Hyunwoo lost consciousness as he collapsed.

  A blinding flash of blue light surrounded their bodies, quickly enveloping them whole.

  "What the fuck is this?!" Shouted Jake. His hands frantically dusted the light off of him to no avail as a blue game-like screen appeared in front of them.

  Its light illuminated the dark vent tunnel they were in.

  .

  +

  [Congratulations, you've passed the audition.

  You'll now be transferred into the first scenario]

  +

  .

  Their eyes glued on the strange screen and breathing halted for a second.

  "What is this…?" Said Han Suho as he extended his hand toward the screen.

  He tried to touch it, but his hand passed through it like a mirage before fixing itself again. The words written on the screen changed and its light grew brighter.

  .

  +

  [Commencing teleportation…]

  +

  .

  The world turned white for a second as if someone had thrown a flashbang at them. The light engulfed them and the three soon disappeared.

  ???

  They opened their eyes once again in a dark room surrounded by shadows taking the shape of human figures.

  The light that accompanied them illuminated the room. Tables surrounded the two doors on opposite sides of the room and only one table was put in the middle with candles burning on top.

  The human-shaped shadows became clearer, they were just normal students.

  Some crawled up into a ball in some corner letting out sad sobbing sounds, some were hitting their phones that didn't turn on as tears ran down their eyes, and some were surrounding the candle-lit table while audibly discussing something.

  The room fell into silence at the appearance of the three who cast momentary light upon them.

  "Hyunwoo-ssi!"

  "Hyunwoo!"

  The two went for their friend lying on the ground next to them, disregarding the others staring at them.

  "Hey, are you ok?! Are you bleeding?!" Jake shook Hyunwoo who didn't respond.

  He lifted Hyunwoo's shirt, but there were no wounds

  "What the fuck?" His voice cracked and his eyes shrank.

  "There are no wounds…?"

  Hyunwoo's clothes, covered in bloody holes and tears from sharp claws, were lifted to reveal an unscratched Hyunwoo.

  But then a voice came from behind.

  "I-It's them! They were with the m-monster!" Someone shouted at the three.

  He was one of the students that surrounded the table. He held up his shaking arm and pointed at them.

  "W-We saw them at the entrance! T-There's no way they could still be alive when one of us got e-eaten easily!"

  The student next to him followed up.

  "Y-Yeah! They must be the 'ally'!"

  The others who were shaking in fear in the corner of the room woke up from their daze at the sound of the word 'ally'.

  "They are… the ally?"

  "K-Kill them!"

  "Kill the ally!"

  The students shouted murder at them.

  "What the fuck are these morons on about?"

  The two hid the knocked-out Hyunwoo behind them as they faced the students' outrage.

  "Taewoon-ssi.”

  A voice as smooth butter came from behind the student.

  “Please stop.”

  A girl that was at the center of the students' discussion stood out from all the others.

  ‘That should be their leader.’ Thought Han Suho.

  She was tall and even though she wasn’t muscular, she had well-defined muscles. Her hair was black like the night sky and eyes shone brown as they reflected the candle’s light. She was wearing the school’s uniform with a bandage stained with blood wrapped around her left arm.

  "What do you mean by 'ally'?" He said with his eyes locked onto hers.

  "How dare a disgusting ‘ally’ talk disrespectfully to our angel Harin-ssi?!"

  "What are we waiting for?! Let's kill them now!"

  Harin lifted her hand and slammed down on the table. The sound echoed throughout the room and silence fell upon them before she spoke.

  "Everybody stop! No one is killing one!" Harin narrowed eyes stared directly into Taewoon’s soul.

  Everyone’s eyes were now on them. Harin went up to the three and introduced herself.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Hello, I apologize about them, they are just tense because of what has been happening lately. I’m Lee Harin, student council vice-president and in my 2nd year.” She held up her hand at the two with a bright smile drawn across her face.

  ‘Calluses… those should be caused by fieldwork.’ Her palm was rough and filled with calluses.

  “Han Suho. Third year.”

  “Jake.”

  “Han Suho-ssi and… Jake-ssi?”

  “My family name shouldn’t matter. Besides, I don’t think we can act as if nothing happened after being threatened the moment we came here, can we?”

  Her eyebrow twitched and her smile bent at his words.

  “Yes… As I said, I apologize on their behalf. Everyone’s mental capacity has been exhausted after our encounter with… the monster.”

  Harin spoke with a low voice at the word ‘monster’ but even then, due to the silence, everyone heard her and the atmosphere turned eerie inside the room.

  Their eyes shook and some even fell, unable to stand anymore as they bore blank faces, a longer look at their figures revealed numerous bandages around their bodies filled with blood.

  “What do you mean by the word ‘ally’? Ally of who?”

  “The m-monster’s ally! D-Don’t play stupid with us you bastard and just die!”

  “Taewoon!”

  “What does he mean by that? Since when were allies with that abomination? Speaking of monsters, weren’t you one of the two who used us as a sacrifice for the monster while you ran away?”

  “T-That's…!”

  At Jake's remark, Taewoon couldn’t open his mouth anymore. Harin glared at him, making him shrink in place before she bowed to Jake and Han Suho.

  “We’re currently trapped in the dome but we’ll contact the authorities and have this matter dealt with once we get rescued. But for now, I hope we can cooperate to get out of this place alive.”

  “The authorities won’t be able to help.” Said Han Suho.

  Everyone's eyes and ears perked up at what he said.

  “The police won’t come…?”

  “Is no one coming to help us?!”

  “I want to go home… mom…”

  The room railed up in cries and screams of anger, voices of betrayal screamed.

  “Suho-ssi, if you mind me using your first name, what do you mean by that?” Harim asked. Her pupils shrank and her voice cracked.

  “When we were outside, there were numerous domes like the one we’re trapped in. I suspect this is happening nationwide.” He said, his expression frozen in seriousness.

  Jake’s voice was heard next in the railed-up room. The other students, presumed to be part of the student council, that were surrounding the table were now trying to calm down the heated-up situation.

  “You should apologize to him first.” Jake pointed at Hyunwoo lying on the ground behind him.

  “He’s the one who suffered the most.” Hyunwoo breathed with difficulty as if all his energy was consumed.

  “Ah, we’ll take him to the infirmary and take care of him.”

  Harin called out for two of the student council members and signaled for them to take him to the infirmary, but before they could do so, Han Suho stopped them.

  “No, we’ll put him in one of the classrooms instead. We’ll take the supplies we need from you and take care of him ourselves.”

  “Ah? well… alright.” Harin hesitated for a moment before agreeing and sending them to bring medical supplies from the infirmary instead.

  “We can give you anything but bandages. We’re in a shortage of those currently…”

  “That’s fine.”

  It was then Jake took the opportunity of Harin having left them for a second to whisper into his ear in a low voice.

  “Hey! What’s the meaning of this? Why aren’t you letting them take him to the infirmary?”

  “We can’t hand Hyunwoo over. Most of them see us as enemies, we can’t give them our weakness.”

  “Still, we can’t keep him on the hard floor?”

  Before Jake and Han Suho could continue the conversation, Harin came back and Jake backed off of Han Suho.

  “I sent some of our members to bring in some medicine for your friend. Now, should we get into the main subject?” her expression turned serious, and the room quieted down.

  “About damn time. What’s this ‘ally’ nonsense?” Replied Jake

  “It’d be easier if you just check it for yourself. Try thinking of a ‘quest menu’ like the ones in games.”

  “Quest menu??” Jake spoke, intending on questioning her on what type of nonsense she was on about, but at the moment the word ‘menu’ left his mouth, a blue game-like screen popped out of thin air.

  The screen glowed in a blue light and strange words emerged on it.

  .

  +

  [Scenario in progress.]

  +

  [Main Story Scenario #1 ? Proof of worth.

  A random person has been designated as an ally of ‘Rebertha’, The Deformed. Avoid being targeted and survive the winter.

  Objective: Survive.

  Difficulty: C

  Reward: 100 coins per day.

  Failure Penalty: Existence erasure.]

  +

  .

  "The fuck is this?!"

  "It's what holds us here. It has been a day since it started?"

  "A day?! How? The school curriculum should've started only 20 minutes ago for this week."

  "You guys are the last ones to arrive, so you probably don't know."

  Everyone stared.

  "For every minute that went outside, an hour passes by in here."

  Harin's lips moved within those stares, 'Everyone needs to know what's going on,' she thought.

  "The students you met on your way here are a member of the student council who volunteered to go retrieve the confiscated items from the teacher's lounge."

  "Harin-ssi, isn't that too much info to give…"

  Complaints came but she continued to speak nonetheless.

  "The monster showed up 20 hours ago and a good portion of the school suffered an unfortunate end."

  The sound of empty stomachs echoed throughout the room.

  "Everyone had only eaten breakfast or nothing at all, we had to get food somehow."

  The school didn't have particularly wealthy students for a private school. Instead, it was a particularly cheap private school for those in need.

  "There's no outside access, phones or any other communication devices don't work, and there's no food in the cafeteria since it's supposed to be restocked while we're in class today…"

  For better or worse, not many of those students were left alive.

  '27 Students, including those who left for the medicine…' Han Suho and Jake had been counting the students

  "We had to get food at some point?"

  It was then an arm emerged from the ground. Veins were all over the deformed arm and black blood ran through.

  "Ackhh?"

  The unfortunate student caught was crushed like a stuffed toy, breath barely getting out, let alone words.

  "I-It came back!"

  Screams erupted and chaos ensued, and within those cries, Harin spoke while the other student council members tried to calm them down.

  .

  +

  [You have witnessed an important piece of the puzzle.]

  +

  [Explanation will be sent.]

  +

  .

  "There are some places the monster can't come into, like this cafeteria. But that's where the 'ally' comes in." She said as her eyes looked over the other students.

  "Every once in a while, an arm like that erupts from the ground and catches someone…"

  .

  +

  ['Ally of The Deformed'

  A random person will be designated as the human ally of 'Rebretha', The Deformed.

  The ally can execute a survivor every 4 hours. The ally will be terminated and another will be selected at random if they fail to execute a survivor within 24 hours. The ally cannot be harmed by The Deformed.]

  +

  [The dome will open when there is 1 survivor left.

  Current survivor count: 28.]