Real Account 3

Explore the Maze (1/?)

"Welcome everyone! Hope you all had a fun time getting yourselves together!" Marble exclaimed, looking down as he floated above the players who were all not at all thrilled to see his face.

"It is time for our next game! This one is a simple challenge, you will all be exploring a maze!" He announced as a door opened before the players, "the games you all played before dealt with popularity, fame and trust but that's not all the internet is about. There's also moblie games and things of that nature which is why this maze is so simple." Marble lowered himself to the floor and two black boxes with his face on them appeared in front of him.

"As you explore the maze you will come across various boxes, good luck and bad luck boxes, think of it as a little gacha aspect. These boxes can be ignored so don't feel pressured by them, they are meant to help and ruin your chances of clearing the maze." He chuckled and snapped his fingers, a timer appearing above him.

"Since mazes are so tricky and there's a lot of you, the time limit is two hours, make it out and you pass, if not then it's game over! Oh! And one more thing, there are clones of me in the maze with you all, their jobs are to well, stop you from passing." He chuckled and stepped aside, "now let's get this game started!"

The players all entered the maze, some ran in full speed and others formed teams.

And of course Yuichi and Futaba teamed up with Kyo.

"Looks like we are a team and this time we have Yuichi with us!" Futaba grinned, playfully punching the artist on his shoulder.

"Three is a crowd, you two can walk together, I'm not in the mood for headaches." Replied Kyo who rubbed his forehead.

"Please don't leave me with her..." Yuichi sighed, "I don't think I could take it."

"You both suck!" The girl pouted and crossed her arms, tilting her head as they reached two turns.

"Hmm, left or right?" She asked them.

Yuichi looked at the two paths. "Splitting up is a bad idea, right?"

"Yeah but walking together and possibly having to turn around is time wasting." Kyo said and looked at them, "we may have to split up, we can cover more ground."

"We know each others profiles so we can always message one another to turn around." Futaba adjusted her glasses, agreeing to the idea of separating.

"Not gonna reject the idea?" Kyo asked, a bit surprised by her going along with him.

"We are running on the time limit, right? Trust me, I would love to stick together but we have to do this."

Yuichi said nothing, not wanting to oppose the clear majority, Futaba took the quiet boy by the hand and smiled softly at him. "You and I will explore together."

The black haired boy nodded and took the left path while Kyo took the right.

----

In another section of the maze Ryu explored by himself, Ichiro was with him but decided to take another path since he thought it would be more exciting for him.

"Two hours just to get out of this place, how boring," he said to himself, "I wanted a more exciting game, I can't express any kind of joy like this."

With a sigh he put his hands in his pockets and kept moving forward, after turning a corner he saw two women who found a box. He decided to hide and peek, watching the two unwrap it and remove the lid.

Once the lid was removed there was an explosion, clearing resulting in their deaths.

"Well, now looks like I made a good judgement." Ryu walked past the blood and guts, showing no sign of feeling uncomfortable. To him this is to expected, death can happen at any moment so if it happens to anyone around him he will have to just move on.

"These boxes are very thrilling to the mindset of a gambler but I shouldn't worry about such a risk unless I need to after all." Ryu checked the timer, only thirty minutes have passed so far so he and everyone else were good on time.

----

"Um.. are you sure this is a good idea?" Yuichi asked Futaba, the two of them stood in front of a box and the green haired girl picked it up.

"We have to try, it may be good!" She smiled, "don't worry I'll be fine." With those last words she opened the box and suddenly a black band sprung out and latched onto her face.

"Aaaaah!" She screamed and tried to pull it off but to no prevail, it was completely stuck to her face.

"F-futaba are you okay!?" Yuichi asked, not sure what to do besides just holding her by the shoulders.

"I'm fine b-but I can't see!"

There was a note inside the box she dropped that Yuichi noticed and picked it up, beginning to read. "Temporary blindness, for five minutes your sight is gone."

"B-blindness huh, well at least I'm not dead so I can see the light of the situation!" She smiled.

After a small pause Yuichi spoke. "Um.. was that a pun?"

"Of course it was!"

The boy sighed and held the girl by the arm, wishing Kyo was the one to deal with her in this moment right about now.

"Now if we encounter a Marble clone we are gonna be in big trouble..."

----

Back with where Ryu was located he ended up coming across a dead end, rubbing the back of his head. "So the correct way was right.. how troublesome this game is."

"W-wait! Stop please!"

The sound of terrified screams reached the teen's ears and with his curiosity getting the better of him he decided to go see what was going on but he didn't have to run far.

Before he reached the end of the corner Marble turned on the path and stood before him. It took one look for Ryu to realize this was a clone, on its mask was the number five, the original has no number.

The clone also had blood all over it's mask and was holding a severed arm and in its other hand it held a severed head.

'That must be the poor soul who screamed,' Ryu thought to himself, he found himself slightly feeling a cold sweat. He didn't expect to encounter a clone so quickly and based on its appearance it is most likely very strong.

"Heh, after getting a victim you set your sights on me huh?" He reached into his pocket and took out a switch blade. "I must inform you that I'm nothing like that small fry you caught, now then, entertain me!"

With no words the Marble clone rushed towards him.

End.