CHAPTER FIVE

"John?" Kai whispered, "do you know who that is, James?". They were back in Agatha's room

James hesitated for second, he felt uncomfortable hearing that name again "He is a close friend of Pierre, calls himself a patriot but he's far from it."

"You don't seem to like him." Noel pointed out,

'I really don't," James sighed out "He's the second self-absorbed man I've met."

"How so?" Kai asked, His usual smile was still there—but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"John is ◾◾◾◾◾◾◾, but I know he is ◾◾◾◾◾◾◾."

The room flickered—just for a second. Like a bad signal.

Noel and Kai exchanged confused looks—the middle of James's sentence had been censored, like a glitch. "What? Could you repeat that" Noel asked, he had this weird feeling, but he ignored it.

"of course, I said ◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾◾." Again James words were censored.

"Warning! A virus has been detected! Prepare for emergency ejection." The familiar robotic sounded out, Kai had on an irritated expression but changed it when Noel looked at him.

"What?" Was the last thing Noel said before he felt a splitting headache, when the ache calmed down, he found Kai and himself back in the room with the numbered doors.

"Kai, are you alright?" He frantically asked with a worried expression, Kai smiled fondly at his best friend.

"I'm alright. We're back." Kai noted after looking around.

"Yeah, the robot mentioned something about a virus." Noel agreed and pointed out his worries

"At least the virus didn't kill us." Kai attempted to joke.

"Due to the occurrence of a virus, all games will be stopped until further notice." The robotic voice spoke out, Noel and Kai noticed people coming out of different doors at the same time, majority of them look like they just witnessed World War 1 firsthand.

"Players should follow the passageway and find their designated room. Each room contains a total of two people." the machinelike voice said, the entrance door opened.

"Please do as instructed." The voice came again. Following the instructions of the voice, the players followed the passageway, there were doors attached to the walls on each side; on each of the doors two set of names were written on it.

Using their common sense, the players entered the rooms, which was unsurprisingly unlocked, with their names written on them.

Noel and Kai eventually found their own room; they were roommates, Shocking!

The room was average size at best, not really suited for two people rooming there but it's not like they packed any stuff.

Across the door to the room were two single size beds placed next to each other; the beds were already covered by a bedsheet; against the wall on the right was a brown single-sided wardrobe. A door was adjacent to the wardrobe, probably the bathroom. There was a wall clock hanging above the beds; the current time read 5:22 and finally a ceiling fan on…the ceiling.

"Noel, look." Kai called out while showing the forgotten watch on his wrist, before the pixelated number was zero but now it's 16.

"Oh!" Noel exclaimed while also checking his own; the number on his watch was also 16.

"What does the number mean?" Noel asked rhetorically.

"Is this how many more days we must live," Kai let out a little dramatic gasp before continuing "What if it's not days but hours." Kai exclaimed dramatically

"Highly doubt but it's still a possibility" Noel thought for a second, "Miss robot, what does the number on our watches mean?" He called out; unsure of whether the robot will answer

"Players earn points after the completion of a game. The points are then displayed on your watches." the robot speaker answered

"But we never completed our game." Noel voiced out his confusion, why do they have points if they didn't complete the second game, was this for the first game? But they did absolutely nothing.

"I cannot give any information regarding that."

"Is this because of the first game?" Noel asked instead meanwhile also wondering why it cannot give out information about that.

"no."

…well, that was quick. Was it because of the virus? But why would a virus give them points.

"isn't it too stressful to be calling her a robot all the time, why not ask for a name?" Kai spoke; he looked bored; like really bored while lying down on one of the beds

"You ask it." Noel retorted; the robot speaker's name was the least of his concern.

"Robot! What's your name?" Kai asked out, why he whispered--we'll never know.

"You can identify me as 001."

"…that sounds like so sci-fi kind of stuff. Are there more of you, like 002 or even 000." Kai got more excited as he kept talking.

"I cannot answer that."

"Aww…boo." Kai whined which earned him a disgusted expression from his friend, Noel.

"Players are free to roam around or choose to go to the shopping mall." 001 says.

"a shopping mall?" Noel looked at Kai who was now staring at the content of the wardrobe "Should we go there?" he continued to ask.

"…hmm, sure, there's nothing in the wardrobe." Kai agreed while backing away from the empty wardrobe.

"'Kay let's go look for it." Noel suggested since both obviously had no idea where the mall was.

The duo walked out their room and just choose a random direction; down the passageway, they followed that way till they eventually found an automatic double door with a huge neon sign on top of it; the sign said 'SHOPPING MALL'

"Yay, we're here." Kai cheered; Noel took the first step towards the doors and as expected they opened automatically due to its motion detectors

They were welcomed by the normal sight of a shopping mall; it didn't look any different from your usual shopping mall.

"…so, what should we get?" Kai asked, his eyes moving between the different section.

"Maybe we'll start with some clothes, then food." Noel proposed

"What about toiletries?" Kai questioned, it was a reasonable question, it was hard to tell if they were provided toiletries in their room.

"Yeah sure" Noel agreed whilst looking for the clothing section; "Ah! Found it" He exclaimed after noticing the clothing section.

Looking through the various clothing along with a few unknown players, Noel carefully looked for the most suitable shirt first

"…Kai, how 'bout this one?" Noel asked while holding out a plain blue T-shirt, Kai felt the material of the shirt, "soft." he commented.

"Oh! what's this?" Kai questioned after noticing a white tag attached to the hem of the shirt. There was a text written in red on the tag; price:2 points 

"We pay with our points?" He asked to no one in particular.

"Seems so. Now we have to be careful of what we buy." Noel concluded.

And like that the duo went about buying their necessities; at the end of their shopping spree, they've a total of 26 points on three pieces of clothing for each of them, a couple of snacks, four soap, two sponge and two shampoo and some other cheap things.

They went over to the cashier with their things in a cart. The cashier is an average man with little stumbles spread across his jaw, he wore a unique man bun.

"Is this all you'll be buying gentlemen?" The cashier asked with a bit of an accent that neither of the duo could pinpoint.

"yep." Kai chirped; The cashier scanned their items and put them in a white plastic bag

"Your total comes to 26 points." The cashier announced, "so who is paying?" he asked.

"We want to split it; like I'll pay 13 and he'll pay 13 too." Noel answered, the cashier nodded his and pointed towards their watches, The duo displayed their watches to him and watched in curiosity as the cashier grabbed a different scanner from the one he used previously and scanned the screen of their watches. The number on their watches changed from 16 to 3 quickly.

"Thanks for shopping." The cashier chanted monotonously.

Noel grabbed the plastic bag from the counter then proceeded to leave the mall along with his friend, Kai.

"Noel, I'm so tired." Kai whined as soon as they left the mall; "Can't you just sing me to sleep." he demanded.

"No.", He was obviously shut down instantly by Noel,

"Why not." Kai grumbled, despite his pouting face looking cute and childish; Noel was not moved in the slightest.

"…We're here." Noel announced when they arrived Infront of their room door, indirectly ignoring Kai's whining.

"Um, Noel?" Kai called in a manner. Noel tactically ignored him, assuming Kai was just trying to be annoying, after entering and placing their goods on the bed which Noel has silently claimed.

"What?" Noel said, feeling a twinge of guilt after Kai's silence; "it better not be about your lullaby; I am not doing that." He continued quickly before Kai could get a chance to answer.

"I wasn't though. I…just…never mind." Kai's voice shook a little as he mumbled out those words, He sat on his bed, looking a little disheartened. This was a complete 180° from Kai's previous tone.

Noel sat down beside Kai on his bed and stared closely at his best friend, "What's wrong?"

"…it's just…everything been so overwhelming; everything finally sinking in, and I feel like if I'm not careful I'll lose you in one of these games." His voice cracked when he started talking about losing Noel.

Noel froze, it never fully sunk into his mind that he could die, looking at Kai now he noticed his glossy eyes.

"Kai, please don't cry." Noel pleaded, he doesn't really see Kai cry often so seeing him with tear filled eyes, he felt a wave of discomfort in his heart.

"Then don't die Noel." Kai wailed; little droplets of tears trickled down both his cheeks.

Letting out a sigh Noel thought of ways to calm his friend down; "I'm not going to die, you crybaby."

"I'm not a crybaby." Kai sniffles, wiping his tears away with his arm.

Noel let out a chuckle, "Sure you're not."

Kai's glare towards Noel was softened by the layer of tears covering his eyes "you're the worst."

Noel let out a little smile, he wrapped one arm around Kai's shoulder pulling him into a side embrace.

"That also goes for you. I don't want you to die either." Noel whispered but it was heard by Kai.

The sat in silence for a while, occasional sniffles from Kai were heard; Noel released Kai from his embrace and stared at the ceiling fan before taking a breath.

"We should get some sleep." Noel continued; Kai dried his tears with his sleeves then fell face flat on his bed.

"Whatever." Kai's words were muffled from his mouth being blocked by the bed. Noel got up and quickly found the light switch and turned it off; laid on his own bed but he didn't go to sleep immediately.

Kai's words played in his head like a broken recorder, he didn't want that; he didn't want to die nor did he want Kai to die.

With that thought ringing in his mind; Noel slowly drifted off.

The players were woken from their sleep by the loud ringing of a bell.

"Good morning players, the third game will commence shortly." 001 broadcasted. Majority of the players were woken up from their sleepy state at the mention of the third game.

"Please follow the neon signs to the location."