The silence in the Wenger family's grand living room had never been peaceful. It was heavy, oppressive, pressing down on everyone. Marcus Wenger, the head of the family, stirred his tea slowly. Around the table, his children waited, their gazes blending pride with disdain.
"Are we going to talk about this all over again?" asked Fred, the second son, setting his newspaper down. "It's been three years, Father three years and he's still in third year. He's become the weak link of this family. He does nothing, just sits there like useless furniture. He's a shame to this family."
Marcus didn't answer right away. He stared out the window at the vast garden.
"In this family, everyone lives up to the name," Fred continued. "Karl is the only one who serves no purpose. Even the servants laugh when they pass his door and hear the noises from his game console." His tone was sharp, high-pitched.
Luna glanced at Fred as he spoke. "That's your brother," she said, her eyes still glued to her magazine.
"Tss… if it weren't for you, Mother, we would have already kicked him out," Fred replied.
Marcus set his cup down. The soft clink against the table commanded silence.
"Enough," he said coldly. "We'll wait a little longer, but if the academy decides to expel him, I will not intervene." His face was as cold as ice as he spoke.
While his family debated his future, Karl was in his room. The room was dark, lit only by the glow of his console. His fingers moved quickly over the buttons. For him, the world of the game was simple: fight, earn points, level up. It was far more interesting than his real family or real life.
"Level up," he murmured as a short melody played on the screen.
Suddenly, his younger sister Reyna entered without knocking. She wore her academy uniform, pristine. She was younger, only fifteen, but already in third year. She looked at him with both weariness and disgust.
"Are you planning to stay here your whole life?" she asked.
Karl didn't even turn his head.
She stepped forward and, with a sharp motion, yanked the console's plug. The screen went black instantly. Karl froze, hands still in the air, eyes fixed on the void.
"Listen to me, Karl," she said, her voice full of irritation, hands on her hips. "People ask me if you're sick or have something wrong with your head. I'm ashamed to walk the halls because of you. Go to class at least pretend to be normal."
Karl sighed. He didn't get angry. Calmly, he packed his console into his bag, brought his long black hair over his eyes to hide his face, and stood up.
He left the room, crossed the luxurious estate, and passed through the gate. While his siblings left in sleek cars with chauffeurs, Karl walked along the road. It had become a habit.
Bergham Academy was a prestigious school. Karl was only there because of his family's connections. In a corner of their minds, they hoped to change him. He moved through it like a stranger. Other students stepped aside as he passed, as if afraid of catching his "bad luck."
He walked with his hands in his pockets. As he headed toward the main building, he ran into Roy and Vanessa. Roy was the son of a powerful family and Karl's former rival. Vanessa was a girl Karl had known since childhood.
Roy blocked his path.
"Karl! My old Karl!" Roy called out. "We were all betting that you were dead in your room, fingers on your console. Vanessa was genuinely worried about you, you know? She was wondering if you even knew how to walk… ha ha ha."
Vanessa giggled softly behind her hand.
"It's true, Karl, it's almost unbelievable. We all wonder how someone can fail the same class so many times. That's a record, right? Teachers change, students leave, but you stay, like an old broken chair nobody wants to throw away." They laughed.
She stepped closer, her gaze full of disgust, a mocking smile on her lips.
"You know, Karl… sometimes I think back to when we used to play together. I'm almost ashamed to be in sixth year while you're still learning the basics. It's humiliating for me to say we were friends. You seem like a mistake in this world."
Roy laughed out loud. "Don't be so harsh, Vanessa. He makes us look smarter."
As they continued laughing, Karl stared intently at Vanessa's face and whispered, "I wish I could have that face one day."
They didn't understand.
"Looks like you still don't know how to talk. Come on, let's go we have important things to do. Good luck with your coloring in class, Karl!" They walked off laughing, leaving Karl standing alone.
The day at the academy dragged on for him. When classes finally ended, Karl headed home. By the time he reached the estate, it was evening. His mother, Luna, sat in the central hall, not looking up from her magazine.
"Did you embarrass the family again today?" she asked coldly, without looking at him.
Karl didn't respond immediately. He approached her. Normally, he would have retreated to his room without a word, but tonight he stopped beside her and tilted his head slightly toward hers.
"You've become even more beautiful than before, Mother," he murmured, a strange small smile on his face. He straightened and went upstairs.
Luna froze in her seat. Her hands trembled slightly; she didn't recognize her son. This wasn't the usual Karl, always disconnected from reality. She tried to turn to see him, but her other son, Fred, entered the room with papers in hand.
"Mother, I got the documents. Tomorrow, we're sending Karl to the army. There, they'll force him to become a man and..."
He didn't get to finish. A blue light filled the room. It was a screen, and on it, a creature appeared: a white rabbit with long ears and blood-red eyes.
"What… is that?" Fred whispered, terrified. Everyone, everywhere on Earth, could see this screen and the white rabbit.
"Listen to me, humans," said the rabbit, its voice elegant yet authoritative.
"Your quiet little lives are over. You've enjoyed them enough, but now it's time to pay, because the world you know no longer exists. Prepare to cry… for soon your tears will be the only thing you have to drink. The survival game, once paused by your beloved heroes, will resume in exactly four hours… Do not prepare yourselves, for it will make sorting you easier."
After these words, the screen vanished, leaving a heavy silence and billions of people in confusion and disbelief, causing unprecedented chaos.
Luna and Fred stood there, unable to believe it. Luna tried to contain her shock. Fred couldn't stop murmuring hypotheses, as if to calm his racing mind.
"Wait… is this some new technology?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly.
Hearing this, Luna frowned, letting out a small sigh, eyes fixed on the screen. "If it were new technology… it would've made the news," she murmured, her voice trembling slightly, trying to control the anxiety rising within her. Fred looked down, embarrassed by the simplicity of his own question.
Karl had seen the same thing as everyone else. He gripped his console tightly, eyes wide.
"A game??" he wondered, clearly intrigued.
An hour passed, and the commotion in the cities reached its peak. News broadcasted nonstop on television, and every household seemed absorbed in this collective spectacle, unable to grasp what had just happened. Humanity seemed suspended by this mysterious announcement. Questions swirled through minds powerless before the unknown. Another hour passed as journalists struggled to remain calm while reporting. One of them, live from the Imperial House, began speaking:
"Today, we are live from the Imperial House… We're all waiting for the Emperor to share his thoughts on what just happened." He spoke, microphone in hand, walking toward the Emperor.
The Emperor stepped in front of the cameras, ready to speak. His measured voice resonated through every living room and street:
"Dear citizens, fear nothing. Our heroes have truly ended centuries of slaughter, and I fear that what you saw two hours ago was merely a hoax. So return home and take that to heart." His voice was so calm it reassured a few people.
Yet speculation remained uncertain, leaving the crowd in a mix of doubt and fragile hope. As he continued his speech, a journalist dared to ask the question almost everyone was thinking:
"And if this is real, what should we do?" He handed the microphone directly to the Emperor. Murmurs ran through the crowd. A collective shiver passed through journalists and spectators.
"Yes, it's real… what should we do then?" some repeated, fear and curiosity mixed.
The Emperor, standing on a raised platform surrounded by guards, scanned the crowd before responding in a firm yet nuanced voice:
"If it's true… then we must simply prepare… but still hold onto hope."
At his words, a tense silence followed, then a flood of questions that left him no time to breathe. As he tried to calm the journalists, one of his advisors whispered something in his ear. After a moment, he withdrew, leaving an assembly full of questions and a populace caught between fear and perplexity.
He hurried toward his car, but the noise followed him, and amid the commotion, a single voice pierced through:
"So… this peace was only a facade…"
It wasn't a question, but a belated realization. According to the time given by the creature, roughly two hours remained.
Luna frantically made calls to reach her husband, while Fred did the same. Karl, meanwhile, packed a few things into a bag.
"A game," he thought, a small smile on his lips. "If that's the case, I hope it's fun," he murmured. He picked up his bag and headed for the hall. Fred, seeing Karl taking the situation seriously he, who was usually carefree and spent his days gaming froze for a moment.
"There goes my useless little brother… still thinking this is one of your games," he said, teeth clenched.
Karl stared at him for a moment, indifferent. He walked forward slowly, raising his hand toward Fred's throat. He stopped when he saw Luna step out of her office and went to sit on the sofa, console in hand, eyes fixed on the screen.
Luna watched him intently. "Did I see that right?" she murmured. Fred also wondered what his little brother would do, uncertain.
While some prepared actively and others hesitated, the countdown on the large blue screen in the sky appeared. Only two minutes remained. Even skeptics began to waver.
Luna sat down on the same sofa as Karl, pressed close against him, surprising Fred, who knew his mother as a cold woman, especially toward Karl.
"Mo…m" he began, but before he could finish, another screen appeared in front of them all. A ten-second countdown was displayed: 10…9…8…7…6…5…4… The count continued when suddenly Luna grabbed Karl's hand tightly. The countdown reached zero.
"You see, it was onl..." Fred didn't get to finish his sentence before he vanished.
A heavy, oppressive silence fell, and a second later, they suffered the same fate.
Karl found himself in an isolated place. His bag was gone. The area resembled a vast forest stretching endlessly. The ground, covered in fine grass, provided an almost neutral terrain. He looked around: no family members were present, but many people he didn't know were there, though some seemed to recognize him from their looks. Some were gripped by extreme panic, whispering among themselves.
As the murmurs continued, a figure appeared in the sky. It had wings and looked like an angel, as in movies or series. Its face remained hidden, but its presence imposed immediate silence. Mouths opened in disbelief.
"It's… it's really an angel?"
"Of course not, idiot… they're just trying to trick us, right?" shouted a man, screaming in madness, trying to convince himself it was just a film set or a bad prank.
As he spoke, a strange silence settled. The man turned slowly, and at that moment, he heard:
"I hate noisy insects."
At those words, he exploded, leaving behind pieces of flesh and blood rolling on the ground.
"That will serve as an example."
There were at least one hundred thousand of them, but the silence that followed was staggering. Some covered their mouths in fear of letting their voice escape, while others held their breath, frozen by fear.
A calm, indifferent voice rose amid this tension and horror:
"So… what's this so-called game ?"
Everyone turned, following the sound, and saw an impassive face. All were stunned to see who it was: Karl Wenger.