"That must be Houjou-san," Saki’s voice said through Seiji's walkie-talkie.

"Yeah, I never antic.i.p.ated that it would be her, nor did I expect her to be so incredible... yet having said that, I should have expected it! She was planning on joining this game to begin with, and she’s quite an amazing woman."

"As… as expected of a maid," Mayuzumi said.

"Yeah, a maid… er, this is a little…" Seiji felt as if there was something wrong with this.

But thinking it over more closely, a maid that was great at housework, cooking, making sweets, and shooting… seemed rather common?

Yep, there was no problem with that. Of course there was a problem with that!

'Being amazing at shooting isn't something a maid is supposed to be good at, okay!' In the end, Seiji couldn’t help but inwardly comment on the strange turn of events.

"Eh, a maid… could that person there be Mai Houjou-sama? The Smiling Executioner!?" Chiaki finally realized what was going on.

"Yep, that’s her," Seiji said. ‘What’s with the sudden honorific?’

"Wow, I’ve met the legend… Mika, take a look as well!"

Were they here to gawk? Seiji hoped that they would take this a little more seriously.

*Boom!*

It was a gunshot from Mai; she'd noticed someone’s presence as she advanced, so she decisively began shooting.

"Blue #13 has ‘died…’" An announcement instantly rung out.

‘Chiaki, you idiot!’

And so, she met her end as her death flag dictated. Seiji didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.

"Seigo… Captain, Chiaki, she…" Mika’s helpless-sounding voice spoke up in the walkie-talkie.

"I know, let her go in peace." Seiji could only sigh. "Everyone listen," he said, addressing his team. "Our target has detected our presence, so she’s stopped and hasn’t fully entered our ambush area. Everyonr move forward—we will surround her now."

After giving his orders, Seiji took a deep breath.

"I’ll go attract her attention, so you guys hurry up and take action!"

After saying this, Seiji suddenly stood up. "Hey, Senpai!" he shouted at Mai.

Mai looked over in his direction. They both smiled as they exchanged glances.

*Boom!*

Mai started shooting at Seiji.

Seiji was already prepared for this and managed to duck as he returned fire with his laser a.s.sault rifle.

Something flew towards him.

It was a grenade!

‘d.a.m.n, she’s really good at lobbing these.’

*Boom!!*

The grenade exploded.

Seiji had already turned and rolled on the ground to dodge it, but the beeping of his vest indicated that he had still taken heavy damage.

Was he ‘dead’ yet?

He wasn’t!

Noticing that he still had a few hit points left, Seiji hurriedly used some medicine as he trained a vigilant eye on his surroundings.

She was really amazing… but that was what made it so interesting!

He saw a figure das.h.i.+ng out of the corner of his eye.

He hurriedly rolled on the ground again and barely managed to dodge her shot. Once again, he lifted his laser a.s.sault rifle and counterattacked.

He knew that he couldn’t remain in the same location for more than a few seconds. He had to keep moving continuously!

Outside the gymnasium, on the big screens.

The audience was watching the girl with the dark gray hair fight one-on-one against the young leader of the Blue Team. Both of them were das.h.i.+ng around quickly, making nimble dodges, and furiously firing at the other party… it was incredibly exciting to watch!

Everyone was unable to take their eyes off the screen, and some audience members couldn’t help but gasp as they watched the battle.

Seiji fired his laser gun, moved, and dodged… he was doing his best to fight against Mai.

He didn’t have the time to accurately aim in her direction. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was using a high-powered laser a.s.sault rifle, then he wouldn’t even be able to pose a threat to her.

With his constant dodging and fierce counterattacks, he was barely managing to survive.

At this rate, he would definitely be the loser in the end.

However, this wasn’t a game where he was fighting by himself!

Seiji had more fun in the short period of time that he fought with Mai than in all the rounds combined up until now.

But it was time for it to end.

'The encirclement should be complete by now.'

After he used up his ammunition, Seiji rolled behind an obstacle, but he didn’t take this opportunity to reload. Instead, he picked up his walkie-talkie.

"Everyone, fire at our target!" Seiji gave clear instructions.

In the next moment, guns opened fire from all directions!

Mika, Mayuzumi, Saki, Kaho, and the other members of Blue Team all popped up at once and began firing at the gray-haired girl!

Mai sniped off one person immediately, then she made the split-second judgement that it would be impossible for her to "survive" all this, so she ignored everything else and rushed straight in Seiji’s direction in an attempt to "kill" the Blue Team’s commander before she "died."

Kaho, who was the closest person to Seiji, noticed Mai’s intention.

She wanted to protect Harano-san!

Kaho reflexively started moving; she rushed out from behind an obstacle and stood right in front of Mai!

Mai saw that a girl suddenly appeared before her, so she instantly used her laser sniper rifle and… *Boom!*

Kaho fired first.

"Red Team #19 has ‘died…’"

Hearing this, Seiji, who was still hiding, finally heaved a sigh of relief.

They'd succeeded in defeating Mai! They'd only lost two people while doing it, which was much better than he'd expected.

The gunfire didn’t stop, though. That was due to the arrival of other Red Team members.

There was a large gap in the number of players remaining on both sides, but there was still hope.

"Everyone, we just successfully defeated the expert on the enemy team, which basically means we’ve defeated the boss! There’s only a few disorganized enemies left, so there’s no reason that we can’t win after defeating the boss! I said before that it’s almost impossible for us to win, but that doesn't mean the possibility is zero! Let us work our hardest to achieve victory!" Seiji shouted into his walkie-talkie, pouring all his pa.s.sion and battle-l.u.s.t into his words.

"Urf!" Saki was the first to answer… why did she sound like a teddy bear?

Then, Seiji heard all the other Blue Team members respond as well.

"You’re right, Commander!"

"This really feels like a war, hahaha, nice!"

"Commander, you’re so cool! Can I get your phone number afterwards?"

These were some of the various responses he received from the other random Blue Team members.

‘These teammates of mine are pretty cool.’ Seiji smiled as he thought that to himself.

If that was the case, he felt they could win again!

The fierce fighting continued…

Finally, this round went to the fifteen-minute time limit.

In the end, Seiji's Blue Team barely managed to eke out a victory over the Red Team by one person!

When the round ended, all the remaining Blue Team members cheered out in victory.

Eight people from Blue Team managed to survive in the end.

Seiji had lost two members of his small team: Chiaki and Saki.

Chiaki had already ‘died’ earlier, while Saki had sacrificed herself while protecting Mayuzumi.

Neither of them obtained the free voucher for the two-day, three-night hot spring hotel trip, but Chiaki reminded them that she was rich, so she would just purchase a ticket at the regular price and go together with them. As for Saki, Mayuzumi insisted on paying for her trip, and Saki was unable to refuse.

And so, they were able to plan a future hot spring hotel trip together!

They would discuss the exact time and details of it later.

"I really thought we’d lose, I didn’t expect to have such a great reversal… even if I accidentally ended up ‘dying.’" Chiaki sighed as they left the gymnasium and headed back to Year 1, Cla.s.s 5.

"It’s your own fault for setting up your own death flag… we were only able to win in the end thanks to everyone’s hard efforts." Seiji told her his honest opinion.

"Everyone that was on our team this time was pretty good, and at the very least they listened to your orders with no one just doing as they pleased… The biggest factor in our victory, apart from you, was probably Miyamoto-san here."

"Eh?"

Hearing this, Kaho was rather surprised.

"Yep, I agree." Seiji also looked at his cla.s.smate who was walking together with them.

Kaho was the person who landed the final blow on the boss… er, Mai Houjou. She also performed excellently in the subsequent battles.

Seiji, who had been partners with her, felt as if he had been partnered with a perfect support, and he had quite a lot of fun.

They had good unspoken cooperation, and their pairing was the on which obtained the most kills for the Blue Team! They were the biggest factor in catching up despite the difference in numbers.

"Miyamoto-san did a really good job. If I was Seigo’s partner, I don’t think I could have done as well as you." Chiaki also looked at her cla.s.smate and smiled. "I think that Miyamoto-san is really talented in playing this type of game."

"N-not at all." Kaho flushed crimson as she hurriedly shook her hands in a denying gesture. "I-I was merely following Harano-san—he’s the amazing one—I was just trying my best not to be a burden."

"That’s not right—you performed spectacularly, and you’re quite talented." Seiji smiled. "Not only were you not a burden, didn’t you save me several times? If it wasn’t for your help, I surely would have ‘died.’"

"I… I didn’t…"

Kaho blushed furiously when she saw Seiji’s smile and received the praise accompanying it. "I don’t have any ability…"

She was just trying her best and giving it her all.

‘In order to be together with you…’

At this moment, Kaho came to a sudden realization.

There was still something she wanted to say to Seiji.