CHAPTER 2 — THE AWAKENING OF THE BOARD
Silence was not emptiness.
It was presence.
Daeven regained consciousness with a violent gasp, as though his soul had been torn out and hastily stitched back into a different body.
His first instinct was to cough.
His second… was to understand nothing.
The ground beneath him was not a ground.
It was cold, smooth, perfectly flat… like black marble.
He slowly opened his eyes.
And what he saw made him forget, for a brief moment, the pain in his body.
The sky did not exist.
Above him stretched an infinite void, pierced by glowing white and red lines forming a colossal grid.
An chessboard.
Endless.
Incomprehensible.
Each square floated in space. Some held fractured structures. Others contained distant silhouettes… motionless, waiting.
— …What is this place?
His voice was hoarse.
Broken.
As if sound itself struggled to exist here.
Then the pain returned.
His back.
His skull.
His entire body still screamed from the memory of the blows.
But something was wrong…
He was no longer in the bakery.
No longer on Earth.
And then—
A voice echoed.
[ WELCOME, PARTICIPANT ]
Daeven froze.
The voice did not come from anywhere… and yet it reverberated directly inside his mind.
[ YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR THE TRIALS OF KAEYROS ]
The word struck his consciousness like a hammer.
Kaeyros.
The parallel world.
The myth governments insisted was merely a "controlled anomaly."
— …So it was real.
His heartbeat quickened slightly.
Not from fear.
But from cold irritation.
As if even the universe had decided to impose itself on him without permission.
[ IDENTIFICATION IN PROGRESS… ]
A luminous panel appeared before him.
Transparent.
Floating.
NAME: DAEVEN
STATUS: STANDARD HUMAN
COMPATIBILITY: LOW
TITLE: — NONE —
Silence.
Then the voice returned, slightly different this time.
More… excited.
[ YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED TO PHASE 1: SURVIVAL ]
The ground trembled.
No… not the ground.
Space itself.
Around him, silhouettes began to manifest.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
Men, women, teenagers.
All as lost as he was.
All standing on different squares of the colossal chessboard.
And at the center of it all…
A piece.
A massive tower, made of flesh and metal.
It moved.
And the world understood it was no longer an observer.
But a player.
[ GAME RULE ] [ REACH A SAFE ZONE ] [ TIME LIMIT: 60 MINUTES ] [ ELIMINATIONS ARE PERMANENT ]
A ripple of panic swept through the crowd.
Then the first screams erupted.
And chaos followed.
An adjacent square suddenly collapsed into the void.
A man fell screaming… swallowed by the darkness beneath the board.
Daeven instinctively stepped back.
— …So this is Kaeyros.
He did not look shocked.
More like… observant.
As if he were analyzing a system.
A game.
And in a game…
There is always a flaw.
A group of survivors began to run.
A woman shouted:
— This way! Follow me! I think I understand the pattern of the squares!
Others hesitated.
But panic quickly devours hesitation.
Daeven did not move.
He looked at his hands.
Still stained with dried blood… or perhaps it was only the echo of memory.
— Even here… you still have to run.
He raised his eyes.
The living tower had moved again.
Just one square.
But it was enough.
The space shifted.
Another square vanished.
More screams.
More falls.
Daeven understood something simple.
This world did not kill directly.
It forced mistakes.
— Clever…
A faint, almost invisible smile touched his lips.
But something else appeared before him.
A second window.
Darker.
Heavier.
[ PLAYER AWAKENING INITIATED ]
His body froze.
A strange heat spread through his veins.
As if something deep within him had been asleep… and had just been forced open.
— …What are you doing to me?
[ ANOMALOUS COMPATIBILITY DETECTED ]
The world slowed.
The screams faded.
Movements blurred.
And in that strange silence…
One final line appeared.
[ YOU ARE NOT AN ORDINARY PAWN, DAEVEN ]
Then everything returned to normal.
But something had changed.
Daeven felt it clearly.
Hunger.
Not of the body.
But of power.
He exhaled slowly.
— …Fine.
He turned his gaze toward the running survivors.
Toward the advancing tower.
Toward the living chessboard.
— Show me the rules.
And for the first time in a long, long while…
He chose not to endure.
But to play.
The game did not wait for anyone.
Daeven took a step.
Then another.
Each movement across this living square felt like walking on a surface ready to collapse at any moment.
Around him, the survivors ran in every direction.
Screams.
Shouts.
Contradictory orders.
But in this chaos… no one truly understood the rules.
Safe zone… safe zone…
A woman repeated those words like a prayer, staring at the squares ahead.
Then suddenly
The square beneath her flickered.
Red light.
Then black.
No… no, wait
The square vanished.
And with it, she vanished too.
No fall.
No scream.
Only erasure.
Daeven stopped.
His gaze narrowed slightly.
—So it's not a simple void…
He observed.
The system did not drop people.
It deleted them.
Like a piece removed from a chessboard.
Clean.
Final.
A chill ran through the crowd.
Someone screamed:
— STAY ON THE WHITE SQUARES! THE RED ONES DISAPPEAR!
But it was already too late.
Another wave of red flickers appeared.
Three squares.
Then five.
Then ten.
And people began to understand a simple truth:
They could not all survive.
Daeven, however, remained still.
He was observing the pattern.
The squares were not disappearing randomly.
They followed a sequence.
A rhythm.
…A logic.
His gaze shifted toward the tower.
The creature advanced again.
Square by square.
And with each movement… certain zones collapsed.
As if it were rewriting the chessboard in real time.
Daeven slowly clenched his fist.
It controls the death of the board…
A voice behind him shouted:
Hey! You! Are you just going to stand there doing nothing?!
A man in his twenties approached, panting.
If you keep standing still, you're going to die like the rest of them!
Daeven looked at him.
For a long moment.
Then answered calmly:
Moving without understanding is worse.
The man gritted his teeth.
You don't understand the situation!
But before he could continue—
The square beneath his feet flickered.
Red.
His eyes widened.
—Wait… no
Erasure.
Again.
Silence fell.
Daeven didn't even look away.
He was analyzing.
There's a delay… and anticipation.
His eyes followed the luminous lines in the space.
Each disappearance triggered a chain reaction.
Like a trap.
A system forcing players to move in a predetermined direction.
They don't want to kill us randomly…
He inhaled slowly.
They want to guide us.
A new notification appeared before him.
[ OBJECTIVE UPDATED ]
[ LOCATE THE CORE OF THE BOARD ]
Daeven blinked.
The core…
A central point.
An origin.
His pupils narrowed.
So this game has a heart.
A faint, almost invisible smile formed.
For the first time… something resembling interest appeared in his expression.
But then—
A massive shadow fell over part of the chessboard.
The tower.
It had stopped.
And all surrounding squares turned red.
Instantly.
A perfect circle of death.
The survivors screamed:
— RUN!!!
— IT'S TRAPPING US!!!
Panic exploded.
But Daeven did not move immediately.
He studied the circle.
Then the distance.
Then the survivors.
And finally…
A slightly different square, farther ahead, at the edge of the circle.
…That route.
He stepped forward.
Then another step.
And for the first time since arriving here…
he chose a direction.
Behind him, another disappearance occurred.
Ahead of him… the game had just begun to respond.
And Keyros…
had noticed his existence.