slowly slipping away as he breathed.

"Forgive me Cameron."

+

[-How do you feel now, Player#3?-]

The system woke him out of his memories. Those sudden amount of memories was too much for him to process. All of it made him unsettled, ranging from watching people die, then murdering them mercilessly, and those horrid memories he would rather erase. It didn't feel like that him was him, doing all that gruesome stuff with his very own hands.

Relax... Cameron, relax. He tried to sort out his thoughts but what he get was his objective of the game. To reach the end of the game, without any death included. It never came across his thoughts that it sounded crazy. Actually, now isn't the right time thinking about reaching the end.

He recalled he lost control of himself last round. The loss of his entire self, it doesn't feel real but it did certainly happen. Utterly powerless to do anything. Hence, he put his vulnerability on Peyton's hands, which he voluntarily chose to take care of him that he never asked for.

However, his death was the conclusion of the trust. It was all in vain. The betrayal felt quite upsetting.

[-The person you put all your trust in is the one who murdered you in the end. Taking advantage of your vulnerability, how pitiful fufu-]

The system mockingly sympathises with Cameron, adding unnecessary misleading comments to the pain. It doesn't seem like they were gonna give him some support, not even at the slightest bit, so he turned his head away.

But out of curiosity, he looked back at the system, now wondering how it could speak to him. That thing is not living, but it felt like it could understand him, so how? There was a sudden robotic snort from nowhere right as he just thought about it.

[-You're pathetic as hell. Of course I could speak, you think I'm some program that passes on messages? I can read your mind, dumbass-]

Oh...Cameron felt a bit ashamed and lowered his head as the system started to mock him. The system could speak, he didn't know. He did not want to read the walls of texts sent from the system, seeing the light flickering a lot indicating that the system is changing messages frequently. However it didn't seem that important to look at, so he did not pay any attention to it.

[-I'm so glad that you died. I can't stand seeing your egoistical narcissistic ass going from one round to another. That ombre haired girl really did some interesting stuff to you fufu-]

What the system said brought his attention back to that girl. His only attention concentrates on the question "Who". Through his recollection of memories, he met her quite frequently and knew each other pretty well. However his memories are still jumbled up due to system forcibly inserting them all at once earlier, which really sucks.

Cameron stared back at the system, knowing that they are reading him right now, hearing whatever he had in his mind. He wanted to tell that he knows system is watching, keeping his thoughts considerately at the same time. Feeling a bit smart, he internally chuckled, with a small grin on his face.

[-...The round you were in is about to end, so get going blueberry face unless if you would like to stay in this empty void with me, you angry kitten-]

{Spectate?} {Start a new round?}

System pulled out the two options again into Cameron's face without warning, startling him in the process. Ah... There was still some hesitation in his movements towards the right button, although spectate won't be much to watch since that round ending. With the lightest tap, it made a clicking sound, showing him two more options.

{Change character?} {Play}

He gazed at the two options, looking at both of it before tapping on one of them to a list of people. He scrolled down through the characters one by one, seeing all the familiar faces he had come across, both he murdered and framed them. She should be in this list.

At last,he found the girl he was searching for. A girl with brown and blonde ombre hair tied into two buns, freckled face with green, jade eyes. There was a smile across the girl's face, with unknown intent in her eyes. There wasn't any name written around the picture but an option to click on them.

Cameron never clicked on it. Instead, he exited the character list and tapped the other button, gradually disappeared from the empty void.