"So… are we just going to keep staring into each other’s eyes? Because yeah, I’ll admit you’ve got a certain charm that draws the eye, but this is starting to get a little awkward."

Fuck yeah, that was the word for it! Being thrown onto a chair the way guards tossed sheets in prison had already been humiliating enough, but if I had to keep looking them in the eyes for one more minute, I was going to crack. I couldn’t stand silence. Hell, I’d lived my whole life in noise, so this… damn, it was anxiety-inducing! I straightened up in my chair and even leaned my torso toward them. If I couldn’t stand up, I at least wanted to get a little closer to those two weirdos.

"And it’s not that I don’t like being the center of attention, but having all those pairs of eyes on me is kind of tense," I whispered.

I glanced around to reinforce my point. Because facing them was one thing—but it was another entirely to see all those guys, each stranger than the last, leaning over from their levels just to watch me. We’d walked all the way here. This… hideout… wasn’t very long, less than the prison or the outside, but it still had that obscene height. Which meant that this place, all of it, was even bigger than I’d first thought!

"Hey, you’ve been silent for… at least fifteen minutes now. It’s getting awkward. And I’m not even counting the… I don’t know how many minutes it took us to get here. Okay, my legs were a little tired, but still!"

The one without the mask was sitting on a chair. He listened without flinching, a smile on his lips. The other, standing beside him, was still wearing that rabbit mask covering half his face. That one was definitely mute—he hadn’t said a word to me. And cold, too. Oh, his pheromones were, at least. They were icy, sent shivers down my spine, and almost crackled whenever other scents came too close! Only the other man’s pheromones weren’t pushed away. And as for him, his were calmer. I couldn’t imagine what might disturb them. He didn’t repel any others. In fact, none even tried to approach.

"So…?"

"And where would you go if we let you roam free, my bunny? You don’t know anything about this place. Fresh out of prison—who knows who might try to take a bite out of you. And we wouldn’t want to trouble Jill by losing his protégé."

Ah! He was finally talking—the calm one!

"Nowhere," I assured him. "I’ll stay nice and warm in my hole. I’m not stupid, and even less unconscious. You can tell me what I don’t know. Like… where are we?"

He tapped his chin, and his wide smile revealed sharp canines. I’d had time to look at him properly by then, and damn, he was strange. Him—and everyone in this den!

They all had scars, or almost all of them. Each one sealed with some kind of… I didn’t know. Little bits of metal embedded in their flesh, as if their wounds never healed but had to be forcibly kept closed. All of it on gray skin—really gray. Like steel. And there were holes in their ears, threaded with iron rings. And their hair… it was white, like mine. But it was the first time I’d ever seen that on anyone other than myself! And that wasn’t even mentioning their pale yellow eyes.

I knew something about that. I might not recognize many colors, but yellow? Yellow, I knew. The guards’ badges had been that color.

"Let’s start there," the calm one agreed. "We are on SOTA, our dear and beloved planet."

He stood up and stepped toward me. He crouched and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a small white object, and he began drawing on the floor with it. He drew a rectangle.

"There are three levels. You come from here—the lower core, what we call the prison. To get here, you passed through the upper core. That’s the bridge that links the core to this place. And now you’re here: the mantle."

He wrote and illustrated as he spoke.

"The outer mantle—what we call the burrow."

"But you said there were three levels."

He drew three large lines crossing through the rectangle.

"The core, the mantle, and the crust. Each of these three levels contains two layers: lower and upper. The upper layer always serves as a bridge to the next level."

"And why are we here? Why aren’t we on the upper level? Or how do we get there? Can we?"

That clearly amused him. He chuckled and tapped my knee. That gave me a better look at his eyes. His slit pupils were strange. I wanted to ask him about that too, but I already had so much on my mind. Jill knew more than I did. Proof of that was the fact that I still barely understood his warnings.

"We’re going for a walk, my bunny. Follow me."

Around us, life resumed its course. The others drifted back to their activities. Only the rabbit-masked one remained, motionless in the center of the vast room. I followed the calm one, and we passed by the other. I thought I caught his condescending gaze, but I was distracted by the collar he was wearing. And thinking about it, they all wore one. A name was engraved on it: “Ravenne.” Was that his? But why wear one? It wasn’t like he risked being marked as an omega.

He suddenly turned his head away, moving off like the others. I almost felt my temple throb with irritation. What was this asshole’s problem? As if my good looks could possibly offend anyone. I needed to… distract myself.

"The burrow… there are only former prisoners here, right?"

"Yes. We all come from… higher up, or almost, but we all ended up in prison. And once the years are served, we end up here. You’re lucky enough to survive—or not. Lucky enough to climb—or not. Lucky enough to last for years—or not. But for you and mine, my little bunny, it’s different."

I raised an eyebrow as we stepped out of the hideout. We had ventured onto narrow, winding paths, and the sheet-metal door wasn’t very impressive. Only a rabbit shimmered in a play of light above it. The magic happened inside. Could I have found it on my own…? It would have taken me days and days. Damn, I was lucky—if that was even what this was.

"Some have been here for years and years. Not good enough to climb, but not bad enough to die. Jill must have told you a few things, right? Nothing truly concrete. That sounds like him. A perfect little guard who wags his tail the moment he’s told to. More of a dog than a rabbit, don’t you think?"

Jill was… did he and these men actually like each other, or was their relationship simply mutually beneficial? We all knew each other in prison, but I couldn’t picture Jill bending to anyone. Not that I truly knew him—but it was far from the image he projected. I wondered how Jill’s pheromones reacted to those of the serene one.

"Here, there are a hundred levels. You can access all of them, but the higher you go, the more you’ll encounter the elite."

"The elite? The elite of what? Prisoners?" I mocked.

"I’m getting there, bunny."

He guided us toward a gathering. Everyone was watching something.

"At the beginning of each month, the new ranking is revealed and supplies are distributed. Before coming to get you, we were checking this month’s results."

He crouched down and slipped his head between my legs. I flinched, too late, ready to tear into his flesh with my teeth—but I stopped myself. He lifted me up, my legs draped over his shoulders, as if I were nothing. And given the titan he was, that was probably exactly the case.

"The great ones of this planet have fun with us. We’re the players, and they’re the bettors. No matter where you are or what you do, you’re being watched. Your life isn’t yours—no more than mine belongs to me. Everything here is visible to those who run the game. Even if you don’t see any cameras, they’re watching you."

A game?

"So what’s the goal of this game?"

"Survive. Look at the ranking, my little bunny. There are 100,000 players, but only one, each month, can hope to reach the next level: the crust. Become first, and you’ll be the winner."

I listened and shifted my attention to what everyone was staring at. Numbers from 1 to 100,000, with names beside them and each player’s number. I looked at the first one out of curiosity, but my focus quickly slid to the third.

"Jill. Jill is third…!"

"Jill is one of the favorites. The top ten are guaranteed to climb within the next few months. If you’re in the top seven hundred, you can afford a comfortable life—food, care, pleasures. You can live decently up to rank twelve thousand. Past that, things get rough. You can survive without comfort, but still manage to eat properly up to rank thirty thousand. And then, up to half the ranking—rank fifty thousand—you survive. Beyond that, comfort is almost nonexistent, you lose weight fast, and food becomes scarce."

So…

1 to 10: guaranteed spot on the next level.
11 to 700: comfortable life.
701 to 12,000: decent life.
12,001 to 30,000: harsh life.
30,001 to 50,000: survival.
50,001 to 100,000: slim chances.

"The last ten thousand usually don’t survive the months following their arrival."

"And me—where am I in this ranking?"

"You, my little bunny, you’re new. Newcomers are placed between eighty thousand and ninety thousand, since the very last spots are reserved for the losers."

So I looked at those ranks, searching for my name. After all… I only had… what? Ten thousand positions to scan?

"That’s a lot to take in, huh? Don’t worry. You’ll learn fast. It’s not that complicated."

His hands patted my thighs, trying to reassure me. It was a lot, yeah—but I understood the essentials: I was in a game, with about as much privacy as prison, and everyone wanted to climb to the level above. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many people obsessing over the rankings—except to know whether they were going to survive.

"Climbing means securing a better life. You’ll quickly understand that this place isn’t meant for living. Make them like you, and they’ll make you rise. That’s what the ranking is based on: how many viewers are watching you."

I could believe that. Judging by the state of his body, he wasn’t the most beloved one here. He looked like a battlefield. I grabbed his hair and leaned on it to lift myself slightly.

"You and mine—we’re different. We’re privileged. And you, even more so. Look at your rank: number 78,993."

Which I did. Ranking, position 78,993. Dante. Player 7. And… one last term…

"Players like you are especially anticipated. You always become favorites. You, my little bunny, you’re an outsider."