Chapter 2
"Hey... wait... stop!" I yelled, stumbling backward as the floor pulsed under me.
My legs felt like someone else's. I tried to steady myself, but even my arms obeyed half a second too late.
"This is not a tutorial," I muttered. "This is torture."
Blue screens flickered into existence around me—hovering, translucent, jittering like bad graphics.
"What the fuck is system initializing?" I read out loud. "Pain threshold: standard? What the hell is standard pain?!"
The countdown slammed into my face:
Time Remaining: 09:47
I spun around. "Exit? Where is the exit?!"
A deep crack split the floor right under my shoe and I managed to jump back just in time, heart racing.
"Okay...okay... Alex, breathe. It's just a VR. Just advanced VR. Just..."
The floor bucked like something underneath it wanted out and I hit my knees hard. Pain shot up my legs.
"Damn! That's not definitely not VR pain!"
I checked my palms. No blood. No bruises. But it still hurt like hell.
"Who invents a tutorial with actual pain?" I snapped.
The white void slowly dissolved bit by bit like someone peeling off wallpaper. Behind it was a dim concrete hallway—the type they hide behind malls and corporate offices.
Footsteps echoed from the shadows behind me.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
"Nope," I whispered. "Absolutely not." I bolted down the hallway, breathing like a dying engine.
A red warning screen exploded in my vision:
DANGER
"I see that!" I shouted, diving sideways and a blade of air sliced past my head. When it hit the wall, the concrete cracked like eggshells.
I looked back and nearly screamed. The massive creature stood at eight feet tall with all its angles wrong with glitching edges. The thing had limbs like knives and ironically had no face—just barbed wire twisting like it was alive.
"That is illegal," I told it. "That should be illegal!"
A label snapped over it:
CORRUPTED DATA ENTITY
Weakness: None – RUN
"You don't have to tell me twice," I gasped, sprinting.
Behind me, the thing moved like breaking bones. That awful crunch-crunch-crunch followed me like a death song.
I reached a fork and yelled at myself, "Left or right?!"
I went right not because it made sense but because panic shoved me.
"Move, move, move!" I screamed.
My shoes slammed the floor as my lungs burned. My heart punched my ribs like it wanted out.
Then I saw a glow ahead—a blue rectangular doorway.
"Oh thank God..."
My foot snagged a crack and I pitched forward.
"NO..."
I twisted mid-fall, hit the ground, rolled, concrete scraping my arms. A blade slammed down where my spine had been.
"Sparks?! Are you fucking serious right now?!" Sparks flew across the floor like fireworks while the hallway crumbled behind the creature. The white void ate the walls, ceiling, everything.
"Everything's breaking! Move!" I yelled at myself.
The creature pulled its blade free with a metallic shriek.
"Please don't be fast," I whispered.
But it increased its speed in mockery It moved then I grabbed a broken chunk of concrete and flung it, even though I knew it wouldn't work.
"Take THAT!"
It bounced off its chest like a pebble hitting a tank.
The creature turned fully toward me.
"Oh crap," I whispered as It blocked the exit now.
"Okay, Alex," I panted. "You have two choices; die or do something stupid."
I charged it.
"Excuse me—coming through!"
I ducked under a blade swipe that shaved the hair off the top of my head. I felt the cut and the heat of it.
"HEY! Watch the hair!"
Static shocked through my shoulder as I rammed into its torso. It was like body-slamming an electric fence.
My teeth chattered and my brain rattled but I forced my legs to keep moving.
"MOVE!" I shouted at myself.
I stumbled past the creature. The exit pulsed like it wanted me to hurry.
I launched forward as I dived inside. When I looked down, I was on soft alien grass.
I flipped twice like a sock in a dryer and landed flat on my back.
A purple sky stretched above me—green auroras dancing while two moons stared down like eyes.
A screen floated above my face:
TUTORIAL COMPLETE
"Oh my God," I wheezed. "I'm alive."
My whole body shook uncontrollably. Adrenaline flooded me like cold water.
A smaller message popped up:
Performance Rating: D
I sat up. "D?! I jumped through a monster!"
Another line scrolled:
Survival Bonus: +50 XP
Time Bonus: +0
Style Bonus: +0
Respawn Tokens: 0
I blinked. "No respawns? Seriously?"
Then the last line hit like a punch.
Warning: Tutorial death would have resulted in permanent termination.
My mouth went dry. "Permanent termination. Permanent... like dead dead?!"
A new screen replaced the old one:
Welcome to THE ENDLESS TRIAL
Level: 1 of 100
To exit the game: Complete all levels.
To die here: Die in reality.
"No," I whispered. "No, no—this isn't happening."
The timer appeared next:
Your trial begins in: 05:00
"Five minutes until the next thing tries to kill me? Fantastic."
I stood, with shaky legs, the purple grass came up to my knees. From where I stood, I could barely see the ruins but they were big and menacing.
I pressed my palms to my face. "Okay. Think. Alex, THINK."
The timer ticked.
04:41
I swallowed. "Right. Someone coded this. Someone built this damn thing. Someone sent the headset."
"You weren't supposed to be here." A voice behind me suddenly said
I spun so fast I tripped on myself and fell again.
A man stood a few feet away dresses in gray clothes and rough boots. He's green eyes really blended with the surrounding.
"Who...who the hell are you?" I stammered.
He pointed at me. "You activated the Trial."
"I didn't activate anything!" I snapped. "The headset showed up at my door..."
"That's how it starts."
"Hello, I didn't choose this!"
"No one ever chooses this."
I stood slowly, hands raised. "Look, can we just talk like humans? I almost died five times."
"You're still easy to kill."
My throat closed. "Okay, see, that... that is not comforting."
He moved closer, close enough to study me.
"You smell like the tutorial. Like data residue."
"That sounds… gross."
He grabbed my collar suddenly. "Did you meet it?"
"Meet WHAT?!"
"The corrupted entity."
"I ran from it! What do people normally do? Hug it?!"
He let go abruptly. "If it touched you, you'd be dead."
I rubbed my neck. "Yeah, well, it tried."
He stared at me like I was some rare insect.
"You're new," he said. "Too new. You shouldn't be alive."
"Wow. Thanks for the speech. Great pep talk."
He didn't smile. "Listen. Level One is not like the tutorial. If you fail—"
"I die. Yeah, I got the memo."
"No," he said quietly. "You die worse."
"What does that even mean?!"
He didn't answer.
The timer beeped to remind me of my doom.
02:58
I stiffened. "Okay, okay—can you at least tell me what Level One is? What I'm supposed to do? Anything?!"
He sighed and looked past me toward the ruins.
"You'll have to survive."
"Survive what?!"
He grabbed my arm suddenly. "Stay close and don't talk to anyone else. Don't trust anything that looks human. If the ground shakes—run. If the sky changes—run. If you see a shadow—run."
"That's a lot of running!"
"That's why most don't last past the first level."
My stomach dropped. "Most?"
He looked at the sky. "They send a new one every week."
"A new what?"
"A new player."
"And what happens to the old ones?"
He didn't look at me. He didn't need to because before I could react, the wind shifted—sharp and cold.
He stiffened. "They're here."
"WHO is here?!" I shouted.
He shoved me backward. "RUN!"
The ground vibrated as the purple grass flattened.
The sky changed from green to red to black and different shapes rose from the field.
The man grabbed my shirt again.
"If you want to live—MOVE!"
I stumbled as the nearest creature stepped fully into view. Its skin was glitching, limbs rearranging, and mouth stretching far too wide.
I whispered, "No… no, no..."
It smiled then charged.