"Jayhan! Jayhan!!!" The female voice echoed in his head.
Underneath her voice was the sound of bottles breaking and people fighting among themselves.
No one needed a visual representation of what was happening to tell it was chaotic.
And Jayhan happened to be in the mess.
"What happened? My insides are burning up, and my stomach hurts a lot. Did I get stabbed? Oh right, I did... it was that message..."
His eyes slowly opened.
The first thing he saw was his girlfriend, Kara Laine, kneeling before him while using her hand to try and stop him from bleeding to death.
Her lovely blue eyes and long blue hair were very hard to miss, even while half dead.
They seemed to be inside a small room, with a single bulb being their only source of light.
"Ha, you're awake, good. Are you alright? Please say something so I'll know," Kara uttered. Despite how worried she was, she still kept one eye on the door.
She seemed to be injured as well; she was bleeding a lot on her left arm, while she held a screwdriver close, as if ready to stab anything that tried to enter the room.
Regaining his consciousness, Jayhan finally remembered what happened that led to his current situation.
July 20th, 2025.
On the day his girlfriend was celebrating her 21st birthday, he wanted to surprise her with a gift, which prompted him to follow her to a gaming store to get her the new game she had been dying to play.
Being a professional gamer, it wasn't all new for companies to send her new games for her to test out and leave a review. Although this time was different, as she would be getting the game she wanted for herself, and not business-related.
Jayhan had to save a ton of money just to be able to get the game for her. He was a streamer, and as such, he knew a thing or two about games.
Arriving at the gaming store, he had gotten the game, 'Apocalypse on Earth.' It didn't look visually appealing, but as long as his girlfriend was going to enjoy it, he didn't mind.
It was then the sudden event took place, something no one would have ever expected.
The sky suddenly turned red, and everything looked different than it did before.
Monsters suddenly showed up outside the shop, attacking people who were unfortunate enough to be outside at the time.
The news said everyone should be indoors, as no one knew what was happening. Military enforcement was useless against the audience Earth was faced with.
Not even hours after their arrival, every country in the world had been brought to its knees, almost wiping out a huge chunk of humanity.
Things didn't get better from there, as everyone could suddenly see a huge screen playing on buildings and in the sky.
(Congratulations, you have been chosen to be among the main people for the trial.)
(In order to successfully participate, a quest has been set in place to test your worthiness.)
(Main quest: Kill a single person in the next 30 minutes.
Description: In order to advance to the next stage, you need to kill a single person before the time runs out.
Reward: 5000 coins.
Penalty: Death.)
Seeing the notification, no one batted an eye, as they all wanted to survive.
They began attacking one another viciously, trying to kill one another before the timer would run out.
Jayhan was a victim of this, as he was suddenly stabbed in the gut before he could fully grasp what was happening.
While Kara was trying to save him, she got sliced with a pocket knife, but somehow, she managed to get him to a safe place, inside the store's storage room.
Grunting heavily, Jayhan managed to sit upright, his hand still covering the injury in his gut.
"How long was I out for?" he asked, his gaze focused on the giant screen in the air.
(Time remaining for current quest: 0:15 minutes.)
"No need to answer that," he instantly spoke.
"Going outside right now is dangerous; everyone seems to have lost their mind. But we need to get you to the hospital as quickly as possible," Kara uttered, her gaze still fixed on the door.
While her suggestion would be the wise action to take, Jayhan doubted whoever placed the quest in order would care the moment the time ran out.
They were both gamers at the end of the day; it was no surprise they adapted quickly to the situation, which was the same for everyone else in the store.
"I'll be fine. We need to think of how to deal with the current situation," said Jayhan. "As stupid as it sounds, everything that is happening right now is real. It's like something straight out of a game; there's no guarantee what will happen if we don't do what the quest says."
Kara was silent.
'I don't blame her for being numb right now. Something out there is telling us we need to kill, or we'll be killed. I am in as much shock as the next guy. That said, the sooner I stop thinking about the absurdity, the better. If we don't kill, we'll be killed; there's nothing more to it.'
Grunting, Jayhan managed to stand to his feet, even though it took a little bit of effort.
"What are you doing? Sit back down; you're not fully healed," Kara finally looked at him, her face completely numb, almost like she was thinking of nothing except escaping the shop.
"I told you I am fine. Kara, did you notice something before the weird screen showed up in the store?"
"What do you mean?"
Jayhan looked to the side. 'So I was the only one that noticed the store owner disappeared? Did I imagine it? Sigh, I shouldn't be thinking about this right now. I need to figure out a way I can get out of this damn quest alive.'
Baam!
Someone suddenly slammed on the door.
And then came the voice—
"Open the hell up right now!!! I know you're in there! Open up!!!!"
It was a man, and he wasn't alone.
"There are two inside there! If we kill them fast, we should be able to complete the quest like everyone else!"
"Open up!"
"Open up, goddammit!"
Baam! Bamm!
'Like everyone else? That's to say they already killed one another in there, and these are the ones still looking for a victim? Did the ones who completed the quest run away or something?' Jayhan thought to himself. At the same time, he couldn't hide the fact he was panicking.
With every slam on the door, the hinges grew weaker, meaning the door could break at any moment.
Kara knew this too.
Thus, she was ready to act.
Standing to her feet, she grabbed Jayhan's hand and pulled him behind her, while holding the screwdriver in front of her.
She wasn't a fighter; in fact, she had never fought anyone in her life. But right now, her boyfriend's safety was the only thing on her mind.