YOU CAN HEAR THE CEREMONIAL MUSIC BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR EYES. It's a triumphic tune meddled with brass vibrations of saxophones and tuba; things alike. It vibrates the entire room, and you can feel the cot your placed on rattle with extremity. Slowly, you flicker your eyes open, laying on your back, the first thing you can see is the pulsating lights above you. Well, it feels as if they were pulsating, or perhaps thats the migraine induced into your besmitchen awakening in this unforeign landscape. The lights are blinding nearly, making you raise a hand to your face; blocking as much light as you can, in fear of making the headache worse.

Your mind scrambles to remember how you were placed here; but having no recollection, as if everything before was a haze. It scratches the back of your mind as you begin to sit upwards; finally noticing the small appetitial hunger gnawing in your stomach. It's hard, but the cool wind coming through the vents surrounding the room helps ease everything. You finally begin to glance around, noticing all the faces in the room around you; all of them are unknown, and to be honest, forgettable. It's a sea of identical green jumpsuits, with each jumpsuit having a designated number, yours being zero two. You place your hands on the black metal rack, feeling the cold metal underneath your callused hand and pry yourself upwards.

As you begin to slide off your top rack on the left side of the room you begin to hear the beginnings of faint murmurs. Whispers with a hint of worry, "It's just a game, right?" You hear one say as you climb down the bunks. Naturally, you keep to yourself, watching the other contestants. As your plain white shoes hit the ground, your almost assaulted by an old lady sporting the number 129, coming to bombard you. "Hey wait, this young man looks like he'd know what's going on." Your almost perplexed by this, how would you of all people know anything that might happen. You smile gently, bowing your head in respect to your elder. "I'm sorry, I'm just as lost as you." You speak gently, and watch as another player drifts towards you, 007, looking eerily similar to the grandmother in front of you. She grins brightly, with a small glimmer in her eyes. "This is my son Yong-sik, he doesn't have many friends, what's your name." She questions, her son, wearing large goofy glasses looks away in embarrassment. You laugh fakely, trying to ease some of the awkwardness. "Its uh," You feel nervous for a moment, saying your name, it feels as if it hasn't been used in so long. "It's Y/N L/N."

"Y/N L/N?" The grandma croaks a hearty laugh, "I knew you were a foreigner, But your so fluent in Korean." She says, her son, nods quickly in agreement. You sigh slightly, having to explain. "I moved to Korea, my mother was part Korean even though It doesn't look like it." You laugh, they nod as you speak, listening with great intensity. That's always been one thing your good at, talking to people; even if it bores you.  "What is this place anyways?" You question no one in particular, glancing around the room. A large black, flat screen tv shines a fluorescent green. NUMBER OF PLAYERS 456. "There's 456 of us? That's a lot for a game right?" The two nod quickly in agreement.

"That is a lo-" Yong-sik begins to speak but something interrupts him. Beneath the large tv opens a massive door; and out comes four guards. One square in the lead, and circles surrounding him. He stops at the end of the platform, in front of the steps and speaks quickly, without a waste of time. "First of all, I'd like to extend a hearty welcome to all of you players," He glances around as he speaks, the hot pink jumpsuits practically glowing in the light. It's intimidating, but in the most unimaginable way. The grandmother, and Yong-sik both trade uneasy glances and look towards you; while you remain stone faced, watching the guards with a delayed breath. "Over the next six days, you all will compete in six games, those who win all six games will receive a handsome cash prize." Your mind flashes for a second; wondering why your even participating in the games, to no avail, most likely the sleep toxins making you forgetful; but still, you want to remember quickly.

You step forward, "Hey, what's the deal with the players. How are we supposed to win ANY  money with this much people!" You yell, hoping your voice reaches the pink jump suited square figure. Murmurs ripple through the crowd in agreement. "Yeah, and what's the deal with the masks, how are we supposed to believe anything you say!" An old man says, spittle flipping from his mouth as he speaks, throwing out his hand with bulging eyes.

"There is a handsome cash prize after each game, you may be allowed to leave. We wear these for confidentiality and fairness of everyone. We came to you, played a game and gave you money and you trusted us. So, will you go back to your useless life running from creditors and loan sharks, or will you take this last opportunity we're offering?" Loud talks come through the crowd in waves, a loud buzzing of noise, even the grandmother and her son hold their hands together nervously, staring at the intimidating figures with fear. Your trained eyes search the crowds, a short woman sporting 222 stares towards your small group of three on the left, sitting with her legs against her chest. Past that, another person catches your interest. A man reaches inside of his mouth gingerly feeling his tooth; you try to pass it off as a man with a toothache, but something about the mans stare, like one of ptsd, a thousand yard stare almost.

"Excuse me, ill be right back." You say, nodding to the two. The old woman nods, "Of course." Silently, you make your way through the crowd while their distracted, before they start moving. The square masked man speaks again as you're almost the entire way to the man, you trip over someones foot accidentally, bumping into a man with purple hair. He shoves you away quickly, "Watch where you're walking." He says loudly, drawing a loud laugh from the small group of boys.

As if a lottery machine at a casino had hit the jackpot starts ringing through-out the warehouse?  Your not quite sure what it is, the lights dim and a dull yellow spotlight is placed on a piggybank suspended from the roof from two wires. The cha-ching sounding music continues until its almost twenty or thirty feet into the air. You have to admit, if they were trying to draw your attention, they definitely had it. You shake the thought out of your head, continuing to push forward through the crowd as he speaks. "What you see now is the piggybank where your valuable prize money will be stored. After each of the six games you play, the prize money will accumulate here." A small look backwards reveals that the crowd is actually closing in, more people trying to get a better look at the piggybank, making it harder for you to move through, the song finally stops and a recognizable voice rings out first, before anyone else does; the old ladys son, "How much is the prize money?" He asks before yelping a loud, 'OW' his mother probably disciplining him as best she can a grown man.

"The prize money for the games are 45.6 billion won in total."

That leaves everyone gasping, and wide-eyed, some people in here have never even been near that amount of money, let alone had. "Sir." You say, pushing through the crowd, you put your hands on the ice-cold railing for a moment, catching his breath. Another man asks about the cash prize as the disheveled man who had reached for his tooth stares at you. "Yeah? What is it?" He asks, glancing past you suspiciously; you glance over your own shoulder for a moment, meeting his eyes in a moment of understanding. "Do you know what these games are?" You question, "Or what's the deal with those guys, they're pretty scary huh." You say, laughing fakely to make it less awkward. His face remains neutral, and his eyes placed on the ground in solmenity.

The loud square voice speaks up, "For you, we have given you a special advantage, your given a chance to leave after every available game and if the majority wins, you all shall go home each with the accumulated prize money up to said point." It's as if he wanted everyone to hear, even you and the stranger fellow in the back. This draws the mans attention, and he steps forward, mouth open to speak quickly. "So, your saying we'll still receive the money even after we leave the first game."

"That is true."

456, you notice, finally glancing at the mans number, switches his attention to the camera placed behind himself. The red light blinking, a sign that it's on, and recording. "What's wrong sir?" You question, watching him eye the camera as if he was perplexed by it, or maybe some other reason. "Yeah-yeah," He says, staring at the ground; he shakes his head and turns back facing you and the pink intimidating figures. "002 huh." He says to himself, looking at your number on the jacket; your surprised momentarily, do our numbers matter?

"We always give you a chance to leave the games, if you wish to leave now would be the time to speak up and do so." The circle guards pull a clipboard out, supposedly sitting in their back pockets and stand in front of you all, placed into different lines. "Please organize yourself in an orderly fashion and sign the agreement if you wish to participate in our games." That's the final thing he says, leaving you all to line up yourselves in different lines. You follow player 456, who takes his place in the front of the very left of the three lines.

You look around gingerly, scared of meeting the guards eyes as you do so; your eyes find multiple drawings on the wall, one of monkey bars, and of a male and female doll. You touch the mans shoulder in front of you lightly and nod to the pasty white walls, decorated with the black sketches. He follows your eyes and nods as you speak, "Think those have something to do with the games we'll play? Monkey bars aren't hard, and the toys?" Your eyes stare, lingering for maybe too long, the older man nods, and you cross your arms idily waiting for the line to continue moving, your e/c eyes searching the facility.

As you do so, you can hear the mother and son arguing once again. It distracts you momentarily from the situation your in. "The amazing Myung-Ji from MG Coin? Is that you?" The man who was in front of 456, signing his own paper to consent is stopped on his way back by two men, one with purple hair who you recognize as the rapper Thanos. The other man is unknown to you, though if you had to guess they were friends. The smaller man, with a much younger looking face looks up solemnly, "Who are you?" He says quietly under his breath, just loud enough for the two men to hear; its as if he didn't wanna draw attention to himself. Thanos takes this moment of fear and steps forward, throwing his hand back to himself as he speaks. "You may not know me, but I know you MG Coin." He lowers his head as he speaks, fixing his eyes on MG Coin with anger, "I was subscribed to your channel and I lost a shitload of money asshole!"

"So did I." The friend says, backing up Thanos, he has his arms crossed and looks as if he was enjoying torturing the smaller man. MG Coin looks up at the two finally meeting their eyes, his baggy eyes showing faint tear stains. "Sorry, you got the wrong person." He says quickly, trying to move through the middle of the two men quickly; but they recognize it and push him backwards forcefully, making him take at least 3 steps. "I was subscribed to your channel and watched you everyday, I even see you in my dreams now motherfucker." He sticks his finger into MG coins chest as he speaks, making the man glance down at it then meeting Thanos' eyes again with annoyance.

Thanos takes his finger off of MG Coin and wraps it around his friends shoulder, "What was your name? Nam-syu" He stares at the ground while he speaks, at last glancing up at his friends face as he finishes. "It's nam-gyu, from club pentagon?" He says, as if Thanos should've remembered. Thanos nods and smacks Nam-gyu's shoulder hard, making him grimace. "Thanks to you, me and Nam-syu bonded quickly here because of the pain."

MG Coin sighs and glances around the room to see who's watching, and his eyes meet yours, only for a moment before he looks away out of pity? sadness? embarrassment? You cant be sure. Thanos walks away for a moment, doing a small circle of pacing behind Nam-gyu as he speaks. "I thought the sons of bitches who started that coin ran away to the Philippines," He steps forward, a purse to his lips in anger as he pushes MG Coin back again. "So why are you here? They cut you loose?"

He sighs loudly, looking between Thanos pacing behind Nam-gyu and then back, "What do you want from me?" He questions blankly, with neutrality, This obviously angers Thanos and he walks forward quickly; grabbing the man up by the back of his neck. Drawing a large gasp from the crowd, player 456, who was signing his name looks back at you, then the three men before turning his head back to the paper. "What do you think? Give me my money you dumbass!" He bites his bottom lip as he speaks, holding back his anger.

MG Coin throws his arm off of him, "You are responsible by all final investments made by you. You said you watched every day, didn't you hear that?" This makes Thanos look away smiling, though you can read his eyes and the anger in them. MG Coin might not be at fault for him being here, but you can tell he wants to blame someone other then himself. He turns back to MG Coin quickly raising his right hand to beat down the smaller man, but his friend grabs his arm and pats his shoulder; trying to calm him down. "Hey you don't wanna beat him up and get disqualified do you?"

"Hasn't he had enough?" You say, drawing the attention from the other men, they stare at you and the smaller man closes his eyes, "I mean--" Everyone stares at you as you speak quickly, trying not to fumble your words or make any enemies too quickly. "You already grabbed him up two times, I think he understands." You finish, this makes Thanos forget about MG Coin and walk toward you, face to face in the line. "You better stay in your own lane, and you," He turns back towards MG Coin, "You better do well, because im coming to get that money." He turns away quickly, leaving Nam-gyu to follow behind like the follower he is.

Player 456 finally steps out of the line, leaving you as one of the final people on the left to sign your name. Your eyes skim through the contract, although it looks more like signing your rights over: 1. A PLAYER IS NOT ALLOWED TO VOLUNATARILY LEAVE THE GAMES. So, you can't leave in the middle of a game, that's pretty fair. 2. A PLAYER WHO REFUSES TO PLAY WILL BE ELIMINATED. Eliminated, the word gives you a slight chill, more then any cold you've ever gotten, that word Eliminated why not just say disqualified or, maybe it's like big brother and survivor. 3. YOU MAY VOTE TO LEAVE OR STAY IN THE GAMES AFTER EVERY GAME; AND THE PRIZE MONEY WILL BE REWARDED EQUALLY.

CONSENT SIGNATURE: _______

You sigh loudly, glancing around uncertainly, most people hadn't left the games, but it's just a game.. right?

Y/N L/N

You place the pen down on the clipboard and step out of line; trying to find the correct place to go now; you meet with all the other players by the large door, with an exceedingly growing crowd. The grandmother and her son find you quickly, chatting with each other idly beside you. "If you'll follow us please." A square guard says, and the large doors come cascading open; allowing you entryway into an assortment of differently colored hallways which spiral and turn every which way in the facility. You follow behind player 456, quietly eavesdropping on the mother and son chatting away behind you. The square guard stops, and in the room in front of you its like the consent form lines, there's four large tvs placed in Pink standalone walls-- about five or six feet up. "Please follow the orders and follow the line to the first game room." A cheerful voice instructs. Almost immediately everyone begins to slip away into groups or lines and you follow 456 through the crowd.

"Are you Thanos the rapper? can we take a picture?" A random man asks on your left, Thanos takes his place behind the camera. He nods quickly, calling them forth with his fingers as everyone tries to gather close around. You ignore this, stepping into your own camera. "SMILE!" The female robotic voice says cheerfully loud, you hesitate, always finding your own smile weird, you do a tight lipped smirk, not grinning too hard or too less, just the way you take every photo when someone tells you to smile. You step out, away from the camera.

Something tells you to look back, and your stunned to meet eyes with 222, with brown hightlights at the end she reminds you of a celebrity and she's very pretty, you turn back quickly though, following 456 up the steps, he walks with a sense of purpose and knowledge, as a great leader would do-- and still, the thing he did in the room before, his tooth.. "Gi-hun!" A man yells, pushing past number 222 making her way up the steps. "Jung-bae?" The man 456, who you now presume to be Gi-hun says, a round man, ugly in the face but his eyes show years of experience and action. His leg has a slight scar wound, you would presume him to be ex-cop or vet of some sort. The two of them stop in the line to talk, making you and all the other players making their ways up stop. "Fuckk, I thought you were dead this whole time." Jung-bae says, his hands reach for gi-huns and feels the mans hand in disbelief, then reach for his shoulder. Gi-huns eyes of excitement and joy transition to.. something else, and he looks almost.. afraid. "Why are you here?!" Gi-hun asks him, Jung-bae looks almost offended, or perhaps he is with the upset tone he begins to speak in. "Why am I here? Why are you here, no ones heard from you in three years and I heard your mom passed away. I had to hear it from my wife! What type of friend are you?!" He questions, his head shaking as he speaks highly upset. Gi-hun hasn't been seen for three years since his mother died? What exactly was he doing..

Gi-hun doesn't speak, but his lip quivers. Jung-bae takes his chance to speak more. "Were you just going to cut me out of your life because I didn't lend you any money?!" He questions, someone begins to push you and you finally speak up, "Can we start walking? I'm getting shoved back here." You say loudly, Gi-hun nods and grabs Jung-bae by his shoulder talking quietly to him. "It's a long story." He says.

Jung-bae pushes his arm off and glances at him sideways, "Still, you should've told me about your mom! We're family." He says, and he looks at Gi-hun with hurt eyes, ones of affection and friendship. Gi-hun nods and glances at the ground out of guilt, Jung-bae notices and clasps the man on the shoulder, looking at him grinning; this brightens Gi-hun as they continue to walk, he gets the courage to speak again, "Why are you here? What about your wife?"

You begin to step into a house-like connector some stairs, it's pink and awfully vibrantly colored. "With the wife." He doesn't look at Jung-bae as he walks, obviously not a fan of this conversation. "I thought you guys were good?" Jung-bae nods quickly as you three begin to go up another flight of steps. "Let's talk about it over a drink when we get out."

Gi-hun doesn't say anything for a moment, he just stares at the ground before speaking very calmly. "Jung-bae, no matter what happens, stay close to me."

"Stay behind you? Like this? Follow the line leader?" He says laughing loudly, he places two hands on each of Gi-huns shoulders from the back and follows close behind him. Gi-hun smacks his hands off quickly, "This isn't a joke Jung-bae, this isn't a game." He says loudly, and his lips quiver as he speaks, Jung-bae stares at him ridiculously for a moment before laughing. "Okay, y-yeah, I'll be right behind you." Something about the way he said it, he was dead serious and you could feel for some reason he knew something about the games. Some way some how.

"002, stay with us, okay? I'm a little afraid of what the next game could be." Jung-bae turns around and says, you're surprised to be honest, but for some reason you feel as if you shouldn't decline. You nod quietly, "I'll be right behind you guys." You say, Jung-bae turns around and smiles at Gi-hun, "See! We have our own little group, we can take on any game as long as we're a team!" He says laughing loudly, drawing weird glances from multiple other contestants making their way up the steps ahead. You laugh along quietly aswell, more out of wanting to ease Jung-bae's embarrassment because he was the only one laughing; one quick glance at Gi-hun could tell he was in no laughing mood.

After a couple minutes of endless walking, you reach a door, and an elevator, The square quard placed beside the elevator stands placidly as your number begin to reach 50-60 people cramped on the steps, leading to a long line to the bottom. You, Jung-bae, and Gi-hun were one of the first people to make it, everyone else followed behind and now look over your shoulders to try and get a glimpse of what the next game could be, or what's up ahead. The guard begins to speak loudly, "This is the room leading to the game site, please proceed in an orderly fashion, Thank you everyone for participating and good luck." He turns away to the pink door and steps inside, immediately after, a triangle guard steps outside of the door, his or her arms held behind their back. It's quite intimidating, not to you, to everyone else they glance nervously at the pink jumpsuit, their idle eyes wandering to the masks; thinking.

CHA-CHING. The elevator doors slide open, and a bright white bulb inside bathes you in what almost feels like the suns rays. "Please proceed in an orderly fashion, the game will begin shortly." You sigh quietly to yourself, glancing behind yourself to see the small girl from earlier there, another woman, who looks quite like a man. And a woman who wears just her t-shirt with her number, her jacket wrapped around her waist. Everyone else is ordinary looking.

"Hey it's Thanos! Thank you, thank you," He pushes through the crowd with Nam-Gyu at his side, a woman nearly trips over a man on her left as he tries, and successfully pushes his way to the front; where he stares at the girl with the jacket wrapped around her waist. Now that your closer you recognize it as 196.

You step into the elevator, looking down to avoid the harsh lighting. You listen as men and women of all ages make their way inside; trying to fit as many in as they can. And then the doors open, it wasn't an elevator at all, it just connected to the game site, maybe it was to prepare your eyes; your not too sure. You step through the large open hole where the door used to be before retracting into the wall.

At the end of the long field is a doll, or what seems like a doll. It's large maybe twenty feet. It looks like a Korean children's toy. Though it's eyes seem alive, watching. You glance up, staring at the bright orb of a sun, it might be the last time you'll see it for the next five days. The walls are painted as if you were on a field, near the top they're painted a sky blue, a loud voice rings out over the intercom. "Welcome to the game site, please wait for all players." It rings throughout the entire open field.

You glance around not seeing anyone in particular near you, and then the doors slam shut behind you; retracting back into place. Now that you step closer to the field, you can see two guards at the end, circles. One on each side of the dolls legs. "The first game is Red Light, Green Light." The cheery voice says, murmurs ripple through the crowd, "Red Light, Green Light? The kids game?" Jung-bae questions, you nod, "It'd seem like it yeah, right Gi-hun?" You turn, looking at him, he stares forward, wide eyed. He then erratically, for almost no reason that you can noticeably tell at first, reaches into his mouth once again; feeling his mauler tooth. "What are you doing?!" Jung-bae asks, you look at him then back at Gi-hun, meeting his eyes. He then pulls it out fully, glancing at the tooth-- as if something else would be there. "Is that your tooth?!" He asks again, Gi-hun drops it to the floor, letting it clatter in the sandy floor.

Suddenly he takes off once again, taking his place in front of everyone else. He throws his hands out as he calls for attention. "Attention! Everyone, This is not just a game, if you lose, you die!" He practically screams, calling for attention from anyone. People speak aloud, some in anger or distress, You look at Jung-bae, "What's he doing? Has he played these games before?" He just shakes his head in response and shrugs. "Please! Listen to me!"

"Hey! He's just trying to scare us all so he gets the money himself!" Another older gentleman yells, Gi-hun shakes his head quickly. You step up to the front, closer to Gi-hun then anyone. "I trust him!" You yell to everyone else, "The consent paper said Eliminated! Can't you hear it in his voice! just listen to the man!" You glance around at everyone else, watching as they murmur agreements and Gi-hun sighs slightly.

Everyone's breath shivers when the song begins to play. "I heard this when I was a child." A old woman says, The doll rotates around, placing its right hand to the tree above its head. "Green Light." The childish female robot voice says.

Everyone begins to move forward besides you and Gi-hun, "Do not be alarmed or panicked and start running! Do not!" He screams frantically, his arm over his mouth. "Red Light!" It says loudly, everyone stops and glances around at each other. It's head rotates back, and flickers for a moment as if it was watching each and every one of you.

"Green light!" They all begin to move forward again as the childish tune rings out, "Do not panic!" Gi-hun yells, nothing's happened as of yet. Almost everyone is past you two now, besides Jung-bae who looks back from ahead, his eyes wandering to the two of you. "Follow me 002!" He says loudly, turning around to move forward. You follow behind, "Got it."

"Red Light!" You hear the robot say and everyone stops once again, the silence is deafening and your almost surprised no ones got eliminated before a scream rings out. Your eyes wander to who it is as your breath hitches in your throat out of fear, somethings gonna happen-- you can feel it in your body. It's the girl from earlier, who tied her jacket around her waist, Thanos is beside her and stares on, with wide eyes. Your bones shake and you can feel it sway like a leaf as if it could give out underneath you, your heart beats rapidly-- wait maybe nothing will happ-

BANG!

A shot rings out, straight through the field and to the girl you placed your eyes. You watch as brain matter flings towards you, splattering on your shoes and pant leg. It takes all your strength to stand upright, and it seems as if the world freezes for a moment, and everyone's breath is held.

And then all hell is released.

Sorry for the long chapter one, hope you guys enjoyed it.