Day 0 Chapter 2: Game Over

Everything was white. Rip had expected everything to be black since that's how dying had always been described. But then again, he thought, maybe I died so fast I'm already in that supposed light at the end of the tunnel or whatever. No wait a second, it feels like I'm lying on my back?

"Hello dead people!" A loud voice that sounded like it was coming from a set of speakers suddenly broke Rip from his thoughts and caused him to bolt upright. "Could everyone please wake up quickly and bring your attention to the stage so we can begin post-death procedures."

It turns out Rip was in some sort of large white room with vague boundaries. Looking around he could see other people getting up from the ground all over, and he found a large black stage over where he heard the voice coming from, with two very large speakers on either side. On top of the stage were three people; all human and wearing identical red hoodies. The one in the center was holding a mic and speaking into it.

"Come on people get up quickly, we only have so much time due to having to process so many of you in a short period. Can someone pull up that one in the back over there? Oh so you are awake, good that seems like everyone. Now if you could stop talking, yes I know some of you are confused, that's what I'm here for." As the group of people quieted down, he gave them one last look over before continuing.

"So I'm Jake, a Reaper, and these are my fellow Reapers Trish and Ron. Yes that kind of Reaper; the classic cloaked skeleton with a scythe was purely artistic license. So the reason you're all here is that there was a sudden attack at the ACME Medical Research Hospital, lots of explosions and all of you got caught up in it one way or another." Rip only vaguely recalled he was driving by there at the time, he was annoyed that he had to die without being able to do anything about it but since there wasn't anything he could do about it he wasn't going to complain. "The sudden surge of people was unexpected enough that we had to split everyone into group explanations instead of one-on-one, so please pay attention to what I'm about to go over. Well the basics will be available on your smart devices for review, but I'll be adding a few of my own tips as well. Oh and if you didn't have any smart devices with you when you died, you'll be provided a fairly basic smartphone soon enough." At this Rip checked his pockets real quick, and sure enough his phone was with him, he also found a weird button pin he didn't remember having. He unlocked his phone real quick to check what still worked and frowned when he saw that nearly all the apps and functions had been removed, and a few that he'd never seen before were added to his home screen.

"So getting to the main point of things," the Reaper continued, "you guys were lucky enough to die right before the end of the recruitment period for the Reapers' Game." This caused a small commotion to break out among the crowd as people were complaining about being forced into playing some game right after dying. It was short lived when the Reaper purposely tapped the microphone hurting everyone's ears and silencing them. "Please don't interrupt we're on a time crunch since it's right at the end. Now you don't have to participate if you don't want to, but if you don't then you face the same fate as anyone who dies at any other time: Erasure. Your soul will dissipate and scatter and that will be the end for you, period."

So basically play or face oblivion, thought Rip; not exactly a fair choice.

"I know this doesn't exactly seem fair, but the after life isn't the infinite expanse people always imagined. So the Reapers' Game exists to test the worthiness of peoples' souls; whether they deserve a place in the afterlife, or in some rare cases a second chance at actual life. That's right! If you show exceptional promise you just might be revived, so I bet you folks sure are interested now."

A few murmurs broke out in the crowd, though people seemed to keep their voices down after having their ears hurt from the last interruption. A number of people seemed skeptical, and Rip wasn't any different. No way it's simple or there would be a bunch of stories of people coming back from the dead.

"Mhmm mhmm I thought so, but that's one of the rarest outcomes of the game, in fact most of you will probably end up erased during the course of it. Before you even play though there is a slight catch: all Players must pay an entry fee which acts like more of a refundable deposit." The direction of the crowd's whispers changed again at this statement, mostly about how they were being expected to pay a fee after they just died.

Choosing to ignore the crowd the Reaper kept talking over them. "Just to clarify, we're not talking about money, not necessarily. Each person's entry fee will be whatever they value most. It can be something material like a keepsake, or immaterial like a precious memory. You don't even need to have it on you, the top Reapers are capable of claiming it from anywhere in the world, and as long as you survive until the end of the game it will be returned in the same condition as when it was claimed. If you get erased during the game however, you better hope your entry fee wasn't something that affects the family you left behind."

There was surprisingly little talk after this info was revealed. Most likely everyone is trying to figure out what's going to be taken. Like for me… Rip thought for a few seconds about what was most important to him. Looking back on his actions, he figured it had to be the acknowledgement and approval his father was finally giving him. Great so if I fail I wonder if he'll even want to bother with my funeral.

"So that covers the conditions of entry. If you think the entry fee will harm your family too much you can still choose Erasure after hearing the rules." This was probably the part that most people were waiting for. The entry fee seemed like the catch for a chance at revival, but with it being returned at the end the real problem was the difficulty of the game based on the rules.

Notes:

So this took longer than I would have liked, partially because it was originally longer, but since it ended up as basically an exposition chapter that only explained the game's rules, I cut it short and decided to add the other scenes as flashback for the next couple of chapters. My first LU OC will be appearing in soon to partner with Rip, and I plan to have him appear in several of my other works in AUs, including one I'm (going to try) picking up from someone else on DA (I have their permission). I'm kind of nervous about it because I'm going to be making some changes to their original work to fit him into the world, and I really liked the original, plus I'm certain fans of the original will get nasty once I start. However I also want to see those versions of the characters develop and grow, plus part of the changes are to allow Rip to have an expanded role, and I really feel he should have a chance at his own story. Anyways, for now I'm working purely on my own stuff until my skill/confidence as a writer.