The desert was silent in a way that did not feel natural, not peaceful.
Empty, like the world itself had forgotten sound.
Newton's eyes remained fixed on the glowing screen floating in front of him. The letters burned into his vision like they had weight.
NAME: NEWTON HILLS
HUMANITY: 99
TOLERANCE: 20
SPEED: 10
ENERGY LEVEL: 65
PAIN TOLERANCE: 5
NINJA SKILL: 0
His breathing grew uneven. His fingers trembled slightly.
"I… I am seeing it," he whispered. His voice was barely audible, but Stella heard it..Her head snapped toward him. "You too?" she asked, her voice shaking.
Samuel stumbled backward, his eyes wide in horror. "There is a screen in front of me," he said. "Tell me this is not real." He breathed and turned around. "What is this? Where is it coming fro"
Around them, the other students began to panic louder. Some clawed at the air. Some screamed. Some fell to their knees, twitching their eyes.
Brian's face twisted in confusion as he swiped his hand repeatedly through empty space. "What is this nonsense?" he shouted. "Who is manipulating our mind?"
Newton swallowed hard. His heart pounded against his ribs. "Could it be this place? Could this be a kind of a mystical world."
Everyone froze. They glanced at one another.
Then, the screen changed..The words disappeared, and were replaced.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
All Candidates Have Been Successfully Integrated
A low ringing sound echoed inside his skull. Not in his ears. Inside his skull. Like something had settled into his mind.
Newton grabbed his head, he pressed it tight, screaming.
"AAAHHHHH"
They all screamed at once.
"What is happening to us?" Stella cried.
Nobody answered. Because nobody knew. They were all too engrossed in the pain.
Then new words appeared.
FIRST TASK AVAILABLE
Newton froze. His stomach dropped. The air suddenly felt colder.
TASK: SURVIVE
TIME LIMIT: FOUR HOURS
REWARD: TWO NINJA COIN
FAILURE: DEATH
Newton's throat went dry.
DEATH
The word did not blink. It did not soften. It stayed there. Unapologetic, and uncaring.
Samuel let out a broken laugh. "This… this has to be a joke, somebody tell me this is a joke" he said.
Nobody laughed with him because deep down, they all felt it.
This was real.
A loud scream cut through the air. One of the girls pointed at her screen.
"It says death,!" she cried. "They are going to kill us."
More voices joined. More panic. More fear.
Brian's breathing grew heavier. His eyes darted around the empty desert. "There is nothing here," he said. "No food. No water. How do they want us to survive?"
His voice cracked slightly. Newton felt it too. The dryness in his throat. The weakness in his limbs.
The exhaustion from drowning. They were already fragile. Already vulnerable. And now they had been given a command.
Survive in four hours.
A small icon blinked at the bottom of Newton's screen.
MAP AVAILABLE.
His fingers hesitated. Then he reached out. The moment he touched it, the desert changed.
Lines appeared. Shapes formed. And far in the distance, a single blinking red dot.
Newton's breath caught. He didn't know why but he felt it.
That dot meant something. Behind him, someone screamed again.
A boy collapsed. His body hit the sand with a dull thud. His screen flickered violently.
Then, it sounded.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
CANDIDATE FAILED TO MAINTAIN CONSCIOUSNESS
PENALTY APPLIED
The boy's body jerked once. Then went still. Completely still. His eyes stared at nothing.
A girl rushed to him. She shook him. "Wake up!" she cried.
He didn't move.
Newton's heart slammed violently against his chest. Samuel whispered beside him. "He… he is dead."
Nobody argued. Because they all knew, this world did not care.
This system did not care. This was not school. This was not home. This was not Earth. This was something else.
Something cruel.
Something absolute.
Newton's screen blinked again.
TIME REMAINING: Three hours: thirty minutes: two seconds.
The countdown had begun..His hands clenched slowly into fists. His humanity still read:
99
But for the first time, Newton Hills understood something.
If he wanted to live, they must obey what the system wants.
And somewhere far beyond the desert, Unseen, and unknown. Something watched. Waiting to see what kind of killers the new set of students would become.
For a long moment after the screens appeared, nobody moved.
The desert stretched endlessly around them, silent and merciless, while the glowing words floated before their eyes like a sentence already passed.
Fear lived in their breathing. Confusion lived in their silence. And for the first time since Newton Hills woke on that cursed sand, he realized something dangerous.
They were waiting. Waiting for someone to tell them what to do. His heart pounded. His throat felt dry.
He did not feel like a leader. He did not feel brave. He felt like the same boy who used to get beaten behind the school building.
But if nobody spoke, they would die here. So he stood.
His legs trembled slightly, but he forced them still. "All right guys," he said. His voice came out rough, but it carried.
"It is obvious we are no longer in our world. If we must live, we must first obey the system. With time, we will find out where we are and what this system wants from us."
The words hung in the air. Some faces turned toward him. Some eyes filled with tears. A girl suddenly gasped. A sob escaped her lips before she could stop it. "I just want to return to my mother," she cried.
Her knees gave way and she fell to the sand, her shoulders shaking. Her pain spread into the others.
Another boy snapped. "Shut the fuck up, Newton. I am going out of here."
It was Brad.
He pushed past the others, his face tight with anger and fear. "There must be people here," he said. "I will find them."
He walked toward the mountain ahead. Newton's eyes widened. "Wait," he said.
But Brad didn't listen. He kept walking. One step, two steps. Then Newton saw it. A faint red line on the ground. Glowing, very thin. Easy to miss.
Brad stepped on it. The world seemed to pause. Brad's body jerked. Once, twice. Then violently.
His mouth opened, but no sound came out. His skin darkened. Black veins crawled across his neck. Smoke escaped his nose. Then he collapsed.
Dead.
A scream tore through the students.
"Brad!"
A girl ran forward instinctively. Newton grabbed her arm: hard.
She struggled. "Let me go!"
"If you go close," Newton said, his voice shaking, "you will die."
She froze.
Her eyes dropped to Brad's body. She saw the red line. She stopped fighting. Her legs gave way beneath her.
Newton released her slowly. His heart hammered painfully. He turned to the others. Their faces were pale, broken, and terrified.
"All right," he said. He forced strength into his voice.
"Everyone remain calm. This is like a game