The ten minutes evaporated.
Gravity seized him without warning. His stomach lurched as he fell through empty air, wind screaming past his ears. Then —
Thud.
Pain exploded through his body as he hit the ground hard. He lay there for a moment, groaning, waiting for the healing to kick in. Slowly, he pushed himself up to his knees, then to his feet.
Trees. Nothing but trees stretching in every direction. The night air bit at his bare skin — he still wore only the trousers from Phase 0, his torso completely exposed. Cold seeped into his bones.
The forest was quiet. Too quiet. No birds, no insects, just the whisper of wind through leaves. He was alone.
Or was he?
The notification blazed into existence before him.
PHASE 1 HAS BEGUN:
SURVIVE THE NIGHT.
THERE ARE MONSTERS LURKING AROUND.
FIND SHELTER AND FOOD.
THEY LOVE FEAR AND EXHAUSTION.
PLAYERS REMAINING: 986
TIME REMAINING: 7:59:01
PLAYERS IN THE AREA: 10/10
His blood ran cold. One person was already dead. Just like that. And there were nine other players somewhere in this area — any of them could be like the man with the sword from before.
He looked down at himself. Topless in the freezing night with monsters around. He needed something to cover himself, something to protect against whatever lurked in these woods.
The forest grew denser ahead, trees packed so tightly together that darkness pooled between them. Staying in the open felt exposed, vulnerable. But what waited in that darkness?
He started moving, scanning for anything useful. His breath misted in the cold air. Minutes passed as he walked, nothing but trees and shadows.
Then he saw it — a tree bearing fruit. Large, red, apple-like things hanging heavy from the branches.
His stomach clenched with hunger. Food. Finally.
He ran toward it without thinking, arm outstretched —
A branch whipped out like a striking snake. He threw himself sideways, but it caught his arm, tearing skin. The wound immediately began to heal. Another branch came. This time instinct took over — his sword materialized in his hand and he slashed through the wood, cutting it in two.
The severed branch fell, and the tree moved. The trunk twisted, roots pulling from the earth as it lurched toward him with horrible, creaking slowness.
Tafgai backed away, sword raised, heart hammering. Movement behind him — he spun but too late. A branch from a second tree smashed into his back, sending him sprawling.
Two of them.
A root burst from the ground beneath him. He rolled aside just in time, scrambled to his feet, and slashed down, severing the root. Black ichor sprayed from the wound.
Both trees advanced now, branches reaching like skeletal fingers. A dozen limbs came at once. He dodged the first, barely avoided the second — the third would have skewered him through the chest.
THUNK.
A spear materialized from nowhere, punching through the tree's trunk. The creature shrieked — an awful, woody scream — and collapsed.
Tafgai didn't have time to process it. The second tree was on him. He dodged a branch, leaped over a root, saw his opening and took it. He drove forward, slashing at the same spot the spear had struck on the first tree. The blade bit deep. He twisted, pulled the sword free, then thrust it in again like a spear.
The tree shuddered and fell.
He yanked the sword out, spinning immediately with the blade raised. Whoever had saved him could just as easily kill him.
A girl stood there, barely his age — though he still hadn't seen his own face, so how would he know? She had short hair, dark skin, and wore what looked like monster hide fashioned into a crude top. Confidence radiated from her stance. She held a spear casually across her shoulders, looking completely relaxed.
He kept his sword pointed at her, gripping it with both hands.
"You okay there?" she asked.
He didn't lower the blade.
She pulled her spear off her shoulders and planted it in the ground, leaning on it. "Oh, I'm not here to kill you. I just saved your life?"
She had. That was true. But —
"Well, I'm sorry for that," he said, the words coming out awkwardly. "Just had a bad experience with the other people I met."
"Oh, is that why you were alone all this time?" She tilted her head, curious.
"Have you been watching me?" The thought made his skin crawl.
"Yeah, my cabin mates all died once we dropped here. It was the trees too." She gestured at the fallen monsters. "So I was looking to team up with someone."
His grip tightened on the sword. She noticed immediately.
"I'm not lying, though. But it's good to be extra careful." She nodded toward his white-knuckled hands. "It was cool seeing you heal there. Wanna team up? You can't kill a teammate."
"Team?" The word felt foreign.
"Oh, yeah, you can team up. What's your username?"
He glanced around first, suspicious. The forest seemed empty except for them.
"There are just trees over here," she said, reading his paranoia. "Most people ran deep into the forest and the monsters followed. Even more of these tree things are back there." She paused. "Well, at least that's what one of my admirers said. Haha."
ADMIRERS? His had sent him nothing but only gave him a username. He didn't know some actually gave useful information.
"Well," he said finally. "Tafgai. All lowercase. T-A-F-G-A-I."
He knew it was ridiculous. The girl just grinned.
"Oh, you think that's bad?"
A notification appeared.
wiAdo HAS SENT YOU A TEAM INVITE
He accepted with a thought.
YOU HAVE JOINED TEAM: team
Even his team name was generic. And wiAdo — her username was somehow worse than his. The capital letters in weird places made it look broken.
She tossed him something. He caught it reflexively — an apple, identical to the ones from the monster trees.
"So, should we stay here until it's over?" he asked. "Many hours to go."
wiAdo shook her head. "Well, we need points, remember? So we can rest up a bit, eat, and then we'll have to fight. We don't know what the challenges are next. And points only come at the end of the phase." She sat down on one of the fallen trees. "What are you good at? I'm good at throwing, strength and vitality. My subscriber also awarded me a map too."
"Are you comfortable telling me that?" The question slipped out.
"Well, not like you're going to kill me. And besides —" She paused, studying him. "You need a special skill to collect extra stuff, right?"
He looked away. How did she know?
"Oh, so you do have that skill."
They rested there for what felt like hours, eating the apples (they tasted normal, at least), catching their breath. He was surprised by how... chirpy she was. So trusting, despite having just met. It didn't make sense.
After a while, she stood and stretched. "Now let's head to the west. There's a monster that's worth many points over there."
They started walking, wiAdo leading the way with confident strides.
"Why am I not seeing any notifications now?" he muttered to himself. "Did my admirers leave?"
"Oh, you just think of it coming again and it does," wiAdo answered casually. "The admirers though — they're limited with their interactions, they don't interact that much, or not at all. Only gifts at the end of the phase are sent."
Is it really that important to have these admirers? The thought struck his head.
The path through the forest was eerily clear now. Just the breeze and their footsteps. He was still cold, but he hid it, refusing to complain.
Eventually, they reached a lake.
"Oh, were we heading here for water?" he asked.
"Yeah." Her answer was simple, matter-of-fact.
Relief flooded through him. "Oh great, I really was thirsty."
He rushed forward, dropped to his knees at the water's edge, and bent down to drink —
Something massive erupted from the lake. A tentacle — thick as a tree trunk — slammed into his face with devastating force. He flew backward, hit the ground hard ten feet away, pain exploding through his skull.
"How was the water?" wiAdo asked, grinning.
"Fuck!" He pushed himself up, spitting blood that immediately healed. "I didn't learn from the big apple tree monster!"
His sword materialized in his hand as he staggered to his feet. "Were you here for that thing?"
"Yeah. Octopuses taste good and that thing is worth way more points." She hefted her spear, measuring the distance. Then, without warning, she launched herself at the creature with a running leap.
"What a lunatic," he breathed.
But she had a point. And more importantly — he was thirsty.
"WAAAAATER!" he screamed, charging after her.
He reached the lake's edge just in time to see a tentacle swat wiAdo out of the air like an annoying insect. She flew backward, crashed into a boulder with a sickening crunch.
"Ouch," he winced. "That must hurt."
She just stood up. Rolled her shoulders like she'd tripped over a rock instead of being smashed into stone. Then she hurled her spear with terrifying force, severing one of the creature's arms.
He sighed, adjusting his grip on the sword. Time to prep for battle.
Not like her, though. She was built different.