It all started with the sound of the alarm clock and it was exactly one hour before the time for the new players arriving, it was a rather strange moment for Chris and the others, since it would be their first time encountering players like themselves, clueless noobs.

There was a 2000 points that could be made by explaining, helping and saving Noobs, it was part of the 3000 points that Chris didn't get last time, the other 1000 points being finding the secret Piece, which went to Hera, whom was the first person to notice the hatch.

Nick was irritated as the two beauties were taking their time, preparing and taking a bath or a damp, there was little time and he didn't want his house to disappear, because of them.

"Anything that's not inside your inventory when the time comes disappears!"

He noted again and again to them, but both of them were unreasonable individuals and they did have time to mess with him, for waking them up so roughly.

Chris woke up by the alarm, fully on alert mode, he slept like a baby and woke up like an apeman, looking around confused until he remembered he was in this survival Game, the name of which they didn't know.

Tian and the others were also alerted, as they were told about the one Hour prep time Rule.

"All the veterans will gather and one team will be in charge of educating the noobs, then they can be divided into the groups, accordingly to their preferences, expect everyone to be on Nick's team at the start, since they have no idea what awaits them"

Tian said, while looking outside of the window at Chris whom looked like an alarmed beast, scouting its surroundings for threats. If he didn't know he was a noob, he would have sworn he was a veteran of this game, going insane due to the missions taking their toll on him.

It was now about time they came out to talk about whom would introduce the game to the noobies, after all it would be confusing if they all talked at the same time and although they had enough time, they still had to do some excersice to raise their stats and be prepared for the game. Cell vitality was a bitch to use, but after a long time of repeating the same schedule, Tian assured them that they would get the hang of it fast.

"Nice Camp"

Nick said as everyone put their houses inside their inventory and approached the bonfire.

"Thanks for the alarm"

Chris said as he quickly pocketed the alarm, as if it was some sort of treasure for him. Nick and Tian both thought highly of this action, while the others only took it as a witty comeback line.

"So who's going to be the Guide?"

Tian asked, causing the situation to become a bit hectic.

"Whoever can pull it off, they're not veterans and truthfully I don't care"

Nick's words were soul crushing, as they didn't know what to expect of him, was he trying to use reverse psychology or was he serious.

"Then I'll be the Guide this time, you guys stand away from us when the noobies appear"

Tian said, which made the others to think him being rude to them, but Nick didn't seem to care, which made the two beauties to walk like peacocks behind his back.

"So you're the guide now?"

Chris asked rather doubiously.

"I'll be the guide for the new players"

Tian nodded and then looked at Nick for assurance, which he gave.

"Then answer me a few questions..."

Chris wanted to get all the info the Red Empress required out of him, but it didn't seem to work.

"You're not part of our team, I'll answer questions if you join our group after this next mission, if you survive that is, surviving alone in a mission will be hard"

Tian said, trying to recruit him, but his words were met with laughter from Nick's side, he was about to blow up from holding his laughter.

"Let me answer his question, Mr Guide"

Nick said, making the others rather puzzled, as to why Nick had suddenly become such a good guy, were they awarded points already?

"Why bother, he'll be dead anyways"

Tian said rather angrily.

"Because he's followed a rather nice path last mission, if not for him, I wouldn't have gotten so many points, also he has a Relic I would have loved to have maybe he'll be able to use it in this next mission"

Nick said, making everyone remember the Red Queen/Empress A.I. and how much they would have loved to have it advise them.

"I will answer only 3 questions"

Nick told Chris looking at the disatisfied Tian.

"How many objectives are there normaly in a mission?"

Chris asked without delay.

"3 objectives, at easy difficulty, 5 or more on hard"

Nick asnswered without any problem, it was an easy question.

"Is there a patern in these missions?"

Chris's Question came as a shock to the others, thinking it was his own questions, but they were the Red Empresses' questions, data that he was collecting for her.

"There is sort of a patern, but it's not always the same, first you have to go to a place, survive and then leave, that's all there is to it, simple, right?"

Nick's asnwer shook even Tian, whom hadn't seen the patern at all, he was too preocupied with surviving, to look into it.

"What is the rise in difficulties like?"

This question sent Nick on a doubiously skeptical mode before he answered.

"There's no patern in difficulties, they might add 1 objective or 10, but as long as you've got a ticket, there's 0% possibility of death, even during a mission you can use your ticket to skip the mission if you brought the ticket with you, this tip is for free"

Nick's words caused not a little commotion among the players, they knew they didn't have enough points for a ticket, even if they wanted to the cheapest ticket was 10K and the ticket out of there was worth a million points. The 1-5 thousand points they got were a farcry from escaping this game and hearing Tian, it might be near impossible to escape.

Unknown to them, the Score tablet now had a neon clock on it, shining how they only had half an hour until the time the new players arrive.

"So What do you do as a guide?"

Xiao asked Tian, Since they could share points, they could easily help him, or pool points to let a person escape, or so was the plan they had come up with, but reality was a bitch.

"Nothing really, all we have to do is explain to them about this death game and how they can earn points, if you want a quick 100 points, you can throw them an extra weapon you're not using, but they might use it to shoot you, so I won't advise you to do so until you are sure they've got it that they cannot escape and that we're not their captors or enemy"

This matter was rather serious, as they would have to persuade the new players like Nick had done the last time, they appeared, wasting time to let the new players try and escape, only to fail again and again, until they understand that something's not right.

They understood it now, but at the beginning, they were unreasonble and impossible to persuade, now it's time for them to persuade the new players and they couldn't use Nick's method, it was too underhanded, he used logic to become one of them, only to detray them not too long after, telling them that they were nothing to him and that he would kill them if they were to fail.

"I'll tell you now, only one person will survive and things don't go our way and that's me"

Nick announced to make things clear, he wasn't gonna let them get away with the shit they did last time, where they didn't kill the Hunters.

"Why?"

Chris was oblivious of almost everything, he just never trusted Nick.

"Because the last survivor is spared by the system, if everyone else dies, you get a free pass and no penalty, because there must always be a guide, even if you thought you had died, if you were the last person to die, you're brought back to life"

Nick's words sounded like an epithany, a hope that was too grim to really grasp, the penalty for killing a player was 1000 points, if you killed all the other players, you got a -10K points, unless they die from monsters and traps, his threats of killing them all were just that, threats, empty words with nothing backing them, but at the moment Nick needed some sort of leverage to control and manipulate them. Them not knowing him well was the best detergent, thus he had to act on it. As for his actions, you might call despicable, but when life and death is on the line, there's no low a human won't go to survive.

They had still half an hour, but most of it they spent chatting, the main theme being the patern in objectives, it was a huge hit to know. But even if you knew it might still not be enough to succeed, for example, what if you don't have enough bullets, what about melee combat, was it possible?

The answer is no, because all melee combat comes with wounds, minor or serious, you cannot expect a beast or monster fighting you in tactful fashion, caring for its own life as much as you do. In front of wild abandon, injuries are to be expected. If you can help it, leave melee combat is out of your mind, it's not worth it, especialy when you have guns.

As the time drew closer the tablet begun to fade away and they could almost see the bodies of 10 people in front of them. The campfire also faded away its place being taken by a person's body.

"Do we wake them up?"

Xiao asked as they were now in the familiar space and the people, seemed to be sleeping.

"No, let them wake up by themselves, we should take our time to train and raise our stats before the mission, once they wake up, we begin instructing them on how to survive"

Tian answered, knowing full well the problems that came with waking someone up, most notably a foul mood and sleepiness. They had 8 hours, now, so they had to make the best out of them.

Chris had also begun to do excercise under the command of the Red Empress, whom could now once more appear as a small red person. Her form however was no longer that of a small girl, she took the form of alice, wearing a rather revealing dress.

The most however important thing is that they now knew the next mission's theme.

=Mission - The Ring=

It made them think it was stupid, because out of all the movies, this one had too little danger to offer, even if they did see the cursed tape, they would still have days to live.

Even more assuring was that George had begun taking out all the alternative notes he had on the ring, lots of different scenarios and actors on the same theme.

Everything was put in action, even Nick was training with them doing their favourite training, that being running around like an idiot as fast as you could, thus activating your cell vitality and becoming a bit faster and more durable.

It might sound as if it's a cheat to raise your strength, but you have to remember that they could only reach 200 in each and every stat and intelligence and mental capacity were difficult to train. All they could train was muscle Density and Reaction Speed. They had 8 hours to bring both up to 200 or at least as high as they can.

Cell vitality was wonderful, it felt as if their bodies were full of energy, even after running like crazy, they still had enough steam to go on, it was as if they were tireless, but Tian warned them that this was only so until they left this space and entered the mission, their growth would also continue there, but their stamina will not be the same also once cell vitality reaches back to 100, they will begin to tire again, since cell vitality was being used to raise their other stats, but their handsome looks stayed the same. Even George who was a fatty now looked like a stoic gentleman in sport wear, most of them had decided on sport wear, even Chris had bough a pair to change into, just in case, he had bought a lot of things with the points he had left over, mostly stuff for survival and daily needs.

"What's he doing?"

Xiao asked, seeing as Chris was trying to split his legs wide.

"Probably raising flexibility, might be useless though"

Tian answered, it wass mostly pointless to be flexible, it was much better to be as fast as you could be.

It was about an hour into training when the first sleepy head woke up and it was a woman in her sexy black underwear, she then proceeded to scream at the top of her voice, waking up everyone else like an alarm clock.

Some were dizzy, others looked around alarmed, the most notable however was a woman in army cargo pants holding a cell phone and two twins whom looked at one another as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"Everyone relax! I'll be your guide and together we will all survive this!"

Tian awkwardly said, making it apparent that it was his first time acting as a guide.

Chris threw the naked woman his coat, before taking out of his backpack some clothes, that might be big for her, but this was enough to make her stop screaming.

Chris experienced how it was being half naked in this game, wasn't the most pleasing of experiences.

And there went his sport gear, the shoes were too big for her, thus she used the shocks to fill them up.

"Who are you?"

The woman asked the super handsome guy that offered her clothes. The others also wanted to ask him, since Nick wore a biker helmet and they couldn't see him.

"Have you heard about the Matrix? we've all been taken from our homes and teleported here to fight for our survival"

Chris shamelessly said the theory the Red Empress had come up with.

"What's that!"

They were most interested in the floating Red Empress, whom seemed disatisfied with their attention, especialy on guy that was trying to see her panties, which she sensored just for him.

"Is it a 3D projection?"

"But where are the projectors?"

"Why is it so dark after a few steps away?"

The newbies were full of questions, some more interesting than others, but before long, they were almost sure he wasn't lying to them.

By walking into the darkness, they ended up in the same spot, it was hard to tell why it was so, unless what he said was real.

Them all being inside the matrix, even the older players might not have come to that conclusion.

"What can we do? Will you protect us?"

The woman begun to salivate over him, not even caring if what he said was true or not.

"Tian, aren't you the guide? Please act like one"

Chris said as he tried to unglue his hand from her arms, this woman was rather pretty and sexy, but she wasn't his type, he was more into the tomboish sort of girls. But he wasn't made of stone, he did feel a bit shy by being held by her, that way, her breasts touching his arm.

"Who are you and why are we here!"

Suddenly a leader rose out of the crowd, not believing a word said or simply not knowing what the Matrix was.

"I'm Tian, I'm..."

Before Tian could explain there was a comment about his race.

"I'm not talking to a chinese person, you over there, the pretty boy, stop flirting and explain what are we doing here, why we cannot leave this place, what sort of magic is this?"

The guy was huge and looked intimidating, with tattoos and even a butterfly knife in his hands. He was no doubt a thug from some gang.

Honestly Chris hated these sort of people, but unless they approached him, he wouldn't go anywhere close to them. Now he was facing a guy with a knife, but the guy would soon find out that he was out gunned.

"Where did you get the gun!"

The guy cried as if he was being slaughtered, non of his bravado remaining and it was evident at the face of a gun.

"Tian, please continue"

Chris said passing the baton once more.

"...As I was saying I will be your guide, any question you have I will answer to the best of my abilities"

Tian said and he was immedately bombarded with questions.

A few moments passed as they tried their best to understand their sircumstances. The new players took it a lot better than they had, maybe because they thought they were in the matrix or something, or just because they weren't greeted with a gunshot.

"So cell vitality is really important?"

Asked an average looking guy named David, who wore a hoodie and jeans, he was rather energetic and happy about being there, while the others hearing they might die made sour faces.

Sydney, the woman in her underwear Chris helped, had made him her property or something, chasing away any female that would step close to him.

"You do understand that this is a group survival game?"

Chris asked her again and again, but she didn't seem to get it.

The huge guy from before was called Samson and he was an ex-gang member. Leaving behind the life of crime and violence for a meager pay and some safety, he was a car mechanic now and the knife was a deterent for gangsters, just a keepsake.

Even in his gang days they were told to not be brave, 'if you see a gun, run!' they were told by the big man.

What everyone was recalling is how they reached this point, every one of them saw the same message and pressed the yes button. That was the Red pill that brought them there.

"So you are saying that the next mission will be from the Ring and all we have to do is survive, until you complete the mission objectives?"

David asked, feeling a bit disappointed, he really wanted to be part of the main group, but Tian didn't disappoint him.

"No, what I'm saying is that we will be dividing into groups, one group will be under Nick and the two women, they will be the survivor group, the rest will come with us and be the Hero Group!"

"The chances of dying are the same in both groups"

Nick included, causing everyone to wonder as to why it was so.

"That's because both groups move together until we find a safe spot to hide"

Nick said, adding even more nice guy points to himself, which was ominous for all that knew him, except Tian, because that's how he appears every time in front of the veterans.

"What do you make of them?"

David asked the woman in military clothing.

"Looking at how unguarded they are towards us, I can tell we're not captured by the enemy"

She said as she pointed at the woman playing with Chris' spare gun.

"Are you sure this is real?"

She asked while pointing at him.

"Don't point the gun at me, you might misfire!"

"I've fired a gun before and it wasn't either so big, nor as heavy, this has to be custom made or a fake"

She said as she put the gun down, it was awkwardly heavy for her hands, she even had trouble reaching the trigger.

Chris however found it as comfortable as it went, it fit perfectly in his large manly hands.

"Did they make this for a gorilla?"

She asked giving him the gun back.

"That's why I wear the helmet"

Nick said to the two women besides him and they did understand his notion, because they could feel being stripped with the men's eyes. It was awkwardly arrousing, but mostly awkward.

The others also got a few looks of affection and interest.