The first game born from the new Variant system doesn't announce itself with thunder.
No countdown.
No threat.
Only this message, written in soft, silver font across the sky of the chosen Variant:
"This is not a game of survival."
"This is a game of understanding."
LOCATION:
Variant Node: 3-LM – Labyrinth of Mercy
The players awaken in a vast cathedral-like forest. Trees grow in perfect arcs, branches weaving into gothic vaults overhead. The air is alive with whispers—memories not yet claimed, truths half-remembered.
Six players total.
Matthew, Sora, Rin… and three others pulled from fragments of unclosed loops.
One of them, a girl named Ilari, has a copy-code signature—but her eyes seem aware. More than aware.
The rules appear on the back of each player's hand:
You carry a wound you've never admitted. You must walk until you hear it speak. You may choose to carry another's pain. But take too much—and you will vanish.
"This is the Labyrinth of Mercy," whispers the forest.
"You may only leave by learning why you entered."
Game Mechanics:
Each section of the forest is shaped by a different player's unspoken memory.
The others must traverse it, unlocking paths by asking the right questions—not solving puzzles, but understanding the person whose reality they're inside.
If you ask the wrong question—you absorb their burden instead of releasing it.
If you carry too many others' truths without facing your own?
You dissolve into mist, becoming a guide for the next group of players.
Early Challenges:
Matthew's Sector: A hospital hallway with no doors. The only way forward is to read notes written by himself… as a child. Rin's Sector: A looping classroom that restarts every time someone lies, even to protect. Sora's Sector: A bridge with no visible end, where players must walk blindfolded until someone admits why they left her behind in a previous loop.
But the twist isn't in the structure.
It's Ilari.
She starts to remember things from all of them.
Games she shouldn't have been part of.
Voices she mimics too perfectly.
And one night, under a full glitching moon, she whispers to Matthew:
"You rewrote the rules, but the root didn't forget."
"You carried too much, and some of us never left the code."
That night, a new path opens in the forest—a black corridor veiled in silence.
Above it, a message:
"Here lies the truth of why Variant 3-LM was created."
"Only the one who bears no wounds may pass."
None of the trio can move.
But Ilari walks forward.
And the moment she crosses the threshold—
The game glitches.
The forest shudders.
And every Variant flickers.
Because Ilari is not a player.
She's a vessel.
And something inside her just woke up.