Rush Hour

Username "ZDK"

“Zrox, what's wrong with you, and why do you look like that? Why are you just standing there? The enemies are going to kill us!” My teammates said as if we were in the game of survival game. Almost from morning to night and until the next morning, I was still sitting in front of my computer and still playing pc games. I haven’t slept yet, I feel like my eyes are slowly falling into drowsiness and my whole body is weakening. Until I fell to the floor, and I didn't realize I had fallen asleep while I was in the middle of playing. So, our clan was defeated, and my teammates were angry with me.

When I woke up, I just found myself in a public place. “Where am I?” The first came into my mind. I looked all around me and noticed that it was as if I had just been stranded in this place. There are many buildings, spaceships are flying and there are robots that resemble humans.

“What kind of place is this? Am I in the future? Or maybe I'm already in heaven? So, am I dead? But how and why did I die?” My mind is chaotic now and there are many questions I want to know the answer to, but everywhere I look I didn't see anyone that I know. Until I heard a loud shout from behind me, so I quickly turned around and my eyes widened when I saw two men chasing and now heading in my direction. To my surprise, I couldn't get away from them right away as long as I just closed my eyes and stood there with my two fists clenched.

“Congratulations, you are now in level five.” He said in a voice like a robot, so I immediately opened my eyes and realized that the man who was running earlier was dead while the man who was chasing him was smiling and looking at me while he was holding a red sword.

“Wow!” I couldn’t help but be amazed at the cosplay outfit he was wearing which would be expensive.

Where did he get his outfit? And does the sword he was holding is real? But he can't kill a person because it looks like they're just role-playing.

Out of curiosity, I gently kicked the man lying on the floor on the arm to wake him up, but no matter how hard I tried to shake his shoulder, he still wouldn't get up.

“What are you doing? Stay away from him if you don't want to be burned alive.” The man said to me.

“Burned?” I was curious when his legs suddenly caught fire up to his head until the fire consumed his whole body. To my shock, I just backed away, and my eyes widened because I could not believe what I was witnessing now.

“Wait, am I just dreaming? It's not all true anymore.” I whispered to myself once I ran to get away from that place, but I suddenly stopped when the LED screen billboard lit up and all their attention turned there as well.

“How are you all players?” The first word it utters while robots are the only ones visible on the screen.

“Players?” I asked myself.

“And for all the new players, can you go to the front?” He said at once I looked behind me and I saw them one by one approaching me. Then I turned to look at the monitor screen again. “I'm so glad to see you here. Welcome to the Rush Hour game. You are the players in this game and just like the ones you played in computer games, the fictional characters and participants are you. You are the main character of this game and you were the one who will make your destiny. All new players are at level one and every time you knock down your opponents your rank will increase, and your skills will also increase. As a reward, you will receive a money prize and always remember that as your level goes up, your cash prize will also go up too. If you have any questions and don't understand my instructions, let me demonstrate this game to you.” After he said that, some robots approached us, and they handed us a single box. We all had traces of astonishment on our faces and no idea what was going on.

“Open the box you're holding now.” He said so we opened the box at the same time, and we saw a watch in it. “Put your watches on your right hand now.” He added, so we immediately put the watch on our wrist. When I put it on, a hologram screen suddenly appeared from that watch and I looked at my companions.

“Insert your username. You probably know what that means, don't you? You can't share your profiles or your real identity with others, even if it's your real name.” He said, so I looked at my watch again.

Zroxylle Danielle Kros is my real name. But I can’t let anyone with me now know who I am. So, I just used the first initials of my three names. “ZDK,” I said.

“Player ZDK is activated.” Suddenly said from my watch, so my eyes widened in shock and I looked at my companions.

“Once you have activated your usernames you can choose the weapon you will use in combat. Remember, every time your level increases, the ability, and skills of your weapons will also increase. So, the skills of the weapon you are now are in level one and for that to happen you need to—” he interrupted when someone suddenly swung a sword and killed one of our comrades. After he killed him, his level immediately increased and his clothes also changed.

“Congratulations, you are now in level two.” Said his watch, as we were still stunned by the fast pace and confused. Until they got into a commotion, and they rushed at each other. Even I did not escape from their greed, but I avoided every time he struck me with his sword. With the speed of events, I could not immediately decide the weapon I would use as long as I tapped on my watch and suddenly a shut gun came out of my hand. To my shock, I let go of it and backed away. I have never held a real gun, and especially I have never tried to kill a person. But because that was the only way for me to save myself, I picked up the gun again and aimed it at the man who had been attempting to kill me earlier.

I fired a loud gunshot from his forehead, so he quickly fell to the ground.

“Congratulations, you are now in level two.” Said on my watch. At the speed of events, I looked like a rock just standing there while stunned at the body of the man I shot.

It's all just a game, and he's not dead. I believe he is still alive, and he is just pretending.

I slowly stepped closer to him as my hands trembled in fear that he might be dead. But to my great surprise, his whole body suddenly burst into flames, and he turned to black ashes. So, I knelt on the floor and suddenly tears welled up in my eyes. “I killed him,” I spoke softly to myself.

“All of us here are murderers. If you want to get out of here alive, you have to hold back your tears, and you have to train yourself for these kinds of events. If you continue like that you certainly haven't stepped foot in level five yet, you're dead already.” The man holding the red sword I had encountered earlier told me. I slowly looked up at his face and then wiped the tears from my eyes.

Now I understand why he was chasing the man earlier and why he was so determined to kill the man. Because that is the only way for you to stay alive in this world. That's the only solution, so you can reach the next test and get to whatever level you have now.

What is this place I went to? And how did I get stuck in this game? To this day, I still can’t believe what I’ve witnessed earlier, and I can’t believe I killed someone with my own hands.