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Taeyong takes notes of many aspects of the city, and the 127 group decides to get through the night on their own. 

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This diary belongs to Lee Taeyong!

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Before I write anything about how I feel, I'll just write down all of the rules and stuff from the orientation before I forget anything:

City rules/ info (general): 

- the first area of the city, where everyone is first welcomed to, is called THE FIRST

- no currency system, each person is given 10 "tickets" per day

- Tickets: can be used to purchase food, drinks, vehicles (electric cars, golf carts, bicycles), new clothes, and new, better weapons

- Amenities in each house:

- Two- story home

- Spacious kitchen

- 5 bedrooms

- Washer and dryer room on first floor

- Spacious living room with couch and tv on first floor

- 2 bathrooms

- City includes:

- University (campus does not include dormitories)

- Super Mall (includes shops, food court, grocery store, Arsenals shop*, automobile shop)

- Convention center (for welcoming orientations)

- Clinic

- (All purchases in shops will be made through self- service systems and AI)

- *they do not sell or manufacture any explosive weapons such as bombs, grenades, etc. because they would cause too much damage to be able to rebuild in one day

- Each citizen is given a free package of weapons once per year, includes: rifle, hand gun, some billets, and a knife (backpack to hold weapons is also provided)

- Protective dome is like an invisible barrier, meaning nothing can go into or out of the city through the dome

- Two gates: THE FIRST entrance and THE NEXT entrance

They were giving out copies of a map of the city, so I cut it out and pasted it here (I circled the 127 house):

City rules/ info (Survival Phase):

- At 11:00 pm every night, Survival Phase begins

- 11:00 pm- 4:00 am

- Residential homes will be filled with poison gas for the entire duration of the phase- staying in your home is NOT an option!

- Clinic will be CLOSED during Survival Phase

- Guards will be stationed at both gates, if you attempt to escape, they WILL shoot to kill (during the day, the gates are still locked and alarms will sound if you attempt to escape)

- Citizens are permitted to use any means necessary to kill other citizens

- If no deaths occur that night, 5 random citizens will be chosen to be executed

- After 4:00 am, Survival Phase ENDS

- 11:00 pm- 11:10 pm: time to prepare and warm up, no killing permitted during this time (after sirens turn OFF, killing can start)

- If you manage to kill 20 people in a span of 3 days, you will be relocated to THE NEXT

- After Survival Phase, all survivors are required to go back to their assigned houses

- All dead and dying bodies will be cleaned up and used for fertilizer

THE NEXT

- to be relocated there, you must:

- Have managed to kill 20 people in a span of 3 days in THE FIRST during Survival Phases

- Report to the convention center the following day after your 20th kill, they will confirm your "achievement" with video footage (cameras monitor the entire city)

- Jobs: once you are an official citizen of THE NEXT, you will be given a job

- Jobs in THE FIRST:

- Guard: guard the gates during THE FIRST's Survival Phases

- Doctor/ nurse: work in the Clinic during no-killing hours

- Construction worker: repair destroyed structures and facilities the following morning of Survival Phases

- Jobs in THE NEXT: (confidential information)

So basically the reason why it's called the FIRST NEXT city is because there's actually two cities- the FIRST and the NEXT. If you make it to the NEXT, you won't have to go through any more Survival phases, and you can actually live a normal life and have a job.

Honestly I should've seen this coming, damn it. I knew I shouldn't have come here. Living in the outside world is better because no one's REQUIRED to kill anyone.

And we're supposed to live "normally" during the day and the afternoon, but during the night you're fighting for your life. How am I supposed to go to school and act like everything is fine when I don't know whether or not I'll even be alive the next day?

Mr. "Savior" said this whole thing is just a test to see who's really worthy of continuing their life on Earth, since the "worthy" people are apparently capable of fixing the damn planet.

I think this is all stupid and-

---

"Taeyong hyung!" Mark barged into Taeyong's room, causing the latter to drop his pen and slam his journal closed.

It was a few hours after the Welcome Orientation, and the 127 boys had agreed to skip school for the day so they could plan for the night, but everyone just ended up locking themselves in their own rooms, lost in their own thoughts. Taeyong had been alone in his room though, since Taeil was downstairs reading a book on the couch. But as Mark went upstairs, he noticed that Taeil was holding the book upside down, and he had been staring at the same page in the book for the past thirty minutes.

"Hey, hyung..." Mark let out a short, nervous laugh. "Literally no one is telling me what the hell is going on. What's all this 'killing' about? Whenever I asked one of the boys, they looked so shocked as if they were hit by a truck or something. Even Donghyuck won't talk to me. Anyways, what're you writing over there?"

Taeyong glanced over at his notebook and flipped to the entry he was just writing, and he handed it to Mark.

"Here." Taeyong mumbled. "I wrote everything down."

Mark snatched the book out of his friend's hands and began to read. Taeyong watched him for what seemed like an eternity, as Mark's eyes darted back and forth across the pages. As he read more of the entry, his frown became deeper and deeper.

Finally, he finished reading and gave the journal back to Taeyong, who noticed that Mark's hands were shaking.

"Shit, bro." Mark whispered, as if he was scared to raise his voice any higher. "Oh man, what're we gonna do..."

Taeyong sighed and picked up his pen, poised to continue his entry-

"Hey, there's someone at the door." Taeil shouted from downstairs. Everyone else in the house crept downstairs, watching silently as Taeil opened the front door.

It was the same man from yesterday, the one who had led the boys to the 127 house. He was dragging a large, covered cart behind him and carried a silver gun in his other hand. At the sight of the weapon, the boys lurched back in fear.

"Don't worry, boys, I'm not here to hurt anyone." The man said with no emotion on his face at all. "I'm just here to give you your weapons, and I need to give you all trackers."

Nobody moved. Taeil stared blankly at the man before coming back to his senses. With an overwhelming amount of hesitation, he slowly opened the door wider for the man.

Meanwhile, the man was waiting patiently, and when the door was finally fully opened, he pushed the cart inside the house. The boys watched the cart roll to a stop in the middle of the living room.

The man took one step into the house. "Now," he said calmly, "I'm going to need all of you to form a line."

Not a single word was spoken as the boys followed the man's orders. Taeil kept his place next to the door and the others formed a line behind him.

"Your right wrist, please."

The man positioned the gun on the soft flesh of Taeil's wrist. Everyone was holding their breaths.

He didn't blink as he pulled the trigger. A faint click was heard, and Taeil quickly wiped the small drop of blood from the wound after the man took the gun away from his arm.

The man continued down the line, and the only sounds that could be heard were the clicks of the gun and soft gasps of pain from the boys.

"Thank you for your cooperation." The man said after he was done. "These trackers will let us know whether or not you are alive after a Survival Phase. I assumed you have all noticed the electronic tablet at the front of the house, listing your names. If you are killed during a Survival Phase, your name will stop blinking and it will turn gray. Well, I'll get going now."

The boys watched in silence as the man left, closing the door behind him. When he was gone, everyone sighed and released the breaths they were holding.

"He explained it as if he was explaining some game." Donghyuck muttered bitterly. Everyone else crowded around the cart.

Johnny slipped off the fabric that was covering the top of the cart. The boys peered inside the metal box, in which ten black backpacks were neatly arranged. Taeyong reached inside and pulled a backpack from the stack. He unzipped the back pocket and took out its contents. There was a knife, a hand gun, a box of bullets, and rifle parts.

Taeyong shoved the weapons back inside the bag and threw it into the cart.

"All right, kids, I think it's time to have a meeting." Johnny announced.

---

"Well I think since it's only the first Survival Phase, everyone will be too scared to kill anyone." Jungwoo said to the group.

The boys had gathered in Mark and Donghyuck's room, and they were sitting in a circle on the carpeted floor.

"But didn't you hear what Mr. Savior said?" Yuta spoke up. "If no one is killed, they'll pick five random people the next morning and kill them."

The room fell silent for what seemed like the hundredth time. Every time someone brought up a suggestion or a theory, it always had its errors.

"We're all gonna die." Mark let out another nervous laugh.

Doyoung glared at him. "You think this is funny? Look, my parents spent the rest of their life savings to pay for my entrance into this city, and I'm not gonna let their efforts go to waste. I know this whole Survival Phase shit sucks, but whether we like it or not, we're gonna have to fight, okay?"

"Mark hyung laughs when he's scared." Donghyuck retorted. "But Doyoung hyung is right. Our parents didn't send us here for us to just die."

"Yeah, but our parents didn't know our life here would be like this." Sicheng murmured. "If they'd known our lives would be in even more danger, they would not have sent us here. If they'd known we'd be forced to kill people, they would not have sent us here."

A tear spilled down Sicheng's cheek and he turned his head away from the group in embarrassment. Yuta sighed and pulled Sicheng towards him, rubbing his back comfortingly.

"So... should we go in groups of two tonight? Or should we just go by ourselves..." Jaehyun said, keeping his eyes on the ground.

"By ourselves." Doyoung stated. "We don't know each other's skill level yet, and we probably don't know our own. After tonight, we'll know what we can and can't do, then we can form groups accordingly."

"Unless I die." Jungwoo shrugged.

"Hey, look. No one in this room is going to die tonight, got it?" Johnny looked around the group, which was filled with solemn and hopeless faces, as if everyone had already given up. "This city is pretty big. If you can't fight, hide. If you have the balls to kill someone, go for it."

"Johnny hyung... have you ever killed someone?" Taeyong spoke up for the first time during the meeting.

"What?" Johnny was sitting next to Taeyong, and he spun his head towards him in shock at his sudden comment. "No, of course not."

"Then how can you talk about killing someone like that?" Taeyong continued. "How can anyone regard killing as some simple, normal thing-"

"Shut up, hyung!" Doyoung hissed. "We're trying to make a plan here. If you want to survive here, you can't be a fucking coward. If you want to survive here, you have two damn choices: either you kill, or you die. Understand?"

Taeyong held his temper down and stopped himself from talking back. It wasn't going to get them anywhere. Instead, the two boys just glared at each other from opposite sides of the circle.

"Sunset." Donghyuck said so quietly that no one heard him the first time.

"What?" Johnny said.

Donghyuck kept quiet and nodded towards the bedroom window. The boys all looked up, noticing that the rays of sunlight that had been shining through the window were gone, and the sky was now a mix of dark blue and gray.

The boys continued to stare at the window, anxiously sitting in a deafening silence.

Every second that passed was one second closer to the beginning of the first Survival Phase, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

The first test of many was approaching. 

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-to be continued-