It was hot as hell.
Not the weather - just him. His head felt like it was on fire.
Vorn's cap stuck to his scalp like someone had dumped a bucket of sweat over him and superglued the thing there. Every few seconds, he'd tug at the rim, hoping it'd help. It didn't. Neither did wiping his hand on his jeans - the sweat just came right back, making his shirt cling to him like he was still standing under the hot sun.
Too many deliveries, what happened today
he thought, checking his phone. Like the entire city had woken up and decided to order something all at once.
"Okay..."
He squinted at the address again. "Building B. 42."
The GPS kept flickering between B42 and B44 like it couldn't make up its mind. He walked closer to the building in front of him - no number anywhere, no buzzer, just a cracked brown door with peeling black tape across the top. The kind of door that screamed 'don't be here after 6 PM.'
He looked around. Nothing but muted street noise and a siren echoing from the other side of the road.
'Knock knock.'
Silence.
"Hello?" he called out.
Still nothing.
" What the hell..."
He grabbed the handle. It turned easily.
That's what made him freeze for a second. This building looked like it had been abandoned twice over - windows cracked with spiderwebs hanging like curtains, paint curling off the bricks like burnt paper. But the door handle? Spotless. Like someone had just polished it.
[ANOMALY DETECTED]
[WARNING: UNUSUAL ENERGY SIGNATURE]
"Did I just...?"
Vorn blinked hard. For a split second, he could've sworn he saw text floating in front of his eyes.
He stepped inside anyway.
Ugh. The hallway hit him with this nasty smell - damp plastic mixed with rotting stone. The kind that makes your tongue feel gross if you breathe through your mouth. A fluorescent light flickered overhead, but there was no buzzing sound, just the flickering. Silent and wrong.
The whole place felt... tilted. Not visibly, but like the floor was slanted in some way his eyes couldn't catch.
He walked slowly down the hall.
One door. Black as pitch.
No label, no peephole, just a thin metal slit near the bottom like someone had started installing a mail slot and given up halfway through.
Knock knock.
The door just... opened. No creak, no squeaking hinges. Just suddenly open.
A man stood there in a grey suit. Not expensive, just really well-ironed and formal.
"You're early," the man said.
His voice was perfectly normal, and that's what made it so wrong. The kind of casual, human voice you'd hear from someone behind you in a bank line. But in this creepy-ass hallway? That normalness was terrifying.
"Package for, uh..." Vorn checked his delivery slip. "E. N. Gate?"
The man nodded once.
"Do you need me to sign anything?"
"Yes, actually," the man replied, like he'd been waiting for that exact question.
He turned and walked deeper into the room.
Vorn hesitated. 'This is sketchy as hell, maybe I should just leave the package and go.'
But something pulled him forward.
The room was completely empty except for a single chair and table. On the table sat one piece of paper with a pen beside it.
The moment Vorn's foot crossed the threshold - HUMMMMM - this low vibration pressed against his eardrums like a freezer motor buried in concrete.
[ENTERING RESTRICTED ZONE]
[DANGER LEVEL: ???]
'There it is again.' The floating text was definitely there now, hovering at the edge of his vision.
The man gestured at the table. "Name, time, and seal."
"Seal?" Vorn echoed.
The man didn't answer. He just looked down at his own hands with this tired expression, like a receptionist who was on their last shift but still trying to be helpful.
Vorn walked to the table.
It looked like normal paper. But the second his eyes focused on it, something inside his skull... 'twitched'.
Name: ___________
Time:[August 1, 2025, 2:13 PM]
Seal: ARMAGEDDON
Class: [UNREGISTERED]
Task: Survive for as long as you can (if you can)
'What the fuck is this?'
His hand moved toward the pen, but he hadn't picked it up yet when he glanced up - the man was gone. Just vanished, not hiding somewhere or in another room.
Vorn looked back at the paper and his blood turned to ice.
His name was already filled in.
Name: Vorn
"Hey!, I didn't write that. I know I didn't write that"
His throat went bone dry. He stepped back, then took another step back.
'This is some kind of prank. Has to be. Maybe this is some twisted reality show or—'
"Hey!, wherever you are I have to tell you that this is not funny and your not getting any followers"
" Mister?"
" Mister!"
Then -
CRACK!
Pain exploded through his chest. Not like getting punched - like someone had wrapped a steel cable around his ribs and yanked him backward through a wall.
[DEATH GAME: INITIATED]
"AHHHHHHH—!"
The world literally bent. Reality folded like someone was crumpling up a piece of paper with him inside it.
And then he saw it.
Earth. His planet, floating above him as he fell upward through empty space.
"Oh my god, I'm definitely dreaming - this has to be a dream - please, PLEASE be a dream—"
Everything went black.
CRASH!
Vorn opened his eyes to dim, blue-ish light. Not sunlight, not even artificial. It pulsed like a computer screen glitching out.
He tried to move. His neck felt like it had rusted overnight. His whole body barely responded.
'Don't look down,' a voice whispered in his head.
Of course he looked down.
There was writing on his skin, glowing faintly like someone had injected him with radioactive ink.
[SEAL: ARMAGEDDON – INITIATED]
[TIME REMAINING: 00:00:59]
A countdown. No tutorial, no explanation. Just numbers ticking down to... what?
"Is this some kind of game?" he whispered.
No answer.
But every other sound in the room stopped. Every breath, every little noise - just silence.
[00:00:43]
Tap.
A footstep echoed from somewhere in the darkness.
'Shit, shit, shit.'
Vorn's hands scrambled across cold, wet stone, searching for anything he could use. His fingers found something with sharp edges.
A card?
He pulled it close with shaking hands. It was blank at first, then—
SIZZLE!
A red blood mark burned across its center and seared into his palm at the same time.
"Ah—!"
He dropped it, but the card didn't fall. It just vanished into thin air like it had never existed.
The pain stayed, though. The mark now glowed on his skin.
[UNKNOWN ITEM ACQUIRED]
[CARD BONDED TO USER: VORN]
[MEMORY CONSUMPTION PROTOCOL: ACTIVATED]
From somewhere in the shadows came laughter. Low, cruel, and definitely not human.
'What the hell have I gotten myself into?'