Only four days left…
Haku sat in the back row of his classroom, head down on the desk, eyes drifting lazily toward the open window.
The sky outside was bright, almost offensively peaceful.
A bird landed on the fence outside, tilting its head like it knew something no one else did.
Inside, his classmates were buzzing.
"Bro, so then I summoned this flaming sword, right?" one guy said, already halfway out of his seat. "BOOM! Cleaved this ogre straight in half."
The girls squealed, the boys hyped him up like he was a war hero.
"So then I used this weird pink gun, right? BOOM! Headshot!"
Girls gasped on cue.
"Oh my god, no way!"
"Bro, that's actually sick."
The guy bowed like he just soloed a final boss. Phone flashes went off like paparazzi. Someone actually threw a soda can in celebration.
Flashback to Haku's first day in school his class asked him:
"Yo, bro. You were in it too, right?""…Yeah.""So how was it?""Uh. Weird."
Laughter. They thought he was joking.
"C'mon, were you scared?"
"Yeah," he said. "I cried."
More laughter. They never asked again.
[Flashback Ends]
Now: break.
Haku sat alone on a bench, orange juice in hand, straw bent at a weird angle. The sun was warm on his face. The wind was soft. He loves it.
I'm gonna pretend this is a normal Friday, he thought. Just with extra trauma.
He opened his phone, thumb swiping without really looking.
News clips. Memes. Another theory video. Some guy yelling about "the game" being a government experiment.
He ignored it all.
Then—
A video. Two cats. One with a slice of cheese stuck to its head. The other slowly, carefully, chewed the cheese off like it was rescuing a friend.
He smiled.
Sent it to Mey.
Caption: "You."
Mey replied instantly: "We."
Haku blinked. Turned a little red. Sipped his juice like it wasn't the softest thing that'd happened to him in weeks.
He leaned back, straw still in his mouth, juice almost gone.
His thumb moved without thinking—system window. A faint glow lit his screen as the interface opened, like it was just another app. Normal, now.
He tapped through, scrolled the list of players. Rows of names scrolled past, glowing faint blue. Stats, avatars, flickering like a slot machine. Some blank. Some flashy. Some already had hundreds of thousands of followers.
We're over thirty billion people on Earth right now, he thought. And somehow… millions of people are on this list. It's unreal.
Then he searched someones name.
It loaded.
Black profile picture. Cold, sharp font. Viewer Count: 94,203. Rank: High. Stats: Hidden.
Haku stared at it, unmoving.
Kaze.His older brother.
The person he used to look up to more than anyone.
The name sat on the screen like a wall. Unreadable expression. Hidden stats. Almost a stranger now.
Haku's thumb hovered over the screen for a second longer before his thoughts pulled him somewhere else.
Haku remembered the moment he saw his brother again after returning to Earth—when he found out that Kaze, his older brother, had also survived a White Room.
He came home. Opened the door. And there Kaze was, standing in the hallway, like he'd never left.
Same old black hoodie. Same cold eyes.
They looked at each other for a full second. Two people who'd lived through hells with different weather.
And all Haku could think was—He made it too.
He wanted to hug him. Ask a hundred things. Where were you? What did you see? Were you scared?
But instead, they just stood there. Like strangers who knew each other too well.
And Kaze, his older brother—the guy who used to be his hero—just said:
"I don't want you to die there."
And Haku, too tired to lie, said:"…Yeah. You too."
Then Kaze walked past him into the living room, like the moment hadn't meant anything.
But Haku never forgot it.
Not the way he looked.
Not the way he didn't say welcome back.
Kaze used to be everything for Haku.Smart. Cool. Hilarious. His Hero. His biggest Inspiration.
But a year ago something broke. He got quieter. Sharper. Less there.
Haku hated it. Still loved him anyway.
Nearby, some girls buzzed like flies.
"Did you hear Milo from NVM is a survivor?"
"He's SO hot, I swear he's gonna win."
"He already has like nine million followers."
Haku didn't turn. Just sipped.
Everyone's gonna be watched. Every second. I hate it.
He scrolled to the Top Followed tab.
All verified. All filtered. All famous.
Good. I've got like three followers. Let them watch someone else. I'll die quietly if I have to.
The wind shifted slightly.
He finished the juice. Pulled the straw out.
The system screen still hovered faintly in the air, glowing blue like a ghost that refused to leave.
Haku looked up at the sky. Closed his eyes for a second.
Breathed in.
"Four days left, huh."