I wasn't too sure about the beep that sounded followed by the words 'Continue' showing up.

 

"Seems like they've made their decision," Prism said, spooking both of us as we moved away from him instinctively. "And are you sure about this?"

 

"We can use the wish against this game to end this once and for all," I said, hoping I sounded confident about my choice but honestly I wasn't even that sure. Minhyun's life would be drastically be in more danger now that I know he would actually die should he get killed. "Isn't there a way to log Minhyun back inside...? Or create another data version of him?" 

 

"Well, that'll be difficult but I can always back up his data for now. How effective that may be, I wouldn't know. After all, I am just a program in the system. If I were an AI, maybe things would be different." Prism lifted the unconscious body and did a little bow.

 

"Hey, Prism. Are you on our side?" Minhyun asked and he let out a laugh as he approached us.

 

"I'm on nobody's side." He clicked the cuff onto Minhyun's wrist and stepped back. "Good luck with the game. I look forward to seeing how you clear it so don't die on me now."

 

"We aren't going to die. Not after coming this far," I said and Prism shrugged before heading towards the portal. "Bye... For now."

 

"Oh, one last thing. There's always a way to win. See you." He stepped through the portal and it closed up behind him. I took a deep breath before looking at Minhyun who also met my eyes. "Guess we are back on track now."

 

"Yep. Hey, Dongho... Don't worry about it. I won't die. Not after getting this far." 

 

I stared at Minhyun for a moment before blinking. "Did you just say... Dongho?" 

 

"That's your real name, isn't it?" 

 

"Ah, yes... I just wasn't expecting that." 

 

We started heading towards the tower and took notice of how the seasons seemed to have shifted again. It was blooming with flowers everywhere at every nook and cranny where vines can reach and spread. The roads torn up by roots and making it difficult to walk. 

 

"Seems like something has changed again," I said and Minhyun nodded. I looked at him and couldn't help taking another breath of relief. I was glad he was fine but I was also worried. This was a risk for him but if we don't do it, we would possibly never be free. 

 

"I don't see any of the zombies from before," he said, peering up at the sky. 

 

"Mmm... Maybe the enemies changed again." Somehow or rather, we made it to the tower almost too quickly. It was unnerving to approach at first since it looked barren but there was movement to the side and instantly, we froze. Hand reaching for my cuff just in case an enemy popped up.

 

Instead, Minhyuk poked his head out from behind the  road block with a loud gasp. 

 

"You guys are alive!!" he squealed and we rushed to one another. It wasn't a planned hug but he crushed us in an embrace anyways, dragging poor Kihyun along. 

 

"Holy-calm down, Minhyuk. You're dragging me." 

 

"Sorry, sorry. I just can't believe it! We thought you were dead!" 

 

"Well and alive. Both of us," I said and grinned, somehow happy that someone was happy to see us. 

 

"Are these the friends you were talking about so much?" an unfamiliar voice asked and we noticed a new pair of guys walking up to us. I gasped and looked at them up and down. One was tall and rather burly while the other was shorter but also quite the size. 

 

"It's good to finally meet the both of you too," Minhyun said swiftly.

 

"Yep. This here is Baekho and this is Minhyun. And these two are Shownu and Jooheon," Kihyun introduced us to one another. "Oh. Let's show them the base too."

 

"Sure. Come on. You guys won't believe this!" Jooheon said cheerfully. He seemed friendly with his dimpled smile while Shownu didn't give a complete hostile feeling either. Minhyun and I followed them towards the tower and we noticed the barricades blocking the front of the tower. We slid through them into the tower and realised that we weren't the only ones gathering around here. There were other pairs there as well, resting or eating or just talking. There were others. "These people made a base out of the tower and they've been around for some time, it seems."

 

"Huh? What does that mean?" I asked and tilted my head.

 

"Over here."

 

We followed Jooheon towards a male who had an almost similar physique to Shownu but his muscles were even more obvious as he was wearing short sleeves which I found odd but that wasn't the most odd thing about him. It was when he looked up and smiled while waving that I noticed that he wasn't handcuffed to anyone.

 

"Wait. He doesn't have a cuff," I blurted out and the rest nodded as if it was a natural thing. Hell, nothing from today was natural in the least bit!.

 

"Meet Wonho. He's been around far longer than the rest of us and he's sort of the leader around here?" Minhyuk said and grinned.

 

"I'm not a leader. I just look after things here. Nice to meet you two. I see you guys have handcuffs too so perhaps the same batch," he said and chuckled, smiling so brightly that I wasn't so sure if I was seeing things. He seemed really... Optimistic for someone who had been around for longer than us. 

 

"So you're saying you don't have cuffs?" I said softly and he nodded, wriggling his wrists as if to make a point. "How.. What... What's going on?" 

 

"Long story short, I've been stranded here for almost... 3 years now," Wonho said. 

 

"And you haven't been able to leave the game at all?" Minhyun asked and he nodded. "How... What happened to the others with you?" 

 

"They're... Gone... Either dead or... Well... Some of them made it but when you guys arrived, everything suddenly changed. I haven't seen so many people in such a long time... Game characters not included." 

 

"Wait. Do you recognise any of us that just arrived?" I asked since we had played the game before. 

 

"Huh? Nope. Everyone is a fresh face to me." 

 

"Does that mean we weren't in the games that long...?" I asked and looked at Minhyun who shrugged. We couldn't tell what was going on at all. Was Wonho also part of another group's game? Or maybe he was an NPC or AI made for this game? But he seemed too realistic to be that way. 

 

"Well, enough talking about what's what and not. We gotta find a way to end this game once and for all," Minhyuk said enthusiastically. "From what we do know, this tower doesn't actually have anything of value except for the fact that it can be easily spotted." 

 

I thought back to what Prism said and gasped softly. "What if... What we need isn't in this tower but we have to come here to be able to... See it or maybe use it...?" 

 

"You can go take a look around but there's nothing totally noticeable," Wonho said and stood up. "I can even show you around too." 

 

"Let's go, Minhyun." 

 

"Hmm? Sure." 

 

"We will continue looking outside meanwhile then," Minhyuk said and we nodded, going our separate ways again. It was faster to cover more ground and possibilities this way.

 

"There will be a way to get out of here. I'm sure of it," I said to them before they left to head out with Shownu and Jooheon. Wonho led us to the stairs that weren't in the best condition but we still managed to go all the way up, climbing a ladder halfway through and also pausing some times to rest. We could feel our stamina draining from us and Wonho explained that it was just an effect in the game itself.

 

"So... How exactly did you get stuck here?" I asked as we stopped to rest, wishing there were elevators now.

 

"Hmm? Ah. Its a pretty long story..."

 

"Well, we have a pretty long tower to climb."

 

"True." He sat down on the stairs and took a deep breath. "Basically we were in a game world just like you guys but none of us were cuffed together. It was everyone for their own. Of course, people group up as well. Try to help one another. We managed to survive a lot of games together.. Lost plenty of people along the way too. But... Once we got here... People started to backstab one another and next thing we know, everyone was trying to survive on their own. Not everyone made it... And the only way for us to win the game was to reach the portals before they closed up. I didn't make it and hence how I became stuck here for years. "

 

"How do you know how long has passed? And how did you even survive?" Minhyun asked and Wonho smiled. He stood up and started heading in a different direction. We exchanged glances but followed him as he motioned us to. We stopped when we reached a room and he opened the door.

 

"The reason why I said to rest here is to show you guys this." He walked in and we gasped as we saw boxes of what seemed to be food and water supplies stacked upon one another. "You can think do this tower as a... Safe zone. The supplies here restock almost everyday and so far I haven't encountered any aliens here yet."

 

I blinked and frowned a little. "Did you just say... Aliens?"

 

"Yeah. That's what we are up against. Oh. Right. The world changed... But back before it changed, we were only up against aliens... And everything wasn't as... Post apocalyptic like now. Its almost as if-"

 

"Different games clashed into one," Minhyun said and Wonho nodded.

 

"What I'm guessing is... You guys are from a different game 'world' than mine... Maybe the system bugged out and I ended up here but... I have no clue other than that. Oh. I also know how long it's been because of this."

 

He showed up the back of his wrist. There were nunbers written on it and they kept ticking. More and more.

 

"This started when my game world did too. That's how I know how long it's been."

 

"How haven't you gone crazy yet... That's crazy in itself," I mumbled and he chuckled.

 

"Well, I'm not alone and there's plenty of resources so I don't always have to go outside."

 

After we restocked our food and water, we continued making our way up the tower until we reached the top. The top of the tower was surprisingly wide with a helicopter landing pad along with a long antenna. Wind blew strongly but didn't knock us off our feet thankfully.

 

"Wow... Its really hard to see anything with the wind in our face," I said as I couldn't help squinting and lifting my hand to try to cover the wind from stabbing my eyes.

 

"Look, Baekho," Minhyun spoke beside me and I peeked my eyes open to see what he was referring to. There were light beams going from the sky to who knows where as we got closer to the edge. "Maybe that's where we have to go."

 

"Or it could just be the sunlight," Wonho said.

 

"Well, we could probably check it out rather than standing around and doing nothing."

 

"Well seems like we have three choices... There's a giant game centre to the north. A small church to the west and also nothing that notable to that northeast side but if I recall, its mostly just business buildings."

 

"Oh, we can just leave it to them to decide where to head to."

 

"Them?"

 

~~~

 

You. Yes, you.

 

> North

 

> West

 

> Northeast