A sudden light followed by a deafening thunder - Zero woke up immediately and quickly reached for his iron pipe. While his heart was beating like crazy, he carefully examined the surroundings with his eyes. Only after confirming that there was no one there could he lower his weapon with relief. "It was just a lightning," he muttered quietly to himself.
Zero lay back down and rested his head against his wet backpack. Before he could fall asleep again, he noticed a dull sound. He put the backpack aside and put his ear directly to the ground. The sound became clearer and louder - it were footsteps. He hurriedly picked up his backpack and iron pipe and started to sneak away. As he walked towards the stairs, the first leisurely distant steps turned into a full sprint. In a panic he ran towards the stairs which were only a few metres ahead of him.
Suddenly he heard a shrill whistling sound behind him. Out of reflex he ducked, holding his hands behind his head. Barely a second later, something sounded over his head and hit the stairwell with a massive bang. His escape route fell apart and when he turned around Zero saw a man - he was equipped with a bag full of tennis balls and a tennis racket. The man grinned with a mischievous face and said playfully "I won't miss next time! Next time you will die".
How did he get into such a situation? What had he done wrong, Zero wondered?
The day before
Another uneventful day at school has passed. Zero trotted slowly home, across the street was a group of boys from his class - they were going to the karaoke bar. All the boys who had time were there, but Zero was once again not invited.
Ever since his elementary school days, no one wanted to be friends with him because he was an orphan with a weird name. Since his parents died when he was born, he was raised by an aunt. However, she was hardly ever at home. With a lack of education, it was no wonder that he found it difficult to communicate with the other children. Soon he was picked on because of his name - Zero with zero friends, a total zero. Even now in senior high school at 18, he had no friends. He was simply ignored by the others because he was socially awkward.
When he got home, no one was there, as usual. There was money on the table with a note saying "Here is money, fill the fridge". Zero left the small flat and made his way to the supermarket. On the way, he saw the group of boys from his class in the distance. To avoid an unpleasant situation, Zero sidestepped into a back alley. Out of nowhere, he felt a sting in his neck and before he could turn around, his eyes went black and he fell down.
When he woke up again, he was on a chair. In the otherwise empty room, there was only a monitor on the wall in front of him. While he sat perplexed on the chair and tried to remember how he had come here, the screen suddenly turned on.
Zero saw a person dressed in black with a white mask: "Be honoured my dear participants. You are privileged to participate in the Subtraction War. Each of the 101 participants has a number tattooed on the right upper arm - this is now your new identity, do not forget it. I have also decided to give each of you a supernatural ability - isn't it thrilling? Under the chair is a backpack containing provisions for a few days and a tablet. Uh... Right, I should explain the rules. Survive. Survive the next 7 days to get through the first phase. However, if 7 days is too long for you, I offer you the possibility to shorten this time - if you kill other players, you can choose one of many rewards. One of them is to skip the first phase. That's all for now, further instructions will be given via the tablet."
Zero could hardly believe what he had just heard. What is the Subtraction War? He had never heard of it. Why am I here? Why am I a participant - I never agreed to any of this. What does he mean you can kill other players, that's completely crazy. Zero's head was swirling with hundreds of questions. "I have to pull myself together and accept my current situation for now" he eventually said after pinching his cheek.
When he had calmed down, he began to look for the tattoo. He had a big zero on his upper arm. "So I'm number zero - how ironic". So there were 100 other numbers and participants. Zero wondered what they meant. Afterwards he examined his backpack, which had provisions in it, but he realised that it would never be enough for a whole week. How dirty - it was supposed to make the players kill each other to skip the first phase because there was not enough food. But Zero remained optimistic "I'm sure there are other ways to get food". Lastly, he examined the tablet. It had only one button, which probably was for switching on. Zero pressed it. The black screen became bright and a sentence could be seen in large letters: 0, your ability is to stop momentum.
What exactly was meant by stopping the momentum? Zero had no idea what it was supposed to mean. "I can find out what it means later, I should explore the area first," he mumbled after a while of thinking. After making sure that there was nothing else in the room, he took the backpack and left the room. He followed a long corridor and finally got outside. He was in a city but - there was no one to be seen. No cars, no people and no noise - there was complete silence. A ghost town.
He cautiously explored the city. Zero went into various abandoned buildings and tried to find something useful. But apart from dusty rooms and empty shelves, he found nothing. Frustrated by his failed search for food, he rattled one of the shelves of one of the empty supermarkets. At the top of the shelf something appeared - it was an iron pipe - but because of all the shaking it fell over the edge. Zero saw the object falling on him and quickly put his hands over his head and closed his eyes to brace himself for the pain. But instead of the expected hard impact, Zero only felt a consistent pressure on the back of his hand.
What happened? When he opened his eyes again, he saw the iron pipe that was on the back of his hand. After a short period of confusion, it finally occurred to him that it might have happened because of his ability. Stopping the momentum...Exactly, he somehow stopped the momentum of the iron pipe at the exact moment where it would have hit him. But how could he activate his ability? He tried to recreate the previous situation and placed one of his shoes on the edge of the shelf. Then he shook it until the shoe fell off. He focused completely on the shoe at that moment, but it fell on the floor just like it normally would. He tried a few more times after that, but each time in vain. Why didn't it work, what had he done differently that one time? Then he remembered that the iron pipe had stopped at the moment of impact. He tried again but this time he placed his hands so that they would come into contact with the shoe when it fell. As he had hoped, the shoe lost its momentum with the touch of his hands - but only for a barely noticeable instant and then it fell again.
After further experimentation, he found that when he touched the shoe, it set its falling speed to zero. After that it falls again but has to start from zero again - as if it had just fallen from the shelf. He also found that it only worked with his right hand - the arm with the tattoo. It also only worked when Zero wanted it to, so he could also control the ability in a way. He also tested his ability on the shelves and other furniture in the room - he tipped them over and if he touched them just before they hit the floor he could minimise the impact as they hit the floor at a significantly reduced speed. There also seemed to be a cool-down. He couldn't use his ability continuously. He always had to wait about a second before his ability activated again. When he was satisfied with his tests, Zero set off again to explore the city further - he also took the iron pipe with him, he could use it as a weapon if he needed to.
Shortly afterwards, it started to rain heavily. He held his backpack over his head to stay as dry as possible and ran into the next building. It had several floors, so Zero decided to stay on the top floor until the rain stopped. At the top he had a good view of the city. One wall was missing one of the large windows that were usually spread across the floor. He decided to stay as far away from missing piece of wall as possible because he didn't want to accidentally fall out of it. He tried to make himself comfortable on the hard floor to rest a little. Normally, he could never rest on such a hard floor, but as he was so exhausted, he soon fell asleep.
The current situation
Was that a tennis ball? How on earth could it have destroyed the stairs? It must have been his ability, Zero concludes. "Are you also a participant? Why do you want to kill me? Can't we look for a way out together?" Zero desperately asked the unknown man. But as he had feared, he could not discuss peacefully with the man: "Yes, I am also a participant. You have certainly already noticed that we have received far too little food. That is why I will now kill you in order to skip the first phase. So please die."
When Zero tried to get up, the man threw one of the tennis balls into the air and hit it with the racket in Zero's direction. He barely dodged the shot by jumping out of his crouch position to the side. The ball hit the ground next to Zero and left a big crater. What kind of ability is that? To leave such a crater with a small tennis ball. But Zero had no time to lose thinking about it, because the man was already throwing the next ball into the air.
Zero immediately started to run and to make a dive jump to the left. But no ball came. The man had deliberately delayed his shot a little to force Zero into action. As Zero jumped, the man hit the ball specifically in Zero's direction. At this rate, the ball would hit him dead on. Zero pinched his thigh with his right hand. If only I could stop my own momentum. At that moment Zero's momentum halted. He then fell vertically towards the ground. The ball flew just over him and smashed the wall behind him. "How did you dodge the ball mid-air?" the man shouted annoyed, "Well not that it matters, I will just kill you with the next one". But Zero exactly knew the reason why he could dodge it - He stopped his own momentum.
He had never thought of using his ability on himself. I could use that to defeat the man, I would only have to get close to him, it struck Zero. With a plan in mind, he ran straight at the man. "Have you gone mad now charging at me!" his opponent shouted. But Zero couldn't hear him - he was so focused on his plan that he blocked out everything else. The man, a little intimidated, threw the next ball into the air and hit it again towards Zero. It was all or nothing - Zero aimed his right hand directly into the line of fire of the ball. Shortly afterwards the ball touched his hand and fell to the ground, leaving a small crater. "H...How did you stop it?" the man screamed in confusion. By now only a few metres separated him and the man. Before the man could shoot another ball, Zero rammed into him. Both fell down and the racket and balls fell out of the man's hands.
Zero quickly stood up again and kicked the balls and the man's racket away. After he got up, Zero rammed him again and pushed him all way to the missing piece of wall. Just before he could push him off, the man grabbed hold with his feet and pushed against him. Because the man was stronger he turned the situation around, and now Zero was the one with his feet on the cliff. But instead of continuing to fight back, Zero grabbed the man's arm and dropped backwards, causing them both to fall.
It was a fall of over 14 metres, but just before Zero hit the ground, he grabbed his leg with his right hand, activated his ability and landed unharmed. But the man, on the other hand, was dead on the spot. Zero was lying right next to the blood pool of the man. His heart was beating like crazy. He could not believe that he had survived the fight. While Zero was lying on the ground trying to calm himself down, it also stopped raining.
After a while he got over himself and examined the dead man's body. As suspected, he also had a tattoo on his right upper arm - the number 71. Apart from his clothes, the man otherwise only had his tablet in his trouser pocket. Zero switched it on and read the sentence in large print: 71, your ability is to change the mass of flying objects. It now made sense why a tennis ball could leave such a crater. The man multiplied the mass of the ball after hitting it with the racket. Zero also remembered that the man had thrown the ball into the air with his right hand. Maybe all the abilities could only be activated with the right hand. Also the man changed the mass of the ball after it was already flying - so there were also abilities that could be activated from a distance.
Zero went back into the building to get his things. He put the tennis balls that were scattered around in his backpack, maybe he could use them sometime. The tennis racket had no place in his backpack, so he left it there. When he finally switched on his tablet, a list of things popped up on the screen. The heading said: You have successfully subtracted a number, choose one of the rewards. Among the rewards were many different things: A gun, a knife set, a first aid kit and also skipping the first phase. Zero was about to choose the skip, but he noticed one among the rewards that caught his eye: Accumulate 71 points + access to the Subtraction Store. And when he scrolled all the way down to look at the other rewards, he found the sentence at the bottom: A hint for those who don't skip the first phase: Every second day, each participant will be given an aid package with provisions.
So there was no need to kill each other. Everyone could survive in peace. Zero was furious that this information was kept secret, but he expected nothing less from the sadistic people behind all this. After a short consideration, he finally decided to take the 71 points + the access to the Subtraction Store as his reward. It might have been a little impulsive, but he really wanted to know what it was all about. He regretted a little not having skipped the first phase. But the knowledge that he didn't have to worry about provisions and that he could satisfy his own curiosity finally persuaded Zero to make his decision. After he had selected and confirmed his reward on the tablet, a new message appeared on the tablet: Congratulations, you have successfully accumulated 71 points! The Subtraction Store will be available in 12 hours.
He had no choice but to wait. He looked for another building to spend the night in, as he did not like the idea of sleeping near a corpse. He finally found a mattress in a small house in a secluded part of the city and decided to spend the night there. In the middle of the night, the bright light of the tablet woke him up. It was a new message. He read it half asleep and, after a disturbed look, went back to sleep.
Day 1 of the first phase has ended - 89 numbers left