"So which of the two groups will be the survival group?"

David asked again to make sure before he and the military girl walked towards Nick and the girls.

Samson was all about becoming hero, thinking that an ex-thug turns into a hero makes a good origin story.

"What about him, which group is he in?"

David asked, pointing at Chris.

"He's a loner"

Nick said, causing them to be confused as to why he would say so.

"You have to understand, this might be a team survival effort, but in the end you still have to depend on yourself to survive, others can help, but if you don't pull your weight you might die"

Nick added, making this more dramatic than it already was. Nobody however appreciated his newfound sincerity.

"All those that don't know foreign languages come to the survivor group, most of the missions have a requirement of knowing at least english" Chrysa said, remembering how the old man died because he didn't understand what they were saying.

At her voice, nobody moved, considering it a stupid question of whether they knew english, a subject taught in school. Of course knowing a language and speaking it are two different subjects, but non would admit to it.

"Why did you say that the chances of dying are the same in the hero and survivor groups?"

An average looking guy in a colourful shirt and brown trousers asked.

"It's simple, because we'll be moving together with them until we find a safe location to hide, with the Empresses' help probably some 5 stars hotel"

Nick said, causing a bit of a commotion, was this really a survival game and why a hotel as a hideout.

"I'm Panos and I want to join the heroes"

The colorful shirt guy said, leaving the rest to wonder why he would even want to join the "heroes".

What they didn't know was that the man was a gambler, he lived for risk, he lived on the edge and this for him was like an extreme aphrodisiac, betting your own life on the line for what could be easily described as infinite wealth and the ultimate gamble. Also he understood the way this worked, the more danger, the more points you would get, the more points you got, the more the chances of survival became, simple logic.

"So if I join that team I won't have to do anything?"

A rather handsome fellow wearing expensive trends of sweater and jeans asked before going to where Nick was, trying to flirt his way with the ladies, failing at both sides.

"You chose whichever side you like, I'll take the other!"

A female voice shouted, it was from one of the two twins. Both with blond short hair and the same blue eyes.

The guy was wearing a black suit, seemingly having come from a funeral, the girl wore torn jeans and a shirt that didn't leave much to your imagination, in simple words "no bra".

"Is this how you appeared at my funeral! Really!"

The guy was shouting as well, there was tention in the air as the two were visibly brother and sister, but most importantly, both seem to have been in each other's funeral.

Both ask how on earth the other was still alive, both being both happy and annoyed by each other's appearance.

"You were always highstrung and didn't let me have fun, I thought that at last I could say yes to life, not enter a death game!"

She retorted, changing the subject all together.

"I chose the Hero group you go on the survivor group!"

The guy said, causing her to be enraged.

"No! You go be a survivor! And I'll be the hero!"

She shouted, only for both of them to end up with Tian and the others.

What was left was two housewives, that like Hera lusted for some change in their lives. One wearing a rough looking dress and the other a luxurious dining dress. Both were called Maria, but for our convenience We will call the rich Mary and the poor one Maro.

"So what do we do now? while you raise your stats?"

David asked, looking at Chris who hadn't stopped stretching even for a moment, as if he was the elastic man, trying to stretch his body further than humanly possible.

"You should do some excersice as well, it's just some light gymnastics, will be useful to evaluate whether you can be a hero or should stick with the survivors! Physical condition is 70% of your survival in the first mission, the other 30% is luck"

Tian said and everyone but Chris begun running in a circle, those that could keep up would be accepted as heroes, those that couldn't survivors, it was pretty simple.

The result however was a huge load of disappointment for everyone. Only David and the military girl could keep up with them and both of them wanted to become survivors.

"Are you sure that you don't want to be heroes, you know that if the heroes don't come through, the survivors won't survive"

Tian complained, because if he kept his word, his group would just be the 5 original people.(Tian, George, Jason, Jonas and Xiao)

"It's not whether we want to or not, it's about which group has better survival chances, they are called survivors for a reason I presume"

David said, making Tian silent, unable to retord, it was a fact that it would be safer in the survival group, as long as the heroes made it they would face less dangers.

"Does this mean we still have a chance?"

Samson asked as he was still laps behind, but hadn't given up.

"I never intended to not accept you or the others, all I wished is to see your physical condition"

Tian lied without even flinching, it was a white lie, but it was super effective.

"Do we get guns now?"

Samson asked, which caused David to flinch, it was a question he too would have loved to ask, what about weapons.

"I'll be providing the heroes weapons, the survivors should ask Nick"

Tian said, knowing full well how stingy Nick was, he wouldn't give them a weapon even if he had two of them.

This was how David was almost tempted to join the heroes, having a weapon was a huge advantage in whatever mission they were going to be in.

Nick didn't disappoint Tian, he begun explaining how he wasn't their nanny and that weapons weren't free and that anything could be used as a weapon even a chair.

David's mind then turned towards the only other person with access to weapons, that being Chris. He then asked the military Girl to get closer to him to get a gun off him, she was rather angry with the plan, but still accepted the mission.

Samson was overwhelmed by the fact that he was now holding a real gun. His mind went to target practice or any sort of practice with the gun, but he was turned down due to lack of ammunition, after the mission he would have enough points to do his own target practice and get his own gun.

David looked at them with some envy, not because of the weapons, but because of the fact that they would be the ones getting most of the points. If not for his mission, he would have surely joined them, but he was a man with a mission.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Listen up men, there's been people disappearing, all that we know about them is that they were sent a spam mail, we have gathered all of you in hopes that one or two of you will get targeted by this group and then return alive and report what this is all about be extra careful, because non of the abducted ever returned"

He remembered the mission briefing, it sounded like some underworld organization, he would never have imagined it would have relations to the Matrix and a death game of the gods, more like a trial that eliminate those that aren't up to standards.

Before long Christin, the military girl, returned with a gun, it was too big for her hands, but david would be able to use it with ease.

"Was it hard?"

David asked, not exactly expecting an answer.

"I think he's into me, probably a virgin, has a uniform fetish"

She said, causing him to cough uncontrolably as he wanted to laugh but couldn't.

"Try not to choke yourself to death"

She said while laughing.

"Can we use him?"

He asked, but to his question she turned her head in disapproval.

"He might be willing to be used, but the little fairy is smart and she's using him as she sees fit, he won't even ask whether what she says is right or wrong and the woman next to him almost charged at me for approaching them"

It could be said it was women doing him whatever they want, but one was a high intellect A.I. and the other just some girl he met for the first time, who's trying to fuck him.

"What about bullets?"

David suddenly asked, causing her to stop smiling, she thought it was loaded due to its weight and how that guy was afraid of it facing him, now she was angry with him for cheating her and making her look like an idiot in front of her supperior officer.

At this time however Chris had begun his own running and it wasn't anything like what the others did, he was sprinting all the way, disappeared into the darkness and returned sprinting to the other side only to disappear and be running again towards the opposite direction.

Nick, when he saw this was as if he had gotten a revelation and he begun to copy Chris. It was of course the Empress who regulated his training regime. And right now she was blind, she could only hear sounds from the device on his wrist to tell where everyone was and gathered information by sound only, the 3D projection that came from the device was also unresponsive to pokes and movement, you just passed your hand through it, unless you made some noise to alert it of your position or actions.

Unlike Chris who went on practicing, the other took a break after an hour of rigorous training and begun to plan for the next mission.

George knew all about the movie, but was looking into different dimensions, it was then that something clicked in David's mind, something that until then he had disregarded, why Christin's hair were still long made into a braid, when in his reality last time he saw her she had them cut short.

The twins also were shocked when they heard about it, before they thought this was the matrix or something, but now hearing that every one of them are from different realities. It added a sour flavour, but answered many questions, especialy for the two twins, whom had just attended each other's funerals, but it did nothing to affect how they viewed one another as brother and sister.

David and Christin however had a huge chasm built, in between them, before they thought that just one surviving and reporting was enough, but now it seemed that they weren't even from the same reality, they both had to survive and report this situation to their superiors. Could they however trust each other?

Samson was excited over the fact that different realities exist, maybe in some of them he's rich and famous, maybe he can jump into another reality and escape his own, just maybe.

Sydney, the foxy lady that was all over Chris was shocked by the revelation, she by now had seen that she wasn't his type and decided to join the Hero group, believing she would be safer there, under the protection of the guys there. It was Chris' fault that he left her unattended for so long, she thought.

The planning didn't go too well, because Nick would always insert the Red Empress into their plans, making it awkward for them who didn't view Chris as a member of their group of "Heroes".

"Listen guys, you can think of this as a free advice from me, I want you to win, it's 1000 points for me when you win, you will be forced to use the relic, the moment the system detects you have it, the objectives will become more difficult to accomodate said relic's use, that's also why I don't bring relics with me, they are more of a luggage rather than helping in any possible way, but I believe that the red empress is different than other relics, it's closer to a free follower than a relic"

Nick said, but nobody believed his words one bit, they still remembered what happened last time, while the new players had no idea what a relic was and why they were having this discussion, in their opinion, they were a group and they would survive as a group. Where the old players lost that logic was when the score board appeared and they saw the diference in points, how many things they could buy at the store and a newfound greed was rooted in their minds a will for points a desire to escape this place even if just for a day.

"Listen this mission will most probably end in 7 days time, the main goal has to do with the tape or Aidan"

George said full of confidence, with all the data he had it was simple to see that these 2 points were the same in most of the iterations.

"So what? we don't even know where we will be transported"

Tian said in anger, seeing George's words as a way to undermine his leadership.

"Don't you see, we will only have 7 days, that means that we will be shown the cursed tape, but not the second tape otherwise the monster won't be interested in us"

George continued his line of thought, not understanding that he was overstepping his boundaries a bit.

"Listen George, I don't know what you think of me, but you should hear me out, as veteran I will tell you once and for all, there is nothing sure in this game, we will be planning as we go what we are doing now is sharing information which will help us plan ahead, we've already heard about the 7 days thing and the second tape, but both are irrelevant right now, because we haven't seen the cursed tape and have no idea where the second tape is or will appear"

Tian's words might have sounded friendly, but he was holding himself back, just a step away from shouting at his face.

"I believe that George's words do have a meaning"

The one to speak out was David, whom had been listening with attention to their plans and explainations.

"Why would you care?"

Tian said, only to take a smug expression not too long after, cause one of the two good seeds had decided to join the Heroes! There was a fall out between the two, it cracked the moment they understood that they came from different realities and with it came insubordination after all she had no reason to listen to the commands of someone who wasn't even from the same earth, just imagining dying for him made her wanna puke. The solidarity that existed before and the will to have at least one of them survive, their well built plan was now in shambles.

The others didn't know what to think, seeing Tian being so happy with a single newbe joining their group left a bad taste on everyone's mouths. Even George felt defeated as if Tian had found a new toy or something, it wasn't to the extend of envy, but until now they knew Tian well, he wouldn't become buddies with them if not for Xiao, but with this newbe it was different, Tian threated him like a treasure, a VIP, for no apparent reason.

"Do you know how to use this?"

Tian showed the newbe an assault riffle, fully automatic military grade.

"Will everyone get one?"

David asked rather confused since everyone else held a pistol.

"Did your military boss send you to ask questions, I know all about you secret military, you don't have to hide it with us, no regular person can keep up with us, meaning that you're special forces people"

Tian said, causing the others to gasp. In our country the marines have a rather inflated popularity and fame, but not without a reason, because they only take the best to join and they spend more time in the army than other people since they aren't pernament recruits. Each year the best of the best will be voluntarily recruited into the marines, nationalism has that sort of drive.

David however was shocked by the reveal, it was as if all the secrecy from his part was for nothing, it was as if the moment they decided to show off their ability was the moment they revealed who they were. Or rather who he was, cause Christin wasn't special forces, she was an engineer he knew personaly and a minor officer, while he was a major.

"Okay no need to make such a face, the moment I saw that girl salute you I knew you were both in the military, but you were too good, good enough to be a marine, you almost kept up with us, who have enchanced our stats, meaning that you will become a monster real fast as long as you survive with us through this mission and add cell vitality, you won't lose to any of us"

Tian didn't let him be, he really wanted him to be part of their group.

Christin looked at him begrudgingly, she knew full well who he was, a nutcase that loved to train more than he loved women, an army junkie that loved to fight and throw words around when drunk, also he sucked in bed.