“The person I love the most in this whole wide world(my mom) is in pain suffering with a deadly brain tumor,the only way is to send her out country to get a brain surgery to remove the tumor. But how can I even afford this as I have no outstanding job because am barely 18. If you were me what would you do at a time like this?” Kim gye hyeon writes on his blog page. On the other ends is Baek Hana writing down on her blog page;”After I lost my mom,I felt like the whole world had turned against me,and felt so lonely. At this time was my dad who gave me all the comfort I needed and I was able to move on because of him. He’s the most important person to me but I’ve spent two weeks without seeing him and don’t even know his where a bouts, he ran away cause of all the debts we had and the loan sharks who wouldn’t let us live in peace. If only I had enough money to pay off all our debts and bring my dad back home.”
At the same time are three other individuals also writing about there difficult situations; Song Mansoo whose mother is in the hospital for cancer so he decided to borrow some money from some people he had no idea about in order to help his mother,he was able to send his mom overseas for treatment but he remained in debt and has no idea of where to get the money from. As the people he got the money are human traffickers,and threaten to take his insides if he can’t pay their money back.” Han Mari,her dad works for one of her classmate’s family,and this led her to a lot of suffering than she could imagine. She gets bullied by almost all her classmates for being poor and not even a single teacher nor anybody in the school care about what happens to her because the rich are the only ones who can talk out loud and be heard in this society. Her only wish is to become rich and pay all these people for what they did to her. And Oh Doki whose whole family died due to mistreatment by the powerful,and he wishes to gain the power of the rich one day and seek revenge for what happened to his family (mom,dad and young sister). At the exact same time as all five write down about their sad lives,they receive messages to join “SURVIVE” to fulfill all their ambitions, and this is how the message goes; “Join SURVIVE,play and win 20billion dollars. If you would like to find out more press”OK” and you will receive further details. Thank you,from survive”. All five individuals first take a second to think thoroughly about it,maybe its scam,maybe these are bad people that shouldn’t get involved with,maybe its a setup,they all have different thoughts. But again what’s there to lose,there is no harm in giving it a try so all press the OK button at the same time ,and then receive messages of addresses, where exactly to go the following day in order to take participation in the game.
With everybody unable to sleep thinking,”what if it were all true,what am I going to do first if I really win 20billion dollars?”. Not long as the sun is already up and the four are on the journey to their destinations, Han Mari refuses to fall for this and she’s set off for school,but on the entrance,the five meanest girls at school who normally bully her are outside waiting for her. She then decides to change routes and head to the SURVIVE game destination. All five arrive in the same place but at different time, at Bong Tae paper company. On the entrance,the receptionist asks for an individual’s name,checks on the computer and hands you a card of the room number you are supposed to head to.
- Kim Gye hyeon: 15th floor in room 203.
- Baek Hana:15th floor,room 205
- Song Mansoo:15th floor,room 207
- Han Mari:15th floor,room 209
- Oh Doki:15th floor,room 201
Song Mansoo is the first one to get his room card,he enters the elevator,to the 15th floor and finally to room 207. He holds the handle and opens the door; Song Mansoo:”Anyeong(hello)”. It seems there is no one inside the room,so he continues inside. After letting go of the door handle,the door slowly goes back and produces a cocky sound and when he tries opening the door,its locked from the outside. The room is actually an office room with a table,three seats and everything in an office only a bit disorganised. He sits down and waits,maybe the owner is coming to tell him about the game or the message he got. As he waits,Han Mari,Oh Doki and Kim gye hyeon have also reach their rooms. Han Mari is accidentally locked in a bed room and she wonders why a paper company would have a bed room in it as she waits for the so called boss of the game. Oh Doki enters his room and the its empty,white in colour with nothing absolutely nothing in it,as he wonders about the appearance of the room,he looks back at the door and there is no sign of a door there,its like he has been locked in a box with no way out. Kim Gye hyeon’s room is a garden room full of plants,and he’s locked inside after entering. Baek Hana is the last one to get her card,she enters the elevator,to the 15th floor it is,but when the elevator reaches the 15th floor,it stops but doesn’t open. She tries her level best to open it by pressing the buttons but it doesn’t open,so she gives it a rest to wait and leave it to work itself out. The four are locked in different rooms and the fifth one in an elevator,they all wait and check around but there’s nothing of much importance in the rooms.
Its been 2 hours and there is nobody coming,they try opening and looking for the door but not successful and this is when they all realise that they are already in the “SURVIVE” game. With no rules given,no orders,no advice but as the name goes survive,the only thing that matters is to survive the room.
Hafsae Soleiman 