📜 READER RULES
"A Realm Where Cowards Get Lost Twice"
1. This story uses a system structure.
Not a tax system, not a coding system— a choice-based survival system.
And every choice has consequences. (Yes, even the stupid ones.)
2. You must be as honorable as a grandmaster in desert chess.
Once your finger touches a pawn—no takebacks.
No crying. No "I didn't mean it."
Live with your decision.
3. Do NOT read all paths.
You're not an omniscient deity. Choose one route and stay loyal.
If you peek at the others, the jinn will judge your commitment issues.
The protagonist's fate is now in your hands.
If they die, that's between you and your conscience.
Do not DM the author at 2 a.m. to blame the plot twist.
5. Confused? Terrified? Regretting your choices?
Perfect.
That means the system works.
Proceed.
6. You may laugh, scream, or re-evaluate your life choices.
You may NOT go back and redo the chapter.
This is not a dating sim.
This is destiny—with lag.
***
The first wind that touched their cheeks was cold—not the fresh kind, but a sharp cold, like vapor rising off a metal blade.
Rafi stopped; his feet felt heavy, as if this whole crystal peninsula refused to let him step on it. Sahim bent over, hands on his knees. He shifted his sling bag. Phone, power bank, charger—old-world objects clacked together, sounding strange here, useless and out of place.
They didn't say anything. Both of them knew—words would only make the fear real.
The sound came slowly.
Not footsteps.
Not a growl.
But dozens of long claws scraping against glass somewhere deep inside the forest.
Krrraaaat…
Krrrkk…
Krrrraaat…
Every scrape made the hair on their necks rise. The first shadow moved. Sahim grabbed Rafi's arm. His fingers were cold. From behind the crystal mist, something crawled out:
Shoulder-high to a human, its body was as slim as a dried-out man, its skin blackish-purple like dead moss, and its eyes—four of them—glowed faintly like embers about to die.
It made no sound when it opened its mouth.
It did not breathe like a living thing.
One appeared.
Then two.
Then… a dozen.
And from behind them, another kind:
A six-legged body, a face like a cracked porcelain mask, and every step it took sent a short tremor through the glassy ground.
Many of them.
Too many.
Rafi froze. Only now did he realize—the smell of their bodies had been pulled along by the wind this whole time. Enough to invite one. And one was enough to invite a pack.
"Bro…" Sahim whispered, barely audible.
"Do you… think we… can survive this…?"
Rafi didn't answer.
He couldn't.
All he could feel was his heartbeat slamming against his ribs.
Stifling.
Hot.
Yet the air around them grew colder and colder—the kind of cold that kills.
The mid-sized monsters didn't attack at once.
They circled.
The ring tightened slowly, like a well-cover being dragged shut, inch by inch. Rafi lifted his empty hand. Reflex.
A hand with no knife.
No stone.
No hope.
Sahim shut his eyes. Tears slipped out, the kind that come from a tiredness too deep to hold back.
"Bro…"
his voice was broken,
"…if this is how we die… I hope… we meet again in Paradise."
Rafi snapped out of the shock. He grabbed Sahim by the collar and yanked him closer.
"We're… not dead yet!"
Even if his tone sounded more like a prayer than a fact. SAFRA's light hung in the air. The forest hissed softly. Rafi swallowed saliva that wasn't there.
"There are two choices we can make…"
Sahim wiped his tears away with the back of his hand.
"Wh—whatever they are… just say it."
Rafi pointed at the left path and the right—both equally dark, equally silent, equally full of possible deaths.
1 — SPLIT UP
One of them would have a higher chance to escape. The weaker one would die faster.
2 — STAY TOGETHER
They could help each other. They might escape—or end up dying together.
—To be Continued—