Renn stood frozen inside the glowing boundary ring, staring at the screen with wide-open eyes. The realisation slammed into him like a cold wave — all of these were real. It was actually happening!
He felt his heart race frantically. Reading them late at night, sitting in his cozy bed, was actually fun. But living it in real time?
Not fun at all.
The texts that hovered on the screen faded gradually, leaving only the countdown, which now ticked somewhere around eight minutes.
"Eight minutes before disaster," Renn murmured.
A new set of texts emerged on the screen again.
[ Environment Stabilized ]
[ Orientation Process Finished ]
[ Guidance Protocol Activated ]
[ Knowledge Transfer In 3... 2... 1... ]
Suddenly, the screen went blank. And before he could understand anything, the ring on the metal floor suddenly pulsed — shooting a sharp surge of light that made him flinch!
Renn felt his knees buckle as a wave of energy rushed up from beneath his feet, flooding his whole body like a current. Suddenly, he felt as if many fragmented scenes flashed together before his eyes — massive wide terrain, hagged cliffs covered in ice, dense forest, ruins cloaked in fog, sparks, echoing screams, magical circles, shadowy figures, creatures that didn't belong to his world... And many more.
The light glowed for just a moment, then within a fraction of a second, it went back to its normal state — just the glowing ring circling him precisely — the boundary zone.
"What the hell was that!" Renn muttered under his breath.
The panel before him glowed again.
[ Knowledge Transfer Completed Successfully ]
[ Candidate Is Ready For Trial Proceedings ]
"Wait, wait, wait... I'm not ready yet!" Renn almost screamed like a panic-stricken child. What did it mean by ready? How could anyone be ready just by reading some AI-coded lines that appeared on the screen? He barely knew what was going to happen!
But it didn't seem like anyone heard or understood what he was saying. Instead, the old text on the screen was erased and new text appeared again.
[ Candidate is advised to pay attention to the following information ]
[ Final Ground Trial Orientation Brief ]
• Location: Aegis Testing Ground — Sector: Alpha
• Purpose: To test the candidate's instinct, adaptability, combat potential, and Arc Identity compatibility
• Objective: Survive and unlock your identity potential
• Duration: 4 hours — Trial ends upon objective completion or elimination
• Note: Death in the trial is simulated. Pain, however, is real.
Renn read each line carefully, not to miss out on anything. "A simulated death in an RPG-like trial with real pain, real shit." He murmured bitterly.
Renn dragged a hand down his face, then flicked his gaze up to the screen again. No new text appeared there, the previous ones remained floating. Renn glanced around the room; it still looked the same as before, as if nothing terrifying was about to happen!
He glanced down at the glowing boundary again and let out a slow breath. His heart was still thumping under his ribs like a wild animal, threatening to tear through the skin and bone just to escape whatever the situation was.
For a moment he felt like running far away from here, but he quickly rejected that thought. Where would he even go?
He was inside a ring that flared up whenever he tried to get out, in a hi-tech room that looked unreal — moreover, in a building that might not even be on earth anymore! And by judging the fact that he hadn't seen a single human being yet, nor had anyone come to stop it — he'd understood one thing, he had only one way now, and that was... Going forward.
Because whatever hell this 'Final Ground Trial' planned to throw at him, he didn't have the luxury to avoid anymore.
The holographic panel in front of him flickered some new patterns, then gradually, the center of the panel expanded, forming a wider and clearer display. New lines flicked again.
[ Initialing Arc Synchronisation Protocol... ]
[ Scanning Latent Arc Signature... ]
[ ... ]
[ Synchronisation Failed ]
[ Latent Arc Signature: Unidentified ]
[ Candidate Status: Stable ]
[ Proceeding To Trial... ]
Renn squinted at the screen. 'Is this kind of a joke!'
His voice came out in a whisper, mixed with annoyance and disbelief.
"Is the system kidding me now?" He glanced around the empty room, as if expecting someone to pop out all of a sudden to explain everything to him.
He felt a surge of irritation blooming slowly inside him.
First, the system had dumped a vague 'knowledge transfer' into his head which seemed nothing but a three-second glitch reel of a ten-hour-long videography, then it spat out some random phrases — Arc Synscronisation, Latent Arc Signature, Arc compatibility, Sector Alpha, blah blah blah...
Nothing made sense. No context, no explanations, just cold, algorithm-fed prompts shoved into his face one after another.
'If I can't understand a single thing, what's the point of looking at these? Useless.'
Meanwhile, the countdown time shown on the timer decreased little by little; currently, it was 01:59.
"God, two minutes before being thrown in a hellhole," Renn rubbed his palm together, unknowing what to do.
Suddenly, the ring of light pulsed again — this time brighter than ever. With that, the soft mechanical hum gradually turned into a constant buzz.
Renn tensed. He saw a transparent cylindrical wall of light rising from that ring, slowly enclosing him like a cylinder. He stood inside it helpless like a rat trapped in a cage.
The screen flickered again.
[ Teleportation Protocol: Activated ]
[ Transferring Candidate 222 to Aegis Testing Ground – Sector Alpha ]
[ Candidate is Advised To Remain Calm. Instability May Affect Arc Resonance ]
[ Commencing transfer in 10... 9... 8... ]
His chest rose and fell with rapid breathing, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
[ 4... 3... ]
Renn shut his eyes firmly and waited for the next event to happen.
[ 2... 1... ]
Even with his eyes closed, he could sense a terrifying explosion of light around him, and then... silence!
Renn opened his eyes slowly. A vast terrain stretched out before him; cold wind hit his face.
'Aegis Testing Ground!' He muttered. And immediately, a mechanical voice whispered in his head.
[ Welcome To Sector Alpha. Your Trial Begins Now ]