The Monstrous Hero-Chapter 43 - 42: One Of Us Is… Fake?

They walked.

And walked.

And walked some more.

At first, the forest was thick, buzzing with insects and the stink of death clinging to their boots, but the farther they went, the quieter it got. No more rustling in the bushes. No more snapping twigs. Not even the distant croaks of the goblins they’d been hoping to find. Just the crunch of boots and the steady rhythm of tired breathing.

By the time they reached the cliff, the sun had dipped low enough to stain everything in a dull orange haze. Wind whipped against their faces, carrying the scent of iron and salt. Down below, far beneath the jagged edge, a river snaked between rocks—dark and restless, its surface flashing silver each time the light caught it.

Z-34 was the first to break the silence.

Of course, he was.

"Fuck this!" He kicked a loose rock off the edge, watching it plummet until it vanished into the current. "We’ve been walking for hours and nothing! Not a damn thing!"

The rock’s splash echoed faintly.

No one answered.

He ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair, his blade catching the dying light as he turned on the others. "We cleared the whole area, didn’t we? Every last one of those little green bastards. And what did we get? Forty goddamn points and a bunch of corpses. This—" He gestured toward the empty cliffside "—is bullshit."

G-25 had started pacing, the same twitchy pattern he always fell into when thinking too hard. His muttering had become background noise at this point, half-formed words that no one really tried to decode. Every few steps, he’d stop, stare off into the trees like he expected them to move, then start pacing again.

27-C sat down on a flat boulder near the edge, running a rag over her daggers. Her hair sticking to her neck as her gaze flicked toward the horizon... distant.

E-26 was checking his ammo, mechanical and detached as always. B67, meanwhile, crouched near a patch of dirt, tracing circles with a stick. His lips moved like he was counting under his breath.

And Liu Xian—he stood a little apart from the rest, arms folded, gaze lowered. The wind tugged at his hair, carrying the faint scent of moss and rain. He hadn’t said a word since they left the clearing. His mind was somewhere else, ticking quietly, running over something that didn’t sit right.

Something was definitely off.

He replayed Cael’s voice in his head, back during the orientation:

"Each squad will consist of five members."

Five.

His gaze slid over the group in front of him.

B67, E-26, G-25, Z-34, 27-C... and him.

Six.

He frowned. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

"Five," he said finally.

The word came out low, almost an afterthought, but it sliced through the quiet like a blade.

Everyone froze.

Z-34 stopped pacing, halfway through a curse. E-26 lifted his head. Even 27-C turned, eyes narrowing slightly.

"What?" Z-34 asked, scowling. "What’d you say?"

Liu Xian didn’t answer right away. His gaze remained fixed on the river below, the reflection of moving water flickering against his face. "There were only supposed to be five in each team," he said quietly. "Cael said that during briefing."

The silence that followed was heavy, and very much uneasy.

For a second, no one seemed to get it. Then E-26’s brows furrowed, his expression shifting. He started counting them with his finger, mouthing the numbers. One, two, three, four, five... six.

His stomach dropped.

"Wait," he muttered. "He’s right."

Z-34 frowned deeper. "What the fuck are you talking about? We’ve been six since the start."

"Exactly," 27-C said. She let out a long, tired sigh. "And I’ve been suspecting this since the team briefing. I just didn’t want to jump to conclusions."

"Conclusions about what?" Z-34 snapped. "You’re all talking in circles. Someone wanna explain what the hell’s going on before I lose it?"

G-25 finally stopped pacing. His head tilted in that uncanny, mechanical way of his. "It means," he said slowly, voice unnervingly calm, "that one of us isn’t supposed to be here."

The words hung there like lethal poison.

B67 looked up immediately, eyes wide and frightened. "What—what do you mean? Like... like one of us is fake?"

"No shit," Z-34 growled. "Fake? We’ve been fighting together for hours! You think a fake could pull that off?"

"It’s possible," G-25 said, tone even. "The Academy runs simulations, implants, constructs. We’ve all seen it."

"I haven’t," Z-34 said.

"Then you’re lucky," G-25 muttered.

E-26 crossed his arms, frowning. "It’s not impossible. They’ve done it before—planted an extra in a team to monitor group behavior or stress reactions." He blurted out a flicker of irritation in his tone. "Wouldn’t be the first time they ran a social variable test without telling us."

"You mean we’ve been teamed up with a spy?" Z-34 barked out a humorless laugh. "Unbelievable." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Liu Xian didn’t move or speak. He just watched them, wondering if they had an acorn for a brain. They still didn’t get it.

B67 swallowed hard. "But... which one of us is it?"

"Doesn’t matter," Z-34 said, voice rising. "Whoever it is better start talking now before I—"

"Shut up!" 27-C snapped, cutting him off. Her voice cracked through the air like the whip of lightning. The others froze. Even the wind seemed to quiet down. "Don’t you get it!" she barked again, throwing the bloodstained rag she’d been using to wipe her hands. It slapped against the dirt with a wet sound, splattering a few black drops of goblin gore.

She sheaths her dagger, jaw tight. The shadows beneath her eyes made her look even more irritated than usual.

Z-34 glared at her, his fists tightening at his sides. "What the fuck do you mean?"

"There’s no spy," she hissed. "Or whatever nonsense you guys are cooking up. We’re exceeding the number because one of us has to go."

For a moment there was silence, only the soft hum of the wind and the faint rush of the river below could be heard.

"Oh," E-26 breathed out, finally piecing it together.

"Go where?" B67 asked, eyes wide and far too innocent for the tension that had just settled like a noose around them.