Ten Points, One Mistake
We didn’t stop running until our legs felt broken.
The forest opened into a shallow lake, the muddy ground was scattered with rocks, there was nowhere good to hide. But at least nothing followed us.
We collapsed where we stood.
There were only nine survivors left.
Mira. Me. Owen. A pair of siblings who hadn’t stopped holding hands. A quiet older man with a staff. And three others I hadn’t paid attention to.
One of them was bleeding badly.
“Shit I can’t, I can’t feel my fucking leg,” he said, panic creeping into his voice.
A woman knelt beside him, hands glowing faintly. Healing magic. It was weak. Barely flickering.
“It’s not enough, nowhere close,” she whispered. “I didn’t put enough points into it…”
The glow faded.
And the man screamed.
Then stopped.
The system chimed.
Eight.
Enough watching.
Enough guessing.
I opened my status window.
AVAILABLE STAT POINTS: 10
I took a breath.
Don’t rush.
The system wasn’t asking what I wanted to be forever.
Just what I needed right now.
And I needed to survive.
I allocated them slowly.
Not all ten.
Just four, that would be enough.
Two into endurance.
And two into perception.
The change was subtle.
My breathing steadied. The pain in my ribs felt… less. The world sharpened around me, the sounds felt clearer, and every movement was easier to track.
I stopped.
Six points left.
Mira noticed.
“You didn’t finish allocating.”
“I know.”
She nodded once.
The ground trembled faintly.
Not close. Not yet.
The system chimed again.
NOTICE:
ADAPTIVE THREATS INCREASE OVER TIME.
We moved again before the night returned, slower now, more careful. The forest thinned into broken plains dotted with stone remnants, they were the signs of old battles, old failures.
History repeating.
We weren’t the first to come here.
As we walked, Owen drifted closer to me.
“You called directions back there,” he said. “... Well not that many people listened, that's not the point here.”
I didn’t like where this was going.
“We need leadership right now,” he continued. “Someone to decide what we are going to do.”
I shook my head. “Thats going to get people killed.”
He smiled weakly. “So does hesitation.”
I didn’t answer.
But I watched him after that.
The system hadn’t said anything about betrayal.
It didn’t really need to.
Night came again.
This time, we were ready.
Sort of.
We set a loose perimeter around our camp. No fire this time. It would be too visible. Everyone stayed awake longer than they should have.
That was when Owen made his move.
He waited until the siblings were asleep.
Until the healer was distracted.
Then he shoved the older man forward.
Straight into the water.
His scream was short.
The system chimed.
Seven.
“What the hell?! Are you fucking crazy?” someone yelled.
Owen raised his hands. “He was slowing us all down. He would have died anyways whether by us or to those damn monsters.”
Silence.
Mira’s blade was at his throat in an instant.
“You don’t get to choose that,” she said.
He didn’t panic.
That was the problem.
“The system chooses for us,” Owen replied calmly. “I’m just helping it along.”
I stepped forward.
“So what?” I asked. “Are you going to keep ‘helping’ people?”
He met my eyes.
“If it keeps me alive? Yeah.”
The forest rustled.
Creatures moved.
Drawn by the noise.
Owen glanced at them. Then at us.
He made a decision.
He turned and ran.
Straight into the dark.
No one chased after him.
He kept running.
The system chimed again once more.
PLAYER STATUS UNKNOWN.
I exhaled slowly.
Now there were seven survivors.
And now we knew...
Monsters weren’t the only threat out here.
People were worse.
And this place?
It didn’t care which one killed you.
The silence became dangerous.
After Owen ran, no one spoke for a long time. Not because we were shocked, but because they were thinking about who to trust, and who might betray them. The forest felt more dangerous, every noise felt like a threat.
Only seven players.
There was no leader.
Not a bit of trust.
We moved before dawn, moving around the broken plains and heading toward a jagged hill in the distance. Higher ground meant more visibility. And more visibility meant that they had more time.
Or so we hoped.
My perception kept tugging at me, making me notice tiny things. Like a shift in wind. A small sound stopped suddenly. I hadn’t noticed those sounds before allocating. Now they pressed at the back of my skull.
Mira walked slightly ahead of me.
She was never relaxed.
Not even when we paused or when we slept.
The siblings stayed close together, whispering to each other. The healer looked hollow, like she’d spent something she couldn’t get back. The others kept glancing over their shoulders.
No one wanted to be next, the next traitor or the next one dead.
The walk to the hill took longer than expected. The path became more narrowed, forcing us into a single line. The rocks poked out of the ground like teeth.
That’s when the system chimed.
EVENT TRIGGERED: RESOURCE SCARCITY
A new window opened.
SUPPLIES WILL NO LONGER RESPAWN.
The meaning settled slowly.
Someone laughed.
“Of course they won’t. Nothing will help us out here.”
We checked our packs.
Not enough supplies there were too little food, not enough water. Our crude weapons were already damaged.
The siblings argued quietly over their rations. One of the others snapped at them to stop. The sound echoed farther than it should have.
“Get down,” I whispered.
It was too late.
Something struck him from above.
Not a creature this time.
A trap. Made of rocks.
Stone slammed into the group, knocking one man off his feet. He tumbled down the slope, screaming until his scream was cut short.
The system chimed.
Six.
No monster showed itself.
Just, death.
We didn’t stop moving after that. We didn’t have time to mourn, unless we wanted to die.
By midday, the healer collapsed.
“I can’t heal anymore,” she said. “My mana’s all gone. I can't do this, I don't have a bit of talent for recovery.”
No one answered.
We all kept walking.
She tried to stand again.
Fell.
The system didn’t chime immediately.
She was still alive.
Just barely.
Mira looked at me.
I looked away.
We waited.
When the chime finally came, no one reacted.
Five.
The hill finally opened into a plateau littered with stone pillars, some ancient markers, maybe graves. Symbols were carved into each and every one of them.
The system spoke again.
SAFE ZONE DETECTED.
DURATION: 1 HOUR.
Relief hit hard.
People sat down, they drank, ate the little food they had.
I didn’t.
I opened my status window again.
Six points left.
Still unallocated.
I could feel the system waiting for me.
The safe zone felt all too wrong.
It felt too quiet. Too clean.
There was no wind. No insects. Even the sky above the plateau looked… lighter than usual.
We rested anyway.
What choice did we have? We were all tired and exhausted from our journey.
The siblings shared their food with each other. Mira cleaned her blade again and again; her actions were rough and sluggish. One of the remaining players, a man with lightning magic, paced at the edge of the zone, testing the boundary.
The system timer ticked down in the corner of my vision.
00:47:12
I finally allocated again.
Not much; it never hurts to be careful.
Two points into agility.
The world shifted. It was subtle, like my body was always able to do it. My balance improved. And my reaction sharpened.
Four more points left.
I stopped allocating.
Across the plains, a pillar cracked.
No one noticed it at first.
Then another pillar started cracking.
The fractures spread like veins.
“Do safe zones decay this fast?” someone asked.
The system answered immediately.
YES.
The ground started shaking.
The lightning mage became more panicked and sprinted out of the zone.
The moment his foot crossed the boundary, something invisible tore through him. He froze, not moving, his body distorting.
Then it twisted and ripped.
The system chimed.
Four.
There was no blood this time.
No one moved.
The timer sped up.
00:12:03
The pillars continued cracking.
Mira swore under her breath. “It’s all collapsing.”
“Where do we go?” one of the siblings asked.
No one answered.
I scanned the area again.
Perception tugged at my head again.
There was a small gap.
Between two pillars, it was barely visible—a distortion in the air. If they wanted to live, this was their chance.
“Right there,” I said. “Run when it starts to break.”
The ground split.
We all started running.
The safe zone collapsed behind us, stone folding inward. The distortion opened just wide enough.
We all dove through.
The world flipped.
And spat us all out somewhere else.
Hard.
Someone did not make it; it was one of the twins.
I hit the stone and rolled, my breath knocked from my lungs. The sky above was still dark, with grey clouds twisting slowly.
The system chimed.
STAGE 1 NEAR COMPLETION.
Only three players left.
Me.
Mira.
One sibling.
The other was gone.
The sibling screamed.
I didn’t blame them.
The system chimed.
LAST MISSION: TAKE DOWN BOSS
“Fuck, we only have three people and now a boss?” I said.
A huge monster covered in black scales started coming towards us; the sibling was still, crying.
He stood up and ran at it.
The monster quickly ripped him in half with its tail.
The last thing we heard was a small cry… then silence.
It charged at us once again.
Mira quickly used her blade on it; the cut was shallow. The monster reacted quickly and hit her in the side.
Mira gasped for air as I went in and stabbed it, injuring it slightly. It tried to kill me in one clean bite, but Mira, back on her feet, rushed and, with one quick, clean motion, slit its throat.
The system chimed.
STAGE 1 COMPLETE
NOW MOVING TO STAGE 2
We stood there in silence; then the world collapsed.
End of Chapter 3.
