Everyone thinks the game starts when you wake up.
The thought drifted through the darkness, cold and detached. It was a common misconception—a rookie mistake. Most people believe the opening of their eyes is the beginning of the ordeal.
They're wrong.
The game starts long before the eyelids flicker. It starts in the silence. It starts in the preparation.
When I opened my eyes, I didn't gasp. I didn't scream. I simply observed.
Above me was a sky the color of wet slate, pale and featureless. Below me was a flat, grey expanse of earth that stretched into infinity. No buildings. No trees. No horizon. Just a void designed to swallow sound and hope alike.
I lay there for a moment, my hair spread out against the cold ground like a dark halo. I took a breath.
Okay. Calm.
I pushed myself up. My movements were fluid, lacking the frantic clumsiness of the others who were only just beginning to stir around me. Five of them. Some were groaning, others clutching their heads as the transition from sleep to this nightmare took its toll.
"Where... where are we?" a voice cracked. It was a plea for an answer that didn't exist yet.
I stood up, brushing the grey dust from my clothes with deliberate strokes. I didn't look at the sky, and I didn't look for an exit. I knew better. While the others began to dissolve—Hyejin shouting into the void, Minjae weeping into her hands, the group's collective pulse rising into a fever pitch of panic—I remained still.
Count them first.
I let my gaze sweep over them, sharp and clinical.
"Six people," I said.
My voice wasn't loud, but it had a certain weight to it. It acted like a physical barrier, stopping their cries. Everyone turned to look at me.
"No injuries," I continued, my tone as flat as the land we stood on. "No visible exits. That means we haven't started yet."
"Started what?!" Jisung snapped, his face flushed with a mixture of terror and sudden aggression. "Jiwoo, what the hell is this? Where are we?"
I didn't have to answer. The world did it for me.
A low, mechanical hum vibrated through the soles of our shoes, a sound so deep it felt like it was grinding our bones. From the seamless ground, a monolithic black screen rose like a tombstone.
Pixels flickered to life. Glowing white text bled across the dark surface.
[ WELCOME. ]
The panic flared again, higher and sharper. I ignored it. I stepped toward the screen. I wasn't driven by curiosity or fear; I was moving because I was prepared for what came next.
The text changed.
[ THIS IS A SURVIVAL GAME. ]
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the sound of someone's jagged breathing. Then, the screen flickered one last time, delivering the core of our new reality.
[ THERE IS ONLY ONE RULE. ]
I stared at the words, my face a mask of iron. I already knew what it would say. I had seen this pattern before—in my mind, in my dreams, in the very marrow of my being.
[ TRUST WILL GET YOU KILLED. ]
A girl—Minjae—began to sob. Someone gave a sharp, nervous laugh that sounded like breaking glass. The group was on the verge of a total breakdown, and in a game like this, a breakdown was a death sentence.
I turned back to them.
"Listen to me," I said, projecting a confidence I knew they needed to survive. "This isn't random. Games like this reward logic."
I gestured toward the glowing screen, my eyes locking onto theirs one by one, asserting control. "Fear is a penalty. If you let it take over, you've already lost."
"How do you know that?" Doyun asked, his voice suspicious but desperate for a leader to follow.
I paused, choosing my words with the precision of a surgeon. "Because panic is always punished first."
They fell silent. It was a grim logic, but it made sense to them. They didn't see the shadow across my face or the way my fist clenched at my side.
Same pattern as before, I thought, my focus narrowing until the world around me blurred.
The screen flickered a final warning.
[ GAME ONE WILL BEGIN SHORTLY. ]
The wind picked up, turning cold and sharp. The vast land suddenly felt smaller, tighter, as if the walls of the world were closing in to crush us. I felt the familiar hum of the game settling into my skin.
This time, I promised myself, my eyes steady and dark, I won't lose control.