Kaito woke to darkness and the sound of rain.
For a disorienting moment, he thought he was back in his dorm room, that the past few days had been nothing but a fever dream. Then pain lanced through his shoulder and reality crashed back.
He was still in the forest. Still in the Trial. Still alive.
Barely.
Kaito forced himself to sit up, wincing at the stiffness in his body. He'd made it back to his cave somehow—he had hazy memories of stumbling through the mist, delirious from blood loss and exhaustion. The shoulder wound had closed thanks to the Gene absorption, but it was still tender, the skin pink and new.
Rain poured outside the cave entrance, turning the forest into a gray blur. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
**[Day 4 of Trial Ascension]**
**[Days Remaining: 3]**
Three more days. Just three more days and the trial would end. Then what? Integration, whatever that meant. Kaito still had no answers about what happened after the seven days, or why he'd been selected for this nightmare in the first place.
He pulled up his stat screen, studying the changes from yesterday's near-death experience.
**[Physical: 10]**
- Strength: 7
- Constitution: 9
- Dexterity: 11
- Speed: 11
**[Mental: 7]**
- Intelligence: 8
- Wisdom: 6
- Charisma: 3
**[Will: 9]**
**[Luck: 1]**
His Constitution had jumped significantly thanks to the E-rank Gene from the Alpha. He could feel the difference—his body felt more solid, more resilient. The wound that should have taken weeks to heal had closed in hours.
But it was the Will stat that caught his attention. Nine. That was higher than any of his Mental stats except Intelligence. Will represented mental toughness, tenacity, the ability to keep going when everything said to quit.
Kaito supposed he'd earned it.
The rain continued throughout the morning, so Kaito stayed in the cave, conserving his energy. He used the time to think, to really process everything that had happened.
The choice he'd made on day one—selecting the Gene State modifier instead of a weapon or the City Stele—had it been the right one?
With the weapon, he might have survived that first wolf encounter more easily. With the City Stele... he still didn't know what that would have given him. Some kind of base, resources maybe. Safety.
But the Soft Gene State had allowed him to absorb Genes more efficiently, to grow stronger faster. Without it, he'd probably still be struggling against basic F-rank creatures instead of surviving encounters with E-rank threats.
"The right choice for survival," Kaito murmured. "But was it the right choice for everything else?"
He thought about the system's mention of Integration. About the other people who must have been selected for this trial. Were they making different choices? Were some of them working together while he was alone?
The isolation was getting to him. Kaito had never been particularly social—he'd always preferred books and experiments to parties—but three days of talking only to himself was starting to feel unnatural.
"I miss Renjiro's dumb jokes," he said to the empty cave. "I miss Daichi's ridiculous stories. Hell, I even miss my sister's attitude."
His voice echoed back at him, emphasizing just how alone he was.
By afternoon, the rain had lessened to a light drizzle. Kaito ventured out, more cautious now after yesterday's close call. His body had healed, but the memory of those fangs sinking into his shoulder remained vivid.
He headed back toward the deeper forest, but this time he moved slowly, carefully, paying attention to his surroundings in a way he hadn't before. His increased stats made the difference obvious—he could hear the subtle sounds of creatures moving through the undergrowth, could spot tracks in the mud that he would have missed days ago.
After about an hour of careful exploration, he found something unexpected: signs of habitation.
Not animal habitation. Human.
Or at least, humanoid.
There was a clearing ahead, and in it stood the remains of what might have once been a small structure. The walls had mostly collapsed, but Kaito could make out the foundation—stones placed deliberately, forming a rough rectangle about three meters across.
"Someone built this," Kaito said, crouching to examine the stones. They weren't natural formations. They'd been shaped, placed with intention.
**[Discovered: Ruined Outpost]**
**[This structure predates the current Trial Ascension]**
**[Designation: Unknown]**
Kaito's scientific mind immediately started forming hypotheses. If this structure predated the current trial, that meant previous trials had occurred. Which meant this wasn't a one-time event. The system had done this before, probably multiple times.
How many people had been pulled into these trials? How many had survived? And what had happened to the ones who didn't?
The ruins didn't offer many answers, but Kaito did find something useful: a partially intact stone blade, much sharper and more durable than his makeshift club. He tested it against a tree trunk—it bit deep into the wood with barely any effort.
**[Item Acquired: Weathered Stone Blade]**
**[Quality: Common]**
**[Durability: 35/50]**
**[Effect: +2 to attack damage]**
"Finally, a real weapon," Kaito said, gripping the blade. It felt right in his hand, balanced despite its crude appearance.
He continued exploring the area around the ruins and found more evidence of past occupation: fire pits, scattered bones, fragments of what might have been tools or pottery. Someone—or multiple someones—had lived here for an extended period.
But there were also signs of violence. Claw marks on the stones. Dark stains that could have been old blood. Whatever had happened here, it hadn't ended peacefully.
Kaito was about to leave when he noticed something carved into one of the larger foundation stones. He knelt down, brushing away moss and dirt.
Characters. Japanese characters, roughly carved but still legible:
**"Don't trust the system. Don't trust the choices. The real test comes after."**
Kaito's blood ran cold.
Someone else from Japan had been here. Someone who'd survived long enough to leave a warning. But a warning about what?
He thought about the choices he'd been offered. The weapon, the Gene State modifier, the City Stele. The system had presented them as equal options, each with advantages. But what if they weren't equal? What if some choices led to survival and others to something else?
"The real test comes after," Kaito read again. After the seven days? After Integration?
Thunder rumbled overhead, closer now. The drizzle was picking up again, threatening to become another downpour.
Kaito took one last look at the ruins, committing the warning to memory, then headed back toward his cave. But his mind was racing, no longer focused on survival but on bigger questions.
What was this system really? Why select random people and force them through these trials? And what happened to those who completed them?
The system had been helpful in some ways—showing him information, allowing him to grow stronger through Gene absorption. But it had also been cold, mechanical, offering no real explanations.
And now, according to whoever had left that message, it couldn't be trusted.
Kaito made it back to his cave as the rain started in earnest again. He sat at the entrance, watching water sheet down, his new stone blade resting across his knees.
"Three more days," he said quietly. "Three more days until I find out what this is really about."
But for the first time since arriving in this forest, Kaito wasn't sure if completing the trial was something to look forward to or something to dread.
That night, as thunder crashed overhead and lightning illuminated the forest in brief, stark flashes, Kaito made a decision.
He would complete the trial. He would survive these last three days. But he would do it on his own terms, with his eyes open to the possibility that the system wasn't the helpful guide it pretended to be.
And when Integration came—whatever that meant—he would be ready.
Or at least, as ready as a college student with a stone blade and a head full of questions could be.
He pulled up his stat screen one more time, looking at that stubborn Luck stat of 1.
"Maybe luck doesn't matter," he said to the screen. "Maybe what matters is being too stubborn to quit, even when the odds are impossible."
His Will stat of 9 seemed to agree.
Outside, the storm raged on.