Soulless Players

As the forest was rapidly covered by a blanket of smoke, the villagers were all running in panic. The acrid smell of charred woods was filling the air, choking the lungs of any living in the perimeter. The villagers had no choice but to leave far away from the burning woods.

It was a dry season, and with mountains of dry leaves filling the ground, one small blaze could easily turn the forest into dust.

The fire started moving from every corner of the forest, seemingly attempting to meet at the center.

Together with the cries of wild animals, Philip stood frozen inside the forest, stunned by his enemy's cruelty.

His mind was working fast, looking for a way to escape this entrapment. However, as he kept on creating plans, he also kept on crossing them out as they were all imperfect.

"HAHAHAHA"

Philip laughed maniacally, his emotional state was slowly breaking apart. He was lost on what to do with this obstacle.

'Think! Think!'

While tears were coursing down his cheeks, Philip's wide smile still couldn't be extracted from his face.

Philip's state was extremely scary. It was like he had finally gone broken.

But Philip was forced to wake up as the smoke was starting to hurt his eyes and lungs.

He quickly stripped his undershirt and covered his nose and mouth with it, but Philip thought it was not enough as the shirt was too thin to filter the smoke.

Philip touched his pants and decided to use them, but when he was about to tear them off, a bottle rolled out from his pocket, creating a dropping sound.

He picked up the bottle, surprised. He almost forgot the gift his Auntie Marrissa gave to him.

Philip recalled his conversation with her and managed to remember that it was a bottle of medicine.

Because the gift was timely, Philip was actually suspicious of his aunt in his heart.

'What's her real identity? Was it because of her that he was found out?' Philip asked internally.

Philip opened the bottle and sniffed inside, trying to confirm its authenticity, whether it was medicine or just another trap designed by his enemy.

He thought for a moment then took a sip. Auntie Marissa has always been good to him. And Philip chose to gamble and trust this goodwill.

The taste made his tongue numb. Philip panicked, thinking it was poison, however, he quickly got over it and felt his body ache less.

The scratches from the sharp branches healed and faded, and his disheveled appearance slightly became better.

"This is miraculous!" Philip exclaimed.

He always knew that Auntie Marissa was not an ordinary person but he never expected her to be so great to create an instant cure for wounds.

After some time, Philip trembled, as if realizing something. He looked at the bottle with 4 sips remaining and then at the forest. His mind quickly calculated the probabilities of success.

A few seconds later, Philip let out a deep breath and ran toward the direction of the fire.

***

Outside the simulated world, a lot of people were watching their television at home in suspense. They were all filled with sweat as their eyes were focused on the screen nervously.

On the screen was a figure of a child covered with burns and blisters all around his body. While holding a medicine bottle in his arms tightly, his face turned red and ugly every time he moved along the dancing fire.

The audience was breathless as if they felt his pain, however, the child never stopped and complained. He just ran and ran, forcing himself to move alongside the heat surrounding him.

While he was running, a man with a black top hat appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"Betting is now officially closed!" The man declared and continued, "Now, I will announce the result of your bets!"

"94.21% of the bettors were not optimistic at number 88 escape!" His eyes bulged exaggeratedly and smiled,

"Well, I understand where your decision is coming from. Who would have thought that number 88 would forget about the system? Of all of the 100 players, he is the only one, well not including number 46, to have not ever been linked to the system yet!"

The man continued, "And we have 5.79% bettors who were supportive of him! Hmm… Maybe we can ask our last season's winner of the Soulless Game." The man winked at the person on his side and said, "What can you say about this, Ms. Elsa?"

The woman with long snow white hair and crystal pale skin cleared her throat and answered, "I think the bettors have slight confidence in number 88 for the fact that he was a product of a story with a bad ending.

She paused and continued, "And based on the history of the Soulless Game, those characters would usually win in the end."

"Hahaha," the man laughed at her

answer and teased, "Just like you Ms. Elsa?"

Elsa glanced at her side and nodded seriously, "It's a proven fact. It doesn't apply only to me."

She stopped and declared, "However, personally, I don't think 88 would win this game."

"Why so?"

"Because it's already too late. Other Bad Ending Characters would usually have steeled their mind from the moment they entered the simulated world. And with hard work and tenacity, they would have a comparative advantage against others.

"88 realized it too late. He had wasted eight years of preparation and information gathering.

"Please do remember this. The reason why bad ending characters would usually win the game is because of their greed - greed for a happy life. However, everything went wrong for 88. Instead of fighting, he chose to remain hidden and fulfill his greed in the fake world."

The viewers nod in affirmation. They have been watching the show for 8 years, and within these years, other players were doing their best to adapt, thinking about the game best in their minds.

Also, some of them had experienced a supernatural event that would increase their strength. However, for 88, his notable experience includes only the time when he escaped the hidden intelligence unit of the government.

So the 94% bettor's decision was well-grounded.

After some point, the man announced, "Okay, I think there's nothing more interesting with this, so let's take a short break for a while. Stay tuned and don't change the channel! This is Osuda, your host for tonight."

While the screen was playing some advertisements, Osuda stood up from his chair and walked towards the backroom for a quick refreshment.

Passing through the personnel staff responsible for watching the game 24/7, he saw a particular girl looking at the screen, sobbing.

Osuda's curiosity peaked at this sight. Yes, it was normal for viewers to cry over the game but the woman was different. She was a staff member.

'After watching this cruel game for years, there's still a staff member who would cry over this?' He questioned internally.

However, before he gave it some more thought, a scream echoed around, distracting him. He was forced to stop thinking and walked over to the source.

"What happened?"

"Sir! Breaking News!" he exclaimed excitedly. The staff then gave Osuda the screen showing the source of his excitement.

Upon seeing this, Osuda also became excited, "Go! Go! End the break, Let's go live!"

The staff members moved speedily, and Osuda took his seat, preparing himself.

While he was internalizing his introduction, he saw the woman earlier turned into pixels and strings of numbers.

His eyes widened in an instant. Osuda knew about this occurrence as it had happened some times in the past.

Osuda wanted to stop this transformation but he knew to himself that it was too late. While watching her dissolving in the thin air, he could only scream the word,

"AUTHOR!"

***

Philip ran towards the area where the waterfalls were located. This was the only way he thought he had the chance to overcome the problem regarding both fires and escaping outside the forest.

His plan was to use the water to somehow minimize the pain from his burns, and in addition, use the falling water to deliver his body down to the bottom.

The plan was in truth, impossible, as the waterfall was more than a kilometer high. If Philip used this as an escape route and let his body fall below, this would normally result in death.

However, Philip had the medicine to cure critical injuries. If used on time, his life would have a higher chance of being saved.

With this idea, Philip was starting to get his hopes high.

When he was close to his destination, Philip took a sip of the medicine.

His burns then instantly recovered and the pain was also slightly alleviated. Although the medicine had no effect on his stamina, he thought it was enough of a help. With his injuries getting healed, his weight was now lighter compared to before.

After some running, the crest of the waterfall was starting to reveal itself before his eyes.

Philip's hold on the medicine became tighter as he prepared to carry on his plan.

However, when he was a few steps away from the brink, an arrow shot, hitting his legs.

Philip fell to the ground, feeling the pain of an arrowhead sinking deeply through his skin.

He raised his head and saw the men in their protective coats surrounding him from a distance.

It was then that Philip realized that his plan was predicted by his enemy.

Philip pulled the arrow away from his legs and took another sip from the bottle.

After some time, the wound faded. He then glanced at the men and thought of another plan,

'With last two sips, can he escape from them?'