We arrived at the reception of Korgo two days later. It was huge, with a ton of lights glittering all the way through the hallway. It seemed as though some ancient king was invited as a spectator to enjoy a grand festival.

'Amazing!' Saburo exclaimed.

The entire reception area was filled with a huge bunch of kids ready to play.

'What a huge amount of brats', Niko said.

'Hm...hm..'I said.

The reception area was extremely noisy.

'HEY! I AM EXTREMELY EXCITED!' A voice yelled.

'YEAH! I KNOW RIGHT?'

Honestly, those two persons were the loudest of them all. Anyways, there were bigger problems I had to handle. Yes. The gossips. All were gossiping about what the Korgo would make them do if they were recruited as one of the members. Well, I didn't keep my hopes any high.

Yeah, that's right.

We never read through the situation properly. We just turned up blankly to a place we never knew once exsisted. Well, I think it is something expected from a bunch of twelve year olds, isn't it?

The gossips continued for a while, itching my hands to punch every other person who continued to speak as if he was a commentator

at some football match.

But luckily they were saved from getting their faces punctured. A few moments later, someone came walking towards us from a distance.

'Who is that?' Saburo asked.

She was a tall female with thick bangs falling all over her forehead.

She walked towards us, removed the sunglasses off her eyes and gave us an attitude filled look.

'Hello everyone! My name is Akuno and I will be the proctor to decide whether you brats are qualified enough to be a part of Korgo or not.'

'Brats?' Niko mumbled.

'Well, you yourself addressed them like that,' I thought.

The lady walked towards the podium to her left and picked up the book placed on it.

She threw it to me and said, 'Hey brat. Read page three.'

'Huh?' I said, confused.

'Have some hearing issues?' She asked me in the most sarcastic way possible.

'Hey. You can't talk to someone like that!' Niko yelled.

'Oh, is it?' she asked, grinning.

'Another word and you'll be thrown out,' her tone extremely serious this time.

'Tsch!' Niko muttered.

'Hey. Start reading,' she ordered me. I flipped to page three and started reading.

"Welcome to Korgo. We are extremely honoured to receive you."

'Extremely honoured, huh?' I thought.

"As you already are aware of, we need extra members to help our Organization run more smoothly. So please co-operate with Ms. Akuno and us till further notice. Hope you have a good time!!"

I closed the book. She moved away from the podium, stood right before us with one hand over the other and said, 'You heard him?'

'You are to do as we say....' she paused.

'Starting now,' Ms. Akuno looked at us with extreme malice.

All the kids including me gulped. It felt as if coming to this place was the biggest mistake we ever made. Saburo looked extremely nervous.

Niko and Yui looked as if they were about to jump off a cliff that was a thousand feet above the ground. The entire reception are went extremely quite. I could actually hear each and every person's breath.

'Okay then,' Ms. Akuno said.

'Let's start!'

She took a cigar off her pocket and lit it.

'Listen carefully,' she said, smoking. 'You'll are going to play a game. A very important game. A game that's results will blow your mind.

'Huh?' I asked.

'Hm..hm..' She cleared her throat.

'Nothing,' she said.

'All of you will be divided in groups of three. Each group will be provided with three Shooters. One for each.'

'Shooters? I asked. What do you mean?'

'Yes. Shooters. They play a major role in the game. But don't worry they are just toys.'

'Thank God! I thought. She had been acting so strangely that I couldn't hold my worries back.'

'Your only aim is to shoot as many people as possible and keep gaining life,' she continued.

'Life?' Niko asked.

'Yes. The more people you shoot the more life you gain.'

'Wh- What do you mean?' Saburo asked.

'Tsch! What a pain that I have to co-operate with idiots like you,' she grumbled.

'Fine, whatever. Let's just say that If I shoot you, your "life" will get added to mine and hence my "life" will increase to a certain extent. Hence the more people I shoot, the more "life" I gain.

'Understood, idiot?' She asked him.

'Y-Yes,' he said.

'She is really ticking me off now, I grunted. She has been treating us as some kind of useless creatures.'

I was getting so annoyed that I started clenching my fists real bad. 'That hag!' I said.

'Stop!' Said Yui suddenly, holding my hand.

I looked at her, confused.

'Don't do anything unnecessary. It will only cause us trouble.'

Honestly speaking, I was kinda surprised. Because I expected her to be the first one to raise her voice against this type of a person.

Afterall she is the only person among us who can say--

"Huh, so what? Let's give it a try" even in a live or die situation.

But I knew that something was disturbing her from the beginning. I just didn't want to ask her because that would only worsen her situation.

'Please,' she cried.

I relaxed my fists and calmed down.

'Oriyo, thank you!' She said.

'Hm...'

'Along with the shooters, you will be getting this,' Akuno continued, showing us something that looked like some kind of electrical equipment.

'This machine will be connected to your shooters. We have constructed it in such a way that the moment you shoot someone, that person's "life" will be registered in it. This will show you the amount of life you are gaining. And remember, one person is equal to 10 percent of life.

Which means, if you take one person down, your life increases by 10 percent. The group that carries the maximum amount of lives, will be the winner.'

'What to do? Wanna take part?' Niko asked, with a disgusted look on her face.

'Well, I actually want to punch her face for speaking to us like that,' I said. But we don't have any other choice, do we?

'I too am so in,' Saburo said.

'Really? Why are you so excited? She called you an idiot,' said Niko.

'Well, who cares what she calls me? We came here for doing something different, then let's just stick to that.'

'Even though he is trying to act cool, I am hell sure he is roaring inside like an extremely angry lion right now,' I thought.

'Okay. Time to form groups,' Ms. Akuno said.

'Hey, she said looking at me. You team up with the idiot in front of you and the guy behind him.'

'Tsch! What a hag!!' I grunted. But who is the guy behind Saburo? I thought.

'What? I cried. It was one of those persons from earlier.'

'Huh, me?' he asked.

'Oh, c'mon!' I said.

He was a a boy of somewhat my height and had spiky hair.

'Nice to meet you,' he said. 'Yes, whatever,' I sighed.

'What's your name?'

'It is Higa Oriyo'.

'Oriyo, huh? Looking forward to work with you.'

'I wish I could say the same about you,' I thought. 'Well, for some reason, I was getting bad vibes.'

'What about you?' I asked.

'Me? My name is Akio. I am twelve years old and I am looking forward to work with you.'

'Uhn...uhn, you already said that.'

Well, the guy did seem okay, but I did feel something out of place.

Anyways, even if I had to deal with him, the group also included Saburo, so I wasn't worried. Even though Saburo does nothing most of the time, but when it comes to something interesting, he is damn serious.

'Hey!' I called out for Saburo.

'Huh?'

'You better go all out.'

'Hmph!' He grinned. 'Don't act so cool. I throw them back at you.'

'Alright then! Let's do this,' I said.

'Yeah!'

'Oh! By the way what about you guys?' I asked Niko and Yui.

'Huh? We both ended up in the same team,' Niko said.

'Amazing! Good for you.'

'What about the third member?'

'He..he is kinda weird,' she said.

'Weird? What do you mean?' Saburo asked.

'He has spiky hair and is somewhat of Oriyo's height.'

'Why am I getting such bad vibes again?' I thought, my body shaking.

'Hm... Where is he anyway?' Saburo asked.

'Um.. Well, he ran off to the loo the moment Akuno was done placing him.'

'Funny guy!' Saburo laughed.

'HEY!!!!!!!' A voice spoke from behind us.

All of us turned towards the direction from where it came. I was still getting those bad vibes. The voice grew louder and the person's footsteps moved closer and closer. I gulped in fear, this time loud enough to intimidate an angry, hungry monster.

'HEY! What's going on?' The voice asked.

'WHAAAT?' I yelled.

It was Akio. It was another Akio. I was so surprised that I hit the floor. I had seen two Akios.

'Hey, Oriyo. Are you okay?' Saburo asked me.

'What happened?' Asked Yui. 'Are you alright?' Niko added.

'Who are you? Why do you look like Akio?' I asked.

'What do you mean, Oriyo?' Asked Saburo.

'He is Akio. Akio...'

'Huh?' the voice said.

'Oriyo, are you really alright?' Asked Saburo.

'I think he has lost it,' said Niko.

'Oriyo, are you okay?' Asked Yui.

'He is Akio...Akio.'

'Shut up, Oriyo!!' Said Niko.

'What?'

'He is Akari-- the third member of our team.'

'What?'

'Yes. I am Akari. Nice to meet you.'

'Akari? Th..then who is that guy? I asked,' pointing towards Akio.

'He? He is my brother--Akio.'

'WHAAAT??'

I fainted yet again.

I woke up after ten minutes.

'Are you alright?' Saburo asked me.

'You are such an idiot. What were you even talking about?' Niko grunted.

'Nothing,' I said.

'Actually I was surprised to see a person looking the same as Akio so....'

'Surprised, huh?'

'Don't tell me that it didn't even strike you that he could have been a twin,' said Niko.

'A twin?' I asked.

'You both are twins?'

'Yup. We are the twins-- Akio and Akari.'

'Nice to meet you!!' both said simultaneously.

'Yes, yes, I said.'

'So, Akari, you are in Niko and Yui's group, huh?' Saburo asked him.

'Who?' He questioned. 'Sorry, I just got here and am not familiar with your names.'

'Oh! Sorry, sorry. I am Tanaka Saburo. This is Nomura Niko, Yamada Yui and he is Higa Oriyo.'

'Nice to meet you,' said Saburo.

'Nice to meet you too.'

'Oh, c'mon! They are really boring me now!!' 

'But, looks like they were the reason I was getting the vibes..' I thought.

'Whatever, let's talk business,' Niko grunted.

'There are a total of 45 groups we need to confront.'

'Groups have been made? When?' I asked.

'When you passed out like an idiot, she said,' her voice filled with attitude.

'The final teams are Yui, Akari and me. Oriyo, Saburo and Akio. And as for the rest of the brats....I don't care.'

'She....she is kinda scary,' Akio whispered into my ear. 'Yeah! It's nothing new to me.'

'Oh, speaking of which where is Ms. Akuno? I asked.

'That hag? She left the moment she was done with the teams. Honestly speaking I feel she is upto something.'

'Seriously? You figured that now?' I thought.

'What's the point of talking about it now?' Saburo asked.

'That's right, all we need to do now is to win The Game of Life,' I said.

'The Game of Life?' When did you give it a name?' Niko questioned.

'Just now.'

'Fine. Whatever. Let's go everyone,' she said.

'Okay!!!!!!!' All of us yelled.