Slowly, I opened my eyes. Above me was an unfamiliar ceiling but one that I’d seen once or twice in my life. The ceiling of any big store, hanging far above. The air smelled stale and it seemed quiet as the fluorescent bulbs shone down on me. 

I rose to my feet… only to gasp and look at my body in awe. 

I felt… I felt… amazing. Pain I didn’t even realize was there was gone. My thirst had been completely obliterated. I was no longer hungry and I felt like I’d had the absolute best sleep of my life. But it was more than that. My ‘Qi’... I could actually feel it now. Like a tiny bit of electricity coursing through my veins. No, some, some other veins. 

And my body itself… I felt strong. Stronger and faster than I’d ever imagined. I clenched a fist and my body simply felt more… durable. Thicker in some way. All the grime and stickiness, all the sweat, blood, and gore that had coated me, even just the build up from not showering for three days, it was gone. All gone. 

I… the challenge hadn’t been lying. I felt like I was in absolute peak condition. 

“Status.” I said quickly. 

[Name: Matt

Level: 1 

Free stat points: 0

Qi points: 1

Qi Rank: Qi Condensation Rank 3

Achievements: [Welcome to The Gameshow] [The Royal Road] [Humanity’s First Fear] [Creative Care] [Boned] [Anti-Deus Ex] [Legs For Days] [Bleed To Bleed Another Day]

Titles: N/A

Strength: 8

Speed: 10

Endurance: 15 

Magic: 5

Mind: 13] 

“No new levels huh…” 

That wasn’t too surprising. I’d only gotten one yesterday, on Day 3. I probably shouldn’t expect another till Day 6 unless something changed. It still disturbed me how quickly it felt like I was adapting to all of this but I knew who to blame. 13 in mind meant my mind was 2.6x ‘more’. I didn’t feel any more smart or like my thoughts were nearly 3x as fast… so I assumed it helped with other mental stuff. Like accepting you were in a deadly gameshow. I’d take it. I’d have to. It was better than breaking down and it helped overcome the horrible fear from zombies. 

A new Qi point though… I knew exactly what to do with it. 

[Would you like to spend a Qi Point?] 

“No.” 

I hadn’t forgotten where I was. At least one rapid deployment of a Qi point had saved my life. I was in the middle of a challenge, I’d keep it in my back pocket for when I needed a boost immediately. Speaking of… nothing was happening with that. 

I looked around my surroundings but I seemed to just be in the middle of a store, near the front. I’d risen off the ground near the checkout counters. I could see rows and rows of aisles and not a single other creature. What was most disturbing of all was the light. It was completely normal but… it was so much brighter than the constant night the last three days had been. My sleep had been… abnormal so far, but there was no doubt it would start to mess with me sooner or later. Now, just being underneath the light felt… wrong. Like I was out in the open, vulnerable. 

My head snapped to the side… and then a care package spawned. I blinked in surprise. I’d felt that. It was like a massive ripple had gone out right before hand. That was… I hadn’t noticed that before. I don’t even know what I felt. Had that always happened and I’d just been too out of it to notice? I’d be a tiny bit… annoyed if Care packages came with warnings I’d just been missing. 

Yesterday’s Care Package had been great but I had no idea what this one could be. The whole day was apparently going to be spent in this challenge and I’m sure the gods watching knew that. If they selected something like ‘Chocolate Flood’... I had no idea how that would affect the challenge. 

But I was feeling confident today. The Gods… weren’t my enemies. Well, not all of them. Sadly, I could see myself watching a T.V. show like this. I’d probably also try to somehow put a stop to it… by calling the authorities or something… but there had been a whole movie about that kinda thing. I think it had Ruce Rillis in it? And people had watched in droves. And I had no idea how gods worked, maybe they couldn’t interfere with each other. The main bitch had mentioned patrons so… 

“There’s no use over thinking it. At least some of the gods are on my side.” 

I popped open the care package, only to blink as four different things appeared. 

“A four way tie?” 

My status began blinking, but I ignored it. Four ‘items’ popped out. 

The first item I knew immediately. It was Qi. I could feel it. Were those… Qi points?! The Gods can give those? My heart beat a little faster. Those were the equivalent to levels. I had no idea the gods could just straight up give levels. Even if I reached whatever drop off point in stats, Qi points could literally buy stats, or items, or even an extra life. I was doing the whole challenge just for 10 more. That was a damn good care package. It was a shame it was a tie, I’d have taken even 1 more Qi point in a heartbeat. 

The next was… an empty space. I’d ran into that before but that same odd feeling came again. The same one with the care package. This empty space felt… bad. Negative. Like a thing of bad luck. My face became stiff. The evil gods weren’t out of the running votes, I see. Thank god it’d been a tie… 

The third… was another empty space. But this was even stranger than the last. It gave off a feeling of… well… weird? It just felt really weird. Like it was inherently strange and odd incarnate. I wondered if it was like the Gacha or something. That didn’t seem like it’d be ‘good’ but it also might not be ‘bad’. The chocolate rain was also neither. Having to fight a bunch of zombies in it… would be annoying but not terrible. 

The fourth was an actual object. One’s I recognized. Pictures. Like, old Polaroid pictures, the size of my hands, with white outlines around them. The actual images were currently black, but there were three of them. I had no idea what to make of that. 

Once again, something appeared above the four items, but this time it wasn’t what looked like a block from Rario Kart. Instead, it looked like a four leaf clover, with a small arrow like… sigh. Like from a gameshow. The clover began to spin, numbers on it. I watched with bated breath. One would be great, two would be terrible, three would probably be fine, I didn’t know about four. 

It spun and spun, slowly coming down, making my heart skip a beat… until it landed on four. 

“Well… okay?” 

The other options began to vanish into thin air, along with the care package, and I caught the photos before they could fall. They really were Polaroid photos, as if they’d just been taken, and it was taking a bit for them to actually clear up. While I waited for that I checked my status. 

[Achievements unlocked!] 

[Four Leaf Clover: Do you know how rare it is to get a four way tie on a poll of 10 options?! Very rare! +3 magic] 

The second I was done looking at it, it felt like I was hit by a truck. Except the truck had been made of stardust and I’d been made of stardust and everything had been made of stardust on the tapestry that was the universe. I felt like I could taste all of matter. It was strangely sweet and bitter. Only a tiny bit salty. And was like it was constantly moving, sometimes stopping, before moving again. It felt like my mind and eyes and self was starting to undergo the most extreme of acid trips and for a moment, it felt like I was getting closer to glimpsing God. 

She wore a red dress and waved at me. 

I blinked and suddenly I was back on stable ground… but I now felt something. I had a magic stat… but I’d hardly had any time to pay any attention to it. Too many things had been happening at once. And it wasn’t like I’d been taught how to do any magic… but it was still there. I could feel it coursing down veins. Not my veins and not even the… meridians? That my Qi flowed down. It was like it was… intertwined around the meridians. Magic veins I guess? Neither of those two were physical either. They were… spiritual maybe? 

Part of me wishes I had a book on how to deal with this. 

Most of me just wished I was home and never was kidnapped by gods to play on a fucked up gameshow. 

I looked over and saw that polaroids were slowly clearing up now. I could almost see the- 

My heart froze and an audible gasp left my mouth. I stared, knees weak, breath shaking. Three photos. Three. And the first one I saw… Rick. My best friend. My brother from another mother. It was a picture of him but not just any picture. His arm was wrapped in a white bandage, he was hunkering down, a fierce expression on his face, and a metal bat in his hands. His face was scrunched up and above him was an open window looking out into a dark world. 

It was a picture of Rick. A picture of Rick on where he probably was right now. 

The photos… they were snapshots of where my friends were. I smiled as my heart beat a mile a minute. Rick was okay. He was alive. He had a weapon and clearly some bandages. A weight I didn’t even know was there left me. 

I quickly looked at the next and gulped. Jessica… my childhood friend. My maybe potential girlfriend. The woman I’d known and loved all my life. She had dark black hair but it looked… worse for wear. Her clothing was shredded but she didn’t seem to have any wounds. She looked scared and she was hiding underneath a table. It looked like she was in a hospital, with white walls and floor. There was a creature behind her, above her, looking around. It seemed like a nurse… but it had no face. It was just skin. 

My heart hurt, seeing Jessica in danger. She was alive but… for how much longer? She didn’t seem to have a weapon but she at least looked a lot better than Rick did. She probably stayed in the hospital since this began. That seemed like what she would do. Bunker down and try to stay alive. She was always smart like that. She’d take one look at the zombies and refuse to leave somewhere fortified. 

I chuckled, despite the terror of looking at the photo. If nothing else… Jessica was alive. I just had to believe in her. I had to. 

The third photo… it was like a stab to the gut. It was Spot. My dog. My puppy. He looked so, so sad and scared, stuck in a small cage. The photo was taken outside the cage and it was clear he wasn’t alright. The only food and water seemed to be from hamster like bottles. He could barely turn, hardly move, and it looked like he’d been left all alone. Tears began to well up in my eyes. I knew Rick would be okay, he was too stubborn to die. I believed in Jessica, I had to. But Spot… it broke my heart. He was just a puppy, he didn’t understand what was going on, he’d just been left in the dark by himself, unable to move, and barely fed. I was supposed to take care of him… and instead he was suffering. 

“I’ll save you. All of you. Please… just wait. I’ll figure something out.” 

I had to survive but more than that, I had to thrive. None of them would last forever. They were somewhere on this planet and that was all I knew. They didn’t even have access to a system. All three of their lives… it depended on me. 

The weight that had left from seeing them, came back in full force. I was literally their only hope. 

Determined, I put the pictures in what was left of my pockets for now. It was at that time that a change occurred and a message appeared in front of me. 

[Challenge Start! 

Rewards: 10 Qi Points

Challenge Type: Endurance

Challenge: Over the course of the next 24 hours, waves and waves of undead shall slowly enter the store! The waves will grow bigger over time, spawning every hour! Make sure to defeat as many as you can or you’ll be overrun and will not survive!] 

“So… it was exactly what I thought it was going to be…” 

But that didn’t make it good. Most people struggled to stay awake for 24 hours. I had all these aisles available… but even a quick glance showed they were empty. There’d be no ‘outside’ help. I didn’t even have any food or water available. And the fighting would get worse as it got later in the day. The biggest waves would be right when I wanted to pass out the most. And then I’d be eaten. 

Soon, I heard doors opening and swiveled quickly. The front of the store was suddenly not normal. There was a massive shutter door, like the kind trucks would use to offload supplies. Unnervingly, I wasn’t blind and had somehow missed it. I was positive that it had not been there a moment ago. It opened… into a pit of darkness. Not a scrap of light could be seen, but sound could be heard. 

Soon, a wave of terror was washing over me, as five zombies walked out. Slowly. They headed towards me, glassy eyed, oh so clearly dead but without any visible way of how they died. They weren’t really a threat… but my mind rebelled, trying to scream at me that they were. That the source of all horror in the universe was in front of me. That pit of fear was only growing more annoying over time. One way or another, I’d have to overcome it by the end of today. Well, well enough at least. 

I moved swiftly, heading towards them, my black katana at the ready. I had never wielded a blade in my life besides yesterday, but it wasn’t exactly hard. I swung, aiming for their necks, and their heads rolled off. One of them I met the jaw instead and… it was gruesome. The blade had kept going even through their jaw bone and… the top of their head had still rolled off. 

My stomach rolled, watching that. 

Worse… the bodies didn’t disappear. They just sat there, rotting, leaking gray blood from their corpse. It wasn’t a sight I looked forward to seeing. 

[Wave 1 cleared!]

And then there was nothing. 

“Uhh…” I blinked. I hadn’t really considered… this part. I was just, waiting for the round to start? 

“...Challenge? Do I just… wait now?” 

[59:43 until next Wave!] 

I had underestimated this trial. I wasn’t just going to be facing thirst, exhaustion, hunger, and stress. I’d also have to face boredom. This challenge was truly evil… 

****

[Wave 2 Start!]

I got up in a hurry. Part of me had wanted to try to take a nap but that had seemed like a terrible idea for so many reasons I’d given up on it immediately. Another part of me had thought about moving the aisles and I’d spent around 20 minutes quickly exploring the store. Nothing. Every way out, every door to another place, was locked or blocked. And not casually. I had swung my sword at a locked door and I felt like my arm was still vibrating. Not even a mark on it. I was trapped and stuck here. 

The shutter door opened and… 10 zombies walked out. 

My mind paused at that. That was… a pretty steep climb wasn’t it? If it doubled every round then… I’d think about it later. First, I had work to do. 

It didn’t take long, these zombies weren’t a threat, no matter how much the primal part of my mind screamed. I was already feeling strained. The aura of terror zombies produced was going to wear me down in addition to everything else. 

The dead zombie bodies joined the rest… and I realized with a new found horror I’d have to start spending time moving the corpses or I wouldn’t have room to fight. I stared down at my hands and then back at the bodies, imagining touching them and… 

This challenge was more evil than I thought. There was no way I was touching zombies with my bare hands. I’d… figure out something. 

I took a moment to count how many zombies I’d face if it kept doubling and… my mind blanked. T-There was no way right? There was… no way it would make me fight 40 million zombies right? 

****

[Wave 3 Start] 

The last hour had sucked more than the others. I hadn’t been this bored since… ever. And I had nothing to do. I thought I’d have to fight through a horde of undead. Relentlessly, but this might actually be worse. 

I got up and breathed out a massive sigh of relief as there was only fifteen zombies and not twenty. That meant it was increasing by five. So at the last wave, I’d have to deal with 120 zombies, not 40 million. Much, much more doable. 

It still felt like cutting down chafe, but my mind bucked harder than ever. Not just from fear but there was now fifteen zombies. That was not a small amount, that was a small crowd. That was way too many fucking zombies to be coming at me. 

Still, it wasn’t hard. This really was… well… a test of endurance. 

****

[Wave 4 Start] 

Thank god! Four hours. Four fucking hours. No games, nothing to do, I can’t even practice with my sword because I’d need all my energy. Enough time to think again and again and again about Rick or Jessica or Spot. The only thing I could do was think. Think think and think some more. 

I’d figured out an actual game plan. That was valuable, having the safety to think. It was simple and what I’d already been doing. 

Gain power, gain strength. The gods watched me and it was a T.V. show. The more the gods watched, the more ‘Likes’ or ratings, reviews, and follows the show got, the more levels I gained. I’d reviewed the words the Hostess had glued into my brain a million times over by now and some words had proven more insightful than others. 

For starts, she mentioned Royalroad and Scribblehub. I had an achievement called [The Royal Road]. It was for getting started with Qi, mentioning a path to immortality. I could see the connection between the two but more than, she’d mentioned comments. It really sounded like those two places were some kind of… divine websites or something. That wasn’t really a massive surprise. If gods watched T.V., of course they had internet. 

Next… she’d mentioned at least twice that I should be entertaining. That the more entertaining I was, the more likes I’d get, the more levels I’d receive. I needed to be level 80 for Jessica and 90 for spot. At my current rate of a level every 3 days… it would take nearly a year. They might be dead by that time. Even the 2 months just for Rick might end with his death. I had to level up faster. Which meant be more entertaining. I was currently killing zombies… but how exciting was that really? If… If I was fighting hordes of those black skeletons, those terrifying scorpion creatures, or even… that behemoth, how much more ‘entertaining’ would that be? I didn’t have to wonder, I’d watched TV and anime before. I knew exactly how much more entertaining it’d be. 

Get power, fight stronger and more terrifying things, get more and more likes, go up levels faster. That was how I was going to get out of this. That was how I was going to survive, get everyone, and beat all the challenges that came my way. 

Finally, she’d mention something else I couldn’t get out of my mind. 

“(Time Loop does not become available till after 300 Patrons, for example.)”

Time loop… what if I failed? What if Rick or Jessica or Spot died? What if I lost a limb or wasn’t strong enough for a challenge? Just like the extra life… this was a form of a second chance. A chance to try again. I had no idea how many patrons the show already had but- 

[55]

I blinked. Right… mind probe. That was… whatever. 55? That was… it? I grimaced hard. The show was… not popular yet. I needed to get the show at least 6x as many patrons if I wanted a time loop? That felt almost as impossible as getting 500 Qi… 

Well, the plan hadn’t changed. 

More power, more fights, more likes, more levels, save my friends and dog. 

****

[Wave 5] 

I had been bored but five hours of sitting on your ass and doing nothing goes past boredom. I’d just stopped thinking or worrying. I was currently imagining a flock of seagulls for some reason. No idea why, just the thought of it had popped into my head as I sat and tried to meditate. I had Qi, might as well give it a shot? No success in even moving it. I could feel, like a switch, I could ‘activate’ my aura but… I didn’t want to waste it. 

I got up to take care of the 25 zombies that slowly walked forward, more than ready to take out the- 

My eyes shot open and my movements were sluggish, but I still managed to spear the fast moving zombie as it barreled towards me. It went all the way down to the hilt, it’s eyes never leaving mine, snarling as if in a permeant rage. Hands reaching out to me. I tried to back up and half succeeded but another one was coming for me. Fear spiked but my mind grabbed the reigns, and instead of trying to flee I pushed forward, sending the zombie sprawling off my katana. Before the other one could tackle me to the ground, I cut. 

There was a moment, as it ran past me… before it’s head fell off. I quickly stabbed the head of the fast zombie on the ground. 

My heart was in my throat now and the memory of six of them nearly tearing me apart was fresh in my memory. I looked all around, but besides the 25 slow moving undead… there was nothing. Only two fast zombies. At wave 5. 

There’d been no warning, no heads up, nothing. From one moment to the next, I was now facing worst opponents. There had been two. Two. If they also increased by two every wave… 

“Oh fuck.” 

*****

[Wave 6 Start!] 

My nerves were shot. I’d done the math. If I had to face +2 fast zombies every single round… 

Could a man with a sword kill 40 people running at him?  My brain said no. 

Yet as the doors opened and four fast streaks ran at me, I realized that was roughly exactly what I’d have to do. I was prepared this time, like a loaded spring. Instead of fleeing, I ran at the zombies, swinging as best I could. The zombies weren’t people, they weren’t even animals, they had no intelligence besides ‘attack’ and ‘try to eat me’. They weren’t easy to fight but they weren’t impossible either. Like all zombies… it was only their numbers that was horrifying. Well, that and their natural aura of terror. 

I cut out, cutting one’s head off, as it ran right through the blade. Another, I got on the swing. Two more were coming, but I swung quickly, resisting the urge to activate my Qi. They fell… but there was still 30 more zombies to deal with. 

I huffed and then realized with horror that I was getting tired. It was only hour six… I still had 18 more hours to go… 

Mid way through killing the zombies, I got an achievement. 

[Achievements Unlocked!] 

[Centennial: You’ve killed over 100 creatures! Amazing, what a show of strength! +1 strength] 

I blinked. Well… I guess I technically had huh. It didn’t even feel like it. The regular zombies felt more like a grisly, horrible, terrifying chore to kill than anything. Worse, moving their bodies was disgusting and it was starting to take far too long… and far too much energy. I had to stop. Hopefully it would trip those damn fast moving bastards. 

****

[Wave 7…]

[Wave 8…]

[Wave 9…]

[Wave 10 Start!] 

Tired. Already tired. Hungry. Today is taking so long. The last wave had ten of the fast zombies. Ten. I’d developed a strategy, thank god. They were fast, but stupid. The doors and walls were invulnerable, but not the actual aisles shelves. Some cuts from my katana and I’d made the shittiest barrier known to man. 

But it tripped them up, gave me the moment I needed to kill them. And that was more than enough. 

Now it was Wave 10… and I was worried. Wave 5 had a surprise last time and if the theme continued… my heart beat like a horrible drum as I stared into the pit of darkness. Something shot out of the dark, faster, faster than even the Fast Zombies and my heart skipped a beat. My eyes open wide… only for confusion to follow up. 

I slashed and it fell. Dead as the rest. Twelve fast zombies came out and fifty regular ones. My barrier continued to save my life. It may be shit but I had worked hard to cut up the aisles perfectly to make it. 

Only after I was done, did I focus on the thing I’d killed it. It was a zombie. But one that seemed to be… decaying. Skin falling off. I stared down at it, seeing it’s bones in places. 

It’s bones were black. 

*****

[Wave 11…] 

[Wave 12…] 

[Wave 13…] 

[Wave 14…]

[Wave 15…] 

Tired tired tired tired tired. I was going to have to use that Qi point soon as a pick me up. I felt light headed, woozy, and exhausted. Hungry. It was already difficult to stay awake. The bodies had begun to pile higher. The fast zombies had strangely gotten easier, because they were stupid. Fast but stupid. They tripped over the bodies and I was eternally grateful for that. Fighting over twenty things trying to kill me was horrifying. 

But it meant I had to also be fast, wading into the dead zombies and finishing them off before they managed to get back up. 

Wave fifteen had no surprises but… that one zombie was still there. Every time. Decaying more and more and more. I knew what would happen. By the end of the challenge, I’d have to face a Black Skeleton again. Things were different now. I was stronger. Had more endurance. A weapon, armor. 

I didn’t like my chances one bit. 

*****

[Wave 16…]

[Wave 17…]

[Wave 18…] 

[Wave 19…] 

[Wave 20…] 

The decay rate of that single zombie sped up. It was so much faster now and it’s bone structure was changing, morphing. It barely had any skin left and it’s meat was starting to disappear as well. 

I felt bone tired. My eyes were barely staying open. I had to keep going. I had to. It took so long just to kill the regular zombies now and the fast ones… I’d had to increase my barriers, make spikes from the plastic, do everything I can. There was barely any time before the next wave. 

But I had unlocked an achievement. 

[Achievements Unlocked!] 

[Millennial: Avocado toast! Ahem, wrong type of millennial! You’ve killed over 1000 creatures! How terrifying! +3 strength] 

My tiredness didn’t go away but I suddenly felt like my muscles had ballooned into cannons, able to shred through stone and wood with ease. It was a welcome feeling… but I was far too tired to appreciate it. I felt like I was moments from passing out…

[Wave 21 Start!] 

Damn it…

*****

[Wave 22…] 

[Would you like to-] 

Yes. Qi point. Needed. Tired. Tired. Tired. 

[Wave 23…] 

[Wave 24 Start!] 

The last wave… I slaughtered and slaughtered and slaughtered. My defenses had evolved, hardly any aisles left. Turned into spikes against walls, caltrops, weird shapes my tired brain had cut into existence, anything to stop the 40 fast zombies from dog piling me and ending my life. At some point I began using aura. I had wanted to save it but I needed to be fast. Not to attack but to dodge. The Qi point I’d used had refilled some of it, but not all. It took everything my tired brain and body had to get here and keep going, and I’d suffered injuries for it at some point. Blood flowed freely from a thousand claws that had brushed against me and my body felt like it had gotten beat on. I hadn’t fallen though. I’d made it this far. 

And when the dust settled, I stood among over 1000 bodies. I had no idea how many there were. I had stopped moving them, stopped thinking. I was at the back of the store now. I was positive there wasn’t 1000 bodies, a lot had definitely disappeared somehow, but the floor was still covered in them from end to end. Everything became a tired blur at some point. So tired. So so so so tired. 

An enemy darted out from the darkness and I blocked with my Katana. 

A Black Skeleton stared back at me with its empty sockets. 

But I was different now. I’d killed you last time with my bare hands. I ran and fled. Not this time.

Even as my vision began to go dark, I attacked. 

*****

[Challenge Completed!]