For a moment the sounds of the gym felt distant. Laughter from a group of college students near the treadmills, the clank of plates being stacked. Music vibrating through speakers.
All of it felt absurdly normal.
Richard crossed his arms.
"We are going back to training."
After a few minutes, Abraham forced himself to ask, careful to sound casual: "How many missions have you cleared?"
Elias' eyes flicked briefly downward, then back up. "Enough to know what works. Enough to know who survives and who doesn't."
Abraham looked at him, confused at his words.
"I am level 6."
The number struck Abraham like a physical blow.
That meant he had survived
"Five cleared."
Only five and he was already level six.
Yet Abraham remembered how close he himself had come to dying in the very first one.
"Two of them nearly killed me," Richard added flatly. There was no pride in his voice, only exhaustion.
Abraham swallowed.
"You haven't been in alot of missions. How do you level up?"
"How many missions there are isn't everything."
"What is then?"
"You know I have been a trainer for about 4 years now." Richard looked around. "I was strong. You are frail."
Abraham stayed quiet.
"Experience points is what you need to level up" Richard said simply. "Each mission rewards EXP. Surviving gives some. Completing objectives gives more."
"And kills?"
"The most sometimes"
The word hung in the air.
"Contribution matters," Richard continued. "If you do nothing and someone else finishes the objective, you get almost nothing."
Abraham remembered hiding between crates while stronger participants fought.
Level zero suddenly made perfect sense.
"Hidden bonuses exist too," Richard said.
"Adaptability. Tactical decisions. Efficiency. The system watches everything."
Abraham stared at the rubber flooring beneath his feet.
"Level zero means you survived," Richard said quietly. "That's it."
The bluntness stung.
"How do I level faster?" Abraham asked.
Richard studied him carefully.
"Stop thinking like prey."
The answer came instantly.
"What?" Abraham blinked.
"You move like you're waiting for something to kill you," Richard said. "That's prey behavior."
The words were harsh but not cruel. He was just spitting facts.
Richard leaned against the rack.
"But you adapt well, as far as I have noticed" he added.
That made Abraham look up.
"I noticed in the warehouse," Richard continued.
"You hid when stronger players fought. You observed. You didn't panic when the hunter appeared."
Abraham remembered the chaos. The fear.
"I panicked plenty."
"But you acted," Richard said. "That's the difference."
That single line planted something deep inside Abraham's mind, and still pointed back to what made him sich to the core.
"I killed a person." His hands went limp by his sides.
"If you hadn't, you wouldn't be standing here in front of me." Richard put a hand on his shoulder.
Abraham looked up.
"Did you also?" He asked.
"What do you think?" Richard also had the look of someone who would puke at that moment but it wasn't worse like Abraham.
"I have seen worse." Richard added. "And if you don't adapt well, you are gone." He moved away to sit on one of the equipments.
"Survival is the only option you have, and no matter what the game requires you will have to do it." He added.
Abraham felt sick to the core.
"Now, shall we go back to our training." He nudged.
"Your body is weak," Richard said matter-of-factly. "But weakness can be fixed."
He grabbed a marker and started writing on a small whiteboard mounted near the racks.
Training Plan:
Strength conditioning
Stamina development
Reaction drills
Situational awareness
Controlled breathing
Decision making under time pressure
Abraham stared at the list.
"This won't make me strong enough for monsters," he said.
"No," Richard agreed.
"Then what's the point?"
Richard pointed to Abraham's chest.
"You won't freeze."
Then he tapped the side of his own temple.
"And you'll think faster than the others."
He wiped his hands on a towel.
"Gym strength alone won't save you, but we will train for that as well"
The statement hung there for a moment.
"Because weakness guarantees death."
They resumed training.
This time the exercises were brutal.
Short sprint drills across the gym floor. Balance work. Reaction drills where Richard randomly dropped a tennis ball and Abraham had to catch it before it bounced twice.
By the time they finished, Abraham's shirt was soaked with sweat and his lungs felt like they were burning.
But something else burned inside him too.
It was his determination to survive no matter what as Richard had asked.
By the time the session ended, the gym had grown crowded.
Morning regulars had arrived. Groups of friends laughed near the free-weight area. Someone was filming themselves doing deadlifts. A girl complained loudly about leg day while taking selfies in front of the mirror.
The normalcy was surreal.
Just hours ago Abraham had been hiding from monsters in a forest clearing.
Now people were arguing about protein shakes.
His arms trembled as he sat on a bench, catching his breath.
Richard handed him a towel.
"Wipe your face."
Abraham did.
The cool fabric felt strangely grounding.
Elias spoke quietly without looking directly at him.
"Never mention it again."
Abraham frowned slightly.
"Not here," Richard clarified. "Not anywhere this openely" The warning carried the same quiet weight as before.
Abraham nodded slowly.
"How many participants are there?" he asked.
Richard paused, hesitation appeared in his expression.
"More than you think," he said eventually.
Then after a moment he added:
"Less than you'd hope."
The answer sent a chill down Abraham's spine.
"I have never seen the same face twice yet." Elias continued.
"Have you met other participants?" Abraham asked.
"No. You are the first." Richard replied. "But I didn't even searched that much. Some people never meet another participant before they die."
The casual way he said die made Abraham's throat tighten but Abraham absorbed that silently.
"Can we train together for missions?" he asked carefully.
Richard finally looked directly at him.
For several seconds he said nothing.
"I don't form attachments."
The sentence landed like a quiet hammer.
Abraham understood the implication immediately. Richard had already risked his life saving him once in the warehouse. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again.
Still, the silence that followed wasn't entirely cold.
Richard tossed the towel onto a nearby bench and started walking toward the staff area.
Halfway there he stopped.
Without turning around he said:
"Be here tomorrow."
Abraham blinked.
"Six a.m."
Then Richard disappeared through the staff door.
For a moment Abraham just stood there, his muscles aching, mind spinning.
Outside the gym windows, traffic moved through the city like always. People walked past carrying coffee cups, talking on phones, living ordinary lives.
Abraham stepped outside into the sunlight.
His legs felt weak. But his thoughts felt sharper. For the first time since the system had chosen him, something had changed.
He wasn't just reacting anymore.
He was preparing for what's ahead.