2 Chapter I: Welcome to the Game!

"Drake Goldermann" Drake repeats to himself as he sits at a table outside of a restaurant. This restaurant often serves its patrons outside of the building, as it was connected to a chain of stores. Due to this, the space inside was rather small and could not house many customers. However, they have a large canopy tent above the tables, to act as shelter in the event of rain or other weather conditions. "Male" Drake continues to repeat to himself, "age: 23. Born and raised in Yorktown of Jelluva City". After a while of thinking to himself, he lets out a loud sigh that even caught the attention of a man sitting at a table next to his. "I don't think this'll ever work. I'm not remembering anything at all! I was in a coma for nearly two weeks... or so they said. A-and now, this... Respawn user bullshit!? I can't even make heads or tails of this-".

"Excuse me" the man at the table next to his says, "did you say Respawn?". The man was dressed like he was hiding from someone. He was wearing a cloak that hid everything but his face. If he was hiding, he wasn't doing a very good job of it.

"Uh... yeah?" Drake says as he turns to the man. "Who are you?".

"That's not important" the man says. "You're a Respawn user, right?".

"Or so I've been told" Drake says with a skeptic look on his face.

"Say no more" the man says as he rolls up the left sleeve of his cloak. "I have something... unique for you".

"I don't want whatever it is that you're selling, you fucking weirdo" Drake says in a disgusted tone. "Whatever it is, it's probably dirty".

"No, you don't understand" the man says as he exposes his wrist. This peculiar watch was on his left wrist, however, it looked like his thumb and pinky were broken. The man slips the watch off of his wrist and shows it to Drake. As the watch loses contact with the man's skin, it starts emitting a loud and high pitched beeping. The watch was thin, and really small like a pedometer wrist band. As it began beeping, the band which at first looked like rubber had unhinged with a snapping sound, exposing a metal band with an intricate locking mechanism. "Put this on" the man says as he holds the watch up to Drake.

Drake begins covering his ears at the sound of the beeping. "Why is it making that noise!?" Drake asks.

"It's detecting your Respawn ability" the man says. "This watch will be the answer to all of your questions".

"How do you make it stop beeping like that!?" Drake asks.

"By putting it on, obviously" the man replies.

"And how will this help me?" Drake asks.

"Stop being such a little baby and put the damn thing on!" The man yells.

"If it'll help me, and since it's free I guess" Drake says as he slowly removes one hand from over his ear and holds his arm out in front of the man. The man slaps the watch on Drake's left wrist. Immediately, the metal locking mechanism snaps together and the beeping stops. There was a short moment before a digital display showed the number "0" on the top. "What the?" Drake asks. "What kind of watch is this? The hell does it mean by zero?".

"You'll figure that out sooner or later" the man says as he stands up and begins to walk away. "Welcome to the game".

"What game?" Drake asks, however, the man never responded. "Man... what the hell? Now I'm more confused". Drake stares at the watch for a couple minutes, waiting for the number to change. However, the watch kept only showing the number "0" and never changed. "This shit is broken..." Drake says. "No wonder it was free. Piece of crap". Drake tried taking the watch off, but the band would never budge. He inspected the watch over and over, looking for a way to take it off. However, the entire watch was made of metal and coated in rubber. There was no way to take it off without breaking a few fingers just to remove a watch.

After a while of inspecting the watch, Drake finally decides to leave the restaurant. He began walking down the road when suddenly a black car with jet black windows pulls up beside him. Three men come out of the car with their phones. "Is this where the signal came from?" One of the men asks.

"This is it" another man replies. "He has the watch alright".

"This isn't the right man" the last one says. "Must've been given to a new man".

"Who are-" Drake begins to ask.

Suddenly, one of the men throws a sack over Drake's head. "Doesn't matter" he says to the other two men, ignoring Drake. "As long as the game keeps going. They don't care about who's participating, and it's not our job to decide that. He's going anyways. Besides, he's a Respawn user. Otherwise, the watch wouldn't work". As the man talks, he also ties Drake's hands together.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" Drake demands.

"Guess you're right" another man says as Drake was being pushed by the men. "The more the merrier".

"Only because we get paid more for this" another man says. "Otherwise, those rich suckers could go forever without their 'show'. I couldn't care less".

"Sorry, young man" another man says as Drake is suddenly forcibly shoved forward. "It's all about the money. No hard feelings".

Drake lands on a soft surface, the backseat of a car, before the car doors are slammed behind him. The car drives off somewhere, Drake never could see where.

After a couple hours, Drake was taken out of the car, and pushed around blindly through what he could only assume to be multiple corridors. Eventually, someone cuts the ties around his hands and takes the sack off of Drake's head. Just as Drake could see, he was shoved into what looked like a jail cell, if a jail cell didn't have bars or a window of any sort. It was more like a concrete box. As the wall closed in behind him, he was now trapped between four walls of solid concrete. There was an air vent on the ceiling above him, a toilet next to him, a small wooden box and that was it. Nothing but gray concrete, a box and a toilet surrounded him. "Wait!" Drake yells. "Where am I!?". However, no one was there to reply to him.

As Drake looked around, he noticed the box and opened it. Inside was a note, a jumpsuit and some dry food as well as a canteen full of water. "The jumpsuit is your only change of clothing you may wear in Pyramid" the note says. "Next to it will be your provisions while you're here. Make sure not to eat all of your food, nor drink all of your water too soon, or you may regret it. Put on the jumpsuit immediately, if you haven't been given one before hand. The game will be set to start upon notice, so be prepared for then. The rules of Pyramid are simple. Last man standing gains freedom. You will be given nothing else before entering the arena, however, you are free to use whatever you find inside of Pyramid as you please. Welcome to the game".

"Pyramid?" Drake asks. "Is this... that game that man spoke about?". Drake then holds up the jumpsuit, unfolding it from the box, and stared at it. The jumpsuit was gray, and looked like what someone who was about to be put in the electric chair for execution would wear. It did, however, have empty pockets on both hips of the jumpsuit, as well as several open laces that look like it would be used to hold electrician tools. "The Hell is this shit?" Drake asks himself.

After a lot of debate, Drake thinks to himself "Well, I'm stuck in a concrete box... this game called Pyramid says the last man standing gains freedom. I guess it's either I play or remain in this box. Either way, I can't help but to feel like I'm likely to die... this is bullshit!". After some more grumbling, Drake eventually takes off his clothes and puts on the jumpsuit. As he was taking off his clothes, he remembered he was wearing this strange watch. After putting the jumpsuit on, he checked his watch again. The watch still showed the number "0" on it in red lettering. Drake then looks over at the box, at these packages of dry food and a canteen. He puts all of the dry food in the pocket on his right hip, and hangs the canteen over his left shoulder. Then, all he could do is wait.

After several hours, suddenly an intercom came on. A woman's voice came over the intercom, which rang throughout this concrete cell with a cheery voice that sounded both pleasant and ominous. "Welcome to Pyramid!" The woman's voice cheers. "This is a game with only one rule. Last man standing wins! Here, you will be put to trial on several factors, such as resourcefulness, survival, and of course, the strongest! Survival of the fittest is the name of the game! May the best man win!". As the intercom cuts off, the wall opposite of the one of which Drake was thrown into this cell opens. It exposes a large area, as several other cells open in unison. One person in each cell, everyone wearing this gray jumpsuit. The arena appeared extremely large, as Drake couldn't even see the other side from his own cell. The ground had lots of debris in the field, such as large chunks of cement, rebar, metal shards, and dried blood.

As Drake stood in his cell, shocked and horrified, man after man ran out of their cell and began attacking each other. "What kind of sick twisted bullshit is this?" He asks himself. Men around the arena were punching each other, others were picking up chunks of cement and rebar poles and hitting the others with them.

"And the action kicks off with a bang!" The woman's voice on the intercom sings. "Remember, there are fifty floors of Pyramid. It's tactically advantageous to make sure as little competition as possible reaches the next floor, as each floor will have increasingly deadly tools to your disposal! May the best man win!".

As Drake steps out of his cell, he immediately looks around for any stairs or anything that'll lead out of this current floor. "The faster I progress, the better off I will be!"'Drake says. "Where are those stairs!? I need to get the hell outta here!". On each side of this enormous floor, halfway across the entire arena, there were two sets on stairs. One on the right side, and one of the left, both going up to the next floor.

Drake makes a run for it, running towards the stairs on the right side of the arena. Ahead of him, he sees a girl walking calmly to the stairs. This girl had long red hair, and stood at an average height. She wasn't attacking anyone, nor did it seem like anyone was attacking her in specific. Drake attempts to catch up with her, however as he gets close, she turns to look at him with a sour look in her eyes. Suddenly, her eyes shoot open as she calmly walks up to him. "Get down!" She says as she shoves him onto the ground.

As Drake hits the ground, he sees an arm extend over his head with a rebar pole in its hand. The rebar was swung at the girl, but it missed her. Suddenly, she jumps on the man who swung the pole, snapping both of his elbows as she tackles the man and forces his spine to bend backwards. Drake stumbles to his feet, trying to escape, as the man screams in horrifying pain. Several snapping sounds could be heard as the girl lets go of the man's arms, only to grab him by the neck and quickly snap it out of place.

As Drake finally makes it to his feet, he could see the same watch on both the girl and the man. However, he couldn't see the number on the girl's watch, he could see the number "1" change to a "0" on the man's watch. "Hold it" the girl says to Drake. "I'm aware you're new to all of this, so let this be a quick lesson".

"You j-just... killed the man" Drake says.

"Not yet, I haven't" she says as she picks up a chunk of metal off of the ground. It didn't look particularly sharp, or even remotely like a knife, but she wielded it like one anyways. Eventually, the man on the ground seemed to get back up, as all of his bones seemed to just heal back into the correct place. As he turns around to face the girl, he had this horrified expression as the girl drove the metal shard straight into his heart. "We're all Respawn users" she says. "If you don't finish them off, they'll make you regret it".

"W-What is this place!?" Drake asks.

"Pyramid" the girl replies. "I'm surprised that was your first question. Not 'where have you been'? No 'how'd you get here'?".

"What do you mean?" Drake asks.

The girl tilts her head and asks "You don't... remember me?".

"N-no... should I?" Drake asks.

The girl's face grows red with anger. She slowly walks up to Drake and drops the metal shard onto the ground. Then she slaps Drake so hard, that the slap could be heard across the arena. "Drake!" She yells, "how could you forget twenty years worth of memories!?".

"T-twenty!?" Drake asks. "I-I have no idea what you mean. I-I mean, I-I had this accident a-and I lost my memories, a-and-". The girl squints at Drake as he stutters. "Please don't kill me" Drake says.

"Your watch" the girl says.

"What?" Drake asks.

"Let me see your watch" the girl demands.

"O-okay" Drake says as he nervously shows his wrist to the girl.

"Zero?" The girl asks. "Drake... did you already... die?".

"Die?" Drake asks. "H-how do you even know my name? W-who are you?".

"So... you really can't remember?" The girl asks as she seems to take a step back, as her eyes sadden.

"N-no... I don't" Drake says. "That's what I've been trying to tell-". Suddenly, the girl punches his across the face and knocks Drake onto his back.

She continues punching him as she says "Ziya! Ziya Zimmerman! How could you forget so easily!".

"Ow, ow, ow, hey!" Drake shouts. "I can't remember anything! I don't even know who I am!".

"Wait..." Ziya says as she stops punching him, "you don't even know who you are? Do you have amnesia or something?".

"That's what I've been trying to tell you, you psycho!" Drake yells.

Ziya stands up, then offers to help Drake up. Drake refuses to accept her help, as he stumbles back to his feet on his own. "You can't even remember all the time we spent together?" She asks in a sad voice.

"Well, I can't even remember my own mother" Drake says. "At the very least, I think I was better off not remembering such a crazy bitch. Were you like my ex or something?".

"Ex!?" Ziya asks. "No! Nothing like that".

"Then who are you?" Drake asks in an irritated voice.

Ziya seems to twiddle her fingers nervously as she says "You were my best friend. You always called me 'Zizi' while growing up... I just thought if anyone would never forget me... it'd be you".

"Right..." Drake says in disbelief. "And what is my so-called best friend doing in this... absolute fresh Hell?".

"Probably the same as you" Ziya says. "But we can talk later. We need to get to the next floor and create our first shelter. We don't have time until the others try to rush to the next floor".

"Wait, how do you know that?" Drake asks. However, Ziya grabs Drake by the hand and pulls him along with her without answering his question. The two of them make it to the next floor. The next floor looked very similar to the one they were just on, except the giant numbers "49" were above each flight of stair, as stairs leading up to the next floor were halfway across this floor. On the opposite side, they could see people running from others up the flight of stairs. As they looked back, they could see more people running up the flight of stairs they just came up through. "Come on!" Ziya says as she drags Drake further away from the stairs.

"Whoa!" Drake shouts, "hold on! You're tearing my arm off!".

"Better than dying!" Ziya yells.

The two run and run for what felt like hours to Drake. Eventually, they come across what looked like a hole in one of the walls. The hole appeared like some sort of very short cave, that they could at least hide in momentarily. "Stay here for now" Ziya says, "you're a liability at this point!".

"A liability for what?" Drake asks.

Ziya forcibly grabs Drake's left wrist and holds up his watch. "You see this number?" Ziya asks. "This is your amount of Respawns left. You know what that means when you hit zero? That means when you die, it's over for you! Got it?".

"Wait, slow down!" Drake demands. "Explain what's going on here!".

"You're a Respawn user!" Ziya explains. "That means you can die, but revive a certain amount of times. That number right there is how many times you can Respawn. Got it? Good".

"I do not get any of this" Drake says. "And even then, why are you helping me? Didn't that voice say 'last man standing wins' or something?".

"I'm helping you because you're my friend!" Ziya says.

"And that's another thing!" Drake says. "How can I be so sure!?".

"Well, I'm not killing you, am I!?" Ziya shouts angrily.

"What if you're waiting for me to let my guard down?" Drake asks.

"Why would I do that if I could just snap your scrawny little neck, you forgetful jerk!?" Ziya shouts.

"Whoa, keep your voice down" a voice calls out from behind some rocky debris close to them. A man with short white hair stands up and looks at the two of them. "Some people are trying to rest, you are being quite rude".

Ziya immediately gets into a pose, ready to fight. "Chris..." She says. "So this is where you were hiding?".

"This isn't my first rodeo" this man, Chris says. "I figured I'd come and help even the odds for those who actually make it past the first floor. I didn't know the game already began". Chris then stretches and lets out a loud yawn. "Y'know, kill the ones who have too many lives whenever they pick on the ones who're out of lives. A charitable work".

"You're insane for living this long in hiding, you sack of shit!" Ziya snarls.

"Pfft- heh heh heh. HA HA HA HA HA!" Chris breaks out in laughter. "Correct! However, you aren't one to talk... Ziya. What exactly are you doing with this... boy? I don't think you have the same idea as me, with evening the odds to make this more interesting".

"Eat shit, Chris" Ziya scoffs.

"Yeah, I didn't think so either" Chris says, seeming to take Ziya's words completely differently than what she had really said. "What is your name?" Chris asks as he looks over at Drake.

"Drake..." Drake says with a worried look.

"You said something about 'last man standing', right?" Chris asks. "Ziya, would you like to indulge him on why exactly that is bullshit?". Chris begins to giggle with a creepy smile on his face.

Ziya remains silent as she stares angrily at Chris. "Ziya?" Drake asks. "What is he talking about?".

"You remember that voice on the intercom?" Ziya asks without removing her glare from Chris. "Or maybe even someone else has told you about gaining freedom?".

"Yeah?" Drake replies.

"Well, it's a lie" Ziya says.

"H-how would you... know that?" Drake asks.

"There it is!" Chris seems to celebrate. "The million dollar question! Ladies and gentlemen, give the man a round of applause! He's learning!". Suddenly, Chris grabs Ziya's arm and holds up her watch. Ziya adverts her gaze from both Chris and Drake, as she looks to the floor in embarrassment. On Ziya's watch, shone the number "90". "Drake, my dear fellow!" Chris says enthusiastically, "you are looking at none other than the champion herself of the previous game in this hell they call Pyramid!".

"W-What?" Drake asks.

There was a short pause, before Ziya says "B-before you lost your memory, I guess... I-I kinda just... left without a word. Truth is, I was taken here against my will, just like you probably were. We had a small group of people working together... but eventually...". As she spoke, she remained staring at the ground nervously.

"Long story short" Chris says, "she won! I was there to watch it!".

"More accurately" Ziya snarls as she looks up at Chris, "you ran and hid, being as useless as you were the day Mariah was killed! You... useless, cowardly piece of shit!".

"What can I say?" Chris says as he shows his left wrist. His left wrist didn't look broken at all, however there was no watch. "There came a time I didn't need to participate. I had my chance and I took it. You, on the other hand, played right into their hand. You gave the people what they want, and received nothing in return".

"What does that mean?" Drake asks.

"She killed the rest of the contestants" Chris says. "Everyone... but me".

"And the people?" Drake asks. "What's that about? What do you mean when you say 'gave the people what they want'?".

"You don't know yet?" Chris asks. "This is a game. People are watching". Chris then points to a camera that was aimed at the center of the arena. "There are cameras all over the place! I've learned all of their locations, as I live outside of their view. They don't even know I exist".

"You coward!" Ziya yells. "You hide, like you've always done since-".

"Blame me all you want" Chris says in a monotone. "You and I both know that it was either you die, or Mariah would die. She made her choice to save you... as regrettable of a decision that was".

"Why you-" Ziya begins to say.

"Well, I'm out of here" Chris says as he turns away from the two of them. "I have work to do. I assume you two have quite a lot to talk about".

"You're mad" Drake says. "Why do you all do this?".

"Mad?" Chris asks, then giggles. "Good luck!". After that, Chris disappears behind some rubble and runs off.

"Ziya..." Drake says. "What exactly is going on?".

Ziya once again averts her gaze, and stares at the ground in embarrassment. "It's a long story" she says nervously. "For now, lets just worry about keeping you alive".