“Look at you! You’re already starting to improve!” Alice cheered, clapping her hands together.
A few gruelling days had blurred into a relentless cycle of lifting, striking, and sweating.
They had spent countless hours trapped inside the pristine white room, pushing Sam’s limits until his entire body throbbed with a deep, satisfying ache.
“I mean, you’re still pretty terrible,” Alice added with a teasing grin, “but you’re definitely getting better!”
She wasn’t just coddling him, either.
The heavy iron plates he had struggled to lift on day one had already increased by a few kilograms.
His stance was sturdier, and his knuckles didn’t throb nearly as badly when he struck the silicone dummy.
“Thanks for the help, Alice,” Sam said, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead and offering her a genuine smile.
“Anytime!” Alice responded, giving him a playful salute.
His gaze drifted, and he unintentionally found himself staring at her.
She had swapped her usual attire for a set of sleek gym clothing today, which accentuated the lean definition of her arms and the subtle contours of her abs.
“Man, I wish I had a body like yours,” Sam groaned, letting out a theatrical, exhausted sob.
“Give it some time! You’ll get there eventually!” she giggled, flexing her biceps playfully.
“Where did you even get those clothes anyway?” he asked, gesturing to the athletic gear.
“Oh, there’s a phone on the wall in my room. I used it to request some gym attire,” Alice explained.
“I tried requesting a bunch of other things too, but most of them got rejected, sadly. You probably have one in your room, too.”
Sam’s mind immediately began to race.
What were the limits?
Could he request armour?
A weapon?
But before he could debate the possibilities any further, a sharp, familiar echo cut through the air.
Snap!
The sound resonated violently throughout the training room, instantly freezing the blood in Sam’s veins.
In the blink of an eye, the pristine white room vanished.
Sam and Alice found themselves right back in the main lobby, standing before the glowing leaderboard with Nexis floating gracefully beside it.
“Greetings once again, contestants!” Nexis announced, his voice echoing with booming, theatrical energy.
“I do hope you’ve rested well over these past few days, because the third round of this competition is about to commence!”
A cold knot tightened in Sam’s stomach.
He swallowed hard, his eyes nervously scanning the remaining handful of survivors as he wondered what kind of twisted nightmare they were about to be thrown into.
“This next game is called… The Murder Mansion!” Nexis chirped, spreading his arms wide.
“You will all be transported into a sprawling estate filled with lethal, hidden traps. Your primary goal is to locate the hidden exit. Now, I highly recommend you work together for this game—in fact, I will be awarding lucrative bonus points to those who collaborate well with others!”
Nexis paused, his digital grin widening into something deeply sinister.
“But be warned… one among you will be secretly designated as the Killer. The Killer will be awarded massive bonus points for every single murder they commit. Of course, you are permitted to try and deduce the Killer’s identity through a democratic vote to have them kicked out of the game. However, choose wisely—if you guess incorrectly, everyone will suffer a catastrophic penalty.” Read this novel at NovelPing for the best experience.
Sam’s mind raced.
He desperately wondered if the penalty Nexis spoke of was just a deduction of points or something far more physically concerning.
“Now… let the games begin!”
Snap!
The solid floor instantly vanished beneath their feet.
A collective gasp cut short as all eighteen contestants plummeted directly into a pitch-black abyss.
Screams echoed all around as they fell through the dark.
Sam tightly closed his eyes, bracing for a fatal impact, until the sensation of wind rushing past him abruptly stopped.
He opened his eyes and gasped.
The fall was over.
He found himself standing inside what looked like a sprawling, long-abandoned Victorian mansion.
Thick cobwebs draped over the ceilings like rotting lace, dusty staircases led up to shadows with broken railings, and sections of the wooden floorboards were completely missing, revealing a hollow darkness below.
“Well, at least we’re not in the wilderness this time…” Sam muttered to himself, his voice sounding small against the heavy silence of the dusty room.
He looked around, his eyes frantically searching for a familiar flash of a red suit jacket.
His heart sank.
Alice wasn’t here.
Instead, he had been grouped with two entirely different contestants.
To his left stood a lanky figure that resembled a gangly goblin, though its facial features were disturbingly human.
To his right was a small girl who looked completely human—aside from her short, vibrant blue hair and a pair of solid, milk-white eyes that lacked any pupils.
A sudden hum cut through the silence.
A small, glowing holographic screen materialised directly in front of Sam’s eyes, styled exactly like the lobby leaderboard.
It displayed a single, glowing word:
[ INNOCENT ]
His eyes darted back to the two alien contestants.
What were their screens currently telling them?
Part of him screamed to run—to get as far away from these strangers as possible before a blade ended up in his back.
But Nexis’s promise of collaboration bonuses echoed in his mind.
If he wanted to win this contest, he needed extra points.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward cautiously.
“Hey guys,” Sam said, raising his hands slightly to show they were empty.
The goblin creature tensed, lowering its lanky frame into a defensive crouch, while the blue-haired girl froze, her milk-white eyes locking onto him with unsettling intensity.
They were completely, understandably on guard.
Sam stopped dead in his tracks.
“I know this sounds stupid… but my screen says Innocent.”
“And we’re supposed to just believe that?” the goblin barked, his deep, gravelly voice echoing off the decaying walls.
It was an entirely fair response.
Sam couldn’t even blame him.
“Look, there’s only one Killer among the eighteen of us,” Sam reasoned, holding his ground.
“If the three of us stick together until we find the others, we’ll be safe.”
“Sorry, but I don’t know you, and I definitely don’t trust you,” the goblin snapped, narrowing his disturbingly human eyes.
Sam’s throat went dry.
He didn’t know what to do.
His logical arguments weren’t getting through the wall of panic.
“I think he’s telling the truth,” a soft, melodic voice interrupted.
Both Sam and the goblin turned.
The blue-haired girl took a step forward, her milk-white gaze fixed entirely on Sam.
“I think he’s trustworthy.”
“And how could you possibly know that?” the goblin demanded, turning his aggression toward her.
“His eyes,” she whispered, her unblinking gaze drilling straight into Sam’s soul.
“They don’t look like the eyes of someone who means harm.”
“This is ridiculous,” the goblin spat, shaking his head.
“I’m out of here.”
Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and strode away, his heavy footsteps echoing down the dark, dilapidated corridor.
“Wait, hold on a second!” Sam called out, reaching a hand forward.
“Don’t go alone!”
But it was no use.
The goblin’s mind was entirely made up.
Within moments, his lanky silhouette vanished into the shadows of the mansion, leaving nothing but the faint sound of creaking floorboards behind.
Silence fell over the room once more.
Now, only Sam and the strange, white-eyed girl remained.