My mom had loved bush lilies.

She'd never owned a garden to cultivate them in, but some of my earliest memories involved watching her dress the beds and dining table in floral patterned cloth.

For her fifteenth remembrance day, I ordered a bouquet of bush lilies. Not the cheapest option in Lagos City, but a dent in my pocket meant nothing in exchange for honoring her memory.

Or so I intended . . .

The night before the cemetery visit, I settled down to sleep and woke in the middle of hell.

That wasn’t a metaphor.

Red stretched as far as the eye could see, forming a crimson sky that looked nothing like home. Pink clouds hovered over a broken landscape riddled with scorch marks. Despite the wind, the clouds stayed fixed in place—frozen, like an image captured on camera.

A blue screen dinged into existence.

The [System] has selected you as a candidate for reincarnation. You have only one objective: Survive.

User name: Damien Njoku.

Manner of death: Aortic dissection.

Integrating data . . .

I gaped at the holographic display. The text on the screen unfurled in my mind’s eye, transmitting information within seconds.

Candidate of what?

I waved my hand across the blue screen. It didn't so much as budge. I tried a few more times, then raked my hair in frustration. Smooth, barren skin stretched beneath my fingers, revealing that sometime between sleeping and waking up, I'd lost all of my hair.

Even my arms looked strange now that I inspected them, causing the breath to hitch in my throat. My skin glowed a surreal white: the color of paper scrubbed with too much bleach.

What the hell is this?

The blue screen vanished only to be replaced by another.

Integration complete.

You are now designated as Homunculus 0316. Complete the objectives if you wish to survive.

Time remaining: 00:25:00.

I yelled at the screen. The words didn't form, so I tried again only to realize a problem with my physique.

A layer of skin extended from the base of my nostrils to the tip of my chin, smooth as a baby's bottom. The pale ghostly skin covered me from head to toe, leaving me devoid of hair, clothes, nails, and other unmentionables.

That last bit miffed me more than I wanted to admit, but a missing schlong was the least of my problems.

Seeing how my current location looked nothing like my crappy apartment, I could only arrive at one conclusion: I was dead, and this was the afterlife. Which begged the question. What did dead people do after they died?

The next blue screen provided a foreboding answer:

New quest: [Survive 01].

Avoid the Flame Guardians' Rampage.

Time remaining: 00:25:00.

Homunculi remaining: 1000/1000.

Reward: [Born of Affinity].

An earthquake shook the ground.

I looked around and realized for the first time that I was not alone. Hundreds of ghostly white people sat or stood around me, staring into space or down at their bodies.

The scene made for a nauseating sight. Red sky overlooked a crowd of white poised atop dark earth, the color of clotted blood. And, dark earth constituted a plain that stretched into forever.

If these people's circumstances were anything like mine, death was the common denominator. And, judging from the way they acted, they’d all gained access to similar blue screens.

The ground rumbled a second time.

What had the text in the box told me to do again? Ah, yes. Survive.

I ran my hand through the screen, willing it to vanish. It responded this time.

I tried a similar trick on the landscape.

Nothing happened.

Of course, that wouldn’t work. Something about this place unnerved me, and it had little to do with the sky or the nature of my body.

The world here simply acted wrong, layered with conflicting details it had no business conjuring. The clouds didn't move along with the wind. And the sand didn’t shift beneath my weight. Even the air smelled sterile: hot and sharp like rubbing alcohol, rather than the sulfuric odor more befitting of a hellscape.

A dark blot appeared in the sky. It started as a dot, then expanded as it neared the ground. A giant shape landed in the middle of a patch of homunculi, grinding the unfortunate souls into dust.

I took one look at the creature—at its massive arms, bulbous belly, and squat, undersized legs. Large, yellow eyes gleamed in a feline face that sported a full length of beard. The creature shrieked. All humor about my current situation evaporated on the spot.

A notification appeared above the monster.

Flame Guardian LVL 100.

Keeper of the Secret Fire.

My eyes zoomed in on the first sentence: Wasn't this what I was meant to avoid?

The Flame Guardian raised its arm, and a gigantic sword, carved out of the essence of stars, appeared in its grasp. The sword fell, and a portion of the ground went up in flames.

All hell broke loose.

I yelled through vocal cords that didn't exist and fled in a random direction. Forget about this being unreal. If those attacks reached me, I would be in for a world of pain.

An eerie stampede followed as the other homunculi took to their heels. Hundreds of people ran about in a panic that mirrored a landslide by way of the lack of screams. Scores fell in the onrush, trampled beneath the crowd.

I stumbled past a fallen homunculus, unable to bring myself to turn back and help. All I cared about was putting distance between me and the massive demon that wielded a sharpened star.

More blots appeared in the sky.

Multiple Flame Guardians landed.

They broke the ground on impact, burying homunculi beneath their weight. The Flame Guardians waded into the crowd, conjuring swords and shields of liquid fire.

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Each swing set the ground ablaze and launched body parts upward. A few homunculi avoided the attacks, only to die from the sheer heat of the blades. They shriveled in seconds, roasting faster than my eyes could follow.

A single Flame Guardian landed a few meters ahead of me. The resulting crash threw me headfirst into the dirt. I rolled with the momentum, doing my best to avoid being drowned by the tide.

The other runners veered around the monster. But, despite being big and slow, the Flame Guardian outmatched their movements. Its enormous sword split the ground, evoking a wall of fire. Nearby homunculi shrank into husks.

Oh, god.

I scrambled away from the growing pillars of fire and leaped to my feet. The air burned with the heat of the swords, but my new body lacked functional sweat pores, which seemed both good and bad.

I abandoned the clusters of people and ran in a separate direction, toward the backs of the pursuing demons. The tactic aided my preservation as the Flame Guardians zeroed in on the largest groups.

Another notification. Quit it with the dinging, okay?!

Current quest: [Survive 01].

Time remaining: 00:20:35.

Homunculi remaining: 651/1000.

Reward: [Born of Affinity].

651 people left? Bile rose in my throat. The demons had eradicated nearly a third of our number in less than three minutes.

I ducked in alarm as a fiery sword swung overhead, almost coming close enough to fry me. Where could I go? What should I do? This was too morbid to be anything but a dream.

The majority of the homunculi adapted after the initial chaos. They imitated the smarter ones now and spread out in all directions around the Flame Guardians. The demons slowed their advance, working for their kills now that the largest groups had been obliterated.

I stayed out of reach of the nearest Flame Guardian, adjusting my position as the monster took slow, ponderous turns. My heart thudded in my chest.

The ground trembled again.

A four-sided pyramid rose in tandem with an earthquake some distance off to the right. It was small enough that I would have missed it entirely, were it not for the bright star that glowed atop its pinnacle.

A haptic buzz accompanied the reappearance of the floating text box. No ding followed, as if in response to my complaint. Information filtered into my mind.

You have avoided the Flame Guardians' rampage.

Quest: [Survive 01].

Time remaining: 00:18:00.

Homunculi remaining: 426/1000.

Quest complete.

[Born of Affinity] has been added to your traits.

The Flame Guardians slowed to a stop. They recalled their weapons and stood stock-still, petrified for all intents and purposes. Hungry cat eyes froze in a perpetual leer above full beards that ruffled in the wind.

A few of the surviving people collapsed in relief. I refrained from joining them. The mad scramble had drained me of stamina, but the info on the notification boxes bothered me the most. The words were clear: Survive 01. Which meant the existence of a Survive 02 and possibly 03 to 10.

Someone—a homunculus who looked no different from the rest of us—started running in the direction of the pyramid. Two others stared at each other and followed after them.

What?

The text box buzzed.

New quest: [Survive 02].

Reach the Pyramid of Rebirth within seven minutes.

Time remaining: 00:17:01.

Reward: [Against the Odds].

I glanced at the pyramid and the trio who had gotten a head start on the rest of us. If this was some sort of obstacle course, then they had cleared a good amount of ground before the starter even fired his gun.

I had never been particularly fit. In real life, at least. This time, however, I was stuck in a new, lean body. I took a tentative step forward and forced my way through the crowd before the slower ones could gather their wits.

A pterosaur swooped out of the sky. It glided past the sprinting homunculi, silent as death. Red-hot flames spewed in a geyser from its mouth.

It swooped back up from its strafing run, leaving a trio of burnt corpses in its wake.

The crowd faltered.

Current quest: [Survive 02].

Time remaining: 00:15:13.

Homunculi remaining: 423/1000.

Reward: [Against the Odds].

Dozens of the strange pterosaurs dived out of the sky. A description popped up as I focused on the nearest of them.

Pyronodon LVL 80.

Watcher of the burning skies.

I didn't dally after that. I surged in the direction of the pyramid, feeling lightheaded from my inability to properly draw air into my lungs. The Pyronodons opened fire, incinerating our group in numbers. Unlike the Flame Guardians, these new demons were swift, nimble, and airborne. They coursed through the air, belching great gouts of flame.

Within two minutes, our numbers diminished. The crowd pressed around me in a mad dash for the pyramid. An entire line of homunculi went up in a column of smoke.

No, this wouldn't do. I shouldn't run blindly. However, if I stayed in place, the chances were high that I would get boxed in and die.

A Pyronodon unleashed an inferno. Twenty pale bodies turned to ashes.

Fuck it.

I raised my arms and ran sideways across the surge of the crowd. The giant Flame Guardians towered behind us, watching with unblinking eyes. The Pyronodons maintained their aerial assault. However, a brief pause revealed a method to the madness.

They focused on eliminating the front line and all of the stragglers. If I looped around to the side of the pyramid, I could avoid most of the aggression that came with taking the most straightforward route. But, did I have the time? The clock ran down on the timer, and I wasn’t interested in learning the consequences of failing the quest.

I adopted a circular route despite my misgivings, heart pounding in my throat. A few homunculi hunkered down on the ground. Talk about dumb.

A handful of others copied my strategy and ran in wide arcs toward the pyramid. Of the main group who stuck to the direct path, a small number made it past the airborne bombardment. They reached the handholds at the bottom of the pyramid and began the arduous climb to the top.

The Pyronodons ignored the climbers, choosing instead to harry those left behind. Homunculi perished en masse, sending the count on the blue screen into freefall.

Time remaining: 00:12:19.

I so wasn't going to make it.

I abandoned all thoughts of self-preservation and ran head-on for the goal. Staggered lines of charred carcasses obstructed me, interspersed between long patches of flames.

A Pyronodon roared somewhere above me. I couldn't afford to look. Blood pounded in my ears, worsening a vision already clouded by strain.

Was this the way I ended?

Any moment now, a lucky shot would engulf me, reducing me to a gnarled, smoking corpse.

I reached the base of the pyramid before my worst fears could be realized and scrambled for the top. The structure stood taller than it seemed from a distance, roughly the height of a five-story building. A notification popped up as I completed a quarter of the climb.

You have reached the Pyramid of Rebirth.

Quest: [Survive 02].

Time remaining: 00:10:00.

Homunculi remaining: 28/1000.

Quest complete.

[Against the Odds] has been added to your traits.

All of the homunculi who were yet to reach the pyramid exploded in brilliant plumes of dust. One, in particular, reached touching distance but didn’t get a chance to ascend before disintegrating into dust.

I turned away from the scene. One thousand people had started this madness alongside me. Now, twenty-eight remained. What purpose had necessitated their deaths?

I clenched the handholds and the skin of my knuckles turned even whiter. The pyramid loomed wide enough to obscure the rest of its slopes. Five others hung around me. None stopped to rest, applying lessons from the last encounter.

The Pyronodons retreated and hovered in the distance atop the immobile Flame Guardians.

I hauled myself up, inch by excruciating inch until I joined fifteen other survivors atop the pyramid. The twelve that remained had probably been wounded in the earlier stages because they took their sweet time joining up with the rest of us.

The crowning jewel that I had seen from ground level wasn’t a star. It was actually a brazier. The square-shaped container blazed on the pinnacle, bordered on all sides by thick panes of force. Even from across the strange barrier, I could tell that there was nothing natural about the flame. A good look at it threatened to sear the eyes. Strange shapes danced within.

New quest: [Survive 03].

One candidate will win a chance at reincarnation. Prove that you deserve this boon.

Warning: If more than one candidate survives to the end of the count, you would die.

Time remaining: 00:09:00.

Reward: [Migrant Soul].

I froze after reading the message.

One candidate?

Fog rose from the bottom of the pyramid. It blanketed the ground, swirling up to our feet. The homunculi trapped on the slopes tried to outrun it, but the dense mist rose faster than they could.

None of the twelve who had been obscured by the fog resurfaced. Dead silence accompanied their disappearance.

I inched closer to the walls of force, even though the mist slowed in favor of wafting just below the pinnacle. Downward movement ceased being an option.

Current quest: [Survive 03].

Time remaining: 00:08:20.

Homunculi remaining: 16/1000.

Reward: [Migrant Soul].

I stared wide-eyed at the homunculus beside me. They mirrored my reaction. Running around for the sake of preservation trumped dying from inertia, however, murder was one line I never wanted to cross.

Sadly, without the ability to speak, I couldn’t communicate my intentions. I raised my arms in a placating gesture, hoping the other fellow would understand.

One homunculus stepped forward and shoved another off the pinnacle. The latter toppled off with a silent scream into the carpet of mist.

The number of surviving homunculi dropped by one.

Time froze as everyone stared at their notification boxes and processed the new information.

The homunculus I had exchanged gazes with took a tentative step in my direction.

Oh, crap.