“This is so easy that it’s pathetic.” I rolled my eyes at him for the nth time.

“If it was so easy, why did it take you so long to get here? You’re player 13, right?” He glared at me with his lips in a thin line. He’s such a bozo…so stupid looking too.

“Whatever. You two are just idiots anyway.” The third guy was obviously annoyed, as was I, but he seemed to just want to get through this place without confrontation. Like that could work. I examined the two as we walked around, trying to find these stairs to find a way out. I don’t really understand this whole stairs thing, but I do realize that it’s our only way out of here or maybe to ‘the next stage,’ as that voice keeps calling it.

  Now that I take a better look at these two, they are quite handsome. One had plain black hair, the other with a more grayish cut. They very good-looking in comparison to me; a simple brown head. I snapped out of my thoughts, the other two stopping in front of me.

“Hey. What do you think all this is?” said the gray head.

“How should I know? I’m just a man of action, like you.” The black haired one turned to me. “What do you think it is, Sunggyu?”

I am the thinker of our trio. I see the obstacles and know how to solve them, but I can’t act upon it. I need people like these two to act out my plans and get us to the next stage. We all need each other and would just fail without one another.

“We should do…” I thought, looking at the protruding spikes in the ground and walls. Aish. The spikes are everywhere… I thought that maybe we could press up against the wall and then shimmy across without hitting any of the sharp spikes coming out the floor, but I guess that’s not an option. And they’re all even unevenly sticking out from everywhere.

“Hey! I got an idea!” Dongwoo yelled out in excitement. Yeah right. You’re just one who acts; I’m the brain behind out plans.

“What could it possibly be?” I asked in a dull tone, scratching my head.

“Well, you see how the spikes only go for about…15ish feet? I was just going to…Ah. Then only two of us could go…actually, no!” Can’t he just think out his thought before attempting to tell them? “Ah, I know~ Woohyun, come here.” He pulled the black haired boy over, whispering in his ear. They both glanced towards me, Woohyun smirking a little.

“It’s worth a shot.” Both approached me with smiles. They grabbed hold of my arms, lifting me up.  Oh God. I almost screamed when they threw me in the air, towards the spikes. I landed on the other side, face first.

“YAH! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” I yelled at them. I could have just died!! Dongwoo smiled while Woohyun smirked.

“You’re next.” Woohyun said. Dongwoo started running, trying to build some energy up before Woohyun rode the momentum, throwing him over too. He landed next to me, a lot more gracefully too.

“And what about you?” I asked the black haired guy.

“I got this. I’m pretty nimble on my feet.” He went over to the spiked wall, poking the spike’s sharp tip with his finger. A drop of blood immediately colored his light skin, dripping down. “So prickly…” He mumbled, putting his finger around the tip where the spike was round. “I might be a while.” He smiled, grabbing his other hand onto a spike’s round, cylindrical shape and putting both his feet onto two of the more, unequal spikes since they stuck out farther.

Wah…We watched him make it across after some time. I was pretty amazed. Maybe these two aren’t stupid. Or maybe I’m just a coward and can’t just dive into action like them… “Let’s keep moving.”

We walked in this dark area, but I noticed the place turning gray. As we kept walking, the atmosphere became sullen, little strips of weeds coming out from the floor. We paused for a second, looking at each other, but proceeded farther.

The ground was now covering in grass, like the normal world we used to live in. The, once black, ceiling became a gray sky. A wind hit my face, feeling icy and sharp.

“Is that water?” Woohyun asked, sniffing into the air. It smells like the sea.

“Wah! Look! The stairs!” Dongwoo pulled me with him. Oh God…the staircase went from the grass over the water to who knows where. I couldn’t see the end. “Let’s get walking~” Dongwoo sang cheerfully, taking to the first step in an instant.

The wind slapped our faces, making me feel like I could fall off these stairs and plummet into the water any second. “Hey.” Woohyun put his hands on my hips from behind me. I flinched, almost dropping. “You keep swaying. Don’t think about the water or height.” He lightly pushed me to keep me walking as Dongwoo kept walking ahead of us.

“Player 13, player 72, and player 85, pass. Move onto the next stage.”

Already going onto stage 4? Which one is the last stage…? I want to leave.