Whose youth romance story begins with a witch's trial?!

Chang Rong noticed Sakura Emma's unusual behavior. After all, Emma was the first person he met after arriving at this werewolf game stage, and Emma's soft and pitiful appearance made Chang Rong want to take extra care of her.

"Hey? Chang Rongjun, um... I'm fine, let's go to the reception room first."

Emma forced a smile, waved, and followed the others, but her gaze remained fixed on the suspect girl not far away.

Normally, Chang Rong would have chuckled and said, "Hehe, I smell the aroma of gossip."

But at this moment, the pungent smell of paint and blood mixed in the air, the twisted and gruesome images of the dead in his mind, and the wary and strange looks from the other girls made it impossible for him to pay attention to anyone else.

This is a real battle royale world where people actually die—no, it's a world where people have already started dying. Forget those unrealistic fantasies.

After all, as everyone knows, when collecting special CGs, you can not only collect special CGs with full affection, but you can also accidentally collect elimination settlement screens.

———Reception Room———

Chang Rong followed the group upstairs to a living room. The room was still decorated in an old-fashioned, luxurious style that was out of touch with modern technology. The only thing that could barely be connected to modern technology was the television on the table. On the contrary, it was easier to find strange things that modern technology could not explain.

For example, there was an owl that I had only seen on the screen, which was now talking, and a strange, twisted creature that was nearly 3 meters tall and held a huge scythe, standing like a door god blocking the entrance to the reception room.

It's clear that these very existences are the biggest anomaly, a direct mockery of 'reality'. However, judging from the girls' calm reactions, they seem to have already seen and accepted these supernatural things.

The thing guarding the door is probably a 'prison guard' or something similar in this cell. Just looking at it, you feel like you can hardly fight against it. If you were to make a move rashly, you'd probably only be able to defeat it.

That's right, I turned into 9 pieces in 1 second.

Honestly, Werewolf is already torturous enough, so what kind of master is Supernatural Werewolf?

Chang Rong had originally wanted to ask Sakura Emma what the metaphorical meaning of the word "witch" was, but now it seems that perhaps it is enough to understand it literally.

"..."

Why is that guard staring at me?! I'm just an ordinary, harmless student from the wrong timeline!

Chang Rong felt uneasy under the guard's unwavering gaze and could only force herself to focus her attention on the owl in the living room.

—Anyway, we can only wait and see. My head still hurts so much…

The stinging pain that had accompanied Chang Rong since she woke up in the medical room did not disappear immediately, and it was still bothering her.

He had originally intended to gather as much intelligence as possible during this emergency meeting, but his brain seemed to be like an old, outdated computer that kept crashing, only able to collect fragmented information intermittently.

1. This is a prison island specifically used to imprison 'prospective witches'. They are taken in, they become ineffective, and they escape.

2. That owl is the Warden, the familiar of the prison's behind-the-scenes administrators, and the one truly responsible for the prison's daily operations. He seems to strongly resist working overtime.

3. Including himself and the deceased, there are a total of 14 'prisoners' on the prison island.

4. The victim dressed in a nun's habit appears to be the administrator of this prison—this remains uncertain.

How can a big boss just give up right away? Ha, I've seen Saw and played Danganronpa before, this must be a smokescreen by the mastermind, comparable to Junko's faked death, a pinnacle of strategic combat.

5. There's another setting almost identical to Danganronpa: after a murder occurs on the prison island, the warden gives everyone time to investigate. After the investigation is complete, everyone goes to the courtroom to undergo a major investigation by the Empire… (This is a bit of a crossover.)

Everyone will participate in a debate called the "Witch Trial," the purpose of which is to vote on and select the murderer so that he can be executed by the warden.

6. However, before examining the evidence, there seems to be a preliminary voting process that allows the suspect with the most votes to be detained early. It seems the girls are currently arguing about who to vote for.

"Is there even a question? It's obvious that the witch is that guy!"

"Don't say things like that, Coco! We should stop suspecting each other until we have evidence!"

"Hiro-chan, she, she absolutely cannot be the murderer!"

"Tsk, you don't need to pretend and say those things... Sakura Emma."

"I can't wait for the big survey! I'm so happy and excited!"

Looking at the girls not far away, some tense, some dazed, some fearful, some angry, arguing about something, Chang Rong, who was huddled to the side, felt a moment of disorientation.

This scene looked so familiar, yet it was like a cloud floating in the air, something Chang Rong couldn't grasp no matter how hard she tried.

He rubbed his hair vigorously, trying to physically expel the déjà vu from his mind, or at least suppress the stinging sensation.

"You look unwell, is it because of Noah's smell?"

A familiar smell suddenly wafted into my nose—it was the smell of a murder scene—no, it should be called the smell of spray paint.

To avoid being dragged into the conversation and attacked before she could figure out what was going on, Chang Rong deliberately hid in an inconspicuous corner of the living room where no one was around. But then, a girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of her.

"Uh……?"

Chang Rong looked up and met the girl's eyes.

How to describe the girl in front of me? She looks like a color palette balloon.

Volume 1: Chapter 4. Skip to sections you don't like.

—A color palette, huh…

A small girl, wearing a thick coat, had huge twin braids hanging down her sides, their color a rainbow. Even her eyes were tinged with a strange hue.

This is what the girl looked like when she approached Chang Rong.

"Hiro said before that Noah's paintings would affect everyone, and it seems that Noah has indeed hurt An'an... Were you also affected by Noah? Is Noah a bad kid who makes everyone feel troubled and uncomfortable?"

(A girl's tone) lost her composure, her rainbow-like eyes filled with tears, as if little rainbow candies would fall out at any moment.

"...???"

The question marks in Chang Rong's mind were about to burst out.

—I'Xiqiluoliu, you mean that black-haired, straight-haired suspect who looks like a mushroom, right? This brat calls himself 'Noah,' so who is 'An'an'? The conversation just now didn't seem to mention that name at all?

Chang Rong kept playing a game of matching names and images in her mind, trying to analyze the meaning of the words spoken by Noah (the colorful version) who suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Noah, Noah..."

"Waaah, I'm fine, I'm fine! Noah, who takes the initiative to care about others, isn't a bad kid, he's a good kid!"

Seeing that the balloon in front of her was about to burst, if she really started crying loudly, she was afraid that she would instantly go from being an invisible bystander to the focus of the spotlight and steal everyone's attention.

To prevent such a terrifying situation, Chang Rong had to frantically pretend that she was fine, and casually placed her hand on the other person's head to stroke and rub the hair.

Oh no, I forgot to turn off auto-pickup!

A verbal reassurance should have been enough, but for some reason, my hand just naturally landed on Noah's head, the movement incredibly smooth and natural, as if I always did it.

Adults socialize by exchanging WeChat contacts upon first meeting; ninjas socialize by shaking hands upon first meeting; and shrimp-headed men socialize by patting each other on the head upon first meeting.

She was already an oddity among a group of girls, and now she's openly engaging in sexual harassment.

Chang Rong even hallucinated that he was standing in front of the gallows, with a group of people below shouting "Hang him! Josetar!" in the final scene.

"Noah is a good boy...? Hehehe..."

However, the anticipated bad ending did not occur.

The Palette Balloon, being stroked by Chang Rong, neither screamed nor resisted. She just paused for a moment, then gave Chang Rong an incredibly cute smile.

—Hmm? Could it be that I'm actually a master of youthful romance?

Noah's unexpected reaction gave Chang Rong immense confidence. Maybe he could really lead everyone away from this crazy and desperate battleground, and maybe even enjoy the sweet and sour youthful romance that only the protagonist of Gala Gemu could experience with a few girls.

While Chang Rong was inflating like a balloon, the commotion on the other side seemed to have temporarily subsided. The owl called 'Warden' flew in front of the monitor and coughed twice.

"Well... in short, that's roughly the situation. Considering that continuing to explain would affect my time off work, you'll have to refer to the manual for the rest of the information. Although Lady Meruru is no longer here, the [Witch Trial] will continue. So, based on the results of the preliminary vote—"

The warden, like a corporate slave eager to clock out and escape, lazily patted the monitor with his paw.

Beep beep beep!

The monitor, which had been off, suddenly lit up with a comical sound effect, and a close-up portrait of the MVP named 'Hero' popped up on the screen.

"Nikaido Hiro, please cooperate. You are the suspect with the most votes in this murder case. We will temporarily detain you until the trial begins. This is to prevent the real culprit from infiltrating the investigation or committing another crime. We hope you understand."

"What a joke...! No way—waaaah!"

Before the girl, whose full name was Nikaido Hiro, could make a move, the monster guardian that had been blocking the doorway suddenly rushed to her side, its scythe, which seemed capable of easily severing heads, resting on Hiro's neck, leaving the girl speechless.

"The trial will begin in a few hours, so please do your best..."

"Wait a minute! There's been this weird extra guy since the beginning, hey! Aren't you the manager? Aren't you going to do anything about such a big problem?"

Just as the owl flapped its wings, ready to be petted, the girl wearing cat-ear decorative headphones suddenly pointed at Chang Rong and attacked her.

"yeah!?"

Chang Rong, who had been pretending to be invisible for a while and was just happily watching the show, was suddenly caught red-handed.

"Oh my? Oh my, this is really... completely unexpected."

The warden flew up to Chang Rong, his 180-degree vertically aligned eyes scanning him up and down before letting out a subtle sigh.

“Such a serious problem should normally require activating an emergency response, but Lady Meruru has already been killed, and I want to leave work early—how about you handle it yourselves?”

"This is such a rip-off!?" The Lolita-style girl, who had previously been called 'Hannah-chan' by Emma Sakura, exclaimed loudly.

"What a joke! You better find out where that weird guy who suddenly appears came from, or I'll kill you!" A white-haired, red-eyed girl wearing a tattered black hooded cape and a black mask shouted in a delinquent-like tone to express her dissatisfaction.

"Oh my, it seems there are more interesting things in this prison than I imagined~" The girl who had helped Hiro out of the cell earlier, wearing a purple kimono and looking surprisingly mature, even 'alluring', joked with a smile.

"Oh! Captain America, you're awake~~" The blue-haired girl, whom he vaguely remembered, waved cheerfully at Chang Rong. For some reason, she was holding a magnifying glass in her hand, and her overly energetic and cheerful smile seemed extremely out of place.

"That, that group... chat..." Qi Yingyu San Ailingma Temple seemed to want to say something, but her soft, pink-haired voice was almost immediately drowned out by the argument.

"That guy is a man, so he can't be a witch, right? If he's not a witch, then it's another conspiracy! Help! I'm going to be caught by the conspiracy! I'm going to be... done to... by the conspiracy!"

As if the scene wasn't chaotic enough, the instigator, the cat-ear headphone girl Ze Du Ke Ke, shouted at Chang Rong with her clumsy acting skills.

—These damn keycaps…!!

Chang Rong glared fiercely at Ze Du Ke Ke, wishing she could give her the Undying Grip right now.

While it's true that he is indeed a highly suspicious guy, there's no need for him to deliberately stir up trouble for himself like this. What on earth is Hakimi doing?

"Another shady deal? Hmm, that's quite possible—click!"