After a while, Aurex stepped out of the house, determined to explore the town and see it for himself, trying to piece together what kind of place he'd really landed in. The town felt unnervingly normal, people gathered in small groups, laughing and playing as if nothing had happened the day before. It was like the chaos had never touched this place at all.
Then Aurex spotted the mother who'd killed her kid just yesterday. She was holding a young baby now. He approached her cautiously and asked the same questions he'd asked the others, searching for the truth, checking if the three of them lied or told the truth. She gave the same answers, the rules, the resets, the daily violence. Everything repeated like clockwork.
Aurex kept asking others, but the answers never changed. The same story, the same cold acceptance. Confusion settled deep inside him. What was he supposed to do here?
Leaving wasn't an option, the black fence surrounding the town held dangers he couldn't even imagine. And within the town, he had no clue where to turn or what to trust. The walls felt like they were closing in.
He decided to check all around the town to see if it was entirely surrounded by the black fence. That's what he would do for today. He started walking, and after half an hour to an hour, he reached the black fence. But he made sure to stay far from it, so he wouldn't be drawn to it. He then walked around for hours, keeping moving. The black fence did indeed surround the entire town. And beyond it was the desert he had come from. So he was sure of two things now: there were multiple towns like this, and every town had its own set of rules that kept its citizens from leaving.
And on top of that, Aurex realized something darker, the people in these towns were brainwashed. Some probably tried to escape, maybe even more than once, but every attempt ended in failure. So most just gave up, accepting the fence, and the rules, that held them prisoner.
But it was weird. The people here felt human, but only at sunset, and only when escape was mentioned did, they turn strange. However, the town he came from… they didn't feel human at all. They only answered when spoken to, they didn't sleep, and some of them turned into monsters. So he wondered, what was the difference between the two? Was his previous town in a far worse condition than this one? He thought to himself, "Is Dravenfall going to be in the future, the same as Eliston?"
He spent the whole day searching the town, chasing answers that never quite came. As sunset approached, he knew he had no choice but to follow their rules, at least for now. Going back wasn't an option; not yet.
As he made his way toward the town center, Aurex's mind churned over the rules: he had to kill, or he had to be killed. Then a strange thought crossed him, what if he killed himself? He shook it off, deciding that tomorrow he'd focus on something more practical: counting the number of houses in the town. Maybe that would give him a clue about what he was really dealing with.
But today, he needed to abide by the rules. He got to the center of the town, and they were already fighting there like enraged beasts. Weirdly, he didn't feel the rage or hatred they felt; he was completely normal. Aurex didn't jump into the fight; he was looking around to find if someone was like him. But he couldn't continue that thought because someone already jumped him and started punching him.
And just like that, Aurex was dead. He struggled under the weight of the man on top of him, realizing something strange, he didn't actually need to kill someone to survive this game. All he had to do was get killed. Getting killed is the most important part.
The day began again, but in a new house, one he hadn't been in the day before. He woke up early, headed to the kitchen to make something to eat. He was the first to rise, but soon the man who had killed him appeared, followed shortly by the homeless-looking guy from yesterday.