17 Bad Memories

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! Alice stands in front of Adam's apartment door while holding a large black tablet in her left hand, Adam slowly walked out from his bedroom while lining up his mask to the back of his neck. He stands right in front of his apartment door and slowly peeked into the peephole, he saw Alice who knocked on the door a couple more times and quickly opened the door.

"Good morning Alice, I'm not going to the Playground today Kaito told me to rest today for the game tomorrow," Adam explained while holding his door and looked towards Alice.

"Good morning Lion sorry to bother you on your rest day but there will be a brief about The King's Game that you must attend please get ready because it will start in a couple of hours from now," Alice explained.

"Oh, right they haven't explained to us about the game what are they doing? Shouldn't that be the first thing that they explain to a contestant? Give me ten minutes I'll be right back." Adam turned around and ran towards his room leaving his apartment door opened with Alice standing in front of it.

"So where will the brief be held at?" Adam asked as he looked towards Alice while both of them walked inside the train station, Adam looked around the train station as it was empty and followed Alice who was right beside him.

"The brief will be held in the Hall, come follow me, Lion," Alice answered as she walked towards a yellow metal door that was at the end of the train track, Alice took out a small white card from her suit pocket that has a picture of a golden crown that have ten points on top of it. Alice held the key card to the middle of the door and the door opened on its own.

Both of them walked through the door and walked down a long staircase that has a similar yellow door at the end of it as the door behind them closed on its own, they walked out of the door and entered a similar train station as the one that they were on.

Adam quickly looked around the train station and saw a couple of dozens of contestant who was wearing different masks who was standing around the train station with their Karinas beside them.

"There's a train station under the train station? Why I haven't seen this on the map? I have read the map for hours and I didn't see this part." Adam asked as he walked beside Alice as both of them passed a couple of contestants who were talking to each other or talking to their Karinas.

"It's not on your map because this isn't a place where a contestant can go to alone, the map that I gave you will only show the places that you can go alone without me," Alice answered as both of them stands in front of the yellow line at the edge of the train platform.

HOOH! A loud horn came from their left side as a train emerged out from the large hole at the end of the train station, a shiny silver train stopped at the train station as all of the contestants and their Karinas walked towards the train door that opened on its own.

Adam and Alice sat on a chair that was a couple of meters away from the entrance door as the train doors closed, Adam looked around the train car that was filled with chatter as the train left the train station "Are contestants allowed to make a group?"

"Yes you're allowed to make a team and it's recommended for contestants to make a team as early as possible in the game because at the end everyone will be in a team, except some of the greatest Kings of the Kingdom who won the game alone," Alice explained while looking towards Adam.

"Oh okay." Adam nodded as the train stopped. Adam and Alice went out of the train and Adam quickly looked around the place where the train stops as it wasn't a train station.

It was a large marble-floored hall that has a gigantic opened wooden double door that was a couple of meters in front of the train car, the train behind Adam closed its door on its own as the other contestants went out from the train and quickly goes backward.

"Hello there Lion you came here pretty early." Bull said while he waved towards Adam who quickly looked towards him who was leaning on a wall beside the gigantic wooden door, Bull smiled as he stands up straight and walked towards Adam.

"Hey, there Bull you're early too what are you doing out here?" Adam asked as he waved back towards Bull who stopped right in front of him as a couple of contestants walked past both of them.

"I'm out here because I'm bored nothing is interesting in there plus I want to see the other contestants that come here today." Bull explained while looking towards Adam, Bull quickly looked over at Alice who was standing behind Adam, and smiled at her.

"Okay have fun out here, I'm going inside now see you later Bull." Adam smiled as he walked towards the gigantic door, Alice slightly bowed towards Bull and ran towards Adam followed him inside.

"Are they gathering every contestant here? Because this is a very large place." Adam asked as he looked around the massive conference hall that was in the shape of a half-circle that have a couple of floors that went downwards that was filled with rows of soft leather chairs.

"Yes, every single contestant that pass the test have been summoned here today," Alice explained while Adam looked towards the last floor of the conference hall and saw a large wooden stage that has a wooden podium in the middle of it.

"Let's sit right there Lion it has the best view in the conference hall." Alice pointed towards a line of chairs that was a couple of floors below them on Alice's left while looking towards Adam.

Adam nodded towards Alice and both of them walked towards the chair. While both of them walked around the conference hall Adam looked towards the rows of empty chairs and saw that there were only a handful of contestants that were sitting around the conference hall.

"I think we're going to be here for a while," Adam said as both of them sat down on the leather chairs beside each other.

Three hours passed by as the conference hall that now was filled with contestants and their Karinas, the lights that were shining in the conference hall slowly dimmed down as the light on top of the stage turned on. A tall man who was wearing a black suit with a red tie, black sharp glasses with his hair pulled back walked on the wooden stage toward the podium and stands behind it.

"Welcome to the Hall contestants, my name is Kim Gang Jae and I'm the head of the game. I'm here to explain to all of you how the game works." The man introduced himself while looking around the conference hall that suddenly turned silent.

Kim Gang Jae tapped the tablet that was sitting on the podium a couple of times as a large hologram appeared behind him that showed a video of a point of view of a contestant who was holding a large orange blade while beheading a couple of other contestants in a ruined house.

"Now as all of you know the live stream will be taken from your point of view which means whatever you see is what your viewers will see so don't look to the ground for a long time or your viewers will leave you. The live stream will begin on its own as all of you enter the game stage and it won't broadcast any sound because it would make things very hard to do for us. Now let's get to the fun part." Kim Gang Jae explained.

"The Viewers will be able to donate to all of you and there's a rate for the donation which I will show you now." Kim Gang Jae explained as he tapped the tablet a couple more times, the hologram behind him suddenly changed and showed a dollar sign that has a number one below it with an arrow on its left that was pointing towards the Crown sign with the number two below it.

"For every single dollar that the contestants donated will be converted into two Crowns so do your best to make your watchers happy make your live stream fun." Kim Jang Gae explained as he looked around the Hall and winked.

"Let's get to the next point." Kim Jang Gae said as he tapped the table on the podium a couple of times, the hologram behind him changed as it showed a picture of a small scroll that was inside a glass tube.

"Now this year's games will be slightly different because of the viewers complains of last year's game, the game will still play out like every year but we are adding a new feature on the games to make things a little bit more fun." Kim Jang Gae smiled as he pointed towards the hologram behind him.

"As all of you can see that is a scroll inside a glass tube, this scroll will be given to all of you when you're on your way to the game stage. This will have a clue inside of it that will help you to figure out the secret of the game." Kim Jang Gae explained while pointing towards the scroll.

"For the contestants who found and finished the secret of the game will be given a special reward which will be specially crafted for the contestant by Micheal Angelo himself." Kim Jang Gae smiled as he heard a couple of contestants gasped.

"Who is Micheal Angelo?" Adam whispered towards Alice who was typing on her tablet, writing down everything that Kim Jang Gae was saying as she turned her head towards Adam.

"He is the greatest weapon crafter and body modification in the world and he is the grandson of Constantin the man who started Project: Justice that helped the world achieved peace," Alice explained while looking towards Adam who quickly gasped and closed his mouth with his right hand.

"And we will be adding a new feature that the king has decided, this year the viewers would have more control of the game they will be given four choices of the game arena after each game and the most voted one will be the next game's arena, so be nice with your viewers give them what they want to see because they can help you by picking arenas that will give you an advantage." King Jang Gae explained, he tapped the tablet on the podium a couple of times as the hologram behind him turned black.

"That's all from me, if you have any questions please tell your guide and we will answer your questions through them. Before all of you go back to your Downtowns there's a video that the King has prepared, I present you a message from the longest-running King of The King's Game." Kim Jang Gae bowed down as walked towards the side of the stage as a man who was wearing a black suit with a brown bear mask that has a scar on his right eye and a large golden crown on the top of his head.

"Hello, contestants I am Kuma the current King of The King's Game, this year's game will be different from the usual games but remember our purpose. We are here to entertain the world so I wish you luck on your first game and kill." Kuma smiled while waving towards the contestants, the contestants excitedly cheered as the video ends with Kuma's smile and the lights turns on.

Half an hour passed by as there were only a handful of contestants left inside the Hall, Alice looked towards Adam with a worried face as he didn't move since the video of the King ended. He was looking downwards towards the red carpet on the ground for the entire time without moving a single centimeter.

"Lion you have been sitting in that position for half an hour, are you okay Lion?" Alice asked as she puts her right hand on Adam's left shoulder, Adam shook and quickly looked towards Alice.

"What happened Lion are you okay?" Alice asked as Adam slowly leaned back to his chair, he sighed and looked towards Alice.

"Sorry just got reminded of some memories." Adam smiled towards Alice and looked around the almost empty Hall.

"Look at that everyone has left come on let's go back." Adam stands up while looking towards Alice who quickly stands up and followed him walked out of the Hall.

Adam walked inside his room and quickly sat down on top of his bed "That bastard, he acted proudly as if he earned that spot. I will make him pay for what he had done, just you wait."

"Dad where are you going?" A small kid who has black hair asked while he sat down in front of a red door while looking towards a man who has his head covered by bright sunlight.

"I will be going for a while so keep learning and use the knowledge you have to make the world a better place okay?" The man said as he pats the kid's head a couple of times.

"I will dad, so come back as fast as you can okay?" The kid waved as the man walked out for the door.

Adam woke up in his bed with a heavy breath while covered in sweat, he slowly gets up and wiped the sweat on his forehead "Don't worry dad I avenge you."