The countdown was like a steady hammer pounding inside his skull.
[09:47:33...]
A constant reminder that this sick game wasn't over, wasn't paused, and wouldn't stop until it decided it was done with him. Vorn sat on the edge of the hospital bed, staring at the white wall. The faces from the Trust Path trial kept flashing through his mind - Marcus's fake smile, that young girl's broken expression, the quit woman's dead-eyed stare.
It didn't feel like a nightmare anymore.
It felt like a lesson.
He wasn't angry. Anger was a luxury he couldn't afford - it blurred your thinking, made you sloppy. What he felt now was something colder and sharper.
Pure resolve.
He'd watched those people tear away their humanity for a chance at survival. And he'd realized something important: he had to be better than them. Not morally better - 'strategically' better.
The emotional turmoil was still there, but it wasn't weighing him down anymore. It was fuel.
He would not be the victim again. Not the panicked delivery boy, not the helpless brother watching his sister get possessed. He would be the one who survived, no matter what it cost.
A new message blinked across his vision.
[BLACK REWARD: TRAINING PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED]
[PHANTOM LOAD: ACQUIRED]
The words were as empty as that black section on the wheel. No explanation, no instructions. Just the name of a power he didn't understand yet.
He forced himself to stand. His body, which had been broken and bruised, felt... different. Not healed exactly, but not fragile either.
The pain was distant background noise now. He decided to test his limits.
He started with simple squats. No strain at first, just movement. Then he pushed it - twenty, thirty, forty reps. His muscles should have been screaming for rest, but they felt like they were just warming up.
'The blood drop is also working. Making me stronger.'
The card gave a faint thrum. He hadn't touched it or even looked at it directly, but he could feel it there like a second heartbeat.
He reached for his clothes - the cheap grey hoodie and sweats the Bureau had given him. The moment the fabric settled on his skin, the system flashed a message.
[CLOTHING ARTIFACT ACTIVATED]
[FORM: GREY HOODIE AND SWEATS]
[PROPERTIES: ADAPTIVE, SELF-REPAIRING]
The material didn't look any different. It just felt... right. Like part of him.
Then a thin line of cold energy traced across his skin, and suddenly-
SLAM.
Crushing, impossible weight slammed into him like a freight train. He hit the floor hard, gasping as his lungs compressed. Every muscle in his body strained against an invisible force pressing down on him.
The Phantom Load.
[PHANTOM LOAD: ACTIVE]
[CURRENT WEIGHT: 1000KG]
His vision went black at the edges. Sweat beaded on his forehead as his muscles quivered violently. This wasn't just a gift - this was a relentless training tool.
'This is insane. How am I supposed to-'
Then a strange thought emerged from somewhere deep in his mind: 'Push back.'
It was pure instinct. He focused, not on lifting the weight, but on the space around him. He visualized the air molecules, the particles in the stone floor. His mind, sharpened by the card's memory consumption, reached out with surgical precision.
He pushed against the force - not with muscle, but with will.
A small ripple ran through the room. The weight lessened for just a second. The pressure didn't disappear, but it shifted into something he could feel and manipulate.
'The Phantom Load and matter manipulation... they're connected.'
The invisible weight was giving him something solid to push against, and with each mental push, his control over matter grew stronger. Two sides of the same coin.
He managed to sit back up, breathing heavily. The Phantom Load deactivated, but the phantom ache remained in his muscles.
[MATTER SENSITIVITY: 2.3% - UPGRADED]
Vorn grinned - a cold, humorless expression that belonged to the new him. He walked to his room's door, where the security panel beeped softly. He didn't touch it. Just focused his mind on the tiny wires behind the panel, the flow of electricity.
Not a violent push. Just a gentle nudge, a whisper of thought.
'Open.'
Spark, a flicker of light on the panel, and the door clicked open silently, no alarms.
[VEILED NOIR: PATH INTEGRITY 91%]
He moved through the Bureau facility's quiet hallways like a ghost. Guards were stationed throughout, but his system guided him - showing blind spots, timing their patrol patterns, He found the elevator to the sub-levels, to the testing areas and practice dungeons.
The doors slid open with a whisper.
The air down here was different. Raw and heavy with the smell of mana and earth, stone and decay. The scent of real dungeons.
'Time to get stronger.'
He found a D-Class dungeon - a simple cave system meant for beginners. Instead of deactivating the Phantom Load, he kept it running at 500kg. The challenge was brutal, but his new mindset saw the logic.
'Train under pressure. Live under pressure.'
The first monster was a Gutterspawn, smaller than the ones from before. It lunged with a high-pitched shriek.
"SKREE!"
Vorn sidestepped, the phantom weight making every movement slow and deliberate. He dodged claws, then picked up a small stone from the floor. His fingers shaped it with a thought - heavier, sharper, denser.
He threw it.
THUNK.
The stone flew with impossible force, embedding deep in the Gutterspawn's skull. It dropped with a wet gurgle.
[GUTTERSPAWN: ELIMINATED]
[DROP OF BLOOD ACQUIRED - RANK: MINOR]
[EXP: 95/100]
Power flooded his body. Tangible warmth, stronger muscles, a surge of energy. He wasn't just surviving anymore.
He was hunting.
Vorn moved deeper like a predator stalking prey. He cleared a chamber of four Gutterspawn, then a cluster of insect-like creatures. His matter manipulation became a lethal extension of his will - shaping the ground to trip enemies, solidifying their blood mid-flow.
The Phantom Load forced his body to adapt, to push beyond normal limits. Each kill, each blood drop, felt like another rung on the ladder of power.
"This is what strength feels like."
He was about to exit the dungeon when a low, guttural growl echoed from deeper in the cavern. Not the high-pitched shriek of Gutterspawn.
This was deep. A sound that made the ground tremble beneath his feet.
A massive shadow fell over him. He looked up, his newfound confidence shattering like glass.
From the darkness of a hidden cavern emerged a hulking giant. At least ten feet tall, with skin like cracked stone and malevolent red eyes. Its club was a twisted tree trunk, and its roar shook the very air.
[WARNING: ACTIVE ENTITY DETECTED]
[TROLL-KING - RANK C-]
[THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME]
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: IMMEDIATE RETREAT]
The pressure was immense. Not the phantom weight of training, but real, physical, life-and-death pressure. The air grew thick, the cave groaning under the creature's presence.
Vorn stood frozen.
'I'm not ready for this. I'm not even close to ready.'
[CURRENT LEVEL: 1]
[EXP: 95/100]
[ENEMY LEVEL: ESTIMATED 15-18]
A mouse facing a giant cat. And the cat looked hungry.
'Think, damn it. Think!'