Somewhere in Seoul, a week after the selection round of the Turing test.

Junsung strolled absentmindedly and kept muttering to himself, focusing on the thought that had been at the back of his mind for the entire week. “Okay, so there could be a happy ending if all 11 players work together to take home 300 million won each. Even in the worst-case scenario, I will get 800 million if I end up being one of the four survivors. That’s actually the best-case scenario, really… Anyway, there’s no way they’d actually kill people! They’re probably just scaring us. I’ll decide after checking the place out.”

The November winds were chilly, making Junsung feel hollow. He walked around Seoul, consumed with growing anger and desire until he was on the verge of brainwashing himself, when he found a van pull up in front of him. The window on the passenger’s side opened, and a masked man spoke to him.

“Are you one of the players in the main round of the Turing test?”

“Oh, um, yeah, well, but I haven’t —”

“Well, we’re here five minutes early, so you can think about it for that much time.”

The man in the passenger’s seat seemed cool and airy. A little thrown off, Junsung began speaking. “Hey, so what’s the game…”

“No idea. The players can participate only by order of arrival, so you probably won’t even reach the destination even if you get in this van. There are 11 players, and it seems like there are more applicants than we thought. You’ve got three minutes.”

Junsung stared, completely taken aback. This was purely fear-based marketing. It was like those awful home shopping shows saying it’s now or never. But when he thought about it, clearly there would be a lot more than 11 participants willing to play the game, as the news on the economy had been even more depressing over the past week.

“So? What’ll it be?”

“Hey, I’ve still got two minutes left!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Junsung thought that he’d rather have someone hold a gun to his head and force him to get in the van. These options and free will made things far more difficult. He pulled out a hundred-won coin from his pocket and placed it on his palm. “Heads, I get in the car. Tails, I don’t.” He flipped the coin.

Ten seconds later, he was inside the van. There was no one else in the back. Two men sat in front, wearing gas masks.

“So, you’re playing?”

“Yeah.”

What’s with the gas mask? Junsung suddenly felt that something wasn’t right and briefly considered jumping off the van, but the man in the passenger’s seat immediately explained what was going to happen next.

“We’re going to spray some sleeping gas. You’ll be asleep until we arrive at the destination, so just relax.”

“What? Sleeping gas?”

“You can still get off and walk away.”

“… Oh, what the hell. Just get it over with.”

He couldn’t decide whether the man was considerate or coercive. Then, Junsung was completely knocked out. His seat was completely tilted back. The last thing he remembered doing was praying that life was on his side for once.

Day 1

The second Junsung opened his eyes, he felt a pain in his back.

Then, his throat felt sore. Still dazed from the sleeping gas, Junsung realized what he had got himself into and sat upright. The survival game!

Maybe the game had already begun! Junsung looked around. He was in a well-structured, slightly big two-story wooden house designed in Western style. He was in a living room on the first floor. A few others were there, too, either sitting or standing, all looking around the house like Junsung.

“You’re up, ?”

“I…”

A guy in a plaid shirt and glasses with disheveled hair, greeted Junsung a little awkwardly. He was so ordinary that Junsung may have probably seen someone like him on campus dozens of times a day. However, it was weird that he wore a thick metal collar around his neck. Thrown off by the appalling design, Junsung immediately felt his neck and realized he also had one.

“Th- this is….”

“Don’t touch that thing. That man over there was just trying to get it off, and it beeped, freaking everyone out. Fortunately, nothing happened.”

“You mean this is…!”

“Yeah, probably the same thing from the movie Saw. Or is it Battle Royale?”

“… Holy shit.”

Who knew he’d ever end up wearing an explosive collar? Realizing that this was no joke, Junsung struggled to remain calm.

“How come you just called me ‘Humanities’?” he asked.

“Oh, sorry, it’s just what’s written on your name tag.”

He glanced down at the name tag on his chest, which revealed his college department instead of his real name. He glanced over at the guy’s chest and found a name tag there, too.

“So then should I call you Engineering…?”

“I guess. But watch out. Some players seem to hate being called by the names on their labels.”

pointed to the top of the stairs that led to the second floor. There was a crabby middle-aged man, rattling and pounding on the door to each room in a rage. “What the fuck! All the doors on the second floor are locked. Unbelievable!”

The man’s name tag read . His name seemed to suit him perfectly. Looking up at him, Junsung was confused. “The doors are locked…?”

“A few, yeah. And so is the front door. I guess we could break the window to get out… But of course, no one would even dare try.”

“……”

Looking around, Junsung realized that they were all wearing explosive collars. He couldn’t get his head together in this bizarre, seemingly dangerous situation, when he suddenly heard a voice coming out of a speaker attached to ceiling.

[Ahem. Testing, testing.]

“……!?”

It was a female voice, almost identical to that of a human, but still sounded slightly computerized. The voice began speaking cheerily.

[Ahem…Eleven players, are you all up? Hello there, sir! It’s not an escape game! Everyone, let’s all gather up in the main conference room on the first floor!]

“…Huh.”

Everyone in the house had a collar around their neck. They scrambled to the conference room on the other side of the living room as instructed by the speaker. There was a long table surrounded by chairs, with convenience store lunchboxes set out neatly in each place. Antique candles were lit up on the table, and there was a glamorous top seat in a fancy pattern. A familiar-looking red steel ball was placed in the middle of the table.

[Hello, I’m Reina. We all met in the selection round, right?]

Oh, that ball…?

The ball hidden inside the patterned mask? Its voice had been a dull computerized male voice at the time, but had now become a cheerful, computerized female voice.

[I changed my voice. Nice and cheerful, right? As I said, my name is Reina. Okay, everyone. We have a lot to talk about. Take your seats.]

“…….”

Would it matter where I sit? That seat looks particularly different.

There were six chairs lined up on each side of the table, and an exclusive wooden chair at the head of the table. It had fancy decorations and looked like a throne. It felt kind of out of place at that table. One by one, people sat down on the ordinary chairs on both sides, but one old man walked up to the head of the table. His name tag read .

“It seems I’m the oldest here, so I should sit here, no?”

[No, Old Man. Leave that seat empty.]

“Heh, fussy little woman.”

An old man…?

Junsung looked around. He was stunned to note that the people were all of different ages. It was rather unexpected. About half of them seemed to be in their 20s, like himself. However, the rest looked a bit older. There was only one old man. Everyone left the main chair empty and sat on the other seats. Reina blinked and spoke up.

[Everyone, this reminds me of a famous painting. “The Last Supper.” That’s it. Shall we dig in?]

“…Seriously? This pathetic meal?”

grumbled. However, he was the first one to unwrap the meal box. Most players were not interested in eating. Seeing the players just sitting still, Reina urged them to eat.

[Everyone, eat. Just eat. We will get to the game after that. It’s already past six.]

Even as people noticed the clock Reina mentioned, their eyes shifted to the number displayed below the clock.

[Total prize: 3, 300, 000, 000 won]

It was just some 3s and 0s. However, everyone stared at the display in a daze. opened his mouth, his meal box still untouched.

“Money.”

[Excuse me?]

“You’re giving us that money for real, right? You won’t change your mind later?”

Huh.

His attitude may have been a little disgraceful, but everyone was silent at words. In fact, it was the only thing everyone here was really interested in. Reina spoke up after a pause.

[Of course.]

“What’s with the pause? 3.3 billion won is big money. How do we trust you?”

[Oh, I was just trying to come up with ways to convince you. Let me ask you this instead. Why did you get in the van and come all the way here when there’s no proof that you can get 3.3 billion won?]

“What? Well, you… you said you’d give us that money. And that five million won was real, so…”

It was almost like an involuntary reflex, like insects being drawn to a bright light. They were all drawn to this game, even though it was very likely that they may end up burning. All just for the idea of possibly winning billions.

[The bottom line is, yes, we will give out the prize money. To every single player who wins the game. But I cannot really prove that now.]

“Hey! That’s total bullshit!”

…Harsh.

Junsung had also been contemplating whether the designers of this game would actually give out the prize money of 3.3 billion won. He had no idea where the money was coming from. He had also wondered whether the players would all be buried somewhere in the end. But Junsung concluded, just like , that five million won was too big an amount for all this to be fake. They gave him the money although he wasn’t really worth it. One woman raised her hand.

“Mr. ? Your collar’s beeping again. And the conversation’s getting nowhere. Let’s eat first.”

“What? Who the hell’s Hothead, you hooker!”

“…That’s what your name tag says. And don’t call me a hooker, moron.”

Her name tag actually read . A few names were offensive and demeaning. Junsung Kim, ‘Humanities,’ started eating his meal as he peeked at the other players’ name tags.

, , , , , , , , , , , … Interesting.

Reina sat at the center of the table. All the players were together in one place. Junsung dug into his meal as he reflected on each of their names.

It’s a brain game, huh? Then maybe I stand a chance.

If intellect was power here, the only intimidating names were and . The rest seemed ridiculous in terms of intellect, especially , , and judging by their nicknames.

[Everyone, you seem to be working your brains already, instead of focusing on your meal… I can only introduce the game and the rules after the meal. So, focus on eating.]

“Hey, Red Ball! I can’t focus because of you!”

“Keep it down, mate.”

“What? You little piece of shit… How old are you?”

“Yeah, yeah, so you’re old. Congrats.”

, in his 40s, was interrupted by , who sat next to him. As the two scowled at each other, Reina blinked and chimed in.

[I should explain one of the rules first. The players are not allowed to make any physical contact. If you break this rule, you will be eliminated.]

“Really? Not even patting?”

[That’s right, Old Man. You can’t. If you fall down or touch someone’s hand by accident, you will get a warning. Any form of violence attracts a warning and then elimination. Careful, careful!]

Elimination meant death. While everyone who was already aware of this fact kept their mouths shut and began sweating, Junsung could hear next to him muttering to himself.

“Should’ve kept that man talking. He was getting some good info.”

“…”

definitely seemed like a hard-ass, thought Junsung, as he slowly downed his meal.