"Let’s go over the rules."
Jisung stayed quiet for a second, deeply thinking within himself as the woman in glasses spoke.
There was only one truth he could hold onto right now.
’Someone is noticing me.’
He had a few theories, but the only one he could actually pin down was that everyone else seemed to Awaken ’after’ their Awakening Trial. While he had Awakened long before any of that, back at the registration center.
As he ran the possibilities quickly, it was the only thing that made sense and this ’difference’ alone might be enough to make him stand out in ways he didn’t fully understand yet.
He let out a slow breath quietly.
Jisung remembered switching middle schools years ago after the life-threatening pool incident, and having to build a whole new identity from scratch just to survive in his new school. It had worked back then. It had to work now too.
All he had to do was lie. Except this time was different.
Staring at the notification still hovering in front of him, its penalty was still unknown and it made his stomach tighten. His mind kept circling back to how dangerous the Awakening Trial had felt and how the penalties had escalated the longer he failed.
This was another level of the same pressure.
’What do I do?’ He scratched his temple.
The woman suddenly stopped speaking and stared at him, as if waiting for a reply.
He nodded.
Then she looked down and began typing something into her device.
Sounds of clicking filled the air between them. He looked over to the message hovering and was about to close it when a line on the message that didn’t seem like much before caught his attention.
He leaned forward and read it out in a whisper.
"Mission: Tell a truth and not a lie."
He read it a second and a third time. And then, something clicked. He gasped faintly.
’Tell ’a’ truth and not a li— Oh my god!’
That was it. The solution to this whole menace had been staring him in the face all along. It was simple, he thought to himself smiling.
’It said, Tell ’A’ truth, not tell ’The’ truth.’
It was, technically, a free pass to lie. As long as whatever came out of his mouth was, in some sense, true.
He felt relieved.
’All I need now is a genius-level of thinking if I want to survive this,’ he thought, meeting the woman’s eyes just as she said the words, "...is commencing."
He nodded and smiled, even though that single word was the only part of what she said that he heard. If she was talking long before that, he didn’t hear it.
He sat upright, with a smile across his face.
’I know what I have to do.’
Ding!
[Massive Adaptability To Any Situation Lv.1 (Insight): Activated]
He understood this ability far better now than he had in the middle of that fight on the ice. Having time to sit with it, replay it, made the shape of it clearer.
Massive Adaptability To Any Situation was the parent skill, and it likely had more branches than the two he’d unlocked so far. The core of it was simple: adapt to any situation. The sub-skills were just different ’methods’ of adapting.
While, Muscle Memory handled physical adaptation, pulling from anything he had ever seen, done, or felt, Insight was completely different. It was pure mental adaptation.
If he had to describe it simply, it was pattern recognition, pulling cross-references from whatever problem sat in front of him to find the shape of a solution, real or hypothetical. It worked like the mind of a detective, less about knowing the answer outright and more about knowing exactly where to look for it.
That was exactly why he’d activated this skill now.
Ding!
A message hovered before his face.
[Participant Yu Jisung Has Sufficient Mental Strength To Sustain This Ability]
[Activation Time: 03:00]
’Sweet.’ He smiled. It wasn’t much, but it would do.
Blood rushed to his head, and every part of him lit up at once. His body felt alive. The earlier tension didn’t completely disappear, but it had settled enough for him to focus.
’This is going to be fun.’
The woman adjusted her glasses, nodded at the colleague beside her and turned her full attention back to Jisung.
With a cold tone, she asked the first question.
"Who are you?"
Jisung shifted comfortably in his seat.
"My name is Yu Jisung."
There were three people seated in the room beyond the barrier: the first was the woman with glasses who had been doing most of the talking, then a man seated in the middle with his head bowed, writing something down without pause, and the third was a woman seated at the far end, watching him with a fixed, attentive expression.
The woman in glasses glanced toward her colleague at the far end. The woman at the far end nodded, mouthing the word ’true.’
A red translucent holographic screen appeared between Jisung and the barrier. It didn’t look like a system message, but it hovered in the air like one.
It appeared with a soft chime.
｢ TRUE ⅓ ｣
Jisung allowed himself a small smile as he stared at it.
’Nailed it!’
The woman with the glasses turned back to him. Her voice remained cold and sharp.
"What district are you from, and what was your first ability after you Awakened?"
’Ooof! Two questions at once?’ he let out a shaky breath as a smirk spread across his face. ’...okay.’
"I’m from South Korea. District 23." He paused. "And I am a Regressor. The first Regressor, actually. I don’t really know much more than that, my System doesn’t tell me anything."
Ding!
A message rang out. He knew that sound.
’If it isn’t this nosy system.’
He peeked at the message.
[Jisung Is a Liar]
’Oh, shut up,’ he thought, giggling softly.
That second bit was a lie. His System told him plenty. He just needed to add that for ’context reason.’
’Please, understand.’ he closed the window.
When he looked up, the woman was staring blankly at him as if he had spoken complete nonsense. She turned to her colleague closest to her, relieved to find the same puzzled expression on his face.
"Did you catch that?" she whispered.
He shook his head. "It sounded like another language. Are you sure he’s from District 23?"
The woman on the far side turned toward them looking greatly disturbed.
"It’s... True."
A soft chime rang out and the holographic notification appeared again.
｢ TRUE ⅓ ｣
And as he stared at it, something locked into place in his head.
His eyes widened with shock as he stared at the barrier. All three officials looked puzzled and confused as they whispered with themselves.
’I know that look.’ he thought.
He remembered the look Sam had on his face when he tried to explain to him his theory on why he couldn’t probably walk on the night of the festival when he first arrived in paradise.
It seemed like no one could process anything related to his Awakening Trial.
He thought deeply within himself.
’If... and only if, this is true, then every answer about it became useless to them.’
He smiled.
’This is getting interesting.’
The woman with the glasses faced Jisung once more. Suspicion had already begun to harden in her eyes.
Jisung kept his expression innocent and politely blank, as if nothing strange had happened.
"Is there a problem?" he asked.
"No."
She cleared her throat. "Sorry for the delay. Let’s continue."
Jisung nodded. He felt like he could already tell what the next question was.
"Tell me about the Awakening Trial in your district and what it was like for you."
His expression shifted the way most participants’ did at this point. She had expected that. From what she had heard, the Trials were always hell. But most importantly, this was where the real fun began.
She adjusted her glasses and stared at him preparing to speak.
Unknown to her, Jisung was watching her too.
’My acting is paying off,’ he smiled. ’...good.’
Everything was happening exactly the way he expected.
’’’
Author’s Note: If you’re enjoying the novel, don’t forget to add it to your library and show some support. It really helps!
’’’