All Chapters of No Exit from the Death Game: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

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 c

Beep!I took a sharp inhale, like someone breaking the surface after nearly drowning.[Fourth loop over. Player has died. Remaining attempts before game over: 6]I lay limp on the bed, staring at the ceiling, my heart pounding out of control. That instant of dying had felt way too real—so real that I could still smell my own flesh, charred and burnt.I'd gambled on the idea that even though that "killer" was a copy of me with my memories and my thought patterns, he was still a separate entity.If he were just an NPC generated by the game, then after getting blown up, he should reset and respawn in the next loop. But what if, in this death-loop game, he was an actual independent life form? What if he were someone like me, another player bound by the same rules?I rolled out of bed, rushed into the living room, and grabbed my phone from the corner. The whole process of my last death was recorded clearly on it.I watched myself die. Because gasoline vapor was actually more flammabl

"What?" I exclaimed, feeling like I'd been struck by lightning."There's no winner in this game." He lifted the axe and stalked toward me. "Either you kill me, or you get killed by me. Those are your only options. Because only by killing the you from the past can the you from the future stay alive.""So, for my future self to live… I'm the one who has to die?" I stared hard at that face that was identical to mine, my brain spinning. "You're saying that to stay alive, you have to kill me over and over again?""That's the rule." The "me" in front of me let out a cold laugh and lifted the axe again. "If you don't manage to clear the game by the end of the tenth loop, the system will take you in. You'll become the next hunter, and you'll be dropped into countless parallel timelines to hunt down the next round of 'you.' You'll never see freedom again."I used to be like you. I tried to find a bug in the game and tried to take the hunter down with me." A flash of sorrow passed through No

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

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