Duo On The Seventh Floor

***

The next day.

The sun was rising beautifully from the eastern horizon, giving the people on earth warmth. Mia had woken up with a pleasant feeling in her heart. She woke up in a king-size bed that felt comfortable and warm.

Mia's eyes were drawn to the left, to a long couch where Seth rested peacefully. The man seemed to have just entered deep sleep, a period where a person would be completely lost in sleep, usually occurring four hours after he fell asleep.

Mia stood up as she stretched her body, opening her eyes wide to look around her. Bright sunlight began to stream into the room through the curtainless window.

"I wonder what's going on outside," Mia muttered, curious about the impact of last night's events.

She opened the room's window, looking down where she had found it difficult to see last night.

Mia was shocked to find the paved road that had been gray-black, now stained with red blood strewn along it, from the destroyed merchant shop to the intersection to the south.

"It can't be. How many casualties were caused by last night's incident?" muttered Mia.

The woman stepped back from the window, accidentally tripping over a table leg, which caused her to collapse back onto the bed with a slight shriek. The relatively small sound woke Seth up, and the man began to rise from his sprawled position on the couch.

"Good morning," Seth greeted.

"Morning. When did you go to sleep?" Mia asked, curious.

"Around three in the morning, I had to clean the hotel's VIP floor corridor from blood stains as quickly as possible," Seth said, yawning occasionally with his right hand seemingly covering his gaping mouth.

"But for now, everything is better. The corridor is clean, and you no longer need to be afraid or nauseous," Seth added.

Mia was certainly curious about what Seth had just said. She walked quickly to the room door and opened it with one hand.

Her eyes were amazed to see the corridor was clean, smelling good, and no sign of blood was on the way. It was in the same condition as before the robbery, even better.

"People won't know about it; only a few people do," Seth muttered, standing beside Mia with his eyes fixed on the corridor.

The door before Seth and Miya opened, a young couple in matching outfits -mostly made of jeans and leather- stood hand in hand. The man smiled at Seth, who had worked with him all night to clean the corridor.

They stepped away from the place, aiming for the emergency exit connected to the first floor. Seth sighed softly, asking Mia to get ready. Mia innocently asked what she was getting ready for.

"If I'm not mistaken, today is the day the seventh floor will be unlocked," Seth said.

Mia began to stare at Seth in all seriousness. She had heard earlier that Seth had died while on floor quest on the seventh floor. Now, Mia's life had been saved, while Seth's was threatened entirely at the moment.

"Are you gonna be okay?" asked Mia, her heart fairly anxious over Seth's situation.

Seth was left speechless for a while, his eyes focused on the emergency exit where the newlyweds had waltzed away down the stairs. Now, only Mia and Seth were still outside their room.

"I already know when I die, so I'm trying to avoid it," Seth said.

The man seemed to walk closer to the room's window, looking outside where a merchant shop had been ruined and collapsed, with the missing goods stolen by other survivors.

Seth pressed the map menu on his system bracelet, displaying a blue screen holographic map of his surroundings. The system seemed to be using satellite imagery on its screen, with the system bracelet already fitted with GPS so that the Skywatchers could easily detect it.

"There are some merchants nearby. I'll buy some equipment to help me with this floor quest," Seth said.

"Let me help you with the floor quest," Mia replied firmly.

"Can you do it? The 7th floor's task is to collect the life essence of life forms. That means we must kill living beings and take their life essence," Seth said.

"I want to be useful to you. If you protected me before, now it's my turn to protect you," Mia said.

Seth sighed softly, arms crossed over his chest with his eyes closed. He needed to confirm whether Mia had a fear of insects or not.

"Are you afraid of roaches?" Seth asked.

"No," Mia replied.

"Don't lie! The monster we're going to hunt is a roach the size of a hoverbike," Seth emphasized.

"I can kill those bugs easily. I'm just scared of rats!" explained Mia, putting on a stern face with both eyes fixed firmly on Seth.

She could have said that because she hadn't seen the roach in person. However, Seth hoped what Mia said was true so she could greatly help this time.

"Alright. I put some faith in you. Don't let me down, Mia," Seth said enthusiastically as he stretched his clenched palm forward, asking Mia to give him a toss.

Mia nodded, pressing her fist against Seth's. She promised that she would help Seth as much as she could and tried not to trouble him.

The two started walking with their bags, heading to the hotel rooftop where Seth's hoverbike was parked. The two immediately flew above the city, intending to go to the nearest merchant, of course, with the excuse of equipping both of them.

***

A booming sound echoed throughout the city. The sound came from the Skywatcher base in the skies of New York. Mia was confused by the presence of the sound, more like the strains of an orchestra with tense melodies.

"What is that?" Mia asked.

"A thrilling orchestra-like tune. It's a sign that a floor has been unlocked in this city," Seth replied.

"He's right, Miss. It's a sign of an unlocked floor quest, so you'd better take a quick look at the digital map on your system bracelet," said the merchant, not hesitant to share the information about the unlocked floor.

Mia nodded. She casually opened the digital map menu on her system bracelet. She was amazed to see a green circle created around Times Square, the distance from the center point to the farthest point of the circle four blocks away.

"What's this green circle?" she asked, curious as she pointed to it on her system bracelet.

"I'll explain more on the way. We'd better get going," said Seth, pulling Mia's delicate hand to sit on the hoverbike.

The two left the merchant after purchasing some equipment, such as three types of hand bombs, plasma bottles, laser shotguns, and a three-day supply of food. Everything they did was to support them to survive the three days of the game.

Seth continued to soar through the city sky until he arrived inside a green circle, not above the streets but on top of a three-story building.

"So many people have joined," Mia said, amazed.

"They are our enemies. Everyone is allowed to get to the essence of life at any cost," Seth said.

Mia stared at Seth with a surprised face, not expecting what he said, "Do we have to kill them too?"

"If we can't defeat the monsters, then the other option is to kill the game participants and collect the life essence they've collected."