All Chapters of DEADLY GAME SYSTEM : Chapter 51
- Chapter 60
64 chapters
Chapter fifty two: Close to breaking
Ethan led his half of Group Five into the realm’s western stretch, where the land rose sharply into jagged ridges of black stone veined with molten light. The air here was thinner, colder, and carried a metallic tang that clung to the back of the throat. Every step felt watched.Grant broke the silence first. “This terrain funnels movement. Narrow paths. High ground.”“Which means traps,” Juniper added quietly, eyes already scanning the rock faces for spores, vines, anything alive.Fenn’s shield hummed faintly as he adjusted his grip. “I’ll take front-left. Ethan, call it.”Ethan nodded, mind already mapping angles and distances. “No rushing. The orb won’t be easy, but the system wants attrition. It wants us tired before the real fight.”Seren flexed her fingers, a thin lattice of light briefly forming and fading between them. “Then we don’t give it tired. We give it precise.”They moved.The first attack came without warning.The stone beneath Grant’s foot liquefied, turning into a s
Chapter fifty three: Blood in the quiet
The return to the dorm was not triumphant.There were no announcements, no applause, no glowing rewards spilling from the sky. The corridor that carried Ethan back to Dorm Sector A was dimmer than before, its living-metal walls pulsing faintly, as if the system itself were tired—or wary.Ethan walked like a man stitched together and he felt like that, his body ached.Every step sent pain blooming up his side, sharp and deep, a reminder of the maze, of stone teeth and shadowed corridors, of choices made too fast and consequences that had bitten hard. His breathing was shallow. His vision blurred at the edges. He kept his spine straight anyway.He would not let them see him break.The dorm doors slid open.Noise rushed out first—voices, movement, life. Group Four was arguing about something trivial. Group Two laughed too loudly, the sound brittle around the edges. Then someone saw Ethan.The room stilled.Claire was the first to move.She crossed the space in seconds, her fear etched on
Chapter fifty four: Break the system
Ethan was dreaming.He was in a place filled with light.Not light—white. Empty. Endless. A void so complete it swallowed sound, depth, and time itself. He stood barefoot on a floor that reflected nothing, not even his own shadow. When he lifted his hands, they trembled—not from fear, but from pressure. As if the air itself pressed inward.Then the Overseer appeared.It did not materialize so much as assert itself, the way gravity does. The space bent around it, light folding into a towering silhouette of smoke and glass. Its mask shifted endlessly—faces layered upon faces, none holding long enough to be human.“You resist beautifully,” the Overseer said.Its voice wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. It vibrated inside Ethan’s skull, threaded through his thoughts like invasive code.Ethan clenched his fists. “Get out of my head.”“This is not your head,” it replied calmly. “This is where you go when your defenses lower.”The floor rippled. Images bloomed beneath Ethan’s feet—bodies. Pl
Chapter fifty five: The weight of leadership
Ethan sat on the edge of his bunk like a statue carved from regret. The dorm lights were dimmed to a dull slate-blue, the artificial night-cycle humming softly above them. Around him, the remains of Group Five moved like ghosts—quiet, uncertain, fractured. Where there had once been laughter, strategy, small comforts carved from chaos, there was now only space. Empty bunks. Too many of them. Ethan couldn’t look at them. His hands rested on his knees, fingers curled slightly inward, as if still holding something that refused to let go. He had scrubbed them raw in the sanitation unit. He knew that because his palms burned. But the feeling remained—pressure, resistance, the memory of bodies going limp beneath his grip. Sky stood a few feet away, pacing. He had been pacing for a while now. “This is stupid,” Sky muttered, running a hand through his hair. “This whole thing. Sitting here like—like we’re judging him.” No one answered. Claire stood near Ethan, arms wrapped ar
Chapter fifty six: Fractured lines
The decision came quietly. No announcement. No system chime. Just a cold shift in the air. When the rest of Group Five was summoned to be reassigned, Ethan already knew. Rami, Lila, Trace and Rei They stood in a thin line beneath the hovering transport ring— their faces drawn all of them eyes avoiding his. The absence was louder than words. Where there had once been closeness, shared glances, silent coordination, there was now distance measured in inches and fear. Marcus did not appear. Instead, the system spoke—flat, emotionless. “GROUP FIVE RESTRUCTURING IN PROGRESS. REMAINING MEMBERS WILL BE REDISTRIBUTED FOR OPTIMAL STABILITY.” Ethan didn’t react. Sky did. “What do you mean redistributed?” Sky snapped. “We’re a unit.” Silence. Then the answer: “UNIT COHESION HAS FALLEN BELOW ACCEPTABLE THRESHOLD.” Claire’s hands clenched at her sides. She looked at Ethan, searching his face for something—regret, explanation, anything. Ethan gave her nothing. No
Chapter fifty seven: The truth beneath the game
The corridors were darker at night.Not unlit—never that—but dimmed to a muted, artificial twilight that stretched shadows longer than they should be. The hum of the system was lower here, almost a whisper, like something breathing in its sleep.Ethan moved quietly.Every step was deliberate. Measured. He counted them without meaning to—one, two, three—mapping exits, reflections, blind corners. He made sure he wasn’t followed not because the message told him to, but because survival had taught him better.The dining hall doors slid open with a soft hiss.Inside, the space was cavernous and empty.Long metallic tables stretched across the hall. The ceiling lights were dimmed to near-black, leaving only thin strips of blue illumination tracing the floor and walls. Screens that normally displayed system updates were blank.No guards.No players.No announcements.Just silence.Ethan stepped inside.The doors sealed behind him.A slow clap echoed from the far end of the hall.Once.Twice
Chapter fifty eight: Stick together
The training hall was quiet, save for the few players who trained and the system hummed softly. The Metal floors absorbed the impact without complaint, glowing faintly with embedded runes that tracked the players movement, force, and fatigue. The air smelled sharp—ozone and sweat and something synthetic that reminded Claire too much of hospitals.She moved anyway.Claire ducked, twisted, rolled—her body reacting before her thoughts caught up. She wasn’t a frontline fighter, not really, but the system had taught her a brutal truth: healers who couldn’t defend themselves didn’t last long.Her knuckles stung as she struck the padded drone again. The machine reeled back, recalibrated, then lunged.Claire pivoted, planted her foot, and shoved her palm into its core node.The drone collapsed, lights flickering out.“TRAINING COMPLETE.”Claire exhaled sharply and bent forward, hands on her knees. Sweat dripped down her temples, darkening the collar of her shirt. Her muscles burned, but t
Chapter fifty nine: The hard choice
….Sky paced the quiet corner of Dorm Sector A, his hands twisting the strap of his shirt.Bim had just left, her sleek ponytail bouncing as she strode away, her confidence radiating like a shield, even in the godforsaken place. She’d said what needed to be said: ignore the losers, stick with their team, survive. Sky had nodded, half-smiling at the familiar weight of understanding between them—shared experiences, a history he hadn’t expected to touch him here.Now he felt the emptiness. Claire. Where had she gone?He spotted Ethan across the hall, hunched near a cluster of bunks, eyes scanning the floor like he could read the walls.“Ethan,” Sky called, voice rough. “Claire—have you seen her? She went to the dining hall and… I don’t know where she is.”Ethan’s gaze lifted slowly. His expression, unreadable as ever, softened fractionally.“No,” he admitted quietly. “But let’s find her. Together.”Sky’s stomach tightened. “Now. Please.”Ethan nodded, rising with calculated precision. “
Chapter Sixty: Choose your squad mate
Sky closed his ears as heard the gunshot TEST TRIAL COMPLETE The system said, He looked up and Claire was still alive, her face a mask of pain and disappointment. Their ropes were cut and she and Bim fell to the ground. Bim got up looking at him with a strange look, while claire just say frozen.The atmosphere was heavy, the silence almost suffocating.Claire stumbled along the uneven ground, knees trembling, hands shaking from the adrenaline that hadn’t yet left her veins. She had expected the worst, had expected the system to take everything, and yet she was alive. Bim, the girl Sky had chosen, stood a few meters away, unharmed, safe. And that simple fact ignited a firestorm inside Claire that she hadn’t anticipated.Her legs faltered, and she collapsed onto a fallen log, staring at the two of them—Sky, his face taut with guilt, Bim smiling nervously, unaware of the depth of the damage.“How… how could you?” Claire’s voice cracked, high and raw, echoing across the empt
Chapter Sixty one: Comfort me
Claire sat with her back against the cold metal wall of an abandoned corridor, her knees pulled to her chest, and her eyes unfocused. She hadn’t meant to run this far. But after everything—after the trial, the choice, the humiliation of realizing she hadn’t been chosen—her body had moved on instinct alone. Away from Sky. Away from the stares. Away from the ache in her chest that refused to settle. Her hands were clenched tightly in the fabric of her sleeves. She had almost convinced herself that she was fine. Almost. Footsteps echoed down the hall. Claire stiffened instantly. “Claire.” Ethan’s voice. She didn’t look up. He stopped a few steps away, giving her space. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The silence wasn’t awkward—it was heavy, respectful. “You disappeared,” Ethan said quietly. “So?” Her voice was small. Too small. “So I came to find you.” She swallowed. Her throat felt raw. “You shouldn’t have.” “Why?” She hesitated, then finally