"Fine... We will ask what you want to ask," Baekho said and I raised a brow at him. 

 

"You sure?" 

 

"Yeah. It's important to know what would happen to us if we died, right?" 

 

I nodded. Or at least, that's what I felt before when I suddenly recalled that I literally owed Baekho this win. If it hadn't been for him... There was no way I would have been able to survive. 

 

"Actually... It was thanks to you that we won earlier... So I'll let you decide." 

 

He stared at me before a smile appeared on his lips. "Really?" 

 

"Yeah... You go ahead... I'll just ask if we get another chance..." Provided we are still alive... He turned to Prism and breathed in deeply, curling his fists up and approached him. 

 

"Prism! Our question to you..." He glanced at me and I nodded. He breathed in and out slowly. "What is the real method to return to reality...? Is it by clearing the games you propose to us?" 

 

Prism turned his body to face us and if he had eyes, I was pretty sure he would have been staring at us but I was unsure what sort of expression he would hold. Maybe a creepy smile as a small chuckle emitted from him. 

 

"Ding ding ding. The answer is no."

 

The both of us gasped and exchanged glances before Baekho frowned. 

 

"Can you explain more?" 

 

"While I would love to say no, I'm afraid I have to answer your question. The real method to return back to your realities is in fact by-" He swung his hand and tiny floating neon squares popped up around him. Baekho stepped back and the two of us stared in shock as we tried to read a few of the boxes as there were words in each other. Some even pertained brackets with numbers as if they were all objectives that needed to be cleared and that was what they were. 

 

Objectives. 

 

"What's this...?" I whispered and Prism clapped his hands gleefully. I flinched and frowned. 

 

"This is what you actually have to do to clear the game and return to whence you came. Clearing the games will fill certain objectives. Let's say, this one. Clearing 10 games would fill up the bar even further but of course, it's not necessary to partake in so many games to actually fill the gauge. Oh, did I mention that you have to fill this gauge?" He snapped his fingers and a gauge appeared on top of his head. It was barely even filled by the slightest. "By filling this gauge, you will be able to make an ultimate wish. It can be anything you wish for. To go back to the beginning of your life to ending this wretched game once and for all. Does that answer satisfy you?" 

 

Rather than satisfy, it just baffled me. This felt like the ultimate truth of the game that we were forced to play and I just didn't know how to respond. This felt like I was in an actual game except the stakes were higher and definitely felt more real. 

 

"So... To return to reality... We have to complete as many objectives as we can...," Baekho whispered before pointing at the glowing boxes. "Can we keep viewing these?" 

 

"As you have now obtain this information, you may view it on your dashboard here," Prism said and rapped twice on the table. An icon popped up on it along with other icons that weren't there before.

 

"What's that?" Baekho asked and pulled me unintentionally closer to the table to see.

 

"Think of it as your personal menu. You will unlock more things here as time goes by, not to fret. Look through it as you wish and also one reminder."

 

Both of us turned to him since his tone had hardened and if he could frown, he would have.

 

"You are not to mention a single word about the objectives to other players as they are also part of the game and this is your prize for winning the game. You may, however, mention about the dashboard but by no means, should you expose this to others."

 

"Why? So that you can keep your game all hushed and longer to complete?" Baekho snapped and Prism clapped his hand.

 

"Yes and no but I'm afraid that's all the questions I can answer for you. Well, feel free to explore the halls now and make sure to be back in your room by night."

 

"We aren't children. We don't need curfews."

 

"Ah. But I insist. Because you need all the energy you have to compete in the games, don't you?"

 

I blinked and held Baekho's hand to stop him from snapping at the other again. "Energy? Why do we need to preserve energy when this is just a game? We don't even get hungry."

 

"Oops. I've said too much. Toodles now." With another clap, he disappeared from the room with a little twinkle. Baekho scoffed and crossed his arms. I moved my hand away and looked at the dashboard. There was a 'Character Information' button and I clicked into it, gasping softly as information on me and Baekho were listed out as if we had just taken a medical and physical examination. He turned over and joined me as we both explored the dashboard together. There were a couple of empty options that held no information despite having a title like 'Backpack'.

 

"So... What do you think about what he said?" Baekho asked as he clicked out from the empty option we were in and towards the 'Objective' box. Out appeared the same boxes from earlier. We scanned through them and a couple stood out to me like Gain 500,000 views and Gain 500,000 likes. It almost seemed as though there were people who were watching us. I looked around the room, trying to find for something that could help back up that thought. A surveillance camera perhaps? But there was no such thing. I turned back to Baekho who was still reading through the objectives. 

 

"Do you think-" I was about to say when Baekho lifted a hand abruptly, cutting my words off. He pointed towards the objective box that had the view amount written. It was going up albeit slowly. 

 

"There are people watching us," he whispered.

 

"I know," I replied him and he stared at me in disbelief. 

 

"How? Where?" 

 

"That's what I was trying to find out. But there are no cameras around... So I'm guessing..." 

 

"An invisible camera?" 

 

"Huh?" 

 

"Like a game, right?" 

 

I blinked and nodded. "Yes, I guess so." 

 

"This is nuts. How can anyone enjoy watching us go through this?" 

 

I watched as his expression became stricken with confusion and perhaps, it was grief but grief is such a strong word. It was more of a disbelief. 

 

"It's not really that surprising," I replied and he gasped. 

 

"What?! Why not?"

 

"Because the people watching probably don't risk anything. They're just watching us... For entertainment. Kind of like watching Running Man or Law of the Jungle." 

 

"You think?"

 

I shrugged and tapped on the number displayed on the dashboard. "How else would we achieve such a high number if everyone involved had something to lose? We are humans and lots of us are afraid of losing something."

 

"Unless...they gain something instead..."

 

"Anyways, since we have free time right now, instead of racking our brains over this, why don't we go and explore?" I asked since I wanted to just take this off my mind for the meantime. Knowing our objectives didn't quite help us to clear it since obviously we needed to know more before we could actually do anything about it. For starters, how to get more views? How would playing the games help garner more views? Or likes? 

 

"Okay, fine. Let's go," he sighed and we both headed out from the room. There were already others roaming around and there were split paths that weren't there before. "Huh... Library, rock climbing, arcade... How did they even install these so quickly?" 

 

"This is still a game, isn't it?" I asked and he gave up questioning it. "Let's just take a quick look around all of them before deciding what to do." 

 

We headed down the first path and I glanced over at him, pursing my lip slightly.

 

"Um... About earlier, thanks for... Somehow keeping us both alive. I feel like I owe you that...," I said and he nodded.

 

"Of course. You're my partner. Can't let you die," he said and swung the cuff. "Plus, I don't really want to die by plunging to my death. Deathly afraid of heights."

 

I chuckled and nodded, thinking he was saying it as a joke but his serious expression made me swallow my laugh. "You're not kidding?"

 

"No... I'm actually afraid of heights. That's how I was... So persistent in staying on the platform earlier..."

 

"Oh... Oh. Well, thank god for that I suppose."

 

"Im guessing you trust me a little more now?" he asked.

 

"Um... No. Look. As much as I would love to, we are still two strangers with barely any knowledge of each other. Maybe a few more games in and I'll trust you a little more."

 

He nodded. "Fair enough."

 

We entered the library and as the name suggested, it was a library. Shelves filled with books at every corner and arranged in an odd zig zag fashion. Places to sit and read scattered all over. There was a sign that told us not to take the books out from the library either. 

 

"Don't think I've seen a messier library than this before," I muttered and he shrugged. There were a small number of people inside, not much to my surprise since I doubt anyone would be in their right minds to take a book and read in peace right now. We skimmed through the shelves and there were plenty of survival books, fantasy, mystery and other kinds of genre. Also, factual books and even the encyclopedia on cats. I paused briefly and quirked a brow before realising the entire shelf was filled with books on animals. "Animals, really?"

 

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

 

"Just thinking that the book selections are a little... Weird."

 

Baekho pulled the book on cats out and started to flip through it. He briefly read through it before a sudden ding! Sounded much like the way Prism said it. The both of us looked around in surprise before noticing that his cuff had lit up. We exchanged glances and he tapped his cuff. A smaller version of the dashboard in the room popped up and he gasped as there was a new icon available. 'Knowledge' was the name of it. He clicked into it and there was a row written 'Cats (1 /???)'. 

 

Realisation struck us as we looked at the entire library. This is where we could 'study' or gain knowledge. As if we were in a real game... Baekho shoved the book back on the shelf and shook his head. 

 

"No, no, nonono... You mean we have to read every single book here to gain knowledge?!" he squeaked and I raised a brow at his outburst. "We won't have the time to do that." 

 

"No... Hmm... But maybe there's a reason to have these here. We should probably read books that might be useful... Just like in a game... If that's how games work..." 

 

"Right... Right. Ugh... This is in real life grinding and farming now, isn't it?" 

 

I sighed and nodded unwillingly as well. 

 

"So, um... Do you play games? Like... In real life?" 

 

"Me? Not really. I ever only play Fifa," I replied. "I'm more of a reader than a gamer."

 

Baekho nodded and was about to say something else when a certain someone came barging into the space between us. 

 

"Thank god I found you two!" Hoshi cheered and we both turned towards him. I immediately took notice of Woozi who was just now catching up to Hoshi which was odd until I saw the length of the chain of their handcuff. "Look! We are free from the limits of the chains now. Though we are still connected together." 

 

Woozi panted slightly as he stopped beside us and frowned slightly. "Yah! Even if we get to go further now, don't forget there's still a limit to how long it can stretch." 

 

"How did you get that?" Baekho asked curiously and Hoshi grinned. 

 

"The prism dude showed up in our room the moment we shut the door and he told us that we could choose a gift and we took this." 

 

"Correction, you took it without asking me about it."

 

"Well, yes but anyways, what did you guys get?" 

 

Baekho parted his lips but his eyes travelled towards me instead. I blinked and recalled that we weren't allowed to tell anyone about the question we asked. 

 

"Um... We got to ask him a question. That's about it," Baekho said in the end and Hoshi nodded, eyes twinkling as if he was expecting more until he realised he wasn't going to get more. 

 

"And?" 

 

"We aren't allowed to say," I added and he nodded again. 

 

"Oh, I see."

 

"Um...but he showed us something cool. You can tap on the table in your room and it'll show you some stuff," Baekho said, probably to lessen the disappointment the other had in being unable to find out what we had asked. 

 

"Really?" 

 

"Yeah. I can show you... Uh... That's if Minhyun doesn't have anything else in mind." 

 

I looked at the books and back at them. It was either gathering knowledge or spending time with others just like a game, huh? Suddenly, this felt like such a pain in the . 

 

###

 

> + 1 Knowledge 

 

> + 1 Friendship