On the way I renewed discussion about the stimulant and learned about people who take the pills, whose magic has unusual nature and types. The unusualness comes from possessors of magic being born without magical sensitivity and abilities originally.

  The first type is called anomalous or mutational: person gains abilities from being in epicenter of very powerful mass spell, exposure to forbidden magic, and so on. Roughly speaking, the consequences are so huge that a magical gene is acquired. Only 1 in 1000 survive this, but the power gained is often quite impressive and you're recognized as part of magical world.

  The second type is even rarer than the first, and the only one that can make you a target for elimination from above: connection with demonic entity. There are some number of demons who for various reasons relocated to our material world. In order to maintain their power, they need to feed on human souls, which they can't do directly because their activity would be noticed immediately and special magicians would be sent to destroy them. This forces them to make deals with humans, sharing their power in exchange for the supply of souls. Exact conditions and granted power are never known, for obvious reasons humans always hide such connection. Only the general principle of the selection of humans is known: they must be in real despair and under threat of death, but details are also missing.

  The third type is safest and most common: true faith in god and higher powers. I still didn't understand how it works, but if you're deemed worthy, they'll contact you, enlighten you to true world structure and you'll be granted sacred magic, but only while your faith remains strong. Most often such people become something like paladins and work on destroying dark entities, including demons.

  It was interesting to listen, but I only understood that something from this was very unlikely for me... And not needed.

  ##

  The drive took twenty-five minutes. We almost arrived when Jane stopped quarter street before navigation point. I looked at her questioningly.

  "You'll stand by the car and watch the area. If anything—run to me and yell."

  "Why so far?"

  "If this thing hits an area, it could easily destroy the whole house and surroundings, and no pill would save you. Can't risk that, let's go."

  Jane puts on a dark cloak, we check the equipment once more and get out of the car.

  "Can I at least stand closer? Takes twenty seconds to run to you," I complained.

  "No, it's too risky and someone needs to watch the car. Don't worry, I sense no one and checked the territory twice with familiar, no one's here."

  "Okay... But if anything happens—it's your fault."

  She ignored my jab, told me not to go anywhere and walked forward. Since she's not worried about entering someone's property, probably that house belongs to the dead participant.

  Fine, I'll do my best, I thought, looking around.

  Turns out this isn't really a residential area: no cars, some warehouse nearby, abandoned construction, unclear buildings. Only one more house far away. No people accordingly.

  While I study the surroundings, Jane jumps the fence and disappears from view. This adds discomfort, but I ignore the worrying feeling.

  Do you want to win the Game? The thought hits me out of nowhere. I want to think about it but catch how absurd it is first.

  "Don't even care how, why would I need this?" I answer aloud to break the silence. "I'm not a mage, this status means nothing to me."

  That's impossible, only a mage can put on the bracelet, consciousness echoes for some reason.

  "Really wish so, but seems the system's so stupid that my 0.004% magical energy was enough for activation. And I definitely don't want to be part of the magical world."

  But it means you already became part of it and didn't die. That doesn't just happen. Either you want to win, or someone needs this.

  "John, what nonsense? My sister should win, and I want to erase memory of all this trash and return to normal human life."

  Don't you think if that was possible, it would have happened already? A normal person just can't survive, especially in the Game.

  "No, there's no merit of mine here: Boar just liked stretching pleasure, and with Paul got lucky due to his insanity and Caroline's arrogance. The only reason I'm still here is the idiot observer."

  What if he's deliberately doing nothing and enjoying... an amusing show? This adds to all the supposedly impossible things you described.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I want to refute and dismiss these thoughts again... When I suddenly realize that this isn't in my head at all and the questions aren't in my voice.

  My heart skips a beat, I grab the Glock and turn around—at arm's length stands an unfamiliar girl leaning against the car and studying me with interest.

  I instantly aim the gun at her head and am about to shoot, but the barrel passes through her head like she's a ghost. This completely throws me.

  "Why kill right away? We had such a nice conversation," she sighs disappointed and steps back. "Put the gun away, you'll just waste bullets."

  "Who the hell are you? How did you get into my mind?" I ask threateningly.

  "My name is Eva, nice to meet you, John," she answers friendly. "And I'm just a Game participant like you."

  I can't help firing—the sound carries down the street, but the bullet... dissolves, passing through the girl's head.

  "What the fuck?!" I'm even more stunned.

  "I told you you'd just waste bullets," she shook her head. "Calm down, I'm not going to and can't harm you."

  "All participants I've met intended to kill me one way or another," I take a few steps back. "So what are you doing here and why digging in my head?"

  "I've been just observing for three nights now," Eva said calmly. "I was scouting the city outskirts, came upon this place and noticed very strange things. By chance, you also appeared here and seemed interesting to me, which turned out to be true."

  Seems she lost access to my thoughts if she's talking this way. Need to get some information and call Jane, I quickly decide.

  "Are you not human?" I ask distrustfully.

  "Hah, you really had nothing to do with the magical world. Very interesting..." she drawled. "You're seeing a regular harmless illusion, easy to dispel but hard to detect. Any mage would understand this."

  "A regular illusion that digs in heads?"

  "Those are my special abilities, which I won't reveal to anyone," she smiled. "I got extremely interesting information and now know more about the Game's progress, so thanks."

  How cynical.

  "That I'm a normal person who's wanted to remove the bracelet for three nights?" I mockingly parody her words. "And how will this help you win if I soon stop being a participant?"

  "I'm sure it's not as simple as you think. In our world such extraordinary events can't just happen, especially within the Game. Someone needs you to be right here right now and possibly hearing these words from me. This is a factor that will influence the course of the Game tremendously."

  "Well, if so... Does this 'someone' randomly want you to tell me about the strange things here? For more influence," I said suspiciously and sarcastically.

  "It is very dangerous to stand here openly," she said suddenly seriously. "Many unclear... entities hide here. I couldn't get close enough to them, but judging by their strict organization, I think they're somehow controlled by a participant who's somewhere unclear. Your sister looks strong, hopefully she'll handle them easily."

  If Eva isn't lying, this could be called success. Though then she's openly counting on pitting this unknown and Jane against each other... and in that case, I'm even more nervous.

  "What entities...?"

  "They look like people, but I'm not sure. I can't say anything else useful, and I've learned everything I wanted to. Be careful, you clearly got their attention with that shot. I think we'll meet again."

  Finishing speaking, she waved her hand and quickly dissolved in the air, winking at the end.

  Very strange girl... Good thing I didn't reveal anything really important, the rest is her guesses. In any case, need to tell Jane everything immediately.

  I turn toward that house and immediately raise the Glock—in front of my eyes, from about the third floor of one of the unfinished buildings, two human figures jump down and block the path. They're about 60 feet away, tall, wearing long dark robes. Striking that this happened absolutely silently.

  "Who are you?" I shout, waving the gun. No response follows.

  Some crackling sounds behind me, I carefully turn my head—at about the same distance two more figures appear behind and one to the side. I end up in a kind of semi-circle.

  Well, I guess she wasn't lying, I thought, trying to calm my wildly beating heart and not collapse from fear. My other hand reaches for the pill pocket... but at the last moment I stop. I want to avoid them if possible, and they won't wait five minutes anyway.

  Just need to reach Jane, with her speed she'll quickly come and take them on. Only the two in front are obstacles.

  I take a deep breath and dash forward, intending to wound or shoot them. Suddenly, they do the same in sync with me, only much faster, and in my peripheral vision I see the other three moving in unison with them. This hits my confidence, but there's nowhere to retreat.

  One of those in front makes a dash and jumps high towards me. I react quickly and fire three bullets at him, two of which hit his torso... with no effect. At the last second I manage to roll—he only grazes my palm and lands softly on the road. The pain is quite sharp, like being slashed by large claws, but bearable.

  I scream Jane at the top of my lungs, barely dodging a very wide swing from the second figure. The unknown tries to knock me down, I dodge and fire five shots into his back while running.

  Stupor hits me: the bullets definitely hit, but the figures make no sounds, also no blood or loss of mobility. Since the bullets are magical, can assume these aren't mages and their power doesn't depend on magical structure. And that's very bad news.

  I run no more than 10 feet when the jumper leaps back into the air and lands right in front of me. Reflex kicks in immediately and I empty the remaining bullets into his head, moving to the right.

  I call Jane for help again, frantically load a new magazine and turn to assess success. The figure comes at me with the same speed, but my shots have managed to pull back the hood of the robe.

  What I see sends me into shock, I try to hold back vomit: looking at me is a completely gray, literally rotting face of indeterminate gender, with a swollen nose, black pits for eyes, elongated ears and missing lips. But most terrifying—the whole head is covered in that same symbol seen in the petals, like tattoos. These signs "absorb" the bullets, regenerating even small damage. Not only is this not a mage, it's clearly not human.

  Fuck, probably even a whole magazine to the head won't help here, the thought crosses. Doesn't help that in these fifteen seconds of fighting the number of entities behind doubled. All of them rush towards me, some of them already preparing to jump. They're about to catch me, the pill doesn't take effect immediately, and Jane has disappeared again.

  Let's hope you weren't exaggerating about artillery, I thought, pulling out the Deagle and firing into the center of the entity crowd.