[Log 4: Recording started]

[Time to homeworld: 06:00:00]

Something woke me from my slumber, forcing my body to wake itself up. Although sluggish, my ability to think was crystal clear. It bore no trace of just being awaken not long ago.

Staring into the dark space which was my room, I tried listening to detect anything unusual.

Nothing.. Just silence my old friend..

Suspicious as to why I was woken up so suddenly, I turned to look at the hibernating trash that was basically a computer in disguise as a metallic desk. The Zs were visible on the screen, further signifying the trash hibernating without a care for its owner’s condition.

”Ai, what happened?” Ai let loose a yawn-like sound, before answering the question with another question.

”What what? Just check it yourself~ Everything’s recorded, even when you’re asleep, remember?”

The log screen booted up, with Ai taking a position just by the edge, thus allowing it to communicate directly with me without muttering a single word in reality.

”Oh, how rude! You wake me up all of a sudden and now you’re calling me trash in your mind? Outrageous!” Its complains were nearly endless as far as I was concerned, so I kept on searching for the history tab.

While scrolling past the 'Message' tab, there was more than 3000 unread notifications in there.

Strange, I didn't have any message or whatsoever yesterday. Plus, this amount is.. too much to be accumulated for the past night..

The sparks of curiousity ignited spreads quickly. Not even a quarter of a second, and I was already scrolling through the 'Message' tab.

Almost every single mail I see as I scrolled past them were from a user named 'Nicole'. The contents were extremely short as well, ranging from a sentence to just a single word each. Anyone who checked their mail and saw this would definitely be raging, accusing the Log's system of allowing spams to occur so easily.

Just as I was scrolling past the 2000th message from Nicole, there came other messages as well. There were a few which were from unknowns, but the one that caught my attention was the message sent by Parix.

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Citrix,

You little shit! How dare you skip my classes? I've been told that you were hibernating, but I didn't think you were capable of entering that mode as well! Of course, if you're reading this, you've probably missed most of the classes, since you can't help it... because you're hibernating! If you do realise the severity of such an act, then please, do not skip the general courses. Otherwise, let's say you're gonna be dead if you were to graduate in such a state.

By,

The Almighty Professor Parix (Not as great as the Headmaster)

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This guy definitely has anger issues.. I shook my head as I closed the message window.

Honestly speaking, I didn't intend to hibernate.

Heck, I didn't even know there was such a thing as a 'hibernating' mode!

As if reading my thoughts, Ai responded.

"Well, you should've been extra careful on setting how many days you intend on hibernating. Recklessly going into that mode while not knowing when you'll wake up is pretty dangerous, I'll tell you. At least you're not going to be late for general knowledge class, yeah? Or are you seriously intending on skipping it as well?" Ai squinted her virtual eyes as she said the word 'squinted'.

Surprised, I looked at the time.

It's six forty-five already, huh?  I should definitely go change up.

"Yea, you should," Ai interrupted all of the sudden.

Not bothering on arguing with Ai, I got up and changed myself without covering anything else. The response I got from Ai was, "Eww, use a changing room!". Not totally unexpected, I tell myself.

Looking around, the room was still very dark, likely because I forgot to turn on the lights and have been using night vision. With a snap of my fingers, the room lit up while the night vision mode was rid of.

"Wow, you're pretty good in these stuff, aren't you?"

"I know right, even I'm surprised at myself."

 I've memorized nearly every single command that can manipulate the room before sleeping, so it haven't occured to me how useful all of them were. Obviously, some were less versatile than others, such as the kitchen mode, where a kitchen table along with a chopping board would pop up from the centre of the room, with stoves equipped as well.

Checking the time again, I reached for a mug of hot choclate that popped out of the wall due to my subconscious thoughts giving commands. The mug was warm to the touch, and so was the beverage within it.

I took a sip as I observed more of the messages from Nicole. Most of them are single worded after a few days before, while bettter constructed sentences were among the earliest ones. The annoying part was after every few silent messages, there’s going to be one with a media attachment, blasting loud and weird noises at me. It even annoyed Ai, to the point where it muted the entire application as a precaution, or what it calls “safety measures”.

A few sips more, scroll scroll. Another few sips, scroll scroll. A few more..

Oh, I’ve drank it all.

The aftertaste left me craving for more, but I stopped myself from ordering another mug of it. Looking at the time again, it was seven sharp, no more, no less.

"Here's a little something I'm giving you for not abusing my system commands," Ai sent a data package into my log. It received it and stated the sender was [Unknown].

"What's this?" I tried opening it, but the file was rejecting my access into it.

”Don't use it now, dumbass. Now, time for cla-“ Unable to finish the sentence, Ai entered standby mode. Then, the room went dark, before being lit by alarming red lights.

”Time, seven. Participants, all recruits. Mode, death match.” A metallic voice announced. Clearly, it wasn’t only announced in my room, since I heard echoes from outside as well. It then continued, “Rule one, all equipments are allowed. Rule two, fight to the death. Rule three, match ends at homeworld time midnight. Rule four, no instructors are allowed to participate or interfere. Rule five, log restrictions removed, all functions are fully available.”

After the voice ended, nothing moved nor disturbed the atmosphere for the next few seconds. As if the silence before was a lie, a countdown initiated, with every second ticking down making a random sound.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

”Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Begin.”

The door to my room opened itself without my consent. It showed the regular corridor, but something else was different this time.

”The map’s not morphing..”

Usually, the paths rounding the corners would change itself, never in the same pattern for more than five seconds. Yet, now the paths were solid, not shifting even at the slightest.

"Crap, how's this possible?" I asked rhetorically while running out of the room, equipped with my blades.

Turning on the 'show heat signature' option, I froze when I saw what was showed on the screen.

More than 200 heat signatures were detected within the range of detection. Some were colliding with one another, while more were moving towards the ones nearest to them. There was one running towards the blue spot, which indicated my position.

Someone's coming!

I warned myself as I ran away from the impending danger. As I ran, I noticed how everywhere I look was illuminated by the same alarming red light. It didn't help the least, since it made the atmosphere even tenser.

As I ran along the corridor, avoiding anywhere that's hosting fights, I noticed the red dot from before was chasing after me all this time. There was no mistaking it, the person was definitely hunting me, specifically, down.

There was nothing else I could do other than face him or her head on, since I definitely wouldn't be able to escape from my hunter's range. Rounding the corner that I decided to confront him or her at, I checked for any other heat signs that were closing in.

As expected, non other than THAT person..

Taking a stance to balance my weight throughout the body, i grip the white dagger in my left hand while the black one in the other, all the while facing where the supposed hunter was going to come from.

10 meters... 5 meters... and...

A thin, white leg came into view, followed by a girl gripping a shotgun. The tip was sawed off, and the smell of gunpowder instantly flooded my nose.

Seeing as I'm stunned by her appearance, she attempted to open fire, but something seemed stuck within the barrel, so all there came was an ominous 'click', followed by the pellets rolling onto the floor.

"N-no!" There was a look of embarassment on her face as she tried to reload. I stood there, looking at her curiously as she continued trying her best to free the now-stuck catridge.

"Uh, need some help?" I walked towards her with my right hand raised, intending on grabbing the shotgun from her.

As if she knew my intention, she backed away a few steps, before trying to free the catridge again. This time, however, the catridge was dislodged, and she managed to place a new one too.

She took aim at me even though I stared at her curiously.

Seriously, why is a girl like her even here, trying to kill me? She doesn't even look like she wants to! This shit is messed up..

I sighed as I lowered my guard and turn my back on her. The girl looked startled at such an act, and the shaking of her hands and feet proved the fact to be true.

She really didn't have any intentioin on killing me, huh?

Even i was surprised, since I didn't expect such a development. Basically, I took a gamble between taming her and killing her. Since the former is a lot better at avoiding bloodshed than the latter, I placed my life on the line just for this bet. There was a certain thrill to such a bet, although I can make sure it was a new feeling, it still felt nostalgic somehow.

Looking at her, I told her, "Come with me, if you don't want to kill."

At first, she was reluctant to accept such a request, but as she stared longer and longer at me, perhaps the logic side of hers gave up, and so she went with it.

Hearing her sigh, I confirmed that she was definitely hoping to get out of this alive without spilling any unnecessary blood.

We walked on, towards the least crowded area, where meeting anyone was a chance as scarce as getting free food. The place was an intersection from four sides, each leading to north, east, south and west respectively.

I sat down on the floor as I kept watch on the girl and for any enemies who seem to wander too close for comfort. The girl just stood there, motionless as she watches me watch her watching her watching me watching her... (you get the idea)

After several more agonizingly awkward moments, I decided to break the silence first.

"So.. what's your name?" She looked at me hesitatingly, before speaking.

"M-Maria,"

"Uh, Maria, so.. Do you know why any of this is happening?" 

She looked confused at my question, so I repeated it.

"I-I heard it the first time! But.. the instructors said this test was going to be in the final day, didn't you hear it?"

"No, when did they say that?"

"During the second week, I think. They said the test was to test out our survival skill sets, and learn to use what we've learnt when under intense pressure, or to scare our foes with mind games." After saying that, she turned to look at me in the eye. There was a look of determination within, but it seems like it's starting to waver from all this pressure.

"Oh, well, all we need to do is survive this test, am I right?" That was the first thing I managed to link with passing.

"Y-yes. But I don't like b-blood a lot.." She looked a little distressed.

"Don't worry, all we need to do is hide until it's all over." I get up and signal Maria to follow up.

There was a heat sign heading this way. In fact, there were tons of heat signatures. All of them came either from the east side or the north side, leaving the west and south side clear.

"Come on, they're heading here." I jogged towards the path to the west side of the space.

While jogging, I hear Maria occasionally heaving. I had to stop every few steps to make sure she doesn't fall too far behind.

She doesn't have the stamina to run..

The sudden realisation gave me the notion to run ahead and abandon her, but the moral part of me kept the notion suppressed to the maximum, leaving no room for it to show on the surface. Observing closely, Maria was a girl with average height and dark brown hair. Her skin contrasted with her hair colour so much that she would definitely stand out even if she were to stand in the middle of a crowd. Her brown coloured pupils also served to create the impression of an abandoned puppy looking at passerbys, waiting for them to take her home.

Without realising it, I was already holding her within my arms. She seemed shocked, as I heard a gasp from her. Swaying away thoughts of a puppy, I released her and stood back a little while trying to apologize.

"I'm so, so sorry! I didn't know what happened. When I became aware of myself, I was already holding you. So, I'm so, so sorry!" I bowed while apologizing to show my sincerity.

"E-eh, it-t's nothing. Just.. Try to keep yourself in check ne-ext time.." She was flushing when I looked at her. The red spots served to only make the impression of a cute puppy even prominent.

"Y-yea, should we get going?"

"I need some rest first, I'm a little tired.." She trailed off as her butt fell onto the floor.

She was sweating profusely. Within moments, her forehead was drenched with sweat already. Touching her forehead with the palm of my hand, I felt a burning sensation abnormal to any healthy person.

"You've got a fever.." That was the conclusion I reached.

Maria was already at the brink of consciousness. There was no medicine in either of her pockets, so I carried her on my back to escort her to the clinic.

"There's got to be a clinic!" I yelled at myself.

Maximizing the map's view, I found out the entire place was basically a labyrinth. There was no exit, nor entrance. Only the endless paths leading back to itself in the end.

"But there's a scroll here.." I focused on the little scroll icon on the map and it zoomed almost immediately.

The location of the scroll icon showed a spacious area. The area was white, and only white expanded onto all sides, stretching till the borders between itself and the blue walls of the corrdors.

I marked the location without more hesitation and started running for it. Coincidentally, the path I was already walking on lead directly to that area, so there was nothing more to stop me from advancing other than the intersections along the corridor.

As I ran full speed with Maria on my back, I felt the space around the corridor start to close in. After running a few metres more, there was no doubt the walls were definitely closing.

With the increasingly narrow path I had to run on, I kept on a steady pace. With epinephrine surging through every single one of my limbs, fatigue was not felt, and so did the symptoms for lack of breath.

Nearing the spacious area, the walls were already touching my shoulders. Any further narrowing will force me to turn my body side ways in order to continue onward.

"Dang, if I can make it through this.." I struggled to turn my body side ways and carry Maria like a baggage.

I ran sideways through the non stop narrowing path. Darkness was starting to seep in from the edges of my vision, but I forced it away by focusing on moving forward.

"Just... A... Little... More.." I threw Maria's body into the spacious area while I try to get through the pathway.

The distance between me and the end of the narrowing walls were so small I could laugh at myself for not being able to get across it. Yet, the narrowed walls were now sandwiching me, threathening to crush me if I did not escape quickly.

"Arghhh...!" I wriggled my body, used my right hand to pull myself towards the opening. That was when I was finally stuck, sandwiched between the walls that were going to crush me.

"Damn... It... Should've.. Just.. Hit.. The gym..." The pressure of the walls on my skull gradually increased as I spent more time stuck between the walls. Everything went from colourful to monotone within that period, and finally, an ocean of ink as dark as the night came flooding my vision.

[Executing File 101: Lifesaver]

[Disabling Electronics]

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[Execution Complete]

[Commencing (Phase 2)]

[Log Mode Switch: Preservation]

[Active Log: End]

[Log 4: End]