Neinuko

"Oh, what happened to your patrol?" my bubbly friend asked.

"G-Get out of here. The monster is chasing us!"

"What? So, it was real?" my bubbly friend was in disbelief, and so was I.

"Let's get out of here. Run!" the boy pushed us to run away.

"Wait, where are the others?" I asked him.

"The leaders are planning something. They'll take care of it. We must ensure all of you are safe!"

"Come on!" my two new friends called me, so I immediately ran as well. We just ran and followed the guy.

It is dark with only the moon as our source of light. It is secluded and full of trees. After the race, we rested first. It looks like the monster couldn't catch up with us. I don't know what it looks like but it's probably scary from the looks of the boy who dragged us to run.

"Are you serious? We're staying here all night?! I mean there are bugs, and I'm starving!" complained the pretty girl with long light brown hair.

“Yeah, how about the others?” a girl with a shoulder-length hair and bangs asked.

My stomach is growling too. I only ate fruit a while ago so that wasn't enough.

"Let's deal with this first. We have no choice. If you don't want the monster to swallow you then shut up." the boy with spiky fern green hair answered in an ill manner. "Besides, this is the order of the leader, we have no choice."

"Then they're nothing but nuisance leaders.” The pretty girl rolled her eyes. “I'm starving to death."

"Here!" my friend threw an unripe mango at me. "Let's eat."

The three of us ate the mangoes that had fallen under a mango tree. The other girls are also forced to eat fruit. I’ve seen some mango trees, coconut trees, guava trees, banana trees, and many more that I am no longer familiar with. We might be living in a tropical place but we still lack the resources to have the food that we want. I’m still glad that at least we have this. The three of us just talked again and so did the others. The lone boy slept soundly. The investigation of the monster must be rough.

"Hahaha yeah! It looks fun," The modest girl laughs modestly while the talkative one cracks some jokes.

They just kept talking while I remained silent because of the weight of my eyelids.

"What are we going to call each other if we don't know our names yet?"

"Hmm, you have a point. What if…"

I fell asleep completely. I did nothing much, but I fell asleep. I may not be physically worn out, but my mental state is draining me.

Where am I? Is this a school?

The happy faces of the people. There are students, teachers, and parents everywhere. I saw my classmates. They were laughing while I was confused. Someone pulled my hand. We went to a place filled with trees, plants, and flowers. He hugged me and said words that I didn't know what they meant.

"Wake up! The monster is chasing us!" Someone is shaking my shoulder.

"Huh?" I opened my eyes even though I didn’t want to. I’m still dreaming about something that I need to finish.

"Let's go!" I got up and I pulled by the two of them.

"Hurry up!"

"Rawrrr!"

"What's going on?" I questioned the two as we ran, and they were still dragging me. They were looking behind them, so I turned around.

"Ahhh!" I shrieked out in fear.

The monster was only about ten meters away from us. This must be the monster they are referring to. I noticed the leaders and other groups of boys and girls were running as well. I can see that one and a half a human tall and three human wide is its size. Its head is a mixture of dog and cat. It uses its long four legs to run fast. It growled as if it were a monster seen in movies. From the light coming from the moon, I could see how deadly its fangs can be. If my eyesight is correct, its color is brown-black. It’s not just an ordinary animal, but a monster. Something caught my eyes again. Its fangs are colored... red?

"Let's deal with this first. We have no choice. If you don't want the monster to swallow you then shut up. Besides, this is the order of the leader, we have no choice."

I recalled the early conversation between the boy who told us to run and the girl who complained. If what he said to 'swallow', it means the monster ate something.

"Dead end!" the cute girl with super short hair and bangs shouted.

We are hereby the river where we were placed after entering this world. And since the river was behind us, we had nowhere else to go.

"Leader, what are we going to do?!" asked someone.

"There's no other choice," the leader with eyeglasses replied glaring and staring at the monster seriously.

"We'll fight that," replied the chubby leader and he pulled out a stick with a sharp end.

"What?!" we chorused.

"Boys!" the leaders called them. They immediately came out from hiding behind the trees.

The boys blocked us as if to protect us away from the monster. I saw my classmate. He stared at the monster while holding the stick tightly in his left hand. So, he is left-handed.

Strange, there is something wrong with our situation. Is this really what the hologram means about the tri-games? I don’t know what kind of game tri-games are, but I feel like we’re playing a survival game right now. 24 vs 1.

"Yuck!" a girl is disgusted by what we witnessed next.

“*buuwarlkkk*”

It also made me feel sick of what I saw. In the stomach of the monster, big worms are moving inside its stomach. There was so much of it that it was embossed on its belly.

***

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