Fake smile
World Games
Date: 2220-09-12
Games were no longer fun like they used to be.
Sharloht Takata ran through ruined buildings. The asphalt was cracked, the remains of old advertising screens flickered without power, and the wind dragged dust from a world that had forgotten how to live in peace.
His breathing was heavy.
But his face… showed no fear.
Suddenly, time stopped.
Sound vanished. The wind froze. Dust particles hung in the air as if the world had been paused by an invisible hand.
Everything fell silent.
Reality itself seemed to turn into a camera, slowly zooming into his left eye. In that instant, the sky began to glitch… like a television with no signal. Broken lines tore across the heavens, the dimension trembled, and space rippled like a shattered mirror.
And then, his memory returned.
200 years earlier…
A crater opened in the sky.
It wasn’t terror that paralyzed humanity.
It was something worse.
Absolute happiness.
People didn’t scream. They didn’t run. They didn’t flee. They smiled.
Their hearts beat with an emotion they had never felt before, an artificial bliss that erased any sense of danger.
From the sky descended luminous figures: fairies, angels… impossible beings. And at the center of it all, suspended above the world, a throne appeared.
Seated upon it was the Creator.
“Humans,” God said with an infinite voice that needed no echo. “Your world will be destroyed. If you wish to prevent it, you must enter the World Game. It is not a choice. It is an order.”
No one rebelled.
No one cried.
Their smiles only grew wider.
Millions of people knelt at the same time, accepting the punishment without fully understanding it.
An angel stepped forward and declared the rules.
In 109 years, the game would begin. Humans from other dimensions would be sent to this world. Everyone would have their memories of origin erased. No one would know who was an ally and who was an enemy.
The desire to destroy everything would be born within them.
To contain that chaos, there would be games.
Poker.
Chess.
Combat.
Games created to bet, kill, save, earn money, or steal magical power.
The rules were absolute.
Anyone who refused to play for a month would be eliminated.
Killing outside of a game was forbidden.
Children were untouchable.
The time limit: one hundred years.
The dimension that took the most lives… would win.
A voice echoed in the minds of all humanity:
“From this moment on, magical power exists in your world. You have one hundred years to master it.”
A wave of energy covered the planet.
When humans awoke… the gods had vanished.
---
Present – 2220-09-10
“You think you can do something to me, you damn wolf?”
Sharloht raised his katana in front of a magical wolf covered in glowing runes. A twisted smile hid beneath his white mask, decorated with a painted grin that never changed. His left eye was completely black, like a void that absorbed light.
In a blink, Sharloht disappeared.
The wolf barely had time to turn its head.
Its body fell apart.
“Let’s see, let’s see…” he laughed. “Looks like you didn’t even last a minute. Hahaha.”
In one week, the World Game will begin…
Sharloht thought.
Just like the legends say.
He stepped out of the dungeon and looked over the city from above. Modern towers stood alongside ancient structures reinforced for combat. Screens displayed missions, rewards, and rankings.
“Will all of this really be destroyed in a week…?” he touched his hair. “Well… I’d rather they didn’t destroy the internet. Haha.”
Suddenly, someone jumped onto him and hugged him tightly.
“Hi, Sharloht! I got paid for killing 109 magical wolves. One hundred wones!”
“Hey, don’t cling to me,” he protested. “Who do you think you are?”
“Ah, don’t be such a killjoy~”
It was Hana.
His best friend since they were three years old.
She had been born with a special talent, though almost no one knew its true extent.
“Aren’t you worried?” Sharloht asked. “The World Games are near.”
“I know,” she replied confidently. “And I’m ready. People from other dimensions won’t stand a chance against us.”
Since God’s announcement, schools no longer taught history or art. They taught how to fight. How to think. How to lie. How to play poker and chess as if they were weapons of war.
“In these games,” Sharloht said, “we won’t know when or where everything will begin. We’ll have to fight like never before… with both mind and body.”
“I already know,” Hana smiled. “I’m not stupid.”
“Don’t trust too much,” he warned. “When they arrive… we won’t know who is from our world and who isn’t.”
Hana nodded in silence.
The end was approaching.
End of Chapter 1
