The Zero Countdown

Chapter 4: Rigged Game

The moonlight embracing gracefully shining down the window is one of the main reasons why the five-star hotel Silverfolsage is a highly regarded place of stay in the red-light district.

At the arrival of dusk, the building's position is in the perfect angle where the twilight establishes an ideal atmosphere in the room, which people seek during their love-making night.

It's just Elyon couldn't wrap around his head how a high school girl like Brina could get access in such an expensive room.

Either way, asking her the details means prying into her life. What he did was take a bath after Brina got out of the shower room and thankfully, Brina handed her a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt as his outfit.

She assured their odorous clothes that absorbed all their sweat during their constant sprint earlier are replaced so they can have a nice refreshing stay.

"What took you so long? Did you do it with my bathwater because you can't hold yourself sharing a hotel room with a high school girl?" Brina teased him a little bit, though her tone's quite on the serious side.

"No way! I can never commit such an immoral act. I mean, I had a daughter too..." Elyon was reminded of the family he lost.

Even though she intended to lighten up the mood, Brina realized what he meant and felt bad for making him reminisce so she changed the topic right away.

"Ah... So anyway, let me share what I know in this rigged game... The Zero Countdown." She combs her glistening hair and curls her sideburns, looking at herself in the mirror just like any other girl.

Explaining the information she had gathered before even the game started, unlike Elyon who accepted the offer of the Unknown Entity out of desperation, Brina had an ample conversation with the mysterious voice who's playing the strings of consciousness and existence.

Standing on the same platform as the other people who were taken in the game because they drew the short straw called despair, Brina left the red-light district at that time together with a bearded man beside her.

"Well then, my sweet cutie Brina. Go home now and buy something nice for yourself."

The man clings to her yet she pushed him aside with a sharp grimace on her face, yet she still grabbed the stack of money from his hand and hid what she got in her pocket.

"Fine. Don't ever bother me again." Brina casually went on her way towards the adjacent street, her face glues to her smartphone all the time she's accompanied by the man.

"Still cold eh? I know you'll be my woman soon!"

He asserted and his declaration had made Brina disgusted of a r****e's l**t. Though she waved her hand acting nice because she knew her work very well.

It was past midnight crossing the intersection when she suddenly had an epiphany along with the image of her getting ran over by a car.

She remembered she had not taken her pills yet thinking she's burned out and so she walked faster. But the moment she looked at the road, she glimpses the light of a car speeding over 100 miles per hour going directly at her standing point.

Her life flashing before her very eyes, Brina agreed from the bottom of her heart that dying is better than living in her current life.

As she closes her eyes accepting her fated demise in a car accident, the creator did her dirty again worst than her salvation.

Believing she's already somewhere in heaven or hell, Brina opened her eyes only to discover that the car is just an inch away from crashing on her lower half.

She bathes her eyes around her vicinity, unable to comprehend how everything had stopped in time.

The traffic light's timer halted, the civilians that should be walking were frozen in time. She tried shifting her arms and found out she can walk within the stillness of the world.

And it was then the familiar voice she kept hearing in her previous dreams spoke through her smartphone's speaker saying, "A fine lady such as you should not waste time for the pleasure of men. Come, participate in my game, and if you win, I, Founder of the WIC Company, shall confer whatever you want!"

"You will resume the time and I will die if I refuse, isn't it? Tell me the rules of the game. It's not like I have a choice anyway." Brina acted maturely, identifying the voice she speaks to as the Unknown Entity, a being shrouded in shadow and mystery. She knows deception at first glance so she accepts and adapts than regretting her decision.

"Hm... I actually like your personality, young lady. I shall offer you a quick start..."

Between her future and death, Brina learned the game the Unknown Entity had started is played by players known as Fantasm. They possess supernatural and incomparable power beyond reasoning.

But their powers solely exist to survive, for they are obliged to kill each other and the one who survives shall have his or her wish granted by the will of the mysterious entity lurking under the canopy of shadow.

"So now that you know the only rule is to survive, about the quick start I talked about, since Fantasm can't pick their ability... I shall have you choose your power amongst these!"

A note popped out of her device's screen comprising numbers from one to a hundred, each containing a string of information regarding all the abilities of the Fantasms so important she thought she's in a dream.

"Ability to teleport, time manipulation, near-like immortal power, and so much more... Are you sure I'm allowed to look in your records?" Brina's legs were shaking, detriment of what would eventually happen to her.

"Understand and think... And it will be yours for the taking. You're the only player I shall allow, you have attained enlightenment."

Unaware of what he truly meant, Brina gladly took the early advantage for herself. She used the stagnant time to read each ability that will appear in the game and learned how they work one by one.

A span of time had already passed by but in reality, it was a mere fraction of a second.

She even took notes formulating theories about the supernatural abilities' interactions beyond human comprehension, until she determine the perfect ability that shall give her the highest rate of surviving the game.

"I shall pick..." Brina whispered the power she desire, and her call was answered.

"Welcome to my game... The Zero Countdown!"

As the gears of the halted time starts worming again, the imminent death she denied was completely eluded. She casually walked into the pedestrian ignoring the speeding car until it crashed on the sidewalk across the road.

"And that's how I got my ability. My bet for choosing my partner is on you when I found out the branching possibilities of reality are crucial for choosing my own destiny."

Brina placed her wood comb under her shirt and slouches on the bed feeling comfortable. She pulled the remote from the pillows and turned on the huge television attached over the wall right in front of the bed.

"So that's why you are out of breathing when we met... Though there's one thing I can't understand." Elyon's eyebrows meet, he's massaging his temple in deep contemplation.

"What is it?" Brina got curious.

"I mean, isn't your ability literally the power to see the future? Can't you just determine the outcome and win the game?" Elyon based his premise on the science fiction movies he occasionally watches during his free time.

Except, his assumptions were wrong and the world has a strange pattern it can follow.

"Are you even listening? Did you really think I'd be here stuck with a stupid person like you if I can predict the outcome of the entire game?"

Brina mocked Elyon's inability to discern what the act of looking into the future even means.

"Oh, is it different? Then how?"

"Apparently, in a nutshell, there's this called entanglement that determines the outcome of a situation," Brina said.

"What?" Elyon scratches his head. He doesn't even know a word she told.

"This entanglement happens to have a countless, probably infinite reality that I can read and see. For example..." And then out of nowhere, Brina flicked his forehead that startled him.

"Wha—What's that for?" Elyon backed off. He perched on the sofa and stayed away from her.

"See your reaction? When I touched you, we became entangled and that is a single outcome. But what if I never flicked your forehead? Maybe you could have stayed on the bed and never got cautious of me."

That was just the instance Elyon had a gist of Brina's Fantasm Ability. He simply thought at first that looking at the future means one can have complete control of fate and destiny.

"So in short?" He needed further definition.

"It indicates that even if I see someone's future, I can't tell when will it happen because there are a hundred–probably millions of possibilities. And that's why I need you to navigate that exact reality we want by peeking at the remaining time of enemies, securing our survival at a hundred-percent rate."

Both of them were able to explore their supernatural power and uncover their strategy by teaming up together, yet Elyon still has one last thing he needs clarification.

He pulled out the serrated kitchen knife and pointed the tip over her face saying, "But what if I betrayed you? The Unknown Entity said only one person can win the game... I can directly render the timer above your head to zero right now. Are you not afraid?"

Instead of saying a word upon his sudden provocation, Brina peeked deep into Elyon's eyes and burst into laughter. She's laughing so hard she literally rolled on the bed, strangling a pillow between her legs.

"Have you forgotten? I can see the future." Brina eventually ceased giggling, wiping her tears using the bedsheets and arranging the pillows back to the bed's edge.

However, Elyon was in awe, astonished how a cold, high school girl like her can still have a genuine smile.

"Makes sense. I'm sorry for threatening you with the blade you gave." He places the knife over the table, making sure it won't harm them for the rest of the night.

"Oh, please keep your voice down once you decide to j******f in the shower room later." Brina simply covered her face with one of the pillows keeping herself from chuckling.

"So that's why you are making fun of me?! Ugh... I hate you. Please don't ever look at what I am about to do again!"

Embarrassed from getting caught red-handed, Elyon stayed at a corner away from the lunatic girl he shares a room with.

"You admitted. Pervert." Brina teases him, and she's successful in turning his face red.

Nevertheless, the two unknowingly learned each other's individuality so they can survive the rigid game they can never escape.