The sound of dress shoes echoed through the now eeriely empty halls as a male with blonde hair strutted down the hallway after entering from a little black hole in the shape of an alcove, stopping before the non-functioning humanoid that only sputtered electric and nonsense. 

 

"Aww~ Poor thing. It broke, it broke," the giggles from the pink haired person echoed behind the blonde who did not seem fascinated at all by the other's cheerfulness. 

 

"Quit laughing and get rid of it. It has served its purpose like the others before it." 

 

"And what of the others?" 

 

"Let them be for now. Its safety protocol ensured the safety of the player. The others would sure to be angered if we lost hhe player." 

 

"Understood. And of the glitch?" 

 

"He won't bring any harm to us. Just continue watching them." 

 

"Won't he create more bugs in the system?" 

 

"We can't get rid of him currently. Pay more attention to your work and maybe you won't be the next scrap." 

 

"Oop! Scary~ Sorry, boss. I'll clean this right now." 

 

"I'm not your boss." 

 

The blonde hair started walking away, shoes clacking in the distance as he headed down the pathway leading to the rooms. He stopped in front of a door and sighed, pushing it open and entering it. 

 

*

 

I leaned forward and felt my hand twitched before our lips met. Baekho stiffened before he relaxed into the kiss. I moved back and looked at my hand, my cuff sparking a little. In shock that it might explode, I moved my hand away from him and he flinched but instead of it bursting into flames, the menu popped up. Baekho was confused but so was I. 

 

"Ah... Um... Sorry for doing that." 

 

"For what? Kissing me?" Baekho asked and I blinked. 

 

"No, no! Why would I be sorry for that?" I blurted out and was about to rectify it when something else caught both our attention. The clicking sound was back and it got louder faster this time. The mantis skirted right in front of the door as if it heard us despite how soft we were speaking before we could even make a move. We were about to hide again but it just lunged at us as if it had already locked onto us. It landed right above us but a loud crack sounded as well. 

 

"Huh?" 

 

It all happened so fast that Baekho and I didn't know what was going on anymore. One moment, I kissed him and the next moment, we were falling from what I believed was the sixth floor of a building back into a bellowing storm that seemed to eat everything up in white. We crashed or so I believed we did but the cold saved us. We flew further from how light we were compared to huge chunks of cement blocks and the mantis as the wind caught us as well. Both of us landed in the snow and panted heavily as we tried to scramble up but our bodies felt frozen stiff and our minds shaken from the fall. Maybe the cold didn't save us as much. 

 

"Hurry!" I heard a voice before feeling my hand being grabbed and pulled. The snow started slipping off my clothes and I wheezed painfully as I could feel myself remembering to breathe again. Baekho coughed as well and slowly but surely, we started regaining our composures and realised that two guys were trying to help us run away. We were also, in fact, running albeit it not processing in our minds but our legs moved unconsciously as if trying to save our bodies. 

 

"That way!" 

 

We just moved without a purpose, following the two. We could see coats and bags and a bow as our vision cleared a little more. A bow. Somehow that struck me as familiar but I could barely think as a screech echoed behind us followed by a howl. 

 

"Don't look back!" 

 

Yet when someone tells you not to do something, your body automatically does it before you can even think to ask why. My head turned slightly and I almost choked on the thin air. A wolf about the size of half a regular building tackled the mantis who suddenly looked small in scale as we got much further from the two who started to fight. The wolf was, by no means, metallic at all. It was furry and definitely nasty with drool and blood freezing off its teeth and fur. I continued running as far as I could go before my lungs gave out first from the extreme cold. I stumbled and almost made everyone fall. 

 

". Under there!" 

 

"Stop yelling and just run." 

 

We ducked under some kind of fallen streetlight that had tarp tied to it as if it was some makeshift tent. Somehow, I felt better just being under it.

 

"Like I said, it really works like a game," one of them spoke up immediately and the other clicked his tongue. I looked up since they sounded familiar and instantly, I recognised them since they were sort of the last two person we had a peaceful conversation with before everything went to back at the hall.

 

"You two... Minhyuk and... Kihyun, right?" Baekho panted out and they nodded.

 

"You remembered our names! I'm so glad!" Minhyuk said brightly and gave us both a hug.

 

"Wh-"

 

"Here, put these on. You'll both freeze to death," the other said and handed us coats that he pulled out from their bags.

 

"What the-"

 

"Judging from how you two look, you got a horrible spawn area," Minhyuk said and we both just blinked as we slid on winter coats that immediately started warming up our sore muscles even though we haven't been outside for too long. "We got lucky and also we can still use our weapons from before which means you still have your katana."

 

"How do you know all these? And thank you," Baekho asked. 

 

"Game logic? It's kinda like... PUBG but if you put it in some kind of Horizon or Last of Us monsters." 

 

I blinked and so did Baekho. Those names sounded almost gibberish to me despite being words. Minhyuk chuckled and shook his head. 

 

"Nevermind about that. I have no clue how you two have been winning games thus far but I guess sometimes the best strategy is to have no strategy."

 

"So what is the strategy to win this game?" I asked before I remembered something. "Hey... Did you find your friend?" 

 

His face seemed to become worried before he shook his head. "I couldn't find him." 

 

"Maybe we will find him somewhere here... What's his name?" 

 

"Hyunwoo or well, we call him Shownu. His partner's name is Jooheon. Speaking of which, we haven't bump fists with you yet if that even works in this game." 

 

We exchanged glances before bumping fists. Surprisingly, it did work which ended up with Kihyun moving to one side to try to contact his friend while Minhyuk told us of his so-called strategy. Having one was still better than none. 

 

"We were trying to make our way to some kind of main area. Usually they have that in games. I don't see there being any restrictive sphere so chances are this might be an open world game. We will need to find a way to clear some kind of objective or something."

 

"What if the objective is just to survive? Until there's only one pair left standing...?" Baekho asked and Minhyuk shook his head. 

 

"I wouldn't trust that."

 

"Why not? Jonghyun played the game before and he said this was the survival stage which is the last stage." 

 

"Did he say that because he wanted to be the last one surviving? Last I check, he was frozen in fear when you two risked your lives to help us all. Plus, with this crazy weather and monsters, we are indeed all better off just throwing in the towel. But I don't believe that! Not for one second."

 

"Why not?" I asked this time.

 

"How many times did he play the game? One time? Then how can he be so sure? We have been playing these games without much rules and if he did know the rules, why didn't he help you in the first place?"

 

"The concepts are the same but the games itself are different probably."

 

"Whatever excuse he has, I'm not interested. What's more important is finding an actual way to beat the out of the game and live. All of us!"

 

"Hyunwoo!" Kihyun gasped out of the blue and waved his cuffed wrist to Minhyuk. "He's alive!" 

 

"Really? Where are they?!" 

 

Minhyuk scurried over to Kihyun and they both started talking to their friend as if it had been ages since they spoke. I guess this whole game makes you feel that way. I turned to Baekho who twitched and turned to me. Red crept up his cheeks and he cleared his throat, looking down nervously or maybe even shyly. 

 

"So, um... I guess we are teaming up with them for awhile?" Baekho asked and I chuckled. 

 

"Yeah unless you don't want to. We can still try to survive by ourselves but I really don't think that's the point here after what Minhyuk said and they don't seem like the type to backstab us," I replied and he nodded, smiling sheepishly as he moved his hand to lightly touch mine. I chuckled and curled my fingers slightly. "God, don't make this feel awkward now." 

 

"It was a kiss, not CPR. Do you know what that even implies?" he squeaked and I shrugged playfully, nudging his shoulder. 

 

"That I like you?" 

 

He gasped and turned redder. I found it adorable and couldn't help grinning. This man better be the death of me and not anything else from a game. Still, it did fascinate me that I could feel like this even if our lives and deaths were literally held on by what seems to be a thread now. How I could think for someone else rather than my own survival only. 

 

"Minhyun, I promise you that we will find a way out of this," Baekho said and I hummed. 

 

"You don't have to promise me anything. Let's just do it." 

 

He smiled and nodded. 

 

"Alright!" Kihyun chirped and they scurried back over. "They're at some main city area which means there really might be some other way to win this. We should group up with them too. Surely we will be able to figure this out together!" 

 

"Okay. Seems like the storm has died down a little too and I don't see any of those creatures either," Minhyuk said as he looked around. 

 

"Do you think we should go now or we should rest since it doesn't seem like they're nearby?" 

 

"Let's find a proper building to rest for the night. We might need better weapons too if there are any just in case we come face to face with them." 

 

"Do you think we can even go up against them...?" Baekho asked and gulped. Coming up close with the mantis was already scary enough but to fight it? Our weapons probably wouldn't even leave a dent on it.

 

"Won't know until we try," Minhyuk replied with a grin. He seemed cheerful but not in the way that he was super confident that everything would be fine. He was just light to be around and maybe that's why I didn't feel as pressured as when around Hoshi. Maybe that's why I didn't really get along with Hoshi compared to Minhyuk. We poked our heads out from the tent and they led the way, dashing as silently as they can through the thick snow. We felt less cold too, now equipped with proper winter coats as we followed them. Sometimes they slowed down to hear for any noises but most of the time, they just hurried along.

 

"Did your friends find a landmark where we can meet?" I asked and Kihyun nodded.

 

"Over there."

 

I looked at where he pointed and just noticed a couple of tall blinking towers in the distance which was a little odd for a post apocalyptic world but at the same time, seemed to make sense that we would be heading there.

 

"If that's the landmark, then we definitely can't move around when it's snowing heavily," Baekho said.

 

"That's why we will find a place to rest for tonight first. Minhyuk and I are still tired from the earlier game."

 

"Wait, stop," Minhyuk said as we came across a bridge. "Looks like a highway."

 

"We probably shouldn't cross it now," Kihyun added but suddenly turned to us. "What do you guys think?"

 

"Huh? Us?"

 

I looked around and noticed a school in the distance. There was also a police station not too far away.

 

~~~

 

Left, right, up, down~

 

> Cross the bridge

 

> Head for the school

 

> Head for the police station