POTLS - Chapter 1: The Party

The crimson moon cast an eerie scarlet glow over the landscape.

Crack!

Paul broke a dry wooden stick and tossed it into the flickering campfire before him. Flames danced in his eyes, his skin alternating between a pale red and bright gold as firelight competed with the moon's glow.

"Is the meat ready yet, Paul?" Lina asked, her sleepy face propped up by both hands. "I'm starving."

"Almost there," Paul replied. "Just another minute."

"You're so rigid," Lina complained. "Does it really need to be cooked for the exact right time?"

"These aren't Earth rabbits. What if we get sick from undercooking them?"

"Then we'd have something interesting to report to the PDI."

"You want to try it?" Paul conceded. "I won't stop you."

Lina puffed her cheeks and stuck out her tongue, clearly just talking without any intention of following through.

Beside them, Kate shifted on the ground with a rustle. She squinted at Paul with a puzzled expression.

"What is it, Kate?" he asked.

"Are you... are you alright?"

"What do you mean?" Paul laughed. "None of us are 'alright' in this situation."

"You know that's not what I meant," Kate's frown deepened.

"I think I'm fine," Paul turned the rabbit meat over the campfire.

"I doubt that. If you were fine, you wouldn't be talking to Lina. She's dead."

Paul's hand froze for just a moment before continuing to rotate the meat. Though the dancing flames reflected in his eyes, they couldn't hide the darkness that settled over them as he looked to his left where he'd been speaking with Lina. The girl wasn't there. The rock was empty except for some green moss tinged red in the moonlight.

"It's all in the past now," Kate said consolingly. "You need to stay focused for what's ahead. Can you do that?"

Paul nodded silently. He didn't know what to say. There were no words worth speaking. Losing teammates was something neither he nor anyone else wanted. But that was reality. The harsh truth became more evident each day in this new world.

A world of madness and chaos.

"What do you think, David? Should we take Paul to one of those psychological support sessions at the SSC?" Kate cautiously asked the man in black sitting nearby.

He remained silent, sword tip planted in the ground, his stern face staring straight ahead. The closely-cropped hair and steely gray eyes made Paul feel like he was being seen through completely.

Kate merely shrugged at the silence, adjusting her glasses before waiting quietly for dinner. They would need all their energy for the sixth night of the portal's seven-day trial.

Seeing his teammate being ignored, Paul grew irritated and reproached David.

"You could at least say something back to Kate. She'll stop talking altogether if you keep this up."

"Shut up, Paul!"

Paul's muscles tensed at the harsh response, glaring at his most difficult teammate. David was critical by nature, always raising key questions or issues that forced the group to adjust or adapt. But sometimes his blunt personality made everyone around him uncomfortable.

Only Kate could tolerate it with her gentle temperament honed in the corporate world. Paul and Lina had argued with David several times already.

"What's your problem?" Paul bristled. "Did I do something to annoy you?"

"Let it go, Paul," Kate intervened.

"Why should I? So he can keep acting superior? You don't need to be so careful around him."

"Is that what you think of me?" David asked coldly.

"Everyone thinks that about you, not just me," Paul retorted.

"You're insane," David spat.

Paul clenched his fists, abandoning the rabbit meat that was reaching its final cooking stage. His eyes widened as he stared at the other male member of the group.

"Who are you calling insane?"

"You, who else?" David growled, his face twisted with anger. "Only a madman talks to ghosts. Kate's dead too, you know? She has no lives left. Just like Lina before her."

Paul lowered his hands, acting as though his emotional outburst had just been a show. Perhaps it had been real before, but now he wasn't even sure if he was dead inside. He no longer knew what or who he was fighting for.

"Goddamnit, Paul," David cursed. "How long are you going to keep this up? Are you going to cling to your guilt just to torment me?"

"But it was my fault."

"We got scammed. 'We,' not just you. I, Kate, and Lina all made our own assessments, remember? All four of us voted on where to buy the Artifact. And it wasn't just you who chose that damned Crouching Tiger Guild."

"I was the one who nominated it."

"So what? Are you certain the other three guilds wouldn't have done the same thing?"

"It would have been better than Crouching Tiger."

"Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall," David snapped. "Or perhaps talking to ghosts like you were doing earlier is a better option."

The crackling of wood brought Paul back to reality. He tossed another dry branch into the fire. His hand rotated the rabbit meat again. One side had already been scorched during his argument with David. He clicked his tongue dismissively, thinking he'd cut that part away later. The rabbit, half the size of a person, had enough nutrition for a group of four anyway.

"If that Artifact had worked even once, everything might have been different," Paul said sadly.

"'If' is the most poisonous snake of all," David snorted. "Regret changes nothing. Let it go."

"I had accounted for the consequences," Paul continued as if he hadn't heard. "Even if we got scammed, even if we couldn't complete that run, as long as we stayed together, we could have paid off the debt."

"You naive fool," David chuckled, "desperately craving connection. Look at you—after knowing each other for such a short time, you arrogantly thought we could survive a major event unscathed. You thought everyone would react like you, brushing off psychological trauma to keep living? Not everyone is an orphan like you. People have different tolerance thresholds."

Paul's shoulders slumped as David's cutting words sank in. The problem was, none of it was wrong. Their four-person group had pooled resources to purchase an Artifact that granted the ability to reroll each level-up to get the skills they needed. They had studied the statistics from Portal Defense Initiative and Survivor Support Center publications, determining what they needed to do to survive seven days and claim the portal's rewards.

But everything collapsed. The Artifact was fake, not working even once. When that happened, all three teammates froze, their minds gradually unraveling. That run ended on the sixth night, just like tonight, with all four killed before reaching the seventh day.

Afterward, the team fell apart. Suspicion, humiliation, and lost trust created irreparable fractures. Paul believed he could fix things, but he hadn't anticipated Crouching Tiger acting so quickly. Beyond direct debt collection, they terrorized the families of debtors, forcing Lina and Kate to enter portals without proper planning.

What those two women endured was something Paul couldn't bear to imagine.

"You're a coward, just as you think," David shook his head. "You're the only one without attachments, so they couldn't track you down. But I know you were there that day, yet you didn't dare show yourself."

Paul's face turned ashen at the accusation. The day David mentioned was Kate's final portal dive. Of her ten granted lives, only one remained. He had gone near her home, hoping to help.

But in that alley, more than five powerful men dragged away the fragile woman. Their leader was even Rank E, higher than Paul's Rank F. They laughed as they pulled her from her family's arms—an aging mother and a young college-aged brother. The boy's leg was broken when he punched the Rank E leader in the face. The mother fainted repeatedly as Kate was thrown into a car parked on the roadside.

The police? They stood on the opposite sidewalk, indifferent to it all. Though it hadn't been long, an unwritten law had already taken hold in society.

Let Survivors deal with Survivors.

Furthermore, Crouching Tiger had evidence in the form of signed contracts, so ordinary people avoided getting involved when possible.

Kate truly died in that dive with no lives remaining. Her body was spat out from the Portal, along with gold and essence rewards. All of which Crouching Tiger seized without mercy. What remained—a mangled body destroyed by monster attacks—was returned to her family.

Paul felt too ashamed to visit, silently sending some funeral money instead.

The same happened with Lina. Both times, he did nothing.

Though he knew he couldn't have done anything, he still couldn't shake the burden in his heart. Because the person who had acted was sitting right in front of him.

David was the type who saw needling others as a form of enjoyment. Yet he brought that same antagonism to their enemies.

"In the end, they both died anyway, didn't they?" Paul asked bitterly.

"At least I dared to do something, instead of being useless like you," David's words landed like an invisible slap across Paul's face.

Shrieks pierced the night's silence.

Paul showed no dejection at being scolded; he only managed a pained smile.

"Do the two of us really need to be so harsh with each other?"

"Two?" David laughed loudly. "How can there be two when I'm not even alive? I'm not here to support you. Everything is just in your head."

David's final confrontation had been selling his life to another guild in exchange for opposing Crouching Tiger. The result: the guild where he sought refuge wasn't strong enough, and their leader couldn't match Crouching Tiger. They captured David and handed him over as a peace offering.

David's final life had been used up a month ago.

The rustling sounds grew more intense around the clearing where Paul sat.

"Can you stay with me a little longer?" Paul asked as David stood up, sword in hand and posture defiant.

Though he'd never said it aloud, Paul had always admired David. Confident, brave, willing to act and face consequences. Paul believed that even in death, David felt no shame. Unlike himself, who thought he could never be that way.

"Not possible," David said solemnly. "Your enemies are coming."

The black-clad man's image gradually faded.

"See you later, Paul. In another place. But before that, survive and revenge for us, alright?"

David vanished completely, leaving behind a desolate, lonely campsite.

The rabbit meat had burned beyond edibility. But Paul wasn't hungry or in the mood to eat. He had just wanted something to do during this rest period.

He grabbed the silver sword leaning at his side, stood up, and fixed his gaze on the sky. As the last survivor of his team, he had much to accomplish.

Against the crimson moon, a creature with leathery wings, gaunt form, and pitch-black eyes swooped down.

The last stage of the run began.

[Status]

Name: Paul Steele
Age: 23
Species: Human
Occupation: Breach Survivor
Rank: F
Level: 22 [800 EXP needed for next level]
Lives Remaining: 2

[Base Stats]

Strength: 8
Constitution: 7
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 6
Wisdom: 6
Luck: 5

[Resources]

Mana: 60/60 (Intelligence × 10)
Stamina: 120/120 (Base 50 + Constitution × 10)

[Active Skills]

Silver Strike (Lv.5)
Crescent Moon Slash (Lv.4)
Warrior's Heart (Lv.3)
Healing Hand (Lv.2)
Last Stand (Lv.1)

[Passive Skills]

Night Adaptation (Lv.3)
Blood Resistance (Lv.2)
Blade Mastery (Lv.2)

[Special Note]

Current Location: F-Rank Portal, Crimson Moon Estate, 6th Night.
Objective: Survive for 7 days.