You fill my lungs and take away the air [Global Examination]

Chapter 10: Solstice of your ever-light

It was cold.

When 154 opened his eyes, he immediately realized why; he was still lying on the floor of his bathroom, wearing nothing more than a thin t-shirt and sweatpants.

He blinked, his gaze immediately drawn to the disgusting bouquet in front of him, dried blood staining the mangled flower blossoms, the sharp crimson that had now faded to brown.

154 took a deep breath, and despite the stinging cold piercing his tattered lungs... he found that breathing was much easier than before.

He did it.

He had actually done it.

He had successfully removed the flowers from his lungs, and he was still here, alive; not being strangled to death by droves of flowers... and, more importantly, had not being detected, and subsequently, killed by the System.

Of course, 154 had already used his elevated authority to block off any System monitoring to the bathroom before he had tried anything, just as a precaution.

It was unlikely that the System would be watching him anyways, since 154 was alone in his apartment in the Invigilators' District, and its priority would definitely be monitoring the invigilators on active invigilation duty, or those that were avidly talking amongst themselves, since its primary strategy was always to watch people, to halt any spread of "misinformation"... and to cut off any communication between invigilators.

No one could stage a coup on their own, and it was nigh impossible to gather allies right under the System's watchful gaze.

That was yet another perk of 154 generally being seen as a cold-blooded bastard that barely had any friends; the System knew it was far less likely for him to be rebelling when literally no one wanted to interact with him, and thus, had no reason to keep an eye on him.

154 had still attempted to block off any System monitoring, just in case; the System would definitely find it odd if it found someone attempting to fix their Hanahaki Disease all on their own, and with 154's unconventional methods, the System would instantly be able to see 154 for what he truly was...

And yet, 154 could only count his blessings that the System hadn't found him out after he stopped blocking off the System... because he had no idea how long he had been laying here, passed out on the floor, with a bloody bouquet of flowers that would make anyone suspicious of whatever the hell had just happened here.

Letting out a small groan, 154 shakily pushed himself off the ground, and decided that his first course of action was to clean up all the evidence of his Hanahaki; at least, if anyone asked about the blood, 154 could just say that he simply had a nosebleed from overworking or running into the doorframe, something bland and underwhelming like that, a reason would easily be accepted.

He did his best to clean the floor as best as he could, throwing blooming flowers into the toilet, speckles of brown and red trapped under his nails as 154 attempted to peel off stray petals that were stuck to the ground due to the dried blood, before his brain finally seemed to have woken up, and he realized that he could use toilet paper soaked in water to loosen everything up and scrub the blood away.

Watching the bloody mass of flowers swirling around in the toilet, 154 felt a lump in his stomach, and even a sense of... pity, understanding, for the budding blossoms.

They had no say in whatever was going on around them, and no one blames a disease whenever they were infected; it was the person in question being at fault for not taking the necessary precautions and preventative measures, or some other underlying factors that had weakened one's immune system... or just simply a case of bad luck.