Shark Games

Shark Games

There had been no sign of rain. Unexpectedly, it poured. In the city’s desolation, the rain amplified the clamor. On the concrete roads, hailstones piled up like golf balls. As if searching for someone, raindrops flowed out through the city gates.

Though there were many residential buildings, the streets of the city were mostly deserted. It was a place filled with numerous streets meticulously designed by an urban artist. Identical glass buildings, streetlights, and plastic trees lined a beautiful city. All residences shared the same shape and color. Spaces meant for recreation and mental relaxation were also uniform in design.

Though the alleys and sidewalks were easy to walk through, they often led people astray. There were very few signboards in the city, and those only on major roads. Residents used a small, approved map even to travel short distances.

It was into the rain-soaked city that Echo stepped out after work. He had had a very busy day. Walking swiftly home through plastic trees dripping with raindrops, the cold wind, falling droplets, and fading daylight brushed past him. By the time he crossed the slowly lighting neon streets and reached home, it was quite dark.

“Today felt like being a bunch of colorful fish trapped in a jar. I kept swimming endlessly around an inescapable network algorithm,” Echo said, while Mika never lifted her eyes from her phone.

“Echo, go stand in the yard. There must be a cool breeze after the rain.”

“Did it rain today?” Echo asked, surprised.

Mika didn’t reply.

Picking up his phone, Echo sat close to Mika and said, “I’ve ordered food. The kids are doing their homework on their phones.”

In the loneliness of the house, colorful fish sealed in decorative jars swam restlessly.

“Look, that message has come for the third time,” Mika said while scrolling. Echo wasn’t surprised. The same message that had arrived on Mika’s phone twice before had also reached his phone at the same time.

“Call the number below with this passcode. You have been selected for the Shark Game.”

The third time, neither Echo nor Mika was willing to reject the invitation.

Meanwhile, the food they had ordered had been delivered to the front door . Though they told the children two or three times to collect it, the kids paid no attention.

“Call that number. This time, let’s participate in the Shark Game,” Mika said, her eyes filled with curiosity.

“You have reached the main gateway of the Shark Game. Friend, welcome to the world’s most influential reality game show,” came a sweet Yorkshire-accented voice explaining the rules.

Echo and Mika had crossed the first step of the Shark Game.

“In the coming days, continue the Shark Game on your phones. Wait for the message from Las Vegas regarding your selection for the next stage. Also decide whether you will participate together.”

The following days were filled with anticipation for both of them. Most people believed the Shark Game was merely a myth. No one who had participated ever described it later. The organizers had never spoken about it either. Everyone assumed it was an illusion.

They did not notice the rain pouring endlessly over the town, nor the plastic tree branches melting under extreme heat.

In every spare moment, they practiced for the Shark Game—improving finger speed and reflexes—preparing for the reality show.

One Friday evening, the expected call from Vegas arrived.

This time, the callers had no language. Their voices sounded robotic. What they asked were deeply personal matters, especially mental reactions in critical situations.

“Mika is trapped in an accident from which she can never escape. If Echo stays with Mika, he too will die. In such a hypothetical scenario, Mr. Echo, how would you respond?”

Echo and Mika had been training themselves for such questions for days and responded accordingly.

Somewhere during the long conversation, the call disconnected. At that very moment, a message appeared on their screen:

“Within a few moments, open the last building door on Theater Street within your city using the passcode. The Shark Game you desired is in progress there. Become participants! The passcode displayed is time-bound.”

At that moment, there was no cold food lying before them, no children doing homework in the inner room—only the Shark Game mattered.

Finding the last building, lurking under dim neon light on the darkened street, posed no difficulty. But the silence outside the city was not what welcomed them inside.

Around a 3D screen at the center of a circular auditorium, people were cheering loudly.

The Shark Games had begun. Seeing such a unique and realistic game show, Mika and Echo were stunned for a moment. Multiple games were playing on the spherical screen. Different people, filled with joy and excitement, held hands and participated enthusiastically.

On one level of the screen, a game in outer space—participants floating like flying souls. On another level, those who had reached the deep sea, drifting among colorful fish and coral reefs like mermaids.

Suddenly, a roar drew their attention. Water splashed from one part of the theater. A giant shark lifted its head out of the screen. People rushed toward it cheering. The shark bit the hand of the first person to reach it and dragged him into the screen.

Thunderous applause and cheers filled the theater. Everyone congratulated the one pulled into the Shark Game. Immediately, his image appeared on the screen—he was in a hanging garden among mountains dense with giant trees, sightseeing with others.

“Ah! What a beautiful sight, isn’t it?” Mika said to Echo.

Suddenly, water splashed near them. Cries of “The shark is coming!” rippled through the crowd.

In a fraction of a second, the giant shark had dragged Mika into the screen.

Soon Mika appeared on the screen. In a beautiful room with dim lighting, she was with a few others, smiling radiantly. They were drinking something from what looked like expensive glasses.

Suddenly the screen flickered, and she was half-naked. Mika affectionately kissed the man beside her.

Disturbed by the sight, Echo raised his hand to signal to her, but she did not see it.

“She’s in another world,” Echo laughed madly.

From then on, every moment he spent in the theater, he tried relentlessly to get into the screen. He wandered crazily through the theater.

He shoved people aside, rushing toward the splashing water to be the first to reach the shark—but someone else would always be caught before him.

In sorrow and rage, Echo burst into hysterical laughter.

Inside the circular game-show theater, his own voice echoed endlessly in his ears.

Among the countless people inside, Echo wondered painfully whether he himself was nothing more than an echo.

He could not remember how many hours or days had passed. New algorithms lay unanswered in his mind. Gradually, his consciousness itself turned into a giant screen. From it, instead of a shark, an octopus with a thousand arms slowly emerged.

It had been three days since Echo and Mika left home, the children muttered to each other. The food delivered to the yard lay rotting.

The children wandered through new games on their phones. They did not report their missing parents to the police. They did not inform relatives. The glow in the eyes of the plastic fish inside decorative jars dimmed as their batteries ran low.

One night, the children’s phone screens turned pitch black. Along with a massive wave, a giant shark slowly appeared, accompanied by a caption:

“Welcome to the Shark Game.”