Level one
"Emily." The word kept on repeating in Joe's head.
"How's that possible? What's going on?"
'The Main Building'
Nick marched towards Emily's room.
"Why are you doing this?" He had tears in his eyes.
"Isn't the scene beautiful?" Emily chuckled.
"It's horrifying. How could you? He thinks of you as his wife!" Nick was enraged.
"Oh no, he is the perfect test subject!" Emily smirked.
Nick's eyes widened as he realized what was happening.
"It wasn't a simulation. The memories just weren't added to his head. He lived it. You cloned yourself." He cupped his mouth with his hands as tears started flowing out of his eyes.
"Seems impossible, right? But that's correct. I did exactly what you said."
Nick stammered as he questioned her.
"W-what was the s-sacrifice you w-were talking about?"
"You'll see. It's another test clone."
"So evil." Nick slumped on the ground, his face in his hands, as he was unable to accept the truth, to contemplate the reality.
'Tea Time'
Joe was still deep in thought, with his cup of hot coffee now gone cold, still in his hands.
Suddenly, his phone's screen lightened up with an incoming message.
Joe rolled his eyes as he sighed, "Not again."
He looked at the message.
"You've recovered your health. You're ready to head on to the real battle, level one."
And just like that, the world around him changed as he entered another world.
Nick entered the Cafe after an hour.
He didn't find Joe there.
"So it already began, huh? She sure is fast." His eyes seethed with rage and his fists clenched in anger.
Joe found himself in a glass box. Trapped. He couldn't get outside. The world was wide and dark, endless, resembling the universe.
"A black hole." Joe whispered.
He touched the glass. It cracked a little.
"This is surprising. I thought I needed to break it up with the power I was given."
He touched the cracked part of glass again. The whole box shattered.
"A wound once can be withstood, but continuous wounds in the same area with eventually destroy it." Joe remembered how Emily used to speak these words to him.
Emily smirked as she repeated the same words with Joe.
"How cruel." Nick was biting his fingernails. "I need to see how she's monitoring the situation. I don't want it to turn worse than it already is."
But he was just a guide. What could he possibly do?
Joe took a step in the darkness.
It was pitch black. He couldn't see anything. The little light that the glass box had been emitting was also gone now.
"How am I supposed to fight this off? I don't see any routes of escape."
He saw something shining in the darkness. The light was approaching him.
His eyes widened and he gaped at the figure. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"E-Emily?"
"It's me. It really is me."
Joe snapped out of it.
"Don't try to fool me. What have you done? I don't understand any of it!" He shouted.
"What do you mean, what have I done? Aren't you happy to see me again?"
"I was so desperate that I accepted to play this foolish game in order to see you. I wanted to meet you, probably thinking of dying in a way I wouldn't regret."
"I know. You'll definitely not have a regretful end." Emily smiled at him.
"You give me the creeps. What's the truth?"
Emily kept on walking towards him.
She didn't stop for a second.
She pulled out a knife from under her skirt.
Joe realized he didn't have his deck of cards. Nor his phone with him.
He held a knife in his hands.
Emily kept on advancing towards him. She reached him and put a knife to his throat.
"What will you sacrifice?" She smirked.
"Yourself or your love?"