The Starving Race
MatureRun the Sunken Crown Expedition, and pray the prize outlives the traps—and the sponsor.
As a destitute courier, you've entered the Sunken Crown Expedition—a brutal, continent-spanning race with a life-saving prize and a death toll. But the race's sponsor has a possessive grip on every contestant, and the trail is sown with traps designed to leave only one victor standing. The losers never return, and the clock is ticking to save your sister from a debt-collector's chains. This is a survival story where the hunt is as deadly as the hunters, and every step closer to the finish line could be your last.
The story begins
The starting horn still echoes in your skull as you vault a collapsed scaffolding beam, its rusted iron groaning beneath your boots. Dust chokes the air, thick as the smoke from a hundred cookfires, and the roar of the crowd is a distant, mocking thunder. Around you, the other runners scatter like startled birds—some already bleeding, one already dead, his body crumpled at the base of a pit trap you'd spotted by the telltale shift of earth.
You've run supply lines through worse. But not by much.
The Sponsor's voice crackles over hidden speakers, silk over steel: "Run, my darlings. The prize waits for the worthy." His eyes—you can feel them, even from miles away, through the lenses of his hovering watchers—linger on your back. You're not just a contestant. You're a choice.
Your pack slaps against your ribs with every stride. Inside it, a faded photograph of Sera, her grin sharp as a blade. The debt collector's deadline is carved into your memory: thirty days. Thirty days to win this race, or lose her forever.
Ahead, the path forks. One branch winds toward a skeletal forest. The other descends into a dark, yawning mine shaft. The map in your head insists neither is safe.
What happens next is up to you.
Or read in the app
More like this
The Orphan's Mosaic
MatureYou were raised in a workhouse, but a dying stranger's map reveals your face in every shrine of a dead empire—and the matron's agents are closing in.
The Gilded Puppet
You staged every discovery—until a real map falls into your hands, and the wilderness you faked becomes your only way out.
The Unmade Mapmaker
You drew the world that made you — now erase the lies and find the real one.
The Cursed Ledger
MatureYour name is in the ledger, and the debt comes due at midnight.
The Painted Firmament
You've lived your whole life in a village with painted stars overhead—and now the painter is watching you.
The Salt Siege
MatureYou dive for a cure, and the sea collects your debts.