Soulless Players

Philip stood frozen at the doorway, not believing what he was seeing. Never once did he expect this to happen. The birthday he had excitedly been waiting for turned into a tragedy.

A child of his age came out from the kitchen, smiling. Unlike the gloomy atmosphere, his smile was unusually bright and teasing.

The two looked at each other, one was like inspecting a merchandise, while the other stared past him, listless.

"You're behind the incident in the capital four years ago right?" The child named Steve broke the silence, asking like he was stating a fact.

Upon hearing this, Philip trembled in realization. He finally knew what went wrong.

Steve noticed this small action and smiled wider. "You're so amazing!" He clapped and exclaimed, "You've managed to destroy the intelligent unit of the government all by yourself!"

Philip remained silent as his thoughts were in disarray. Assuming it happened a long time ago, he thought no one would trace his involvement and whereabouts. The government should have stopped and conceded after not finding him for all these years.

He thought he would now be safe and okay. But alas, he forgot to take into consideration the other 99 players.

Philip could not help but feel down and inferior. He knew it. None of his enemies were normal.

After short years of happiness, Philip was forced to wake up from his slumber, from his addiction. With one of the players in front of him, he was sure that he would never return to his dream.

His eyes slowly became red as he glanced at his father's decapitated head. His existence has implicated the innocent couple.

Along with the blood coursing through the ground, he noticed the embedded ax in the wall.

Cruelly enough, his father died at his own means of livelihood. Philip looked back at the criminal with murderous eyes. He wanted to seek revenge and make the child suffer from the same fate. However, he stopped his thoughts and controlled his state of mind as he still had no idea about his mother's situation.

Steve watched his face change into different emotions. From being listless, then anger, to anticipation. He couldn't help but snicker in disbelief.

"You really care about these fakes?" he muttered.

Even though Steve said it under his breath, Philip was still able to hear it. His eyes squinted dangerously; the word 'fake' made Philip sensitive.

"After knowing the truth about our existence, you still have the time to care about others?" Steve asked calmly with a stiff smile and bloodshot eyes.

"So it's true that you've been hiding here after your grand escape in the capital? I thought my source was just mistaken," He sneered and continued, "Never have I ever expected my enemy to be a dreamer."

"What a coward."

Steve's eyes changed from excitement to indifference, it was as if he was looking at a waste person. He flipped his hands in signal, "Well, it works best for me."

Two muscular men came out from the kitchen, dragging a woman with them. The woman had her arms tightly tied and a piece of cloth was stuffed into her mouth, preventing her from screaming.

"Why don't we do business here?" Steve offered, "I'll let your adoptive mother live and go, but in exchange, you'll offer your life to me. How about that?"

Philip looked steadily at his eyes, pondering the credibility of his words.

Knowing the truth, he should have let go of his mother and escaped. Because unlike him, who has a chance to become a real person, the people in this world would only remain as an object of the simulated world.

It was a logical choice, but Philip was reluctant to sacrifice his mother's life.

He was a product of an unknown and an entity that should have not existed.

'A fictitious character should have remained unconscious and not dreamed of being alive.' He thought.

These four years of happiness were already enough. He was supposed to be dead in the original novel. Why resist when he could just follow his original trajectory? He was already lucky to be given a choice to die, so why fight?

When he had nothing and was lost on what to do, it was his current parents who saved him and gave him the will to live.

Philip had always felt unsecured. With no family and no home to return to, his life should have been destined to be lonely.

However, with their arrival, he learned to look forward to tomorrow.

Philip remembered the time when he escaped from the capital; when he walked for miles with no destination.

He was hungry, tired, and feeling detached. And when his four-year-old body could no longer handle the exhaustion, he slipped and fell right into the middle of the forest, unmoving.

At that moment, thinking that it was finally his end, he cried miserably for the first time.

For two lifetimes, his death has always been painful and lonely.

He refused to take the same end and started to struggle.

He shouted for help but after many tries, no one came.

But when he finally starting to lose hope, a couple arrived. Philip stared at them with begging eyes.

He couldn't remember everything that happened after but his mind managed to recall the memory of a woman's arm trying to carry him.

Life really works in a mysterious way. Both his biological and adoptive mother's impactful memories involved arms. One for leaving and the other for saving.

His current parents are his blessing and he would do anything to save his mother and exact revenge for his father.

Philip's eyes met his mother's gaze. He was silent for a moment before saying, "Thank you and I'm sorry."

Steve flicked his fingers, "So, what's your decision?"

Philip responded, "I'll go with you, let my mother…"

But before he could continue, his mother forcibly pushed herself up, making the muscular men lose their balance.

All of a sudden, his mother's strength became insanely strong. The rope ripped making her hands free.

But instead of escaping, she ran towards Steve intending to attack.

Steve was stunned for a second. He didn't expect her to get strong or attack him so suddenly. However, he quickly recovered and defended himself from the attack.

Still, the mother continued to do the unexpected. When she was close to Steve, she instantly turned sideways and took the bracelet that was placed on the nearby table.

Steve was frightened by her sudden action and unintentionally pushed her hard towards the wall.

Everything happened so quickly that even Philip and the two guys were not able to react on time.

The mother threw the cloth stuffed into her mouth and grabbed the ax that was embedded in the wall.

Upon seeing this, Steve panicked and ordered his men, "Stop her!"

But alas, it was too late. When the two men were about to take action, the mother lodged the ax towards her heart without hesitation.

"AHHHHHH!"

Along with Steve's angry cry, blood gushed from her and flowed to the floor.

The mother then glanced at Philip's disbelieved face, and murmured, "Run…"

Hearing this, Steve instantly recovered and yelled aloud, "Crazy! Crazy! Quick, catch him!"

When the mother saw Philip remained frozen, she put more pressure on her throat and shouted,

"RUUUNNNN!"

Philip was awakened by her shout and ran away subconsciously, leaving her mother's body falling to the floor.

"Go! Go! Follow Plan B right away! Be careful, he's no ordinary child!" Steve ordered.

"Yes sir!" The men dashed away leaving the angry Steve alone in the bloody house.

He walked to the mother's body and took the bracelet from her hand. As he looked at the said bracelet, his eyes glowed and turned golden.

"As expected." Steve said silently while caressing it, "This is not a normal bracelet."

After a short while, his eyes turned back to normal. He sighed and complained, "What a bad luck."

Steve then looked at the father's head on the table and cursed, "What a suicidal couple!"

His plan never involved killing Philip's parents as it was unnecessary. Philip's love for them was enough for his plan to succeed. But everything was foiled because of this unexpected situation.

When the father knew Steve's intention, he immediately took his ax and mercilessly chopped his head. Steve was shocked by his sudden action and later quickly investigated and found out about the bracelet rolled in his arm.

At a glance, the bracelet looked normal, but when Steve turned his eyes to gold, he discovered that it was unordinary.

Although Steve was not able to find its uses and powers, his instinct was yelling at him that this was the source of his failure and the reason behind the father's unhesitant suicide.

Good thing he managed to catch the mother and took away her bracelet before she did anything unusual.

With the mother in his hand, the plan should have proceeded the way he imagined it to be. However, the mother suddenly became strong and managed to take the bracelet he placed on the table.

Steve took a deep breath and said, "I hope Plan B will be successful."

Steve's eyes glowed again and gave the house one last glance.

After a few seconds, he left, bringing the two bracelets with him.