[WeLC0Me: G@me Loading…]

[PLAYER Count: 100]

A blink. He opened his eyes to find a strange screen blinking in front of him.

Dang. Had he ended up in the wrong place again? He could almost hear Olivia's nagging voice teasing him about being late to his one and only part-time job. (How difficult it was to fall asleep and wake up in the right place! But, it wasn’t his fault that the currents were sometimes unpredictable.)

As he was distracted by his thoughts, a curious-looking creature appeared. A charming fusion of dragon and fox with wings and horns, it had a mischievous gleam in its eyes. The dragon-fox creature reached out a hand to pet its belly, giving it a slightly chubby and cute appearance, like a stuffed animal covered in fur and scales. Nevertheless, the creature retained the playful look in its eyes.

Some of the surrounding people seemed dazed, as if they were caught up in some sort of dream.

“Y-Where are we?” one person asked.

"Welcome to the GAME, BETA version!" the dragon-fox chirped, its enthusiasm entirely out of place for the situation. "Aren't you guys lucky? The hundred of you will be our BETA testers!"

Steven's mind whirred as he recognized where they were: the BORDER IN-BETWEEN, an ocean he had crossed many times with his cousins. They were standing on glass platforms several stories above the ocean's water, a sight both surreal and terrifying. Below, the seawater churned like lost and broken shards of dreams unfulfilled. Falling in meant "uncertain death," the creature had said, its eyes twinkling with dark amusement.

One of the players decided to test it out and jumped. With a flick of its wrist, the fox spirit sent him flying back. "WARNING: FALLING DETECTED. Player Count Safe. Action Denied!" It laughed, "I wouldn't suggest doing that again."

"The goal's easy," the creature continued, sounding far too cheerful. "Only 10 Players have to fall in the water for the game to end! How nice!" It danced in the air, clutching its chubby horns.

Amid the confusion and disbelief, chatter among the players grew louder. Questions, doubts, and accusations were thrown around, the reality of the situation not sinking in. This wasn’t real, right? Right?

“What’s happening?” A girl on his left asked rhetorically, looking around with a tinge of panic in her voice.

Steven shrugged, yawning. Honestly, this place was nothing new. Sure, he wasn’t paid enough in his ‘dream-walking’ job, but he had been here too many times to count. Silently, he listened to the chatter around him. It grew like strangled vines, choking on word-vomit.

The dragon-fox creature's eyes narrowed, its whimsical demeanor shifting into something far more sinister. The mischievous gleam in its eyes was replaced by a cold, calculated look. "Enough!" it barked, its voice no longer chirpy but chilling. "It seems you all need a bit of... motivation."

With a wave of its clawed hand, a holographic screen materialized, displaying a two-minute timer. The numbers began to count down, each tick a reminder of their impending doom.

[1:59]... [1:58]...

"If you do not comply, if you do not play the game as instructed," the dragon-fox hissed, "all of you will die when the timer reaches zero. Understand?" It tore into a couple nearby people’s faces, shredding them like the juice of molded tomatoes, before reconstructing it like it had never happened. The people clawed at their faces like they could feel warts and blisters where the places reconnected.

The crowd fell into stunned silence, the weight of the creature's words crashing down like a tidal wave. Fear replaced disbelief, and once-confused faces now bore terrified expressions.

One teenager began to snicker loudly, cutting through the hushed whispers. "Guys, this is just a dream… Nothing bad will happen," he rolled his eyes, dismissing their concerns.

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The teen's eye caught a little girl, tears streaming down her face, clutching a worn teddy bear and standing close to the edge of her platform. Her sobbing was piercing, cutting through the air like a knife.

"Hey, kid, this is just a dream!" he called out to her, smirking knowingly. He looked around as if to say 'can you believe this kid?' before shouting, "Stop your wailing!"

Her eyes widened, and she shook her head, tears splashing onto the teddy bear's stitched face. "No, it's real! It's real!" she sobbed, hugging the bear tightly. “Mr. BLINKY says it’s real!”

"You're too LOUD!” he snapped, voice cold, hand raised threateningly. “SHUT up, kid, or I'll make you!”

The girl's eyes widened further. She instinctively raised her arms to shield her head, whimpering, “N-no, don’t, I’ll do as you say. Please don’t.” Her body trembled as she quieted her whimpering.

“Good girl,” he said, his eyes gleaming as he eyed the gap between the platforms. “Sorry about the screaming. I just lost my temper for a bit.” He cooed, “Do you want some candy? I’ll give you some,” He smiled and jumped onto her glass platform.

“R-really?” The girl's eyes brightened up.

“Yes, just turn around.” He patted her head gently.

Obediently, the girl turned, wiping her pajamas.

“Oh look, here’s your c-a-ndy,” the teenager smirked, his face twisted into a wide-eyed grin. With a forceful push, he sent her tumbling off the platform. Her screams echoed through the air, silenced only by the dark, churning waters below.

The broken body of a teddy bear. Gasps.

"Oh come on! I’m just trying to have a good rest, and this girl coming hare, disrupting it and s-" the teenager exclaimed, slapping his knees in amusement. “And y’all be scared of some dumb fox in a dream? Like, do y’all seriously think this is real?”

The scoreboard dropped one digit: [PLAYER Count: 100]... [PLAYER Count: 99].

“Thank you for starting the game!” The fox spirit smiled, seemingly ignoring the comment. It held its hand up, barely covering its toothy grin, “I will make sure you have a great morning tomorrow…”

Steven looked around, noticing the mood begin to shift in a strange direction, like a painting muddled by mud. Amidst the unexpected turn, his eyes surveyed the scene until they were ensnared by the figure…

…to his right:

Beside him stood an entity that encapsulated poetic beauty with rhythmic lyricism. Something he had never seen before…

It was as if the goddess of love herself had taken a day off to sculpt this young man from the fragments of broken hearts. His hair was a cascade of midnight strands, his eyes so dark and forbidding, they could give the night sky a run for its money. Lips painted in the rouge of pouty cherries and dipped in drunken ice wine, and eyelashes that fluttered like butterflies. His attire clung to him like silk, draping off his arms as if they had never seen a bad day, woven by the karmic threads of something unspoken.

His skin, however, was another stroke of divine craftsmanship. It bore a complexion kissed by the rosy hues of dawn but graced by silver moonbeams, embodying a person who had garnered all the adoration in the world but never cared for it anyway. It was as though the angels themselves had crafted his figure with a scalpel, carving desire into every line and curve, urging those who looked his way to never turn away.

And yet, temptation here mellowed into… tones of indifference.

Reaching his hand to touch his collarbone, those eyes turned and met Steven's. His expression transformed into something dark and stormy, like a tempest brewed by the sky and tempered by the ocean. There was a question in his gaze: A labyrinth more complex than one of one’s own making—beckoning those who looked to lose themselves and fall onto their knees. His voice rang out dark, like the grumble of morning’s hoarse thoughts and tangled bed sheets.

"Who are you?" Those eyes seemed to demand, as much an invitation as a challenge, their brows furrowing darkly.

Steven looked at him strangely. He did not care who this guy was. Actually, now that he thought about it, it seemed a bit strange. Had he even gotten a description yet? Did anyone even know his hair color? That seemed so unfair.

Instead, Steven merely remarked, “Uh, who are you?”

“You don’t need to know that,” the boy in front of him scoffed. Scoffed?

Decidedly, Steven chose to call the person in front of him: ‘SOMEONE’.

“[Press A] Trust SOMEONE" or "[Press B] Push SOMEONE Away”

(Unfortunately, Steven didn't have much choice in the matter).

The guy, SOMEONE, jumped onto Steven's glass platform, a movement as graceful as a cat, and grabbed him by the shoulder, sniffing his neck.

Then, SOMEONE opened his eyes again, his breath lingering like a cloud of mist:

"So, this is the character they gave the system to this time," he finally said, his voice dripping with contempt. His long, graceful fingers moved up to Steven’s neck as he walked over to the edge of the glass. "No wonder. Made my regression so much harder for no reason."

“Do-I-” Steven choked the last words out, “Know you?”

Now, why was this irritating kid choking him? Steven's heart pounded as his feet left the platform. ‘System…’ the word seemed to roll around in his mind. ‘Regression?’

SOMEONE’s eyes narrowed at the number of people who had fallen into the water. "Maybe you should be the last one," he said, his voice as cold as ice.

“Um, I’m good,” Steven nodded, struggling to free himself from SOMEONE’s grasp, “I don’t know how to swim. You wouldn’t do that to someone who can’t swim, right?”

SOMEONE did not look amused, loosening his grip.

"Let's not," Steven looked him in the eye. “Come on… it’s not like I made you fail a grade. To be honest, if you fail and regress a grade, getting held back a year, it's your own fault.”

SOMEONE dropped him anyway, a subtle smirk folding onto his lips.

But then his eyes widened as he realized that Steven was holding something special… He fumbled in his pockets, trying to find it. But it was too late, and Steven sank into the water, with a finger pointed upwards as a parting goodbye…

[END OF SCENE: NEXT LEVEL LOADING...]

TIP: Press 'X' to swim, but don't. It might be better to drown...