First day in the borderlands
Arisu was talking to his friends Takeru, and Aguni at the Shibuya crossing. Aguni had a lid cigarette in his mouth as they planned their day. The three boys were laughing and making jokes about the end of the world, zombies, etc.
“You know Arisu..” Aguni starts, biting down on his cigarette bum. “You’d be the one to survive in the end.”
Arisu looked at his friend with disbelief and confusion written all over it. “Huh?” Arisu replied before looking over at Takeru and then back at Aguni. He didn't believe what his friend told him and chuckled softly. Aguni stood there for a second before reaching down and pulling Arisu to sit on his shoulders and lifting him into the air.
Aguni ran into the centre of Shibuya crossing, talking rubbish about Arisu’s ‘independence day’. During this, Takeru was recording this on his phone laughing like they had no care in the world for others around them.
“Arisu! Smile!” Takeru shouted out to him.
“Don't take my picture Takeru!” Arisu tries to cover up his face while laughing.
The three boys were making a scene in the middle of the street as cars passed them. Seeing police in the distance they decided to run off the street, right before Takeru saw fireworks in the sky and pointed them out to his friends. Unsure of where to run, they went down to the subway and into the bathroom stall seeing the police coming from the other way. They stayed quiet, messaging each other on their phones since they thought the police were after them.
Takeru looked down at his phone and sent them a message “Who farted!”. This made the 2 taller males struggle to hold in their laughter. Takeru sent another message “Come on! Own up and smell your own fart!”. They heard a harsh knock on the door before all the lights turned off. They looked around, worried and confused. After a while of waiting, having nothing happen to them, they exit the bathroom stall to see every single light turned off and no sound of anyone.
The group walked out of the subway bathroom to find everything abandoned. It looked like everyone left all their stuff and just left. Arisu, Aguni and Takeru all split up to see if any of them could find answers or people. As the sun started to set, the 3 sat down at Shibuya crossing and chatted for a while.
Cutting them out of a cute friendship bonding moment, the main sign of Shibuya lights up with the words “Welcome Players. The game will commence shortly”.
Takeru, Arisu and Aguni looked up at the words really confused, none of them spoke for a while. Aguni broke the silence, “Game?” he asked. Nobody replied before it changed and this time had an arrow pointing right. Arisu looked around to see if he could spot where it was pointing to. He saw a glowing red light in the distance and got his friends' attention and they ran over to it.
The group ran up to the GM Building where there was an BMW parked out the front. They ventured inside to see if they could find any answers. Arisu led the 2 others to a hallway which only lead to an elevator. They saw a row of phones and all of them choice to pick one up. As soon as the phone was facing Arisu’s face, it turned on and started to remember his face. The phone turned on and had two apps, no service and a full battery. One of the apps caught his attention, the visa app. He didn't pay that much attention to it at this moment.
The phone opened the Game app and started to speak to them “Please wait for the game to commence. Two minutes until registrations close. There are currently three participants”. They look down confused at their phones.
Arisu speaks up “What is this?” He asked. He heard a woman’s voice in reply to his question. “A game”
“There’s a human!” Takeru gasped when he saw her.
While Aguni asked her a question “Do you know where everyone went?”
The woman walked up to Takeru and grabbed his keycard out of his pocket and threw it back where she came from. A laser appeared from the sky and zapped a hole through the keycard. She gives an ominous message to the 3 boys “Once you cross the borderline, you can never return. You have no choice but to participate in the game.”
She then grabbed a phone as Arisu walked over to the keycard on the ground and saw the red barrier appear in front of his face when he got too close to it. This amased him. Arisu looked up at the ceiling and saw that the laser went completely through the building.
The three boys and the new woman watched as a scared girl in uniform walk around the corner. They saw her light up when she saw people. “Geez, I thought I wouldn’t find anyone here!” She spoke as walked up to the group. Everyone backed up trying to stop her as she got passed the lasers. The first woman grabbed a phone and handed it to the girl, “My condolences.” She said to the girl.
Right after the girl was registered the phone spoke to them again. “Registration has closed. The game will now commence.”
Game. ‘dead or alive’. Difficulty, three of clubs
“Clubs?” Takeru looks confused looking down at his phone.
“What does that mean?” Asked Aguni
Rule: Select the correct door within the stipulated time.
Clear condition: Leave the building within the time limit
The elevators on their left opened up. With the words “Start” on the wall facing them. The woman quickly walked into the elevator, “You’ll die if you keep spacing out.” She told the other 4 players, which made them hurry up and join her in the elevator.
They appeared in a room with a door to their left, and one in front of them. A ‘life’ door and a ‘death’ door. The time limit for this room is 2 minutes. The first couple of rooms went by as a blur with the woman sacrificing the girl so they would find the correct door and fighting between Aguni and her. The woman seems like the type to use everyone to survive and not care who she killed. The time limit was decreasing every single room by 10 seconds.
After the 4th room, Arisu had a light bulb moment and was able to figure out the next rooms without getting any more of them killed. Unfortunately, Takeru got his leg burned as he barely got out of the last room before they were out of the building. When the group of 4 walked down the fire escape stairs they saw a table with a playing card on it, it was the three of clubs, which was the game they just played.
Their phones lit up again. To the survivors of the game, we will now supply you with a 3 day visa. They look in front of them to see a man limping towards them. He looked injured. He shouted “I'm going to drop out of the game. You guys, there's no end to this game, no matter how much you clear. My visa ends today. Finally… this is the end.” A laser appeared from the sky and was aimed right at the centre of his head. It shot down and killed him instantly.
Right as the man died, all the power to the building behind them went out. They walked over to his body with Takeru leaning into Aguni. “When a new day begins, you will die if you have no visa.”
“Our visas end in three days,” Aguni and Arisu told the group.
“If you don't want to die, you need to join games.” The woman told them.
On top of a tall building, stood a short hooded figure holding cards in their hand, watching lasers appear in the sky and eliminate people with no visas.