“I am Death, the one in the middle is Satan, and the one in the right is Life.”

Life, Death and Satan, that’s one strange group of trios. Edith looked at them from left to right.

Life stood up from her chair, and Death excused himself and sat down. After Death had seated, Life answered, “Miss Claire, you don’t have to worry about how I know your name or everyone else’s name. I already know, and as for your answer.”

Edith gulped and listened to what Life had to say, “Congratulation, all of you have been picked to participate in a battle royale.”

Everyone gasped as they heard her. The word ‘battle royale’ played inside his head because Edith knew that a battle royale could mean that everyone in the room would try to kill each other. The atmosphere became heavier and thick like a black fog.

“Some of you might be wondering, what’s battle royale and the reward is. So, the answer to that question is…,” Life continued her speech, and the participants gulped.

“The last man standing will be reborn as a baby in a rich and famous family, not only that they will be gift with talents. That person also allowed to pick how they will live in that new world,” Life told them.

Although the atmosphere was stilled thick, it had become a tad lighter because of the reward. So, if I became the last one standing then I can have that life… but killing… can I do that? Alright, if I won't kill then, how will I survive this? Runaway and hide? That may be a better option than killing. Edith considered his choice.

Life continued her speech, “This is no ordinary battle royale like that game on your mobile or your personal computer or console.”

Huh? Then how can someone win?

Not only him, but some of the people murmured to themselves and each other. They also thought of the same thing. For others, they questioned what she meant.

Claire stepped forward and asked, “What do you mean by, ‘no ordinary battle royale?’”

“I’m about to ans-,”

“Please don’t ask any more questions, Miss Claire, the same with every single one of you, we can hear your thoughts and we will answer them,” Satan, who remained seated, interrupted her and spoke calmly but the way he phrased his words was something else.

It was more like, ‘don’t speak any more or else I’ll kill every single one of you.’ Everyone, including Edith, gulped when he spoke, and they remained silent.

“You may continue, Life,” Satan said as he stroked his cheek with his fist.

“Thank you… as I was saying, each one of you will be given a random ability, and there will be magical items scattered around the map, those item will give you some benefit for your battle, use it wisely.”

Ability? Magical Item? Is that what they meant by different?

“Also, all of you will be teleported at the edge of the map, and you need to move to the centre, if you want to avoid the impending doom of hell itself.”

H-Hell? W-wait! Hell, will come to us?

“The map will shrink, and those who get caught outside the line, will die.”

“To those who have questions about what will happen if you die, then the answer….”

“Life… I think you don’t need to say that,” Death interrupted her. Edith, along with everyone else, turned to look at him with a pondering expression.

A vein popped up on her forehead, but she remained calm and looked at Death, “Can you please enlighten me?”

“Let them see for themselves,” Death told her in a calm tone.

“Understood,” Life smiled and turned to face the participants, “Now, let’s get all of you to the map!”

The three beings snapped their finger. Everyone got engulfed in pale white light. Edith opened his eyes, a rundown hut, a broken fishing rod leaned against the wall, behind him was a clean river with a group of fishes swimming and jumping in the air. Some were small, but most of them were huge.

The fishes were red with a bit of white, some of them had green eyes, but others were golden. A small grey crab walked on top of the rock. Then it fell to the river only to be consumed by the fishes. The only thing was left was a single leg, but that too got eaten by the smaller fishes.

A voice echoed on his mind. It was Life, “To everyone who is listening to this, we will now give you, your ability.”

The voice stopped, a green stat window showed his name and skill. His skill was shapeshifting. To use it, he needed to defeat an animal, and if he managed to defeat them, he could have their ability, and to activated it, Edith was required to say the word, ‘Change: x.’ The x letter would be the name of the animal.

The stat window also showed him the map. The map was an island, and he was close to the beach. The island was half round with three small islands filled the gap, three bridges connected to the big island and a shipping dock on the southeast side, three big towns and ten to twelve small villages. The centre was ironically a church, and behind it was a graveyard.

Does it symbolize faith, life, and death? Edith stroked his chin with a pondering expression. Most importantly, the numbers showed on the map along with the words beside it. The name was ‘lives,’ as it stood out there were one hundred, but it dwindled to ninety-nine. So, someone had died, but the cause of their death was unknown.

“Oh ho? Someone died, pity, continued the explanation Death,” Satan disregard the person who had died and instructed Death to continue.

“To open the window again, just say the word ‘Status’ and it will pop out, and for inventory, if you slide your window to the left, it will show your inventory along with the item in storage. To store an item just say the word ‘collect’ or think about collecting that item. That item will disappear and reappeared on your inventory, and a message will pop up that says, ‘item x has been stored in your inventory,’ or a buzzer will notify you. To pull out an item, open the stat window, slide to your inventory, and tap on that item or think about that item, and the item will appear in your hand, and to close the window, slide down.” Death explained.

“And with that, let’s the game began!” Life announced, a loud horn echoed through the air that caught the attention of everyone on the island. Their voices disappeared from the heads of the reincarnatee.