"All levels and stages that we play must be taken seriously because this game is no child's play."
"Call and find them!"
They heard a shout, not far from where they were sitting. It seemed to be Ninezen's voice, if she wasn't mistaken. Confounded, she and First got up and returned to the tent after the short, decent talk they had.
"First, Second, you're here. We've been looking for you," Fifth called out to them.
"Why, what happened?" she questioned him because he seemed concerned.
She observed their surroundings. There was nothing out of the ordinary or any creature nearby.
"Third saw a white building over there. Call the others, and we'll go there," he announced.
They left the tent and ran quickly to the white building that Third had seen. After a few minutes, they arrived. A white building, two stories in height, was exposed to them. There were no windows. They went around to find an entrance door.
"There!" Ninezen pointed out.
They turned around and saw the single door, gray and made of steel. It opened on its own as if they were being let in. They wasted no more time and went inside. When they entered, the door closed automatically.
LOCATION: Inside the unknown infrastructure TIME: Morning
Everyone was amazed when they entered. It was as cold as if there was air conditioning cooling the area, and it was spacious. The walls were all white and the floor translucent blue, made of crystal material. The interior was round, with holograms on the sides. Twelve transparent glass room cubicles formed a big circle. There was a glass tube-looking thing lying inside each room. She wondered what those things were for.
*bell rings*
"Greetings, everyone, welcome to Health Level: Stage 1!" Author's warm greeting came to them. They searched for its hologram, but it was nowhere inside the building.
"Only my voice that you're about to hear," This quickly answered her question. "Now, the battle 12, please proceed to your respective area and take your seats," Author commanded them.
"What are we going to do there?" Ninth furrowed his eyebrows, arms crossed.
"Please proceed and sit inside," Author insisted.
They did nothing but follow Author's order.
Second saw a number at the top of the glass rooms, so she entered the one with the number 02 on it, which was her number name. Some of them were still skeptical, but they wouldn't know what would happen if they didn't try. She sat on the soft and comfortable chair. The small glass room door closed automatically. She sat on the chair it provided. The backrest receded promptly, so she was slightly lying down. She felt her hands and feet bound, so she twitched for a moment, but resisting did nothing to her. Something blocked her entire face like a helmet. She was now completely lying down when the transformed chair into a bed went inside the glass tube.
Moments later, while she was inside the glass tube with the helmet-like thing on her head, something emitted white smoke. She didn't know if it was supposed to be dangerous smoke or not. She held her breath, but it only made her feel worse.
Abruptly, she heard a robot speaking—it wasn't Author.
"Activating ... 30%... 45%... 56%..." Activating what? "71%... 89%... 98%... 100% complete."
She saw hologram texts and pictures that she couldn't understand because the pictures looked all black and blue. When whatever it was got activated, her surroundings became dark, contradicting the white color of the walls. She couldn't comprehend any of it. The cold she felt made her sweat with fear and nervousness. This feeling overwhelmed her again. They had no idea what was about to happen, so it was normal to feel this way. Her eyelids grew heavy. She closed her eyes.
"Congratulations to all junior high completers"
"Let's take a picture!"
"Why aren't you smiling? Stop being a killjoy"
W-What are these?!
She saw figures of people who seemed to be talking to her, but only their bodies were visible, faces and heads blurry. A light shone, hindering their faces. Even when she tried to look at their faces, she still couldn't see them.
"We're finally done with this school year."
"We're done with acads, but you looked like you still haven't slept, Heavien. Hahaha!"
"Let's do arcade first!"
Second did not understand where these random voices came from. Why did she hear them but couldn't see their faces? Who and what were they to her?!
She grew dizzy. She really wanted her memory to come back, but hoped not in this way. Her brain could no longer absorb what she was seeing.
"Letting you go is the last thing I would do."
"Whaaaa!" she screamed out loud.
She opened her eyes, at the same time the helmet-like thing that covered her face opened. The backrest leaned forward, and she sat up. She was waiting for the shackles on her hands and feet to loosen when she felt pain in her nape. She writhed in pain. It was so painful that it felt like pressing her skin with an iron heated over a blazing fire. She was sweating, and her heart was beating fast.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she could no longer feel the pressing hot iron. A miracle, the pain gradually disappeared. She also felt the grip on her hands and feet loosen. She rubbed her forehead as she sweated coldly. She closed her eyes and cried because of the memories that came back to her. Her emotions overflowed. She lifted her sleeve, touched it, and gazed at her right arm, but her tattoo was now gone. She rubbed her nape and felt something embossed on it. She tried to figure out what it was... letter H.
She already knew why it happened like this. She closed her eyes because of the truth she found, the things she discovered, the events she did not expect that happened. When her emotions recovered, she opened her eyes. She already knew who she was...
I am Heavien Cyre Luvitos.