THE FIRST TRIAL
All five of us stood frozen.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
The glowing screen floated beneath the impossible plane, silently informing us that our lives had somehow turned into a game.
Out of everyone...
I was probably the most confused.
"...One minute per player?" I muttered. "And... eliminated?"
That word bothered me.
Eliminated.
People usually use words like lose.
Or fail.
Not...
Eliminated.
It sounded less like a game...
…and more like a funeral with extra steps.
Anita shook her head repeatedly.
"No."
Her voice trembled.
"This is insane."
She looked around desperately.
"I'm not going back into that stadium."
She pointed toward the massive structure behind us.
"We'll stay somewhere else."
"We'll hide if we have to."
For a second...
I actually liked her plan.
Exactly.
Hide.
Humans have survived thousands of years by running away from things trying to kill them.
Finally, someone with survival instincts.
Then Omar spoke.
"I don't think we can."
…Never mind.
There goes the survival instinct.
Anita frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Omar looked toward the frozen plane.
"Everything we've seen so far is impossible."
He pointed upward.
"That plane isn't moving."
"It's floating."
"We don't know who brought us here."
"We don't know why."
"But one thing is clear."
"If they can do... this..."
He gestured toward the sky.
"...then ignoring their rules probably isn't a smart idea."
Unfortunately...
He made sense.
I hated when people did that.
It made disagreeing much harder.
Thiri quietly nodded.
"I think he's right."
Of course she did.
Apparently, everyone had decided Omar was the unofficial team leader.
Nobody even voted.
He just unlocked the position somehow.
Then Thiri looked at Geeta.
"But..."
"She's barely standing."
Geeta lowered her eyes.
"I'll manage."
She said it with the confidence of someone who definitely wouldn't manage.
Omar sighed.
"I know."
"But we don't have another choice."
He looked at all of us.
"I don't know what happens if we refuse."
He paused.
"And honestly..."
"I don't want to find out."
Silence returned.
A heavy silence.
The kind that pressed against your chest.
Nobody argued anymore.
Not because we agreed...
Because none of us had a better answer.
I stayed quiet.
As usual.
My eyes never left the screen.
My thoughts refused to slow down.
The words on the screen replayed inside my head over and over again.
One minute per player.
The more I thought about it...
The less I understood.
THE FIRST MISTAKE
Then—
A loud mechanical tone echoed across the sky.
It wasn't spoken by a person.
It wasn't even spoken by a machine.
It was something in between.
Cold.
Emotionless.
Almost... alive.
"The game will begin in one minute."
"All players are ordered to proceed to the designated arena."
"Await further instructions."
Nobody argued anymore.
Even Anita.
Fear had a strange way of ending debates.
Without another word, we ran back toward the stadium.
Our footsteps echoed across the empty ground.
No audience.
No referee.
No escape.
Just five strangers running toward a place none of us wanted to enter.
I wanted to ask a hundred questions.
Who made this game?
Why us?
Could we really die here?
Were our families looking for us?
Instead...
I kept every single question to myself.
Thinking was easy.
Speaking...
That was the difficult part.
The moment we crossed the entrance...
The voice returned.
Louder this time.
As if it were speaking from every direction at once.
"FIRST GAME INITIALIZING..."
A brief pause.
Then—
"Play without hesitation."
"Players may cooperate until only three remain."
"If no player is eliminated within two minutes..."
The voice paused again.
"...the System will randomly eliminate one player."
Nobody moved.
Nobody even breathed.
Then came the final sentence.
"End the game within the allotted time..."
"...or the game will end you."
Silence.
Complete silence.
It felt as though the stadium itself had stopped breathing.
Anita was the first to speak.
"I don't understand any of this."
Her voice shook.
"We shouldn't have come here."
She looked toward the exit.
"I'm leaving."
The words had barely left her mouth before Omar reacted.
"Anita!"
His voice echoed through the empty stadium.
"Don't!"
"Leaving the arena is exactly what it told us not to do!"
She turned around, panic written across her face.
"I'm tired of listening to some invisible voice!"
"If we're going to survive, we should get away from this place—not walk deeper into it!"
Before anyone could stop her...
She ran.
Straight toward the stadium gates.
"Anita, wait!"
Omar sprinted after her without a second thought.
Thiri followed immediately.
Geeta tried to take a step...
But her weakened legs refused to cooperate.
She stumbled.
I instinctively caught her before she could fall.
She looked up at me, surprised.
"...Thank you."
I simply nodded.
My eyes shifted toward the entrance.
Toward Omar.
Toward Anita.
Toward whatever was about to happen next.
Every instinct told me to run after them.
Every instinct also told me to stay exactly where I was.
As usual...
I couldn't decide.
So I did what I'd always done.
Nothing.
And somehow...
That felt like the worst decision of all.
AND THE FIRST DEATH
Geeta was still sitting on the cold ground, her breathing uneven.
She looked up at me, her eyes searching mine for an answer I didn't have.
"What do you think is going to happen now?"
I opened my mouth.
"I don't—"
The rest of the sentence never came.
BOOM!!
The world exploded.
A deafening roar tore through the stadium.
The ground lurched beneath my feet.
The shockwave slammed into my body, throwing me backward as though I weighed nothing.
For a moment...
I couldn't hear.
Only a high-pitched ringing echoed inside my head.
Dust swallowed the air.
Smoke rushed past us like a living creature.
The smell of burning concrete filled my lungs.
I coughed violently, unable to breathe.
My vision blurred.
Someone screamed.
Another voice shouted something.
I couldn't understand a single word.
Slowly...
The smoke began to settle.
My ears were still ringing.
I forced myself to look toward the entrance.
"..."
"...Where..."
Where was Anita?
A few seconds ago...
She had been right there.
Running.
Arguing.
Alive.
Now...
Nothing.
Only a torn scarf drifted through the smoke before falling onto the shattered ground.
A small bracelet rolled across the floor...
Then stopped.
Silence.
The kind of silence that follows something too terrible for words.
My heartbeat pounded so violently I thought it might burst out of my chest.
No...
No...
That can't be all that's left.
My legs refused to move.
People always say,
"Death arrives without knocking."
I never understood that saying.
Until now.
Omar stood frozen.
His eyes remained fixed on the place where Anita had disappeared.
"...No..."
His voice cracked.
"No..."
For the first time...
The boy who had acted fearless since the beginning looked completely helpless.
Thiri covered her mouth with both hands.
Tears filled her eyes before she slowly collapsed onto her knees.
She wasn't crying loudly.
She simply stared.
As if her mind had refused to accept what her eyes had seen.
Beside me, Geeta gripped my sleeve so tightly it almost hurt.
"W-What..."
"What do we do now?"
Her voice trembled.
She was asking me.
Why?
I didn't even know what to do with my own life.
How was I supposed to know what to do after watching someone disappear before my eyes?
I wanted to answer.
I couldn't.
Sometimes...
Silence isn't the absence of words.
It's the weight of fear crushing every one of them.
The heat from the explosion still burned against my skin.
My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
My legs felt hollow.
The game.
It wasn't pretending.
It wasn't threatening.
It wasn't bluffing.
It had given us one rule.
Someone broke it.
Someone died.
That was all.
No warning.
No mercy.
No second chance.
Omar suddenly inhaled sharply.
Almost as if remembering the people still alive.
He hurried toward Thiri and gently helped her to her feet.
"It's not over," he said quietly, though his own voice was shaking.
"We're still alive."
"We have to stay together."
Thiri nodded weakly.
Neither of them looked toward the entrance again.
None of us did.
Some sights become too painful to face twice.
I looked around the empty stadium.
Only four of us remained.
Four frightened strangers.
Four beating hearts.
People often say,
"A game only begins after the first move."
If that was true...
Then this wasn't the beginning anymore.
This...
…was our first loss.
RESET...
The stadium fell silent.
Not the peaceful kind of silence.
The kind that comes after something so horrifying that nobody knows what to say.
My eyes wandered back to the screen.
The countdown still hadn't reached zero.
04:38
"..."
I frowned.
Something wasn't right.
I couldn't tell what.
Maybe my brain had simply stopped working.
I looked at Omar.
He was staring at the timer too.
His brows slowly tightened.
Before any of us could speak—
The entire screen flickered.
The white light distorted.
Letters dissolved into meaningless symbols before rearranging themselves.
A deep mechanical hum echoed across the stadium.
Then...
The voice returned.
Colder than before.
"SYSTEM NOTICE."
Nobody moved.
"A player has been removed by the System..."
The words echoed through the empty stadium.
"...for violating a major rule."
Geeta looked around in confusion.
"W-Who...?"
Nobody answered.
The System continued.
"The eliminated player does not qualify as a valid sacrifice."
"...What?" Thiri whispered.
Omar took one slow step forward.
"What does that mean?"
There was no reply.
Only the voice.
"Current game progress has been invalidated."
"Restarting game sequence."
"...Restarting?" Omar repeated.
His calm expression finally cracked.
"No..."
The screen suddenly went black.
For one heartbeat...
There was nothing.
Then the numbers flashed back.
05:00
All of us froze.
"No..."
Geeta's voice shook.
"That's impossible..."
The System ignored her.
"Objective Updated."
"Select two players for elimination."
Nobody understood.
Not even Omar.
"Two?" Anita's scarf still lay on the ground.
"We already..."
He couldn't finish the sentence.
The voice spoke one final time.
"The game..."
A pause.
"...starts..."
Another pause.
"...again."
Silence.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody understood.
We simply stood there...
Trying to make sense of words that refused to make sense.
DESPERATION
The words refused to leave my head.
Two players.
Not one.
Two.
My chances of surviving had just been cut in half.
A cold knot tightened in my chest.
Panic has a strange way of changing people.
Some people freeze.
Some people cry.
Some people fight.
I glanced at Omar.
For the first time since we'd met, he looked genuinely lost.
His confident expression had disappeared.
He wasn't thinking like a leader anymore.
He was just a sixteen-year-old boy trying to understand a nightmare.
Then...
I looked at Thiri.
She wasn't staring at the screen anymore.
She was staring at us.
No...
She was staring at me.
Before my brain could catch up—
She moved.
Her fist shot toward my face.
I instinctively leaned backward.
The punch sliced through the air, missing me by inches.
…I actually dodged?
Huh.
Maybe survival instincts are real after all.
Before she could attack again—
Omar threw himself between us.
He wrapped both arms around her and forced her to the ground.
"Thiri!"
"What are you doing?"
She struggled against him.
Hard.
"The game restarted."
Her breathing had become uneven.
"We need two people to die now."
Her voice cracked.
Not with anger...
With fear.
She pointed toward me.
Then toward Geeta, who was still struggling to stand.
"They're the weakest."
"They'll only slow us down."
"If they die..."
"...the rest of us survive."
She looked directly into Omar's eyes.
"Move."
"Please."
"Let me finish this."
Silence.
Nobody spoke.
Not even me.
Because the terrifying part...
Was that her words made sense.
I hated that they made sense.
If someone had to die...
Wouldn't everyone choose the weakest?
My heartbeat grew louder.
I slowly took a step back.
Then another.
If Omar agreed...
If he simply stepped aside...
Geeta and I would disappear from this world before we even understood it.
Omar remained silent.
His grip on Thiri loosened slightly.
For one dreadful moment...
I thought he was considering it.
Even Thiri waited.
Not struggling.
Not speaking.
Just watching him.
Waiting for his answer.
Finally...
Omar closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
When he opened them again...
The hesitation was gone.
"No."
His voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
"No one dies because I decided they should."
Thiri stared at him.
"You don't understand!"
"We're trying to survive!"
"I do understand."
Omar replied quietly.
"And that's exactly why I won't become a murderer five minutes after entering this world."
He slowly stood up.
Then stepped in front of Geeta and me.
Shielding us without another word.
"If surviving means killing innocent people..."
He clenched his fists.
"...then I'll find another way."
For a brief moment...
The fear inside me became something else.
Relief.
I had spent my whole life believing kindness was something people talked about—not something they actually lived by.
Yet here stood Omar.
Strong enough to force Thiri to the ground.
Strong enough to kill me if he wanted.
And somehow...
Choosing not to.
Maybe...
People like him really did exist.
Unfortunately...
Thiri had already made her decision.
She gritted her teeth.
Anger.
Fear.
Desperation.
All of them mixed together.
With a sudden burst of force, she twisted free and drove a powerful side kick into Omar's ribs.
He stumbled sideways.
Before anyone could react—
She charged straight toward me.
BETWEEN US AND DEATH
Fear took over.
Not fear of dying.
Fear of being hunted.
My body moved before my mind could catch up.
I turned and sprinted across the stadium, my footsteps echoing through the empty stands.
Run.
That was the only thought left inside my head.
As I passed a row of cameras mounted along the wall, instinct took over. I reached up, yanked one free with both hands, and hurled it at Thiri.
She didn't even flinch.
Her hand shot forward.
CRACK!
She caught it midair.
"...Seriously?"
Before it could even hit the ground, she crushed it in her fist.
Glass shattered between her fingers.
Tiny shards scattered across the concrete.
Without hesitation, she picked up one of the larger pieces.
Its jagged edge reflected the stadium lights.
Now she had a weapon.
"...That's unfair."
She didn't answer.
She rushed at me again.
Every step she took echoed like a countdown.
I looked around desperately.
Think.
Think!
Do something!
For one insane moment...
An idea crossed my mind.
Push her outside the arena.
The System would eliminate her.
Problem solved.
…
Then another thought followed.
If that counts as another rule violation...
Would the game restart again?
Or worse...
Would all of us die instead?
I couldn't gamble with something I didn't understand.
Not anymore.
So...
I did what I was best at.
I ran.
Straight toward the only person who still seemed capable of making decisions.
"Omar!"
He turned immediately.
Behind him, Geeta noticed the broken glass in Thiri's hand.
Her expression changed.
"She's not listening anymore."
Her voice shook.
"She's going to kill someone."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a steel ruler.
It was old, scratched, and slightly bent.
Probably something she'd forgotten to take out before all of this.
She held it toward Omar.
"...End it."
The words felt heavier than the ruler itself.
Omar stared at it.
Then at Thiri.
Then back at Geeta.
His hand remained frozen.
"No..."
He whispered.
"I..."
For a brief moment...
He looked just as lost as the rest of us.
Then he slowly accepted the ruler.
Without saying a word...
He bent it with both hands.
SNAP.
The steel split into two sharp pieces.
He handed one half to me.
"For protection."
That was all he said.
Not 'Attack her.'
Not 'Kill her.'
Just...
"For protection."
Then he tightened his grip on the remaining piece.
He stepped in front of us.
Positioning himself between Thiri and the rest of the group.
"I won't let anyone else die."
His voice was calm.
Not because he wasn't afraid.
Because someone had to stand there.
Someone had to become the wall.
And if that wall happened to be him...
Then so be it.
Thiri didn't slow down.
She tightened her grip around the shard of glass.
Then charged straight at Omar.
FALSE HOPE
The countdown never stopped.
I glanced at the glowing timer.
03:52
My stomach sank.
More than a minute had already disappeared.
Less than a minute remained before the System made its own decision.
For some reason...
That possibility frightened me more than Thiri herself.
At least a person could hesitate.
A machine wouldn't.
Geeta's eyes met mine.
She didn't speak.
She simply tightened her grip on my shoulder...
Then nodded toward Thiri.
Go.
No words.
No encouragement.
Just an understanding.
If nobody acted...
The System would.
I swallowed.
My legs felt heavier than stone.
I didn't want to hurt anyone.
I didn't want to fight.
I didn't even know if I could.
But sometimes...
The hardest choices are the ones made because there are no choices left.
I tightened my grip around the broken piece of steel.
Just one hit.
End it.
Survive.
With a deep breath, I sprinted forward.
Thiri was focused on Omar.
She never noticed me approaching from behind.
I raised the sharpened steel with both hands.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
I'm sorry...
I swung.
...
Nothing.
The weight in my hands disappeared.
My arms sliced through empty air.
I almost lost my balance and stumbled forward.
"...Huh?"
I looked down.
The broken ruler...
Was gone.
Not broken.
Not dropped.
Gone.
As if it had never existed.
"What—"
A metallic clang interrupted me.
I turned.
Omar was holding her away.
Then he looked at me.
His expression mirrored my own confusion.
His weapon...
Had vanished too.
His empty hand remained frozen in midair.
Nobody moved.
Nobody understood.
Then—
The System's words echoed inside my mind.
Not the voice.
Just the memory.
Weapons may break...
...vanish...
...or even backfire.
A cold shiver crawled down my spine.
It wasn't just a rule.
It was a warning.
And we had just learned...
The System never lied.
TOO LATE
Fear tightened around my chest.
The game had stolen our only advantage without warning.
Weapons.
Plans.
Confidence.
None of it mattered.
The System could erase everything in the blink of an eye.
Seriously...?
Who designs a game like this?
Before I could gather my thoughts—
Thiri moved.
She rammed straight into me.
The impact knocked the air from my lungs.
I crashed onto the concrete, my head spinning.
...Great.
Officially losing fights to girls now.
My ancestors definitely aren't proud.
She didn't even look at me.
To her...
I was already beaten.
She shoved Omar aside and sprinted toward Geeta.
"No!"
I forced myself back onto my feet.
Pain shot through my shoulder, but adrenaline drowned most of it.
I threw myself at Thiri.
This time...
I actually caught her.
We both slammed onto the ground.
For one hopeful second...
I thought I'd done it.
Then—
THUD!
Her elbow drove straight into my ribs.
Every bit of air escaped my lungs.
She twisted free.
"...Ow."
Reminder to self.
Heroes in movies make tackling people look way easier than it actually is.
Omar didn't waste the opportunity.
He stepped forward and drove a punch into her jaw.
The sound echoed through the stadium.
Thiri staggered backward.
For a brief moment...
Nobody moved.
Then she screamed.
Not in pain.
In frustration.
She charged like someone who had completely stopped thinking.
She tackled Omar.
Both of them crashed onto the concrete.
I tried to rush toward them—
But the broken shard of glass flashed through the air.
Wild.
Uncontrolled.
She wasn't aiming anymore.
She was simply swinging.
Again.
Again.
Again.
I instinctively stepped backward.
One wrong move...
And that glass would be buried in someone's throat.
Then...
Everything stopped.
Thiri's eyes shifted.
Past me.
Past Omar.
Toward the only person who hadn't moved.
Geeta.
Thiri ran.
Fast.
Too fast.
I reached out.
My fingers caught nothing but air.
Omar shouted something.
I couldn't hear it.
The world suddenly felt distant.
Silent.
Geeta's eyes widened.
She tried to step away—
She wasn't fast enough.
One movement.
One flash of broken glass.
Then...
Geeta...
She fell.
No scream.
No dramatic cry.
Just...
Collapsed.
The stadium became perfectly still.
My heartbeat echoed inside my ears.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
I couldn't breathe.
Omar slowly turned toward Geeta laying on the ground.
His face drained of color.
For the first time...
The strongest person among us looked completely powerless.
And I...
Could only stand there.
Watching.
Unable to convince myself that what I'd just seen had actually happened.
ERRORED RESULT
I stole a glance at the countdown.
03:46.
So did Thiri.
Every second felt heavier than the last.
She slowly turned toward me again.
Her breathing was ragged.
Blood trickled between her fingers as she tightened her grip around the broken shard of glass.
Her eyes had changed.
There was no anger left in them.
Only desperation.
I swallowed.
My body moved before my mind could.
I turned...
And ran.
Maybe I could buy myself a few more seconds.
Maybe Omar could stop her.
Maybe...
I didn't know.
I never knew.
Behind me, footsteps thundered across the concrete.
She was chasing me.
Closer.
Closer.
Then—
A voice echoed throughout the stadium.
Cold.
Mechanical.
Unshaken.
"Congratulations to the winners."
My legs stopped on their own.
The footsteps behind me...
Had stopped too.
"You have successfully survived your first game."
"Winning players must leave the arena immediately after the results are displayed."
I slowly turned to the screen.
═══════════════════
GAME 1 COMPLETE WINNERS
1st — Omar Faruk
Age: 16
Male • Delhi, India
2nd — Mahmood Billah
Age: 14
Male • Dhaka, Bangladesh
3rd — Anita Shrestha
Age: 14
Female • Kathmandu, Nepal
═══════════════════
I blinked.
"...Anita?"