We got teleported.
Haku blinked—and for a split second, he thought he was dreaming.
Where... the fuck...?
His body floated. No ground. No gravity. Just the cold vacuum of space cradling two whole teams like playthings above a massive Room with no roof.
"Yo," Dennis muttered from nearby, squinting at the scenery below.
"Look at that big-ass Minecraft room floating in the sky."
There it was.
A giant, walled-off arena nearly the size of a football field. No roof. Just this surreal mash-up of environments inside. Patches of nature. A serene lake. An iced-over section. Weird alien trees. A giant-ass cobweb stretched across one corner like some horror movie prop. And worst of all? Moving shadows.
Lots of them.
"I see monsters down there," someone whispered, voice trembling.
"Shut up," Momo hissed, trying to keep the team from spiraling.
But it was too late. Everyone saw it.
Robots. Alien beasts. Something that looked like a scorpion if it had beef with evolution. And at the center? A grotesque, hulking spider the size of a goddamn car, just chilling in its web like it paid rent there.
A feminine voice rang out in the void, robotic but oddly smug:
🔊 SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENTTutorial: TEAM VS TEAM – Difficulty: HARD / EASYTeam 1 has selected Normal.Team 2 has selected Easy.Result: COIN FLIP.Outcome: Team 1 – HARD | Team 2 – EASY
Rules:
HARD team must survive for 7 minutes.
To pass, be standing inside the RED CIRCLE at the edge of the arena when time ends.
PvP: Allowed.
Monsters will attack immediately.
EASY team has already passed. You may spectate from the upper window. Congrats. 🎉
The system's final words echoed like a slap.
Nobody spoke.
Then—
Laughter.
Shokono, from above, slapping the glass like he just heard the world's funniest joke. His crew behind him doubled over, pointing down at the floating hard mode team like they were watching a circus.
"Look at them!" one of them cackled. "They're literally crying already!"
Below, chaos simmered. Momo tried to contain it—but his voice cracked, trying to hold too many things together at once.
"Everyone—listen! Don't panic—just listen to me. We can work through this if we stay—"
"Stay calm?" someone blurted, voice trembling. "They said we're Hard mode! And they already passed?!"
Another player—one of the younger ones—started breathing too fast. A kid, maybe thirteen. His fists balled up and his voice cracked.
"I don't… I don't wanna die…"
"Bro, what if we spawn in that spider web?" a guy whispered, eyes locked on the giant silver threads stretched across one corner of the arena.He looked like he was going to puke—but there was nothing inside him to throw up anymore.
Then it started.
Panic.
"Seven minutes? How the fuck are we supposed to survive seven minutes?!"
"We didn't even get weapons yet!! This is rigged!!"
Momo's voice cracked as he tried again."HEY! Pull yourselves together! You're just making it worse!"
But his team wasn't listening anymore.
They were feeling it now. The weight. The impossible pressure of being told, seconds before their first real battle, that the game was over—for the other team.
The Easy team hovered a few feet away, floating beside them like they were just out for a nighttime skywalk. Relaxed. Almost… amused.
One of the guys in Shokono's crew looked down at the battlefield and let out a whistle."Yo… this is insane. This our view?"He pointed down at the window-lined observation deck built into the upper edge of the arena."Damn. That's gotta be our room. Look at that thing—glass walls, comfy-ass energy. Shokono, they really giving us VIP seats!"
Another one laughed. "They said spectate mode and gave us the premium view. Bro, where's the popcorn?"
"Hope they scream real loud down there. I like when it's immersive."
They all started laughing. Like this was a game. Like people weren't about to die below them.
Even Shokono grinned. "Hah… all that talk from your leader… and now you're just prey."
"Mey floated beside Haku, though her thoughts were miles away from him."
"Calm down. You've seen worse. That's a lie. You haven't seen worse. You've seen tests. Awkward dinners. School fights. Not this. Not spiders the size of vans and kids crying like they're already dead. I want to throw up. But no, if I puke now, I'll float next to it. Fantastic."
"Everyone's breaking. I should be helping. Or hiding. Or saying something useful. I should say something. I should do something. Why am I just floating here like I'm waiting to die?"
She glanced at the others—shaking, shouting, some barely breathing—
She looks toward Haku.
"At least he's quiet. But he looks like he's already ten minutes into the war. What the hell is he even looking at? Whatever. Just say it. Say his name. Say something. Be useful for once."
She opened her mouth, quietly."Ha—"
But then she froze.
Haku wasn't moving. But it wasn't from fear.
It was something else entirely.
His whole body tensed. Eyes locked on the ground below, unblinking like he just saw the death. Jaw clenched so hard you could see the muscle twitch. Like he was holding his breath before war.
"...W-What is he thinking?! Why does he look like someone I've never met?"" she thought.
The panic around them blurred into noise. But Haku was still.
"We are fucked" Haku tought
TELEPORTATION TO TRIAL ZONE BEGINNING.
Teleportation Succesfull
Mobs will be move in: 3 Seconds
Warning: They are hungry ^^
3 Seconds left
Haku:
"I—I'm upside down?"
"I'm falling.. no?"
"My hands are tied—what the hell?"
"Under me... is a weird alien thing...with a knive?"
He was hanging headfirst from a tree. Legs above. Sky flipping.
Below him—an alien thing. Humanoid body. No face. Just long arms and a knife the size of a sword rising up toward him.
"This one kid from my team—this kid is already caught—fuck, that robot's hugging his ribs like it's about to break them—"
"The others—those two girls—they're stuck, they're literally cocooned in spiderwebs—fuck."
"...No."
"There. The window. The Easy Team. Shokono's sipping from an invisible cup, watching like this is a movie."
2...
"Mey—MEY'S UNDERWATER?!"
"No no no—what the—there's ICE over her?! She is TRAPPED"
Haku was hanging—upside down, wrists bound tight to a thick tree branch.His body jerked hard on instinct, ripping the rope with such violent force that the bough itself snapped—and he started to fell upside down to the ground
"I'm literally falling into this freak with a knife and my hands are still fucking tied—"
"Think. THINK."
"The circle is on the far corner. We need to be there when the timer ends. That's the rule."
"But no one's even gonna get that far if I don't move."
"If I wait for someone to save them..."
"...No one will."
"These kids'll die in the first ten seconds."
"I can't let that happen."
"I WON'T let that happen."
"I will break myself to move faster."
"I'll break my legs. My hands. My fucking mind if I have to."
"I'm not losing a single one."
"Not on my goddamn watch."
1...
Haku didn't blink.
He didn't breathe.
He just stared forward.
And in his head:
Nothing.
No noise.
Just one single word.
"Fucking Move."
"...."
PIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPP.
Start.