5up wakes up with a strong headache. He pushes himself off the ground with a grunt, squinting from all the bright lights. "What the hell happened-" He moved his limbs, his muscles stretching and pulling.
He was surrounded by white panels of light, almost like an insane asylum. Right in front of him were really big letters in front of him spelling out: 'Enter your username...' Below that was a keyboard, but it wasn't actually there? Without thinking about it, he instinctively types "5up" into the keyboard. His online username and personalia. The text vanishes and reappears.
'Select a Character,' It said this time. Right underneath were three options,
'Knight, Mage, and Archer.' Under the three options were small boxes labelled Character Descriptions. As he waved his finger over each box, it unraveled into a small and oldfashioned scroll.
"The Knight has a blade, a shield and protective armor. Its strength is Attack Damage, but because the sword, shield and the armor are very heavy, their speed is decreased."
"The Mage is a very good healer. It defends and helps its teammates, more than it attacks its enemies. This causes it to be vulnerable to Attack Damage."
"The Archer has a bow and a quiver of infinite bows. It can hit its enemies with insane accuracy, and its speed is increased. Its armor is very light though and only provides little protection, so the Archer is normally the first one to die."
He thinks about it before choosing the Mage.
"Teleporting into Lobby..." It said next and then everything went dark.
He wakes up in a building surrounded by a lot of other people. A lot of strangers, he would say after looking around to see if he could find someone looking familiar.
"Teams are getting shuffled..." It said on a big white screen. With no time to mingle, a feminine voice droned from the speakers that the game was about to begin.
Team 1: Tubbo, Tommy, Ranboo"
He watched three people in the building disappear.
"Team 2: Wilbur, Philza, Technoblade"
More people began to disappear.
"Team 3: Dream, George, Sapnap."
"Team 4: TapL, Niki, KarlJacobs"
"Team 5: BadBoyHalo, Captain Puffy, Skeppy."
"Team 6: Quackity, Sam, Foolish."
Even more people began to disappear, where were they going?
After a while, he finally saw his name pop up on the screen.
"Team 13: Fundy, 5up, Sleepy"
And then he got teleported into a different room, with two other people.
The words "Introduce yourselves." popped out of nowhere. One of the boys was a fox-boy and had a black jacket with red, yellow, and shades of blue. The other one had light brown hair with cat ears and a tail with yellow eyes, he was wearing light brown, black, white and red clothes.
"Uhm I guess I start introducing myself-"
The light brown-haired boy with cat ears said.
"I am &#$@!£- I mean Sleepy- And uhh... I'm an archer..?"
"Well- I am §"%@#-" 5up was confused about his name getting blurred out. Wasn't he allowed to tell them his real name? "Then I guess you can call me 5up... and I am... a mage... I'm going to be honest, I have no idea how we got here, and I also don't really trust any of you but I think we will have to work together so, uhm... hello?"
The fox boy said nothing and just stared at him skeptically. He sighed. "I guess you're... Fundy?" He didn't say anything but nodded slightly.
"So what is happening? How are these words showing up out of nowhere?" 5up asked. He'd always been quite the analyst, helping a local greenhouse with pesticides for plants, and also gaming. Now this whole new world seemed intriguing to him.
"We don't know. I was one of the first people here, but from my perspective, some purple particles form in a spot and a person appears. I think you were the last of sixty people." Sleepy explained. He scratched his cat ears and pushed them back into the safety of his hair. "Some of us also have these custom features that make you look or act different."
5up had no idea what he meant, until he started moving his ears, and pointed to a sprout on 5up's head, which he hadn't noticed yet. They both looked over to Fundy. He was determined to stay silent but moved his own ears and his big fluffy fox tail so we could see.
5up sighed. He had dealt with many of these types of people before. It was almost like...psychology. "Fundy, I know that this is new to all of us, but we need to work together."
Fundy rolled his eyes. "Shut up, I'm not a child. You don't need to be condescending or whatever. I'm just doing this to get out of this stupid video game. I've been here for almost an hour and can't find a way to leave."
He looked at Sleepy and shrugged. It was better than nothing.
"So what now-" 5up asked. As if this game could hear him, all three of them got beamed back into a blank building.
They all looked to the front, and the white screen said "Welcome to Aruca" this time...
5up was even more confused. What the hell was "arooka"? How were they getting these messages across?
"Welcome Welcome! This is Aruca! Well, you're probably wondering what this is so listen carefully. Aruca is a great game where you have to work together as a team, to try and survive in this world! This is not a drill and 100% real! Kill other teams or die! Sounds interesting, doesn't it? It is! No rules, you can do whatever you want. Be the last team alive to get out, or die trying. Also, there are clues sprinkled around this world for you to solve puzzles and get buffs that will help you in case you come across another team. But to make it more fun, be careful because if you die once, you're dead forever. Kill or be killed. Nothing is safe. Also, there is no exit button. So have fun! :)"
For a second 5up saw so many people lined up row by row, all staring into space, but then he was whisked far away from everyone else.
They all got teleported into a spruce forest with trees that seem like they touch the sky. He couldn't tell if it was morning or night, that's how close the trees are to each other. When he looked at the others he saw that their clothes looked like true woodland outfits. Fundy was wearing gold armor that looked different than the armor he saw old knights wear and he carried a sword with him. Sleepy was wearing a leather tunic, which looked really thin, and held a bow in his hand. He also had so many arrows in the quiver he was wearing on his back. And 5up wore a long white coat and some leggings. He had a twisted branch, with weird etchings on it. He also notices they were all wearing backpacks. He takes his backpack and opens it. A water bottle, medicine, iodine, and a torch... That would be enough for now. The water bottle was barely filled and looked somewhat dirty.
"I think we should search for some food, and try to find a lake or something-" He said bluntly.
"Are you crazy? You want to play a game where you kill real people and have special roles and powers? No way. We. Need. To. Find. Another. Way. Out." Fundy whispered angrily.
"Dude, were you listening? There is no way out except to win. We need to work together. Follow me, let's find a place which is at least safer than standing in the middle of nowhere."
"That's what they want you to think! There is no way they can force us to kill each other like in the Hunger Games. This is inhumane! This is not normal at all! There has to be a different way!"
"Well they can teleport us around and send us telepathic messages, so I'm pretty sure they can manage to be a dictator. Just play by the rules! If you don't you die anyways! We're in the wilderness! Even if somehow no other team finds you, you're gonna starve or die because of dehydration!"
Fundy gave him a side-eye and started ignoring everyone. "This is all a dream," he spoke to no one in particular. He started walking away from the group, with only the leaves for protection. "Screw all of you."
5up started to get pissed at Fundy's attitude. His anger bit into the way of survival and flooded his mindset. Before he knew what he was doing, 5up walked up to Fundy, drew back his fist, and swiftly punched him in the face.
It wasn't a hard punch, especially since the Mage's attack is slightly weaker. Almost instantaneously, the rambunctious voice of the creators of this game spoke, "No friendly fire."
The noise seemed to come from above, but he couldn't see anything that could possibly speak up there.
"Get your head in the game Fundy. The only way to get out of this stupid game, and to have at least a small chance of surviving is by playing by the rules. Now please follow me!"
Sleepy just stared at them, shocked that their team was already falling apart.
So they all walked south, using the compass that Sleepy found in his bag. 5up led the group with Fundy grumbling to Sleepy in the back. After what felt like an hour, they came across a few bushes of red berries. Fundy started reaching for them, but 5up swatted his hand away.
"Nothing is safe, remember? We don't know if those are poisonous or not." 5up explained. He felt bad for Fundy for being harsh earlier, but couldn't show it. That's how it works with people like him. Kill or be killed. Something told me that this little adventure wouldn't bring out the best of me.
"What do you want to eat then? We've been walking forever and we need to find food to keep going." Sleepy eagerly nodded, taking Fundy's side.
"Alright, alright. Go for it. If you die at least I get your bows and swords." he criticized. "I'm going to look for some water. Did you know that you can survive one to two months without food but most people can only survive three days before dying from dehydration?"
"Did you know you're a jerk?!" He shouted back with his mouth full of berries but it was too late, 5up had already wandered away.
After walking a few minutes from camp, he found a small pond that seemed fairly drinkable. Just to be safe, he poured some iodine into the water bottle before filling it up. He knew that he should head back to the others, but the wildlife here felt so peaceful. The gentle cool wind shook the leaves while he dipped his toes in the water. No bickering, no need to defend your honor. He leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. He was exhausted from walking and was really hungry. Not to forget, he just got forcefully abandoned in the wilderness with two strangers and has to "do anything to survive." The thought of killing someone with these weapons gave him chills.
5up heard footsteps behind him and quickly turned around. Fundy sat down next to him and to his surprise, he didn't pester him about anything. So they sat there, trading sips of water and skipping stones in the pond.
He drank a little bit of water and pushed himself off the ground.
"I'm going to try to search for some more food. Can you please bring some water back for Sleepy?" He said to Fundy as he started to walk to the forest. Fundy grabbed him from behind.
"We should all go, it's too risky."
5up sighed. The cold air suddenly seemed a little warmer. "I won't go far. We need food."
Then he was back to walking in the dark forest. As he went on, the trees slowly became smaller and smaller until the crooked branches started to claw on his robes. He gathers some of the bigger branches to make a campfire back at the base. As he dumps them into his backpack, out of nowhere the same voice as before boomed "Team 7 Eliminated"
It sounded fairly close, which made him freeze and duck behind a tree. Sure enough, he spotted a bright light slowly coming in his direction. 5up couldn't go back to the others, since the chance that the people would hear him is too big a risk.
As they drew closer, I could see one of those guys started sniffing the air with his wolf-like nose."We're not alone..." he growled
"Are you sure DumbDog?" A feminine voice asked. The female's voice sounded a little familiar to him, he didn't know why.
"Yes. A little rat is near and we're gonna find him."
He took a deep and shaky breath. One part of his mind wanted to run while the other was saying to hide. Luckily he was too clever to try and fight. This was just like hide and seek except worse. If he ran, they would follow him back to the others, and that was the last thing he wanted. If he kept hiding, they would find him sooner or later and kill him. He didn't have any time to think. They are going to find him any second. No time to think, no time to breathe...
He just needed to run somewhere, anywhere else, and try to regroup with his team again and get far, far away. But when he launched himself from the tree to run, his leather boots got tangled with an aerial root and fell to the ground with a thump. He was screwed for sure.
He heard the female gasp. "There!" He tried to scramble away, making one last effort to escape but the tallest one grabbed him by the shoulders and threw me against the trunk.
As the group came closer, he recognized a person in the group. But no, it couldn't be..."H-hafu?,"
Thank you for reading our first chapter! This is tinytoro talking right now but I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say I hope you enjoyed and stick around for Chapter Two coming out soon! (Btw yes I was the one who chose Hafu to add to the story. I'm sorry everyone else it just needed to happen!) I'll tag all of us down below so you can see all our other books!