James spun round, and he was back on his seat in the cafeteria with lots of noise and the chattering of the students. "What just happened?" He said silently as he glanced around the whole cafeteria trying to picture the guy he had seen earlier. [ SYSTEM VOICE: C'MON, JAMES. WHY ARE YOU SURPRISED? YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN USED TO THE SYSTEM BY NOW. YOU WERE GOING TO BE KILLED. I SAVED YOUR LIFE. YOU OWE ME A THANK YOU FOR THAT. ] James sighed, feeling very anxious. " You mean I was going to be dead?" He asked, staring around to see where his killer was. The last thing James remembered before finding himself back at the cafe was a sound coming from his back. [ SYSTEM VOICE: YOU WERE DEAD, JAMES. YOU NEED TO START THINKING, AND YOU NEED TO BE ON HIGH ALERT. CARLOS, REGINALD. THEY ARE PLAYING THIS GAME TO WIN. YOU NEED TO BE AS RUTHLESS AND DECISIVE AS THEY ARE. ] "I am just a kid. Are you seriously asking me to consider killing?" James said with his voice low. [ SYSTEM

James's grip on the table tightened as he looked at the strange student seated before him. He grinned widely with a deadly smirk on his face. "Do you think you can run away from me, huh?" He said with a set of white teeth flashed at James. He looked around the library room and laughed. "Don't even think about it, James." He moved from his seat and relaxed slowly beside James. "We can either do this the hard way or the easy way, and trust me, I don't have a problem doing it both ways." "Give me the spectacle, and we can just go our separate ways." He said again. "And why do you think I am going to do that?" James replied immediately; his breath was a bit ragged, but he was trying enough to make it calm. "Why? Did you just ask me that question?" He said with anger, his voice raised as many of the students looked towards him. "Why are you playing the hero part, James?" He asked again, this time relaxing with his back behind the chair. "You could just look away. You don'

James stopped abruptly. He could hear the muffled sound of the students as one of them ran towards him. "You are going to be alright, dude. Stay with me." James could feel the dagger in his back as blood oozed out of the cut. "You need to leave now! All of you." He shouted, pushing the boy in front of him. "I don't know how long I can hold him for!" Reginald shouted, pinning Striker's hands down. "Give me as much time as you can." James shouted as he tried to pry open the windows. The door was locked, and only Strikers could have it opened. "Go now!" James shouted as the students arranged a set of chairs to climb out through the window. One, two, three, four, five...James kept counting as Reginald battled Strikers. The last students were about going out through the window when Reginald let loose of Striker's hands. He plunged another dagger at the last student who was about to climb out. "No!" James shouted as he tried to hold it, but he was too late. The dagger pierces the

James froze, his heart racing despite the pain shooting through his ribs. The VIP room suddenly felt like a trap, not a safe place. His hands searched the floor, the bed sheets, the side table—nothing. The spectacle was gone. Gone. The one item tethering him to the system, the one item that kept him steps ahead.“Damn it!” he groaned, slamming his fist weakly against the bed frame. James tried to remember the fight between him, Strikers and Reginald. It couldn't have been Strikers. James remembered slamming him to the ground. He was down before he fainted. He couldn't have taken it. A soft knock startled him. He instinctively sat up halfway, wincing, his eyes darting to the door."James?" a familiar voice called out gently. It was Selena."Come in," he croaked, wondering why Selena had decided to come and pay him a visit. He wasn't expecting anyone. So far so good; no one had decided to visit him after the fight. She walked in slowly, holding a brown paper bag and a bottle of w

The room was tense as both father and daughter stared at each other. Selena flinched at her father’s words but quickly masked her expression with a calm smirk.“In love?” she echoed, standing slowly, pacing toward the window. “You give James too much credit.”Reginald wasn’t convinced. “I’ve seen that look before, Selena. The same look your mother had when she thought I didn’t notice her slipping away.”Reginald asked Selena how her mother left them for another man. "She left at my weakest, but then I looked like I had something she had never thought I was going to have. Power." He had told Selena the story over and over again that it was beginning to get boring. She turned sharply. “Then maybe you should’ve paid more attention.”The words hung between them like ice.Reginald narrowed his eyes. “If you're letting your emotions cloud your judgement, you’ll end up ruining everything. We have come too far to just let everything go to waste."“No,” Selena said coldly. “I’m trying to sav