Chapter 1: Prologue – Library and Books

Manila, Miguel de Benavides Library

In the early morning, the sun was rising from the clouds, scattering its golden hue throughout the heavens, and painting the dark sky with gold and blue.

Once the library opened, a young girl could be seen entering the building. Her short, brown hair swayed as she walked, wearing her uniform with her bag worn over her back.

A man sat behind the front desk while reading his book. He saw the young girl enter and greeted her with his usual smile.

"Good morning, Maria." He said softly. "Are you here to read another set of books?"

"Isn't that what libraries are usually for?"

"I don't think sleeping counts."

"Might as well be," She joked. "A quiet place like libraries is the best place to sleep."

It had been almost two years since the young girl began going in and out of the library every day. The first time that the man met the girl was when he only started working inside the library. She often came in to sit in the historical section while reading silently with her chosen books. There were also times she only came to do her assignments or take small naps.

The man thought she was a bit interesting but he didn't expect that they would become friends after their first interaction. He was typing from his computer when he saw the girl calmly approaching him.

"Yes? Do you need something?" He asked.

"Could you help me find this book?" She pointed to the screen of her phone.

The man looked at the screen and tilted his head. "Sorry, but there's no book like that inside this library."

She had expected it, but she was still a bit disappointed.

"I figured. This library doesn't really have these kinds of books." She said while placing her phone back. "I heard science fiction books are popular nowadays so I wanted to try reading one."

"Yes, it became quite popular recently."

There was silence between the two people. Even if they had known each other for two years, they could only hold a few minutes of their conversation before parting ways. The people that often came inside also noticed the strange relationship between the school girl and the librarian.

Were they friends? Were they strangers? Or were they just people who share the same interest? No one knew. Though some even go as far as to assume the two were secretly dating. This resulted in rumors spreading across the library.

"Look at them, flirting in public." A woman said, eyeing the two people.

"Do they know that people are reading silently here?" Another person murmured, this time an old man, scrunching his nose.

People inside often gossiped behind their backs. Rumors started going around the library about the young girl and the librarian's relationship.

Gossip could often lead to misunderstandings. Students who had also learned about the rumor were very nosy and eventually spread the rumors outside of the library, leading it to grow the attention of other people.

The young girl often received strange looks from inside the library and questioned herself why they were looking at her so strangely. But soon, she discovered the reason behind the people's stares.

After finishing her book, she immediately left the library without speaking to the librarian, not even looking him in the eye after returning the book.

"Maybe her exams are coming up? She always ignores me whenever her exams are coming up." The librarian naively thought and continued his work.

He didn't expect that this was the last time he'll ever see her again.

✦ ???? ✦ ???? ✦

The library was empty and silent. It was closing time and the last batch of people had left, giving the employees time to rest.

Staff workers went to the nearby staff room, coming out of the room while holding their bags. A few hurriedly left while some remained, opening their snacks as they talked with their other co-workers.

A young woman left the room with a disgruntled expression and saw a man sitting at one of the long tables. She stared at him for a minute before sighing. After restocking an empty bookshelf, she wanted to take a few minutes to rest before leaving.

But she didn't want to spend her rest hours in the lounge room, it was too crowded and noisy for her liking. Although she wasn't particularly close to the man, she wanted to at least strike up a conversation with him, as a fellow colleague after all.

The woman sat down on an empty chair beside him. The man didn't even spare a glance at her as he continued to stare into nothing.

It was a bit awkward between them before the woman curious asked, "The girl isn't here today as well? Do you know when she'll come back?"

"..."

"You also don't know?"

"..."

The man was silent at her questions, avoiding her gaze at him by looking down. The young woman stared at the man's sullen face. She could see him fiddle with his fingers, a common habit of his when he was nervous. The woman was a bit reluctant but knew she couldn't ignore this further.

"I know about the rumor," She said. "Everyone in the building knows about it."

The man's face became dark when he heard her. He knew about the rumors people and students started about him and the young girl. He tried ignoring it, but those rumors somehow followed him even after work.

His mental health soon dropped because of this and he felt guilty, knowing that not only he but the young girl was also affected by this.

It was only a matter of time until one of his co-workers would start asking him questions about this rumor. He wondered if the woman also thought the same and closed his eyes to embrace the words that the woman would say to him.

The man thought that his co-workers would believe the rumors and immediately prepared himself for what the woman would say.

But what he heard next surprised him. "Like I'll believe it."

"What's wrong with a young girl and an adult talking and being friends?" The woman said, crossing her arms. "People nowadays like to assume things and create such false rumors!"

The woman had her eyes fixated on the man, her gaze remained firmly on him, looking at him intently.

"It's like people forget that adults and teenagers can be friends, so why can't a library worker and a school girl be friends?" She said and asked. "Are you two even friends?"

The man was silent until he let out a deep sigh as if he had been holding his breath. His shoulders dropped and he felt his heart relax a bit.

"I don't know. We only talk about books and studies."

"Like teachers and students. They talk about books and studies too." She said and asked again, this time, her tone was serious. "Still, you two are friends right?"

The man didn't answer as he looked down, not knowing what to say. He didn't know, so he remained silent. He didn't know, it was him who considered they were friends, but what about the girl? Did she see him as a friend? Someone to talk to?

From his silence, the woman looked at him and sighed helplessly. That was her reply.

"She'll come back. She wouldn't just leave you here without saying anything." The woman tried to assure him. "Just give her some time. I'd be pretty pissed off too if someone made a rumor like that about me."

The man thought for a moment and smiled softly. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

And so, the man waited for the young girl to return. He waited, waited, and waited. He had hoped to see her one last time, just once, but she never came back. back. She had never returned to the library, never seen near the building, not even walking by, to the only place where she considered it her safe haven, but it wasn't safe for her anymore.

✦ ✧ ✦ ✧ ✦

It was late in the afternoon, and the glaring light of the sun shone through the windows. School hours had ended and teachers were dismissing their classes one by one.

Students in groups of three or four walked outside of their room, chattering, and footsteps echoed throughout the building. Loud noises could be heard throughout the hallway before silence replaced it.

Less than a minute later, the second-floor hallway became empty. The students who remained in each classroom were those assigned to clean their rooms. Some swept the floors while some remained seated, talking to each other without helping.

The sound of water flowing echoed in the bathroom before becoming quiet. Maria picked up the bucket from the floor and turned to leave, walking silently into the hallway. She strolled past open rooms while carrying a bucket of water.

Only a few students from different classes were sulking around the hallway, throwing away trash while nodding at other passers.

Maria soon returned to her classroom and saw four of her friends cleaning together in pairs. The one to notice her first was her childhood friend, Amelie.

"Just leave it at the door. Me and Lia aren't done sweeping the floors." Amelie said as she continued to sweep the floor.

Two girls were sweeping the floors while two boys were wiping off the blackboard using a damp cloth. Maria stood by the door with the mop in her hands, patiently waiting for her group mates to finish.

Since her group consisted of her and her four friends, there would always be one person left out while the others were in pairs. And today she was the one in charge of mopping the floor by herself. They just wanted to switch alternatively every time they had to clean on Friday.

It's a bit of a hassle, but it was fair for them. They didn't have to argue over who was going to mop or sweep. And the faster they clean, the sooner they're done. So Maria had no problems with their suggestion and just silently watched them clean.

The two boys had just finished wiping off the chalk dust from the board, but there was still a noticeable white smudge left after wiping it with a dry rag. One of the boys, Nick, walked over to Maria and handed her the dirty cloth.

He asked, "Can you soak this in water?"

The girl didn't say anything and crouched down, dipping the cloth in before wringing it out to remove the excess water.

"I heard you recently left the soccer team," Nick suddenly said. "You were the team captain last year and the year before. You've won trophies for the school and seem to love playing soccer, so your sudden leave is strange to me."

Maria listened quietly with her brows slightly furrowed.

This was a random topic and she wondered why he was discussing this with her. He wasn't involved in the soccer team and shouldn't be too interested in sports, so why does he want to know?

"Was there a conflict between the soccer team?"

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She stood up and stared at him, drops of water trickling between her fingers. Her expression remained indifferent, but her hand was angrily clenching the soaked rug, trying to suppress her anger.

"I've been getting too many injuries lately. Last year, I sprained my ankle and couldn't go to school for two weeks." Maria answered while giving him the cloth. "I had to depend on you for my assignments and lessons that I missed. I didn't want it to happen again."

In other words, she left the team to avoid getting injuries that may affect her performance in school. She didn't want to depend on or bother anyone because of her, thus her only choice was to quit soccer. That was her only explanation.

Nick seemed to be curious and wanted to know more, but they were interrupted when one of their friends, Zack, called out for him.

"I see, it's a shame." He turned around and added. "It's not every day you get to be friends with a talented soccer girl who plays in tournaments. Let alone someone who would quit for that single reason alone."

Maria stared at his back before sitting in an empty seat. Her mood became complicated when her friend suddenly brought up her leave. She wanted to tell him to stop minding people's business but controlled the urge to do so.

She watched her two other friends sweep the floor with gleaming smiles that made the empty room lively. This was enough for her to calm down. Maria's uniform was drenched in sweat and she had a bad headache.

Because of the hot weather that had been occurring these past few weeks, most students couldn't help but feel dizzy and lightheaded.

It was bad enough that she had to be assigned to clean on a Friday, but her mood only got worse when her friend had to mention her leaving the soccer team, and the painful headache made her even grumpier.

She grumbled and controlled her irritation by letting out short sighs. Maria looked up and saw that the two girls were finished sweeping.

Amelie said, "You can start mopping now. We'll wait for you to finish."

The two boys had already sat down while the two girls chatted in their seats. They had finished cleaning the room and it was now Maria's turn to clean.

Maria took the mop that was still standing in the doorway and dipped it inside the bucket, squeezing out the water before placing it down. She started from the front row next to the teacher's desk, moving the mop head up and down. Her friends watched her clean and waited for her to finish.

It only took about 20 minutes for Maria to fully mop the entire floor of the room. Her forehead was covered in sweat and she placed the mop back into the closet.

Afterward, the five students began preparing their bags to leave. Maria was still on her desk fixing her things while Zack had already left to throw away the dirty water that was used for the mopping. While Maria was checking her notes, something caught her attention.

Amelie noticed Maria standing back while her eyes lingered from somewhere. She heard her voice ask, "Who's book is that?"

She pointed at a hardcover book left sitting on someone's desk. The desk was located at the end of the middle row.

"A book?" Amelie glanced to where her finger was pointed and answered. "Isn't that Jeremy's seat? Maybe the book belongs to him."

Maria was a bit curious and made her way toward the back of the room. She took the book from the desk and quietly examined it.

The book had no name or front cover. The weight of the book wasn't heavy but it also wasn't light. She couldn't identify what book Jeremy had owned or borrowed. She wasn't particularly close to the boy and was merely just a classmate to her, but she knew that the boy didn't like books.

He often complained about reading books daily. Whenever the teacher would leave, he would silently complain about the use of books for no reason, but most of his classmates ignored him. A simple textbook was enough to annoy him.

If he hated reading so much, why did he own this book?

Maria didn't want to open the book, knowing that it would be an invasion of his privacy. If this was a journal or a diary, the first page might contain secrets about the boy that Maria didn't want or need to know.

Zack soon came back and saw Maria holding onto the old book. He had overheard their conversation and said, "Maria, if you want to read his book then read it. He might not even care if he left it here."

Still, it didn't feel right to her. There was a strange feeling lingering around her heart when looking at the book.

"Was he a hypocrite and liked books? Or did his parents or relatives own this book and he could only temporarily keep it for them?"

Maria didn't know and hesitated for a while. Curiosity got the best of her and she decided to look through the first page before putting it back. She was planning to see the contents of the book first before returning it. This might've been an outdated book.

Who knows? It might be a book that Maria might want to read.

Upon turning to the first page, she was immediately greeted by lines of sentences. There was no title page, copyright page, or even table of contents. These three parts were essential when publishing a book, yet there were none. Instead, she was brought to the main text of the book.

At one glance, the book looked to be a journal or diary that people would keep, but it wasn't handwritten and was printed by a machine. She had read countless books since middle school and knew the basic contents of a book, so seeing this made Maria confused.

She skipped the first page and went through the last page. As she expected, there were no afterwords or acknowledgments. Maria's lips pursed into a frown as she returned to the first page and began reading the rows of words.

Game of Survival.

The world was in chaos.

Games and instances appeared throughout the world.

Monsters roamed around the plains while powerful beings conquered the ruined cities.

A portal opened where a new hell would be generated.

The only way to survive was to reach the end.

Only reading the first lines of the paragraph, Maria guessed that this was an apocalyptic-fantasy type of novel.

The title of the novel was [Game of Survival] since it was typed in bold letters and had a bigger size compared to the other texts. With the synopsis placed below the title, the novel looked a bit interesting.

Maria mostly preferred reading web novels rather than book novels, but it didn't change the fact that they still had a story.

In addition, an antique pocket watch was attached to the book, sandwiched into the middle, giving off a steampunk vibe from its beautiful silver case.

One look at it and you would be immediately drawn by its antique design, the middle of it revealing a set of tiny gears behind the glass. There were roman numbers on all sides and the arrow hand seemed to be broken. It was made from gold and silver, a faint light reflected from it by the sun.

It reminded Maria of the old pocket watch her Uncle had gifted her. Although his pocket watch was much older and broken, the one in the book appeared to be new and untouched.

Her fingers run through the case as she slowly pulled it open, but her hands stopped.

"This looks new..." She thought as she opened the case, but her hands stopped.

What is this?

"Maria, we'll be heading to a convenience store. Are you going to tag along?" Nathalia asked and appeared behind the girl. Maria looked at Nathalia with wide eyes before calming down.

She nodded, quickly placing the book down and hiding the pocket watch.

"We'll be stopping by at 7/11. Do you want to buy anything? It's my treat!" Zack proudly said with a large grin.

"Wow, you finally have money?" Nick mockingly asked. "And here I thought you were going to continue leeching off from me."

Zack felt offended and exclaimed, "Hey, at least I kept my promise! I'll buy whatever you all want today!"

The two boys continued to bicker while the two girls just laughed at them. Maria stood silently behind them with the book still in her hands and her bag left open.

It's Friday which means there's no classes tomorrow. Then...

Maria picked up the book and calmly placed it inside her bag. She wanted to borrow it, but there was no class tomorrow and she was afraid that the book would disappear if she left it there. She wanted to use this as an opportunity to take the book without looking suspicious.

Amelie and Zack saw this but thought nothing of it. It would appear that Maria was safely keeping it in her bag to return it once Monday approaches, but that wasn't the case. She was planning to keep it until Jeremy noticed it.

She didn't consider this as stealing since the owner was careless enough to leave this book in a large place like a school building. The owner disliked reading and this might've been a way to throw it away.

"Yes! This wasn't stealing! It would be a waste to throw this perfectly good book!" She thought firmly as she shoved it inside her bag.

Then, after closing her bag, she began carrying it on her back and looked at her desk.

Game of Survival...

That title was stuck to her mind for a moment before she began following behind her friends. Her friends waited for her and continued to walk when she was close to them.

"What do you guys want?" Zack asked, stretching his hands up. "Anything you want, I'll buy it!"

Maria thought that eating would help her calm down. So she said, "Ice Tea and a hotdog sandwich would be fine."

Then Amelie followed up by saying, "I want coke and clover chips."

"Just chocolate and water." It was Nathalia who said this as her eyes were fixated on her phone.

Nick however wanted no food and bluntly gave his answer, "You owe me 350 remember?"

Zack smiled awkwardly and said, "I told you I'll pay you back soon."

"You said that last month..." Nick mumbled, clearly doubting Zack's words.

"I promise this time!"

The five friends walked through the empty halls, bickering and laughing together. Maria thought to herself that she would just return the book after reading it and felt her worry wash away as Amelie began talking to her, shifting her focus to her friends rather than the mysterious feeling.

As she walked through the school, Maria hadn't noticed her bag was left slightly open, revealing the book she had taken. The pocket watch hung from outside the book, emitting a faint glow, flickering one or two lights of blue.

Then, the faint blue diminished once Maria left the school ground. By then she finally noticed her bag was open and began zipping the bag closed before continuing to walk with her friends.