Kaguya-sama: Love Is War wants me to turn myself in.

Yukino Yukinoshita turned her face away: "...I didn't."

"It's obviously there."

"..."

Amamiya Natsuki probably knew why the girl with long, straight black hair was blushing.

In the heat of the moment, the position I held onto seemed a little off; in short... I can still feel the subtle, smooth texture in my palm.

"Natsuki seems really reluctant to leave."

Kaguya Shinomiya crossed her arms over her chest, slightly raised her pretty face, and looked over with a smile.

sneer.

And it was an extremely obvious sneer.

You're definitely being sarcastic!

“That Spider Lady from earlier was probably the monster from the story ‘Goosebumps.’ I read it when I was little, but I don’t remember the details. Anyway, she got really angry after we exposed her true form.” Fujiwara Chika put her right hand on her hip and wiped her forehead with the back of her left hand. “That was so scary, I almost broke out in a sweat.”

“Oh, right.” The pink-haired girl opened her eyes wide, bent down slightly, and looked at the puppet Billy held in Amamiya Natsuki’s hand. She murmured to herself, “...The butler looks like the puppet in Goosebumps, and the headless knight and the terrifying maid from before. They all feel very familiar.”

“I’ve read Goosebumps too.” Yukino Yukinoshita crossed her arms. It has to be said that this girl with waist-length black hair is quite beautiful, no less so than the silly rich girl. It’s just that her eyes and tone are cold, making her unapproachable. “…Could she have been a character in the book?”

Fujiwara Chika shook her head: "How could characters from a book appear in a game?"

Kaguya Shinomiya's voice was cold and clear: "The fireplace from before."

“A fireplace…” Fujiwara Chika’s eyes widened quickly. “Could it be those books we burned before?”

The pink-haired girl bit her lower lip in self-reproach: "If I had known it would turn out like this, I wouldn't have let everyone burn the books."

“We don’t know the truth. The conclusions about the closet are just speculation,” Natsuki Amamiya said calmly. “Besides, it was so cold at the time, no one could refuse to light a fire for warmth.”

When people are pushed to the limit, they'll do anything, except math.

There is an ancient Chinese idiom called "drinking poison to quench thirst," which means that even though people know it is poison and will die if they drink it, they will still choose to drink it.

The same principle applied to burning books for warmth in the past.

Natsuki Amamiya's books were only a drop in the ocean in terms of heating effect and could not meet everyone's needs. Under the stimulation of the cold, some people would definitely not be able to bear it and would choose to burn the books for warmth.

"Wait a minute." Amamiya Natsuki suddenly frowned, looked at the pink-haired girl seriously, and noticed a problem that had been overlooked.

"Natsuki-kun, what's wrong?" Fujiwara Chika blinked, looking bewildered.

Amamiya Natsuki said earnestly:

"You just said you were sweating?"

“I think I mentioned it before…” Fujiwara Chika tilted her head and thought for a moment, “It was too dangerous just now. The chair was getting tighter and tighter, and I could hardly breathe, so I broke out in a cold sweat.”

Amamiya Natsuki took a deep breath: "Aren't you cold right now?"

"Eh?"

Fujiwara Chika paused, then hesitated, "It seems... I'm not cold anymore?"

Rikka Takanashi raised her hand and said, "I don't think I'm cold anymore."

Yukino Yukinoshita frowned slightly, as if deep in thought.

Kaguya Shinomiya said calmly:

"Indeed, it seems to have gotten colder since we left the hall."

“Something’s not right.” Fujiwara Chika rested her chin on her right hand, striking a pose like Detective Conan. “We’ve been away from the fireplace for so long, we should be shivering from the cold by now… Something’s definitely wrong.”

"..."

Natsuki Amamiya silently turned her head to look out the window.

Outside the castle, the sky remained shrouded in mist and gloom, and a massive blizzard raged, obscuring the view and reducing visibility to extremely low levels.

The blizzard seemed destined to continue until the end of the world, never stopping until then.

“Distinguished guests, time is running out,” said Billy the puppet meaningfully. “Please attend the banquet as soon as possible, or you will surely regret it.”

Natsuki Amamiya glanced at the butler in her hand, and a prompt appeared before her eyes.

You frowned, realizing the dinner was quite important, and decided to attend.

Amamiya Natsuki quickly replied:

"Go to the dinner party."

“A wise choice,” Billy the puppet said approvingly. “The dinner will be held behind the lobby on the first floor. Please come in, guests.”

"Let's go together."

Fujiwara Chika walked up to Amamiya Natsuki.

This pink-haired girl trusted Natsuki Amamiya immensely, so they naturally stood together through thick and thin.

The same applies to Kaguya Shinomiya.

Only Yukino Yukinoshita abstained from voting and chose to act together.

"..."

The group walked downstairs, and when they reached the second floor, they suddenly bumped into a female player who was running around in a panic.

The girl was pale and breathing rapidly. When she saw Natsuki Amamiya and the others, she clung to them as if they were her lifeline, tightly gripping Natsuki Amamiya's wrist.

"Someone has died."

Chapter 103 Kaguya-sama, Please Renew Your Subscription

"Not long after we separated on the second floor, we encountered other monsters, so we had to scatter. The other guy and I hid in a room, but who knew there were monsters inside too? We barely managed to escape..."

The girl who was speaking was pale and breathless as she quickly recounted her experiences after the separation.

"We came to the corridor and were still wondering where to go when the boy suddenly collapsed to the ground."

Seemingly recalling a terrifying scene, the girl's face showed a look of horror as she said nervously, "...that boy's expression was super scary."

Upon hearing this, Natsuki Amamiya raised an eyebrow slightly: "Are you sure he's dead?"

"I...I dare not." The girl shook her head timidly. "After seeing him fall to the ground, I called him but he didn't respond at all, so I ran away."

"Natsuki-kun, shall we go check on her?" Fujiwara Chika said decisively. "Maybe she just fainted."

As the game's chosen beacon of humanity, Fujiwara Chika naturally wouldn't want to abandon any human player.

"Go over and have a look."

Amamiya Natsuki nodded slightly and led the way forward.

The other girls naturally followed behind, since there was no safe place in the castle, and it didn't matter where they went.

Not far away, Natsuki Amamiya saw a boy lying on the ground, face up, his pupils already dilating.

"It's Izumi."

Natsuki Amamiya recognized the boy's identity at a glance.

It was that thin boy who looked like he didn't exercise and coughed from time to time.

"...Your smile is so strange."

Fujiwara Chika was startled and couldn't help but take a half step back.

For some reason, the boy had a strange smile on his face, which looked quite eerie.

Natsuki Amamiya took a deep breath, half-squatted down, and began a simple examination.

"Breathing...no."

"The heartbeat also disappeared."

If there is no breathing and no heartbeat, it can be basically determined that the person is dead.

“He still has body temperature…” Natsuki Amamiya reached out and closed the boy’s eyes. “He’s very cold.”

A prompt appears before your eyes.

After careful observation, you noticed that your random teammate's body temperature was unusual.

Hey, hey, there's a guy named Izumi, doesn't a random teammate deserve a name?!

However, to be fair, her body temperature was definitely not right.

Kaguya Shinomiya covered her skirt with one hand, half-squatting down, her eyebrows slightly furrowed: "Your body is too cold."

"It really is," Fujiwara Chika exclaimed softly, "as cold as ice."

Exaggerated.

It wasn't as cold as ice, but it was obviously very strange.

According to the girl, they had only escaped the room and come to the corridor a few minutes ago, no more than ten minutes at most.

It's impossible for a body to get this cold in such a short time.

"Could she be a witch who specializes in absorbing other people's life force and energy?" Rikka Takanashi whispered in her ear.

You're not talking about a witch, you're talking about a succubus!

The girl shook her head: "There were only the two of us in the corridor, and we didn't see any other monsters."

Rikka Takanashi: "The witch knows the art of invisibility."

If they've already shown invisibility, and keep going like this, are we going to see superpowered beings? That would be too much of a cheat!

Yukino Yukinoshita crossed her arms over her chest and frowned, saying:

"Could it be... a game countdown?"

"..."

The air suddenly became quiet.

Upon entering the castle, after learning about the countdown to the end of their respective main quests, the group had two guesses.

One possibility is a survival countdown; if you survive until the countdown ends, you can leave the game.