Chapter Text
“One… two… three…”
Ten gold-painted star tokens were laid out in front of Sara on her bedside table, lit overhead by the warm glow of a lamp attached to the wall. She let out a deep shaky sigh as she finished counting the stars for what must’ve been the fifth time already, finally comprehending the fact that she had collected all ten chips as Rio Ranger had commanded her to do, and that one had not suddenly gone missing somewhere.
Had she actually lost one of the stars, her neck would definitely be on the chopping block, and that wasn’t even a dramatic over exaggeration. It was only a few days ago that she had met the wretched Rio Ranger and the pitiful Tia Safalin, two self-proclaimed dolls who thrust Sara and her allies into what they called a “Sub-Game”, a twisted game spanning multiple days where even small mistakes could very well lead to death.
These stars were part of that very game, but thankfully the gathering of ten stars marked the end of her tribulations. At least, that’s what she thought.
Sara carefully lifted each star off the table and into her pocket as if dropping one would make it shatter into a thousand pieces, safely securing them on her person. After triple checking she didn’t drop one, Sara decided it was finally about time to get a move on, opening the door to her Ranger-assigned bedroom and patting her pocket all the while.
She exited into a long hallway of doors, having come out of a door around the mid-way point. There were twenty five doors that lined this hallway, each leading to a bedroom exactly like the one Sara had just emerged from. She knew well that only twelve of these rooms were actually owned by anyone though, as that was the exact number of people who had even lived to see this floor, not counting the two aforementioned dolls.
Twelve out of twenty five might not exactly seem like a passing grade, but even more people would be dead right now if it weren’t for the cunning actions of a particular pair of Sara’s allies earlier that week. Thanks to them, everyone managed to snake their way out of participating in the ‘Main Game’, a horrific event where they would’ve been forced to select others to be executed.
As a result, the only people who’d unfortunately met their end were those who failed to pass their ‘First Trial’, a cruel puzzle tailored to each participant where failure meant an agonizing death. Sara had only survived her trial thanks to the quick thinking skills of her best friend Jou Tazuna, who had undergone his trial alongside Sara.
Not too far away from Sara was a neurotic looking older man, tapping his knuckles against a door she knew didn’t lead to his room.
“M-miss Nao…” he nervously mumbled through the door. “Is everything alright? Have you collected all of your chips?” he asked, referring to the same star tokens Sara currently held. Officially they were called Clear Chips, though Sara didn’t know how she felt about that name.
Sara considered going up and saying hello to who she recognized as Kazumi Mishima, a high school teacher who at the moment must’ve been attempting to check up on Nao Egokoro, an ex-student of his who he happened to have become quite close to in his time educating her.
Thankfully, the door he was knocking on swung open, revealing the visage of his ex-student, looking chipper and healthy. “Yep!” she announced. “Got them all right here!”
Immediately, Mishima breathed a sigh of relief and the colour quickly returned to his face. Well, not too much colour - the guy was plenty pale as is.
Sara decided she could leave the two of them to it as she walked past the two to the lobby, a decadent suite right in the middle of the third floor of the facility they were trapped in. Any luxury the participants could get was nice, but it was hard to relax with the threat of death constantly looming over them.
Things felt especially eerie in the lobby right now actually, as absolutely no one else was here. Sara walked further in, looking about the place as if she’d suddenly find someone hiding behind some furniture or underneath a tablecloth or something.
“...Hello?” she called out. “Anyone here?” she continued, though was met only with silence. She knew both Nao and Mishima were okay from seeing them in the hallway just earlier, but still couldn’t help but worry about the rest of her friends who hadn’t shown up yet.
“...Guys?” she cried again, beginning to raise her voice more as anxiety started to take over. Collecting Clear Chips wasn’t an easy task, and between all of them they’d need a staggering one-hundred-and-twenty chips to survive. Did Ranger even make that many of them? It was completely reasonable to assume a few people might not make it to the end of the Sub-Game alive.
Just as Sara was about to call out again though, a booming voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Cease your hollering, Sara Chidouin!” it commanded as its owner shambled into the room: a tall, muscular man clad in a prisoner’s uniform and an absurd haircut. This was Alice Yabusame, a rockstar turned criminal who had somehow been prematurely released from prison only to wind up in the Death Game alongside his sister Reko, who used to be in the same band as him. Despite his crimes and his intimidating body shape, he turned out to not be as scary as he seemed once Sara got to know him.
Alice sauntered over to one of the comfortable chairs in the lobby and threw himself down with such force that he might’ve broken a weaker chair under his weight. “Some of us are still trying to sleep.”
“...Uh, sorry…?” Sara muttered as Alice attempted to fold one leg over the other to make for a more comfortable sitting position, though struggled thanks to the iron ball still chained around his legs. Sara might’ve been a lot more relieved to see someone alive if she wasn’t immediately scolded by them.
Nao and Mishima were right behind Alice, which was to be expected as Sara was already certain they were coming. Mishima gave a polite greeting to the two of them, met merely by an amused grunt by Alice.
Alice wasn’t the only tall muscular man coming in, as the ex-detective Keiji Shinogi showed up not even a minute later. He was the scruffy sort, tired looking and without much of a regard for his physical appearance, but his casual demeanour made him pretty easy to talk to.
“Mornin’.” Keiji simply said as he leaned slightly against a wall. “Pretty refreshing one, huh?”
“The hell’s refreshing about this?” another voice came from the hallway, apparently having overheard Keiji’s comment. The aforementioned Reko Yabusame walked into the room, another ex-rockstar who sported a fiery attitude and some foul vocabulary. Though, much like her brother, she was a little softer on the inside.
“Just making conversation.” Keiji calmly said to explain himself, though Reko just huffed and shrugged.
Next up to show their face was Q-taro Burgerberg, an… interesting man who possessed both an accent that seemed to come from no single region in particular, and more weight than anyone else here - even if you include Alice’s iron ball. Not much of that weight was body fat though, as one glance at Q-taro and his downright overwhelming muscles would tell you that he works out. A lot.
He seemed pretty nervous about something, entering without a word and fiddling with the brim of his hat as he paced around an unoccupied part of the room. If he was here though, that meant he had all his chips. Perhaps he was just worried about whatever else Rio Ranger may have planned.
Seeing more and more people flood into the room was starting to quell Sara’s fears, but there was still someone who she desperately wanted to see walk through that doorway.
On a completely unrelated note, the man she knew as Sou Hiyori was next in line, beanie firmly on head and scarf tight around neck. Sou could best be described as a creature of a man, spindly and weak with ideas bigger than he was. He was a savant with computers however, but that was about all he had going for him.
Right next to him was Kanna Kizuchi, a small neurotic child who had unfortunately lost her sister in their shared First Trial. As such, she was incredibly afraid and reserved when it came to meeting the rest of the participants, but had recently opened up a little more at least.
Kanna and Sou went to a part of the room on their own, talking to each other at such a volume that Sara was unable to eavesdrop over the sound of Alice and Q-taro’s inane conversation. Sara wasn’t sure when Kanna and Sou started hanging out, but if Kanna was able to bring herself to open up to anyone in the first place Sara didn’t really mind who it was.
Almost everyone was here now, Kai Satou entering the room next. Kai was a tidy and stoic homemaker who tended to only speak as much as he had to, though he carried with him a cold aura, likely due his tall stature and dull eyes. Sara was kind of surprised to see him show up so late in the order, as she took him for the type that rose with the sun.
“Good morning, all.” Kai simply said before taking a seat across from Alice.
Kanna wasn’t the only child held in the facility, as someone even younger than her was next up.
“Back from my catnap, meow!” Gin Ibushi announced, ‘Mew-chan’ pillow held tightly in his paw-glove covered hands as he entered the lobby. Gin was a kindhearted young boy, though he was no stranger to being a little snarky at times, and had an obsession with cats and dogs to the point where he’d say “meow” or “woof” at the end of virtually every sentence.
“Glad to see everyone’s doing okay, woof!” Case in point.
Sara was especially glad to see Gin had his chips, but his entrance made eleven, not twelve. There was still someone who hadn’t shown up yet, and with every second that passed, Sara’s anxiety was gradually returning.
Those seconds turned to minutes, and when staring at the doorway yielded no results, Sara turned to frantically glancing about the room without leaving her seat in case he had somehow entered without her noticing and was being uncharacteristically quiet at the moment.
“...Big sis Sara, woof?” a tiny voice suddenly piped up from next to her, alerting Sara to the fact that Gin had apparently been sitting right by her the entire time. “Is something wrong, meow?” he asked, tilting his head like a curious dog and making the cat ears on his hood flop over.
“U-um…” Sara faltered, trying to force the words she wanted to say out of her throat. “...He isn’t… coming out.” Well, that was close enough.
“Woof?” Gin emoted curiously, apparently not grasping Sara’s meaning. She tried to muster up the will to explain further to him, but thankfully found she didn’t need to.
”Maaaaan, that was a good sleep!” came the voice of one Jou Tazuna, though he preferred to just go by ‘Joe’. Immediately, he noticed that all eleven others were here, and nervously patted the back of his bed-hair. “Whoops. Looks like I’m pretty late to the party!”
Joe was an empathetic and cheerful guy, if occasionally a bit dim-witted. He was the same age as Sara, attending the same school and classes as her. This unfortunately led to her having to help him with more advanced homework a lot of the time, but she couldn’t say she ever minded that much.
Sara breathed her second long sigh of relief that day, ecstatic to see Joe alive and well.
“Oh…” Gin muttered, nodding his head sagely as he figured out what had Sara in a tizzy. “You were worried about big bro Joe, meow!” he announced perhaps a little louder than he needed to, making Sara feel a tad embarrassed.
“Hm? You were worried, Sara?” Joe queried as he walked closer, taking a seat by Sara and Gin. “Don’t sweat it! I’ve got all those chip things right here!” he said triumphantly as he thumped a fist lightly to his chest pocket, resulting in the sound of discordant jangling from within his pocket.
Everyone talked amongst themselves for a while, either nervous about what’s to come or relieved that everyone had pulled through alive, but either way discussions weren’t allowed to continue too long.
The sound of a thirteenth person’s footsteps in the distance slowly getting closer shut everyone up rather quickly and killed the mood as who else but Rio Ranger entered the room.
Ranger was… hard to describe. He was a robotic facsimile of a man - no, more of a boy - who clearly did not know what colour theory was. Almost every article of clothing he wore was stolen off the still-bloody corpse of someone who had pathetically perished in a First Trial, though thankfully he’d taken the liberty to wash each piece first. He was a spiteful, vulgar cretin with a deep seated distaste for humans, and chose to express himself using black ceramic flags with different cartoonish mouths painted on them instead of emoting like a normal person.
“...Huh. Didn’t count on this.” he complained as he looked over the crowd and did a headcount, finding twelve people when he hoped more for five or less. He simply shrugged, put one hand on one of his hips and used the other to hold up a flag in front of his face that gave the idea that he was supposed to be impressed.
“Talk about stubborn! You bastards seriously pulled through!” he noted.
“Hmph. Naturally.” Alice huffed with confidence. “You’d have to rake us all over hot coals before we’d even begin to give in.”
“Huhhh?” Ranger exclaimed in a whiny, annoying tone of voice. “That’s a pretty good idea! I’ll have to try that one!”
“W-wait, erm…” Alice stumbled, trying to stop Ranger from getting any grand plans.
“Oh, wait, actually, I don’t need your stupid ideas.” Ranger interrupted regardless. “There’s somewhere you’re gonna want to follow me to. ...Actually, scratch that, you are gonna come there.”
Everyone seemed to stand at attention to see what he had to say next, and Ranger felt some level of satisfaction from the display of the control he had over them.
“Don’t worry, it’s not another Main Game. Not yet at least. Trust me by the way, you bastards aren’t gonna weasel out of it again when the time comes.” he growled. One would think someone bearing a build as weak as his and a face as punchable as his would fail to be intimidating, but his status in the Death Game still made him a threat.
“Anyway! Got sidetracked. Take a look over there, ‘kay?” he asked, pointing a velvet gloved finger to one of the far walls of the lobby.
Everyone looked to see what he was gesturing at, and were shocked to see the wall split apart and move away to see a bulky green metal door hidden beyond the wall.
“T-the hell!?” Joe exclaimed. Who could’ve guessed that was there this whole time?
“Come on, everyone!” Ranger trilled as he practically skipped over to the door. “You have no idea what’s in store for you!”
“...What should we do…?” Nao nervously muttered, prompting Mishima to put a calm hand on one of her shoulders.
“There should be no need to worry, miss Nao.” he reasoned. “We won within the boundaries of the rules outlined to us. If they were just going to hurt us now, there would be no need for the Sub-Game entirely.”
“Oh… that’s true!” Nao recognized, successfully given a confidence boost.
“Let’s get this over with, meow…” Gin grumbled as he rose from his seat and walked towards the green door where Ranger stood.
All thirteen passed through the heavy door, most not knowing what to expect beyond here. A large spotlight fixed to the roof clicked on, and immediately things seemed mostly normal, the main things they were able to see being a large wish-bone shaped table and many chairs dotted around the sides.
At the head of the table stood two chairs, one of which was already occupied by Ranger’s personal punching bag, Tia Safalin. She was a strange woman, constantly either crying or on the verge of tears, and was commonly pushed around or slighted by Ranger despite them both being on the same team. She fulfilled the role of a nurse, healing the participants if they got too injured. Despite this, she was far from an ally.
Ranger made his way to the head of the table as well, throwing himself down on the other chair and sitting in a much less dignified fashion than Safalin was.
“Well?” Ranger prodded impatiently. “Go on everyone, take a seat!”
Several people understandably realised this was most likely a trap, but knew that they had no choice but to comply at the moment, and so hesitantly took a seat in one of the chairs around the sides of the table. It seemed there were exactly six on each side - the perfect amount. Though, they couldn’t help but notice that the seats they were expected to use looked a lot less comfortable than Ranger’s.
“What do you want from us now, woof!?” Gin snapped at both of the dolls after sitting down. Clearly, Ranger was wearing down the group’s patience.
“We collected your damn chips, so just leave us alone, dammit!” Reko hissed, but Ranger didn’t exactly seem willing to.
“Just ‘cause you collected all the chips doesn’t mean you’re done with the Sub-Game. You still have one more attraction to do, idiots.” Ranger said, as though it was obvious.
“...We were told nothing of this.” Kai pointed out, and Ranger acted oblivious.
“Huhh? ...Oops! Must’ve plum forgot to say it earlier. Oh well, I’m saying it now!”
“In front of you, you’ll see laptops. These will be essential to passing the final attraction!” Ranger said, starting his explanation. Indeed, each chair had a glossy silver laptop in front of it, including Ranger and Safalin’s chairs, though their laptops were already flipped up and the screens pointed away from the participants.
Usually laptops have an engraving in the middle of the cover where the manufacturer’s logo goes, but instead there was just an engraving of a small cartoon depiction of Ranger winking and holding up his happy flag. Gross.
A USB mouse was connected to a port on each of the laptops as well. Guess they would be needing those.
“Now, I’ll explain what the attraction will be in just a minute, but let me just ask you all a question…” Ranger began as he leaned forward, everyone else unconsciously following suit as they waited for whatever terrifying question Ranger was about to ask.
”...Y’all bastards ever heard of Minecraft?”
...what?
“Oh!” Joe exclaimed, raising his hand as if he was an elementary schooler. “I have!”
Everyone else around the table murmured in various degrees of agreement and more so confusion. The hell was Ranger on about?
“Very good!” Ranger said, holding up the smile mask as he turned to Joe. “That’ll make this a bit easier. The rest of you… you’ll figure it out.” he claimed, apparently not wishing to explain the basic mechanics of Minecraft to everyone.
“Anyway, that’s what this final attraction is all about!” Ranger continued. “You just have to play Minecraft!”
“J-just that?” Sou muttered, stuttering out of confusion and not fear.
“Nope!” Ranger said, immediately revealing his lie. “You have to play Minecraft… on Hardcore mode!”
“Uh oh…” Joe exclaimed, realising this might be harder than he’d expected.
“Hardcore mode…” Sou began. “The mode where if you die, you can’t respawn…”
“The very same! Plus, enemies deal massive damage, and starvation is a very real risk! You see where I’m going with this now, bastards?” Ranger asked, swapping between a few different emote flags. “Hardcore mode is seriously difficult! It’s the apex of Minecraft difficulty! Some of even the most experienced players can’t handle it, so there’s no way you gaggle of newbies can either.”
“H-hey!” Joe spoke up. “I’m no newbie! I can probably handle this just fine!” he claimed, though wavered a little in that assertion.
“Me too.” Sou chimed in, sounding more confident. “I definitely have over a thousand hours logged in Minecraft. You can leave this to me.” Sou’s eyes glanced over some of the more stressed looking participants at the table. “...Though, I’m not sure about you guys.”
“I… uh… I don’t even know what a Minecraft is…” Q-taro admitted, his hat pulled over his eyes.
“Neither do I. Though, whatever task I will face, I shall try my best.” Kai sagely said.
“W-well… Kanna has played Minecraft before… but only once.” Kanna spoke up, having a tendency to talk about herself in the third person.
Everyone looked around the table for people who seemed more nervous than others, and Reko started to crack.
“W-what’s your problem!? You guys seriously judging me cause I don’t know how to play a game for kids!?” she snapped, but Joe spoke up.
“Hey! Minecraft isn’t just for kids!”
“I concur.” Mishima unexpectedly spoke up. “I’ve played Minecraft a few times here and there and quite enjoyed it. Perhaps it really is for all ages.”
“Right! Minecraft can be a unique art tool as well, Reko!” Nao chimed in, explaining why Mishima had played it.
“U-uh… right…” Reko mumbled.
“I think I’ll do a pretty good job here, meow!” Gin said with determination. “I’ve never played Hardcode mode before… but I have played Survival a lot, woof!”
“Yeah!” Joe said enthusiastically. “And hey, Sara! You’ve played Minecraft with me before, you’ll do great!” he claimed, though Sara wasn’t as sure. The support of her best friend went a long way, though.
“Never played it.” Keiji simply said. “Might as well give it a shot, though.”
That just left one. One person who, until now, had gone completely unnoticed in discussion.
Alice was chuckling to himself, gradually getting louder and louder.
“Huh? Cut that out, it’s annoying.” Ranger demanded, but Alice wasn’t deterred.
“...Truly. You are a fool, Rio Ranger. To think… you believe Minecraft on Hardcore mode is enough of a challenge…”
“You even know what you’re talking about? I bet you haven’t even played Minecraft, bastard.”
Alice took a deep breath.
“Oh god…” Reko muttered, knowing exactly what was coming.
“I am a Minecraft expert, nay, a god.”
“Whoa…” Joe muttered from the sidelines, impressed with Alice’s prowess.
“I have memorized every crafting recipe. Broken and placed every single block. Slain the Ender Dragon countless times! I could complete this ‘challenge’ of yours by myself!”
“Wow!” Ranger said without missing a beat, completely sarcastically. “We’ve got a tough guy over here! But how about you put your money where your mouth is, huh? We’ll see just how tough you are.” Ranger taunted, his voice dripping with malice.
“Hold up. Question for you.” Keiji cut in, causing Ranger to look at him impatiently. “There a catch to this? Seems like there’s not much consequence for failing.”
“...A catch, huh? ...Sure. I guess you could say that.” Ranger said, dancing around the issue.
“Yeah?” Keiji prodded.
“It’s nothin’ special. Really, I honestly forgot about it until you mentioned it just now.”
“Well? Out with it.” Alice impatiently spat.
“See… during the final attraction, if you die in the game…”
”You die for real.”
Several people exploded into chaos, suddenly fearing for their lives a lot more than they did before.
“...Should’ve known he’d pull something like this, meow...” Gin pointed out to those who didn’t see it coming.
“What’s the matter, you all?” Ranger taunted. “You were all so optimistic just a second ago! Where’d your hope go, huhhhh?”
“Hmph. Nowhere.” Alice claimed, apparently still as confident as he was before.
“Tch. We’ll see about that.” Ranger nipped. “Anyway, with that out of the way, the final attraction will end when the Ender Dragon is defeated. Good luck you bastards, you’re gonna need it!”
Ranger leaned back on his chair and expectantly gestured at everyone’s laptops. Not having time to prepare or strategize, everyone had no choice but to open their devices with various degrees of hesitation.
The one thing all of them knew? They were going to need all the luck they could get.