Ding!

Enter Player Name

A sound echoed through the chilly breeze of the autumn evening. A youth of about 20 years stood in the middle of a half-demolished road; its asphalt was withered like dry skin.

He was wearing a black jacket with a hood that covered half of his black hair and the whole of his ears. His two pairs of green eyes stared at the holographic panel in front.

“Noir | ”

He typed on the virtual keyboard without a thought. He had already decided this long ago. His fingers barely moved due to the immense cold as he slid them through the air.

Player appointment confirmed

Player ‘Noir’ Please make your way to the nearest ‘GATE’ as soon as possible.

All gates close in: 29m 59s.

After this, the panel disappeared with a whoosh.

“These damn aliens! Is this a time for such things? I am freezing out here,” Noir muttered as he tried to relax his clacking teeth.

It was 3 am in the morning. The November cold was soul-piercing. If it weren't for the time of crisis, he wouldn't have stepped out from his shelter.

But then he remembered why he was helpless; there were two reasons he couldn't resist the aliens.

He slowly pulled out a piece of paper from his back pocket. It was a tattered photograph of his little sister, Mia. It had already been 3 days since she was kidnapped by said aliens.

As Noir stared at the bright-eyed girl hugging his arms in the photograph, a warm feeling rose in his heart before a chill struck down his spine.

Was she alright?

She was the only family Noir had left, so obviously, he was more attached to her than ordinary siblings' relationships.

But his tears had already been dried up after weeping this whole 3 days.

“There is still a chance, I can still save her…” He cried in a small but composed voice.

Without wasting any more time, he scanned the sky with his eyes until he found a huge golden beam of light shooting upwards in the distance.

As he was told, that was the location of a GATE, situated in one of the buildings downtown. His view was obstructed by the half-burned trees, so he wasn't sure how far it was.

But since he couldn't see any other such beam, he figured this one should be the nearest. He started walking towards it.

The night was extremely clear, yet there wasn't a single star to be seen, or the moon for that matter. However, in place of the moon, a huge space station could be seen. Its black body absorbed most of the sunlight, reflecting only a faint metallic lustre. Neon green strips covered its surface. Thousands of spaceships, in all shapes and sizes, hovered around it like fireflies.

Instead of the moon, now this space station revolves around the earth. Known as the Hive. The base of the aliens.

This was one of the many things that changed ‘that day,’ when aliens invaded the earth and made humans their tools of entertainment.

About 6 months from today, a calamity occurred. A giant UFO, as big as the moon itself, began bombarding the moon with weapons humanity has never seen.

The moon could sustain more than 2 hours of this massive-scale attack and got completely destroyed.

Millions of moon fragments fell on the earth’s surface with Herculean power. Luckily, these fragments were not too big, or the earth would have been destroyed too.

Even so, it was the biggest disaster humans have ever seen.

Noir exhaled a mouthful of turbid air as he stuffed his hand in his pockets. His nose was already icy cold, and his eyes burned. His jacket sleeves barely covered his arms.

“A muffler would be nice…”

He walked hurriedly towards the downtown, one of the few busy areas that were left for human use. After Earth's occupation by the Aliens, who were a Type II civilization, they found out that Earth didn't really have much to offer.

Oil? Water? Uranium? Wood? Salt? Human resources? Nothing interested them. They already controlled a large number of Type I civilizations. Earth was like an ant hill for them.

Then why did they attack? There were countless theories. Some suggested that they felt threatened by humans' rapid growth in technology. Others said they wanted to lay their eggs in human bodies. The Aliens themselves never revealed the reason.

And who would dare to argue with them? It wasn't that humanity didn't try; they just couldn't fight back. All their weapons, from pistols to nuclear bombs, were immediately disarmed by alien technology.

Fighting huge robotic mechs with laser beams was already a huge task. Having no weapons made it impossible.

Noir reached closer to the light beam, finding himself in the downtown. The brilliant night lights that once adorned its streets were already fused. Only some were still flickering. The landscape looked like a set from a post-apocalyptic movie, buildings having huge holes in them. Fallen poles, tattered roads, broken concrete frames.

The typical city crowd was still there, but there was a difference. Sure, he met many other people like him who were also making their way to the GATE. They ranged in the hundreds, coming from all directions, and they all had two things in common: They were all young, and their expressions were grave.

No one was smiling or excited. Occasionally, when someone did speak, it was in a very low tone.

Noir also joined this cluster of walking corpses and advanced towards the GATE, which was now visible to him.

Attached to the base of a huge multi-storey building, its frame was made of the same material as the Hive. But instead of the door, there was a translucent screen of rippling space in the center. It was giving out a bright spectrum of colorful light. It was rather beautiful to look at. A panel hovered on top of this door, showing a timer.

It was a teleportation entrance, also known as GATE.

A huge line had formed before the GATE. Hundreds of people were gathered here, yet the atmosphere was quiet.

One by one, they started walking inside the door and passed through the ripples to the other side.

One, two, three, after about ten people had passed, a tall fat guy went and blocked the entrance with his huge body.

“Are you guys idiots? Isn't going inside this damned gate the same as courting death? They are definitely luring us into a boiling pot. They want to eat us!”

He shouted, his face red and sweaty. He spread his arms to block anyone else from going ahead.

It took a few seconds for the crowd to react to this development. But when they did, they were furious.

“Huh? You shit! Get away from there!”

“This fatty is the one courting death.”

“Time will run out; hurry, go inside.”

Players started muttering, not daring to raise their voices. If their invisible drone sensed them causing havoc, a laser would shoot through their foreheads instantly. Death penalty.

“The fuck is this guy doing?” Noir also rolled his eyes at him.

The fatty, however, grew more confident after the crowd's passive response.

“Brothers, listen to me. These damned aliens invaded us purely out of spite. There was nothing this Type II civilization had to gain or lose by a petty civilization like ours. Yet, they took over every single government, killing everyone who resisted. Disarmed every weapon we posed by their advanced technology. They control our news, our food, and the air we breathe. On top of all this, after making our lives miserable, they abducted our families and are forcing us to do this nonsense. They are just too cruel. We shouldn't just blindly obey. We need to fight back. No matter how advanced their technology or military. If we refuse to cooperate, we can ....”

*PEW*

Before he could finish his great speech, a beam of laser shot through his forehead, immediately killing him. His fat body lay on the ground, still blocking the entrance.

Human #XXX3649 terminated.

Judgment: Resistance Speech, Obesity.

This execution was conducted by a monitor drone that follows each and every human left ‘free’. The moment they do something wrong, according to the aliens' judgment, they are immediately killed.

The things that could get you killed varied greatly: Speaking ill of the aliens, trying to capture the drone, being overweight, shouting too loud, sleeping too long, using force against another human.

In simple words, in terms of freedom, humans had left no freedom.

GATE closes in 5m 59s.

The system warned. The timer halved without reason. All the players were still recovering from the shock of having seen a death and reacted all at once. If the gate closed before they got inside, their death was confirmed.

Anyone who fails to obey the ‘system’ is killed on the spot.

“Shit, the door will close in 5 minutes and there are too many people left.”

“They didn't give us enough time. Forget the queue, run for your lives!”

“Kya!..Keep your hands off, you creep!”

Everyone panicked as they ran towards the gate, pushing and shoving, driving elbows at others. The corpse of the fatty was already dismembered as the crowd stepped over it.

Noir too didn't waste any more time. He moved his body sideways to decrease his size and dived inside the chaotic crowd, making his way forward in the tsunami of bodies.

All Gates close in: 1m 59s

Time was running out, but Noirs' position had only advanced about 10 steps. He was still 20 steps away from the door.

“What the hell is the matter? Why are the people ahead so slow?”

The entrance of the gate wasn't small. It was about 1.5 meters wide. Had everyone remaining calm, they all could have entered in about 5 minutes.

But how could they remain calm with the sword of time hanging over their necks?

Everyone wanted to reach the gate as fast as they could. No one would wait for others.

Noir was the same. He was desperate. His sister was abducted not long ago. If he wanted to see her again, he had to complete whatever task he was given.

“Get away!”

He screamed, and he lost his patience. He held the shoulder of the tall guy in front of him and climbed up on his head.

“You shit! What are you doing?”

The tall guy shouted as he reflexively tried to grab Noir's legs, but by that time, Noir had already jumped over the crowd ahead like a rockstar doing a stage dive.

He was swimming over the crowd. Well, not really; swimming doesn't hurt this much. His stomach was already stuck by many heads and punched. He lost his balance immediately, knocking his head on someone else's.

Painful. His whole skull has been vibrated at the collision, which was immediately followed by blows and curses of others around him, ultimately making him fall down.

All gates close in: 0m 59s.

Another announcement was heard. Noir's face turned pale.

“Shit!”

He shook his head as he tried to come back to his senses. He fell down three times before succeeding in standing up and advancing again.

With another chaotic struggle for 20 seconds and getting a black eye. Noir was finally able to jump inside the gate. Only 6 secs were left by then.

*Phew*

Not everyone was this lucky. About 40 players at the back couldn't get inside. Their screams and curses faded in the distance as the rippling tensed and the light went out. Only the frame of the GATE was left.

Noir looked around. Thousands of people gathered there, reaching here from different GATEs. The place they found themselves in was like a football stadium. Thousands of seats were arranged in a circular fashion. There were about 30 rows of seats, each higher than the other, making a cluster of about 5000 seats. Their appearance was metallic, as if made of steel. Only a platform for sitting was available, no back or armrests.

Above their heads, many holographic panels were floating. They contained details of all the players that just arrived. Naturally, a few panels had a red cross marked on them, indicating their disqualification.

Naturally, the ones present there weren't the only people that came with Noir. More people came from nearby regions as well.

Even if Noir wanted to, finding his own name in a cluster so huge was not feasible. One might argue that players' respect panels should hover in front of them, but these panels weren't for the players to see at all.

It was meant for them, the aliens.

Sure enough, in the middle of the stadium, a female alien stood on a floating platform. Her eyes and fingers were busy fidgeting with a miniature hologram of the said stadium.

She was arranging the position of security drones.

The humanoid female alien stood at an elegant height, with iridescent skin that shifted between green and pink tints. Her eyes, larger than typical human eyes, gleamed with a subtle luminescence, reflecting intelligence. Elongated fingers were pointy, and her hair cascaded in fine strands, resembling liquid silver. Alien patterns filled her black attire. She was kind of humanoid. If it weren't for the monitor drone, Rule 34 artists would go wild.

“This Bitch!”

Noir rolled his eyes with disgust. Almost everyone in the stadium had the same reaction. The alien in front of them wasn't some random lackey. One could even say she was the most well-known alien on earth.

No, she wasn't the king or president of Aliens. Figures that important wouldn't be on a foreign planet. In fact, only a countable number of real aliens had arrived. All the rest were robots and drones being controlled remotely from their home planet.

This alien called herself Zepta. A messenger from the aliens' side. No matter where you go, you could see her in billboards, hovering panels, sky blimps, digital posters. Heck even being reflected in water and mirrors.

She reports news, warnings, new laws, threats, curses, and insults, anti-human memes and loves to mock the earthlings with all her heart.

Naturally, every human hated her.

“Ahem.. All the gates had closed already. Without wasting more of my resourceful time, get seated. And move fast as after 60 seconds whoever was found standing would be lasered immediately,” she spat without looking.

Chaos started again.

At the edge of the bustling stadium, anticipation hung thick in the air as 5 thousand people hurriedly swarmed the stands, each vying for a coveted seat. Noir faced the daunting challenge. As the virtual timer ticked, chaos soared.

People sprinted and shoved, disregarding courtesy or morals in their race against time. Noir paced himself through the sea of bodies, struggling to find a path amidst the frenzy. Desperation fueled the madness, and a cacophony of curses and collisions filled the air.

With seconds ticking away, he fought to snatch a seat for himself, but the crowd's chaotic energy threatened to engulf him. As he regained composure, the realization hit that the designated accessible seating was far from reach.

Undeterred, Noir navigated the chaos, his determination unwavered. The time was just too little. His horrid eyes stared at the timer.

0m 3s.

The nearest empty seat was 40 steps away from him. Even if he dared to, there wasn't enough time to push an occupier away and steal his seat.

“So it ends here? Before it even started?”

His solemn expression awaited the incoming laser strike. His eyes closed themselves automatically in shame of being a pathetic older brother.

It was at this moment that a hand pressed heavily on his shoulder, making his shaking legs give away. He sat down on the floor.

pew pew pew

Several laser strikes echoed in his ears, followed by the screams and corpses hitting the floor, but none of them hit him. He was saved.

Right? She didn't say they had to sit on the seats specially. His frenzied mind couldn't comprehend such a simple thing.

But who was it that saved his life? He quickly looked at his left since his left shoulder was pressed down by his unknown savior.

There was a guy sitting there beside him on the floor. His head was covered in white hair, a stark contrast to his own black hairs. His bangs half covered his eyes. He was wearing a grey sweater and black trousers. His age seemed to be similar to Noir's.

“Ah um.. thanks, I guess…” Noir greeted awkwardly.

The guy didn't reply; he just nodded his head before gesturing with his gaze, saying look forward.

Noir did just that. The scorn on his face reemerged at the smug grin of Zepta.

“Well, well.. wasn't that quite a show. A bunch of earthlings desperately sticking to their lives. Losing sense of reason and civil. Not quite different from this planet's dogs and monkeys,” she said smugly.

Noir's blood boiled. So did everyone else's. But none spoke.

“Well, enough of this, let's start the explanation of what is about to happen to you all. It's kind of simple; you are about to play a game. As you are earthlings already aware, your beloved family members, siblings, and parents are held captive by the great Gabonic Authority. This is your chance to save them.

About 300 million of you, aged 16 - 30, will participate and try to survive. Losing means death, obviously. The venue of this game is a secret, and nature is complex. Hence you would be given a system to guide you through the gameplay. And of course, there won't be any surveillance drone in the game, so feel free to exert everything you got.

Giving any more information is impossible since even I don't know what kind of game is prepared for you earthlings by the game masters.

The thing I know is the structure. In this game, there are 26 different levels from A to Z. Level Z is entry level while Y is tutorial. After that from A to X are game levels. Starting from Level A, difficulty will steadily increase, level X being the finale with the most difficulty.

Of course, no one wants to see puny earthlings fight, hence there will be quests, skills, and spell cards inside the game to make it more interesting.

There is some more information here for you, but my throat is almost dry, meh who cares. Just get out of my sight immediately.”

“300 million? There must be countless stadiums like this then. Is this some joke?”

Noir had to compete in such a huge game? It can take years, and chances of his victory are 1 in millions. He couldn't help but feel anxious. These damn aliens were treating them as playthings.

After Zepta finished speaking, she crossed his figure over the panel in front of her, and immediately the Noir

surrounding vanished.

The whole stadium was a teleportation huge chamber. The Gates being its subsidiaries.

Noir felt like he blinked & now was in a totally different place.

Ding!

System Test Window

Player Name: Noir

Level: Locked

Class: Locked

Skills: Locked

Job: Locked

NOTE: GAME ENTRY UNCONFIRMED

Clear Zone Z to confirm entry

Noir stared at the system hovering in the sky matching his gaze. It was like a blue holographic panel with a female voice synthetics.

“Interesting.”

He couldn't help but feel kinda amused.