The doors sealed behind Kai with a hollow click.
A low hum filled the room — mechanical, steady, almost like breathing.
He stood in a cube-shaped chamber lit by faint blue strips along the floor and ceiling. A HUD projected across the wall opposite him, flickering with system logs:
Trial Initiated: Stat Synergy – Personal Simulation
SoulCode Detected: [NULL]
Emotional Sync: 2
Threat Level Adjusted Accordingly
Objective: Survive for 60 seconds.
Another simulation.
No weapon. No help.
Just him.
Kai took a slow breath and stepped into the center of the room. As soon as he did, the lights dimmed. The panels under his feet began to shift — the floor tiles folding and rearranging into uneven terrain.
Then came the distortion.
It started as a shimmer in the air — like heat rising from asphalt. Then the shimmer took shape. It blinked, stuttered, and rendered into a humanoid figure with a stretched, shadowy body and glitch-pulsing edges.
It dragged something long behind it. A blade. Or a limb. Kai couldn't tell.
Its head tilted with no neck movement, eyes blurred out by static.
It charged.
Kai dropped low and rolled to the side as the creature lunged, crashing into the floor where he'd stood. The impact rattled the tiles. A gust of synthetic wind shot outward from the strike.
He barely caught his balance.
Time Remaining: 57 seconds
The creature turned. Not like a human — more like a camera angle snapping to a new target.
Kai darted behind a rising wall section, skidding into cover. His HUD pulsed red.
Adrenaline Spike – Temporary boost: Agility +1
Fear Response Detected – Emotional Sync increased
"Huh," he muttered. "So panic counts for points."
The monster's footsteps glitched — overlapping footsteps with no sound delay. It moved toward him slowly, blade scraping the ground.
Kai ran.
No more hiding. Just movement. He leapt a gap in the terrain, stumbled, rolled, and pressed into a corner just as the creature blinked again — too far. It overshot.
"Got you," he whispered.
He bolted the other way.
Time Remaining: 41 seconds
His heart pounded. His breath came in sharp bursts.
It felt real. Everything did. The simulated world. The sting of his muscles. The sound of pursuit. His stats might've been trash, but he was still alive.
He took a risk — threw a metal plate from the ground toward the far wall. The clang echoed off the chamber.
The creature turned toward it.
Kai's HUD pinged.
Tactical Maneuver – Distraction successful
Willpower +1
He smiled. A little.
Then the floor dropped out.
Literally.
He fell, landing in a new section of the simulation. The walls rose quickly around him. Another spawn zone. Another monster.
This one was different — not humanoid, but data-formed. A geometric swarm. Pieces of red-hot geometry twisting in air, slicing anything they touched.
New Threat Level: Mid-tier
"Oh come on—"
The swarm surged.
Kai sprinted. No time to think, no time to breathe. He weaved between floating tiles and terrain blocks, barely dodging incoming fragments. One shard clipped his arm.
HP: 86%
Wound Status: Minor
Pain lit up like fire.
He ducked under a broken pipe structure, crouching low, blood slicking his fingers.
Time Remaining: 17 seconds
It was almost over.
Unless the system decided to keep playing.
The swarm pulsed, rose, and collapsed inward — compressing into a needle point. It launched itself straight at Kai like a bullet.
He dove flat.
The floor cracked.
His back hit the wall with a thud. His vision blurred. A pressure wave knocked the wind from his lungs.
HP: 63%
Time Remaining: 4… 3… 2… 1…
The lights blinked white.
The chamber reset with a quiet chime.
Kai blinked rapidly, heart pounding, arms shaking. The walls returned to normal shape, the terrain smoothed, and a glowing symbol appeared on the floor.
Simulation Complete.
Survival Logged. Instability Level: Low
Reward: Emotional Sync +1 | Willpower +1 | Level Up: Kai – Level 2
Kai collapsed onto his knees.
"I survived," he said aloud.
It didn't feel like a victory. It felt like a barely-contained breakdown. But he was still here.
And in this place, still here was the best win you could get.
When the door opened again, the hallway outside was dimly lit.
Students were returning from their trials, faces pale, bodies trembling, some too quiet.
Kai spotted Lira standing near a wall, arms crossed, watching the monitors.
He made his way over.
"You okay?" she asked without looking at him.
"Define okay."
She didn't laugh. Just nodded.
One by one, names began to reappear on the classroom HUD overhead, displayed in soft blue light.
Kai's floated to the top.
KAI – Level 2
SoulCode: [NULL]
Status: Stable – Final Respawn Remaining
Then more names filled the board.
Until one didn't.
The lights dimmed slightly.
The screen flickered.
Then the system spoke.
Notice: Player Slot 27 has failed to stabilize.
Respawn attempt unsuccessful.
Player file: Deleted.
The room froze.
A quiet gasp came from someone near the back.
"Wait," someone whispered. "Who was Slot 27?"
A few people glanced around. One girl muttered a name. Someone else shook their head. No one seemed sure.
Kai turned slowly to Lira.
She was silent.
Room 3A: Locked. Respawn Slot Closed.
System Log: Death registered during simulation. Cause: Instability. No Save Point set.
The student was gone.
Not injured.
Not sent back.
Gone.
Kai's chest felt tight. He didn't remember their face. He hadn't learned their name. Maybe they sat in the back. Maybe they never spoke.
Now they never would.
"System recommends remaining players proceed with stabilization exercises."
"Warning: Final Respawns still active."
The screen cleared.
Lira finally exhaled. "One gone."
"That fast?" Kai asked. "They just delete them like that?"
"Yes."
"No announcement? No—anything?"
"This was the announcement."
He looked down at his hands. They were still shaking.
"How long before that's me?"
Lira didn't answer.
That night, Kai stood in front of the blinking Save Point panel in his dorm again.
It pulsed slowly.
The same message repeated:
SET SAVE POINT – WARNING: UNSAVED DATA
He stared at it.
His HUD glowed beside him, showing his updated stats:
Level 2
Willpower: 6
Emotional Sync: 4
Save Point: Not Set
Respawns Remaining: 1
Kai raised his hand.
Paused.
Then tapped the screen.
The panel shifted from red to blue. A confirmation ring circled the center.
SAVE POINT SET.
Timestamp: Day 2 – 11:43 PM
Kai stepped back.
"I'm not going to disappear," he whispered. "Not like that."
He turned away from the wall.
Somewhere down the hall, a voice glitched mid-sentence.
A door slammed.
A timer ticked down:
12 Days Until Dead Zone Trial