Survival Instance
I was half asleep when it all happened.
The room was dark, but it was not fully dark. The shadows clung to the corners, stretching all the way to my bed. My blankets were twisted around my legs. One foot was hanging off the bed. I remember that, oddly enough, like my brain knew it would be important later.
The phone was still warm in my hand.
It was warm because it had been used too much. The phone was slowly getting hotter as time went on.
My thumb hovered over the screen. My eyes burned painfully. I hadn’t even meant to stay up this late. I’d just been scrolling, looking at one more video, one more post, one more… whatever it was that kept me glued to the screen. That endless loop where your brain shuts off, but your body doesn’t.
The screen dimmed a little.
A notification filled it, it was big, centered. White text on a dark background.
I didn’t read it.
I didn’t even hesitate.
I tapped confirm.
That was a mistake.
The screen went black.
Not like a loading screen.
Like someone turned my phone off.
“…What?”
I shook it once. Then again, harder. The screen didn’t respond. There was no vibration, no logo either. There was nothing. Just a black screen.
Then text suddenly appeared.
Floating.
Not on the screen.
In it. Somehow the text was in it.
INSTANCE INITIALIZED
The letters were white. They didn’t pixelate. They didn’t scroll away. They just existed, suspended in the darkness like they belonged there.
“…What?”
My voice sounded wrong.
No sound followed, no music. No cheerful tutorial voice telling me to relax and enjoy the experience.
Just more text.
TYPE: SURVIVAL INSTANCE
EXIT CONDITION: NONE
My thumb finally tried to move.
It didn’t.
My thumb was not stuck… it felt like my body refused to move.
“Okay…” My throat felt dry already. “Okay, maybe this really is a game.”
That made sense. Sort of… after all these games were getting realistic. VR is getting crazy these days. Maybe I’d downloaded something weird. Maybe this was some beta test. Maybe
“Let’s try it.”
I didn’t even finish the thought before the world dropped.
There was no transition. No gentle loading into a new environment.
Gravity grabbed me by the chest and slammed me downward.
I hit the dirt hard.
The impact knocked the air out of me with a sharp painful sound. Pain exploded through my shoulder as my body rolled on instinct. My hands scraped against the ground. Something cut my palm. Something else dug deep into my ribs.
I coughed. Some soil filled my mouth. It tasted metallic, like blood and rust and something old. I spat, gagging, trying to breathe properly again.
This hurt like hell.
Games didn’t hurt like this.
I pushed myself up, groaning.
The ground was real. Cold in some places, warm in others. When I dug my fingers into it, it clumped. Stuck under my nails. Still it smelled like what earth should smell.
I wasn’t alone.
Seventeen other people stood, or crouched, or knelt in the clearing with me.
Eighteen in total.
They were all human.
All very confused.
All very, very real.
A guy in pajamas stared at his hands like they’d betrayed him. His shirt had cartoon animals on it. He looked like he’d rolled straight out of bed.
A girl in an oversized hoodie clutched her phone to her chest like it might disappear if she let go. Her eyes were wide. Probably from shock
Someone nearby was still wearing a headset. The kind with a mic attached. He kept tapping the side of it, frowning, like he expected a menu to pop up.
…Honestly, so did I.
No one spoke at first.
Not because we were calm.
Because we were stunned.
The clearing was empty. There were no buildings, no roads. Just dirt, with some scattered stones, and a ring of trees so thick it looked like a wall. The sky above was a dull color. Not blue. Not gray. Something in between. Like it hadn’t finished loading yet.
Then the sky flickered.
Words pressed themselves into the clouds.
Big enough that everyone could see them.
STAGE 1 COMMENCED
MAX LEVEL: 20
PERMADEATH: ENABLED
Someone laughed.
It was short, sharp, and nervous laugh.
“…Permadeath?” a guy said, forcing a grin. “Nah. That’s not fucking funny.”
No one laughed with him.
Another message followed.
It was slower, and much colder.
CLEAR CONDITION:
UNKNOWN
The air felt a little heavier after that. Like it somehow had gained weight, like the sky had started to press down on us a little harder. My stomach twisted. My pulse sped up. I tried to force myself to calm down, but it didn’t work.
Then another message popped up.
FAIL CONDITION:
DEATH
The girl in the hoodie dropped to her knees. Her phone slipped from her hands and hit the dirt with a dull thud.
“No,” she said, shaking her head hard enough that her hair slapped against her face. “No, no, no, this… this has to be VR. This has to be. There’s no way. There’s no fucking way this is real.”
Her voice cracked on the last word.
I wanted to say something. Anything. But a window snapped open in front of my eyes.
It was not there physically. It didn’t block my vision. It was more like it layered over reality, transparent but still undeniable.
STATUS UNASSIGNED
AVAILABLE STAT POINTS: 10
I stared at it. Ten points? That’s it? There was no explanation for them, no tutorial. Just ten lonely points and a title that told me absolutely nothing.
Before I could think about where to put them or if I even should have, more text appeared.
STAGES ARE EVENT RECORDS.
HISTORY REPEATS UNTIL CLEARED.
ADVANCEMENT IN THIS STAGE IS MANDATORY.
My stomach twisted. So if we didn’t move forward… it would force us.
A boy near the tree line took a step back.
“Hey,” he said quietly. Scared. “Did anyone else hear that?”
Hear what?
I opened my mouth to ask when the bushes shifted.
It was not the wind. The wind didn’t move like that.
This was slow. Heavy. Deliberate. The branches bending around something that didn’t care if it made noise.
Something was watching us.
The system chimed again.
NOTICE:
MONSTERS AND NPCS ARE SENTIENT.
THEY WILL REMEMBER.
THEY WILL RETALIATE AGAINST YOU.
Someone screamed.
Not a dramatic scream. Like fear was shredding them from the inside out.
My hands started shaking. I clenched them, tried to stop them. My heartbeat was loud in my ears. It was way too loud, like it was warning me of something my eyes couldn’t see yet.
I started to notice small details I hadn't noticed before.
The rustle of leaves were too coordinated to be random.
The shadow there didn't match the tree behind it.
A twig snapping in the distance, but there was no movement that could’ve caused it.
I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly felt dry. My chest ached from the impact and fear combined. I noticed the others starting to move slightly. Not approaching, not running, just shifting weight, as if preparing for the first strike that hadn’t come yet.
One of them whispered something. I didn’t catch it. Another shook her head, muttering under her breath. Their panic was contagious. I wanted to calm them. I really couldn’t. I didn’t even know how to calm myself.
One final message appeared.
WELCOME TO THE SURVIVAL INSTANCE.
YOUR OBJECTIVE IS SIMPLE.
LIVE.
CLEAR ALL 12 STAGES.
REACH THE END.
The trees moved. Not all at once. Not dramatically. Just enough that shadows shifted where shadows shouldn’t.
Red eyes opened in the dark. One pair. Then another. Then another.
Low to the ground. There were too many. All of them were watching, waiting for us.
And in that moment, standing barefoot in the dirt, surrounded by strangers who looked just as breakable as I felt that I understood something very clearly.
This wasn’t a game.
This wasn’t a test.
This was a fucked up world.
I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath until I exhaled sharply, tasting the dirt and fear at the same time.
No one wanted to be the first to go.
We all just stood there, staring at the trees, maybe they would help us.
They didn’t.
The red eyes stayed where they were. It was watching us, waiting for us.
“Okay,” the guy in pajamas said, forcing a laugh. “So… this is like the tutorial monster, right? We beat it up, we level up, we laugh about it later.”
No one laughed with him.
A girl stepped forward.
She waved her hand through the air.
“I have, like, a game menu in front of me.”
She swallowed.
“I… I put points in strength. And agility.”
The moment she said it, her body changed a little.
It didn’t show much. It just felt like someone adjusted her posture.
“Oh my god,” she whispered. “I feel… so much lighter.”
That was all it took.
Panic broke loose.
Menus flashed open everywhere.
“I’m putting everything into strength.”
“Endurance, endurance,”
“Magic? There’s magic, right?”
Points vanished.
Windows closed.
And the trees finally moved.
Something stepped out.
It wasn’t big, not tall, but not small.
It looked wrong.
Its limbs were bent in places they shouldn’t. Skin like wet bark. A mouth that opened sideways.
The girl who spent her points screamed and charged.
She swung her fist.
It hit.
The thing recoiled.
Everyone froze.
“…It works, these monsters are weak as hell.” someone whispered.
Hope surged.
Then the creature twisted.
It moved too fast.
Its arm went right through her stomach.
The sound wasn’t loud, instead it made a wet sound.
She gasped and looked down, there was blood everywhere.
“Wait, wait, I,”
The system didn’t wait.
1 PLAYER ELIMINATED.
Her body collapsed.
Gone.
No light. No fade.
Just dead.
Silence slammed into us hard.
The monster turned its head.
It looked at the rest of us.
It was remembering us.
“Run away,” someone yelled.
We ran.
I ran with them.
I shouldn't allocate now. Not yet, not until I have enough information.
The forest surrounded us.
Branches hit my face as I ran. The roots made me stumble a little.
Behind us, we heard it
Heavy footsteps.
More than one.
The system chimed softly in my vision.
NOTICE:
1 PLAYER ELIMINATED.
My stomach dropped.
So it tracks our death.
Great.
Ahead, the trees thinned out.
In front there were ruins.
Broken stone. Old walls. A place to hide.
We bolted for it.
As I crossed the threshold, I glanced back.
The monster stopped at the clearing.
Didn’t chase us.
Just watched.
Like it was letting us go.
Deep down we knew we would meet again.
I ducked behind a broken pillar, chest heaving.
Around me, the survivors huddled together.
Fewer than before.
No one spoke.
I stared at my stat window.
Ten points.
Still untouched.
End of Chapter 1.
