Chu Siyan woke up in a daze. His blurry eyes looked around, hoping to see the familiar white walls and smell the sterilized air of the hospital. But to his surprise, he smelled something strange. It was a weird, funky smell that he couldn't quite identify.
'Did Mrs. Pen forget to disinfect my things…? What is that smell?'
He fully opened his eyes.
A bright green color was very close to his eyeballs. He subtly moved back.
'Grass…'
It was the smell of fresh grass.
'I never thought I could smell it again.'
He sniffed it again. The smell was nostalgic, almost painfully so.
"Is that creepy-looking guy sniffing the grass?" a man's whisper came from behind him.
Chu Siyan tiredly sat up and peered behind him. There was a handsome young man talking to two panicked young women.
"Why are we here?" One of the girls, with short black hair and blond bangs framing her face, grabbed the young man's sleeves as she sobbed. "I was playing a game, and I woke up here… What is going on?"
Chu Siyan's ears perked up. He keenly listened to her words.
He, too, had been playing a game.
And now he was here, sitting on the dirty ground with grass growing all around him.
"Both of you, don't panic. We are currently in the novice world of Dead Man's Wonderland. It's a game." The handsome man let the words sink in.
"G-game…? H-how is that possible? Why are we in a game? This is not real… This is all just a nightmare, right?" The short-haired girl mumbled as she stepped backward.
Her back hit the creepy wall, and she let out a loud screech.
"It's not real… It's not real!"
She squatted down, hugging herself.
Chu Siyan watched her peculiarly. His eyes also shifted toward the dirty wall.
It had been so long since he had seen a wall this dirty.
It was quite fascinating.
It reminded him so much of his middle school compound.
"Mi-ah, don't cry." The girl with long black hair ran over and hugged her tightly. "I'm here. It's going to be okay… We can get out of here… Let's call the cops."
"Calling the cops is useless. You two are probably dead in the real world. This place only exists for the dead." The handsome man softly whispered as he squatted down in front of them.
"D-dead? We are not dead. We were meeting up with our seniors and having a barbecue…" the long-haired girl exclaimed.
Then her face suddenly paled.
"There was a fire alarm… You were unconscious… I was trying to wake you up, and… I don't remember anything after that. I don't remember anything…" She gripped the short-haired girl's hand tightly.
"We… we are dead?"
Her voice trembled.
"No… no, it's not possible. Our seniors would have saved us. They would have saved us… Right?"
"The sooner you guys accept your reality, the better. We are all dead. This game only allows dead players in." The man sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, though. I'll help you out. We can get out of this place together."
The girls sobbed loudly and hugged each other.
Chu Siyan tilted his head at the scene.
The man still had that kind expression on his face, but his instincts were telling him that this man was not a good person.
'Should I warn them? I should warn them.'
He stood up and patted his back. Black sand stuck to his fingertips.
He sniffed that too.
It smelled earthy… and woody.
It was kind of nice.
He subtly plucked out a strand of grass and sniffed it again.
'If this place really is a game, why am I able to smell things? Is it a world of its own…?'
The three had finished their emotional scene and were now softly whispering to each other.
Two young men who had been watching them also joined them, inquiring about their present predicament. The handsome man calmly answered all their questions with a kind smile.
"He is not a good man," Chu Siyan said loudly.
The two girls and two men froze and looked his way.
"He is not a good man," he repeated.
All his life, he had been a fish inside an aquarium, but that didn't mean he was unfamiliar with human emotions.
Weirdly enough, he had always been perceptive of people's emotions.
From the time his mother had looked at him with subtle disgust while telling him she loved him, to the time his brother had looked at him with a sad smile because he knew Chu Siyan would not live past twenty… he had learned to see through people's lies.
The handsome man simply showed him a cordial smile.
"I have experienced two worlds, young lady. It's not a joke. I'm not lying. I'm only trying to help you guys out."
As soon as he said that, the four people around him glared at Chu Siyan.
"Why are you throwing mud at this brother? He has been nothing but kind. If you don't appreciate his kindness, then shut up," the long-haired girl said with a scoff.
"Yeah, right. Shut up," the other two men chimed in.
Chu Siyan once again glanced at the handsome man.
His smile was slightly twisted.
He did not bother warning them again.
It was their fault for trusting a man like that.
Slowly, he walked around.
They were on an old, dusty road beside a huge compound wall. There was only a single streetlight there, blinking intermittently.
Chu placed a hand on the wall and sniffed it.
There was a distinct smell of iron…
As he walked farther, he noticed someone standing close to the wall. His face was hidden in the darkness, and only his body was visible.
The person was wearing a red shirt with distressed jeans. His white Nikes were stained with mud, but he didn't seem to care as he fiddled with his phone.
A little farther away, he spotted another person.
The other man was wearing a white button-up shirt, black pants, and a long black trench coat.
The first thing Chu Siyan noticed about him was his shoes.
The place where he was standing was muddy, yet his shoes were impeccably clean.
It was odd.
He squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look at the man's face.
A blaring alarm rang at that moment.
Startled, he glanced back.
The gate had opened, letting out a loud, blaring alarm.
A strange sense of trepidation arose in his heart as he watched the trench coat man and the man in the red shirt walk inside without a care in the world.
'If this is really a game world… what kind of game is this?'