02. New World, New Rules (1)
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The bell rang, signaling the end of another mundane class. I sighed, my gaze fixed on the clock on the wall as the teacher droned on about something I barely cared about. I couldn't wait for the day to end.
As the bell's final chime echoed, the teacher gathered her materials and left the classroom. The once orderly atmosphere erupted into a flurry of activity. Students rose from their seats, chatting and laughing as they made their way out.
I stretched, feeling a satisfying crack in my back. I was about to head out when a girl approached me. It was Yunji, our class president, known for her bright smile and friendly demeanor.
"Hey," she said with a sparkle in her eye. "Do you wanna go to the store and get some snacks? I heard they've got a couple of new ones in!"
I looked at her, smirking. Yunji was always upbeat and enthusiastic, which was a nice contrast to my usual grumpiness. "Sure, but you've gotta pay. I'm broke."
Yunji laughed, giving me a playful shove. "Oh, come on! Don't be so cheap. I'll treat you this time, just because you're so charming."
We joked around as we made our way to the door of the classroom. I reached for the handle, only to find it wouldn't budge. I frowned and tried again, but the door was firmly locked.
"What's the problem?" Yunji asked, looking puzzled.
"It's locked," I said, my frustration growing. "We better use the back door—"
Before I could finish, a voice from the back of the classroom interrupted. "Hey, this door's locked, too!"
My heart sank as I glanced around. All the doors in the classroom were suddenly locked. What the hell was going on?
Just then, a bone-rattling screech pierced the air, louder than any noise I'd ever experienced. It felt like the sound was tearing through my eardrums. I dropped to my knees, covering my ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise.
I looked around and saw that I wasn't alone. Yunji was beside me, also struggling against the deafening sound. Some students had collapsed, their faces contorted in pain.
And that's when I saw it.
Through the classroom window, the sun had vanished from the sky. What should have been a familiar, comforting blue was replaced with a dark, foreboding shade of red. Despite the sun's absence, everything was still visible—eerie and unsettling.
'Wha... what the fuck?' I thought, my mind racing to make sense of the impossible scene before me.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the sound stopped. The silence that followed was deafening in its own right, and I remained on the floor, struggling to catch my breath.
I looked at Yunji, who was still on her knees, her face pale and eyes wide with fear. The classroom was in chaos, with students murmuring in confusion and panic.
I rushed to the window, my heart pounding in my chest. The sight before me was surreal. The sun was gone, leaving only a dark red sky in its place. The familiar blue sky was now a distant memory, replaced by an ominous, crimson hue.
"What the hell..." I muttered, my mind struggling to grasp the enormity of what I was seeing. I thought I must be going crazy, that maybe my mind was playing tricks on me. But the panic and confusion in the eyes of my classmates told me I wasn't alone in this madness.
Voices erupted around me, filled with panic and confusion.
"What's happening?" a girl cried, clutching her head.
"This can't be real!" shouted another student, shaking with fear.
"I'm scared! Someone, do something!" someone else pleaded.
Students rushed toward the doors, desperately trying to escape, but they wouldn't budge. Their frantic pounding on the locked doors only heightened the chaos. A few students collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, convinced this was all just a terrible dream. Others stood frozen, their faces blank as they struggled to process the impossible scene unfolding before them.
Then, the worst happened. The lights flickered and went out, plunging the classroom into darkness. The hum of the electricity ceased, and the only light came from the eerie red glow filtering through the windows.
I stood there, still staring at the world outside, paralyzed by a sense of dread and helplessness. Yunji approached me, her face pale and her expression matching mine—blank and full of confusion.
"What… what is going on?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"I don't know," I replied, my voice shaky. "This must be a dream, right?"
Before Yunji could respond, another screeching sound pierced the silence. It was less intense than before, but still jarring enough to make everyone flinch. From the front of the classroom, something bizarre began to happen.
The air seemed to glitch, flickering like a faulty computer screen. I stared in disbelief as the distortion grew more pronounced. It wasn't just a visual effect; it felt as if reality itself was breaking down.
A dark hole appeared amidst the glitching distortion. It was like a tear in the fabric of our world, and it grew larger by the second. Panic erupted anew as students screamed and scrambled away from the front of the room, their movements chaotic and erratic.
I looked at Yunji, trying to gauge her reaction. Her eyes were wide, filled with a mix of fear and disbelief. She was as stunned as I was, and for a moment, we just stood there, frozen by the gravity of the situation.
From the glitching hole, something small began to emerge. It was hard to make out details in the dim light, but it looked like a tiny, dark shape. The sight of it only added to the growing sense of unease.
As the figure emerged more fully, the classroom erupted into even more chaos. Students shouted over each other, some trying to climb over desks in their frenzy to escape. The small figure continued to materialize, growing clearer and more defined as it emerged from the rift.
The rip in the air suddenly snapped shut with a sound like a zipper, leaving the small figure still floating in the center of the classroom.
My eyes widened, and I squinted at it, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
"A… a doll?" I murmured, disbelief and confusion lacing my voice.
The figure that had emerged from the tear was indeed a doll. It was shaped like an elephant, but it was far from an ordinary toy.
Its surface was a dark, glossy material that seemed to catch and reflect light in unsettling ways.
The doll's body was slightly translucent, revealing a complex network of internal mechanisms that glowed faintly. Its eyes were oversized and shimmered with a deep, eerie blue light.
The classroom, which had been a cacophony of panic and noise moments ago, was now eerily silent. Students stood frozen in shock, their eyes locked on the doll as it hovered effortlessly in the air.
As I continued to focus on the bizarre situation, the doll began to move. Its small, elephant form shifted and wobbled as it adjusted its position, and then it started to speak in a series of strange, mechanical sounds.
"☊⏃⋏ ⟒⎐⟒⍀⊬⍜⋏⟒ ⎍⋏⎅⟒⍀⌇⏁⏃⋏⎅ ⋔⟒?" it intoned, its voice a strange mix of whirring and clicking noises.
'What the hell is it saying?' I thought, bewildered.
The language it was using was completely foreign, a jumbled array of sounds that made no sense to me. My mind raced, trying to decipher the meaning, but the sounds remained inscrutable.
The doll seemed to sense our confusion. It paused for a moment, its tiny mechanical limbs twitching slightly, as if recalculating its approach. Then it attempted to communicate again.
"Do ⟒⟒⋔⌇ ⌰⟟☍⟒ ⏁⊑⟒⊬ understand ⎅⟒⍀⌇⏁⏃⋏⎅ me?," it repeated, speaking more slowly this time.
The classroom was captivated by the doll. Even those who had been crying or desperately trying to escape now stood riveted, their faces reflecting a mixture of fear and curiosity.
Suddenly, the doll floated around in a tight circle, its body shimmering as if struggling to maintain its shape. It stopped, facing us once more.
"Ahem. Sorry about that. The human language update was still not done," it said in perfectly clear English.
My jaw dropped. I was in shock, unable to process the absurdity of the situation.
'What the hell? A talking doll?' I thought, my mind racing to catch up with the reality I was faced with. This was far beyond anything I could have imagined.
"Hello, my name is Po. I'll be your guide to this new world," the doll introduced itself with a tone that was both professional and oddly soothing.
A guide. The term echoed in my mind, stirring vague recollections of something seen before. And now thinking about it, this whole situation felt eerily familiar, like a scene lifted straight out of something I had once encountered.
"You all have been chosen as candidates of god," Po continued, its voice unwavering and authoritative.
'Candidates of god?' I thought, my confusion deepening. 'What the fuck is that doll talking about?'
"And you'll have to complete tasks to show your worth," Po explained, its tone almost matter-of-fact.
Tasks. Candidates of god. The terms sounded like they belonged in some twisted, high-stakes game or test.
My mind raced, trying to place where I had encountered such concepts before. The classroom buzzed with murmurs of disbelief and anxiety, the atmosphere thick with tension.
"And the world you know will change," Po added, its voice taking on an ominous edge.
The gravity of Po's words struck me with a force that felt almost physical. The familiar reality I had always known was on the brink of an unimaginable transformation, and the uncertainty of what lay ahead was both exhilarating and terrifying.
The world I knew, was no more.
The world was about to become a series of death games, where survival was the only option.