Truth is terrifying. Cruel. But, all the same, liberating. 

I stand on the platform, alongside one hundred and nine other people. Ninety-nine Underdwellers, not counting myself. Ten Skydwellers. For the first group, what is about to start is a battle for the better life. For the second group, nothing but an amusing game. For me, though, this will be the beginning of war. My war. 

There’s one more presence alongside us. The one hundred eleventh. Not a person. She is a Non-Player Character. But who could say that she has no soul? No feelings? I will feel more remorse killing her than when I take the lives of the ten Skyers. Oh yeah, I’ll destroy them. Thoroughly. 

My fellow ninety-nine Unders think that the tournament exist to bring them freedom. They don’t realize how wrong they are. How ignorant. How pitiable. How blessed. Even the best of them will remain nothing but tools to the ones above. They will blissfully spend their life inside their Capsules, while others slave away in the mines, not even realizing that their bodies are drawn from lifespan. That they are but living batteries to energize the cities on the surface. That they are selling away the priceless resources found inside Infinite Freedom Online only to get scraps in return. 

The Skyers, though, aren’t inferior in being clueless. At least nine of them. They stand relaxed, their heads tall, their eyes scornful. They think they are safe. That they have no competition. That their lives aren’t at stake. Oh, how wrong they are. I’ll prove them. 

People say that truth sets you free. But in reality, it only gives you the opportunity. In the end, freedom is something you should earn for yourself. With your actions. Your determination. Even if it means sacrificing something in return. Or someone. 

The only question is—how far are you ready to go to achieve what you want? I’ll find my own answer soon enough. 

LET THE GAME BEGIN! 

***

Those who don’t work, don’t eat. I have no idea who said this phrase first. They never tell us in the education chambers. And, honestly, who gives a damn? The only thing that matters is that now, for us, these words are reality. And so we work. 

“Check the crack five o’clock of you, Dex!” Raven shouts through the intercom. “Two hundred yards away. Sensors give weak pink signals fifty-feet below there. There’s a chasm at twenty-five feet, dig it to that point and leave the rest to Tyler.” 

“Pink, huh?” I raise a brow. Pink means Irium. And Irium means we won’t have to worry about being below the quota for a while. Perhaps I’ll even get the Invite. No, I should hold down my optimism to not be disappointed later. “Understood.”

For how long are we out already? The clock at the corner of my eye shows 16:47. That means that almost for ten hours. And so far we found nothing of worth. Not the luckiest day, especially considering that this month’s quota is still sixty Contribution Points away, and we have only three days to fulfil it. If we fail, we’ll have to live on F-rank rations for a while. I’ll be fine, but I can’t allow little Ellis to starve. 

 My Lambda-suit only has seventeen percent of its energy left, with twenty-three percent of oxygen. Usually this is the other way around—most people lose their oxygen faster than the suit’s power. Run out of the oxygen even before their suit reaches twenty percent. Not me. My breathing is deep, slow, controlled. My stamina is beyond anything you’d expect from a seventeen-year-old. I’m still soaked wet from all the sweat. Can’t be helped, Lambda type isn’t equipped with a proper cooling module. 

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Despite all its shortcomings, the suit still serves its purpose. It makes me faster, stronger. Way stronger. It completely covers my body like armor, protecting me from the harsh environment. Its helm allows me to see in the absolute darkness of the underground mines and is connected to the oxygen tank at my back. The spade shovels attached to my arms prove my status as a Digger. 

I reach the target location in a few dozen jumps. The crack is less than a foot-wide, but my help would be unnecessary otherwise. I hope that Raven’s scanner is right, this time. Sure, the man is an experienced Scouter, but this just means that he’s right half of the time. 

I remove the lock on my shovels, putting them forward. If before they were attached like two unnecessary wings, now they are my claws. I turn them on, which makes them vibrate at supersonic speed. The buzzing noise is as pleasant to my ear as ever. It helps me forget all my worries and just focus on the motions. One, two. One two. I’m a Digger, and so I dig. 

My parents named me Dexter, hoping that I’ll be as good with my hands as my dad was. That I’ll follow in his steps, become a Taker.  I didn’t live up to their expectations. I’m as clumsy as you get. Perhaps that’s for the better. Dad died when he tried to get something too far out of his reach, risking to make our life better. His death made everything worse. They tell everyone that Diggers have the highest mortality rate, but I know they are lying. Digging is much safer. Especially for someone who’s as good at it as me. 

Each Mining Crew consists of one Scouter, two Takers, and ten Diggers. The payment we receive scales with our contribution, which usually means that Diggers get the short end of the stick. We are the most replaceable, after all. But some, like me, out-earn other Diggers, almost catching up to some less fortunate Takers. How? By digging more than anyone else. Faster than anyone else. Longer than anyone else. At the moment, I’m the last active Digger in my team. And I’m almost done with the crack Raven sent me to. It has already become a twenty-feet-deep pit with me in the center. Five feet more to go.

I check the current time. 17:15. I check the suit’s state. Nine percent energy, twelve percent oxygen. Good. Let’s keep going.

“You should leave ASAP, Dex!” Raven’s shouted through the intercom, his voice urgent. “Seismic activity in Sixty-seven seconds! Sixty-four!”

We need Irium. I need Irium. But I need my life even more. Ellis has no one else left, only me. Thus, my life is too precious to risk. More than this, I still need Tyler to get Irium even if I reach the chasm. I have zero reasons to waste even a moment.

With not enough place for me to gain momentum, I can only jump for ten feet. It doesn’t matter. I dig my shovel into the wall of stone, fixing myself halfway to the top. I haul my body to launch myself upward and successfully land outside the whole. 

“Fifty-five!” Raven’s voice reminds me to hurry up. 

At the moment, I’m in a large cave chamber, hundreds of feet high. When the earthquake starts, the stalactites above are very likely to start falling down, alongside stone. Even worse, fissures can start to appear under my feet. I need to reach the reinforced tunnel—almost a mile away—in less than a minute. I should make it. I must. 

I run. No, I sprint. I dash. Avoiding the obstacles on my way, jumping over boulders, breaking stalagmites with my shovels. My breathing is in disorder, a rare event for me. My heart pounding with enough power to break my chest. I hungrily consume the precious oxygen as I push my body to its limit. I force my Lambda-suit to move faster than my muscles and bones can safely tolerate, my joints scream in pain, but I don’t care. I want to live. 

“Five seconds!” Raven sounds desperate, more than me. The last time I heard him like this was when Tommy had been about to dig into a natural gas storage the wrong way. Rest in peace, Tommy. 

Lambda-suits aren’t designed to make you fast. They still almost double your maximum sprinting speed. Perhaps this isn’t enough for me, though. I’m still roughly one hundred yards away from the safety and with only five seconds left. But then again, this chamber won’t completely collapse in a moment, right? 

“It’s here!” The Scouter declares, his voice deep. Twenty yards. I just need another second, at most two. But no. 

The cave chamber started to shake even before Raven’s warning reached me. Ground under me start to fall, and I leap. Only to be barely avoid the icicle of hard stone that almost impaled me from above. And then I collide with the boulder that blocks my path. The reinforced tunnel of steel is mere yards away, just behind the obstacle, which I can destroy in a few seconds as soon as I recover from the impact. But I don’t have this time.

I start to fall down as the entire floor caves in. I don’t have time for regret, or even for realizing that my life is about to be over. Everything happens too fast. I’m about to meet my end, but then something changes. 

“Take my hand!” a voice shouts through the intercom, but I know that it’s owner is close-by. A claw on the end of a long, three-inch-thick cable catches me before it’s too late. I recover from my daze and grip the cable with everything I had as it pulls me up. A few stones hit the top of my helm, but I’m fine. Soon enough, I find myself at the top of the boulder which blocked my path before. There he stands, in his Theta-suit that reminds me of a mechanical spider. One of our crew’s Takers. Tyler Redder. My best friend.

Alongside my savior, I slip into the metal tunnel before the chamber completely collapses. I made it. Exhausted beyond a reason and still scared shitless. But, most importantly, alive.