“Ugh, I’m boreddd…” Rex exclaimed with a loud sigh while resting on his giant bike. It was for good reasons too; another week had already passed without them knowing anything about the third round, and so Rex and Zain had nothing to do but continue their uneventful prison life.

“… Hey, Zain. Say something, will you?” Rex continued as he noticed his partner’s eyes were soundly closed. Even in the virtual world, the lion still slept like he was on his throne.

“What kind of Lion King sleeps all day?” Unable to wake him up, Rex could only shrug at the matter and shook his head in boredom. However, it seemed like that much was enough to at least warrant a reply from the sleepy tyrant:

“One more word and I’ll punch you out of this stage.”

“Oh, come on, where’s the fun in that? The weather’s perfect!”

“We’re in an artificial world. Of course, the weather would be perfect.”

“Exactly,” Rex sat back up, but before he could start his motorcycle, a warning had already been issued:

“Start that engine and I will break it.”

“Alright, fine. Spoil-sport,” Rex mumbled the last few words before pushing a few buttons that popped up from the bike’s holographic starting screen. There was indeed no revving sound of the engine, but the sound of bits decomposing and rearranging themselves, much like how Rex and Zain fused in their first round. And it had piqued the latter’s interest.

Opening his eyes only to see a data storm forming from Rex’s bike, Zain couldn’t help himself but ask:

“What’s that?”

“Another trick I did. Look.”

As the storm settled, what remained in Rex’s hand was nothing but a soccer ball, although its jet-black color was certainly not the norm.

“What’s with the ball?”

“I love soccer…”

“Football.”

“… It helps me think. And a great way to kill time too,” ignoring Zain’s remark, Rex continued to lift the ball up in the air, before turning to his teammate once more. “Wanna play?”

“… Sure.”

The game of keepie-uppie continued between the two as they continued their conversation, passing around the ball as if it was a natural reflex of their bodies.

“Didn’t know you’re a soccer fan too.”

“Foot… You know what, I’m not gonna bother. But yeah, I like it.”

“When did you start playing?”

“Seven years ago. When I was nine.”

“Huh, me too. Crazy coincidence, right?”

“You know, people wouldn’t really think we’re the same age with just a look,” Zain had finally loosened his guard enough to form a casual grin.

“Guess that’s just what prisons do to you, man.”

“Pretty much. But you’ll learn to live with it.”

“By the way, now that we’re on that topic…”

Rex’s question was soon cut short by the loud beeping noise of another metallic orb sitting by the side of the field – AIDE’s alternate form in the digital world. The two boys quickly dropped their game and picked up the orb.

“A message from the wardens,” AIDE’s mechanical voice sounded, and along with it emerged a holographic window popping out of the orb’s single red eye.

There was no hologram or pre-recorded message to greet the two. Instead, inside the window was a giant wall of text, the kind that would discourage even the most patient person, like a long-winded Terms of Services of a scam website.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Ugh, did they really expect us to read this?” Zain showed a visible face of disgust.

Rex, meanwhile, was calmer but no less annoyed. “That’s exactly what they’re trying to pull. Scare us away from reading the rules so we wouldn’t understand the games.”

“… Alright, fine. Let’s just go through this thing.”

The two boys reluctantly stopped their complaining and turned their sight towards the window.

Red-Black Course Round Three: Cyber Demons.

There will be two teams participating in the game. The challengers, Team Evolution, will be playing as the Demons, while the wardens participating in this round will be the Villagers.

The game will be played in an undisclosed virtual stage. The stage is divided into two zones: the Demons’ Realm, which consists of three circular fields labeled Start, Interlude, and Finish, and the rest of the stage – the Village.

The Demons’ mission will be to both arrive at the Finish zone within the allotted time. They will be separated at the start of the game: one will be at the Start, while the other will be at the Interlude. When the game begins, the Demon at the Start is free to move anywhere, but the Demon in the Interlude can only start moving when the first Demon ‘call’ them by touching any part of their body.

The Villagers will be scattered throughout the Village area. Their mission is to stop the Demons from moving until all of the allotted time has passed. For each touch of a Villager (in the same principle as the Demons ‘calling’ each other), the Demon cannot move for a set amount of time. This is called a Stun.

Villagers can choose to move to the Start and Interlude zones before the game begins, but should they do so, there will be a ten-minute penalty before they can start chasing the Demons.

Total allotted time: one hour.

Stun time: five minutes.

Time the third round starts: one week from the moment this message is sent.

Participating teams:

Team Evolution: Rex, Zain.

Team Wardens: Bruce, Jack, Rose, Love, W.A.R.D.E.N.s.

“What’s W.A.R.D.E.N?” Rex tilted his head in confusion at the strange name. It certainly wasn’t a normal name for a human being. And his suspicion was proved to be correct by a timely explanation from the healthcare AI:

“Warring Assistant Robots in Distrain, Eradicate and Nix…”

“What the hell is that name?”

“Look, the higher-ups aren’t that good with names, but that doesn’t matter right now,” AIDE shook its exterior as an answer, before going back to the main point. “Essentially, they’re virtual assistants like me, but specifically designed for apprehending prisoners in the virtual world, sometimes even the real world if you can upload their program to a robotic body. You could say that they’re like the antivirus of this place’s main system.”

“So basically…”

“It’s their backup to overwhelm us with numbers,” Zain finished Rex’s sentence.

“Well, at least the game this time around is simple enough,” Rex continued. “It might look confusing, but this is essentially a glorified game of tag. I’m sure we can…”

“Not so fast, bucko,” Zain raised his hand in front of Rex’s face to stop the boy from going any further. “Read the rules again.”

“… I don’t see anything,” after another quick skim, Rex scratched his head, unsure what his partner was meaning to tell him.

“Exactly. It’s what you don’t see. Remember the first two games?”

It didn’t take long for Rex to put two and two together. As his eyebrows squinted in anxiety, the youth let out a concerned voice:

“It’s gonna be more fighting, isn’t it?”

“Most likely. And this time we’re even in a tougher situation than the last, since we can’t touch any of them in the first place.”

“Running is the name of the game then,” Rex nodded in agreement. “Then what about our positions?”

“Considering this ruleset, the first runner should pose more importance, so I’ll be first. You stay in the Interlude zone.”

“Deal,” Rex nodded in return.

“Now, if there’s nothing else to do, I’ll head out first,” Zain cracked his shoulder for a quick warm-up before swiping the air to spawn a logout window. “Since you can’t artificially boost your avatar’s stats, I’d suggest you do some physical training. Don’t weigh me down.”

“Oh, come on. Wasn’t the second game proof enough?”

“You just walked through a biome. Hardly anything impressive.”

Zain’s digital body dissolved into bits soon after, signaling the young man’s complete departure from the virtual realm, leaving Rex and AIDE behind. However, for the former, it was what he had expected all along.

“AIDE,” Rex called out to the AI, “the usual, please.”

“I’d turn into scraps if they caught me,” AIDE shivered at the request, but nonetheless, spawned a small window for Rex to operate on.

After a moment of typing, a series of holographic screens flooded the area, each filled with all kinds of information on the game they were supposed to be playing next – from the map state to the players’ position, and the opponent AI’s specs.

“Let’s see now…” swiping his fingers around to find the piece of intel he needed, Rex mumbled to himself. “Three types of WARDEN: precision, speed, and power. The first to accurately track down the offender and subdue them with long-range snipes, the second to fast travel to the offender’s location, and the last to subdue with force… Hold on: only react to anomalies?”

“What are these anomalies, then?” Switching to a different screen, Rex continued. And he soon arrived at his answer.

“Sudden movement, acceleration, heat signature… Well, this is easy then. I’ll just…”

“What? Read-only?” The boy exclaimed as his action was denied by the system. “Require admin rights? Tch, these things are harder to crack than I thought...”

“Don’t look at me,” AIDE sounded as soon as the boy turned to its side. “Even if I knew, I can’t share the information.”

“I wasn’t expecting anything… Wait, I’m in? That was only one try!”

“Either you’re extremely lucky, or…”

Before the AI could utter another word, Rex had quickly denied the claim. “Sometimes luck is a part of the game, right? Let’s say heaven is with us this time.”