"The game will now commence. The Time Limit is 20 minutes."

The timer started and Nami put her phone back in her pocket.

"The tagger is on the move."

So the tagger was 'it' they all had to avoid... Should be that difficult, thought Nami.

Maybe she could find a way to communicate with her friends, without anyone noticing.

Nami was torn out of her thoughts, when Fanfare Music started to play.

The music faded after a few seconds and it suddenly was quiet- too quiet.

It stayed quiet for the first few minutes.

The only thing that happened was that a few of the other players ran along the corridors while checking the doors.

"Three minute have passed."

That meant they had 17 minutes left and so far Nami hadn't seen or heard the tagger.

But then she heard the sound of gunshots.

"What the–"

Screams and more shots followed.

Then silence.

After a few seconds another round of screams, shooting and even the zapping of a laser.

Nami was worried because she hasn't seen or heard anything from Arisu and Karube since she left.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

There had to be something she could do.

Meanwile, the guy next to Nami whatched the whole situation quietly.

He barley moved and didn't even flinched at the loud noises around them.

How could he be so... chill?

Nami searched for another word but 'chill' was the only thing that could suit him– so far she was able to say.

"Everyone! He's up here!", someone suddenly screamed through the building. "Over here, he's on the second level! He can't see properly because of his mask!"

Nami chuckled, Not Surprised that Arisu would figure that out.

And that was also Nami's sign to start searching for the symbol herself.

"Tell us where he is if you see him, and let's all look for the symbol!"

"That's a good idea, but nobody wants to help," said the guy.

He was talking to noone in particular, but Nami heard him.

She stepped away from the railing: "That's what you think, but i say–"

The young woman ran towards the stairs.

"The game is on!"

The young man watched the young woman with the violett hair ran towards the stairs where she disappeared.

"He's in the fourth-level hallway in the central building! Anyone there should get out!", called a female voice.

"Really?"

The young man was seriously surprised that someone decided to help..

He watched a woman with a green jacket ran along the corridors.

She tried to warn a second, older woman, but it was to late.

The tagger appeared behind her and the woman with the green jacket jumped onto the railing and climbed up one floor on the rain gutter to get to safety.

"A climber? She's not bad."

The catcher made sure that the second woman was dead when the young woman with the violett hair appeared in the corridor.

The young man expected her to turn around and hide.

But she didn't.

She did the opposite.

She ran towards the tagger, using the wall to jump onto his shoulders.

The young man raised an eyebrow.

The tagger was surprised at first and struggled to stop the woman from taking the gun out of his hands.

They fought for a moment and the tagger managed to push the young woman off his shoulders.

"Oh," said young man when the young woman fell over the railing.

But again she surprised him– the second time in a few seconds.

The young woman was able to grab the railing with one hand, holding onto it like her life dependent on it (which it was).

"Oh, a fighter..."

~~

Nami gripped the railing with the second hand, but still waited a moment to pull herself back up.

She waited until the catcher's heavy steps were far enough away.

When she was sure she was safe enough, Nami pulled herself up and climbed over the railing back to the corridor.

She rested her hands on her knees and took a moment take a breath.

"A horse mask? Really?", she commented and slightly shook her head. "Totally not creepy."

The young woman straightened up. Her gaze fell on the chill guy, who also looked in her direction and waved her.

Nami scoffed and showed him the middle finger.

"The game is over in eight minutes."

The young woman turned around and started looking for her friends.

"There are currently eight survivors."

"Nami!"

"Arisu, Karube!"

The three ran towards each other, but had to take cover, when the tagger shot in their direction.

It took a moment when they realized that the fire was not for them, but the "Newbie".

He was on the same floor as them and wanted to check a door when the tagger aimed at him from a floor above.

The friends approached the other player.

"Hey! Yo!", Arisu spoke to the Newbie. "Over here! Hey!"

The other guy didn't seem to be hurt, but apparently didn't dare to move.

Arisu decided to crawl and get him.

"Leave Him! We gotta get out of here!"

For this comment, Karube got a blow on the back of the head.

The Newbie and Arisu crawled back towards Nami and Karube and four of them made sure to get away from the tagger.

They reached the stairs where Korube suddenly stopped and pulled out a knife out of his pocket.

"This guy's going down now."

"Are you crazy?"

"He's got a machine gun."

"So? The tagger's human," replied an unknown voice.

The tall guy, who Nami just ran into, suddenly appeared in front of the three.

"He's 190 centimeters tall and weighs 90 kilos, and he's right-handed. He's a pretty good shot, too. Probably military or law enforcement."

"Aguni," said the second, somewhat smaller grim guy.

He stopped at the group and gave Aguni a fire extinguisher, which he passed on directly to Karube.

"Use this. Let's get this guy," said Aguni and then turned to Nami and Arisu. "You two, go look for the symbol."

"What?"

"Hey! Why should we do what you say?", Karube wanted to know.

"We got it. We'll go up to the top," said Arisu.

"Wait Guys! I don't like this," Karube tried to stop his friends.

"There's no other choice," said Nami.

"I checked the south side of the fifth floor", the young woman with the green jacket drew attention to herself. "–And the south and east side of the sixth floor. Let's split up and find the symbol."

"I didn't check the first and second floors."

"I did. I checked the second floor," said Nami.

"All right. I'll go check the first," said the other young woman and climbed down on the rain gutter.

"It's time to take this guy out," commented Aguni and went down the stairs.

"Five minutes remaining in the game."

"See you guys later", murmured Karube and followed the other men.

"Come on. Let win this game," said Nami, ran up the stairs.

The two split up on the seventh floor and checked each door individually.

But the symbol was nowhere to be found.

"I don't like this," murmured Nami. "Who is it?"

"We checked everything else, right?", Arisu asked and Nami nodded.

"Yeah, so we must have overlooked something, but what?"

"I don't know, but–"

"Wait", Arisu interrupted Nami.

He looked past her and Nami followed his gaze.

It was the door in front of which Newbie was standing when the tagger started shooting him.

"Why would he shoot from so far away?", Arisu wanted to know.

"Because he had no choice," replied Nami.

The two looked at each other before they ran down the corridor.

They stopped when they reached the door and as it turned out, they weren't the only ones.

"Figured it out too, huh?", said the guy with he hood.

"Yeah, The symbol's in here."

Arisu reached for the door knob, but hesitated to open the door.

"Gonna open it?", asked the other guy after a moment.

"Why what he chasing us?", Arisu wanted to know. "He could've just waited."

"Guess there's something we don't know. Except–"

The guy showed Nami and Arisu the timer on his phone.

"– not much time left."

"Three minute remaining in the game."

Arisu carefully opened the door and entered the Mini apartment, followed by Nami and the other guy.

Nami use her phone to make some light and looked around the apartment.

It was completely empty, as if nobody was living here.

They crossed the room and stood in front of the closed door to the bedroom.

They also wanted to open this door when Nami's neckhair suddenly set up.

She had the feeling that someone was standing behind them and turned around–

"Look out!"

The young woman pushed the two men aside and barely avoided to get hit by a bullet herself.

The other guy quickly used his little cassette player as a taser and the second tagger fell to the ground.

"A taser, nice", commented Nami with a small smile.

"It never hurts to be prepared," replied the guy.

But the tagger was not passed out, as they hoped.

He grabbed his gun again and shot in their direction.

He was also not alone, as they hoped, because a third tagger came out of the bathroom and shot at the three young adults.

Nami and Arisu stumbled into the bedroom while the other guy ran out of the room.

Arisu closed and locked the door and the light in the room went on.

This room was also empty, only three buttons on three different walls and under each of these buttons there was a note.

PUSH ALL THREE BUTTONS AT ONCE TO CLEAR THE GAME

"Damn it!"

"Fuck!"

Nami and Arisu ran to the window.

"Someone get over here! The symbol's up here! Room 406! We can't clear the game alone! We need three people to do it!"

"But be careful!", added Nami. "There are two other taggers right here!"

The taggers continued to shot on the door, destroying the lock in the process.

The fire stopped, one kicked the door on and the two stepped into the room.

"One minute remaining in the game."

The catchers pointed their gun on them and Nami and Arisu sprinted towards them.

Nami and Arisu tried to take aways the taggers weapons without getting shot.

"30 seconds remaining in the game."

The young woman managed to beat the tagger's gun out of his hand and kicked it away from the two.

"20 seconds."

The tagger didn't like that and pushed Nami against the wall right next to the door and pressed his forearm on her throat.

"Get off me," she hissed.

The young woman tried to grasp for air while she failed to get some distance between her and the tagger.

Then someone grabbed their wrist.

At first she thought it was the tagger, but then the person put something her in hand.

She found the button and tasered the tagger, which staggered back and fell against the opposite wall.

"Ten seconds."

Nami hurried to Arisu and also used the taser on the third tagger.

This also stumbled to the ground when the young woman with the green jacket jumped through the window into the room.

"You called?"

"– five, four–"

"The buttons!"

"– three, two–"

Arisu, Nami and the other young woman sprinted to one of the buttons and pressed them.

"– one–"

For a moment nothing happened and Nami wondered if they were too late.

But then her phone chimed.

"Game cleared."

Nami smiled slightly, but then she looked to to the taggers.

Both masks slipped from their heads and Nami was shocked– they looked like normal people.

It what a man and a woman about the same age and she seemed… scared?

Nami was wondering why, but then their collars started to be beep.

"Oh, no."

The young woman stepped behind Arisu so she would not get blood on her clothes.

The man and the woman took each other's hand before their collars exploded.

Blood coloring the white walls and the lifeless bodies fell to the ground.

"They were forced to play like us," Nami murmured and sighed