“Lili. Fifty-nine. Level: ninety-eight."

*What am I not these days?* sarcastically thought Lili.

“Number forty-three is next" came a high-pitched voice from somewhere in the beginning of the queue.

*This is so exciting; I am going to be competing for such a great cause! I can’t wait to be finally helpful* thought a girl outside of a tall building.

I mean, relatively tall. Compared to the Egyptian Pyramids, it is significantly smaller. But for a building floating in space, it was a rather huge building, I would say. Okay, let me explain. The building stands inside the orbital station. There are quite a few nowadays, but that is beside the point. You’re probably asking yourself a question: how could a building possibly be standing in the space? (Or maybe you’re thinking that, as an author, I could have come up with more refreshing technological ideas and whatnot. Haters are just going to hate. And also, just wait; it will only get better from this point, I promise.) So I’ll tell you how! One word: gravitation force (oops, two). We’re creating our own gravitational force, which is enough to keep such buildings ‘on the ground’. Yeah, this is not some nanodimension nonsense; it's real life. At least our research on the ‘Multi-Worlds’ subject is still ongoing. But that would be a story for another time. Nevertheless, we've had our technology remarkably advanced since 'Point Zero’. The major breakthrough that, unfortunately, was a result of the Black Earth we can see today has significantly impacted our everyday lives.

But enough of the talk. Back to the girl, anxiously waiting for something that will change her life unexpectedly but inevitably. Although she doesn’t know that yet. (I mean, who do you think I am? I won’t tell all my author secrets that fast!)

“It’s moving pretty quickly, as I see, don’t you think?” the person in front turned around.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I mean the line.”

“Ooh, yes, absolutely. I don’t want to spend the whole day standing here. By the way, I’m Lili, and you are..."

“I’m Jack”

“What, like a Jack Sparrow?” laughed Lili

“Yeah, no, almost. Wow, you saw that ancient movie too! Can you believe there was so much water that people could actually swim in the big vessels in it and swim and dive just for fun?”

“Frankly speaking, hardly. Especially not after the ‘tissue showers'"—both laughed.

“Next is number fifty-one"—came an already familiar voice from the same direction.

“We are so close! What number do you have?” asked Lili, hardly disguising her anxiety.

"Fifty-six, and you?”

“Fifty-nine. Just five more to go! Aren’t you excited?”

“Yeah, I totally am! It’s going to be the adventure of our lives. At least they advertised it that way. Although any better than always sitting here in these boring stations.”

"Yeah, I couldn’t agree more, actually," said Lily, looking away.

*Hm, what a weird feeling! His face looks familiar; if I could only remember when I saw this person...*

“Ghm ghm, excuse me, but the end of the line is that way.”- she smiled at the person who tried to squeeze into the line and pointed to the other side of the huge hall.

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*What is wrong with you people? If no one had squeezed in, we would have been done by now.*

Ever since she was a child (to be precise, from 16 years old, when Lili suddenly woke up in a woman-only compound in space), she understood very clearly that equality, about which she had somehow a brief understanding, was really far from what she had experienced in this world so far. (It’s really that bad, I can tell.)

Distracted by her thoughts, Lili didn’t notice the woman in a strict costume quickly approaching her.

“Lili Maple-leaf?” -  a calm but serious voice reached Lili’s ears.

“Lili Maple-leaf?” - repeated the voice more persistently after a couple of minutes of silence.

“It’s me, sir," she immediately answered as soon as she groped with a glance at the voice owner.

“Nice to meet you; follow me, please.”

*Sure, you look trustworthy. I’ll go with you anywhere you take me* a hysterical thought ran through her nervous brain as she turned her head to the owner of the voice. Nevertheless, she quickly answered as she noticed what exactly this woman was wearing.

“Yes, sir”

“See you some other time then," she waved goodbye at Jack.

"... you sure will” as the words reached Lili’s ears, she instantly felt like she was not supposed to hear this specific part of the goodbye sentence. But she didn’t pay that much attention to this strange feeling, as she had to catch up with the pace of the mysterious woman she was following.

Two individuals swiftly separated from the crowd and headed in the opposite direction.

“I am sorry to interrupt, but I was supposed to do the 'Trials'..."

“Yes, you are dear," immediately interrupted the woman in front of her.

“Yes, but sir, we are literally going in the opposite direction.”

A woman in a strict costume abruptly stopped and turned around so quickly and unexpectedly that Lily almost crushed into her. She started to talk in the most calm, nearly scary manner:“We are certainly not. Any more questions?”

“Ooh, okay. No, sir, thank you for the clarification.” quickly answered Lily, thinking in her head:

*What is going on? This ‘Trials’ thing is going to be something different from what I was ‘advertised’ about. So, I have no idea what’s going on, but okay. At least I know karate (what a word, ka-ra-te; how do I even know it?) or whatever type of fight I was taught here in this hole.*

“You are welcome," answered the woman with merely covered satisfaction in her voice, and she continued passing through the huge hall almost all the way along the queue.

They continued walking in complete silence until they reached the tunnels that separated the ‘official’ and ‘living’ parts of the station. Both of them stopped in front of one of the three ‘holes’. The one on the left was the one that was actually being used. Two others were never entered by regular citizens. And they’ve just stopped by the one in the center.

*There are different rumors about these two tunnels, but I’ve never heard of anyone coming back alive from them. Someone even said that they saw someone fall off the station, and this exact person was previously seen entering one of the tunnels. But okay, dark tunnel, here I come*

“Put on these, please," said a tall woman in a strict, tight-fitting costume. She was handing over a pair of glasses.

“What are these for?" automatically asked Lily as she forgot how the previous questionnaire went.

“Please, wear them.” calmly insisted on the woman in front.

“Okay, sir.”

Lili tries very hard to put the glasses on, but they are so tight that it is almost painful to keep them on the head. She couldn’t resist and almost exclaimed,

“But I can’t see anything!”

“That is the point, dear," serenely answered the woman as nothing happened and continued:

“On you go.”

At this point, Lili quickly concluded that it was better not to argue and just continue walking. Suddenly she understood that from now on every word said could impact the fragility of the word ‘life’. And she definitely didn't want to try her chances, so she just rushed in the direction she thought was the tunnel. And her life changed forever. Or at least I think so. It’s the end of Chapter 1. How do you think I will engage with the audience if not with the cliffhangers?