Alex lay motionless for what felt like hours, his breath ragged, his chest rising and falling against the stone. The silence after the Herald's shriek was worse than the shriek itself. It pressed into his ears, made him feel like he had been buried alive.
The words still glowed faintly in the air above him:
[Trial Complete.]
[Reward Granted: The Right to Continue.]
The right to continue. Not victory. Not safety. Just permission to crawl one step further in whatever nightmare this was.
Alex dragged himself upright, leaning against the jagged stone of the chasm wall. His arms shook violently, as if they still carried the echo of the strange light that had burst from him.
"What… what was that?" he whispered.
The System answered.
[Skill: Defiance.]
The flame that resists despair. Strengthens the user's willpower and grants temporary bursts of force when rejecting overwhelming odds.
A bitter laugh clawed out of Alex's throat. "Overwhelming odds? That thing could've swallowed a building."
The text faded, leaving him alone once more. Alone on a barren plateau of black stone, beneath a sky that never changed, always blood-red and churning with silent lightning.
He needed water. He needed food. He needed answers.
But most of all, he needed to move.
Every instinct screamed that standing still meant death. The memory of the hooded figure, the whispering forest, the bone village—any one of them could appear again at any moment.
Alex forced his legs into motion. The plateau stretched endlessly in one direction, broken only by jagged shards of rock stabbing upward like a shattered graveyard.
He walked.
The air was heavy, thick with the metallic stench of blood. Each breath scraped his lungs, but he pressed on. After what felt like an eternity, he spotted something in the distance: ruins.
A cluster of toppled stone walls, their surfaces etched with symbols that twisted sickeningly when stared at too long. Something about them whispered wrong, but they were the first sign of civilization—or what was left of it.
As Alex drew closer, the ground shifted beneath his feet. He froze. The black stone bubbled, and from it crawled a figure.
No—several.
They pulled themselves from the earth like corpses clawing free of shallow graves. Their bodies were skeletal, wrapped in leathery skin stretched too tight. Their eyes glowed faintly green, and their jaws hung slack as if broken. Each carried a rusted blade fused into their arms, bone and metal fused together as one.
Alex stumbled back. His stomach clenched.
[System Notice: Hostiles Detected.]
[Designation: Bonewraiths.]
[Threat Level: Minor.]
"Minor?" Alex hissed. "There are three of them!"
The Bonewraiths turned toward him in unison, their jaws unhinging to release a screech like steel tearing. They lurched forward, faster than he expected, blades dragging sparks from the stone.
Panic surged. Alex spun, looking for escape, but the plateau was bare. No trees, no cover, nowhere to hide.
The System's words burned into his mind: Survival is your only privilege.
He clenched his fists. That strange light… could he call it again? He had to.
The first Bonewraith slashed. Alex threw himself sideways, the rusted blade carving sparks where his chest had been. He rolled, came up on his knees, and swung his fist out of instinct.
For a heartbeat, nothing.
Then the light burst again.
It wasn't as strong as before, but it was enough. His fist smashed into the Bonewraith's face, shattering its skull into fragments of bone and black ichor. The creature collapsed, twitching, before dissolving into ash.
[+10 Exp.]
Alex gasped, his arm throbbing, but there was no time to breathe. The other two closed in, blades raised.
He ducked the first strike but stumbled into the second. Agony flared across his side as the rusted edge grazed his ribs. The cut burned as though poison had been smeared into the wound.
"Gah—!" He staggered back, clutching his side.
The Bonewraiths advanced. Their glowing eyes bored into him, hunger etched into every twitch of their bodies.
"No… I won't…" His voice cracked. "I won't die here!"
The word Defiance rang inside his head like a drum. Power surged once more, brighter than before. Alex lunged forward, slamming both palms into the ground.
Light exploded outward in a wave.
The shockwave hurled the Bonewraiths backward, smashing them against the stone ruins. Their brittle forms cracked and shattered on impact, dissolving into piles of ash.
Silence returned.
Alex dropped to his knees, panting, clutching his bleeding side. His vision blurred, dark spots swimming at the edges.
[Enemies Defeated.]
[Total Exp Gained: 30.]
[Level Up.]
[Player: Alex Wright – Level 2.]
The pain dulled slightly, just enough to let him breathe. The System's cold efficiency made his stomach twist. It didn't congratulate. It didn't comfort. It simply tallied whether he had the right to keep existing.
He staggered into the ruins, using the broken stones as support. The walls whispered, the symbols writhing in the corners of his vision. But inside, among the rubble, he found something unexpected: a fountain.
Or what had once been one.
The basin was cracked, the statue above broken, but a thin trickle of clear water still ran from the stone figure's shattered hands.
Alex fell to his knees beside it, cupping his hands and drinking greedily. The water was cold, metallic, but real. It steadied him, washed the blood from his lips.
[Status Restored: Minor.]
The System's words flickered faintly, and for the first time since arriving, Alex felt something like relief.
He sat back against the ruined fountain, staring at the blood-red sky.
"This world…" he whispered. "It's trying to kill me at every step."
The memory of the Herald's spiral teeth burned behind his eyes. The Bonewraiths' screeches still rang in his ears. And the hooded figure's words—You are chosen for the Game—cut deepest of all.
If this was a game, then every piece of it had been designed to break him.
Alex clenched his fists. The fear still gnawed at him, but beneath it, something else began to grow. That strange light—the Defiance—it wasn't just survival. It was resistance.
He lifted his gaze toward the endless sky.
"I don't know why I'm here," he said, voice raw. "But if you want me to play your game… then I'll play. And I'll win."
The wind picked up, carrying whispers from the ruins. The words twisted, but one phrase rang clear, like the world itself had answered him:
Then take the next step.
Far in the distance, beyond the ruins, Alex saw movement.
A tower, crooked and impossibly tall, loomed against the horizon. At its peak burned a light—sickly green, pulsing like a heartbeat.
And though he couldn't explain why, Alex knew that was where the path led next.
The Game had only just begun.