Survival of the Poorest

I extended my hand, being all firm as if I would not allow the lady to refuse my help. The exhausted mother instantly shoved her boarding pass into my palm like it was a lifeline.

Once someone made the first move, the effect was immediate. Several other passengers, who were traveling with children or the elderly, or simply looked drained, hurried over and pushed their boarding passes at me, too.

"Get mine, too!"

"And mine!"

Within seconds, I was clutching over a dozen boarding passes.

I turned to the airline staff and thrust the passes toward her, whispering, "Hurry up and handle the most urgent cases first. It's better than having this hit the news, right? Slip me two extra meal vouchers, and I'll calm down these parents so everyone has a way to back off gracefully."

The staff looked at me with gratitude and quickly typed the information into the system. Soon, she pulled out a stack of meal vouchers, counted out the ones matching the boarding passes I had, then secretly added two more before handing them to me with a thankful look.

'Score!' I silently cheered. My heart was pounding wildly, but I remained calm on the surface.

"Here you go! Take your baby and go get some food!"

"Sir, here's yours!"

I quickly distributed the corresponding meal vouchers and boarding passes back to everyone, moving efficiently. Finally, I tucked those two extra vouchers into my hidden pocket.

I shouted to the crowd, "Everyone, go get your vouchers and grab some food! Rest up and save your energy! We'll deal with them later!"

While the crowd's attention shifted to collecting vouchers, I slipped out, instantly disappearing into the bustling terminal corridor.

In this game, the only way to survive was to see the gaps faster than everyone else.

Just as I left the gate area, I ran into Omari again. He smiled warmly and said, "Player 66, I saw what you did back there. You handled the situation like some big shot from a movie. Are you sure you don't want to team up with us? We might all need to watch each other's backs later on."

In just one day, he had managed to gather four more players around him. However, I still declined his invitation.

I grabbed some food with the mela voucher, temporarily maxing out my hunger bar. However, exhaustion hit me like a wave as my energy level had already dropped below 50%.

It was now 11 p.m., and foot traffic in the airport had noticeably thinned out. Most shops were closing up, the lights had grown dim, and an indescribable atmosphere of dread was starting to creep in.

All the terminal chairs had armrests to prevent people from lying down.

One young player, probably completely wiped out, wrapped himself in a thin jacket and curled up on the floor, trying to sleep. Less than two minutes later, a bright light shone directly in his face.

"Get up! No sleeping here," the security guard said in a flat monotone.

The young player ignored the NPC, rolled over, and kept sleeping. Suddenly, a group of security guards rushed out from the corner and, without warning, forcibly lifted him up and threw him outside the airport doors.

The game's public broadcast announced, "Player 13 has been eliminated for leaving the game zone and now owes one million dollars."

Right after that, players from different areas were eliminated in the same way. The system was pushing us to the edge, using exhaustion and cold to drain every last bit of rationality from the players.

By this point, my energy level was critically low. To avoid getting eliminated, I draped the worn blanket over myself and dozed off sitting in a gate area chair.

When the sun rose the next day, it was a brutal reminder that only one day had passed. My energy level had barely crawled back up to 75%, but my hunger bar rose to 50% again. Even so, I was not in a rush since I still had one meal voucher left.

I took a sip of cold water, ate two sugar packets, and continued hunting in the departure hall.

Suddenly, a player rushed forward and snatched a hot dog right out of a kid's hand. He brushed past me and nearly knocked me over.

The kid started bawling, and security came running. They surrounded the player and threw him into a police car outside the airport.

The system broadcast rang out again. "Player 25 has been eliminated for stealing food from an NPC and has been thrown out of the airport by security. He now has a debt of one million dollars."

I figured out one key rule: doing anything that would alert security was a no-go.