CHAPTER 22: One Year Later...

“W-welcome to the new world?” I tried reading what’s written on the door but I'm having a lot of difficulties pronouncing each word. My brother is still unconscious, and I tried shaking him awake but he never did. I sat beside him and curl my knees to my chest resting my head on it.

W-where am I? I remember everything that happened…is this the afterlife?I think about multiple questions and scenes in my mind. I remember seeing my brother and my hand full of his blood. But now, he’s completely fine. Everything that’s going on doesn’t make sense.

“Ughhh…” My brother slowly opens his eyes as he touches his forehead.

“B-Brother!” I say quickly standing up happy to see him alive.

“Ughhh…my head… what the hell…” He says as slowly sits upright. Once he gets adjusted to the darkness, he looks around the room and like me, had a confused expression. “Where....where am I?”

“I-I don’t know brother. Are you okay? Does your head feel okay? Do you have a-" I asked him. The minute he sees me he pushed me away with such force that I fell back hitting the ground hard.

“Ack!” I shout in pain as I subconsciously used my elbow to break my fall.

“What the fuck do you think? My head hurts! Where the fuck is this?!” He says without even looking if I was hurt by the fall or not but, I don’t mind. It’s always like this. I’ve gotten used to it. Even though how much he hates me, he’s the only family I got, and I can't abandon him.

“I-I don’t know. I woke up here a-also. The l-last thing I-I remembers was t-that person grabbing my head. And-And-” I tried to explain to him, but I can see he’s starting to get irritated, so I stopped talking.

“You’re so damn annoying.” My brother says, and I stay silent looking at the ground. “I'm not stupid like you. I remember what happened last. Fuck, I guess this is the afterlife.”

He then looks at me with a cold stare I’m too familiar with. I tried to avert his gaze trying not to get hit again and when I felt him move, I closed my eyes while putting my hands in front of me trying to shield any incoming attack. I waited but I just hear him walking away from me. I open my eyes and I watched his back as he slowly walked towards the door, but I could hear him mumble that made my heart ache. “Fucking hell, even in the afterlife they still throw you at me. Tch.”

"I-I'm sorry," I whisper as I slowly stand up rubbing my elbow.

“Welcome to the new world? What the fuck is this shit?” My brother reads the sign and enters the dark hallway without waiting for me. I follow him keeping a distance not wanting to get near his personal space. On the other side is a hallway so dark we couldn't see the end of it. The orb light started floating towards the hallway lighting it bit by bit.

“What the hell….” My brother whispers as he walks in and follows it. I quickly try to stand almost stumbling back down. As soon as I got my balance, I quickly followed behind him. We walked following the white orb blindly until we come across another door. A wooden one with a lot of nice stuff on it. It looks like someone carved a scene on it. The white orb stops at the top of the door shining the image completely. There is a man carved into the door fighting a dragon. Right next to the dragon is a giant, and it's holding a club ready to strike down on the man. On the bottom right corner, there is a group of people that seem to be walking away from the battle. I trace it with my hand and it's amazing how smooth it was carved out the door.

"I guess it wants me to open this…" My brother says, and he gets ready to push the door open. I don’t say anything and just stand back. If I do say something or try to help him, I know he will hit me again. He tried to push but it doesn’t budge at all. He tried and tried again but it won’t open. He tried kicking it, nothing. The door is shut closed. Thinking two people are better than one, I tried helping by placing my hand on the door trying to push it open.

I suddenly felt a force almost turning my head around as he slapped me with all his might.

“Ah!” I shout as I felt a sting on my cheek and tears slowly come out of my eyes. I felt dizzy as I fall on my knees and I tried as hard as I can, not to cry but the pain on my cheek was too much.

“Stupid fuck! Now you decide to help me?!” My brother shouts and his voice pierces my ear as I tried to ready myself from being hit. When I see his hand raised above over me, I raised my hands to try and deflect any incoming attack.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please forgive me! I’m sorry!!” I say over and over again as tears quickly poured down my cheeks. I closed my eyes to brace myself for the next attack, but I didn’t feel anything. I slowly open my eyes and through my bangs covering my face, I see my brother’s eyes looking down at me with so much hatred it felt like he wanted to kill me.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry," I say trying to not look directly into his eyes.

“Tch…why do I have to waste my energy on you even in the afterlife. Fucking hell.” My brother says in a low tone, but he said it loud enough for me to hear. No matter how much he says it to me, how I should have never been born, how I should just disappear from his life, every time he says, it still hurts me.

But I can’t let him go. He’s the only family I got. The only human connection I will ever get. I never left the house, or I should say I wasn’t allowed to. My brother didn’t allow me to go to school because he said he couldn’t afford it and school is a waste on someone like me. Everything I have learned up to now is from watching TV whenever my brother is not home. I do dream of going to school, to at least learn how to write and read difficult words. I can only read basic stuff but it’s still too difficult for me sometimes.

“Get the fuck up and help me with the door!” My brother shouts and I quickly stand up ignoring the stinging sensation on my cheek. I place my hands on the right side of the door and help my brother push it. “Push!!”

I push with all my might and I can feel my frail skinny arms shaking but I kept pushing and pushing until the door started opening letting in a small light coming from the other side.

“NGghnn!” I muffled my voice keeping my mouth closed as I give it my all to push the door wide open. It suddenly snapped open and I came tumbling down towards the other side.

“Ughhhh…” I can hear my brother mumbling curse words as he also fell forward rolling on the ground. I can see a small amount of blood coming out of his left elbow that made me worried.

“B-Brother!” I shout running to his side and I can feel a stinging sensation on my knees. “A-A-are you okay brother?"

He looked up and I thought he would scream at me but suddenly smiled as he looked past me.

“Are you guys ok?" A voice came out from behind me making me jump forward as I fell on my ass. The minute I turn, I can see a girl and a guy standing near us. She looked really pretty and he looks really handsome. I have never been in this situation where I'm face to face with another person except my brother. It was too much for me to handle that I froze in place.

“M-m-my…I-I-“ I started choking on my words and I couldn’t talk properly. My heart was beating so fast that it felt like it would jump out of my chest. My brother noticed me struggling to respond and he decided to get in front of me.

“H-hey, we’re fine. Just a little banged up from trying to open the door. Do you guys know where we are? What’s this place? Is this the afterlife?” My brother asked them, and the female offered a hand out to me. I looked at my brother not knowing what to do and he sees me looking nervous.

What does she want? Why does she have her hand out? Does she want me to give her money? I don’t have any money. I say in my mind as I didn’t know what to do or what she wanted from me. I see her looking at me confused.

“Ah, sis, get up.” He tells me as he keeps looking at her hand and I grabbed it. She pulls me up too fast and I fell onto her boobs.

They feel soft…I bet pillows feel like this. I whisper in my mind as I rest my head on it. Noticing that I did something unthinkable, I quickly pull myself back worried she’d hit me for touching her.

“I-I-I’m sorry!” I say closing my eyes waiting for her hand to come flying to my face any minute.

“It’s ok, it’s ok, she won’t hit you. There, there my dear little sister.” My brother comes running to me hugging me and petting me in the head which is something he never did so it got my mind going crazy.

“W-w-wha-“ I tried to say but my brother held me tight that it hurts.

“It’s ok, dear little sister. I’m here to protect you.” He says, and I look up to him directly into his eyes and I can see his hatred aimed towards me. I know what that means. He’s telling me to stay quiet. My brother then releases me and turns to talk towards the group.

“We-we’ve been abused by our mother…forgive us…. the last thing we remember is being hit until we passed out. We woke up in there a few minutes ago.” My brother points towards the dark hallway we just came out of.

“We don’t know. Some of us here either died or went to sleep and woke up here. Aww, you poor thing.” The girl who helped me up says and she looks at me with a sad expression and I retreated behind my brother.

“Yea like no joke. I fricking went to sleep and next thing I know, bang! I’m looking at a stone ceiling.” The guy with long hair says.

I stay behind my brother and I looked around and the place is filled with a lot of people. Some of them are sitting around while some are trying to open a large door. There are some female people along with some male people. If I only know how to count, I would count how many there are. Everything was so new to me. Seeing so many people in one place is something I only have seen on TV.

“How long have you guys been here?” My brother asked.

“Hmmm…a couple of days? We don’t really know what going on either. We all think it’s the afterlife, but we feel too alive to be dead. At the same time, we're all stuck here. We've been trying to open that big door since we all got here but it won't open.” The girl says. I noticed she's wearing shiny purple clothes. I see my brother is also staring at her clothes but near her neck where I had my head resting a minute ago.

"Ah…that must feel comfortable," I say without noticing that I said it out loud. My brother turned to me and gave me a quick gaze indicating that if I talk again, I will get hit. So, I hid behind my brother more to prevent myself from staring at her clothes.

“Well if this isn’t the afterlife, what the hell is this place…" My brother's voice trails off as he tries to examine the situation. He looks around and studies the structure of the room. The ceiling seems pretty far away.

"We've been trying to find an exit but nothing. We checked all of the room we woke up in and it was a dead end. I bet where you came from it's like that right?" The longhaired guy asked my brother.

"Y-yea. We woke up and followed a light orb that led to that door we just opened up." My brother says.

"Hmmm...that's what I'm afraid of. I was hoping that there is an exit within your room. But your door won’t open no matter how hard we tried. But now I guess the only way out now is probably that giant door." The longhaired guys say, and his face has a look of disappointment.

“By the way, my name is Daikichi, my girlfriend here is called Kana. What are ya names?” The longhaired guy asked my brother with a happy expression.

“My name is Park Jung-Gi. Or call me Jung for short. Nice to meet you.” My brother replied back with his hand reaching out to his and they both wiggle it up and down. I look down my hand and try to study why they are wiggling each other’s hands.

“How about you? What’s your name?” The girl came closer and asked me. I didn't want to get in more trouble, so I hid behind my brother more. If I talk, I know he will hit me later on for it.

“Sorry about that, she’s a little shy when it comes to other people. My little sister name is Park Su-Yeon, you can call her Suyeon. Say hello to them Suyeon.” My brother looks at me and gives me a smile. Even though I know it’s fake I felt happy. He never smiled at me before.

I slowly approach the female and bow my head. “He-hello.”

When I look up, I can see her through my bangs. She seems really happy.

“Omg, omg Daikichi she is sooo cute," The girl named Kana goes and hugs me.

“Uh-huh….” Daikichi responds. Then Kana grabs my hand and starts pulling me towards a big stone human. I started to panic, and I look at my brother for help, but he just gave me a smile.

“Go on with her Suyeon, I’ll talk to the rest of them to figure out our situation. Don’t cause any trouble now.” His last sentence brought chills to my spine. I knew what he meant. I’ll get hit if I bring him trouble. So, without any resistance, I quietly followed Kana.

“Come Suyeon, I'll introduce you to everyone.” The girl named Kana dragged me towards where a stone human is standing tall. I see a lot more people sitting around it. I don't think it's alive since it made out of the same stuff the floor and wall are made off.

“And who might this young lady be?” A big rough scary looking old man speaks, and I quickly hide behind Kana.

“Goro-sensei! Don’t scare her now!” Another female stands up and she looks a lot older than most of the people here.

“Hahaha sorry, my name is Goro, what is your name missy?” He asked me, and I just hide behind Kana without saying anything back.

“It seems like she’s not used to people Goro-sensei, her name is Park Su-Yeon.” Kana answer for me.

“Oh, I see…you must not understand our language. Su-Yeon, that’s a Korean native name.” The big burly man named Goro says and then forcibly coughed as he put one hand in his back. “Hmmm let me see if I remember Korean…um…an…ayoung hasyou?”

He held out his hand out I guess for me to hold and wiggle up and down. I look at his face and he gives me a warm smile that made me relax a bit. I decided to follow what my brother did earlier and grab his hand and wiggle it up and down roughly.

“No no no no sensei, it's anyoung haseyo. Not ayoung hasyou…” The older female says and Goro the burly man laughs very deeply. Even though he looks really scary, he gives off a harmless vibe and I chuckle a bit.

“See, the little missy doesn’t mind.” He continued saying.

“Jeez sensei...Can you be more like an adult? It’s our job to show these kids a good proper etiquette…jeez…” The older female says as she turns to me and holds out her hand which I roughly wiggled up and down.

“Haha, you have a very extravagant handshake. Hello there Suyeon, my name is Miki, you can call me Miki-san or Miki-sensei. It’s nice to meet you.” She says as I let her hand go. “You probably don’t understand what I’m saying, hmm let me see…Anyoung Haseyo Suyeon-shi? Uhh…uhh...ai-“

“Haha, it's ok Miki-sensei. She understands us. She just doesn't talk that much. But I heard her talk earlier." Kana says, and she puts her arm around me.

“Oh, I thought she doesn’t speak our language......How old are you Suyeon?” Ms. Miki-sensei says but I don't say anything.

"Huh, not talkative aren’t you." Another male person approached us. His hair was black with dark brown streaks on it. He looks good that I stared into his face without noticing. "Is there something on my face?"

I quickly hide behind Kana trying not to stare at him and my face feels hot for some reason.

“Wow Amaguchi, you already got dumped. Hello there~" A girl behind him peeks out waving at me. She has blonde hair and her eyes are as blue the ocean that I always watch on TV. I always dreamed of seeing the ocean in real life. "My name is Lisa, what's yours?"

Her stare made me lose my mind and it goes blank. All I did is stare at her eyes non-stop.

“Wow look, you’re so ugly you made her lose her train of thought.” The guy named Amaguchi tells her and I see her pinch his arm making him shout in pain.

"Very funny you baboon. Say Suyeon, which school do you go to?” She says while tilting her head sideways and I follow her tilting my head sideways. "Pfft~ You’re funny!"

Using my left hand, I bring my bangs up exposing my face to get a better look at her eyes. I quickly check my forehead to see if I have a fever since I felt hot earlier, but I feel fine. They all stopped talking and even the red-haired guy slowly opened his mouth.

"Oh my...." Ms. Miki-sensei says as she grabs my cheeks and brings her face towards mine.

"What a beauty! Why hide it with these hideous bangs!" Lisa says.

My mind is going blank again. She is so close to my face that I started to feel uncomfortable that I wanted to cry. My eyes started tearing up, but I did my best to hold it in by biting my bottom lip gently and holding my breath.

"Soooooo cuuuuuuuuuteeeee~," Lisa says as she sees my expression.

"But look at you! you're so skinny…Here have some candy~" Ms. Miki-sensei hands me a candy and I accept it without a second thought. I don't want to bring trouble to my brother, so I stayed quiet trying not to say anything but I’m really hungry.

"Wait...what happened to your face?" Kana asked as she inspects my cheek that has been swollen and red from my brother’s slap. "Omg! Your knees are bleeding! Your elbows are also bleeding! What the hell!"

Kana then drags me to another room that has a water pond in it to wash my wounds. It stung whenever she splashed water on it, but the cold water made it feel good afterward. After washing up, I was brought back to the room and I see my brother and the longhaired guy named Daikichi approach us.

“Hey hey hey beautiful," Daikichi says and Kana started blushing.

"Aww Daikichi....thank-"

"Oh no, not you, I was talking to your door here! it’s so beautiful!" Daikichi says as he does a pose towards the door like what I see on TV when someone does this event called proposing.

"Hey door, will you marry me?" Daikichi says and everyone burst out laughing.

“Daikichi!” Kana shouts at him and gave him a mad look like how my brother looks at me every day yet it felt different. I see Mr. Goro-sensei laughing and I chuckle a little. Being surrounded by people is not as bad as I thought it was. Then that’s when I noticed. My brother is standing right in front of me looking at me. My heart started beating really fast and I tried to control my breathing to help prepare myself for any beating.

“Awww it's so good to see my sister laugh.” He pats my head while giving me a smile.

I was so stupid. How could I try to enjoy? We don’t even know our situation. For all I know, it's probably my fault we were brought here. I should have stayed quiet. I say in my mind as I close my eyes. But rather than hitting me, he just walked away towards the big door.

“Why don't we try opening this door one more time? Maybe we get more answers on where we are by going through this door.” My brother says to Daikichi and they move closer towards the big door. I see all of the boys and some of the girls are pushing it together, but it won't budge. While they worked on the door, me and Kana along with Ms. Miki-sensei move back towards the statue. I sit near the foot of it leaning my back against the stone block it's standing on. They tried asking me questions but this time I knew better. I stayed quiet until they gave up talking to me and just start telling me stories. I pretend to listen but in my mind was something different.

Was I safe? Will, he hit me later on? It was very hard for me to tell. I couldn’t say anything or do anything. I just stayed quiet and hoped he doesn't hit me later on.They worked for a while trying to open the large door, but it won’t budge. Even with the help of Mr. Goro-sensei who looks like the strongest person here, the door won’t open. They all gave up and sat around the statue talking to each other. Some of the boys looked around the room trying to see if there is any hidden switch for the big door, but they didn't find anything.Now that I noticed, the whole room was in the shape of a circle and the walls were filled with open doors where each of us came out. Only one door was left closed and that is a big one in the direction the statue is facing.The statue itself was scary. It is an image of a hooded person to what seems to have wings. But both wings are not the same. One looks like those flying animals have that I see on TV that looks fluffy and soft. While the other looks very weird. It looks like a piece of ripped shirt in the shape of a wing.

The statue is holding a sword lodged inside what we’re all leaning on and the statue itself is riddled with cracks and signs of old age. Actually, the whole room leaves signs of old age. The floor was made out of bricks, but a small amount of grass is escaping the cracks and vines are crawling up the walls and even covering some of the doors that were opened. We're all gathered munching on what seems to be meat with a Smokey flavor. They found it inside a sack under the statue's legs and have been feeding on it ever since. I slowly nibble on mine trying not to attract attention. But the girl Lisa has been staring at me non-stop also the guy named Amaguchi has been stealing glances.

“So, let me get this straight, we all either died and woke up here or some of you went to sleep and woke up here…But this is not the afterlife? It sounds like the afterlife to me…” My brother says.

"I know, but...never mind," Daikichi says but stops himself from continuing on.

"Go on, tell us. It's better to have a theory to hold on to rather than have nothing." Amaguchi says to Daikichi.

“Well...you know. I think we’re at the place where the group of people disappeared to.” Daikichi says but I see his expression is quite sad. Kana then leans her head on his shoulder and her expression is making my heart hurt.

"Wait...you mean the great disappearance that happened a year ago?" My brother asked.

"Yea, you know where that one dude no one could ever find, kidnapped and took people to play some sick game he had," Daikichi says somehow his expression has become very heavy. "Maaaaaaan I hope it isn't but...I don’t know…”

"But what? Come on Daikichi, don't hold out on us if you know anything." My brother says. He is starting to blend in and become one with the group. I stay quiet to myself and nibble on the meat bit by bit, but the Kana and the Lisa girl keeps close to me making me feel uncomfortable sometimes.

"Well, it might be just a freaking coincidence but…are not most of us here...a high school student?" Daikichi asked and everyone looked at each other. "I want to believe it’s a coincidence but, it's just weird the majority of us are still in high school. I mean, the only people who're not high school are Goro-sensei, Miki-sensei, and Kana. But Kana just recently graduated."

"Well....I'm not a high school student. So is my sister." My brother says, and everyone stays quiet and looks at us. Having so many people look at me at the same time made me feel nervous and I hide behind my brother.

"Wait...you guys are not in high school?!" Kana asked.

“Well, she would be, but she didn’t get a chance. Our mom couldn’t afford high school let alone our living expenses, so she decided not to send her to school. My mom used most of her saving on alcohol.” My brother says, and I see everyone’s gets an expression of sadness but more like because of what he said. I see Mr. Goro-sensei getting mad which the same goes for Ms. Miki-sensei. Except that in reality, our mother died before I was born, and I was left in the care of my mother after our father disappeared with a different woman when I was a baby. I didn’t want to lie especially to Lisa and Kana, but I didn’t want my brother to beat me up, so I just kept nibbling on the piece of meat.

“Don’t worry! I will protect both of you!” Mr. Goro-sensei says as he stands and holds his clamped left hand towards his chest. Everyone nods in agreement.

"Me too," Amaguchi says but I can see he's staring at me.

"Me three!" Lisa says as she grabs my arms and yanks me toward her. My heart was pounding so fast that I wiggle out of her grasp and hide behind my brother.

“Hahaha, its ok little sister they...won't hurt you." My brother says and when I look into his eyes through his bangs, I feel his cold stare. "Thank you, sensei. I took the responsibility to be her guardian. She's not in high school but it was my dream to send her to one. But now...in this place...it's going to be hard.”.

"Wait...how old are you?" Daikichi asked.

"Oh me? I'm 26." My brother replies, and they all are in shock.

"W-what?! I thought you were 18! You look young!" Daikichi screams and my brother just laughs.

“Hahaha yea everyone says that to me...How about you uhhh…K-Kana? You recently graduated from high school?" My brother asked, and he seems to be interested in her.

“Oh, I graduated not long ago. I’m actually Diakichi senior and his club president when I was at school.” Kana says as she hugs Daikichi’s hand. I look at my brother and I can see a bit of envy in his eyes.

“This is what I’m saying, don’t you guy find it a bit weird? There are a lot of us in here. Approximately 20 high school students including your sister. Then there’s Kana, Jung-gi, Miki-sensei, and Goro-sensei.” Diakichi says. There is a lot of us in here and some of them I can’t remember the name.

“it can’t be just a coincidence....” Amaguchi says.

“I remember on the news, some of the guys who disappeared last year was taken from their hospital beds after getting into a freak accident. And some of us...well...got into a freak accident...” Lisa says. I also remember that on TV. A guy who fell from the stairs that were in critical condition suddenly disappeared in the hospital.

"Kana," Daikichi calls out her name and I can sense a very heavy feeling. "If we’re actually brought here…we have a chance of locating him.”

“Find who?” My brother asked. "If you don’t mind me asking."

“My best friend. He was one of the people who disappeared. Or I should say.......kidnapped.” Daikichi replies looking down the ground. His smile completely disappeared, and I can see Kana's eyes starting to get teary. No one said anything as the atmosphere got heavy.

“Wooooooow~ You guys~ Such a big relaxed group~” A voice came ringing out from above us and when I looked up, the statues head was looking down on all of us.

“Kya!!!” Some of the girls screamed as they scrambled away from the statue while I just stared at it not knowing it’s abnormal for statues to talk.

“W-w-what the fuck?!” Daikichi shouts and I see them all run towards the far end of the room. The statue moved to stand near me and I can see its stone eyes looking at me. Thinking about the handshake we've been doing earlier, I held out my hand and it gave me a smile as It grabbed it and shook it gently up and down.

“S-s-suyeon. C-come here.” Kana says nervously as I look at her. Thinking I did something wrong, I looked down on the ground as I ran towards her side. She grabbed me and placed me behind her shielding me from the statue.

“Aww, I was having fun interacting with her.” The statue says as it stood back up. It’s voice somehow sound familiar to me like I’ve heard it somewhere before. Yet I brushed off the idea since I never met anyone outside our apartment. “So, hows everyone’s day so far?”

“W-who are you? A-are you like Zeus or something?” One of the guys asked the statue.

"Zeus? Who the hell is that? I'm the one and only, most handsome god Luro!” It spoke its name, and everyone recognized it, even me. I watched it on TV before. When the people disappeared, a letter was sent to their families a week later. In the letter was the message about the people who got kidnapped and are playing a game to save the world. That letter was signed by the kidnapper and his name was Luro.

“You! Where are all the missing children?!” Mr. Goro-sensei shouts at the statue and I can fury from his eyes.

“Those guys?... don’t know~” Luro responded while singing the last line. “Some created a city, while one dude is stuck inside a dungeon. He probably should be exiting in a couple of days though…”

Mr. Goro-sensei charged right at the statue and in a blink of an eye, he was sent flying towards the wall.

"Guack!" Goro-sensei shouted in pain as he fell to the ground. The impact was so hard it immobilized him, but it didn’t knock him out.

"Goro-sensei!" Kana screams and runs towards Mr.Goro-sensei direction.

“Now~ Now~ Let’s not get violent shall we? Kekekkekekekeke. You all must be wondering why are you’re all here? Well…anyone want to take a guess?” Luro asked us and no one said anything.

Everyone remained quiet except Daikichi who stood his ground and didn’t cower like the rest. “Don’t tell me it’s some sappy shit like saving this world?”

Luro then sat down towards the pedestal and started clapping. The sound of rocks hitting each other vibrated throughout the whole room.

“Bingo~," The statue named Luro says after he stopped clapping. “You are a smart man. No wonder you became the new #1 of Seito High school~”

I have seen it on TV before. Seito High School, the number one high school from the country. A place where you can only be admitted in if you had strong connections or a gifted individual. After the number one top student disappeared, the school itself was in the public eye for quite some time.

“How the fuck did you know that?” Daikichi asked and I can see him grinding his teeth out of anger. Something my brother used to do to me when he’s really mad.

“I know everything little Daikichi, the friend of Yasu.” He says, and I can see Daikichi wants to charge at him. Thanks to Kana, she managed to hold him back.

“You bastard! Where is he?!” Daikichi shouted out and the statue just laughed at him.

“Now~ Do all of you know where you all are?” Luro said ignoring Daikichi’s question.

"D-D-Didn’t you just say we’re in the planet on the sky?” Amaguchi says nervously.

“kekekeke I don't mean that I mean this room, do you know what this room is?" Luro says and no one says anything.

“Jeez~ You guys remind me of a certain group…so boring~ Well let me just cut to the chase. You all are inside a dungeon. All of you are players of this world. Let’s say…new players kekekekeke. You main mission or goal or quest or whatever you all want to call it, is to kill me~ If you don’t succeed and all of you die, I will crash this planet into the place where all of your family live and we all can die together kekekekekekek aren’t I nice~” The statue turns its head making me follow it.

“W-w-what? What is this blasphemy! Release us this instant!” Ms. Miki-sensei says.

“kekekekeke no-can-do sensei~ the only way for you to go home is to kill me~ and your demands reminds me of a certain girl...” Luro says and he stands back up on top the stone slab thingy. But somehow his voice, the way he laughs and talks…. it all sounds familiar.

Ah! The one that was in our room! I say in my mind figuring out who he is. I quickly tug on my brother’s clothes and he gives me a glance like he wanted to hit me from bothering him.

“B-b-brother, he’s the one that killed us…” I whisper to him

“Shhh shut up, will you! I know that I also heard his voice. Now be quiet!" My brother whispers back, and I hide back behind him.

“Now, let’s get to the main juice of this story, shall we?” Luro says and then he snaps his finger and a notification came up in front of me.

Welcome to the NEW Class window.

Please read each class carefully.

Knight

Assassin

Archer

Blade

Healer

Berserker

Dual

Mage

Summoner

Guardian

Warlock

Paper-Mache

Footwork

Once you're ready to pick a class, say "ready."

"What's in front of you is a list of class you all can choose from! Yay! I included everything there! Aren't I nice? ~ kekekekekeke” Luro says and we all are speechless at the notification in-front of our faces. I tried touching it, but my hand just goes through.

“W-w-what are these?” Lisa says nervously as she looks at her window.

“Sigh…I just said it! A list of class you all can choose from! Didn’t any of you play a game similar to this back at your home planet? Well, think of that and this the same thing~ only difference is…that is a game…. this is real life! Kekekekeke.” Luro crosses his legs as he sat on the pedestal.

“Wait…what?” Amaguchi asked making Luro put his hand over his forehead as he shook his head side to side.

“Jeez, must I explain everything in detail?” Luro asked and no one said anything, so he continued talking. “It’s like those MMORPG games you guys play, or is it RPG? Ah, who cares kekekekekeke. Just don't die mkay~ no respawns!”

“You didn’t answer my question!” Daikichi shouts and his voice was sharp as it resonated in the room. “Where is he?!”

“Damn, why so loud? If you’re talking about your dear friend, go find him. I’m too lazy to keep tab of what the hell he’s doing.”

“You bastard!” Kana shouted out and I can see she also want to charge at him.

“Wow, you’re so like him. So damn feisty. Hehehe don’t die, I won’t revive you.” Luro says and somehow, the way he said it was scarier than the tone my brother usually uses. It made me scared looking at him. “Well, I did make a few exceptions last time but this time, if you die, you’re dead. Simple as that~ kekekekekekeke. Whenever you all are ready, just say “ready” then say the class you want to choose~ simple right?”

Right when some of the people about to say ready, Daikichi shouts out loud drawing everyone’s attention, “Everyone wait! You, Luro was it? Are these class permanent?”

“I hoped you would never ask that question...but then again...you're not a buffoon like them," Luro says as he gave him a chilling smile. “And here I am hoping you all pick the wrong classes you don’t want and complain and die and blah and blah….sigh*.......way to take the fun out of it.”

Luro stood back up and got on top the pedestal before speaking again, “Yes they are permanent. If you want to know the description of each class…well…figure it out yourselves! kekekekeke buhbye~”

“Wait! Wait! What do we have to do next?!” Amaguchi shouts but the statue stopped responding as it slowly moved back to its original pose and silence fell into the room again.

“Is this all real? I-I-I don’t think I can do this. I want to go home!” One of the girls within our group shouts as she slumps to the ground covering her face with her hands. Some of the people I don’t know started having small talk with each other. And some of them slump down towards the ground leaning against the wall. I guess no one wants to go near Luro.

I quietly stick with my brother, but I keep a distance since I can see he’s irritated. I guess meeting the person who killed us made him mad. Everyone agreed to not pick a class and move back to our starting rooms to rest. I guess staying with the stone Luro made everyone not want to be in the main room. A lot of the kids grouped up. I wanted to be in the same group as Kana and Lisa but my brother pulled me to the side and told them that I wasn't comfortable with people yet so we're going back to our room. I was a bit sad leaving Kana and kept stealing glances at her when my brother and I walked towards our room. We each took torches from the wall to illuminate the room much better.

As we walk the dark hallway, I stay behind my brother, so I don't get in his way. I hear him mumbling and cursing from time to time. The minute we got into the room, he throws the torch towards the dark area of the room and turns towards me.

“Guack!” I held my stomach as the air was taken out of me when he punched my gut. I got on my knees and I tried my best to breathe. “Kuack….gasp* Hua! Hah~ hah~”

My brother kicked me in the side toppling me over and I yelped in pain.

“Stupid bitch. Who do you think you are to get close to them?! You are nothing but dirt! A fucking bug! You got that?” He says as he puts pressure with his foot on top of my head.

“I-I-I’m sorry! I'm sorry! I didn’t know what to do!” I shouted while covering my stomach from the pain. He lifts up his foot, but he grabs my hair and pulls it up. It felt like my hair is being ripped from my head.

“Shh! Would you be quiet?! Would you want them to come here and see you like this?” My brother whispers to my ear and I shake my head. He then lets me go and I run towards the corner of the room and got into a fetal position how I usually protect myself. If I have a wall surrounding me, He can only hit me from one side. But my brother doesn’t follow and just sits by the torch he threw on the ground. He even took mine and lit up his area much more. I didn’t want to move, or I might get hit so I stayed in the darkest part of the room and sobbed quietly. I sobbed silent cries, so my brother doesn’t hear. I cried until I actually fall asleep.

“I did it! I figured it out!” My brother shouts waking me up from my sleep. I felt the pain in my stomach still as I tried to sit up. He seems really happy looking at something in the air. I’m tempted to ask what he has figured out, but I’m scared to get hit again. He then sees me looking at him and his happy expression turned to anger.

“What the fuck you are looking at?!” He screams at me.

“N-Nothing brother. Nothing.” I say as I quickly look towards the ground. I curl up and rest my head on my knees as I hug my legs. I was about to doze off to sleep again until I heard footsteps coming near me. I looked up and I see my brother standing over me with a smile on his face.

“B-B-Brother?” I say, and he just stood there smiling. Then he slowly got on a squatting position and his eye level is the same as mine.

“Guess what I found my dear little sister?” He asked me with a smile on his face.

“W-what is it brother?” I asked happily. It's the first time he was actually interested in telling me something and I'm not about to let it pass to form a bond between us.

“I found the best class suited only for you.” He says placing his hand on top of my head and slowly patted it, which made me really happy.

“It’s called…Footwork. Go ahead sis, pick it.” He says

“F-Footwork? W-what does it do brother?” I asked happily. It was the first time he was interested in helping me.

“Do you trust me? Do you trust your big brother?” He asked me, and I nod happily. "Then don't ask a question and just pick the class. Say ‘ready' my dear little sister."

“Ready!” I shout happily, and another notification appeared.

Great! What class would you like to be?

“Footwork!” I shout the name of the class and watched the notification disappear while my brother laughed and laughed making me happy seeing him laughing rather than glaring at me.

I believe in my brother. I say in my mind as I watch him happily. He’s my brother. He's family. I believe in him.