The barrier that once covered the school was gone. Leon walked out with Terrence at his side, who was being eyed by all the remaining students. Mateo was behind him, holding Ines to his side and holding her steady whenever she began to droop. Out of the corner of his eye, Leon noticed the musclebound jock trying his best to not break down in front of everybody. But nobody really looked disgusted or ashamed of Terrence. Most of them just looked confused. Terrence sheepishly went to the wall, which he stood in front of.
"Okay, so what happened up there?"
Travis whispered to Leon as soon as he was sure Terrence couldn't hear.
"No idea." Leon whispered back. "He hit Darren and he just…stopped breathing."
"So what, can he stop people breathing?"
"I don't think that's it. But I couldn't guess what it is."
There was more awkward mingling from a few people, but most remained silent.
"Yo, guys." Janet asked as she adjusted her sunglasses. "Doors open. we scared of what's going on outside or what?"
The few voices died down, because everything sounded…normal. Cars were still driving, outside chatter was being heard. Whatever just happened seemed to be extremely localized. Despite that, it was pretty clear that nobody wanted to be first to leave, so Janet held onto her sunglasses and took the first step out.
Outside was also normal enough. The humble school building was surrounded by the usual skyscrapers, none seeming to have any issues with them, and most having people inside going about their daily lives. But across the street was a person standing by the bus stop, staring directly at the group. Looked feminine, but that was about all anyone could make out. Underneath an awning of a long shot down shop, was a masculine looking guy sitting down. And on top of the buildings were three figures, too high up to allow any guesses as to what they were. Until the one in the middle began talking.
"Hell-ooo, competitors!" She yelled out, loud enough to be heard. "I would like to personally congratulate the eighteen of you for progressing to the next stage of the competition! Now, I'm sure a lot of you want to know just what's going on here."
The 'competitors' stood in stunned silence.
"First off, I feel I should explain who we are, and the rules! The five of us? We're what you'd call gods, and we've decided to make ourselves known to you. Now, as some of you know, you've been awakened to a power that's unique to you, and mastery will be essential to your survival. Now, every few days, a new challenge will be sprung upon you, hosted by at least one of us. Your goal will be to either survive the challenge, or kill the hosts. This will continue until either one player remains, or all of us are dead. Either way, one lucky player will get the chance to ascend to godhood with the rest of us. It is expected you'll be participating in at least every second game, otherwise you'll be penalized. Now, while the games will mostly start without much announcement, we'll start you off with a little warning. The next game will take place in Privis two days from now. So then, may you go forth!
Alison Saylor!
Allan Reeves!
Blair Vollom!
Desta Mekonnen!
Elijah Davis!
Evelyn Bryce!
Gabriela Pereira!
Ines Destrade!
Ivan Thornton!
Janet Felloni!
Latrell Freedman!
Leon Chai!
Mateo Gaspar!
Sybil Collins!
Tedros Mekonnen!
Terrence Nash!
Travis Wyatt!
Ulysses Morris!
Best of luck to all of you!"
What appeared to be pillars of light appeared behind each of them. At once, they opened up, and the five all disappeared through them. The eighteen on the ground were left looking at each other. Nobody said a word, instead deciding to go their separate ways to process what they were just thrown into.
Leon went to work. He was several hours late, but the boss didn't mind, unusually. Said something about a lady meeting up with him and apologizing for keeping him late. It was the lady who threw him into the game, it had to be. Business was slow, so he was just left to his station. A single box with a window for customers to look into, a desk in front of him, and a door in the back. There was an old peanut shell on the desk, so Leon focused on it. He raised his hand, trying to replicate what happened in the school. After what felt like an eternity, the hook came back. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it extruding from his hand. He moved his hand in front of the peanut, and it kept extending. When the hook met the shell, it latched around it. Leon moved his hand. The hook moved, and so did the peanut. Leon clenched his fist, and the hook disappeared, leaving the shell to fall to the floor. So that seemed to be the basics. But if Leon wanted to survive whatever this was, he'd need to rapidly improve it.
The shift ended, and him and Jay went home. As they walked into the apartment, there was something left on the table. It looked to be a box of chocolates. Fancy ones, too. The expensive kind. And on top of the box was a card with 'Leon' written on it. And the writing itself was extremely sophisticated, to the point it took Leon a few seconds to register the fancy handwriting with all sorts of flourishes on the ends of the letters was his name.
"Hey, someone left us chocolates?" Jay's voice cut through whatever was building up in Leon's head, as he pushed past to pick the box up.
"Don't open those!" Leon yelled. Jay saw the panic in his eyes, slowly put the box down, and walked into his room. Alone, Leon opened the letter.
'Congratulations for surviving the first round!' it read. As opposed to the envelope, the writing on the letter itself was kind of sloppy, but mostly legible. 'To celebrate this occasion, please enjoy this box of Spirit luxury chocolate. We assure you, it's a fine box. You will not be affected outside of the games. But seeing as all relationships are built on trust, we trust you to follow a few basic guidelines during your time at the game.
1: We will protect you from all outside harm, but you are to also follow this. While fights breaking out outside of designated challenges are to be expected, doing any serious damage to players outside of the games will result in a swift penalty. Finding and killing us outside of the games, however, is completely allowed.
2: You are also not to use your new powers to harm others outside of self-defense.
3: Bringing unrelated people into the games for any reason is forbidden. However, you will not be blamed for others being in a zone when a surprise challenge starts.
4: Challenges will always have at least a day of cooldown to allow you time to recover.
5: Challenges can start at any time and over any area, but will always be within the city. You cannot leave the city for the duration of the game. Attempting to do so will result in a penalty.
6: You are expected to participate in at least one in three games. Failure to do so will result in automatic elimination. To compensate, the next game will be more survivable.
We wish you the best in the coming games!'
Leon put the letter down and opened the box of chocolates. They were normal. He ate one. It tasted normal. The good stuff, too. The stuff he could never afford. He left the box on the table for Jay to take, and went to his room to process everything.
Who were these supposed gods?
What were they doing this for?
Were the new powers meant to be used for something?
These thoughts filled his head as he drifted to sleep, trying his best not to dread the coming days. After all, he had to get up early for work tomorrow.