"30 seconds left!" the same voice continued.
The people seemed confused. Questions rose.
"Is the timer thirty seconds early?" Chatter spread, raising doubts about the time and the floating dice in front of them. Not long after, the people started counting back again.
"Twenty-eight... Twenty-seven... Twenty-six!"
"Five!" The dice that Damian threw stopped, then broke into pieces.
Some others also took the initiative to throw their dice, each landing on its own number before shattering. Meanwhile, the majority ignored the dice, seeing them as mere ornaments.
"I wonder, is this really just an ornament?" Damian thought. "I hope I won't get charged for this." He tried to comfort himself, considering every possibility.
The countdown continued until it eventually reached the end.
"Two... One... Zero!"
The enthusiasm of the people then was broken from the same voice. "Blame yourselves! Those who chose not to throw, for you have picked your own death!" the voice shouted, tearing through the sky.
Monsters poured out. The first death brought cries of misery, and screams filled the air.
Just then, a ray of hope appeared: a massive sphere showing a wild rainforest bathed in moonlight.
"Over there!" the people shouted, rushing toward the sphere. Yet the sphere rejected them. Like crashing into a screen, they ran into it but could not enter.
One by one, some began to pass through the so-called-portal, arriving in another place—somewhere in stark contrast to the Square.
Damian ran, following the crowd. "The portal!" he thought. Breathing heavily, he pushed himself to keep going.
"Move!" he shouted, but the panic of the crowd drowned out his voice.
Humans gathered around the portal, forming a chaotic pedestal out of desperate bodies trying to reach the entrance. Screams echoed as people were stepped on and trampled; chaos fills the air.
Being pushed around, Damian thought "No, no, NO! I'm going to end up dead!"
He then broke free from the crowd and climbed onto a taxi, jumping from one car roof to another. Eventually, he reached the end, but the final jump left him staring down at a sea of human heads, writhing in chaos: pushing, pulling, clawing at one another.
"If I fall... well, I'll end up dead anyway," Damian thought, hesitating.
He took a step back and leaped over the crowd.
Stepping on other's head for a few times, Damian made it halfway through the portal—his upper body inside—but his feet were grabbed by others desperately trying to pull themselves in.
"Help! Let me in!" people screamed, clutching at his legs.
"Shit!" Damian grunted as he was dragged backward. "Help!" he shouted again.
Suddenly, someone grabbed his hand and pulled. The tug-of-war continued, but the people inside pulling him proved stronger.
"Let me go, bastards!" Damian yelled, kicking wildly at the hands gripping his feet. After a struggle, he finally made it through to the other side.
Upon fully arriving in the other realm, he saw multiple people that arrived earlier than him. Tall trees surrounded the area, with light coming from torches placed in the trees. No one knew where these things had come from, as if everything had been set up in advance.
The young man sat down, staring at the gate in the distance. People screamed for help, pounding on the portal and begging to be let through. Then, a hand emerged from the gate. Other survivors grabbed it, desperately trying to save one more person.
After a while, the flow of people entering stopped. The massacre began in earnest. A massive, scaly monster started to eat and crush humans, devouring anything to fill its belly.
Screams faded into silence. A pool of blood filled the streets. Buildings burned and collapsed into ruins.
"Wyverns? Or are those dragons?" Damian muttered in fear, though he quickly regained his composure.
"Are you okay?" A young man came and asked Damian. "Those look more like what they call Wyverns, though."
Damian looked up and met the same face that had helped him.
"Thanks. I really appreciate that," he smiled at the man. The man extended his hand, Damian grabbed it, and stood up.
"The name's Damian, Damian Ravolski. You?"
"Luke. Luke Peterson, although I doubt family names hold any meaning now," Luke replied.
"True. Brother, but did you roll the dice?" Ravolski asked, trying to shift the topic.
"Brother? Haha," he laughed. "I'm 27 years old. Yeah, I got six. You?"
"Five, and I'm 26," Damian smirked. "Look who's older."
Luke sighed, with a smile, admitting his loss. "Well, it's truly unexpected. To think Humanity would fall just like that."
"True..." Damian replied.
Before Damian could add anything, a small whirlwind began to form; from the wind appeared a small being, a humanoid with wings, lazily flying. He yawned.
"Enjoying the show?" the being asked. "Well, it's already a grand welcome."
The small crowd of people whispered to each other. "Fairy?" The people murmured in fear.
After a while, the fairy stretched, finally waking up; he then shouted.
"Welcome, Humans!" The fairy welcomed the survivors. "You're all under my jurisdiction, so don't do anything weird," he added.
"Firstly, let's sort out your results." The fairy flicked his finger.
A blue platform appeared. Something like a game character's data.
________________________
Damian Ravolski
26 Years Old
Skill(s):
Concentrated Mind (F+)
??? (E+)
________________________
"All here should've gotten a skill. Well, some may have an extra," the fairy explained.
"The skill you got came from your luck, and the extra is yours to begin with," the fairy then hummed idly, looking bored.
Within the shock of the people processing the new information, a man cast his skill from the crowd, aiming for the fairy. "Wind bullet!" The wind within the area condensed and flew fast toward the fairy.
"That should've hit it!" the man laughed frantically. "It's dead, everyone!" he added, trying to get people's attention.
"You had your fun?" the fairy asked, looking at the one who cast it with a relaxed pose, unscathed. "This is how it should be done." The fairy moved his finger, and a hole formed within the man's body; blood rushed out, painting the grass red. He fell to the ground and died.
One thought passed through those who observed this event carefully. "Is that the same magic?", "Are we in one of those fantasy stories, where people lived using magic and swords?".
The screams started again.
"Here we go again..." the fairy muttered.
"Silence!" The wind roared, due to the fairy's influence.
Silence it was. The screams were settled, and everyone stood in fear.
"Finally," the fairy commented. Silence filled the air, waiting for the fairy's words.
"Your first mission is to live within this forest for a month. Get your food, fend off the monsters, and survive. Any questions?" he asked.
The people remained dead silent, fearing that they would be next. Luke, on the other hand, chose to be different. "I'm pretty sure you wouldn't just throw us out to the woods for no reason." Luke raised his voice.
"Hehe," the flying murderer smirked. "Who knows? There might be something else."
"Survive, if you want to live, that is." The fairy disappeared into thin air, just like how he came.
"We got toyed with," Damian responded.
"It's not like we could do anything. Let's party up and survive," Luke commented to Damian, which he nodded.
"People! We gotta survive this to live! We need to gather our strength!" Luke shouted, trying to gather the people's morale.
Damian instantly pulled Luke back after listening to his sentence.
"Luke, what. are. you. DOING?" Damian whispered. "I don't remember agreeing to add weights to our team."
"They're also people, Damian!" Luke replied in disbelief at Damian's words.
"Do you not see they are literally trembling?" Damian commented. "Let alone hunt, could they even walk and set up a camp?"
"I understand your point, Damian. But we need numbers right now." after that, Luke ignored Damian's words and started to gather the people.
"Luke!" Damian felt frustrated seeing Luke ignoring him.
Even so, the group that consisted of around a hundred people led by Luke moved. Damian, on the other hand, tagged along from the shadows. The group found a cave, where they set up a small camp and made a fire, trying to get a bit of sleep before daylight.
Damian, on the other hand, laid down near the fire, enjoying the night view that didn't belong to Earth. Two moons shone, stars, not to mention, filled the sky. Damian's act caught Luke's attention. He sat near the fire, distancing himself from Damian, but also absorbing the heat from the fire.
"The sky's pretty, isn't it?" Damian broke off the silence.
"It is," Luke replied. "I wonder if there are other humans here."
Damian sighed in frustration. "Humans, huh? If there were, would you save them? Would you care for them?"
"I understand your frustration, Dam," Luke said. "But you were also able to live from another person's help."
"They're no different than weights; they lower your guard and offer a sweet spot for enemies," Damian cut off Luke's words, blatantly ignoring him.
"Enough."
Out of thin air, Luke pulled a sword. He stood and pointed the sword directly at Damian's face.
Damian stared at the blade, revealing his calmness, even though he was really scared. "You wanna go at it?" he challenged Luke.