As I came out on the other side of the portal Deus had created, I was greeted by bright sunlight.

I was in the middle of a city street. But unlike a normal one that would be bustling with people, this one seemed rather empty. Cars didn’t line the streets, probably because automobiles didn’t exist in Genesis if I had to take a guess. Other than that however, Genesis seemed like as normal a city as any other. Tall buildings multiple stories high lined the wide black paved roads.

A quick glance to my side showed others walking out of similar portals like mine. The other new Players of Genesis. They were taking in the city, just like I was. It only made sense. After all, this would be our home for who knows how long.

One thing stood out when I looked at the other Players however. Despite the fact that I could see my Dux floating clearly next to me, I could see no similar orbs floating near the rest of them. What did this mean? Deus had said that every Player received a Dux, so the eleven others with me must have gotten one. Could it be that a Player’s Dux was invisible to everyone but the owner? It sounded crazy, but if any place on Earth defied normal logic, it was Genesis.

There was one other thing I had taken notice of. Based on the expressions of the other Players with me, at least a couple of them had noticed it too. It was something only those with heightened senses from years of training would be able to tell.

We were being watched.

Were they Admins? Other Players? I couldn’t tell, but nothing was going to improve by me standing around. So I took off running down one of the roads leading further into the city.

One of my fellow new Players called out to me. “H-Hey! Where are you going?!”

I ignored the call as I kept moving. I had no intention of forming any type of friendship or alliance with these people. They were newbies like me. As such, their usefulness would be minimal at best. Right now, I needed to shake off whoever was watching me and get a better idea of Genesis as a whole.

I ran down several blocks, taking a few twists and turns along the way, before I finally felt the sensation of eyes gazing on me subside. Had I managed to lose them? Or had they simply given up on me and decided to focus on those that stayed, deeming them easier targets? If they were Players, chances were they saw us as easy prey to pick off before we became too accustomed to Genesis. Or perhaps they planned to invite us to join a team of some kind and then use us.

The thought of recruitment caused me to stop for a moment. Our caretaker Coulson had instructed us that our first priority after reaching Genesis should be to meet up with the other graduates from the program who had already made it to Genesis. Were some of the eyes on me those former graduates? Regardless, I couldn’t associate myself with them. If there were any people I considered my biggest threat inside Genesis, it was them.

My outfit was all the giveaway they needed to know who I was. The emblem sewn into my shirt was the same one as Fifty-six and the others. Its purpose was to make us easy to identify for our allies once we got to Genesis. If I was to avoid their detection, then my first order of business needed to be finding a new set of clothes.

Players weren’t able to leave the city, so logic dictated there had to be some form of clothing store somewhere. I began walking further into the city as I kept my eyes peeled for one. But none of the buildings around me gave any indication of being a clothing store, or any specific kind of establishment for that matter. They all seemed like plain ordinary buildings.

Out of nowhere though, I heard a loud scream. I jerked my head back, hearing the voice come from back towards the area I had entered from with the others. Clearly I was right to move when I had. The only question now was how many others among the eleven there had the foresight to do the same.

No, I couldn’t waste time worrying about the wellbeing of total strangers. I was here for myself. Nobody else. If I wanted to achieve my goal, then worrying about the lives of other Players was something I couldn’t afford to do.

Banishing the memory of the others from my mind, I kept moving. I switched to walking instead of running to avoid attention since nobody seemed to be tailing me now. I worked on coming up with a gameplan as I moved.

My first mission was to change clothes as soon as possible. After that, it would probably be best to try and find a place to sleep for the night. Deus had mentioned lodging as one of the things I could spend points on so there had to be hotels or some form of housing I could rent in the city. Securing a base of operations was essential in the long run. It was early in the afternoon so I had plenty of time before night came, but the sooner the better. After that, I could work on gradually learning more about how things worked in this city.

More than anything, I was going to need to gather points. According to Deus, points seemed to be everything in Genesis. I had no idea currently how much the base number of 1000 I had been given was really worth, but I doubted it would last me more than a month. Realistically, it probably would last no more than a couple weeks. That meant I needed to figure out how to get more points. And based on what Deus had said, the main way to do that was beating Players in games.

I was snapped out of my thoughts however as my senses suddenly went on high alert. The feeling of someone watching me had returned.

I glanced around, but couldn’t see anyone in my vicinity. Whoever they were, they were good. I moved closer to the edge of the road I was on, hiding within its shadow. But the sensation of a gaze upon me did not vanish. Perhaps I was being paranoid, but I had learned to trust my senses.

I looked to my right. Nobody in sight. To my left. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary. That only left above-

“What’s up?”

The sudden voice caused me to jump as I quickly moved away from the wall and turned around. Glancing up slightly, I saw the person who had managed to sneak up on me.

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Hanging casually upside down from the fire escape was a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She seemed to be roughly the same age as me. Her outfit consisted of a sleeveless light blue shirt and white shorts that left a good deal of her legs exposed. A black-colored belt hooked around her waist. By all appearances she seemed like a typical carefree teenage girl. But if she had managed to get so close to me without me being able to pinpoint her then she was anything but ordinary.

Straightening out her legs, the girl let herself fall from the railing. She flipped her body midair, landing on her feet with grace and ease. As she did, I caught sight of a small bag hanging from the belt behind her. The mystery girl flashed me a smile. “Let me guess. New arrival?”

“Perhaps.” I said, taking a stance to get ready to fight.

Sensing my tension, the girl waved her hand in dismissal. “Don’t worry. I’m not trying to mug you or anything.”

“I find that hard to believe from someone who’s been watching me since I entered the city.”

“Oh, you noticed?” the girl asked. “Or wait, I suppose someone else might have given themselves away instead. I don’t mean to brag, but I consider myself pretty good at staying undetected.”

“If you weren’t planning to attack, then why were you waiting by the start point?” I questioned.

“Hmm… Curiosity I guess?” the girl shrugged. “You were pretty impressive though, being the first to react to being watched and move out. There were a couple who left shortly after you. I imagine the rest are being hunted.”

“Sounds like things are pretty ruthless here.”

“You could say that.” she said. “Oh right, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name’s Rachel. What about you?”

“... Nate.” I finally answered, unable to get rid of the tension I felt standing near this girl.

“Alright then Nate. How about I give you a special lesson as a greeting from a veteran Player to a newbie.” Rachel said. “Wanna know how games work here in Genesis?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Isn’t it as simple as making a wager and deciding on the game?”

“Partially.” she said. “Allow me to demonstrate in more detail.” Rachel held out her hand towards me. “Game challenge!”

In that instant, a Dux materialized near her and emitted a red wave of light. Before I could even react, it had surrounded us, stretching out and forming a circle of about a ten meter diameter.

“This is the challenge ring.” Rachel explained. “To issue a challenge to another player, you have to verbally say ‘Game Challenge’. When you do, this ring forms and traps any Players inside it.”

I raised a brow. “It traps us? We can’t leave?”

Rachel gestured towards the outer perimeter. “See for yourself.”

Deciding to take Rachel up on her offer, I walked over towards the outer ring and reached out my hand. True to her word, there seemed to be some sort of forcefield keeping us in here. Meaning I now had no way to escape from her.

“Don’t worry too much. Physically attacking other Players while you’re both inside this ring isn’t allowed. You’ll receive a big penalty if you do, so I definitely wouldn’t advise it. Likewise, that ring prevents any outside attacks from getting in while it’s up.” Rachel continued. “Other Players can enter the ring though, but once they do, they’re in the same boat as those inside.”

“So how does the ring disappear?”

“The first way is for a game to be made and finished. One side can also choose to not participate in a game, but if that happens they’ll automatically lose ten percent of their points which will then be given to the other party.” Rachel said. “But that’d be boring for your first game, so let’s decide on a game to play.”

So that was her goal. She was after my points and had waited until after issuing a challenge to explain the full rules. A shrewd strategy, but to survive sometimes you had to be shrewd. “What are we wagering?”

“I’ll let you decide that, since you’re new here. The Player that issues the challenge can choose either what gets bet, or the game that is played. The remaining party chooses the other. Of course, while you can wager things other than points, when it comes to points both parties must bet the same amount unless otherwise agreed upon.”

In other words, betting things besides points was open to interpretation as to what “even stakes” were. I didn’t want to bet too much and risk losing most of my points right after coming to Genesis, but if I won, I could also gain some more points. I couldn’t pass that up.

“Let’s each bet 500 points then.”

Rachel shrugged. “Kind of low for my tastes, but I suppose a newbie like you doesn’t have many points to begin with.” she said. “As for the game, let’s go with bird catching.”

“Bird catching?”

“Yup. We’ll both be going after a bird flying around. The first to grab it wins.”

I looked around. “Alright, but where are we going to find a bird? I don’t see any here.”

“Oh there’ll be one. You’ll see.” she said. “Oh and to spice things up a little, let’s have the game be on a danger field. There’ll be various obstacles in our way.”

“How are we supposed to make that happen?”

“We won’t. Genesis does it all, you’ll see.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what she meant by that, but I wasn’t about to back down now from just a little danger. “Alright. Let’s do it.”

“Perfect.” Rachel said. “Here we go. Genesis Game!”

In that instant, a light came and swallowed us both up in the blink of an eye. A few seconds later, the light died down and I was able to see once again. But what I saw was far from what I had been expecting.

The city we had been standing in was gone. Instead, it was replaced by what appeared to be ruins. Old stone structures could be seen all over. The paved road we had been standing on was replaced by worn marble flooring with bits of weeds growing out from it to signify how old this place was. But perhaps the most surprising thing was the fact that these ruins were floating amongst the clouds.

The red ring that had been around us was gone as well. Instead, both of us had smaller white rings around us that were only about two meters wide. Glancing up, I could see a timer ticking down from ten seconds.

Where exactly were we? Had we been teleported? If so, where in the world was this? The only floating place I knew of was Genesis. There weren't some floating ruins amongst the clouds somewhere else in the world, was there?

As if sensing my questions, Rachel explained. “When a game is initiated, Genesis creates a pseudo space for the Players based on the design of the game. There’s no one here but us right now.”

“A pseudo space… just for the game?”

“That’s right.” she nodded. Her expression changed suddenly. The carefree girl I had been talking to was gone. This was now someone who had no intention of losing the game we were about to play. “Now get ready. Cause newbie or not, I play to win.”

As she said this, a small blue bird flew past us. It seemed that even the thing we were supposed to catch in order to win had been created for us. The countdown from the timer quickly got lower and lower. Once it hit zero, that would be the signal to start.

Three… Two… One… Zero.

“Game start!” Rachel shouted as the rings around us vanished.

This was it. My first game in Genesis.