A Certain Science-Based Survival Game

At exactly noon in Japan's time zone, an inexplicable “Hundred-Person Incident” took place: one hundred unrelated people suddenly fell unconscious at the same time, without warning.

They were dragged into a baffling survival game. The organizers, who called themselves gods, announced: [The sole victor may make a wish to the gods. Any wish at all. The gods can make anything happen.]

Money, power, health, longevity... Even knowing this was a bizarre survival trial with a ninety-nine percent chance of death, countless people still volunteered for the chance to make a wish.

Amid the crazed, terrified crowd, Tsuyuki Hisashi was utterly unremarkable.

He shivered and wrapped his coat tightly around himself, his eyes darting beneath his hood as he acted completely flustered.

“I joined this game because I want to bring my family back to life... It doesn't matter if I fail, as long as I get to try...” he explained to Amuro.

Amuro, who had displayed remarkable ability in the very first round, smiled in a friendly, sunny way. “It's okay. Since we're a team now, I'll protect you.”

He looked like a pitiful soul who had staked everything on this one chance. He couldn't even spell Prince Shotoku's name correctly in the easiest quiz game. If he hadn't been lucky enough to team up with a “popular player,” he would probably have died already.

[Don't believe him, Amuro!]

[All four players on this team are smart, but they're way too careless, lol. They're all going to die!]

[That guy is the game master! Hurry up and kill him! The game will end if you kill him!]

The livestream chat was crammed with messages like these, but the top players making the viewers fret couldn't see any of them. They were still discussing the secrets of the game with Tsuyuki Hisashi.

“I wonder what those NPCs really are,” Midorikawa mused, resting his chin on his hand. “Could they... be people who were eliminated from the game before?”

Inspired by the idea, Tsuyuki Hisashi's eyes lit up. He agreed, saying, “Yeah, yeah, that might be it,” while secretly considering how entertaining that would be.

So in the next round, the Public Security officers, who had already memorized the names of the players from the first two games, came across a familiar face.

Just as we thought. The other four members of the five-person team exchanged a knowing look.

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*//Inspired by The Hunger Games and its derivative works.

*//The protagonist belongs to neither the red nor the black side. His thinking is extreme, and he wants to use games to test human nature. He's basically a tech nerd, and not very bright at anything besides coding. He thinks he's got the Police Academy crew wrapped around his finger, when in fact they have him wrapped around theirs. (He has no grudge against the Police Academy crew.)

*//There will be scenes where original characters die in front of the protagonist, but they only die in the game and are alive in reality.

*//There are no supernatural abilities. Everything follows Conan logic.

Theme: Better to rely on yourself than to pray to the gods.