The building containing the kiosk was similar to how Riu described it. It was a tall grey square of stone, a yawning rectangular door built into the middle of it. The path through the forest met with a ring of churned dirt that circled the building, several infected patrolling the perimeter.

  “It looks a little too…peaceful,” I whispered. Several fairies must have escaped the previous battle. They could have warned or rallied the defenders here. Instead, the monster’s paced back and forth like NPCs in a video game.

  Riu decided to check the area again and he slipped into the forest silently. But who was to say this wasn’t just another illusion? Kojo had said to trust in our eyes and ears, but could we really do that?

  “You are worried,” Kojo observed.

  “Yeah, maybe I am,” I replied. Because my robe was so bright, we had to stop a good distance from the building. That meant Riu would need to go further on his own. Despite trying, I couldn’t get the image of that bear smacking him out of my head. The sound his bones made when they snapped played in my ears over and over again. And if something happened, I was in no position to help.

  Kojo used his new healing skill “Tend Wounds” on me as we made our way up the path. But while it helped ease the pain in the rest of my body, it didn’t stop the shards of glass that pumped through my veins with each heartbeat. Whatever pathways mana used to travel through the human body were torn and stretched far past their limits in my case. I’d hurt myself plenty of times exercising back in the day. I had a bad habit of pushing too far too fast. Seemed that was one thing the accident hadn’t taken away.

  Riu thankfully returned before long.

  “No fairies,” he said. “And I check twice.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “A few of them survived back there. They would have come here and set a trap for us.”

  Kojo scanned the canopy with narrowed eyes. “Not necessarily.” He walked forward, his crossbow loaded and at the ready. “They may have retreated elsewhere, especially with the boss defeated.”

  “We can’t know that,” I said. “The entire reason they’re here is to stop us from reaching the kiosk. What else could they be doing? Painting each other’s nails?”

  Kojo rounded on me, his face grim, some of that old ferocity in his eyes. “Do not presume to know your enemy. Perhaps they are prisoners here like us, or perhaps they value their own lives enough to avoid further bloodshed. There is much we don’t know.”

  I didn’t appreciate the sudden personality shift, but he had a point. Though the idea I had been burning, drowning, and blowing up “prisoners” didn’t exactly feel great. Up to this point, I’d honestly not given the creatures here much thought. But prisoners or not, you try and kill us, you get what’s coming to you.

  Riu and Kojo advanced toward the building after a brief discussion over strategy. Though Riu’s English speaking was a little limited, he seemed to understand most of what he heard. Since the two couldn’t rely on spells from me, they had to formulate a plan to cut down on the enemy’s numbers. Riu was pretty confident he could simply blitz several down before they had time to group up.

  He turned out to be right.

  The shadow dagger thing he’d received from the boss sliced through the infected with ease. Each swipe of it severed legs, torsos, and arms. Riu moved like a professional athlete the entire time, ducking, diving, and sprinting too quickly to be caught. Has to be his dexterity. It was already high before getting boosted further from his class and level ups. And this was someone who was still low level. Soon he wouldn’t just be fast, but superhuman.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Kojo used his new boots to launch himself onto a tree branch high above. When he told me they helped him jump higher, flying nearly twenty feet into the air wasn’t what I’d envisioned.

  His crossbow was slow to load, but each shot was doing a lot of damage. Not enough to kill them outright, but enough to keep them off Riu’s back.

  I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for this to be yet another illusion. But when the last monster fell and nothing happened, I realized maybe Kojo had been right. I’d assumed the creatures here operated like mobs in video games. I figured they’d stick around the kiosk until their dying breaths. Maybe killing the boss made them run away? But only the fairies had decided to abandon their posts. The infected were basically mindless video game mobs, even if they’d once been people.

  Riu looted the dead while Kojo and I crept up to the building’s entrance. There were some stairs that led down to a rectangular room, a wooden door on the other end. I expected the room to be overgrown with moss, mushrooms, and pustules, but it was extremely clean. There wasn’t even a speck of dirt anywhere.

  Kojo entered the room first, sword drawn. We might have killed the boss, but it was like he said, we couldn’t presume to know our enemy. There could be traps, another boss, or maybe the kiosk itself was a lie.

  We both jumped as a robotic voice called to us from beyond the door.

  Welcome to the Mushroom Forest Information Kiosk.

  Kojo and I exchange a glance filled with both worry and relief. At least this hopefully meant the kiosk was real.

  Please note that only one player can interact with the kiosk at a time.

  I pressed on the door and it gave, but as soon as Kojo got closer, it snapped shut. We both pushed on it, but the thing wouldn’t budge.

  “You think it’s a trap?’ I asked.

  Kojo studied the door, then put his ear up to it. Riu approached us and I filled him in on what was going on.

  “We can’t know for certain until someone enters,” Kojo said, stepping back.

  Riu looked like he was about to volunteer, but then I cut him off.

  “I’ll go,” I said, palm to the dark wood of the door.

  They both acted like I was being brave, but the truth was I couldn’t wait any longer. I’d been heading for this thing since I got here, and the promise of what it could provide had kept me going. This close to my goal, the risk was more than worth it.

  “Be careful,” Riu said as I passed into the blackness beyond.

  I gave him a thumbs up right before the door slammed shut behind me.

  Heavy static buzzed in my ears as the room exploded with light.

  The floors, walls, and ceiling were completely white, a metallic sheen to them. The room itself was small, the only defining feature the screen at its center.

  It floated in the middle of the room. It was big and wide, the edges black. I saw my own reflection in the dark screen as I approached.

  It really is just hovering there. No cables or wires connected to it, no attachments of any kind. It slightly bobbed up and down, and I reached a hand toward it.

  Welcome player.

  I jerked my hand back, the screen blinking to life.

  Ask me a question and I will do my best to answer.

  Words flashed onto the screen, then numbers.

  Players Remaining: 13.4 million

  Players Eliminated: 6.6 million

  Leaderboards: Unavailable

  6.6 million…eliminated? It’s only been a few days, and that many people have already died? My stomach clenched, my pulse rising.

  “Why are you doing this to us?" I’d asked the question without thinking about it.

  For entertainment.

  “Entertainment?” It took all my will not to punch the screen. “Whose entertainment?”

  Ours.

  I stared, not sure what to say. “Yours? Well, who the fuck are you?” I glanced around. “You watching me right now? You get off on this or something?”

  Hardly. But what else are you flesh sacks good for? You all wither and die in the end either way. You might as well provide us with some entertainment on your way out.

  The voice was as stilted and robotic as the others, but there was a hint of anger behind it. I wanted to prod it more, but I forced my own rage aside. Then I finally asked what I really wanted to know.

  “Can you help me find another player?”

  It took the screen a while to respond.

  What is the player’s name?

  “Avery Addleton,” I answered.

  Processing. Processing. There are sixteen players registered with that name.

  A list appeared. Nine of the names were crossed out.

  “Fuck. Okay, how about Avery Grace Addleton?”

  There are two players registered with that name.

  My heart fell like a stone as they appeared.

  One of them was crossed out.