《Stockholm Syndrome》


 I LOVE YOU (1)

    CHAPTER 1


    It was just like any other day. My dumb classmates wasting their life on useless chatter, teachers doing their jobs solely to receive their monthly salary-- everyday is the same routine event and I found myself getting bored by my country¡¯s educational system.


    It was only natural for me to feel dead when nothing interesting has ever happened in 17 years of my life. I was similar to your typical mob character in an RPG game. An NPC that was created to make the game more immersive.


    Someone who has no special talent and no role to take up inthe universe.


    That is, until a certain girl transferred into my class on the second semester of my second year in high school. The moment I saw her I immediately felt alive. For the first time in my life, I had a role to play.


    I had to protect her.


    A few weeks after she transferred, everyone in my class was already smitten with her. Who wouldn''t?


    She was more beautiful than the women you see on television. Her face was so wonderfully sculpted, anyone would be stunned upon laying eyes on her.


    You would expect such a beautiful being to be the main source of envy by other females but that was never the case with her.


    Her kind and gentle nature, with a hint of playfulness would make it difficult for anyone to hate her. She was always willing to help those who had a hard time getting by. She was also very smart and was always in the top 10 rankings after examinations.


    With that being said, there was no denying that her beauty and talent also brought about unwanted attention. Such as that one time where the school¡¯s legendary delinquent(who I loath with a passion), forced himself onto her. Fortunately, her many friends saw it coming and managed to defend her innocence.


    That was one out of many recurring incidences.


    I was sure she would also feel threatened with someone such as I, following her anywhere she went outside of school.


    Today, I am following her home. Usually she is seen walking out of school with several of my classmates, but even that was not enough to convince me that she was safe from harm by libido-driven beasts.


    However today, she walked out alone. I could not believe my eyes--almost like a premonition, I could already see bad things happening to her.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    I quickly grabbed my bag and left my seat which was conveniently placed near a window where I could see her leave the school grounds. I thanked the Gods for blessingme with an opportune spot.


    I made my way downstairs and changed my shoes. I usually leave earlier than her and hide behind a special tree to avoid detection, but I fell asleep four minutes after the last bell rang that resulted in this predicament.I shouldn''t have stayed up late last night playing with myself. The real thing''s better!


    As soon as I stepped out the school gate, I scoped her figure but to no avail. Her eye-catching silhoutte was very easy to recognise, but he was long gone by the time I got out.


    Fortunately I knew her home address as well as the route she always takes. But I was far from achieving relief, a mere four minutes time gap could be ghastly. I needed to catch up with her to chase away perverted goons oogling at her!


    I forced my legs to run fast enough to fill the time gap, but as expected, my non-athletic body couldn''t handle the sudden muscle exertion and I fell on my knees. I saw a bench nearby and took a short rest there. I continued speed-walking and before I knew it, I already reached the public park near her house.


    I made it! I overtook her!


    A huge achievment.


    ¡°Hey criminal,¡± a hostile voice sounded behind me whilst I was lost in my thoughts.


    ¡°You''re the stalker, huh?¡±


    I looked behind me hesitantly and saw the feet ofmany people--adults and teenagers alike, probably her fans. I broke in cold sweat even though this kind of event was very familiar to me, but if I were to take a beating from this many people I would definitely die.


    "I-I''m not, you''re mistaken!"I tried to excuse myself. I could only hope to escape with just a broken leg and nose in such a dire situation. "I''ll take my leave now.."


    "Hey wait a minute, I know this guy!" A jolly voice exclaimed. "He''s my classmate!"


    I looked up with a glimmer of hope, as well as a sense of danger.


    "So what, are you saying we should let him leave unscathed?"


    I looked at my classmatewith begging eyes. I recognised his face even though I wasn''t interested in getting friendly with any of my classmates because he was part of the noisy bunch in class that I hate. If he was smart, he would know better than to hurt his own classmate.


    "Of course not," He laughed sadistically. "He''s that weird nerd in class that always smells bad! I say we kill him. He''s an orphan after all."


    They dragged me in an isolated part of the city and proceeded to beat me. I didn''t even put up a fight with my struggling. They were grown-up adults with the strength I never had.


    I received another blow to my head ffromwhat I suspect to be a blunt weapon. I could feel warm blood trickling down my face but even in that state, I was still kicked by so many feet I lost count.


    --


    "Oh shi-, he''s really dying."


    I was barely concious after the beating. I was forced to listen to my fate, although I tried not to.


    "Let''s throw his body inside that manhole."


    "Good idea!"


    "Hurry up before someone comes."


    "Nobody''s gonna come here, it''s been abandoned for years!"


    "Yeah, we can take our time, unless you want to chicken out and cry to mommy."


    "Hi."


    "Heck, this guy''s got a lot of cash on him! You said he was an orphan!"


    "For real?! Let''s go to an arcade after this."


    It almost seemed like the perpetrators didn''t hear the distinct female voice that greeted them.


    Suddenly someone yelled in a tone that implied agonising pain.


    I slowly drifted in deep unconciousness despite the tragedy that was occuring in front of me.


    I was sure that someone was killed that day, and it wasn''t me.

 SOMEONEs MISSING(2)

    <u>CHAPTER 2</u>


    [Hospital X, Thursday, 12 p.m.]


    The first thing I saw upon waking up was a nurse leering at me. ¡°Oh you¡¯re awake.¡±


    I could feel a sharp pain on my head, I was also sore all over my body from yesterday¡¯s beating.


    ¡°You were unconscious for three days,¡± the nurse said as she checked my blood pressure. ¡°You¡¯re very lucky.¡±


    ¡°...lucky?¡± I asked.


    The nurse gave me a judgmental look. She paused and looked away. ¡°You¡¯ll find out sooner or later.¡±


    I laid on the bed silently, swallowing my saliva each time I felt a throbbing pain on my head. I couldn¡¯t move very well because I was under heavy anesthesia.


    The doctor told me I had four of my ribs broken and a mild concussion. It was a miracle that I wasn¡¯t announced brain dead even after all that¡¯s happened. He also told me that the perpetrators were nowhere to be found, and that the police might come to ask some questions regarding the incident today.


    I couldn¡¯t care less about the people who almost killed me. I was alive and that was all that mattered. And since they acted for the good of the lady anyway, I bear no grudge against them. I would gladly lie to the police.


    After the doctor finished talking to me, I was left alone with a nurse in the private room I was settled in.. The doctor told me that I would experience the side-effects of post-surgery anesthesia, so I should have at least someone to watch over me.


    And since I didn¡¯t have any willing visitors, the same nurse had no other choice but to stay with me until tomorrow.


    I really wanted to have ask about the cliffhanger she threw at me earlier with her but she ignored me no matter how long I pried.


    Knock, knock, knock.


    I honestly jumped a little bit from the sudden knocking, entirely because of the cold air between the nurse and me. I was relieved someone came and disrupted it.


    ¡°You look horrible, Ad!¡± The class representative, whose name I didn¡¯t know, exclaimed. ¡°I¡¯m really glad you didn¡¯t die though.¡±


    The nurse left the two of us alone to have a smoke. She glanced at us before leaving and issued a warning to not leave the room.


    "Wow, she''s really unfriendly.." the class representative whispered. "Aren''t you glad I came?"


    The class representative was very young-looking and also a bit on the chubby side, she always sported pigtails to school and was also one of hergirl friends . We weren''t close but she was friendly with me for some reason. Also, since she was the class repesentative, the teachers asked her to visit me to deliver notes of the lessons that I missed.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Her looks certainly wasn¡¯t the best, though, but she was tolerable.


    Speaking of which,


    ¡°..Hey, Is she, you know, well?¡± I asked bashfully.


    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s the first thing you say to me after I came all the way from school just to see you?¡± She nagged at me in disbelief.


    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s fine. She even placed first in the IQ test. And for your information, I placed sec-¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s so amazing of her! But IQ test?¡± I asked as the sudden test piqued my interest.


    ¡°Oh, right. News didn¡¯t reach you yet.¡± Class rep said in a slightly disappointed tone.


    Class rep then began to explain what happened a few days ago, the time I missed school.


    Apparently a day after my beating, the educational system of my country underwent a drastic change. The higher-ups believe that students are mentally corrupted by routine studies and examinations, especially high schoolers.


    They deduced that the Z generation under this kind of mundane system are not evolving. This was utterly unacceptable, since evolution plays a very important role in maintaining the survival of humanity in the future. Therefore, based on Darwin¡¯s theory of evolution, they decided to put teenagers from the age of 14-19 who have reliable cognitive ability in an entirely new environment from what they were accustomed to as an experiment, situations that science has predicted to occur in the near future.


    Offsprings from this project are hypothesised to be able to adapt to any change in domain. This was the main reason to why evolution was necessary, to produce advanced humans.


    Evolution by natural selection is one of the best substantiated theories in the history of science, supported by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including paleontology, geology, genetics and developmental biology.


    Thus, the series of ¡®games¡¯ the students are to participate in were created in foundation to Darwin¡¯s idea of Natural Selection.


    Of course, guardian consent was taken into account.


    And since I was out for three days, I missed the first ¡®natural selection¡¯ which served to cut down students to a smaller number.


    ¡°So the first ¡®natural selection¡¯ was an IQ test?¡± I asked out of curiosity.


    ¡°There were a lot of tests actually, blood tests, fertility tests, physical test... it was just like P.E class.¡±


    Oh, thank God I missed that part!


    ¡°And the second natural selection is in 3 days time, so you better prepare yourself! Because it might be something you need to be physically active to survive, you know?¡± She laughed.


    ¡°Sure. Thanks for visiting, class rep.¡±


    Class rep got up to leave since it was already late evening. ''Girls her age have to be careful when going home alone'', she said.


    ¡°Oh and by the way,¡± She added. ¡°My name¡¯s Mana, you should at least remember your classmates¡¯ names!¡±


    She was nice enough not to ask me about what happened. She must''ve tried to avoid making me uncomfortable.


    I nodded nonchalantly. I didn''t want to bother myself with remembering names since I don''t care about my classmates.


    More importantly, I get to play games with her! I can¡¯t wait to go to school tomorrow!


    [X High School, Friday]


    I walked into class in excitement, my head still bandaged. As expected, everyone¡¯s eyes were focused on me. I was used to the glares of the people around me, I find it hilarious at times.


    They¡¯re stupid, and I¡¯m not.


    I took my seat, ignoring the stares. As expected, nobody cared about me enough to talk.


    I checked the clock on the wall of the classroom.


    7:36 a.m.


    Four minutes until she comes. I could feel my heart rate increasing as seconds went by. She was the only person I was looking forward to getting friendlier with, although we never spoke to each other.


    My eyes naturally followed her figure as she walked through the school¡¯s gate. I felt as if my heart was about to burst. I couldn¡¯t handle 3 days without seeing her, it was so painful.


    My seat was diagonally across hers, so I could indulge myself staring at her stretched short skirt and tight school uniform whenever she sat down. Fortunately, I made it to the bathroom before the first bell indicating class was about to start ringing.


    The teacher entered the class normally, and began to take our attendance. The classroom was noticeably quieter than usual. I noticed that the group I loath was not making as much noise as they routinely do every single morning. I also noticed that the guy who tried to kill me wasabsent.


    ¡°Teacher, aren¡¯t we missing a few people in this class?¡± Mana asked, doing her duty as a class representative.


    ¡°Hm? We aren¡¯t,¡± the teacher answered. ¡°You¡¯re all the survivors from the first natural selection. The trash were put to death.¡±


    Silence befell the whole class.


    ¡° Didn¡¯t you know?¡±