As soon as he threw the device into the amassing crowd, Suze grabbed Kirstie and Nanner by their necks and tossed them into the crowd. A large circle of light expanded outwards from the device, covering about three meters in radius. Vectors of light exploded out from within the container and connected to every person within the radius.

 

Realizing that something terrible was about to happen, Eden rushed towards Rose and pushed her out of the circumference. A vector of light hooked onto Eden and, along with the rest of the vectors, forcefully dragged the people in the three-meter radius into the virtualspace of the RP container.

 

As the light dimmed and the silence ensued, Rose quickly regained her senses and ordered. "Quick! Who has been dragged in?"

 

Zero rushed towards Rose's side and reported, "The other leaders along with ten of the higher-leveled members have been captured. Most of the members here are low-leveled. What should we do?"

 

"Zero, you can be considered as an old member now. Take the role of acting-leader and bring a couple of members with you to the Archives."

 

"The Archives? That's it! Good idea!"

 

Zero jumped off stage and chose a team of five to follow him to the Archives, which was located on the floor above them. Rose looked at the rest and commanded them to prepare for battle.

 

She further divided the group in two with Sylveon leading one group and her leading another. Rose decided to lead her group of experienced fighters to meet the enemy's charge. Sylveon was tasked to lead her group to the Wiki and stock up on miniature, curated RPs.

 

..........

 

Inside the RP, within the virtualspace....

 

In a virtualspace that had taken the shape and terrain of a ruined city, multiple flashes of light burst out all over the city. When each flash disappeared, a person was revealed in its place. Eden, along with two others, arrived on top of the roof of an abandoned school building.

 

"Where are we?" One of the two members who were transported along with Eden cleared his head with a few quick shakes.

 

Eden rubbed his eyes and looked around. "I don't know, Res. Algrim, how do you feel?"

 

The other member pushed up his glasses and glanced at the sky. "I'm good. Just an upset stomach. Look at the sky. It's bright, but there's no sun."

 

"Hmm, you're right. This must be a Daylight RP. Be careful guys, there is no nighttime in this RP. It would be difficult for us to hide from that creator's watchful eyes."

 

"Goddamn it! It's Suzy. He's the traitor!" Res cursed in anger as he punched the tiled floor a couple of times.

 

Eden depressingly shook his head. "Why Suzy...why?"

 

Algrim scrambled to his feet and walked towards the rusty railings at the edge of the school roof. "Hey Eden! I see someone!"

 

"What? Who is it? Let me see." Eden rushed towards the edge and followed along the path of Algrim's finger.

 

It was Kirstie and a few others. Eden could recognize Kirstie's buoyant skipping anywhere. Eden motioned for Res and Algrim to wave and call out to the group with him. After getting their attention, Eden and his small group rushed downstairs to meet with Kirstie's group.

 

"Have you checked the Guidelines, yet?" Kirstie questioned Eden as soon as their groups converged.

 

Eden smacked his head embarrassingly. "Dammit, how could I forget about that? Judging from your question, you've seen it? What does it say?"

 

Kirstie looked at Eden straight in the eyes and grimaced. "Not good. Though none of the Rules were broken, they were unfairly in favor of the creator.

 

"I see."

 

"Oh and I also figured it out. Suzy! That traitor! His name isn't Suzy, it's Suze!"

 

"What? What do you mean by not Suzy, it's Suzy?"

 

"No, I mean S-U-Z-E not S-U-Z-Y."

 

"Suze?" Eden remarked with a weird look on his face. "So what if his name is spelled differently? What has that got to do with anything?"

 

"Don't you get it? It all makes since now. What other name do you know has 'Suze' in it?"

 

"What other name? Suze...Suze...Suzerain?! You mean to tell me he's the Madness Suzerain?!"

 

"Bingo!"

 

"Fucking hell! It's all my fault. I should have made the application screening more severe. If I had done so, none of us would be dragged into this mess."

 

"It can't be helped. You just didn't know. It could have happened to any Writing community. It's just that we were the unlucky chosen one."

 

"What I worried the most is Rose and the others still out in the real world. I wonder how they're doing against the attacks."

 

"No worries. There won't be anything bad happening to Rose. Besides, did you forget? Zero is there. He has the highest level amongst us."

 

"Ah yes, Zero has an unique ability. Knowing that, I am more at ease now. Come, let's go look for the others. How many were dragged in?"

 

"According to the Guidelines, fourteen people including that bastard. Currently, we have seven - you, me, Res, Algrim, Static, Hope, and Edme." Kirstie counted with seven fingers held up in the air.

 

"Fourteen players. We have seven. Six more people to find." Eden murmured under his breath as his brain began to crank its gears. He gave a quick once-over to check on the conditions of his friends before heading into the distance. "Let's not dilly-dally any longer. Time is of the essence. Let's hurry and find the others."

 

..........

 

In the virtualspace, at a deserted parking lot a few miles away from the abandoned school building....

 

"Huh? Where am I?" A young man struggled to a sitting position while holding onto his aching head. The man was Essence. He gazed at the broken down cars around him. "Strange, what is this place? Wait. Is this a RP virtualspace?"

 

Essence looked up at the bright sky and found that there was no sun. "No.... System! Guidelines!"

 

As soon as Essence blurted out those two keywords, a list appeared before his eyes. Quickly, he scanned the Guidelines, anger and shock increasingly shone on his face. "What?! War-style RP? Creator versus participants with only one winner and death in RP means death in real life? This is a goddamn death match! No, there must be a loophole...no...what the fuck! What are these unreasonable guidelines? The creator practically has all the power! We're doomed...I'm doomed! No, I can't let that happen. I must find the others. I must find them. Which direction should I go? There's no time!"

 

Essence pulled out his phone. Though there was no signal, he was still able to access the compass app. However, he was met with disappointment. The arrow on the compass spun around without pause as if there was no such thing as direction in the virtualspace.

 

Essence sighed in defeat as he surveyed his surroundings once more. Luckily, he saw a towering telephone pole in the distance. Maybe he could climb that pole and spot someone in the surrounding areas. As he made his way towards the pole, he wondered if the others were alright.

 

..........

 

"Nanner...Nanner, wake up. Wake up, Nanner!" Ursea shook the sleeping beauty but to no avail. Recalling something about the past, the spectacled man bent down close to Nanner's ear and whispered. "Eden says he likes Kirstie more than Rose."

 

"WHAT?! That son of a bitch!" Nanner burst out in anger as she sat up quickly. "Huh? Ursea? What are you doing in my room?"

 

"What do you mean your room? Don't you remember? We were sucked into this RP."

"Eh? Who did this?"

 

"It's the new guy."

 

"Suzy? But he looked so harmless. Why did he do that?"

 

"Don't you get it? Suze is Suzerain."

 

"What are you talking about? Suzerain clearly isn't spelled with a 'y'."

"Yea, but Suze isn't either. I'm talking about S-U-Z-E."

 

"S-U-Z-E? Suze...Suzerain...well I'll be a monkey's uncle. That son of a gun played us!"

 

"What should we do now? I read the Guidelines while you were asleep an-"

 

"I wasn't sleeping. I was meditating."

 

"Right, anyways, I read the Guidelines and it's very unfair towards us. Almost all the privileges are in favor of the creator and death in RP means death in reality."

 

"What? It's that serious? How many of us are here?"

 

"Including that despot...fourteen."

 

"Fourteen, eh? We can't stay here. Let's head out. Wait, you said almost all of the privileges are in favor of the creator. Then, what are the ones in favor of us?"

 

Ursea opened the Guidelines once more and scrolled down the list. "We're not bounded to any character so that means we can use ourselves. In addition, there's a loophole."

 

"Loophole? Tell me."

 

"It's here. It says tha-"

 

Suddenly, a whirring sound could be heard. Nanner's face paled as she dragged Ursea to a large rock nearby. They both looked at the sky for signs of the source. At first, there was nothing but then, Nanner saw it. It was a hovercraft, modified to capture live video of its surroundings.

 

"What do we do now?" Ursea asked as he saw the flying machine as well.

 

"When that hovercraft flies past us, we make a break for that grocery store over there."

 

"Okay, I'll listen to you."

 

..........

 

In a dense forest with torches everywhere....

 

Three young girls sat in the heart of the forest, murmuring about their next plan. These three were Oz, Raven, and Mae-Mae. Mae-Mae looked at the forest around her once more with a look of relief. "Raven, your Darkbright Woods ability is very good."

 

"Yea, my ability lets me create a shelter against attacks. And if need be, I can summon Treants from the trees to fight." Raven beamed while she poked at a beetle.

 

Oz was busy checking the Guidelines. As she scrolled through the list of information, she asked. "But we can't just stay here. We have to meet up with the others. How much Creativity do you need to have in order to summon your ability multiple times?"

 

"No worries. My Woods move as I move. And it doesn't take a lot of Creativity to fuel it.

 

"Oh, that's nice. Well, it says here in the Guidelines that we must find and kill the creator of the RP in order to free ourselves from this place."

 

Mae-Mae stood up and patted herself. "I see. How do we locate the others? Do any of you have a tracking ability?"

 

Raven and Oz both stood up as well. Raven shook her head at Mae-Mae's inquiry but Oz seemed to have some second thoughts. "I may have something. Give me a minute."

 

"Okay."

Oz walked towards the edge of the woods and raised her hands in front of her. She started to murmur some unintelligible words. Creativity began to flow from her fingertips and slithered along her arms. With one powerful word, she opened her eyes, revealing beams of pure blue light.

 

The Creativity around her arms shot forth into the distance, disappearing without leaving a trace. As if all energy has left her body, Oz drooped her arms and stopped moving.

 

Raven and Mae-Mae were worried about her and were just about to check up on her when suddenly, the Creativity that left her came back. The impact of the Creativity re-merging with her body caused Oz to lift up her head and shout at the skies.

 

After a piercing screech, Oz calmed down. Her eyes reverted back to normal and the Creativity stopped flowing around her. She looked at the two frightened girls behind her and assured them that she was okay.

 

"I found Nanner and Ursea."

 

Raven cheerfully clapped as she bounded over to Oz's side. "Where are they?"

 

"Over there to the far right of us. They're moving towards our direction."

 

"Then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

 

"Un!"