"Persona what the heck are you doing?!" A fimliar female voice nagged me. It woke me up and now that I was up I could feel the chill of my desk press against my cheek. There was a line of drool that dripped from the side of my mouth. I looked up to the student who woke me up. It was no one I knew so I slowly lifted my hand and then brushed her away

"Yeah yeah whatever." I tried to sho her away. I was to tired for this. I was up all night studying something important She remained unmoved and now had an upset look. This girl had long black hair and had a school uniform on.

"Did you just try to sho me!" She hit the top of the desk with a closed fist causing the desk to shake and almost fall over. The desk moved suddenly and made me jump up and out of my seat.

"Serah, you are making a lot of noise again" a student that wasn't dressed in uniform said. Instead of a uniform he wore a jacket. He wasn't really paying attention to anything around him he was to busy listening to the music that came his ear buds. His name was Rail. The only reason I know that is because he was the type of student that the teacher loved to yell at.

"You to?" She turned angerly towards rail. "I came of here because I was tired of his snoring in class!" She pointed at me still keeping her eyes on Rail. The girl was kinda annoying. She was tired of me sleeping in class. What if I was tired of her nagging? Do I have to right to duck tape her mouth shut. It's review anyway. I have an A in the class. This girl could just go jump in a hole.

"Do me a favor and shut up" I said laying my face on the desk again. I was to tired to think. Everything that I would think will come out violent. I needed sleep

"What did you say" the girl said keeping me up. She turned towards me and had an ill ring your stupid neck look on her face. "Say that one more time" her eye twitched

"Shuuut uuuup please!" My lack of sleep was getting to me. I was usually kinder then this. My lack of sleep was not my fault. I got an email from a company whose project I was testing saying that forms that I turned in were corupt and I had to sign a new waver. The waver is forty pages long and took a lot of my sleep. I would have done it after school, if only they didn't need it urgently.

But anyways, she nagged me for a bit and then left. I wasn't going to tell her I wasn't listening. I didn't want her to come back and nag me again. Class started and I quickly went back to sleep. No one was going to stop me mid class. Besides the teacher, but I gambled that the teacher couldn't see that I was asleep behind my books. Today was the day I would be able to test the project with the other 75,000 people that signed up. I didn't want to be tired when I was testing so I took this time of review to sleep

Ding the class bell signaled the class's ending. Every student around me started in random order packing their bags and leaving. I followed after I managed to get up. When I exited my classroom I was on a balcony out side. To my left was a path that on the was was lined with classrooms. On my right were stairs down to leave the school building. In front of me was railing and past that was a drop that led to the schoolyard which was in shape of a circle. Around the schoolyard were mutiple school buildings each one numbered. 1, 2, 3 all the way up to building 8. Each building had two floors and were used for different subjects. I took my time walking down the stairs because I was in no hurry to get to my destination. The company didn't want going to start for another hour so that gave me plenty of time to leave school and walk to the building. The building was in a small town. In front there were big letters plastered to tell the companies name. Wake inc. after the owner Wake who owned the company. It wasn't a very creative name, but the name isn't what mattered. The company strived to change the world. I entered the building to be met with a line. The line was in single file and it led to a desk in the back. The room was ordinary nothing special really popped. The room was empty besides for seats on the sides and the line of people in the middle. The room in my opinion was too green. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all green. I took my place in line and started listening in on some conversations.

"In so excited!" I kids voice screeched.

"How could you not be? So, what did you vote for?" Another male voice asked. On the sign up for the system it said that the company hasn't found out how to split virtual realities yet. So all of the 750,000 people who fined up had to vote on what they would like the virtual reality to be the first time around. I already knew what was the most popular answer.

"I wanted a fantasy setting of course!" The kid said the obvious answer. Most if not all of the people that signed up for this system were gamers and they wanted a virtual world that could so gaming aspects so I wouldn't be surprised if the company put in a leveling system to please the gamers. Fantasy and sifi were the top two, but fantasy managed to beat the other by a big margin. The line moved up. The conversation from the two boys went off in another direction so I got bored and listened in on another.

"I know this can be used for medical reasons, but this is a big breakthrough for gaming as well!" The kid said excited. Well Wake inc. is a video game company so the kid had it backwards. The company made this system for gamers and is just so happens to be a medical breakthrough. The company only brought in gamers to test the product because that was what their target audience was.

"I think you have that backwards. The target is gamers" the other kid confirmed my thought. The line moved up and now I was next in line after a group that was signing up together. They took awhile finding there names on the sign in sheet and jotting down there names. After they all had found their name they were all escorted to the area where we were going to test the project. I hadn't known yet what the project would look like, or what kind of room they would have us in. I could only guess what they had in store for us. I was now the first in line. I walked up and the person tired of his job handed me the paper and pen without saying a word. He was wearing a blue vested uniform and had a hat with the companies name on it. He suspected that I already knew what to do with it. I scanned the list of names looking for a Persona. The list was in alphabetical order so I had an easier time finding it. I signed my name with a pen and gave the paper back to the worker who was picking his nose at the time trying to pass time. Once he got the paper he checked the signature and then I noticed that he was feeling around under his desk for something

"The higher ups need to put this button somewhere more convenient." He said complaining to himself. He searched around until a click was heard. After words a light above his head lit up. I waited for awhile until another person this time female in uniform came up and said

"Right this way sit" she did a slight bow for respect and pointed her hand in the derection she wanted me to go. I followed without a word. She led me through long white hall and into a room. Inside the room further up was a pillar that was as big as a sky scraper. The pillar was the shape of a cylinder and was made up of hundereds of mechines also shaped like cylinders. It looked awesome as the machines lit up with light. As I got closer I noticed that there were people in the machines and people outside of the machines scanning and examining them.

The machines had numbers on them from one to seventy-five thousand five hundred. I was assign to some convoluted number that I'm not going to take the time to remember. The woman left me by my capsule and left. I had the freedom to get in it or look at it because the first test does not start for another thirty minutes. I waited for a bit, but I got bored. I would have went into the machine, but that wouldn't help me with my boredom. I could also examine the machine, but the technology is way above my level. I couldn't leave my machine because I would never remember what number it was. I had no solution to settle the feeling of boredom. All I could do is sit and pick at my ear. After about fifteen minutes you start running out of things to pick so that was the time I took to get into the machine. Inside the machine there was an envelope on the white floor. On the front of the envelope read the word instructions. I picked up the envelope and opened it. Inside was a piece of paper lined with gold. At the top it had the companies name. The envelope had instructions to put little suckers on the temples of my head. I took the time to read the instructions and I did everything it told me. Breath real deap and slowly, relax mustles, and be calm. Those were the instructions. It was important to be calm to make sure the process goes smoothly. Out side the capsule green lights flickered on and off while a alarm sounded. With it was a mature male voice that came through some speakers on the machines.

"Alright everyone! We are about to start." All the machines simultaneously echoed "get to your machines everyone you have one minute!" Everyone started rushing to their capsules and entered them. Most of them were just now picking up the instructions. I was already set up and ready to go I just had to watch a sixty second timer go down. Everyone was about done by the time the timer hit ten seconds and when the timer hit zero, everything went black. And suddenly I regained consciousness in a white room. And when I regained consciousness it wasn't like I woke up, it was like for a long time I was staring of to space discconected from reality and suddenly my view refocused.

In the white room there was two chairs a table and that was it. Behind the each chair was a door that led to two different places. I don't know where they led or why I knew they led to different places, but I just did.

"This is a representation of your body" a voice rang out through the air. The voice was that of a mature female and very electronic. I looked around and saw no one. The voice was coming out of thin air. "Are you prepared?" The woman asked

"Yes" I replied sitting down on one of the chairs "but what exactly am I ready for?" The woman didn't reply. It must have been an automatic response system with fixed responses.

"Beginning to rip consciousness from body" the room seemed heavier. My skin began to fluctuate and block up. Finally it began to tear apart. My body raged with pain. My skin left my body, but there was no blood. My body began to evaporate all at once. And suddenly I was now on a green field. In from of me was a hologram of a person. He was male about my age which was impressive for a company owner, he was tall, and had short messy blond hair. His eyes as a hologram were blue and he wore a lab coat.

"Sorry for the pain. Our team is working on that so that next time there won't be any pain." The man apologized with a voice that was calm and had a free like tone

"I am Wake the creater of this game and owner of the company." The hologram stepped forward, but as its foot stepped down its didn't rustle any grass or make any noise. It was definitely a hologram. "I made this recording so welcome everyone to the game and to also apologize for the inconvenience you experienced. In front of the man popped up a screen. On the screen there was a four pictures "Here select from four different choices for an apology. The first one is a instant level up to level 5. The second one is a starter gear set. The third was obviously the best. It was a intermediate gear set which was good gear once a player was able to equip it. The fourth was to get a random item In the game which was a risk because you could just get a potion or you can get one of the best items. I wanted to take the third set, but something was drawing me to the fourth. I didn't know why, but I felt like I had to get the fourth set. I touched the screen where the fourth set had been. A screen appeared in front of me showing me what item I got. It was a accessory that had really low stats.

I got a dud I thought to myself accepting the item. Then a screen with three colors appeared. Red, Blue, and Green. Under the colors read select one. I selected Green

"Welcome to the game." Wake then fuzzed until the hologram was no longer recognizable and the dissapeared. I was left in the field, but after Wake dissapeared trees formed as well as towns in the distance. The games mobs formed and started acting upon the games set food chain. The wolfs started hunting for rabbits and bees looked for pollen. Also players starting to grind were around me as well. The game started a player off with nothing. Just the starter equipment which was clothes that had zero armor and looked like dirty rags. The fact that the game didn't start me off with a weapon was bad because wolfs were aggressive towards players. In the meadow a wolf looked me in the eye and got into a position so it could make a quick dash for me. The wolf's claws dug into the ground and it started growling

"Not good... Not good" I repeatedly whispered to myself trying to find a way out of the situation. I tried to hold still. It would still see me of course, but it was waiting for me to jump or run. It had a limit of time it was willing to wait before jumping. After a long time of thinking of nothing it jumped and dashed towards me. Stoping for nothing it took a bite out of my leg causing way to much pain for what should be a game. Blood covered my leg around some deep bite marks. The wolf charged again and I ran. It was faster then me it grabbed onto my shirt and tugged ripping it off. Lucky It didn't stop my run, but a screen appeared in front of me that read

clothes top piece broken

I dismissed the screen without stopping and already the wolf was back on my tail. I had no nothing left to do, but to do something risky. I turned around and got into a fighting position. The wolf jumped no spearing any time. I jumped as well, but my jump was more of a dive. I went under the wolf. Once under the wolf passed me from above. I landed on all fours and started running. Now in the opposite direction then before. I wasn't making any progress now that I had to run in this direction. I had to get back on track. I turned running towards the wolf. I knew that trick wouldn't work again I had to risk my life again

This time the wolf didn't jump, but I did. I started to sail past the wolf for a good second until it took my pants in its mouth and threw me off course and planted me onto the ground. I yelled as it sunk its teeth into my arm. Over and over I felt ihe bite get deeper. With my free hand I was beating at the wolf. I was struggling until a player with a beginner set decided to help me. A player took his sweet time to walk up slowly and then plunge his sword into the stomach of the beast. The beast burst into bits of data and left a bag of its drop items.

"Take it." The player said before he left to farm for more exp. I opened the bag to find a wolf's pelt and a wolf's tooth. I was honestly happy that I didn't die, but I had to call some admins about the pain issue. Which should t be this painful for a game. I took a pen out of my pocket. From reading the instructions earlier I know how to open the menu. I took the pen and I made a motion as if tapping a screen that wasn't there. The pen made a tapping noise and stopped hit something invisible mid air. A screen lit up in front of me giving the options status, equipment items, skill tree, quest, and help. I tapped help with the pen and all the options dissapeared and was replaced with new ones,

Call admin, and tutorial. I immediately tapped call admin and a ring started going off.

"Hello" a male voice greeted from behind the screen

"Um hello I have a problem." I talked into the screen "I am experiencing pain in this game."

"Oooh." The voice sounded like it's heard the complaint before. "Would you like me to turn the pain sensors down?"

I grabbed the screen with my hands. "Why is there pain sensors in the first place!" I yelled realizing they put pain into the game on purpose.

"Sir calm down!" He tried to get me to settle down, but it didn't help and then suddenly the call ended. He had hung up on me. I was mad. I closed the screen and started walking towards the the town. Passing players hunting down rabbits and wolfs. All of the players didn't pay anymind to me. Well all but one. This guy walked past me and bumped my arm. He turned fast as if it was on purpose and grabbed onto my collar. This player was about my age. About sixteen, he was wearing a silver armor and had red spiked hair.

"Watch it! Do you know what this is?" He put a hand on his armor. "It's a beginning set and get who just got it dirty?" He put his finger on my chest "I'm going to take all of your items to compensate for the trouble you gave me ok?!"

"Are you immature?" I was still mad and I didn't have time for this. I had no items besides the accessory and the wolf's items.

"What are you. Going to do to me." He put emphasis on the words you and me.

Without another word I took the wolf's tooth out of my pocket and sunk it five inches deep into the players shoulder blades.

"Arrrrgh!" The player began cursing as he walked back in pain.

"So how about those pain sensors." I said sarcastically.

He ran at me in anger and raised his sword "I hope you like respawning!" I got out the wolf pelt and threw it his sword went through the wolf pelt and the shredded pieces went into his eyes and his charge stopped. I charged him and put him on his back. My legs were holding his arms while I tried to pry the sword away from his clutch. I took a note from the wolf's book and took a bite out of the players arm.

"Aarrrrgh!" His grip lossened I got the swords and finished him off. Under me lay a bloody headless body for a good three minutes before it exploded into data.

"Be a little nicer next time." A screen appeared before me and read

Level up for more information got to the status menu and the skill tree menu. I closed the screen not wanting to wait and I walked away from the bloody meadow. But as I started walking my body began to pixalize and the pixals were being carried off to a different destination. Being physically deconstructed unable to use my eyes, arms, and legs for a minute was scary because I felt powerless. I finally was reconstructed in a roman colosseum with a couple hundred thousand other players all confused about what's going on. There were numerous

"Do you know what's going on" being exchanged throughout the crowd and people asking if player are able to get through to the help support or admins. Admits the confusion the ground in middle of the colosseum opened up and from underneath a screen rose to the surface. The force of the screen rising made the ground crack and open up. The stadium began to tilt. The screen turned on mid rise. The whole screen was not even fully surfaced. The screen showed a white room that was empty but for a wooden chair.

"What the hell is going on!" I could make out one of the voices for the outraged crowd that was so loud that it was hard to hear my thoughts. From the screen a mic boomed

"Hello. Hello" the way the voice came from the mic louder then all of the crowd combined. The voice was calm.

"Woo" a tall blonde haired guy in a lab coat appeared on screen running to the fair with his hands up in the air for celebration. It was Wake. He knocked down thale chair with his foot in a carefree attitude.

The crowd around me stood silent now looking at the screen. There could be a few whispers heard, but nothing that would distract from the screen.

"Wow your all alive!" He yelled with joy. "Well most of you." The whispers around me go louder and more active. People were trying to put things together.

"The machine was never tested and had a great chance of killing a lot of you, but only 17,320 of the players died before the game even started." He laughed like it was no big deal, but in reality he just admitted to a mass killing that had a chance to kill a lot more. People were outraged yelling at the screen. Wake continued ignoring the outrage.

"You should have seen the fried bodies! Woo! Unrecognizable" he smiled as he picked up the chair he kicked down and sat in it. "Well sacrifices had to be made right? For the sake of the ultimate game right?"

What the hell ultimate game?

Without stopping he continued

"If you can now see your in a game and are not getting out anytime soon. Haha possibly forever. But since there usually is a way to complete a game... Weeeellll" wake put a lot of emphasis on the well as his head slowly went horizontal. "The only way for you all to get out in one piece is for you all to kill each other really quite simple."

Wake pulled up a screen and rested in on his leg as he sat in the chair. The screen had three colors blue, green, and red.

"You all selected a color when you joined the game." He was right "People that chose red are on red team blue on blue and green on green team. The only way a player can win this game is" he paused for effect "too kill every last player on the opposing teams."

He swiped his finger on the screen to bring up the next slide. Showing a poorly drawn stick figure man laying down with a skull and cross bones above the body

"Of course this game wouldn't be too much fun if there was no risk! So to make sure this game is intense as can be. If a player dies our machine fries your brain! Yay! So if you die in the game you die in real life. Ok next!"

While singing his last sentence he swiped the screen again going to a slide with a stick figure with a question mark on its head. People weren't paying much attention anymore and were yelling crying and screaming

"All players who who got killed before this announcement are dead. Just because you don't know the rules doesn't mean you get off scotch free." I choked on those words. That had meant that the player I killed was never going to resapwn. I was a murderer. My hand were starting to sweat and my stomach started to turn.

"For those who killed someone through pvp I am giving a special gift. Good luck." Wakes smile turned into a frown and he looked more serious and angry for a second and while he looked like this in a serious tone said "and welcome to the game" the screen shut off and there was silence between all the players. Not even a whisper. All the players clothes started to change into the color of their team. No one dared break the silence, until

"Ahhhh!" Everybody turned to see a blue players head decapitated and behind him was a green player with a bloody sword. All at once everyone started screeming as players started attacking players of the opposing teams. I had to get out, but I couldn't move. I was afraid of what was going to happen in here. I fell to knees and before I could do anything else a message appeared in front of me. In front of the message it read before announcement kill prize. The message opened its self and it had a picture of a person in a machine. The face was shriveled and unrecognizable... Except for the red hair on top of its head... It was the player I killed. I lost my lunch. On the bottom right hand corner of the message there was a hologram of Wake like he was a cartoon dancing some goofy dance and he sung

"You are a murderer you are a murderer" over and over to drive the point in. All around me was chaos

"You are a murderer you are a murderer"

The chaos didn't settle for a whole week and 224,000 players died

... Player count 508,680/750,000