Wild Guess Time:

Several players are already dead and are sort of artificial pseudo ghouls. I assume the cleaners are the control group? Infinite ghoulifide so quickly because his body was basically ready to move in. Heck, he might not have actually been killed by any of the players and just keeled because whatever force reanimating him failed.

@Feddlefew

I doubt the fast ghoulification was planned by smile, but the smile researchers probably analysed it as close as possible to make something really bad with that data.

Infinite was also confirmed to have been shot, how would just dropping dead leave that kind of mess?

Neo, you're an absolute god of art. This chapter has been incredible, and has ramped up the tension - I don't trust Jay's smile, I don't like Shalhia's vision/premonition/memory/whatever, and I cannot wait for more, as always. Thank you!

Also, I'm going to guess that this is a vision of the future - it's the "way out" of the Maze that she was promised.

So... I suppose this is what happened to Lord Infinite then. And probably Jay-Jay too (the pre-game execution I mean, she may not have keeled over yet). And how many of the others? It might explain why the secret agent survived the black oil contact.

Does anyone know or suspect this? Maria might... it'd be a pretty good reason to vote to 'kill' a walking mage-corpse, just to buy some distance before the inevitable ghouling.

So, we have the following team-ups so far:
-Tobi + Yellow Jay
-Three + Bindi
-Shalhia + her dead body

Wonder how the others are doing...

Yay for chapter drop!

This was a wild time.

Wow, I just love those chapter drops :D

I guess tomorrow short one will be about Burk, then we get resolution of the nightmare plot in a single big chapter drop? That would be awesome!

Any chapter drop in any of the three stories will be awesome for sure, regardless if my guess it right or not :-)

guess she figures it's a premonition of getting killed off as soon as they escape the game

maybe that does something to her sense of altruism/was the point of her being let into the game

<3 the chapter drops! Thank you! Also, the vote reward art brings up something interesting that Noah's greatest fear happened to him... Will the rest come true as well?

@RNGesus

You are writing this as Shalhia is literally experiencing her greatest fear of reliving her past.

I'm a big fan of the comic, and I appreciate the chapter drops! It feels like all three storylines are approaching a climax, and I'm so excited to see where it all goes!

let's all do some up voting. FYI JAY has to be the smile employee. Just my opinion now. Especially after that conversation

Thank you Neo for writing this. This chapter was great and I look forward to eventually figuring out what exactly Smile was trying to accomplish with this game. Looking forward to more!