The blast was still tearing into the other side of the rock, the sound of it a deep, continuous roar, so loud Jisung felt the vibration on the ground beneath his feet.
He pressed himself flatter, arms locked over his head, waiting for it to stop. But it didn’t stop. It only got worse.
The rock at his back was starting to warm. Heat crawled through solid stone and into his spine like the mountain itself had decided to start cooking him from the inside. He twisted just enough to glance back and saw the fracture lines spreading like a spiderweb of white cracks racing outward across the surface.
’Oh, come on!’
It exploded outward, the force throwing him off his feet, tumbling him across the snow until he skidded to a stop face-down. His ears rang loud, like the explosion was replaying over and over again in his head.
He slowly raised his head from the snow it was buried in, coughed out some chunks of it that got in his mouth, and wiped more of it off his face.
"Damn. That hurt."
He chuckled at the thought of that statement being his new catchphrase.
The creature hovered still in one place as smoke curled lazily from its mouth, drifting up into the air. Jisung stared at it as he dragged himself upright.
’A surprise attack, huh?’
His mind wandered endlessly, and in the end he came to no clear conclusion, except that he couldn’t let his guard down any longer.
The attacks prior were already intense. A new addition like this only registered exactly how much worse things could get.
Jisung’s eyes stayed locked on the creature as he took off his bag and lay it down gently. He eyed the creature as he wrapped his scarf around his right arm.
And just as if the creature understood what was going on in his mind, it launched at him.
He watched it for a moment, before letting out a deep breath.
"I won’t lose this fight." He said with a determined expression and charged at the creature.
"Heyaaa!"
Just a few meters left before impact, he gasped loudly.
His leading foot came down mid-stride and didn’t land on the ground. He was suspended on the air, boots hanging a foot above the ground he’d been sprinting across half a second ago.
Everything around him seemed to pause. The creature, the cold, the wind... everything.
And in a split second, his body inverted without his limbs ever unlocking from their stride, flipping once, and coming back upright and suddenly, he was being helplessly lifted into a void.
He screamed as hard as he could as he was pulled upward but his voice was buried in the loud sounds of the heavy wind that blew past him.
Everything around suddenly disappeared into darkness as he was being pulled harder.
The sky suddenly changed and the clouds opened up as though reality itself was being pulled open as if welcoming him into it. The brim daylight disappeared beneath an enormous shadow.
It was so unimaginably huge that Jisung could only see only the upper parts of its body.
Its glowing white eyes stared directly at Jisung and for a split second, he felt goosebumps all over his body.
’I may have peed my pants.’
He swallowed hard, unable to look away. Part of him wanted to scream, another part wanted to beg for answers.
’What are you? Why am I here? Are you... the System?’
But no words came out. The pressure of its presence crushed every question in his throat. He stared back at the being, expecting the worse to happen.
But instead, it spoke to him.
Its voice was deep and calm but sounded strangely distorted, completely unlike anything Jisung had ever heard.
"■■ ■■■■■■. ■ ■■ ■■■. ■■ ■■■ ■■■■." It said.
Jisung couldn’t understand any of it.
And the force that came with each word, he couldn’t describe. The entire place shook as it spoke to Jisung. He thought of saying something back when he heard the sound.
Ding!
The sound rang out so loud, he flinched. It felt like it came from everywhere, all at once. Like the void had amplified the effect of the sound.
[The Criteria Has Been Met]
[A System Update Is In Progress]
He read it out loud, mostly because hearing his own voice was better than the awkward silence. "...a system update?" He frowned into the dark. "What does that even mean?"
Another message answered him. At least he believed it could be called an answer.
[Participant Yu Jisung Can Now Access His System Fully]
[System Notification Loading...]
Before he could ask what that meant either, it hit him.
Multiple messages, stacking on top of each other so fast he couldn’t read half of them before the next buried it. He gasped loudly as he took a peek at one.
Things were starting to make sense.
When the messages stopped, it aligned itself in order and Jisung began to read it all out loud.
[You Have Made It Into The Awakening Trial]
[Your Awakening Trial Is About To Commence...]
[AWAKENING TRIAL - MAIN]
[PARTICIPANT 34 YU JISUNG
MISSION: Find the hidden door before the time limit expires.
TIME LIMIT: 30 minutes
DIFFICULTY: D
PENALTY: Trial Difficulty Adjustment]
"A Difficulty Adjustment?" He blurted out in disbelief. This was just so unexpected.
’How... unfair.’
He sighed as he scanned through the rest of the messages.
[The Given Time Has Run Out]
[MISSION STATUS: FAILED]
’failed?’
[PENALTY IN PROGRESS...]
[TRIAL DIFFICULTY ADJUSTED]
[D → B-]
[Your Awakening Trial Is About To Commence...]
’It’s the second one.’ He thought numbly.
Then it hit him. When he jumped off the cliff and the fog began to clear, he got a message. He thought it was some kind of mix up. But this...
’Damn. Sucks to know I suffered the whole time for nothing.’
He didn’t even remember seeing an exit. He had been so busy trying not to die in the cold and walking around, blinded by the fog, thinking it was all an endurance test that he hadn’t for one second thought to look for something as simple as an exit.
"Well the loop makes a lot more sense now." Jisung concluded.
If there really was an exit, then he must have been walking to and fro in a loop within the space. The Trials were really something else, Jisung chuckled watching the being stare at him calmly with its glowing eyes through the transparent window before his face.
’With the thick fog it was hard to see anything and then the cold and wind?’
He concluded that even without the penalty, he could’ve died from the cold regardless.
The tag exchange really changed a lot and even though he expected it, right now, it was beyond anything he could have imagined. He shut his eyes for a second and let his mind wander about for possibilities of worst things that may happen in future.
Then the being spoke again. He tore his eyes open. He still couldn’t understand anything but surprisingly, his system sent a translation.
[Do Not Fear.]
’Do not fear?!’ Jisung rolled his eyes. He hadn’t got the chance to say his piece about how he thought this was low-key kidnapping despite how beneficial it has proven to be thus far.
But then, this... being wouldn’t even understand his situation.
He hadn’t even grasped all of it yet...
’...but how should I not be scared?’
He thought about this for a second but as he stared longer at the being, he felt suddenly calm. And it was strange. He couldn’t explain it in words but there was something weird about the calmness he felt despite the chaos of the whole situation.
And all while Jisung was there reviewing the messages, the being’s eyes never once drifted away from him.
For over a minute, as Jisung hovered there, it stared carefully at him as if it was watching an interesting reality show.
Jisung giggled.
A new message flashed before him before he felt himself being pulled downwards. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was fast. Too fast infact to comprehend.
He looked back at the being as if saying a quiet goodbye to it. Since it didn’t hurt him or anything, he just thought it was okay.
But as he was being pulled downwards, it spoke again but this time it felt too far and too distorted that even his system couldn’t translate. But he felt them arrive anyway, a pressure moving through the air like wind given weight, and it hit him bodily, lifting him for one weightless, disorienting second before slamming him back down onto solid ground.
He landed hard, and immediately heard the creature charging.
He looked up. It was too late. It was like everything that had paused earlier began to play almost immediately.
He got his arms up as fast as he could just as the impact hit, and it was the worst one yet. The force of it sent him bouncing across the snow the same way he had the first time, skipping like a stone thrown too fast across water, each landing worse than the last, until he finally skidded to a stop nearly seven meters back.
He coughed up blood on the snow. It hurt terribly. But the pain wasn’t what he was focused on now.
The final message he saw now lived rent free in his mind.
It read:
[MISSION STATUS: FAILED]
[PENALTY IN PROGRESS...]
[TRIAL DIFFICULTY ADJUSTED]
[D → B-]
[AWAKENING TRIAL - SUB #1]
[PARTICIPANT 34 YU JISUNG
MISSION: Defeat a C-Class Split-Fang Harrier in one-on-one combat before the time limit ends.
TIME LIMIT: 50 Minutes
DIFFICULTY: B-
PENALTY: Trial Difficulty Adjustment]
"I won’t fail." He clenched his jaw, grabbed his bag by the strap in one hand, and charged forward.
"Hyaaa!"
A message sat right there as he charged.
[TIME REMAINING: 01:34]
****
(24 hours from now...)
"Next!" A young lady barked out, and the doors opened with a small creak.
A young man with black hair and a soft smile walked in. He was handsome, she had to admit. She adjusted her glasses and looked up at him.
"You may sit."
He bowed and headed for his seat.
"Who are you?" She asked.
He shifted comfortably in his seat and started speaking.
"My name is Yu Jisung. And I am a ■■■■■■■. The first ■■■■■■■ actually. I dunno, my System doesn’t really tell me anything."
He chuckled lightly, like he was aware of exactly how strange that sounded.
She turned to her colleague, who wore the same puzzled look she imagined was on her own face.
"Did you catch that too?" She whispered.
"It’s like he spoke another language or something." He whispered back. "You sure he’s not from another district?"
She turned back to face the young man, who seemed completely unaware anything strange had happened at all.
She cleared her throat. "Tell me about the Awakening Trial in your district and what it was like for you."
His expression shifted, the same way most participants’ did once they reached this part. She’d expected that. It was always hell, from what she’d heard.
"Nobody remembers exactly when the Awakening Trial became mandatory." He started. "It just always felt like it had been there, the way taxes and elections had always been there. When you reached the ripe age of twenty-two, your district head summons you for your trial. Whatever you faced, no one could tell. And that was the thing. Whatever you faced was yours alone. No two trials were ever the same. And whether you survived or died, it was never announced. My time came, and I went in. But then, something happened that was completely out of the ordinary. I remember it like it was yesterday. Because in fact... it was."
That was a strange answer. She glanced at her colleague, relieved she wasn’t the only one who found it unsettling.
She cleared her throat again.
"Out of the ordinary? What happened?"
"Well, ■■■■■■■■■■, and I was ■■■■■■■..."
The moment he started speaking, she knew this was going to be a problem.
’’’
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!
’’’