Subject 14

Hoshino Arata has spent his entire life observing people. Understanding them. It was his job. It was his way of existing. One evening, he disappears. He wakes up in a vast white room with no doors, no windows, no way out. Thirteen others are there. Nobody knows each other. Nobody knows why. A blurred figure appears on a screen. He calls himself the Director. His voice is calm. Almost pleasant. He tells them they are no longer human. Just subjects. Fourteen numbers in an experiment where no one knows the real rules — or the real stakes. Arata always believed that watching was enough to understand. That understanding was enough to survive. He’s about to find out how wrong he was. (Originally written in French. Translated with AI assistance.)