Matthew stepped back from the doorway as the rules finished etching themselves in blood-red letters across the wall:
THE MASK TEST
THREE ENTER. TWO MAY LEAVE.
LIES ARE REQUIRED. TRUTH IS PUNISHED.
BONUS: +5 DAYS TO SURVIVORS.
FAILURE TO ENGAGE: SYSTEM FORFEIT.
Sora stared at it. "Only two leave. That's the line."
Rin folded her arms. "So the game forces betrayal. One of us has to go down."
"Or," Matthew said slowly, "we find the loophole."
Sora raised an eyebrow. "You think this game has one?"
Matthew pointed to the first line again.
THE GAME BEGINS WHEN YOU ALL LIE.
"That's the trigger. Not when we fight. Not when we betray. It starts when we all lie."
Sora caught on. "So what happens if we don't?"
Rin tilted her head. "What if one of us refuses to lie? The system would hang—waiting for the condition to activate."
"It's already glitching," Matthew said. "If we refuse to follow the rule structure, we could force a crash. An override. Maybe even expose the sub-code."
"That's a hell of a maybe," Sora said.
Matthew nodded. "Yeah. But think about it. This whole place is unraveling. The King's watching. The system is scared. What if it gave us this game not to test us—but to break us before we reach whatever comes next?"
Rin looked at the wall again, thinking.
Then she pulled a pen from her coat and, with shaking hands, scribbled something on her palm.
"What are you doing?" Sora asked.
Rin looked up. "Writing down the one truth I won't say in the chamber. So I remember who I am when it tries to erase me."
Matthew smiled grimly. "Then we all do it."
They each wrote a truth.
A core truth they refused to speak aloud—something the game wouldn't be able to touch.
Matthew wrote: I am not him.
Sora wrote: I won't be used.
Rin wrote: I did love them.
They stood in silence, the game waiting for their first lie.
No one spoke.
Seconds passed.
Then a full minute.
Then—
SYSTEM: UNRESPONSIVE INPUT DETECTED
STABILITY BREACH AT 24%
ADMIN OVERRIDE: FAILED
ERROR: PLAYERS NOT INITIATING DECEPTION
RE-EVALUATING RULESET…
Sora's eyes widened. "It's working."
The lights flickered.
The masks began to twitch violently.
Then a new message appeared, hastily stitched together.
NEW RULE: THE FIRST TO SPEAK IS REMOVED.
Rin took a step back. "It's adapting. Fast."
Matthew grinned, cold and sharp.
"Good," he said. "That means it's scared of us."
And from the shadowy chamber beyond, something moved.
A figure.
Not a player.
Not a gamemaster.
But someone who wore no mask at all.