Of course the stair didn’t go two floors up, of course I would have to run even more in the single minute I had left. With all the other despaired competitors that shared the same objective as me.

The sounds of explosions, shootings, people in pain and fear-filled this floor and, right after I reached the end of the stair, I saw myself facing a chaotic battlefield of around fifteen competitors stuck behind pillars and tables knocked down, and inside rooms that flanked the big devastated empty space that once was a dining room. Soon, I turned into an easy target.

A dozen barrels turning to me from both sides, I jumped, hearing the stair I just came from exploding, burning, dissolving, and turning into dust at once. Enemies at my left, enemies at my right, I had no other place to flee but to ahead, putting myself right in the middle of the battlefield.

Ah, I’m totally dead now… I started to get distracted. No! Focus on the air moving, the boots scratching against the metal, the triggers being pulled; otherwise, you will really die! I tumble to behind a metal column, hiding myself from the opponents at the right side of the room and shooting a gust of fire against those ahead and from the left end of the room to the right one, the sound bullets dissolving half the face of the guy hiding behind an overturned table, and one foot of the one inside one of the rooms.

Listening to the cacophony of a new wave of attacks following from both sides, I spun away from the column lending my back against the second of the four pillars, this time aiming the enemies at the right side of the room and, once again, returning the assault: I didn’t hit anyone this time, and the fire hadn’t stopped.

Faster! I need to get faster!

Giving all of my male Worker brain to calculate the trajectory of all the tens of bullets shoot all around, I saw the first column being crashed by a blue fire and, when touched by a gray blur, burn to ashes. Faced by multiple objects, I advanced; the last attacks didn’t just ignore the metal, so, for at last a few seconds, I’m safe from hits from behind!; against the gray bullet, lifting my gun only a few centimeters right before being hit, using my gun as a shield and seeing the submachine gun dissolve into a big cloud of silver dust that involved me. I heard the guy behind it emit a proud “yeah!”, the second pillar being reduced to nothing, spare shots passing by and twisting my decomposed weapon’s mist in swirls, the enemies noticing the presence of others beside me again and restarting to shoot each other, the arena still area getting smaller. Then I stepped out of the smoke and right before the gray bullet shooter, entrenched inside a hole creased in the ground. Lowering my posture, taking momentum in a spin, I made the opponent’s head turn in 360 when my foot found its neck.

Before its dead body fall to the ground and the middle of the trench, I took his weapon, got up, turn to the closest enemy; a bald old man encircled by a thick pile of chairs, who was shooting the blue fire; still focusing on the right side of the room, and, while this one was yet aiming the other competitors ahead, dissolved him in a silver powder explosion. Jumping above the chairs, I grabbed his weapon, shoot it against the seats ahead of me, sending this part of the improvised wall flying all around, and, when touching the ground again, chairs falling everywhere, I aimed at one, two, three, four seats, firing the bald man’s weapon, forcing them against the new flood of bullets, the furniture protecting me from strikes from the left side of the room, while I attacked the gaping man inside a room at the right, only his clothes being left behind, his flesh, bones, and blood then turned into gray dust.

The young woman before me and who had a slightly transparent blue energy shield had already noticed me, though, and was shooting madly her pistol.

I went for her left side and the hand that was holding the shield, avoiding her bullets and firing two times against her, one that sent her unprotected pistol flying and made her body spin, and other that, when in contact with her skin, dissolved her into clouds.

More fire coming from the left side of the room, red and white needles; when a man wearing a black mask encircled me from behind: I beat the gun of the masked man out of his hand with the gray bullet’s rifle, letting the last one going away too, grabbed him by the collar and, like the girl from before, used him as a shield. The red and white bullets found the masked man body and, with a flash of light, turned him into a coal statue, that I shattered with my boots, myself aiming at the needles attacker that had just killed the masked man, and shooting. The blue fire, once contacted with the target chest, pressed it against the wall behind him with enough force to compact the body until it was only a two-dimensional image against the metal, his internal organs scattered all around, exploded out of his silhouette his sides and lower and upper orifices.

“Shit”, I thought when the “CLICK!” of an empty clip was emitted from my gun.

“DIIIIE!”, screamed a woman jumping out of a ventilation duct, wielding a long sword whose blade shined in orange.

The ventilation duct woman went on with a descending strike, but it had just no finesse and, even touch she must have prepared, as everyone else that entered in that tournament, an entire arsenal of programs (otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to listen to my gun clicking), having all the skills wasn’t the same as know how to use them, just turn off your brain and let the apps running wasn’t the right way of doing things:

I ran Aim’s CQC battle program, threw the ventilation duct woman above my shoulder, broke her arms, took the sword and sliced open her throat, immediately after this continuing my way, this time to the left side of the room and to the resting six people in the old dining room.

Noticing movement at my side, I threw the sword in this direction and saw it craving into a voyeur skull. I heard a really old woman step out of a room with an enormous gun, screaming, facing me and start to shoot, but I was already close to the third column: I jumped at the pillar, and from this to the fourth one, at its side, and again, this time right to the old woman’s; who had failed in lifting the weapon, clearly too heavy for her, fast enough to follow me; head, taking it with only one hand and smashing it against the ground and under all my weight.

My feet still facing the ceiling, and one hand holding the dead old woman’s hair, I took her weapon and fired against a man too slim who was trying to avoid me and all the combat and run directly to the stairs ahead, his body just being sliced under a red laser. Feeling the vibrations against on the ground, signaling steps, I let my body fall, avoiding a glowing boomerang and rapidly shooting for its owner, cutting him the same way as the too slim guy.

The last two men, a pair of very strong young Workers holding riffles jumped at the same time out of their hiding place, also firing at the same time and against me. I let my knees bend, and the bullets of one found the body of the other.

Thus, the battlefield had ended, and I walked out of that floor just in time to keep inside the allowed arena’s area.

This… There’s no way back now. There’s no forgiven for me. I thought in silence. When I heard the audience out there scream and reverberate, I bit my lower lip, correcting myself: I’m already a monster, guilty won’t do any better now, I have to stay focused on my objective. If I commit even one blunder, I can easily die, or even if I just have the bad luck of cross my path with that upper-class guy too soon… Like, listen: they’re probably cheering for him right now. How many has he killed already? He’s used to this kind of competition, so, many, I bet. He must have just presented a great show...