Seven awoke to the smell of smoke and pine.
He shouldn't have been able to smell anything—his olfactory receptors were only meant for chemical detection, not sensory nuance—but here the scent carried weight, heaviness, memory.
His optics flickered online. Blackened trees rose around him, their tops lost in violet fog. The air shimmered faintly, as if reality itself struggled to stay solid. Beneath him, the dirt was warm, humming with a soft rhythmic pulse.
*Where am I?*
His system attempted diagnostics, but the results fractured into corrupted data streams.
Seven pushed himself upright.
A jacket—*her* jacket—slipped from his metallic shoulders. Leira Halden's lab jacket, now scorched, with one torn sleeve trailing behind him. He touched it gently, brushing a thumb over the familiar fabric.
"Leira…" he whispered, though no sound should have been possible in his damaged state.
The forest answered with silence.
Then:
A ringing horn boomed across the trees.
Seven turned sharply. Nine figures appeared in the clearing around him, blinking as if they'd been pulled from the middle of a dream.
A soldier with a stern jawline.
A young diver wrapped in a soaked jacket.
A firefighter with burn scars on her arms.
A quiet herbalist holding her chest as if steadying her heart.
A wiry man in torn city clothes.
Others, each carrying a shadow.
A glowing interface materialized before them all—text flickering like fireflies:
> **ROUND BEGIN**
> **MAP SELECTED: BLACKPINE FOREST**
> **BASE TIME: 4:00**
> **DEATH PENALTY: +35s per fallen survivor**
"What—what the hell is this?" the firefighter muttered.
The soldier answered with a rasp,
"Instructions."
Seven scanned the display. His systems recognized none of it.
The ground vibrated.
A distant metallic clang…
a dragging sound…
and then—
A figure stepped from the fog.
Armor.
A broken helmet.
Veins of black energy crawling over his chest.
A sword dragging deep lines in the soil.
The herbalist gasped and fell to her knees.
"Eron…?"
The creature lifted its head.
And screamed.
The survivors scattered.
Seven moved before he processed why. His servos roared as he lunged between Aelyn—the herbalist—and the corrupted swordsman. The impact sent both metal and bone cracking.
> **Action Detected: BODY BLOCK**
> **EXP GAINED: +15**
His HUD flickered violently. Error codes blurred into static.
The creature raised its sword again, roaring with a voice that had once been human.
Seven pushed Aelyn behind him.
"Run."
She obeyed.
And the round began in full.
---
Time pulsed in Seven's vision:
> **03:48**
Generators hummed in the distance—three to the north, two to the west. Markers blinked on every survivor's HUD.
Aelyn fled.
Cato the soldier took command.
Yara the diver sprinted toward a generator.
The arson-scarred Rhea armed herself with debris as a makeshift weapon.
Seven turned back to the Killer—Eron—bracing himself.
Every instinct told him to protect.
Even in death—even in whatever this place was—Seven knew one thing:
Leira wanted him to keep people alive.
---
He circled the Killer, luring it away from the others. Every swing tore through trees and ground, but Seven kept moving, absorbing blows that would kill any human.
> **03:11**
> **A Survivor Has Been Downed**
> **+35 Seconds Added**
A scream echoed. Someone had fallen.
The Realm reacted with hunger.
Time stretched.
The fog thickened.
And the Killer lunged again, faster now—feeding on suffering.
Seven couldn't save everyone. His arms were dented, processors overheating. But he held Eron back long enough for generators to light the forest with blue sparks.
Finally—after an eternity—A portal tore open between two dead pines.
> **EXIT GATE OPENED**
> **TIME REMAINING: 05:02**
The survivors sprinted through the shimmering crack in reality.
Seven dragged the last injured survivor on his back.
The Killer's blade sliced into his shoulder just as he crossed the threshold.
White light swallowed them.
---
They landed in a wooden cabin that smelled of cedar and rain.
The **Cottage**.
Safe zone.
Aelyn collapsed into sobs.
"Eron… he—he wasn't supposed to be here… he died… he died trying to save me—"
Seven sat silently, staring at the splintering of Leira's jacket sleeve. A burn mark had spread across it, eerily similar to the explosion that killed her.
On the far wall, something glowed.
A wooden pedestal.
On it lay a small object—silver, delicate.
Leira's amulet.
> **MILESTONE 25 REACHED**
> **REWARD CLAIMED**
Seven touched it with trembling fingers.
For a moment—just a moment—he heard her voice.
"Seven… you're still here?"
The Cottage lights flickered.
Every survivor froze.
Because a second horn sounded—deeper, darker.
And the text on their HUD changed:
> **NEW ROUND APPROACHING**
> **MAP SELECTING…**
> **MAP: UNKNOWN**
Seven rose slowly.
Whatever was coming…
whatever this place was…
he knew one truth:
**This was not death.
This was punishment.
And he would not let any of them face it alone.**