A young man, around eighteen years old, lay unconscious. He had pale skin, and his black hair fell to his shoulders. Suddenly, he opened his eyes. He placed his hands on his face and rubbed them. His right eye was blue like the ocean, while his left was green like an emerald.
"Where am I? I don't remember anything," he thought.
At that moment, a noise came from behind him. He turned around sharply and saw nine other people. There were five women and four men. Only one other person had woken up—a girl. She had pale skin like his own, and blonde hair. Her eyes were blue like the ocean.
"Who are you?" they both said at the same time.
The girl frowned at him.
"Who am I? The real question is: who are you?" she said, pointing her finger at him.
The young man frowned as he heard that and thought to himself, "She doesn't know where we are either… What's going on?"
Just then, another noise came from behind the girl. She flinched and looked back.
"What was that? Did someone else wake up with us?"
A man was standing up as she screamed. He had dark skin and black hair with a cowlick. His eyes were amber, and he had a frightening appearance. Not exactly ugly—but something about him inspired fear. He was slowly regaining consciousness, looking around.
When he focused his gaze on the other two in the room, he automatically asked, "Who are you? And where is this place?"
"Gwyn," the young man replied.
The woman near Gwyn spoke up boldly.
"What? Why did you answer him and not me?"
Gwyn looked at her with no expression and asked, "What's your name?"
She looked at him with disbelief.
"Alice," she replied. "I only answered because you answered first!" she added.
Gwyn looked at her and whispered to himself, "Hmm… Alice."
He put his finger on his chin, thinking. After a few moments, he looked at the man who was crouching.
"And you? What's your name?"
The man was looking around and replied without looking at Gwyn, "Laurence." Then he finally looked at Gwyn.
"Where are we?"
Gwyn hesitated for a moment before answering.
"Huff… She and I have the same question. I just woke up here for no reason. And… why are you dressed the same as Alice?"
Alice looked at him, confused.
"What? Didn't you look at yourself? You're dressed just like us."
Gwyn looked down at himself and smiled.
"I hadn't noticed yet. So… what do we do?"
"Wait for the others to wake up," Laurence said with a sigh.
"Huh? Are you kidding?" Alice replied, clearly frustrated.
"We're just going to wait? What if nothing happens?"
"What else can we do?" Gwyn responded.
"Have you looked around? We're surrounded by old wooden walls. There's not even a door. We just wait for the others to wake up and see what happens."
Gwyn walked to a corner and sat down. Laurence did the same, sitting in the opposite corner, facing Gwyn—about fifteen meters between them.
Alice remained standing between the two of them, surrounded by the others, still unconscious. She felt uneasy, then decided to sit near Gwyn.
A few hours passed, and Gwyn saw many people waking up. Laurence introduced himself, explained what was happening, and asked for their names. Cassia, Lyra, Freya, Ariel, Evan, Levi, and lastly Adryan woke up. These were all who were present in the room. Everyone was wearing long-sleeved white shirts and black pants.
After Laurence explained everything to Adryan, he asked everyone to gather in the middle of the room. Gwyn and Alice were the only ones sitting together. Everyone else was sitting far apart from each other. Once they gathered, Laurence started to speak.
"Nobody knows why we are here, but we need to do something—we can't just stay here waiting." Suddenly, a scream interrupted him. The scream came from behind Gwyn.
"Look what I found!" Adryan raised his hands and showed a card, like a playing card.
"Where did you find it?" Laurence asked immediately. Before Adryan could answer, Laurence stepped forward and took the card from Adryan's hands.
Gwyn was close to Laurence and managed to see the card. Written on it was:
[FIREBALL]
[RANK – INITIAL]
[CLASS – FIRE]
[COOLDOWN – 3 MINUTES]
There was also a picture of a fireball painted on the card. Laurence looked at the card and asked again, "Where did you find it?"
Adryan lowered his head and answered, "In my pocket." Then he pointed at his pocket. Laurence frowned, but at the same time, another person said, "I have a card too!" Another voice joined, "Me too!" After that, everyone started checking their pockets and found cards.
Gwyn looked in his pocket and found a card:
[LIGHT CANNON]
[RANK – INTERMEDIATE]
[CLASS – LIGHT]
[COOLDOWN – 5 MINUTES]
"Huh? Light Cannon? How come?" His thoughts were interrupted when he felt another card in his pocket. He picked it up and read:
[WOOD KEY]
[RANK – INITIAL]
[CLASS – MANSION ITEMS]
[COOLDOWN – ?]
"What is this? Another card? What does 'Wood Key' mean?"
Suddenly, at that moment, a hand pulled his card.
"What?" Gwyn looked to his side and saw Laurence holding the Wood Key card.
"Hey, that's mine!"
Laurence ignored him and continued looking at the card.
"What, is he going to ignore me?" Gwyn pushed his hands forward and snatched his card back from Laurence's hands.
Laurence looked at Gwyn with a happy expression and said, "It's the card! Wood Key—I think it can unlock this room!"
Gwyn didn't understand. "How can a card get us out of this situation?" he wondered.
"Go, Gwyn, use this card," Laurence said with an excited voice.
"What? How can a mere card help us? What are you talking about, Laurence?" Gwyn asked, confused.
"Isn't it obvious? This card should help us get out of this room. It must be some kind of key."
He turned back and looked at everyone.
"You all, search for any lock!"
Instantly, they all started searching the room.
Gwyn stayed still, stationary like a statue.
"Key? How is it a key?"
His thoughts were interrupted by Adryan, who accidentally dropped his card.
As his card fell, it instantly disappeared in a flash of light, and a fireball shot forward.
It hit the wall and exploded, sending sparks ricocheting through the room and hitting Adryan, Cassia, and Levi.
They screamed in pain, and immediately everyone in the room rushed to help them.
Only Gwyn remained standing still, like a statue, watching everything happen—the card disappeared, the fireball.
Gwyn decided to walk over to Adryan. He had parts of his arm burned.
Lyra and Alice were helping him, while Laurence stood nearby.
When Gwyn approached, he saw the expression on Laurence's face—shocked, as if he had witnessed something overwhelming.
He looked at Gwyn and asked, "You saw it too?"
Without looking at him, Gwyn answered, "Yes. When his card fell from his hand, the fireball appea—"
But his sentence was cut short when he saw the same card in Adryan's hand—only it was grey, and this was written on it:
[FIREBALL]
[RANK – INITIAL]
[CLASS – FIRE]
[COOLDOWN – 2.54 MINUTES]
2.53
2.52
Seeing this, Gwyn picked up the Wood Key and threw it into the air.
It disappeared in a flash of light, and a sound came from behind him.
The wooden wall was opening.