Welcome to the Game! Your in-game stats are based upon your real stats, however, as you gain Levels, you can increase these further, and it will have a real effect on your body!

To pull up the tutorial on how to use the interface, call out 'Tutorial'. This will be available until three Challenges have passed. You can dismiss this message by thinking it away. When you do, the next message will appear.

Nathan stared at the blue screen in his vision for only a few moments before swiftly looking around the room. Judging by the reactions of his classmates, they all received the same notification, though several things stood out as odd to him.

The first was the lack of their teacher. The other students likely hadn't noticed yet, but Elanor Guciardo seemed to have disappeared from sight. Something Nathan noticed as soon as the message appeared in his vision was that her voice disappeared from the air. In other words, the two were likely linked.

The second oddity was Keith's reaction. No one else had likely noticed yet, but as soon as the interface appeared, Keith stood and left the room, moving quickly. His impatience before it appeared combined with the countdown told Nathan that Keith had been expecting it.

The third was Madeline. She stood and quickly followed Keith out, looking more pissed than anything. And anger wasn't a face he had ever seen her make before, which told Nathan that she knew both something about what happened and that Keith had a connection to it.

Thirty seconds after the windows appeared, Nathan stood and quickly left the classroom, the majority of his classmates only just starting to react, either by saying 'Dismiss' or calling out commands, indicating they've moved onto the next stage.

Looking down both directions of the hall, Nathan stood shocked by what he saw. Grotesque monsters walking out of a portal, with brownish-red skin, some with horns, some without, some with tails, some without. There weren't many of them.

Recovering quickly, Nathan noticed blood on the ground and walls, as if something had been killed. His initial thought was that Keith and Madeline were killed by the beasts, but he saw no bodies. None, in fact.

Yet the amount of blood on the walls and floor were too much for two people to survive losing. In fact, there had to be at least four or five peoples' worth of blood, and Nathan began to notice bits and pieces of the reddish-brown skin of the monsters, three of which had begun to move towards him.

Quickly assessing the situation, Nathan knew that he'd stand no chance if he moved towards them. Or at least, little chance. The floor was too slick with blood, though where he was remained free of it, so it was good for fighting.

Before Nathan could react, the door to the classroom flew open, and out charged Michael wielding a flaming sword. Nathan quickly jumped back with wide eyes as the football jock charged at the monsters, screaming that he was moving on before anyone else.

Moving on? Nathan wondered as he contemplated how stupid Michael was.

The jock couldn't even use the sword properly as he attacked the nearest monster, though he did manage to wound it, his sword biting deep into the beast's arm.

Other students began leaving the classroom, though most took off in the other direction. They looked lost to him, as if they weren't sure what was going on. Nathan looked at Samantha as she left.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"How much do you know?"

"I'm on the first message."

"Read more," she told him. "You'll be given an option for an 'item'. Michael picked the sword from his. Mine's an electric knuckle. Brief version: we have to perform ten kills, and once we do, we move on to the next stage. Only sixteen can move on, and it's only our class performing this."

Thirty-two kids. Only half moving on. Based on what Nathan could tell, Madeline and Keith already moved on, scoring their kills already.

"In addition," Samantha continued as Nathan looked at the golden knuckles on her right hand. "That's sixteen maximum. Some of the others are probably trying to find a way out, though most seem to be in disbelief. Whatever's going on, though, it's able to affect our vision."

"The windows," Nathan nodded, then look at Michael, who ran his sword through the center of one of the figures, which stopped moving. "Keith and Madeline already came out here."

"Is that why you ran out?" She asked.

"Yes," he nodded. "Though they're already gone."

Samantha looked around, then spotted the immense amount of blood on the floor as Nathan quickly cycled through his messages. This was the first Challenge, and there were only two hundred fifty monsters, twenty-five coming from every portal with ten portals. Each class would fight separately, only the first sixteen to kill ten in each group moving on to the next stage. Killing another student would result in the automatic forfeit of one's life. Time limit of three hours or until all monsters were dead, whichever came first.

Nathan reached the end of his messages, where he was allowed to select an item out of three. He received no information on what they were, only their names, and would need to speak them aloud to receive them.

You may select one of these items as yours. Call its name to confirm. Burst Knuckle Shadow Sword Return Dagger

"Burst Knuckle," Nathan stated, and immediately felt them form on his right hand, which he curled into a fist. "We need to get going."

"But-"

"Let Michael and whoever else comes out here deal with those," Nathan turned and started walking. "Only the first sixteen to get ten kills move on, and whatever this is, we aren't going to get answers by being squeamish or hesitant."

Samantha stared as Nathan walked away. She knew that he had a colder tendency, but had a hard time believing he'd just abandon others. At least, until she thought about it further. Nathan had a point – there was little they could do for the others. Only the person delivering the killing strike received credit for the kill, which meant that helping others could hurt their odds of making it to the next Challenge, and the messages stated that only those who pass on to the next Challenge will survive.

Shaking her head, Samantha walked off in search of another portal and set of monsters, locating Nathan just in time to see him vanish from sight.

Already? She wondered. He killed those fast. He couldn't have been out of my sight more than a minute, maybe two.

After vanishing from Samantha's sight, Nathan found himself standing in the empty hallway of the school with a message in his vision.

Level Up!

Well, make that two messages.

Make your way to the cafeteria.

As Nathan walked towards the cafeteria, he pulled up his status window, quickly cycling through the relevant parts of the Tutorial, though some of it was mostly intuitive.

Name: Nathan Sex: Male Age: 18 Level: 3 Health: 143 (1/600s) Mana: 13 (1/600s) Stat Points: 1 Skill Points: 1 Points: 11

He knew from the Tutorial that there was more to his status than that – his other stats were hidden. Health didn't actually refer to how much damage he could take until he died, but rather, how much he could take before he actually got hurt.

Here, Health wasn't an indicator of one's life, but one's defenses against damage. A more accurate term, he knew, was probably 'shield'. Nothing would hurt him so long as he still had Health left, though he'd still likely receive bruises and feel some pain.

They received Points for every kill, based on the monster's difficulty, and Stat Points and Skill Points came from Leveling Up. He received one of each type of Point when he reached Level 2, though none when he reached Level 1. From what he could tell, it was only partial points. The other possibility was that it was every two Levels or something similar.

There was no way for him to check his Level progress, so he had no idea how far he really was, though he knew that since he'd hit Level 3 with only ten kills, he'd probably hit Level 4 somewhat quickly as well.

Reaching the cafeteria, Nathan spotted Keith and Madeline in a heated argument about something, both wearing what looked to be magicians' robes; plain black with dark blue trim.

The moment they realized they weren't alone, their argument ended, and both of them looked at Nathan with a frown, clearly not expecting him to arrive next.

Instead of greeting them properly, Nathan simply dipped his head to them, then took a seat at one of the tables, running through more of the Tutorial. Once he finished, he decided to use his available Points. According to the System, they could only use them between Challenges or once every three days when in a Challenge.

"Points Shop," Nathan stated.

Points Shop 11 1 Stat Point 10 Points Weapon Level 2 Upgrade: 10 Points

Not much to go on, Nathan thought before dismissing the window.

"Stat Allocation."

Stat Points: 1 Strength Endurance Speed Charisma Mana Magic

Nathan looked over at Keith and Madeline, who had stopped talking and were staring at him in shock.

"What?" He asked. "Aren't you able to?"

"No," Keith responded, talking loudly enough for Nathan to hear him across that section of the cafeteria. "We haven't earned a Stat Point from Leveling yet."

"Normally," Madeline said when Nathan raised an eyebrow. "When someone gains a Level, they gain point-one or point-two in each of the points category, and point-four or point-five in each of the stats."

"Category?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Points category are your Points, Stat Points, and Skill Points. If you're already allocating a Stat Point, did you buy one?"

"No."

"Then you had to have earned point-three or more," she told him. "To the Points category when you gained Levels. What Level are you?"

"Why?"

"Which one you are can help us know which you earned."

Half a point, he knew, since the acquisition was at Level 2 and not when he reached Level 3. However, he wasn't planning on sharing this with them.

"And you know that stuff how, exactly?" Nathan asked, resulting in the other two teens looking at each other. "You two clearly knew about this."

"We've heard of them before," Madeline said, giving an angry look to Keith.

"Yeah," Keith glared at Madeline. "'Heard'."

The two of them returned to arguing in their little corner in hushed tones, and Nathan returned his focus to deciding on his stat as Samantha showed up and walked over to him, sitting down across from him, blood on her clothes but not her face. She'd likely taken a couple of minutes to wash up in the restroom before making her way to the cafeteria.

At least that works, he thought to himself.

"They were already here?" She asked.

"I expected it," he nodded. "Mana."

He stated the word in a declarative voice, though not a loud one, and Samantha gave him a curious look as the message in his vision changed.

Stat Points: 0 Strength Endurance Speed Charisma Mana 1 Magic Confirm Reset

"Confirm."

Mana increased by 1 Mana increased by 10

Nathan nodded, dismissing the message. Mana and Endurance directly affect Mana and Health, respectively, increasing it by 10 per point. If what Keith and Madeline said was true, then it looked like he gained point-five Points per Level and point-one Stats per Level, since his Health and Mana had both gone up by three.

It looked like the System called the stat that affected Mana the same as Mana itself, which he knew would probably be a little confusing to some people, though he was able to tell the difference due to it being somewhat obvious to him.

The fact that they were named the same thing in the windows suggested to Nathan that either the makers were being intentionally confusing, or they came from another language and didn't realize it could be confusing in English.

"Allocating Points?" Samantha asked as a student Nathan was unfamiliar with entered the cafeteria and sat down.

"Yeah," Nathan nodded. "I received a Stat Point when I hit Level 2."

"I haven't," Samantha sighed, then looked over at the two bickering teens. "I wonder what they're arguing about."

"I don't know," Nathan responded. "But they seemed to know about this place."

He told her about what they told him, and she frowned.

"What Level are you?"

"Level 3," she turned back to him. "You?"

"Same," he answered. "Those monsters probably gave the same amount of Experience per kill."

She nodded, her gaze returning to the bickering students.

"They seem really heated."

"Madeline seemed to imply that Keith might have something to do with this," Nathan told her, and she raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure, but they were both out of the room immediately after it began, her following him, and they left a path of blood, killing ten monsters immediately after leaving. What Points Shop things do you have available?"

"Points Shop," she said. "I can buy a Stat Point for ten or upgrade my knuckles to Level 2 for the same."

Nathan nodded, looking through the Tutorial for a few more things.

"Item information: Burst Knuckle."

Burst Knuckle Level 1 Burst damage: 5 per Level of this Weapon

Nathan decided to upgrade his weapon rather than obtaining another stat point, though also decided that he would find a private space to allocate his things in the future, just in case. Samantha added a point to her Speed, then the two of them waited, watching as more students entered the cafeteria. They were both a little disappointed, but not surprised, when Michael walked in, his flaming sword quenched and sheathed at his hip.

During the wait, the students discovered that the doors to the Multi-Purpose Room, or MPR, were 'sealed' somehow, not budging when anyone attempted to force them open, no matter how hard they were rammed.

Their cafeteria was segmented into three sections, with two of them in the front and a short hall leading to the MPR in the back. The MPR's main purpose served as a third cafeteria room for the massive school, which had two and a half thousand students between its four grades, though it was also used for sports banquets, a few smaller award ceremonies, and as a fourth gym for the school if they ever needed it.

The students weren't sure why it was sealed, but knew that the answer would likely come at some point before the game ended, though whether or not they survived to find out was unclear.

When the three-hour mark passed, only two hundred forty-three students sat or stood in the cafeteria, of the more-than five hundred seniors who had begun. Their graduating class had six hundred students, though several of them determined that only those who were eighteen were pulled into that twisted game.

Less than half of them made it to the next Challenge.