2025-11-25 04:29:39Chapter 2
As I ran, my mind went back to the event that led to this. My sister was kidnapped and the police had done nothing to help me. I saw a box on my porch and picked it up just because it said "To find Amy open" That was the worst decision ever even though I was helpless. *****Flash back****** "I know how much you love your sister. You have just one week or the next message you would get would be her corpse. —T I stopped breathing. “T?” I whispered. “No way.” My heartbeat punched my ribs. I read it again. “T… Thomas?” A sharp, bitter sound escaped my throat. “You’re dead, man.” "How do you know what happened to my sister?" Thomas died two years in a car crash and his body was never found. “So who’s fucking with me?” I snapped, turning the headset over. “Dave? Rob? Judy? This is expensive for a prank. Even for tech assholes.” I searched for a brand but there was none, it just hummed in my hands. “What the...?” I tossed it away as a small blue glow lit the inside. ENDLESS TRIAL v1.0 Welcome, Player My stomach dropped. “No. No, no, no. This is impossible.” Endless Trial was the game Thomas and I built and the game Quantum Shift killed. It was the game I buried. The game Thomas’s widow begged me to erase. I whispered, “How are you running?” My hands moved on their own as I lifted the headset. It was warmer, almost… alive. I hesitated. “This is stupid. Alex, don’t...” Too late, I put it on. I heard nothing at first except for my pounding heartbeat, then text burst across my vision Do you wish to begin? Mission ; Save your Sister Warning: Once started, the trial can only be ended by completion. Death is permanent. Choose wisely. “Don’t do it.” A voice behind me suddenly said I flinched. “What's going on?!” "This isn't Halloween" My hands trembled over the YES button. There was no way I was going to just sit here and do nothing. “Alex,” I whispered to myself, “you are the dumbest smart person alive.” I hit YES. Almost immediately, light exploded and my nerves lit up like firecrackers. I screamed except no sound came out. My body folded inward, stretched outward, shattered, reformed until darkness snapped away. I stood in a white void with no walls nor ceiling. Just endless whiteness. Text floated in the air like a neon warning sign: TUTORIAL LEVEL: SURVIVE Time Limit: 10 minutes Respawn Tokens: 0 Something sharp and loud cracked behind me. I spun around. White space split open like glass as black veins spread across the endless space. “Oh hell no...” A voice echoed, low and distorted “Alex Noir, You started the trial?” I shouted into the void, “Thomas? If this is you, you better answer me right now!” Silence. Then— A figure stepped out of the crack and what I saw next almost gave me a heart attack. My dead partner was alive and staring right at me. Thomas Wright was before Me! “Thomas?” My voice cracked. “This isn’t funny man.” He tilted his head and stared at me with empty eyes. “Hello, Alex.” I stepped back. “This is insane. You’re dead. I saw the reports. The crash...” I mumbled hitting my face. He laughed. “Well, reports lie.” “Then where the hell have you been?” He didn’t answer just stepped closer. “Thomas,” I warned, “I swear to God...” “You shouldn’t have started the trial.” “Well too late! You sent me the damn headset!” His jaw tightened. “I didn’t send you anything.” My heart thudded. “What?” He pointed at me. “You just triggered the system.” “What system?!” “The one that killed me.” I stared at him. “Stop. Don’t mess with me. This is a game...” “No. It was never a game.” The void shook violently and cracks spread like lightning. Thomas grabbed my shirt. “Listen to me. You need to wake up.” “But, I am awake!” “No, you’re not.” He shook me hard. “You’re inside it and you just lost your only exit.” The cracks widened and something behind us growled. “What is that?” I whispered. He didn’t blink. “Death.” “I thought death was permanent in the trial.” “It is.” My breath hitched. “Okay, okay, then how did you survive?” “I didn’t.” The void shattered behind him. A giant shape crawled through—arms, claws, teeth, darkness. I screamed, “Thomas, what the fuck is that thing?!” *****End of Flashback****** He shoved me backward. “Run!” “No! Come with me!” He yelled, “I can’t!” The creature lunged and Thomas shoved me harder. “Alex GO!” "Save yourself!" The void flipped and my body hurled sideways like gravity forgot how to function. The white space tore open beneath me. I extended my hand trying to grab Thomas. Our fingers barely touched before he whispered, “I’m sorry.” The floor disappeared and I fell. I tried to scream as air ripped past me but the sound vanished into the void. After falling for what felt like an eternity, I slammed hard onto cold, cracked pavement. Lights flickered above me as I struggled to recall where I was. I pushed myself up, gasping. “Where the hell...?” Then a voice behind me, calm and cold spoke and it sent shivers down my spine. “Welcome to Level One.” I whipped around to see a man standing ten feet away, holding a gun pointed at my forehead. I raised my hands. “Wait—don’t—!” He cocked the hammer. “You have sixty seconds,” he said, “to tell me why Thomas Wright sent you to kill me.” My heart stopped. “What? No—I don’t even know who you are!” “Fifty-five seconds.” “Thomas is dead!” The man’s eyes narrowed. “Wrong answer.” He stepped closer and pressed the gun to my skull. “Tell me the truth,” he whispered, “or you die in the first minute.” My soul nearly left my body. “Okay, okay!” I blurted. “I don’t know why I’m here! Thomas... he... he said he didn’t send the package, he said I triggered something...” The man’s expression changed like he knew exactly what “triggered” meant. He lowered the gun. “who else knows you’re inside the system?” he said slowly. I blinked. “What system? What are you talking about?” He grabbed my shirt and slammed me into the wall. I gasped as my skull cracked against brick. “WHO. ELSE. KNOWS?” “N—nobody!” Then he let go and I slid down the wall, coughing. He whispered, “You’re already marked.” My hands shook. “Marked for what?!” He didn’t answer. Instead, he looked up at the end of the alley, his eyes widening. “Oh God,” he breathed. “They found us.” “Who?!” He shoved his gun into my hands. “Run and Don’t stop. Don’t trust anyone. Not even me.” Heavy footsteps echoed at the alley entrance. I pointed the gun with trembling hands. “What is happening?!” The man backed away from me, with terrified eyes. “You started the Endless Trial.” “I KNOW!” I shouted. “But what does that mean?” He whispered: “It means you’ll wish you’d died before it began...” A shadow stepped into the alley and he stopped talking. It was almost six feet tall, it looked like a human but this thing was far from it. Its eye sockets were replaced with red blinking lights. As the creature raised its arm, a razor of light extended from its wrist. The man screamed, “RUN, Alex!” I tried to move but my legs felt like cement blocks. Everything went black as the creature charged.
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In the blink of an eye, the castle vanished. Then I was thrown into the void and I could feel my insides trying to escape through my mouth.I tried reaching out for something—anything—but my hands just went through the emptiness and my heart rate tripled.I can’t breathe. Damn it...why can’t I breathe?A bright light shone and thin red emergency strips blinked alive along cold metal walls, outlining a narrow corridor suspended in the void. I sucked in a desperate breath as oxygen rushed back into my lungs.LEVEL 3: DEEP SPACE STATIONObjective: Reach the escape pods before station destructionTime until destruction: 02:30:00Current Respawn Tokens: 2Warning: Zero gravity environment“Of course,” I muttered, my voice echoing off the metal tunnel. “Why would anything be easy?”When I tried to move, my body twisted out of control and I was thrown down the corridor like a loose screw. I slammed into one wall, bounced into the other, then started spinning end over end.“Damn it...!”I th
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Chapter 5“Dave, slow down–your leg!” I hissed as he staggered ahead of me. I managed to convince him to come with me and now he ran faster than me.“There's no time,” he muttered, gripping his thigh. “Just keep moving.”“But you’re bleeding through your jeans!” I shouted.“Then walk faster so the blood isn’t for nothing!”I caught up to him and grabbed his arm to keep him upright.“Dave—stop. Just breathe for two seconds.” But he jerked away.“Alex, you don’t get it. If we slow down, they’ll catch us. They always gain on us when we slow down.”“Are they behind us?”“No, they have retired to bed after a long day's work.” His voice cracked.“Dave…” I whispered. “Hey, hey buddy look at me.”He didn’t stop even for one second. He just kept limping forward, teeth clenched, with sharp and shaky breaths.“Dave, talk to me. How bad is the pain?”“If I talk, I’ll start screaming.”“Then scream,” I snapped. “Isn't that better than collapsing?”He shut his eyes, exhaled, and muttered, “You’re a
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Chapter 3 “Shit... Shit…” I cursed as I kept running until I was sure I lost the creature.I looked down and my hands were still shaking, the faded scar on my thumb from the night I butchered chicken trying to impress Amy was there. Even the keyboard-worn calluses were still there but they didn’t feel like mine.I rubbed my palms together and hissed when the purple grass scraped against my skin—cool, damp, too real for VR. I ripped out a handful and the roots snapped with the exact resistance real grass should have.“Okay. No. Nope. No way this is software,” I muttered.The timer kept ticking in my ears.03:47“Think, Alex. You’re a developer, figure out a way through this shit or else...”The alien sky swirling lavender clouds stretched above me, with two moons hanging too close. The wind carried an unfamiliar scent — sweet with something electric. I pinched my arm hard.“Shit!”The pain exploded bright and instant, followed by a deep purple mark.I wasn’t dreaming. I wasn’t simulat
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