So long live the reckless and the brave
I don't think I wanna be saved
My song has not been sung
And long live the fast times
So come what may
I don't think I'll ever be saved
Our song has not been sung
Long live us

9...8...7

I also took a basket from the pile as I continued to watch the others. The new one and the girl in the school uniform seemed to be exchanging whispers. Unlike the other players, the girl seemed to want to help her. I didn't understand all of what she was saying, but I could tell from the young woman's reaction what it was about. I had often seen that look she was giving, especially among the newcomers. It reflected disbelief, panic and fear.

6...5...4

The other players spread out around the perimeter of the centre, the safe zone. I also took a place there. From there I could catch a good glimpse of the sign with the medicine section. It was further up on the platforms, of all places. But I already had a plan.

3...2...1...0
Game start!

The five players all rushed up the stairs at the same time. Most of them quickly disappeared behind the shelves. I, on the other hand, paused in place and listened. For a brief moment, an almost unsettling silence fell over the library. Then, seconds later, whispering footsteps reached my ears again. Suddenly there was a soft creaking and the footsteps became brisker. A loud bang sounded. Shortly afterwards, a deafening scream echoed off the walls. Judging by the voice, it was Maki. At least I now knew that our opponents, the librarians, were armed. However, I did not know how many there were. Nevertheless, I took advantage of the moment and crept up the stairs. When I saw something moving in one of the corridors out of the corner of my eye, I stopped and took a quick look at what was happening. Maki was lying motionless on the floor. Blood was slowly oozing from the back of her head. In front of her was another person - unmistakably male with a firearm and a strange device on his head that I could not make out more clearly from the distance. When the guy abruptly turned around, I put my right foot on the nearest step to sneak past him unnoticed. Even as I stomped my toe, however, I noticed that the floorboards groaned softly beneath me. I froze in my movement, but the guy had already turned in my direction and was pointing the gun at a spot next to me. Only then did I notice that he was wearing some kind of opaque glasses that obviously made him blind. Blind librarians with firearms. That was definitely something new. But now I had to get my feet under me before the guy accidentally blew my brains out. I ran up the last few steps, closely followed by the armed man's footsteps.

Damn!

I turned left into a corridor and randomly pulled a book from the shelf to throw it far away from me. The sound of the impact made him pause in irritation. He turned around, away from me, and I hastily began to go through the rows of shelves looking for the signature of my first book.

Title: Atlas of Anatomy
Author: Murakami Tai
Year of publication: 2021
Edition: 7th edition
Signature: 611.00022

I still had the number of the signature in my head. I looked at the display again to take a closer look at the book cover. Green. My fingers slid over the spine of the book.

Ah, who says it?

I pulled the heavy book from the shelf. At the same moment I turned my head and the guy was suddenly standing next to me with his gun raised.

Where had he come from so quickly?

A click sounded and I ducked quickly.

Bang.

That was close. I glanced at the spot on the shelf, now burnt black. By a hair, it would have been my skull. I reached into my pocket and held my selfmade taser out in front of me with my arm extended. The "librarian" felt his way blindly along the shelf. I set the taser to the highest setting and caught his hand about to reach for me. He jerked wildly and then fell to the floor unconscious, but unfortunately not soundlessly. I had to get out of there as quickly as possible, otherwise a horde of angry librarians would probably be after me in a moment. I hurried down the stairs and at least registered the one book I had at the machine. The new one was standing next to me and already had three books in her basket.

All Respect! She wasn't bad for a beginner.

Apparently my plan wasn't as clever as I thought. As she registered her books, I saw that her hands were shaking uncontrollably. Her light blue shirt and part of her cheek were covered with countless blood splatters. Obviously it wasn't her own blood. She wiped her face with the back of her hand. Then, however, she resolutely turned away again and disappeared between the shelves.

20 minutes left.

How had I been able to waste so much time senselessly? If I didn't catch up soon, the newbie would beat me in a ludicrous 4 of spades game. Even though spades weren't exactly my favourite attribute, I wasn't going to lose to a greenhorn.
This time I was more anticipatory with my moves. Moreover, the first time I had memorised which spots in the ground I had to avoid. And this time I seemed to be lucky. I found four books without being attacked again. Judging by the sounds of fighting, they were busy elsewhere. Just as I was making my way to the safe zone, however, I heard footsteps that grew louder and louder.

A woman with an axe in her hand came shooting around the corner. She too was wearing opaque glasses.

How was she able to hear me?

I turned into one of the corridors and saw the old man with the Hawaiian shirt lying there, half dead against a shelf, holding his bleeding shoulder. He must have seen me and betrayed me to distract the axe-woman from him. The axe-woman was close on my heels, but before I could turn the corner, I stole the two books from the man's basket. He looked up at me helplessly, gasping desperately as blood poured from his mouth. I gave him one last disparaging look before turning away from him and fleeing. Since the crazy nude murderer was only a few metres behind me, I had to run, which was almost impossible to do silently. I gasped breathlessly when I finally reached the centre. The woman wanted to follow me, but the moment she crossed the safe zone line, she groaned in pain and instantly slumped down, holding her hand to her ears. When I looked more closely, I saw that she had little buttons in her ears that were now flashing red. Sound torture. So that's how they stopped the librarians from entering the Safe Zone. Not bad. I was almost certain that our opponents were also just simple players taking part in a game. As if the game makers were also getting their own hands dirty to slaughter any of us.

I went to the booking machine and entered the books I had collected. There were now seven in total. A loud roar distracted me from my activity. I watched Kawasaki dodge the axe and save himself in the centre. He already had a deep scratch running across his entire face. He scanned his books at the machine. He only had five. I waited a moment until the woman with the axe was out of sight again and then started a third attempt. I managed to get two more books without being attacked.

Fifteen minutes left.

Maki was dead. The older man was probably dead too. I discovered Kawasaki's body only a short time later. He had almost been decapitated. Not a pretty sight. But what about the girl and the young woman? I hadn't seen nor heard them in a while.

When I took the stairs up for a fourth time, everything was strangely quiet.
Too quiet.
I couldn't imagine that our counterparts were all knocked out already. I turned into the classical literature section and saw the girl with the school uniform standing on a small stepladder. She stood on her tiptoes and stretched her arm far up to reach a book on the top row. The moment she got hold of the cover, she swayed and lost her balance. I saw the stepladder tilt forward and the girl lost her footing. I quickly sprinted over to her to prevent the worst and caught her on the floor, but the clattering sound of the ladder, resounded throughout the whole library.

"We have to get out of here," I hissed, glancing at the wall behind us. We were at a dead end. Fine. The girl, however, seemed to have pulled her ligaments in her fall. She was crying bitterly and holding her foot, contorted in pain.

Hell, why should I care about this child?

I rushed to the only exit, which was between the two bookshelves, but it was already too late. I looked up slowly. In front of me stood a man giant like a wardrobe. It was a different one than the men I had seen before. He was so massive that he blocked the entire exit with his body. Against him, I almost felt like a hobbit. The giant held a strange hose in his hand, which he now pointed directly at us.

Was that a flamethro-?

That's as far as I got before my question was answered.
Hot flames shot up from the pipe and I managed to press my body flat on the floor just in time.
Hysterical screams rang out behind me that went right to my core. He had got the girl. She was burning alive right now.

Shit.

I had to get out of here. I stayed flat on the ground and tried to crawl past him inconspicuously in that position, but the flames had spread in no time. The acrid smoke began to irritate my airways and I couldn't fight the urge to cough up for long. Another flame shot past me by a hair's breadth and I managed to dodge it at the last moment. I guess that's it. The guy would torch the whole place within minutes and I was trapped here until the game was over because of the shitty laser barrier.

A bloody 4 of spades.
Ridiculous.

Apparently, my long-lasting streak of luck was now over once and for all. A strong hand dragged me upstairs and pressed me violently against the nearest shelf. The muscleman grinned gleefully and pointed the end of the flamethrower right at my head.

"Any last words?" he asked, almost amused, as he squeezed the air out of me with his huge paw. Even if I had wanted to, I couldn't have answered. With my hands I tried to loosen his grip on my throat but he was too strong. I gasped helplessly and spongy darkness spread before my eyes. I felt the last bit of life being sucked out of me with every second that passed. My hands sank down powerlessly. A tiny but bright glow of light danced back and forth before my eyes and for some unknown reason I followed it. But then the pressure on my windpipe abruptly began to ease. Relieved, I gasped for air. I coughed in agony and finally managed to free myself from the tight grip. My vision slowly became clearer again. And I felt...rain?

I looked up and saw that the sprinkler system had been triggered. The flames were slowly receding. Probably the guy had been surprised by the water at the moment I was hovering on the brink of death. The giant reared up threateningly in front of me again. If I used my taser now, I would probably send us both to the afterlife. Just as he was about to fire again, an axe appeared from nowhere behind him and landed unerringly in his carotid artery. Blood splattered across the floor and spread over my white clothes. I scowled. Only a few seconds later, the colossus toppled over like a stone and landed on the ground with a dull sound. Only now I could see that it was the young woman with the curly hair who had rammed the axe into his neck. She gasped loudly and the axe landed on the floor next to him. She held her side, contorted in pain, from which blood was seeping inexorably. With a final gasp, she also slumped down.

Five minutes left.

I quickly got up and fished out the sodden book that the girl had pulled from the shelf earlier. Her burnt body lay right next to it. The singed musty smell emanating from her was nauseating. The sprinkler was still running and a deep pool of water and blood was gradually forming on the floor. Next to the young woman who had saved me, I found another book. I picked it up and took it as well. Then I glanced at her slumped figure, which by now was lying in a blood-soaked puddle. I could tell from her unfocused gaze that she was drifting on the edge of unconsciousness. I crouched down beside her for a moment and looked down at her disapprovingly.

"It was rather stupid of you to save my life, because now I'm afraid you're going to die. Thanks anyway."

Her almost lifeless eyes fixed on me briefly in response and there was a silent plea in her gaze. Shaking my head, I turned away from her to register the last two books, which brought me to a total of 11 books.

The game is finished.
Congratulations. Two players have reached Game Clear and will be given a 4-day visa!

Wait a minute... Did I hear that right? Two players? Had the greenhorn registered about as many books as me? It had to be. The others were all dead, after all. I had seen it with my own eyes. According to the rules, only the player with the highest number of registered books reached Game Clear. So if I hadn't taken the last two books, this beginner would have won the game hands down. Bad luck for her, she will die soon anyway.

Why was she so stupid to save a stranger?

If there wasn't a recruitment ban at the beach right now, I might have considered taking her there, because I admittedly didn't like being in other people's debt. Besides, she hadn't done too badly for it being her first game.
I walked over to the white table where the card of 4 of spades lay. Who would have thought that a 4 would end up so bloody?

Coincidentally, it was one of the cards that none of us had collected at Beach yet. Hatter would be delighted with the haul. It was just a pity that he wouldn't enjoy it for very long. I let the card disappear into my jacket pocket and put my trainers back on. Then I looked for Kawasaki's body and fished the car keys out of his trouser pocket. Now I had to drive back as well. Always had to do everything yourself.

The lights all around suddenly went out and with them the sprinkler also stopped. The game was officially over and the library was once again in complete darkness as if nothing had ever happened. I pulled out a small torch from my pocket and switched it on. A soft whimper, however, gave me pause. Obviously my heroic rescuer was still alive. I roamed through the rows of shelves until the cone of light caught her puny form. She was just trying to pull herself out of the ankle-deep water, but failed miserably. Her hand was still pressed on her abdomen to stop the blood rising out of her body, but that was at least as effective as using a kitchen strainer to filter water.

"What are you going to do when it's done?", I asked with a raised eyebrow. She didn't respond, but again fought unconsciousness. One thing i had to give her credit for: she had a strong will to survive and obviously also a high pain threshold. Anyone else would have long passed out from the pain.

I sighed heavily, put the torch down on the floor and grabbed her upper body to pull her out of the pool of water. I could tell she was trying to resist my touch, but I think she was long out of her mind.

"Shhtt," I went, holding her arms as I did so. When she had calmed down a bit, I put her down again in a dry place. I wondered what the hell I was doing here anyway. Why was I helping her? Why did I care if she died here? It was her own fault that she was so miserable. After all, I hadn't asked her to save me.

"Silly girl," I muttered. Her eyelids fluttered open and closed frantically and I was startled when she suddenly reached for my hand and squeezed it. Her skin was ice cold. I quickly escaped her grasp and instead tore a wide strip of fabric from her T-shirt, which I used to apply a makeshift bandage to her stomach. The wound didn't look that good. If she had internal injuries, then it was probably too late to save her anyway. But I could only be more specific when I managed to get her to the Beach. Only there I had the means to give her medical care, even if I still had no idea why I wanted to save her in the first place.

Because she had saved me.

That was the only reasonable explanation I could think of at the moment. However, that was something I could also think about later. Now every second counted. Gently, I slid my arms under the lifeless body of the woman and lifted her up. Her face was perfectly peaceful as I did so.

"If you survive this, I hope you'll explain to me why you did that."

Somehow, though, I was left with the uneasy feeling that I would regret this very soon.

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AN: If you like the story so far i'd be happy if you leave a vote. Thank you :)