I left the stall with Sarah.
We were heading toward the game arena. We had to figure out where it was—and where the other players were coming from.
The area we were in was small, yet we had never seen anyone before the games. They always appeared out of nowhere.
"Where exactly are we headed?" I asked Sarah.
"Over there. See those buildings?" she said, pointing ahead.
"Waste of time," I muttered. "Those buildings aren't real. I tried reaching one before, but there was an invisible wall. You can't see it at first—but from here, if you look closely, you can notice the distortion in the air. It's there."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, confused.
"It's not really a wall," I said. "It's more like a screen showing us what's beyond. I reached it once and threw a rock at it. It glitched. Even the sun above us isn't real."
"Even the sun?" she said, looking up.
Just then, clouds covered it.
Everything went silent. The sky turned dark within seconds.
"Nothing's wrong," I said. "It's just the game starting."
A sound came from behind us. We turned.
"Oh no…"
The arena was our home. It was the stall. Just where we came from.
I looked at Sarah. She looked at me.
"Let's go," she said.
I hesitated for a second, but there was no other choice. It felt like fate was pushing me forward.
We reached the door. She opened it.
She froze—staring inside, confused.
I stepped in and understood why.
Everything we had done was gone. Our bed, the tools, the snacks—every small change we had made. It had all disappeared.
The stall looked brand new.
Exactly the way it had the first time I saw it.
Our changes… had been erased.
But something felt off. There was a table in the corner.
We stepped closer.
Five chairs.
So this was it. This was where we had to play.
The table was empty. The other three chairs were empty too.
Sarah and I sat down and stared at the doorway, waiting for the others.
Then it happened. In less than a second—two girls and a boy appeared.
Sitting in the chairs.
One blink and they were there.
They looked as shocked as we were. No one spoke. No one understood what had just happened.
And then, as if summoned—something appeared on the table.
A box. Inside it were five notepads.
Each of us took one. This time, the system didn't speak. It didn't need to. We were used to the games now.
I opened the notebook.
On the first page, it read:
One of you is the Imposter. One of you is the Wizard. The Wizard knows who the Imposter is but cannot tell anyone. The rest are normal players.
You will ask questions one by one using the notebook. Everyone must write their answers and give it to the one who asked. No one is allowed to speak. After every five questions of yours, you must vote.
Five rounds, twenty-five questions and the first two with the most vote gets eliminated.
But if you all voted the imposter out, only the wizard and the imposter both will be eliminated. If you vote the wizard and someone else but not the imposter, All three of them will survive.
Twenty-five votes and three winners.
Don't show your notes to others.
The questions must be related to this world. The Imposter does not know this world, nor does the Imposter know who the Wizard is.
I slowly lowered the notebook.
This game was different.
I turned to page number two.
Shocked but calm. It said,
"Status: Wizard.
Imposter: Ryan"
I realized I am trapped. I looked at Ryan. (It's easy to identify him as he and I are the only boys here)
He was also calm. Not showing his terror.
I looked at the box there was a note. Written,
"1st one to ask: Sofia
2nd: Freya
3rd: Sarah
4th: Mahmood
5th: Ryan, for every round"
I turned to the two girls not knowing which one is Sofia and which one is Freya.
One of them started writing the question in his note, that means she is Sofia. Good to see I acknowledge everyone. (Not flexing at all its common sense)
So, the first question showed is, "Where did you first spawned?"
Everyone including me, took their own notepad out and wrote the answer silently.
Then we teared the page and gave it to her.
I tried to look at Ryan's note. Thanks to the sunlight, I could read it clearly.
He wrote "A farm". I wrote "A stadium".
But wait, he doesn't know that there was no farm in this world.
That means Sofia will vote him out surely.
Sofia saw our notes and kept it to her.
Next, it's Freya's turn.
She thought for some seconds, which gave me some time to think for mine.
If they vote the imposter out, I will die for no reason. All I have to do as a wizard is to save the imposter.
Hmmm. Interesting. What If I act like I am the imposter? I don't care getting voted. I just have to save him.
Okay, Let's start saving someone. Although I don't want to.