I wake up with a bit of a start trying my hardest not to move. I try to pretend to stay asleep, feeling my arms there is nothing binding me to stay still. I do feel something in the back of my left hand though which is odd. Biding my time, the sound of other people getting up and small discussions fill my surroundings. I’ll take that as we are allowed to move about.

Opening my eyes, I take in my surroundings. We appear to be in the back of a flying plane, its surprisingly almost silent except for the slight rumble in the floor and slight change in pressure when we move in elevation.

A quick headcount brings it to 34 people around me not including the armed guards on the sides. The different people are all in varying states of attire. Some are in business suits, others are wearing school uniforms. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent demographic for those that are here. Thinking back to the nomination letter these are all people someone wanted to get rid of.

I got a ping from my quests as well I’ll check that out later for now, I need to focus.

I notice Himiko off to one side, so I muscle my way over towards her pushing my way through the confused crowd. On the way I see a man with a denim jacket with wings. That’s someone I’ve seen a lot of the last several months. Someone that Miho will be happy to know will disappear. The man that gave her those scars, Seichiro Yoshioka. Filing that thought away for later I’ll can seek him out and kill him after I make sure Himiko is okay. Finally getting to Himiko I sort of get lost for what I should do. I don’t really know here so saying her name might be a bit awkward, I’ll just go for it.

“Himiko right?” I think that was a nickname or something. Miho mentioned her name before but that this is what she always called her.

“How…how do you know who I am and that nickname? Where the hell are we?” She seems wary of me. Unlike a lot of people here she knows why people are here. Just before I’d met Miho she had gone out and screamed at Homiko that she should disappear and told her that she had been nominated.

“I’m Miho’s uh friend. She said to be on the lookout for the girl with blond hair, blue eyes and ahem ‘big ol titties’ “I give air quotes on the comment, but She gives me a glare like that’s impossible. Though when I give the quote there is a bit of a look of surprise.

“How do I know you’re not lying?” she’s at least considering it likely recognizing the way that Miho liked to describe her.

“Oh, um here.” Checking my pockets, I even still have my phone what kind of kidnappers are these? Pulling it out I show my background. Seeing Miho hugging me in the same booth they visited the year prior caused Himiko to tear up.

“Are… are you here to make sure I disappear? I… I won’t resist just kill me quickly…I…I don’t want to be… touched…” she seems defeated and just slumps to the floor.

I don’t really know how to react to this. “Hmm? No, I’m here to make sure you survive. Miho felt terrible after she realized you would actually disappear. She was under the impression it was a joke like a chain letter. They were all so angry they nominated you. I nominated myself to make sure she didn’t have your death on her shoulders, so no matter how horrible things might get, I hope you can forgive her and do your best to survive.” This seems to cheer her up quite a bit letting her sniff and let out a small smile as I help her back up.

We are interrupted by a tv screen at the front turns on. Theres a somewhat fat man, button down white shirt with a baseball cap showing a Komodo dragon on it.

“HELLLLLOOOOOO EVERYBODY!”

“I’m tonight’s sponsor for this event! Nice to meet you all! We are honored to invite you all to participate in this exciting game!”

“This plane is now on route to an island somewhere in the pacific. Its an uninhabited island of a certain country to the south. But theres no water or food around so its far from being a paradise!”

Shit that’s not good maybe I should have saved the slot for dieting. I need to save Himiko if I want to finish the story quest though and I have some food in my storage.

“If you want to return home, you must finish the game! DO YOUR BEST!!”

“We will not accept any complaints or requests so don’t bother any futile resistance.”

“There will be consequences. If you do anything reckless.” He gives a dead stare to punctuate this remark.

“Now, here are the rules for the game everyones playing~ I’ll only explain once, so everyone better be paying close attention!”

“The rules are simple; just use these explosives we call “BIM” in battle.” He brings a small metal sphere with a large button on it to the camera to show off.

“Battle against whom? Well, everyone that’s standing around you of course!”

Oh, a survival game that should make things easy. Looking around there are a couple of kids and people of various ages. One of the kids a little girl rather than look at the screen or anything meets my eyes and just starts quivering in place. The guy next to her looks confused. Odd kid but regardless not much of a threat.

Honestly, this shouldn’t be too hard. Theres a muscular man with dreads and another man with sunglasses talking to a woman with a buzz cut in a suit. Those look like the biggest threats.

There also seems to be a guy with a flashy bright white hair color that seems to be moving through people giving them long looks.

“DON’T BE RIDICILOUS!! ARE YOU INSANE YOU PEOPLE MUST BE CRAZY!” A man interrupts the instructions haaa dumbass.

Hes followed by a few outcries from others in the plane. “Right Right!!” “You Can’t threaten us like this!” “Hurry up and let us GO!!!” “HEY, I’LL SUE YOU ALL!” “ARRRG” the man that started the whole problem gets tased in the back of his neck knocking him to the floor. Aaaaand that’s why hes a dumbass. These people drugged us and put us on a plane to participate in a death game. Do they really think a few words will make them reconsider? If they were worried about being sued they wouldn’t have drugged and dragged us here.

“AAAAAHAHHH” great now everyones freaking out. Looking over at Himiko shes so shocked shes frozen in place. Well, that’s better then being like one of these idiots at least. Drawing attention will just put you at a disadvantage.

The fat man on the screen seems to get upset from the chaos. “BE QUIET! HOW CAN I EXPLAIN THIS CLEARLY WITH ALL THIS NOISE!”

“The next electric shock will be a higher voltage whatever harm it may cause I honestly don’t care anymore.” This shuts people up. The man that was shocked before slowly getting helped up by the others.

“Alright, now that that’s dealt with let’s get on with it. There are many types of BIM, but you will each only start with one type. You will receive 8 BIM of what ever one is assigned to you. There is no manual so remember to use your creativity and imagination folks!”

“Lastly and the most important condition for your mission. Please look at your left hand.” Everyone starts to look at their hands that’s where I felt the smooth object earlier. It’s a brilliant green gem surrounded by angry red skin from whatever procedure they performed.

“I believe some people may have already noticed but your left hands have chips implanted in them.” I assumed it was a tracker of some sort, so we don’t run away? I know from my quest I have to collect 16 of them to escape with Himiko.

“They are microchips that allow you all to detect one another’s presence. If your thinking of removing the device, it can only be done surgically. Should your heart or lungs stop functioning however you will be able to remove it easily!” Hmm I wonder if they can be removed by using a knife though. It wouldn’t be a delicate procedure but digging out the flesh around it would probably be more ideal for them than dying.

“Everyone, please collect eight of them” He gets a huge grin at this point turning into a sneer as he looks at us through the screen.

“This is the only condition you must satisfy in order to leave the island.”

“In other words, including your own you must collect at least 7 more chips.” A few people are startled by this. As if cementing that we have to kill if we want any hope to escape. I sort of wish he would just get on with it though.

A guy that has a moderately average body brown hair and sunken eyes pushes his way to the front of the group. “ARE YOU DONE! YOU CAN’T TELL IF THIS IS A GAME OR REAL LIFE HUH? THIS ISNT SOME GAME. THESE ARE REAL PEOPLE!” Well there's another idiot. Sure enough, the guards don’t heed his commentary and shock the back of his head with a taser at a much higher voltage than the previous guy. Knocking him out.

“Alright everyone come up and grab your BIM’s! Orderly lines now!” I get in line behind Himiko. In front of us is a really fat guy with a blue shirt, shorts and glasses. I get a glimpse at the little video describing his BIM. It’s a gas that spreads out and kills everything it touches. Interesting. It’s a cylinder shape with orange siding.

Then its Himiko’s which look like small round balls with bumps. The video shows what looks like impact grenades.

My turn comes up. The guy doing the video looks over a sheet while looking at me. “Shimada Hitomi? You nominated yourself huh? Gutsy move, are you one of those freaks that needed the money but didn’t have the guts to kill anyone? Poor shit. Anyways heres your BIM watch this.” Interestingly he has an American accent, but I turn to the video regardless. It’s a brief animation of a person clutching the BIM and a triangle forming around them. Then a bunch of explosions happen around them before they casually walk out of the smoke. Hmm so like a shield? That sounds good but I sort of wish I had ones like Himiko’s to start with. Though perhaps these will be more useful in the long run.

We are each given a parachute and told to wait until the others have received their BIM.

Walking up besides Himiko again I try to make a plan. “Himiko?”

“Yes Hitomi? Also, you know that’s not really my name, right? Just something she called me kind of like a nickname…” I nod in response and smile while thinking of Miho.

“Eh doesn’t matter it’s what she called you for the weeks we planned for this so it’s what I’m calling you, I guess. When we get down there, head for any landmark you can see near the center of the island I’ll be looking for you. Don’t trust other people, everyone will kill to escape.” This makes here a bit flustered at the idea that I don’t really care. Also, that I mentioned killing.

“But…but what are we going to do? We aren’t going to kill anyone right?”

I just give her a flat look. She can’t be that dumb right?

“We aren’t right?” I keep looking at her and that’s the only response I’ll give to that stupid question.

The man on the tv speaks up again. “Does everyone have their parachutes? Don’t worry if this is your first time, the parachutes will open automatically.” As he says that the back of the plane starts to open. People are shifted and start losing their balance as the back slides open.

Quick screams of surprise and fear start coming out of the other survivors. “HURRY UP AND JUMP!” “Are you kidding?” “That’s impossible!!” “Why the hell would I do that?”

Seeing that people aren’t getting a move on one of the guards moves forward. “WHEN WE SAY JUMP YOU JUMP!” He moves forward and shocks a lady that was putting up a bit of a fight in the head with the taser knocking her out. Once shes on the ground he just gives a smirk before kicking her body off to the side sending her falling out of the plane unconcious. Well, that is our cue to get out of here.

“Come on Himiko that means we need to get off now!” people start getting shoved off the plane. Tasers coming closer to the group to urge them off.

Jumping out of the plane I try to keep an eye on Himiko’s chute, but I lose track of it in the darkness of the night. I do not really know how to parachute it never really came up in any of my lives so far. Thankfully, I manage to avoid impaling myself on a tree and instead land in a glade just before the beach. My phone said it was 4am but that’s assuming I’m even in the same time zone, other people are still likely adapting to the situation. Most of them probably still do not understand why they are here or what is happening.

I didn’t notice any other parachutes falling near me but I couldn’t see much in the dark. Since I have a bit of time, I check my quest notifications that I put off earlier.

New Chain Quest: Obtain one chip!

Alright I can work with that.

Time to hunt.