In a corner store tucked between a laundromat and a closed-down cinema, Jude Ashen moved on muscle memory as he went to aisle three, taking two packs of cigarettes from the top shelf.
He had been determined to quit smoking and hadn't taken a whiff for days, but the stress of his part-time work had forced him to regress.
He then grabbed instant noodles and aspirin to deal with the headaches that had been bothering him recently.
He turned toward the fridges to get a can of soda, but as he opened one, the ground suddenly trembled. The bottles on the shelves quivered, and the light fixtures swung overhead. Then everything went dark.
Emergency lights blinked to life a second later, casting the store in harsh shadows, and someone asked.
"Was that an earthquake?"
"Maybe," another replied.
Jude stood frozen, the items he had bought clutched in his hand. His migraine was disappearing.
Something bad had just happened.
A customer walked to the door and tried to pry it open, but it didn't budge. He tried again, using more force this time, but still nothing.
"The doors! They're not opening!"
The man yelled, panic spreading through the store.
"Let me at it," one of the staff members said, moving to check it out, but it didn't work. They brought the keys and tried as well, yet the doors still wouldn't open.
Phones came out as people began calling for help. But there was no signal. Even the internet wasn't working.
A woman looking out the window asked, her voice shaking, "Why… why is it so dark outside?"
Jude looked outside as well and saw it too.
Although it was nighttime, outside was just too dark. No headlights, streetlights, or movement at all. Just black. Thick, absolute blackness, which left Jude and the others staring in confusion.
Then the sound of something landing echoed above them.
Jude turned, his eyes scanning upward, and then he saw it. What looked like a rabbit, about three feet tall, with white fur and a black cloak, perched on the middle shelf. It sat like a child, legs dangling, paws folded, eyes gleaming with intelligence and an eerie smile on its face.
Jude rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things. Then a woman gasped behind him, pointing at the rabbit, confirming he wasn't hallucinating.
"What the hell is that?!"
The creature tilted its head and raised a paw in a gesture of greeting.
"Hello there!" it chirped, its voice loud, bright, and musical. "I'm Gulgi, your conductor."
The creature's voice caught everyone's attention, and they stared at it in shock, confusion, and horror.
Gulgi then rose to his feet, his crimson eyes bulging, his teeth glinting like porcelain daggers. As he spoke again, his voice shifted from bright and chirpy to rough and monstrous.
"To cut a long story short, your world has ended. And now… you'll begin a simple trial in order to enter the tutorial where most, if not all, of you will die."
For a breathless heartbeat, no one said a word.
Then screams erupted.
The air inside the convenience store thickened with terror as people rushed toward the front doors, trying to force them open. Elbows flew, palms slammed against the glass, and shoulders collided with the metal frames. But the glass doors stood firm, like a tombstone forged from solid stone.
"Get it open!" someone shouted, pounding harder.
"I can't!" another voice shrieked.
Others turned to the windows, attempting to break them, but they were just as unyielding as the entrance doors.
Glass shouldn't be this tough.
Jude's brow furrowed in confusion as he watched people fail to even crack the windows.
Phones lit up, frantic fingers tapping at glowing screens, calls to 911, messages to spouses, parents, and lovers.
But none went through.
Then, without warning, every device died. Screens winked off simultaneously, like a graveyard of fireflies.
Several people began shouting for help, their voices aimed at no one in particular.
But amid the chaos, Gulgi the Conductor remained perfectly still. Then, with exaggerated boredom, he sighed and lazily raised a paw. His voice rose above the din with terrifying clarity.
"As I was saying…" Gulgi chirped in a honey-sweet tone, "I am Gulgi, Conductor of Trial Number 150…"
"Screw this!" a voice suddenly interrupted the talking rabbit. "I don't care what kind of trick this is. I'm done playing!"
The speaker was a teenage boy, maybe sixteen, clutching a metal baseball bat. His eyes were wild, fear teetering on the edge of rage. Sweat streaked down his temples.
"You think you can trap us in here? Scare us with your freak puppet show?" he shouted toward the ceiling. "Where's the real culprit, huh? Come out!"
He began swinging the bat wildly, knocking over snack stands and toppling a wire rack of bottled water. Then, snarling, he turned toward Gulgi.
"Fine! If you won't come out, I'll drag you out!"
He charged, closing the distance in reckless fury.
And that was when Gulgi's expression shifted. His grin vanished, replaced by cold contempt. With the casual grace of a man flicking lint from his coat, he raised one paw.
SPLAKKT!
One second, the teen was rushing forward; the next, his head was gone.
A red haze hung where it had been, suspended in the air like a grotesque halo. Bone shards pattered across the floor like hailstones, and the young man's headless body hit the ground, twitching once before going still.
Time froze.
Then chaos erupted again.
Screams, high-pitched and guttural, rang out as people tripped over themselves, trying to escape something they couldn't comprehend. Thick trails of the teenager's blood painted the snack aisle in streaks of viscera, and some of it had landed on Jude's cheek.
But he didn't blink.
He didn't react.
He simply touched the splatter on his cheek, feeling the warmth on his fingers, and muttered:
"This is real."
He definitely wasn't dreaming.
Gulgi scratched the back of his head as if exhausted and said, "Be calm, humans. Do not make me angry."
But they weren't listening.
A man bolted toward the back door of the store, his panting wild with fear.
And that made him the next victim.
POP!
His head exploded just like the first.
Then, among those still banging at the door, two more were killed. Then another. And another. And another. Geysers of red shooting upward, followed by wet thuds.
Seven corpses now littered the floor, all of them belonging to the loudest voices from before.
That was what finally forced a terrible hush to descend.
No one dared to move. They understood now that if they made any sudden move or loud noise, they would die.