I was half asleep when it all happened.
The phone was still warm in my hand.
The screen was dim.
I tapped confirm without reading anything.
That was a mistake.
The screen went black.
Not like a loading screen.
Like someone turned my phone off.
Then text appeared.
INSTANCE INITIALIZED
"…What?"
No sound. No menu. Just white letters floating in nothing.
I tried to move my thumb.
Nothing happened.
Another line burned in.
TYPE: SURVIVAL INSTANCE
EXIT CONDITION: NONE
"Okay… maybe this really is a game," I muttered. "Let's try it."
Then the world dropped.
I slammed into dirt—hard.
Pain shot through my shoulder as I rolled, coughing, spitting out soil. It tasted metallic. It felt real. Way too real.
I pushed myself up.
Seventeen other people.
All standing in an empty clearing, just as confused as I was.
A guy in pajamas.
A girl in a hoodie clutching her phone.
Someone still wearing a headset, like they expected this to be a game.
…Honestly, so did I.
No one spoke.
Then the sky flickered.
Words pressed themselves into the clouds.
STAGE 1 COMMENCED
MAX LEVEL: 20
PERMADEATH: ENABLED
Someone laughed.
"…Permadeath? Nah. That's not funny."
Another message followed. Colder.
CLEAR CONDITION:
UNKNOWN
Silence.
Then—
FAIL CONDITION:
DEATH
A girl dropped to her knees.
"No. No, no, no—this is VR. This has to be. There's no way. No fucking way this is real."
A window snapped open in front of my eyes.
STATUS — UNASSIGNED
AVAILABLE STAT POINTS: 10
I stared at it.
Ten points?
That's it?
More text appeared before I could think.
STAGES ARE EVENT RECORDS.
HISTORY REPEATS UNTIL CLEARED.
ADVANCEMENT IS NOT ALWAYS MANDATORY
I swallowed.
So sometimes we don't have to move forward…
A boy near the trees stepped back.
"Hey… did anyone else hear that?"
Hear what?
The bushes shifted.
It was slow, heavy.
Something was watching us.
The system chimed again.
NOTICE:
MONSTERS AND NPCS ARE SENTIENT.
THEY WILL REMEMBER YOU.
THEY WILL RETALIATE.
Someone screamed.
My hands started shaking.
One final message appeared.
WELCOME TO THE SURVIVAL INSTANCE.
YOUR OBJECTIVE IS SIMPLE.
YOU MUST LIVE.
CLEAR ALL 12 STAGES.
TO REACH THE END.
The trees moved.
Red eyes opened in the dark.
And I understood something very clearly.
This is a fucked up world.
End of Chapter 1.