🕹 L E V E L S 🕹 First Chapter

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Introduction

First Chapter

Second Chapter

Third Chapter

Fourth Chapter coming soon!

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ғ ι r ѕ т   c н a p т e r

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Initiating startup sequence. Rebooting recording equipment. Loading software. Loading disc memory data. Complete.

Connecting Hub to Game Central. Complete.

ing Game Maker identity. ing. Complete.

Connecting Game Central to Levels. Connecting. Connecting. Connection failure. Manual override initiated. Connecting. Complete.

Launching Puzzle Programs. Complete. Launching Trap Programs. Complete.

Preparing Player registration. Awaiting Player...

Awaiting Player...

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The Game Central

There’s an aching pain in Minghao’s back and neck when he wakes up, and he realises with a start that he is sitting up. He raises his hanging head too fast and loses his vision, for a moment sitting in complete darkness as the world around him comes back to him one sense at the time. A slight buzzing is the only thing he can hear besides his own startled breathing and the very air tastes foul and mouldy in his mouth. His stomach screams for substance, strangely empty although Minghao re clearly that he ate only a couple of hours ago. At the same time he feels like he wants to hurl, as if there is something in his system that his body wants gone. Whatever that thing is, it’s messing with his brain. It’s spinning and feels clogged up, every thought taking way longer than it should to form, and his eyes won’t work no matter how much he blinks. He realises slowly that he can see, but the space he’s in is completely black.

Without warning, a wall materialises in front of him—a lighter, almost glowing black colour, like a huge, sleeping TV screen that covers most of Minghao’s field of vision. Then, just as fast, it lights up white, blinding Minghao entirely. It’s when this happens and he tries to block the brightness with his arms that he notices that he’s tied up, ankles and wrists, to the chair he’s sitting on.

As he tries to shut the bright screens out, a female voice, soft and smooth like silk, starts speaking in Korean all around him. ”Preparing Player registration. Awaiting Player.”

“What..?” Minghao slurs, still trying to see the screen. His brain refuses to work with him, impressions mixing together into a weird mess and something like a tornado of emotions threatening to strike him at any moment. He feels like he should be afraid, but he hasn’t quite tipped over the edge yet.

“Awaiting Player,” the mechanical voice repeats.

Minghao attempts again to fight his shackles, but he’s tightly chained to the chair. It’s metal and cold—in fact, the entire room is cold and damp—and it seems bolted to the floor because no matter how much he tries to move it, it won’t budge. The harder he fights, the closer he feels to panicking.

Something flickers on the screen in front of him and it goes back to the glowing blackness from before. The new change blinds Minghao again, but it’s not quite as dark this time. His eyes quickly adjust and he finds himself staring at a line of white text in the centre of the enormous screen.

시작하려면 아무데나 누르세요.

Press anywhere to begin.

Minghao has never been this confused in his life. In the now dimly lit space he can make out the shape of corners around him, imagining more than seeing the size of the room he’s in. It’s walls are smooth and white or grey in colour, with no openings anywhere that he can see.

The panic finally hits him, all at once and hard.

“Help! Help me! Someone! Anyone! Help!”

He screams until his throat is raw, fighting with his entire body against the restraints. The chains move and rattle but won’t come loose and they dig into his skin when he tries to pull out of them. The chair is almost melded to the floor. His desperate cries don’t even echo against the walls of the room, only disappearing into the emptiness without any proof that they are loud enough for anyone to hear. Minghao doesn’t care. His mind is waking up from the adrenalin and it’s flooded with images of nightmares and hallucinations from so long ago that Minghao has all but forgotten how terrifying they really are. Chan being pulled towards the slicer blades, the countdowns with no end, Jeonghan’s heart-broken tears, Junhui’s heart stopping, the confusion and fear, Jisoo and Wonwoo dying in the heat of the boiler room and Seungcheol taking a bullet to the heart.

“It’s just a dream,” Minghao begins chanting. “It’s a dream and I’m going to wake up. It’s just a dream. Wake up. Wake up!”

He doesn’t wake up, because he’s already fully awake. The chair and the chains and the TV screen are all perfectly real. Unlike the time he was kidnapped, drugged and put in a stone casket, this isn’t some nightmare.

And he can’t for his life how he got where he is now.

The screen flickers and the message on it changes.

화면에 도달 할 수 없다면 대신 음성 명령을 사용하세요.

If you can’t access the screen, use voice commands instead.

Minghao reads the message over and over. “Voice commands?”

“Available voice commands; start, read, quit program,” the mechanical female voice says in the speakers. The sound makes Minghao jump and his already racing heartbeat increases.

“Uhm... quit... program?”

“Command unavailable,” the sugary voice states. “Available commands; start, read, quit program.”

Minghao refuses to accept it. “Quit program,” he says a lot firmer.

“Command unavailable. Available commands—“

“Alright, fine, then start!” Minghao calls out at the annoying voice, which stops abruptly as the command is confirmed and the screen once again changes.

This time it faded into complete blackness, then into an animated flow of reddish colours with a fancy title in white in the middle. The stylised Korean takes a moment for Minghao to read.

SURVIDOL에 환영합니다.

Welcome to SURVIDOL.

The text underneath it is clear as day, and it gives Minghao goosebumps.

이름을 입력/말하세요.

Please enter/state your name.

With no other choice but to try and drown his panic in action, Minghao decides to follow the instructions until he is given reason not to. “Minghao,” he says.

“Invalid,” the female voice states.

“The8,” Minghao tries then, but that doesn’t work either. He thinks for a moment and re—he has a Korean name. “Myeongho.”

The name is accepted and the computer writes it in place by itself. The welcome screen moves upwards and makes place for a new message and what appears to be the start-up menu of a video game.

플레이어 프로필이 완료되었어요. 옵션을 선택하세요.

:heavy_multiplication_x: 새로운 게임 시작 :heavy_multiplication_x:

지난 게임 로드 (0)

Player profile created. Please select an option.

:heavy_multiplication_x: Start new game :heavy_multiplication_x:

Load last game (0)

Minghao can’t believe what he is looking at. It tears at the memories of the nightmare and how realistic it had felt even weeks after he got out of the hospital. Is he being subjected to the same terrors again? How is this even possible? How has he ended up here and why do whoever’s behind it all want him to do this?

With the heaviest weight on his heart, Minghao says, “Start new game.”

The mechanical voice is quick to buzz in, or so Minghao expects anyway. A grandiose jingle starts playing and a bunch of animated text scrolls by on the screens, read aloud by a voice that’s so familiar to Minghao that his heart all but stops when he hears it.

The voice belongs to Mingyu.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to SURVIDOL, South Korea’s most innovative and exciting idol game show yet. Today’s game is going to be something very special, so strap in and prepare yourselves for the entertainment of a lifetime.”

Mingyu sounds strained and choked up even as he tries to talk like some variety show MC. Minghao calls out his name but the sound is one way only—Mingyu can’t hear him. Minghao’s panic returns, more powerful than before, but Mingyu continues unending.

He forces the words out from wherever he is, audible sobs escaping in between. “The objective of today’s game is to collect as many Soul Pieces as possible before the end of the game. There is one on each Level, twelve in total, and only by getting them all can today’s Player reunite his group and win the game. Are you excited, people? Then let’s introduce our idol group! Give it up for Seventeen!”

One by one, card-like profile images turn up on Minghao’s screen, each one complete with a picture of one of his friends and a short bio underneath it. The pictures are from their latest comeback and their title track plays in the background, just like it would on a regular variety show. But unlike any normal show, twelve of the thirteen profile cards have a section called Lives on them with three hearts and a golden symbol titled Soul Piece. The last card is Minghao’s own and has only one heart on it. Instead of Soul Piece his game title is Player.

“Are we ready?” Mingyu’s voice calls out to the void in faked excitement. “Then let the first official SURVIDOL Games begin!”

In quick succession, Mingyu’s voice vanishes abruptly, the huge screen fades into glowing blackness and the chains around Minghao’s arms and legs suddenly loosen enough for him to easily slip out of them. He stands up so fast his head starts to spin and stares dumbfoundedly at the screen, then turns to look at the room he’s in.

It’s small but not tiny, entirely square apart from a small nook in one of the corners and empty of all but the huge TV screen and the metal chair. On the wall behind him there’s a white door with a spotless metal handle and on the wall to its right there’s another one exactly like it. Everything is pristinely clean. Minghao tries both doors, pulls at them until it feels like his shoulders will pop out, throws his entire weight at them multiple times, but they won’t budge even a little. When he gives up and turns back to the screen, he realises that something new has appeared on it.

Two sets of video squares, both sets seemingly showing a live feed with six cameras in each their own location. The set on the right shows dark and dirty corridors filled with rusty metal bars, the inside of tiny, empty rooms and a small, overgrown courtyard surrounded by barbed wire fencing. Above the video feeds is the title THE PRISON in ominous red letters. The set on the left shows a very different setting—a round, golden safety door, the inside of what could only be a bank vault filled with value boxes and an empty, dark entrance hall with a waiting area and reception booths. This set is titled THE BANK.

A new line of text appears in the middle of the screen, read aloud by the same sugary, female voice as before.

목표: 레벨 1 선택

Objective: Select Level One

Before Minghao can do anything, all video squares on the BANK side change to show a single live feed of a person sitting in the corner of the bank vault, curled up on themselves with head hidden in their hands. Immediately after, the PRISON feeds all change to one image as well—a closeup of a young man banging bloodied fists against the bars of a cell, screaming at the top of his lungs although the sounds can’t be heard into Minghao’s room.

Minghao would have to be blind to not recognise his friends on the high definition live feeds. The guy sitting in the bank vault can only be Seungkwan and the young man in the prison cell is without a doubt Hansol. Minghao’s heart contracts and he finds himself consumed by the nightmares again. A single tear falls down his cheek as he takes in the sight of his captive friends.

“It seems that our Player is a little confused by the first challenge,” Mingyu’s quivering voice returns through the speakers. “Let’s hope he makes a good call, since every wrong decision will have... interesting... consequences.”

Somehow, hearing Mingyu’s voice again takes the peak off Minghao’s mindless panic. He walks back to the screens, filled with raw determination. His friends could be in real danger, and if what it takes to save them is to play this wicked game, then Minghao will do it to the best of his abilities. He will get Mingyu away from whoever is forcing him to say all of these things, he will set Seungkwan and Hansol free as soon as possible and he will rescue the rest of his friends no matter where they are or what dangers they may be in.

To do that, he needs to figure out which of the two live feeds in front of him is Level One. He scans each video meticulously, looking for anything that may give a clue or an answer. But there isn’t much at all to go by. Seungkwan’s bank vault is pretty empty and the labels on the value boxes are far too tiny to see. The only thing Minghao can see at all is Seungkwan himself, wearing white pants and a shirt with the number 13 written all over it in varying fonts. Minghao doesn’t recognise the shirt. The Prison feed is a little easier because it’s so dark. The only part of the cell door that Minghao can make out any detail of is the sign on top of it that reads CELL #111.

Those are the only clues he’s gonna get, Minghao realises sadly. He thinks about it in every way that he can. His heart is beating out of his chest.

He refuses to be bested by the very first challenge.

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Should Minghao play the Bank Level with Seungkwan?

🕹 or 🕹

Should he play the Prison Level with Hansol?

•———{ voтιng нaѕ ғιnιѕнed! }———•

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read cнapтer тwo нere!

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