"We should try breaking them... We don't know how to win this game. Its not a traditional traffic light game," I replied. "Who knows if touching them might make something happen instead."

Baekho nodded and as the lights turned green, everyone stopped moving to the best of their abilities. There were still some unlucky ones who fell to their own demise and ended up as piles of meat on the floor. I watched in horror as they just slid over the dead bodies, squishing and smearing their blood and guts all over. Flesh and bones filled the arena and painted it bloody and grotesque. We tried not to make a sound as they slid around us, shifting sensitively towards any form of movement.

Some brave or maybe just plain stupid person tried to yell and charge up to one of them, grabbing ahold of it but it spun around as if there was a pivot in his waist, slicing the person in half and his partner exploding to bits as the consequence.

I held in my cries of terror as the blood splashed against me, shutting my eyes as I felt the warm feeling slid down my face and arms. It was still rather difficult to believe that this was a game when people die so realistically rather than just disappear or something. I glanced up at the traffic light as it flicked back to red and all the statues ceased to move. There was almost a breath of relief emitted from everyone before people started moving just to be sure that it was in fact the game that I mentioned. Whilst the statue didn't move, some attempted to touch those nearby them but nothing happened.

"Touching them doesn't work," someone said aloud and a few started to panic since that had cut down our already limited actions.

"Hey, you," Baekho called out to the guy from earlier as we hurried to their side. "You said you had a plan earlier, care to share?"

"These things aren't sensitive to dead or non living objects unless they bump into it. The plan is to trip this stoneheads and see if that topples them," the guy replied.

"What do you mean not sensitive?" I questioned.

"Look at the way they move when they're active. They avoid us people if we are alive and not moving. They only cut down those that move but the moment they're dead, they just slide over them. They also bump into the chains of our cuffs before they move away," he explained and I found it quite fascinating that he could tell all these from just two rounds despite not moving much at all.

"So what's the plan?"

"It's risky and I only want you to take part in it if you're willing to risk your life for it."

"Well, how else will we win this? There's no time limit," I said. "And touching them doesn't work. We could wait out a few rounds and see if we win but-"

"But! Each countdown for the traffic light is shorter," he said, different from what I was going to say but it was startling that he even noticed that. "I counted the first and second one. Look. Its already yellow light."

". Does this mean we can't move at all if we wait out a few rounds?" Baekho hissed and the guy shrugged.

"That might be worst case scenario. So...?"

"We will do it. Right, Minhyun?"

"Ah... Yes. We have no choice. Being unable to move means an endurance test but until when... We wouldn't know either."

The guy nodded and held his hand out. "Cool. I'm Jonghyun. This is Ren."

Baekho shook his hand and the light turned green. We stopped moving and Jonghyun lowered his voice to a whisper.

"We have to trip them. We will be the bait. You two, work on tripping them," Jonghyun said much to his partner's look of terror. Baekho frowned and I knew what he was thinking almost instantly. I barely even knew the other but it was almost as if everything he did was linear.

"No, we will be the bait. It'll be easier since you know what you're doing."

"Wait. I do-" Before the guy could finish his sentence, Baekho pulled me up and looked me in the eye once the lights turned red again.

"We can do this," he said as if I needed a pep talk before doing something crazy like this but I felt the tremble in his hands and placed a hand on his.

"Hey. At least, we die together. Not so alone in life then," I said in a joking tone and he chuckled before nodding.

"Alright. We gotta run."

"Bring them to us. We will make them fall," Jonghyun said and smiled. He had a friendly smile that made you want to trust him, I noted, unlike some others but his partner was definitely not happy about it. We got to a fair bit of distance and Baekho had someone found a moment to clutch my hand. I wasn't sure why at first but I guessed it would be easier to run like this than him dragging me by the cuffs. I breathed in deeply since I wasn't sure if I was ready. We had seen the speed that they moved in and honestly I doubted I would be able to outrun it. I was lucky the first time but who knows how much luck you have before it runs out.

Yellow light.

"Ready?"

"Hah... That's like asking if I'm ready to jump a plank on a pirate's ship."

"Right... We will get through this, Minhyun."

I kept silent as the light blinked out and the dreaded green colored it. Instantly, the statues were active again. Baekho squeezed my hand and we both counted to three lowly before breaking into a sprint. The nearest statue activated and started to chase us but we didn't look back. We didn't have the luxury to do that.

"Duck!" Jonghyun yelled and we both did just as the blade suddenly swung right above us. We had no idea how we got out of that unscathed but as we approached Jonghyun and his partner who stood apart as far as the chain, we understood what his plan was for the most part. "Jump!" 

We jumped over the chain and Baekho suddenly pulled me down onto the ground. I was startled as another statue from the other side had suddenly came up close to us as we rolled on the floor. Baekho slowed down our rolling by stretching his hand out and trying to grab onto whatever he could. I gasped as I saw another one swinging it's swords apart and slammed my hand and knee on the ground to make us stop. We stopped just before the two statues cut us into pieces but they were less fortunate as they slammed right into one another, bits and pieces of stone dropped onto me as I was on top of Baekho. That seemed to have deactivated them and the light turned red. Baekho panted heavily and we both scurried out from under the statues before taking notice of the one from earlier broken into pieces as well on the floor.

"Woah, you two were awesome," Jonghyun said with a wide grin and I have no idea how someone could be smiling in such a situation but at least he and his partner were safe. Baekho patted my back and I thanked him softly.

"You saved us there," he whispered to me.

"Huh? No way. I just... Survival instincts kicked in," I responded and he chuckled.

"Guess reading about survival helped, huh?"

"I don't know but I think we can manage as long as these guys don't suddenly fix themselves or more gets send out."

"Don't curse it now."

We grouped up again and from witnessing the statues' deactivation, people started to group up together as well. By the next green light, lesser deaths started happening while more statues got deactivated as people ran around, helping one another instead. Sometimes there were a couple of unlucky ones but there was nothing that we could do. We were doing this for our own survival but I could see the look on my partner's face changed a little every time another person fell to their death, leaving only an unrecognisable body on the floor where they stood.

"Baekho! Last one!"

Crash!

"Ding, ding, ding! Well done! You have completed the game!" a sharp voice echoed in the arena as the last of the statues fell. All of us were either out of breath or tattered.

A flash of light brought us back to the main hall and people started collapsing, having exhausted their stamina and mental state. The first thing I noticed was how the blood on our clothes and bodies were still there but they didn't stain the floors of the main hall yet they didn't feel dry. I could still the warmth from the red liquid, if it was even blood at this point. Baekho fell to the ground and took long deep breaths. I squatted down and patted his back as I noticed his eyes were red and teary all of a sudden.

"Hey, we made it out. Like you said we would," I said softly, hoping I sounded even the least bit comforting. He breathed in shakily and nodded.

"Yeah...."

"Le-" Before I could ask him to head back to our room, someone came up to us and basically attacked me with a side hug. I was startled and yelped before recognising the wide grin. "Jonghyun."

"Hey! We made it out! Thanks for trusting me earlier. Couldn't have done it without the two of you. We make a great team, don't you think?" He said excitedly. Ren just looked exhausted on the other hand.

"Yeah, I guess we do," I replied him and tried to offer a small smile since his wide smile was starting to thwart the tensed atmosphere. It was weird to see someone so cheerful amongst the dangers we were in but it was also a fresh breath at the same time.

A loud clap was enough to pull our attention away from one another as Prism appeared from  a rising stage in the middle of the hall.

"Welcome back, my survivors~ Seems like we have a few law breakers in our hand here~"

Law breakers?

"But that's beyond the point right now. To all you winners here, your prize will be one of celebrating the union of teamwork and friendship. I present to you your upgraded cuffs, now fit with a communication system and also a camera system. Wonderful, isn't it?"

"That's silly and dumb! Get us out of this game!" someone yelled desperately but Prism just clapped and disappeared. The stage started to descend a
as well.

"Coms and camera?" Jonghyun said in a serious tone. Our cuffs glowed for a short moment before he started clicking on it, opening the pop up menu and navigating it like a professional.

"You sound like you played this before," I blurted out and he turned to me before chuckling and shaking his head.

"Right. Where are my manners? I'm a professional gamer. I go by the name Jr. Here's my info." He opened one of the tabs and out popped a screen stating his character information as if he was really a game character instead of a person.

Kim Jonghyun, Jr
- Professional gamer
- Observative, intuitive and quick to learn

So on and so forth.

"Says here we just bump fists to exchange contact so here," he said while holding his fist out. Baekho and I exchanged glances before he made the move to fist bump. A screen popped up and the words 'Jr & Ren added' flickered before our cuffs beeped. "Good. Well, nice to be of acquaintance, Baekho, Minhyun. Let's clear this game together."

We nodded, uncertain what to say as the two left.

"You don't trust Hoshi but you trust him?" Baekho questioned me and I frowned.

"Well, sorry that I think he has a more trustworthy and dependable look than your friend," I replied.

"What was that about me?"

"Hoshi!" Baekho gasped and rushed to his equally bloody friend. They hugged one another and Baekho instantly fist bumped him to get his contact. "Thank god you're fine. What the hell happened?"

"I'm guessing the same as you two from how we all look... But I didn't see you guys at all when we spawned."

"Neither did we. How did you guys win?"

"You won't believe this! There was some crazy guy with a hammer. He smashed those stone guys to bits. He had mad crazy reflexes too. He almost single handedly wipe them all out."

"Sounds crazy. How did his partner even catch up with him?"

"She didn't have to. He piggy backed her the entire time. She would get their attention and he would smash them. It was crazy to watch too. It's almost like they knew what to do."

I let Baekho and Hoshi talk about the game before realising that Woozi seemed awfully drained. His eyes were hazy and he was leaning against Hoshi who still seemed energetic.

"Hey. Maybe you want to let Woozi rest. He seems out of it," I said softly and Hoshi gasped.

"Shoot I forgot. Right. We should get you in bed. One of those stone guys knocked right into him."

"Okay. Take care, you two," Baekho said and turned to me. "Should we go take a rest too?"

"Y-"

"Oh, Minhyun! Baekho!" Jonghyun suddenly called out to us before we could even leave. In his hands were towels and clothes. "There's a hot spring here if you two want to relax. You might find it quite useful too. If you want to talk more, Ren and I will be there."

"Okay," Baekho replied him as he walked pass us. "He seems nice, I guess. A little too nice maybe."

"Hmm...."

"So? You want to join him or want to just stick to the room?"

~~~

Bath time, bath time~

> Head to the hot spring

> Stay in the room