It was evening—inside a modestly lit apartment, Draven, a young man with curly white hair, sat on the rough ground of his room, watching TV with a bored expression on his face.
On the TV screen, a gorgeous newscaster calmly delivered the evening headline.
⟨"Just this morning, officials confirmed that seven people have vanished without a trace. Among them is Mirabela Stars, a beloved superstar whose sudden disappearance has set social media abuzz. These cases bring the total number of missing people in Astoria Nation alone to one hundred and fifty. One question remains on the lips of every concerned citizen—what is happening?"⟩
"This is getting old," Draven complained, frowning in frustration. "It has been over six months now since news like this began airing every evening."
He swept his hand across the smooth floor to snatch the remote control, then switched to another channel currently airing a music video featuring a tall and beautiful red-haired singer.
Draven easily recognized her as Mirabela Stars, the popular musician who had gone missing alongside several other victims today.
"Boring," Draven scoffed, tossing the remote control on the ground before standing to take a quick stroll.
However, the moment he took a step forward, a splitting headache appeared, causing him to instinctively grab his head in pain. The ache kept increasing, spreading throughout his body, weakening his legs and causing him to kneel.
"What the heck is happening to me?" he thought, combating the pain with all his will.
Then, all of a sudden, the headache and the body pain that accompanied it vanished.
Before Draven could even question the sudden commotion, a set of texts appeared on two floating holographic windows in front of his eyes.
[ Survival System activated ]
[ You've been selected as survival candidate #18333 ]
[ Your trial survival mission will begin in ten seconds. ]
[ Countdown: 10…9…8 ]
"Survival System? Survival candidate, survival mission? What the heck!?" he exclaimed.
Suspecting he had begun seeing things, Draven wiped his eyes hurriedly. Nevertheless, when he reopened them, the texts remained.
[ Countdown: 5…4…3 ]
A frown appeared on Draven's handsome face as he watched the countdown draw nearer to zero.
[ Countdown: 2…1…0 ]
Split seconds after the countdown window hit zero, Draven suddenly disappeared from his room, leaving the air unnaturally still.
====
"Help!"
"The village is on fire!"
"Everyone run towards the stream!"
"Mommy, save me!"
"Please, anyone, I am a cripple, I cannot flee! Help me!"
These were the voices that invaded Draven's ears the moment he appeared in the middle of a chaotic and unfamiliar place, right after disappearing from his room.
The strange place was currently on fire and its inhabitants could be seen fleeing. Based on its appearance and the screams of the people, it was a village.
The ancient-style wooden houses surrounding him were engulfed in thick flames. Thick dark fumes escaped, gradually floating towards the dark sky where a full moon hung, bathing the chaos in a crescent glow.
People of different ages, dressed in makeshift leather and cotton clothing, ran helter-skelter. They all ran past his location, further away into a location Draven could not tell.
Fortunately, due to the chaos, no one had been able to notice his bizarre clothing which stood out in the bizarre setting.
The houses close to Draven were currently untouched but the fire was spreading at an alarming rate. Within a few minutes, this area would be drenched in the same chaos.
"What the hell is happening? Where am I?" he panicked.
As if his question were the trigger, the same holographic window he saw before vanishing from his room appeared. This time it featured a longer string of texts.
[ Trial Survival mission ]
[ Difficulty ] F
[ Mission ] Survive the burning village for two hours
[ Sub-mission ] Rescue as many villagers as you can and find the source of the chaos.
[ Tips ]
Be careful, failure will result in death
The potency of your soon-to-be-awakened talent would be determined by how you treat your Sub-mission
"This..." Draven was speechless. He was taken out of the comfort of his room without his consent. Tossed into a chaotic place, and now he had to survive and rescue strangers in order not to die?
Draven heaved a long sigh and focused on the chaos closely. He could see a little baby crying beside a burning hut.
He even witnessed a grandma get shoved to the ground by another villager trying to flee from the flames. None of them bothered to look back or cared to help the old lady.
Draven gritted his teeth. Even if he hated his current situation, he could not sit by and watch everything without doing anything.
He kicked into action right away.
"Hey, you!" Draven called out, his voice breaking through the noise.
He grabbed the collar of a middle-aged man running past him. The middle-aged man halted and stared at Draven with confusion and panic. "Why are you stopping me! I need to escape."
"Tell me where you guys are running to," Draven demanded in a serious tone.
"The stream. The fire can't get to the stream, it's the only safe place nearby." The man responded hurriedly, the panic and terror in his eyes still visible.
"Hmm." Draven let go of the middle-aged man. He broke into a sprint right away, joining the other panicking villagers.
"I should've escaped with them to the stream. But the system stated my performance on the sub-mission would determine my talent." Draven thought with a frown.
With no other options available, he decided to act. He took a step into the burning village, the scorching heat bathing his body at once, bringing discomfort.
But Draven continued onward, breaking into a full sprint into the crowd that sprinted in his direction. He moved toward his first target, the elderly woman shoved to the ground.
"Is this how I die... Burnt to death?" The weak old lady muttered to herself with tears in her eyes. She had tried to call for attention from the people she had lived all her life with, but none of them paid attention to her.
"Hey, granny, I am here to help." Draven greeted amidst heavy breath. He didn't give the old woman enough time to process his appearance and answer his greeting before grabbing her hands and helping her up.
He placed her hand over his shoulder and helped her pick up her wooden stick. Then he helped her towards the safer part of the village where the flame had not reached and told her to continue onward. He could not waste his time with her alone.
Fortunately, his simple action was counted as a rescue by the system.
[ Good job, you've rescued one villager. ]
But Draven ignored the notification; he still had some helpless villagers to rescue. He jumped back into the scorching heat, working as hard as he could.
He rescued two little babies and handed them to other fleeing villagers and then kept on pushing deeper inside into the chaos.
Despite the heat, he kept going, risking his life for strangers. Something he had sworn two years ago, during a life-changing event, never to do again.
"Why am I still thinking of that?" He gritted his teeth and pushed the thoughts away. "I am only doing this because of the promised talent. Nothing more."