15

  LEVEL ONE: THE DRAGON STONES

  REMAINING CONTESTANTS: 9,299,114

  TIME UNTIL CULLING: 55 days

  NAME: JACK REN

  CURRENT RANK: 473,882

  The next day, Cole decides that it’s time to scout out the pass serving as the only way through the eastern mountains. We’re not ready to take on the creatures guarding it, of that, we all agree, but at this point, Cole explains, we’re running on information that’s almost three days old, and we need to know how things have changed. I agree with him, though others don’t. I can tell, however, that the only reason they disagree is because they’re risk-averse. A scouting mission means getting close to the enemy—and that, of course, is dangerous.

  But I’ve already decided that being risk-averse is a fast track to losing this contest, and Cole seems to be in full agreement, and so the two of us decide to head out together, since no one else is interested. Elizabeth volunteers to come, but Cole says that we only need two people. In truth, I suspect he’s concerned about the two of us accompanying him—he’s wondering, in the back of his head, if we might try to ambush him once we’re far away enough from the others. But I have no intention of doing that, and I have my own concerns—when it’s just Cole and I out in the wild, what’s to stop him from using that golden ring of his against me? Regardless of whether or not I pose a threat to him, I’m level five now, and that means that by killing me, he’d almost certainly level up at least once, if not twice.

  So, there’s a palpable sense of tension between us as we set out.

  “So, Jack,” he says, glancing across at me as we trek uphill. “This woman of yours. Sarah. The one they’re holding captive. Tell me about her.”

  At first, I say nothing. I don’t particularly want to tell a man who might be an enemy about Sarah. But opening up like this, I reason with myself, could be a good way to form a friendship with the man—and that is very much in my best interests.

  “What do you want to know about her?”

  “How long were the two of you together?”

  I grit my teeth at the usage of past tense there. The implication that we are no longer together, that we no longer can be together. It’s a small, innocent slip of the tongue, an unconscious choice, and yet it spawns within me a flicker of primal rage.

  “A few years,” I say. “We were engaged. Well. She proposed right before she was taken.”

  “She proposed, huh? Interesting. Pretty, was she?”

  “Is she.”

  “Is, yes, of course, I didn’t mean to—”

  I wave a hand. “It’s fine.”

  “What did she do? For work?”

  “She was a video game designer,” I say. “Worked on a lot of big studio stuff. Games you’d definitely know. She also wrote novels.” I smile a little ruefully. “Fantasy. Horror. That sort of thing. She wasn’t published or anything, not yet, but she was good, and it was only a matter of time, I think, before she broke out.”

  “Geeze, Jack, and now you’re using past tense.”

  I flinch at that, suddenly hating myself, and rapidly divert by asking, “What about you? You got a partner?”

  “Sure I do. A wife. Elena. Lovely lady, although, to be completely honest, our marriage was having some struggles. I’ve wondered a couple of times now if she might actually be relieved I’ve vanished. It’d sure result in a lot less frustration for her. I mean, throughout the course of us being together, she’s probably prayed for me to just disappear at least a hundred times. And now it’s finally happened. And, god damn, do I want to get back to her.”

  “And may I ask…what did they take from you? What are they holding captive?”

  Cole purses his lips. “You know, Jack, I’d really rather not say.”

  Which I can understand, because it’s a vulnerable thing to reveal. Perhaps the most vulnerable. But it still bothers me that he won’t answer the question, especially because he knows what they took from me, and because he’s the one insisting on asking all these questions.

  “Anyway,” Cole says. “It doesn’t really matter. We’re not going to win. Not you, not me. I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be a pessimistic jackass. But let’s be real with ourselves. Ten million of the very best killers in all of existence? And we’re really supposed to think we stand a chance? Naw. I don’t think so. There are some mean motherfuckers out there. Non-humans. Or humans from another age. We’re five days in and I’ve seen some shit. Hell, even take David for example. That guy is unhinged, and dangerous, and he’s crushing it. And guess what?”

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  “What?” I can’t help but ask.

  “He’s only ranked six.”

  I raise my eyebrows. “How do you even know that?”

  Cole grins. “Seems like you have a lot to figure out.” Then he looks straight ahead and says, “What is the current rank of Jack Ren?”

  And immediately, golden words float in front of Cole, displaying my name and rank.

  “See?” Cole says. “It makes sense, when you think about it. They give us access to a good amount of information because that information helps drive their game. It’s all about what makes things the most entertaining. But back to my point. David…well, you saw him. He’d kill us all at once if we ran across him. And yet there are five others out there right now even more dangerous. What does that tell you?”

  I say nothing. I refuse to lose hope. I refuse to be like Cole, already spiritually defeated. I have to believe that I can win. That I am the most dangerous individual in this arena. Maybe I’m delusional. But you have to be delusional if you want to be great. My father said that to me once, and I’ve never forgotten it. It’s probably the only wise thing that drunken bastard ever said to me. His one gift of knowledge, and it’s guided me throughout most of my life.

  We continue in silence for a while, setting a hard and relentless pace. We’re mostly out in the open, crossing grassy hills decorated with boulders and scraggly trees. We stick to cover as much as we can, bent low, using the curves of the hills to our advantage, and praying that no one is looking in our direction.

  The sky is darkening, gray storm clouds gathering high above. They’re the most colossal, imposing clouds I’ve ever seen, impossibly vast, impossibly deep, a sea of slowly drifting smoke that soon blots out the sun. I can smell rain. Just our luck. I have a particularly bad feeling about the storm that’s coming. This isn’t going to be a regular, Earth-bound storm.

  It’s going to be apocalyptic.

  Cole catches me staring up at the clouds and winces. “Yeah, I don’t like the look of that either.”

  “We don’t have long before those things open up,” I reckon.

  “You’re probably right.” He winces again. “But it’s not as though we have a whole lot of cover.”

  “Should we turn back?”

  “I don’t think so. Probably won’t make it in time anyway. And we’ll need to scout soon regardless. Plus, there’s no telling how long the storm might rage for…” Cole sighs. “I think it’s better to reach the mountain pass, see what we can see, hopefully find some shelter, and then return with info.”

  I’m not sure I entirely agree, but for now, I’m content to go along with his plan.

  Around an hour later, it starts to rain.

  Cold, fat drops that explode against my face, stinging my cool flesh. I suddenly and desperately wish I had a cloak—such as the one Cole is wearing now, and which he raises the hood of, protecting his face from the worst of the rain. The wind howls. The few trees around us bend precariously, and I instinctively move away from them, concerned they'll snap in half and crush me. Dirt and dust, caught in the wind, whip at my face.

  But the one good thing is that we’ve made ample progress. The mountains aren’t so far away. Another hour or two and we might have a view of the pass. Or at least, we would, if it weren’t for the intensity of the rain and the fact that, increasingly, it’s harder and harder to see more than ten feet ahead of us. A flicker of lightning illuminates the heavens, followed by thunder so loud that it hurts my ears and seems to echo throughout my bones.

  I feel a burst of fear. I’ve fully accepted that everything that happens here is directly orchestrated for the amusement of the Celestan Empire.

  And that, I have to assume, includes the weather.

  Which just reinforces my suspicion that this is going to be one hell of a storm.

  “We need to find shelter!” I bellow, voice drowned out by the wind and the rain.

  “What?” Cole roars. “What did you say?”

  “Shelter, Cole!”

  Cole shakes his head. “There is none! We have to keep going!”

  I grit my teeth. And then the world goes white.

  Force punches me squarely in the chest, and I stagger backward. My ears are ringing. I blink, confused, disorientated, brilliant white smears imprinted across my retinas. I realize I’m on my hands and knees now, palms covered in mud, and drag myself back to my feet, fighting to stabilize against the wind trying so very hard to drag me back down and pin me. I see, then, that up ahead, a large tree has been struck by lightning. Very little of it remains except for the jagged and blackened remnants of the trunk. Branches and large splinters of wood have been scattered in a wide arc around it. Smoke rises from the stump, quickly extinguished by the rain.

  I’ve never been so close to a lightning strike before. The sheer force and power of nature on full display is enough to make my insides knot in fear. If that lightning had struck a little closer, if it had struck one of us, or the earth around us…

  I swallow hard. We need to find cover as soon as possible, because this isn’t a normal lightning storm. My instincts tell me that this is a deliberate and targeted event. It’s meant to be dangerous. It’s meant to hurt us.

  They’re culling us. Threatening anyone foolish enough to be caught out in the open.

  I meet Cole’s eyes, which are a little glassy in the wake of the strike. I’m sure I have that same, dazed expression. Instead of speaking—and it’s raining even more heavily now, so I doubt I could hear him anyway—he simply points east, toward the mountains.

  The message is clear.

  Let’s keep going.

  Another flash of white. Another burst of thunder.

  I don’t want to keep going. I don’t want to wade any deeper into this storm.

  But then I think, Sarah, I’m coming.

  I grit my teeth, nod at Cole.

  And continue forward.

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