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Chapter 2

Author: Pixis
Time crawled by, second after second. Then, heavy footsteps echoed in the stairwell, right on schedule. Each one stomped in time with my heartbeat.

The doorknob turned with a click, and the door swung open. That tall figure in the clown mask filled the doorway. He held a bloodstained fire axe, droplets of water trickling off his raincoat and dripping onto the floor.

According to my plan, if he could read my thoughts in real time, or if he had some kind of omniscience, he should've headed straight for the kitchen and put that axe right through the fridge.

But he didn't.

He just stood there at the bedroom door, those shadowed eyes behind the mask locking on me where I was hidden beneath the bed. I felt pathetic.

"You didn't go to the kitchen," I said hoarsely, staring back at him. My palms were slick with sweat. "You can't read my thoughts in real time."

The killer didn't answer. He just tilted his head, dazed for a split second. Then, in the next heartbeat, he raised the axe and charged toward me like a beast crazed for blood.

Instinct told me to roll to the right, but something made me jerk the other way instead. I twisted, threw myself left with everything I had, and barely dodged the axe as it came crashing down. The wooden floor split open in a vicious crack, and splinters flew.

The angle of that swing had completely cut off my escape route to the right. It was the direction I always favored when something went wrong. He knew my fighting instincts by heart!

If I'd rolled right on reflex, I'd be in two pieces by now.

He and I grappled in the cramped living room, trading blows in tight quarters. The longer we fought, the colder my blood ran. Despair seeped in.

He knew me too well. He knew my habit of dropping my shoulder to build power before I struck, so every time I moved, he was already there. He was faster and meaner, catching me off guard again and again.

When I forced myself to change tactics and adjust my defense on the fly, he could predict that, too. Because of that disadvantage, I slowly became overwhelmed.

Clang!

The fruit knife went spinning out of my hand. He slammed a kick into my chest. I flew backward, crashing into the wall so hard it felt like all my organs had been knocked out of place.

The pain was blinding; my vision went dark around the edges. Still, I laughed.

Because when he lifted his leg to kick me, his pant leg rode up, and I saw something just above his ankle. It was a dark red birthmark shaped like a tongue of flame. I had the exact same mark on my ankle.

"So, it's you…" I spat out a mouthful of blood and looked up at that looming clown mask. The fear in my eyes was gone, replaced by sheer disbelief and shock. "No wonder you knew the 16-digit passcode. No wonder you knew I'd hide in the ceiling crawlspace."

I laughed, blood trickling down the corner of my mouth. "Because you're me!"

The axe froze in midair. From behind the mask came a quiet sigh, heavy with resignation and bone-deep fatigue.

"Third time's the charm. You finally figured it out." The voice was hoarse and low, but it sounded exactly like mine.

With a thud and sickening squelch, the axe came down. Darkness swallowed me again.

[Third loop over. Player has died. Remaining attempts before game over: 7]
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  • No Exit from the Death Game   Chapter 12

    Beep."Heartbeat restored. Brainwave activity rising. The subject is waking up."I heard voices. People were talking, and they were warm, human voices. Wait, there were still humans?I forced my eyes open. The glare stabbed at my vision, making my eyes water. Once I finally adjusted to the light, I realized I wasn't lying on the bed in that damned apartment anymore.I was inside a silver, high-tech pod, like something out of a sci-fi movie. Electrodes were stuck all over my body, and the space around me was crammed with complicated instruments and monitors.Several people in white lab coats stood around me, clipboards in hand. They watched me with cold, clinical expressions."Where am I?" My throat was so dry it felt like I'd swallowed sand."Congratulations, Experiment 083." A middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses stepped forward and looked down at me. "You've passed the stress version of the Echo Protocol.""Echo Protocol?" I repeated. A stabbing pain shot through my head

  • No Exit from the Death Game   Chapter 11

    I tilted my head back and stared up at the piercing light in the living room. What was hiding behind that thing?From the very first loop, I'd felt that this light was off. No matter if it was day or night, the lighting in this place was an unnaturally harsh white. And that was the only real difference between this room and my original one.Why would such a ridiculously bright light be installed for no reason? It was obviously so that the "audience" could see every bit of the scene clearly."What are you trying to do?" No. 99 asked, his voice shaking."Since you're a program, I'm going to wipe you," I answered.I bent down and picked up the axe from the floor, but I didn't swing it at him. Instead, I used every ounce of strength I had and hurled the axe straight at the light on the ceiling. "Lights out!"With a loud crash, the glass shattered. But strangely, there were no sparks, and the room didn't go dark. With the fixture smashed, a giant mechanical eyeball was revealed behind

  • No Exit from the Death Game   Chapter 10

    It was the eighth loop. I opened my eyes.The boundary was hard-locked. That was intel I'd bought with my life. The space above and below just looped back on itself, which meant this building was a sealed, closed-circuit universe. If there was no way out physically, then time had to be fake, too.That meant the only flaw was in the rules themselves.I pushed myself up from the bed. This time, I didn't feel anxious. Instead, a strange calm settled over me.I'd already died seven times, and in every way one could think of. Fear had long since worn itself out; all that was left was numbness.I started really assessing No. 99 again. He was the "future me". He said he'd cleared the game 99 times. If he were just some NPC the system had generated, his behavior should've been a lot more rigid. But he had emotions and felt fatigue. He'd even shown "pity" for me.That was especially true in the fifth loop. He'd given up on killing me and even hinted that if I killed him, I'd be free. If h

  • No Exit from the Death Game   Chapter 9

    I thought back to that tiny detail from the fifth loop. No. 99 had said, "There's no winner in this game. The only way for you to live is to kill me, but then you become the next me."That was a paradox. Killing him meant losing, because I would become the next hunter. But not killing him also meant losing.So, what if this "room"—or rather, this "game arena"—was fake to begin with?I remembered the fifth loop. I never saw the changes in the numbers on the elevator. He just appeared from the elevator after a Ding, like an NPC spawning in an online game."An online game?"My head jerked up, and I looked out the window. Outside was pitch-black night, with a scattering of lights in the distance. In the earlier loops, I'd always been too scared to really look outside.In every online game I'd ever played, the map always had edges.I walked to the window and pushed it open. This was the 16th floor. The wind was strong, whipping the curtains so hard they flapped.I leaned out and loo

  • No Exit from the Death Game   Chapter 8

    The sixth loop started."I got played!" I snarled, pushing myself up from the floor, my fingernails digging so hard into the gaps of the wooden floorboards that blood seeped from my fingertips.I got up. This time, I didn't go to the kitchen for a knife. I didn't set up any defenses. I just stood in the middle of the living room, staring hard at the front door.The all-too-familiar sound of footsteps rang out, and the door opened. No. 99 stood in the doorway. He seemed to pick up on the defeat hanging off me."Looks like you drank the coffee." He took off his mask and sat down on the couch. "How'd it taste? Sweet, right? Sweet enough to make you wanna die?""Screw you." I didn't grab a weapon. I just charged at him bare-handed like a rabid dog.He clearly hadn't expected me to snap like that. He instinctively raised the handle of his axe to block my attack.My fist crashed into his face once, twice, thrice. Blood burst across his features."You knew! You knew the peaceful survi

  • No Exit from the Death Game   Chapter 7

    Something was off.I loosened my hands from around No. 99's throat. If killing him could really end the loop and clear the game, then I should've escaped the moment I set the gasoline on fire and finished him off in that round. I should've escaped this game long ago. That meant killing him was not the real condition to win this game.In a flash, I realized there was a crucial detail I'd overlooked—a fatal loophole in the game rules. If I died, I would enter the next loop. If I stayed alive, No. 99 would keep hunting me down until I was dead. Even if I managed to shake him off for a while, he would eventually catch up with me once I ran out of strength.There had to be some kind of hidden "survival time" mechanic in this game. Otherwise, it would be impossible to beat.So, I made a bold guess. As long as I survived long enough in this round, I could win.I tied No. 99 up and just sat there, quietly waiting for time to pass. He stopped struggling, merely looking at me with eyes full

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