The wait did not take as long as Michael had feared. While it still took the better part of an hour he soon found himself at the front of the crowd. “Next,” a blond woman with a white long sleeve shirt and a black knee length skirt shouted pointing at him. Mark just stared at her for a moment. He had only seen a woman, a professional looking woman like her in movies. Women in the lower half of steeple city could be as pretty, but they certainly were not dressed as well. Michael could only wonder what the material of her clothes felt like.

“Move on, lover boy,” an old man said, shoving Michael forward. Michael staggered for a step before confidently closing the distance.

“I’m Michael,” was all he could get himself to say.

“Hello Michael, your contender card please,” the woman replied, holding out her hand. It was all business to her. Michael was just another hopeful fool to her.

Michael fished the keycard he had received prior to boarding the airship, out of one of his pockets, before handing it over. The woman pulled a scanner from a holster on the side of a tech pad. She scanned the card. “Michael Nacht, assigned contender number 352,603.” She flashed him a smile before adding. “Please follow me.”

Gladly, Michael thought his wandering eyes were all on her now. A spot of luck, getting one of the attractive attendants. The two entered an elevator. Michael tried not to act surprised when the platform whooshed out of sight of the terminal as they were drawn deeper into the beehive like building.

“I will start the brief since time is limited,” the woman said, going into a practiced manner.

“The Rainier corporation would like to thank you for participating in the up and coming survival battle. As always the exact nature of the battle will be withheld until the battle starts. At which time the contender will get an hour to go over the specifics prior to the battle commencing.” The woman paused to see if Michael had any thoughts on the matter. He didn’t

Battles like this had become a common form of entertainment over the last few centuries. This battle just happened to fall in the 448th year of the Arcadian modern era calendar (AME). A number that also happened to be equivalent to the number of days in a standard year. While Mark did not know much about the survival battle, he did know its duration, 448 days.

In truth there were likely several battles occurring for the realms entertainment at any one time. Although the type and danger involved varied quite a bit. Some were little more than a reality program, where the rich types competed safely against one another. Others had various objectives. Survival was by far the deadliest, but it also had the simplest of objectives, survive to the end.

Few contenders made it to the end of one of the survival battles. In fact a good number of the battles did not have a single survivor. In the last decade in particular the battles had been extremely unforgiving. Hopefully, things would be better for this one. The Rainier Corporation was under a lot of scrutiny by all the factions in the realm. Hopefully, they would lower the threshold slightly to keep contenders participating. Otherwise millions of people would not voluntarily walk into a death trap. The fact that there were already three hundred thousand contenders when he checked in, hinted that perhaps regardless of the latest games brutality there were always those desperate enough to risk it all.

The battle lasting for an entire year, would make it more unique. Contenders should have more time to power up to fight against the enemies who would also be growing in strength. It was a bit weird that soon, he might have superhuman strength and abilities, or… He could just be dead.

These battles were held in a virtual environment, so that the creators could dream up all sorts of cool things. But to keep it where people could experience the battle like they were in person their consciousness was actually loaded into the fake world. The result, if they died there it would basically make them brain dead, no different from dying anywhere else. His attendant was detailing the legalities of it right now.

Not that it mattered, Michael had already read and hastily signed all the papers. His body would basically become compost if he died. Who cared, he would already be dead. Mark listened but the words were not really sticking. He felt a sinking feeling in his gut. Doubts were eating at his psyche. Once he was in the pod, he really would be past the point of no return.

“Any questions?” the woman repeated as they exited the elevator. The door opened showing a plain gray cement hall and walls. A hundred brown doors lined the halls on each side. A silver trash chute was located on the far end. Michael did not have to guess at what it was for.

“Any questions,” She repeated, eyeing him.

“What on no… Actually, can I get something to drink? The shuttle here was pretty long and I’m dying of thirst.”

“Once you are sinked in, your body will be in stasis. You will only feel hunger or thirst according to your avatar,” she replied calmly, staring down the hall, her high heels clicking on the cement floors.

Michael followed after her. “Well, I would hate to be thirsty when I wake up,” Michael offered.

The woman snorted, but after composing herself she turned and studied him for a moment. “Here,” she said, pulling out a bottle from a pouch on her side. “Just don’t drink it all. I will likely have another ten or fifteen people to escort before I can get a chance to refill it.”

Michael took a swig. “Thanks a lot,” he said, flashing her a cheesy smile.

She gave him a warm smile while taking the bottle back. Seconds later after replacing the water bottle in the small black pouch she continued down the hall away from him. Great, Michael thought, sharing a bottle of water was the closest he had ever got to a woman that was not related. If things went bad, it would be the closest he ever got, Michael thought soberly.

One of the stipulations of the battle prevented funny business. The creators had input it to keep things like assault and rape from occurring in a lawless environment, but it also kept consensual stuff from happening as well. If someone tried, the interface would temporarily freeze them. Michael guessed it was to keep the program family friendly. Sex was bad, but watching a bunch of real people get killed wasn’t…? Just another day watching television. He shook his head. He had a lot to worry about. If he made it out of here he could likely be able to find his dream girl quite easily.

Michael's appointed room was near the end of the hall. The woman paused by one of the doors. “Just go inside and follow the directions on the pod shell. It’s really simple… Just don’t take your clothes off. It makes it awkward when…” She trailed off. “Good luck in there,” she flashed him a somber smile.

“Thanks,” Michael said, giving her one final look before entering the room. One final treat for his real eyes. It was likely pretty hard on the woman knowing that all of the people she escorted today would likely never leave on their own accord.

The room was little more than a closet with an egg-like pod. He guessed there did not need to be much since his consciousness would soon be worlds away. The directions were extremely straightforward. Michael could not help but laugh thinking that someone had thought to remove their clothes before entering their pod, but then he pictured the women's final somber expression.

Like it or not, these very well likely were his final moments of existence. If he fell in the survival battle, someone would be collecting his body and throwing him into that chute like a bag or garbage. Seriously, what a bunch of assholes. They could not think to camouflage such a thing. At least let contenders think their bodies would be treated with dignity if they died.

The pod's lid slowly opened. The whirr of the hydraulics was the only noticeable noise in the graveyard silent room. Michael paused, his heart was hammering. This was almost like climbing into his own grave. He thought of his family for several minutes. He felt regret for leaving like he had, but there was no inclination to try to wiggle out of things at this point. He was scared, but he was also committed.

Finally, he breathed in deeply and climbed in. He took a few moments to get his body comfortable. It supposedly would not matter since his body would be in stasis while his mind was away, but somewhere deep down he also really did not want to push the button quite yet. Once he pressed it the sequence would be initiated.

Apparently, that was only a somewhat true thought. There also seemed to be a feature that closed the pod all on its own after so long. Michael was startled in alarm as the door started to whirr closed. “Hey,” he cried in alarm, before calming back down resigned to it.

His breathing was heavy as the door closed sealing him in darkness and he heard a locking mechanism closing to the side. Michael felt like struggling to claw his way out of the coffin that he had so easily sealed himself in, but he stilled himself. Even if the thing malfunctioned and he died he would not struggle like a frantic animal.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He then felt it, an overwhelming wave on his consciousness. It was like something was forcing him to sleep, and he had no recourse to fight it off. That was the last feeling he had prior to the battle.

Michael had no idea how much time had passed when he found himself in a pitch dark room. A translucent blue screen was already in front of his face. Lines of text started scrolling in front of his face. Mark focused on catching every detail on his first read through.

[Welcome contender # 352,603, Michael Nacht, to survival interval: 448. Over the sequence of one year, 448 days, you will have to fight for survival against the undead, beasts, plants, and other contenders. All contenders who make it through to the end will receive 10 Million credits, take their share of the 10 billion credit split prize (shared equally among all survivors), among other rewards.]

[Feel free to team up with or attack your fellow contenders, but be aware that there is a 100% guarantee of a drop occurring when a contender falls to another contender. Contender drop quality will increase based on the fallen contender’s strength.]

[Plants, undead, and beasts will also have drops, although the frequency will depend on a variety of factors. Other drops will just be located across the map, with new drops spawning at various cycles throughout the battle. Drops can include anything from stat points, special abilities, and items. Drop quality will be based on seven colors ranging from: white, amber, green, blue, red, purple, black.]

[There are a total of 3,141,632 contenders going into the battle. Your interface will keep track of the time, the day, and total contenders remaining. You will also be able to see your status, special abilities page, and inventory. Good luck. Happy hunting.]

Michael stared at the message for a second before mentally swiping the message away. There appeared to be six pages on the interface. The first was the home page with the bottom half dedicated to notices and battle logs. The top included his tier, name, contender number, Health points, Stamina points. His health and Stamina were both 100 of 100. There was a section for in battle currency, but it was currently grayed out, just as the words ki, pulse, and spirit. Nothing besides the three grayed out words surprised Michael.

The status page had two lists. The first was primary attributes including Strength, endurance, dexterity, agility, vitality, and toughness. Michael had a 10 next to each of the primary stats. Everyone else in the battle would start with the same. A woman or fragile old man, they would be as strong as the strongest of men. At least to start out with.

The second list was the secondary attributes of ki, pulse, and spirit. Right now Michael apparently had a X in all three columns. He had heard that contenders in these battles often got points to allocate, but the opening message had not indicated any such thing. Michael also did not see anything else to indicate that he could.

Michael scrolled through the other screens. Special abilities page, yup he started with nothing. Tactical screen, yup pure black since he had not unlocked any of the map. As he explored the map that should change. The contender page, yup empty. The only contender he had met so far was himself, not including Chad, but he guessed knowing them previously did not count. The inventory and equipment page however had a couple of scroll bars which Michael could select.

Michael mentally pounced on the option, but was underwhelmed. One just had a couple different varieties of clothes in various colors for him to choose from. Michael chose tactical black pants and a black long sleeve. The second scroll bar had a couple of things that would offer a little more protection. Different things had pluses and minuses. Michael looked through them. There was some movie like long cloak, but it was several times heavier and potentially could encumber his movement. Looking cool had its place, but Michael would rather go more practical. He ended up choosing a green vest and matching forearm bracers.

The last scroll down just had a couple of various basic weapons for him to choose from. Michael scanned the list. What were they supposed to face? Plants, beasts, and undead… Okay that meant the dagger was out. Sure it could deliver a critical blow, but something with more reach would be better. The spear was tempting, but it was not like Michael was well practiced he would be stabbing and swinging something frantically. That left a wooden bat and the crowbar.

Michael finally decided on the bat. He thought the crowbar would be a little more difficult and unwieldy. The wooden bat, well Michael had played several different games with something similar.

With all that settled, Michael just needed to figure out what to do with the rest of the hour they had been allotted. Oh wow, he thought seeing that only three minutes had passed. There were only a few things he would have to ask the encyclopedia about, namely the secondary attributes. Most everything else was similar to other battles he had looked into.

[Ki: the internal force circulating throughout one's body. Once unlocked, contenders can use ki to strengthen their bodies or to enact certain skills.]

[Pulse: Energy contenders can send out of their bodies. Once unlocked, contenders can use pulse to enact certain abilities or enact certain skills.]

[Spirit: Mental energy. Once unlocked, contenders can use spirit power to enact certain abilities or enact certain skills.]

Michael read over the three encyclopedia entries. They did not say much. Michael would be lying if he said he was not somewhat getting excited about the prospects. What boy did not grow up wishing to become extremely powerful and do cool things like shoot lasers out of their eyes. For him, that might not be too far off. Well… for his avatar at least.

Now he just had 55 more minutes to dwell on things before he went into the meat grinder. Oh come on, waiting that long would kill him. It took him a couple minutes to locate something else he wanted to look into. The drop in quality.

Things were not as quantified as Michael would have expected, other than the white and amber drops. The white drops would always be 1 primary stat point. The amber drops would allow user to choose between getting 3 primary stat points or 1 secondary stat point. The one caveat was that contenders needed to already have the secondary stat already unlocked, meaning that Micheal would have to find something to unlock one of them first if he wanted to choose that option.

Green, blue, red, purple and black had no set rewards. They could give stat points of either type. They could give skills, or they could give gear. The only guarantee was that rewards would be more beneficial the higher the quality of the drop was. Interestingly enough there actually was an eighth drop the interface had not mentioned, but after reading it Michael could tell why. It was basically a care package with food and other supplies. Nothing to really benefit a contender’s progress.

After looking the drop qualities up, Mark listlessly investigated various things. He learned a lot. The only damper was that he had to think of a question to ask. The encyclopedia did not offer anything up otherwise.

Luckily, he thought to look up tiers on his homepage which led to several other discoveries.

[Tiers: Just Like the plants, undead, and beasts, contender attributes and abilities will be limited based on what tier they are in. A contender may reach a threshold they will not be able to cross without evolving up to the next tier.]

[Evolution: Just like the plants, undead, and beasts, contenders will be able to evolve to a greater state of being. The methods of evolution are varied as are the benefits and or drawbacks each method will bring.]

Great, so everybody started at level zero. Michael guessed it was the mortal equivalent. Just like the tier name, a tier 1’s strength must be a whole tier of power above a tier 0. It was undoubtedly difficult to fight something a tier above one’s own. That was one reason why contenders needed to hurry and scramble and find things to increase their strength upon the games beginning.

Undoubtedly, there would be some who would attempt to stay away from battles and stay alive till the end. After all it only mattered that you were alive at the end. It would be a valid tactic, perhaps if they did not still have biological functions like eating or drinking, so unless they were able to accumulate a massive stockpile it was not even feasible. Then it was also likely that the creators would have other measures to prevent such a tactic. No one wanted to see someone hiding in a closet for a year sitting in their own excrement after all.

Even the monsters would be getting stronger the longer the battle went on. Contenders would have to keep up or surpass them if they wanted to remain alive. Hunkering down might be something they could do in the final few weeks, provided the creators did not have measures to prevent that as well.

After a few more questions against the encyclopedia, Michael stumbled upon the right question.

[Tier 1: the only tier contenders will automatically evolve once they hit certain thresholds. Benefits will be dependent on contender status]

It was still open, but Michael could infer that if he gained a lot of stat points or other upgrades the evolution would occur automatically. As far as benefits went, it was likely based on what he increased. If he put all his stat points in the strength attribute, then the interface might just bless him with more strength stat points when moving into Tier 1. It was something to keep in mind at the very least.

Michael continued to look things up, but there was not too much more that he could figure out. The inventory and equipment page would allow him to auto equip gear. That would be nice. Also any drop he actually found would go into the inventory. From there he could store it, use it, or give it to someone else.

Michael was not really sure about the prospect of working with other people, but he was positive that at some point he would have to. After all he could not fight hordes of undead or beasts all by himself. Also his stamina was limited. Like a video game, if that hit zero there would be consequences. He would just have to take his time and find some trustworthy people.

In theory all 3 million odd contenders should work together. After all, each survivor automatically got 10 million credits. Even that much wealth would be more than the combined amount of wealth of many of the landlord families, but Michael knew things would not be that simple. Resources in the battle would be limited. Contenders were rewarded for killing other contenders, and human nature would rear its ugly head. For most the 10 million credits was nice, but wouldn’t it be better to also get the 10 billion credits on top of that???

Yup, he just needed to stay away from the Chads, and find people like the beautiful blonds in professional clothes. How many of them would there be in their running around. Michael's mind kept up the playful demeanor until the counter moved down to 9:59.

It was at that point that he felt the dread start to build inside him. In less than 10 minutes he might be facing down something that wanted to rip his face off. Even worse, it would probably attempt to eat him. When the counter hit 0:59, Michael felt his heart start to hammer in his chest. He took steady breaths to calm himself but it did not really work. Logically, he knew what had brought him to this point, but logic did not quell the very real paralyzing fear that he was attempting to fight off. His last thought before he blinked out of the black space, was that the creators gave so much extra time on purpose…