She sat up greeted by the sight of the bright and blinding light penetrating through the spools of color on her bedroom window. Her stance exuded tiredness as her eyes squinted at the light that came through, their emerald colors reflecting boredom and slight anger at the disturbance of her rest. Impatiently, she raked her hand through her obsidian-colored hair and leaned back falling into the soft array of pillows, bundling them up to cover her sight from the light thinking about how she would love a few more hours, but she feels herself rise and thinks nothing of it; slowly but surely, she rises from her bed, her mind still groggy from sleep does not register the oddness of her movement as her steps towards the bathroom were slightly shaky and inexperienced like a babe taking its first steps and she attributed it all to her fatigue from the previous day. A thought did, however, cross her mind, but its nature was fleeting, and she was unaware still of the danger she would be in.

'Weird I thought I decided to sleep a little more, oh well'

She brushed it off as nothing and after washing up she headed down to the kitchen to get breakfast. Seeing her mom cooking she loudly said, "what's cooking mama" but she heard her voice say, "good morning mom how are you". It was at this point she felt something was off

I clearly said "what's cooking mama" but something else came out of my mouth, she thought, a bit worried she tried speaking but her words were different from what she said, she was scared and cautious.

She tried saying a few more words but that voice- "she"- continued to speak on her behalf saying words she wouldn't usually say and strangely enough the girl noticed her mother said nothing of her newfound politeness but nodded along like it was normal, she studied her mother carefully. Her heartbeat quickened as an absurd but not far-fetched thought planted itself in her mind, she realized that she may not be talking to her mother and her countenance was shaken, with trembling hands she reached for her mother. Suddenly, a blue translucent screen appeared before her eyes halting her movements. “What is this” were her last thoughts before her consciousness faded.

Immediately after she jolted awake and was greeted with the sight of a black expanse of nothingness, she felt increasingly wary of the lack of substance that surrounded her save the platform that she stood on. In the distance she saw a ball of light and just as she thought about moving towards it, the light suddenly appeared within her reach; cautiously she studied while at arm's length as she feared it might attack her while her guard was down, but nothing was forthcoming. The lack of information about her surroundings and the conjectures she had concerning herself and her mother gnawed at her and she was conflicted on whether to risk touching the ball, she, however, felt it might have the answers she looked for and just like that, she took a leap of faith and touched it.

Immediately her pale fingers touched the light, but it disappeared and was replaced by the blue translucent screen she saw earlier before she lost consciousness, and an androgynous monotone voice rang out against the darkness

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"User Identified, number 000000200"

"Installation ongoing"

"Waiting for confirmation"

"User confirmed, Miss Kathrine "redacted"

"Requesting help from the main source"

"Access denied, level of authority is insufficient"

"Welcome Miss Kathrine "redacted" to The Games"

She spoke slowly with a cautious, questioning tone, “what are you” but she was greeted with silence, she asked her question again but was once again met with silence. Her growing annoyance started to show but she held herself back from yelling and decided to ask another question. “What are The Games,” she asked her exasperation slipping into her voice, and at once the indifferent voice rang out

"In answer to your question The Games is a colossal event hosted by the Source, a force that governs and presides over all universes it came at the beginning of all things and has remained since then. It visits galaxies, dimensions, and universes in search of suitable planets that can take part in The Games.”

“Am I dead or am I dying” the girl forthrightly questioned the voice

“No, the user is not dead or dying, you are however in “redacted”, a crack in space free from the prying eyes of “redacted.” the voice answered her.

“User is however entitled to “Common” information as told by the Source”

“Information will be sent to User’s brain now”. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her head like a thousand ants crawling and gnawing at her tissues, her knees became weak, and her body came down to the platform beneath her feet and she held her hands on either side of her head to stop herself from banging it against the ground beneath her. The ball of light watched on indifferently as she writhed in agony from the pain she felt. Ten minutes passed and she calmed down, slowly she stood up, her scattered hair clung to her face that was lubricated by the sweat and tears she shed during her ordeal, but she learned a little bit about her way forward.

To summarize some of what she learned, the Earth has been given 1000 Earth years to develop its players who would then compete with players from countless worlds, universes, and dimensions who have advanced by millions of light-years compared to her planet and have the ultimate advantage in knowledge about the Source that brought the Games into existence brought about by years of exploration and experimentation, vast amounts of information her planet simply have no access to and this knowledge gap can very well spell doom for her planet. She also learned that a candidate is chosen from each country as a planetary representative- 195 candidates-, and in each country, 100 candidates are chosen to vie for their country’s spot among the planetary representatives.

More importantly, she learned of the existence of Mana, the energy that drives the existence of countless worlds as well as the possibilities surrounding it, which she would soon explore.

The sudden influx of information directly to her brain greatly alarmed her as she did not like the feeling of helplessness from being caught unawares but she managed to grasp some of the information she was given as many terms used were foreign to her, especially the concept of mana but she understood how slim her chances of survival were as she has no foundation in feeling or using it, she wondered why a planet as backward as hers was chosen to partake in the deadly event, but any questions concerning that remained unanswered by the light. To be exact she had “insufficient authority” to access such information.

She learned of the light’s basic function and called out “Status” to which the blue translucent screen expanded showing her information.