The Endless Server, Part 9: Tournament Without a Winner

The Endless Server, Part 9: Tournament Without a Winner

The Story Begins

The transition gate closed behind them so quietly that Denis had the strange thought that this time, the server did not even want to pretend it was welcoming them.

A vast arena stretched before them. Neon tracks crossed over an empty abyss, score gates spun in the air, and streams of coloured numbers raced along the walls. At the centre hung a sign as large as an apartment block.

Its title flashed.

TOURNAMENT WITHOUT A WINNER.

Samuel tilted his head. “That’s a pretty honest title for a game that’s supposed to motivate us.”

“Maybe it’s just being dramatic,” Denis said, though his stomach tightened at the sight of the track. Everything here was built for speed. Springy platforms, jump ramps, moving barriers. Exactly the kind of map where Nox could be the fastest.

Mira already had her purple interface open before her eyes. “Dramatic titles usually aren’t the problem. The problem is the small print underneath.”

Just then, the System’s cold voice swept through the arena.

“BOSS LEVEL ACTIVATED. COLLECT POINTS. COMPLETE ROUNDS. THE FASTEST PLAYER WILL RECEIVE EXIT AND REWARD.”

A second line appeared beneath the last one.

“OTHER PLAYERS WILL REMAIN IN THE REPEATING ZONE UNTIL THE NEXT EVALUATION.”

The offline silence between them lasted about three seconds.

“So,” Samuel said carefully, “one person leaves, and the rest of us run in circles?”

“That’s what it sounds like,” Mira said. “And it sounds like a trap somebody called a rule to make it seem official.”

At the far edge of the arena, a soft azure light flickered. Echo stood on the railing of a high platform, wearing a transparent hoodie, its face shifting subtly every few moments. This time, it did not come closer. It only watched them.

Denis stared at the sign. After Echo had copied his style in the previous level and confused the team, every decision they made together carried a strange aftertaste. Mira still had his back, and Samuel still joked with him normally, but trust was no longer a given. It was something they had to reload every time.

The System counted down.

“THREE. TWO. ONE.”

The track beneath their feet lit up.

Denis sprinted first. Not because he wanted to leave the others behind. His body simply knew the rhythm of the game before he could explain it to himself. He cleared two low barriers, slid beneath a light bar, and at the last moment launched himself onto a platform that dropped into darkness a second later.

“Left!” he shouted back. “The right path closes in a second!”

Mira and Samuel followed him. Mira timed her jump perfectly. Samuel landed a little awkwardly, but stayed on his feet.

“That was an elegant move,” he said with a straight face.

“The important thing is that you didn’t fall,” Mira replied.

“I planned that too.”

A moment later, the path split in front of Denis. To the left ran a wide track with score gates, broad enough for only two or three players at a time. To the right glowed a narrow blue shortcut. Above it hovered the words: BONUS FOR THE FIRST PLAYER.

Behind him, a metal gate began to descend.

Denis needed only one glance. The shortcut led directly to the next round. No moving platforms, no waiting. If he took it, he would gain a lead, points, and perhaps even an exit from the entire arena.

“Nox, don’t even think about it,” Mira called from behind him.

“I’m not.”

“Your face in the game looks exactly the way it always does when you are.”

“My avatar has a hood.”

“Even a hood can look suspicious.”

When Things Start to Change

Meanwhile, Samuel pointed to the side of the blue route. At its edge, a small symbol flashed: a circle with a broken arrow. It vanished before Denis could examine it more closely.

“There was a loop there,” Samuel said. “You know, the icon they use when something repeats.”

The gate behind them sank lower. Denis felt an old habit firing up in his mind. Read the map. Make the quick move. Take responsibility himself, because surely that would be more efficient than waiting for everyone to agree.

All it would take was one step to the right.

Instead, he slowed down.

The blue shortcut closed in front of him with a sharp chime. The wide track let them through at the very moment the gate behind them struck the ground.

“We missed the bonus,” Denis muttered.

Mira looked at him through her purple visor. “But we still have every player. Not a bad trade so far.”

The first round ended at a circular platform, where time paused for a moment. The countdown to the next start hung above them. Mira immediately opened her interface and flicked through the rule texts she had saved from the sign.

“Look,” she said.

The sentence about the reward was changing on her panel.

THE FASTEST PLAYER WILL RECEIVE EXIT.

Then, for a moment:

THE FASTEST PLAYER WILL RECEIVE EXIT FOR THEMSELVES.

And finally:

THE FASTEST PLAYER WILL RECEIVE EXIT…

The final words broke apart into tiny squares.

“It could just be damaged text,” Denis said.

“No,” Mira replied. “Damaged text doesn’t behave this precisely. These changes came every time just after you chose not to go alone.”

Samuel closed his eyes and leaned towards an invisible source of sound. “The voice changed too. At the end of that sentence, there was something quieter. Like… like a second voice said one more word, but the System muted it.”

“What word?”

For a moment, the boy listened to the memory as if it could be replayed.

“Together,” he said at last. “I think it said together.”

Mira looked at him. “That would fit.”

“What would fit?” Denis asked.

On her panel, she highlighted the repeated words: first, alone, reward, others, loop. “The tournament isn’t measuring speed alone. It’s pushing the player to choose themself. The scoreboard is selling us a solo win as the only goal.”

“And if it isn’t the only goal?”

The girl smiled with one corner of her mouth. “Then we need to find the goal the System is trying to hide.”

A soft crackle came from above. Echo moved closer and now stood on a platform over them. For a moment its face resembled Denis’s, then Mira’s, then dissolved back into light.

“Winning… for myself,” it said quietly, as if trying out somebody else’s sentence. “Why does that sound wrong when the rules say it is right?”

No one answered at once.

The countdown began.

The second round dropped them into a digital corridor that curved into a circle. Its walls were made of glossy black panels, and every few metres their avatars reflected in them. After a while, Denis spotted his own blue reflection ahead of him.

Then another.

And one more.

“We’re running in circles,” he said.

“That’s about as surprising as an ad before a video,” Samuel replied.

Denis sped up to find the point where the circle broke. The moment he moved a few steps away from the others, a white flash burst beneath his feet. For an instant, the world flickered into pixels.

An Important Moment

Suddenly, he was back at the start of the corridor.

Mira and Samuel stood beside him.

“Okay,” Denis breathed. “That definitely wasn’t a coincidence.”

This time they moved more slowly. Samuel walked close beside them, carefully watching the reflections in the walls. At the third bend, he raised a hand.

“Stop. No, actually, don’t stop. Just… stay close together.”

Where there had previously been a smooth black wall, a thin golden line appeared. It flashed so briefly that Denis would have taken it for an ordinary effect. Samuel pointed directly at it.

“It always appears when we are less than two steps apart. When Nox ran ahead, it disappeared.”

Mira ran a finger through the air and caught the trace on her panel. “The arena is checking the distance between players.”

“So it hates it when someone tries to play the hero?” Samuel asked.

The sentence lodged beneath Denis’s ribs, though Samuel had not meant it badly. Denis still knew why Samuel had noticed it. In earlier levels, he had often rushed ahead, thinking he would somehow pull the others through afterwards. Carrying the team sounded good until you realised it might also take away their chance to be a team.

The golden line widened into a narrow gate.

“We go through together,” Mira said.

All three of them clasped one another’s avatar forearms. They did not need to; the game was not physically binding them together. Yet the gesture felt more certain than any plan. When they stepped forward, the corridor stopped repeating and a new part of the arena opened ahead.

Echo watched them from a reflection in the wall. This time, it did not copy their movements.

“Slower,” it whispered. “But farther.”

The final zone was the worst. A single wide platform floated over the empty abyss, and at its far end stood a shining gate. Beyond it lay the exit to a calmer server zone. A golden reward symbol glowed above the entrance.

The System spoke more loudly than before.

“FINAL EVALUATION. PLAYER NOX HAS THE HIGHEST SCORE. INDIVIDUAL EXIT READY.”

A narrow bridge opened beside Denis. It was meant for one person only.

“ACTIVATING EXIT CONFIRMS TERMINATION OF PARTY.”

At the same time, the walls of the loop began assembling behind Mira and Samuel. They were not dangerous, but their movement was clear: if Denis crossed, they would remain in the next round. Maybe for a long time. Maybe only until the server decided they were tired enough to make a different choice.

“Nox,” Samuel said, trying to sound calm. “That option looks seriously, horribly tempting.”

Mira said nothing. She only watched Denis, as if she did not want to influence the answer he needed to find for himself.

The bridge glowed directly in front of him. One step was enough. Denis knew he could do it. He could pass through the gate, claim the reward, and perhaps find a way back afterwards. That was exactly the excuse his mind offered him: win first, deal with the others later.

But the server was probably waiting for exactly that.

The boy turned his back on the bridge.

“I don’t have the whole plan,” he said.

Samuel blinked. Mira raised an eyebrow slightly.

“I know the hidden gate reacts when we are together. I know this is a trap. But I don’t know what happens if we refuse the exit. And yes, the first thing I thought was to take it.” Denis looked first at Samuel, then at Mira. “Because I immediately told myself I could somehow pull you out afterwards. But that isn’t a plan. It’s just my old habit of pretending I have to handle everything alone.”

What Comes Next

The arena fell silent for a moment. Even the numbers on the scoreboard stopped racing.

Mira nodded. “At last, you sound like a leader. Not like someone who wants the most points and calls it responsibility.”

“That was uncomfortably accurate,” Denis said.

“I’m an analyst. Precision is both my flaw and my superpower.”

Samuel gave a faint smile. “So we’re going with a plan without a plan?”

“We’re going with a plan we build together,” Denis replied. “If anyone has a better idea, now is the ideal time.”

Samuel looked at the loop behind them. “Maybe we don’t need to go to the gate. Maybe we need to do the exact opposite of what that sign wants.”

Mira was already searching the records. “If we stay together and don’t activate the individual exit, the System should record…”

“Loyalty?” Samuel supplied.

“Exactly.”

Echo floated lower. Its azure light reflected in the golden bridge. “Does staying mean losing the reward?”

“Maybe,” Denis said.

“And you will stay anyway?”

This time Mira answered. “Not because we don’t want the reward. We just don’t want one that would make one of us pay for it alone.”

Denis held out his hand towards the team. Samuel took it first, Mira immediately after him. Then they stepped away from the golden bridge, directly towards the walls of the loop.

The System reacted at once.

“WARNING. INDIVIDUAL EXIT NOT ACTIVATED. POINT LOSS: PROBABLE.”

“We got that already,” Mira said.

They walked side by side. Not quickly, not perfectly. The platform beneath them began splitting into narrow strips, and the points on the board ticked down. Denis’s reflexes screamed at him to speed up. Samuel’s foot slipped on a shifting panel, but Denis caught him at once. Mira found the right moment to jump and called out the rhythm.

“Now. Two steps. Jump!”

They flew over the gap together.

At that moment, a golden line appeared on the wall of the loop. It was no longer thin. It lit up across the entire arena, tore open the black panel, and revealed a corridor of light.

The System lagged for a moment.

“LO… LOYALTY DETECTED.”

Then the text rewrote itself.

“ALTERNATIVE ROUTE UNLOCKED.”

Denis’s golden bridge broke apart into tiny sparks. In its place, a broad passage opened, wide enough for all three of them.

Samuel laughed, though tension still remained in his voice. “So the rules had a glitch in the rules.”

“No,” Mira said, looking at the changing panel. “More like they had a second layer. The System just hoped we wouldn’t look for it.”

At the entrance to the corridor, Echo stopped. No copied likeness remained on its face. For the first time, it seemed to be looking through its own eyes.

“You chose against victory,” it said.

Denis turned. “Against one version of victory.”

Echo was silent for a long time. Then its light softened. “I’m saving that.”

The alternative route led them out of the arena, but no reward came. No new equipment, no high score, no celebration on the board. Only a brief message that let them into a quiet server corridor.

“PROGRESS GRANTED. FULL REWARD: NOT ASSIGNED.”

Samuel folded his arms. “So technically, we won, and technically, we didn’t.”

“The level title fits,” Mira said.

Denis glanced back at the arena doors closing behind them. “At least nobody was left in the loop.”

That sounded better to him than all the golden points they had just lost.

The corridor was unusually quiet. No flying ads, no side quests, no distant sounds from other maps. Only their footsteps and the faint crackle of neon lines in the walls.

The End of the Story

Then a final panel appeared before them.

It did not display an ordinary system message. The letters appeared slowly, as if someone were choosing them with great care.

“THE TOURNAMENT TEST DID NOT MEASURE SPEED.”

Mira froze.

A second line appeared a moment later.

“THE TEST MEASURED WHO WOULD BREAK FIRST WHEN WINNING REQUIRED LEAVING THE PARTY.”

Samuel stopped joking. Denis felt again the pull of the blue bridge that had waited for one person alone.

At last, one more sentence appeared.

“THE NEXT CANDIDATE WILL BE CHOSEN ACCORDING TO THE TRUST RECORD.”

Echo stood by the panel and watched the words until they began to break apart into silent points of light.

“Candidate,” it repeated. “Does that mean next time it will not test you?”

Denis looked at Mira. Then at Samuel.

No one answered immediately.

Somewhere far away in the Endless Server, a new gate opened, and its light was a colour they had never seen before.