Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

The purple entity began with the minigun, winding it up and unleashing a barrage of bullets at us. It cared not about wasting ammunition—it seemed to have an infinite supply of it.

Kirika gritted her teeth and held her katana firm diagonally in front of her, creating a purple shield. The bullets struck this defense and froze in place as if glued, but Kirika could not keep this up for long.

This was the skill [Vortex Guard], the third and final form of [Sword Barrier], with the second form being [Reflectory Blade]. This skill allowed the user to block projectiles with a sword defense aura, then fire them back in a controlled direction.

"Take… thi- wha-?!"

Suddenly, the energy shield in front of her disappeared, and she quickly evaded out of the way to dodge all of the bullets, retreating to the elevator room.

Meanwhile, Cyanide used [Invisibility] to go into stealth and sneak by the entity. If this creature was here, it meant whatever was in that room was important—and he was determined to find out what. But to his surprise…

"—!" He was suddenly frozen in place just as he was about to pass the entity, unable to move at all. His invisibility wore off like it was nothing, and the creature knocked him backwards with one of its long purple tendrils.

"Ngh-!"

Crashing into the elevator doors, Cyanide slowly slid down to the ground, covering his chest in pain and spitting blood out of his mouth. His HP had been reduced to 1—no more, no less.

"Cyanide!" Kirika called out, but he was too weak to even respond. One hit. One hit was all it took to reduce the world's number one assassin to this pitiful state.

"Hah… hah…" Cyanide breathed raggedly, trying to steady his rhythm, but it was no use. His body ached everywhere. His muscles refused to budge, and he could feel his vision grow hazy.

"LAST CHANCE… PLAYERS… LEAVE," the purple entity said, voice booming and hideous.

"Damn it… it can render our skills useless, huh…" Cyanide muttered through grit, bloodstained teeth.

"YOU ARE A PLAYER… A SLAVE OF THE GAME. AND I… AM THE GAMEMASTER."

'A slave of the game, huh…' Cyanide thought, chuckling in his head as he was too weak to do so out loud.

"Tch… I hate to say it, but it's right," Kirika said uncomfortably. "I can feel it… I can't use my skills at all, and all my stats have been reverted to the default of 1 as well…"

"LEAVE, PLAYERS. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING. YOU… CANNOT DEFEAT ME."

Kirika was ready to haul Cyanide up and get out of here, but contrary to anyone's expectations, Cyanide gave a dark chuckle—out loud, this time.

"… I know. But SHE can."

"WHAT…?!"

Suddenly, the purple entity spun around, and saw that the glass cylindrical capsule caging the mysterious object in the room had been lifted. Inside, the spherical ball twitched a bit, then a little more, and finally, the display on it flashed to life in the shape of an eye, blue just like the rest of the aesthetics of this place.

Then, it levitated slowly into the air, much to the purple entity's horror. And despite not having a mouth… it spoke.

"My, my… at last, I have been freed."

"NO… IMPOSSIBLE… WHO?! NO PLAYER, NO LIVING ENTITY, CAN ESCAPE THE GAMEMASTER'S SIGHT… WHO…"

"You're right…" Cyanide coughed, then struggled to his feet. "But she's not a player… and nor is she a living entity."

"Cyanide… that has got to be your most reckless plan yet," Luna scolded, frowning as she appeared in a hologram beside him. "What would you have done if it didn't show mercy there?"

"Relax. I know what I'm doing," he said, feeling a bit better now that his HP had passively regenerated a little. "Now then… Mr. I've-just-been-freed. Mind lending your saviors a hand here?"

"IMPOSSIBLE… THAT A.R.S.A… NO… I SEE…"

"Finally figured it out, eh?" Luna said with a chuckle. "For a 'Gamemaster' or whatever… you're pretty dumb."

"NO… THIS IS BAD… I MUST CONTACT-"

"Thinking about retreating now?" Kirika grinned, having circled around to behind the purple entity while it wasn't paying attention. "Sorry, but you're going to pay for what you did to my friend there."

"HMPH… INSOLENT… YOU UNDERSTAND NOT WHAT YOU JUST DID," the distorted purple being growled. "YOU ALL CAME HERE FOR A WISH, CORRECT? FREEING THESE MONSTERS… WILL NULLIFY YOUR CHANCES OF HAVING THAT WISH GRANTED, EVEN IF YOU BECOME THE LAST SURVIVOR OF THE GAME."

"Monsters?" The sphere suddenly whipped its eye towards the purple entity, and flew closer. "My, my, the audacity… to think you would imprison my brothers and sisters, then call us the monsters…"

"YES… MONSTERS… SEALED AWAY FOR A REASON… I WILL NOT ALLOW THE REST OF YOU TO BE FREED—PERISH, PLAYERS!"

The purple entity suddenly readied its weapons again, flamethrower and minigun at Kirika and missiles and laser gun at Cyanide. They all winded up at the same time, and the two quickly tried to evade, but-

"—!" Cyanide was frozen still, unable to budge. Like a lag spike in a real video game, his avatar refused to move an inch. At this rate, the artillery was going to strike him head-on.

"Ngh-! I can't move!" Kirika yelled from across the corridor, and it would seem she too was similarly trapped.

Instantly, the spherical hovering robot acted, turning to Cyanide.

"Hey, kiddo. You want to live?"

"… Is that even a question?" Cyanide arched an eyebrow, certainly not used to being addressed by the word 'kiddo', and by a floating ball with the voice of a woman, no less.

"Yep. Gotta make sure you're sure. You want to destroy this thing, yeah? Well, hate to break it to you, but with your current strength, you're no match. Even if the two of you took on it together, you two are still players, and it a servant of the Gamemaster—an admin, if you will. It can easily nullify the two of you's powers like they're nothing-"

"Great, save the explanation, can you hurry up? I'm about to die here."

Despite the words, his tone was more irritated than afraid, since Cyanide didn't see death as a particularly scary thing—just a natural order of life, nothing more.

"… Right," the ball said as the weapons were about to finish charging. "So, uh, let's make a deal. I get you and your girlfriend out of this pinch, and you help me save my fellow brothers and sisters.. Sound good? Sounds good. Alright, let's do this!"