I awoke in darkness.
Not the comforting stillness of night, but the hollow silence of a world carved out of time itself.
[Trial 1: The Hollow Warzone — Begin]Objective: Survive for 6 hours with no external magic or system support.]
[Parameters: Mana disabled. System access locked. Allies simulated. Death is permanent.]
[Reward: 1 Sovereign Trait + Partial Empyrean Steel Bonding.]
[Warning: This is a psychological simulation. Pain is real. Death is final.]
[Timer: 00:00 / 06:00:00]
No mana. No stats. No interface.
Only… me.
And a battlefield.
I stood in the middle of what looked like a decimated city—cracked stone buildings, collapsed towers, and the distant thunder of footfalls echoing between ash-covered walls. Everything was in grayscale, like the color had been burned out of the world.
And then I heard it—
A scream. A child's voice.
I moved.
The source was a narrow alley, where a simulated girl—no older than seven—cowered beneath rubble. Her leg was crushed under debris.
Her eyes locked with mine. "Please… help…"
I approached, cautious. My Earth instincts screamed at me to analyze every variable.
Too clean. Too desperate. Too perfect.
My eyes swept the environment. Then I saw it: a shadow flicker behind a broken wall—low, silent, watching.
A trap.
They wanted me to show mercy.
To think like a child.
I picked up a broken metal rod, turned to the girl—and thrust it through her chest.
She gasped, blinked, then dissolved into pixel-like particles of mist.
[Illusion Removed – Tactical Response: Pass]
[Remaining Threats: 7]
Good. My logic was intact.
If I was to survive this warzone, I had to treat it like Earth's worst simulations—Kill House 9, Zero Mercy Protocol, and Cognitive Loop Warfare.
The next hour bled through chaos.
Enemy soldiers—faceless constructs—rushed me with spears and swords. I learned to weaponize terrain: collapsed beams became tripwires, shattered glass my eyes and ears.
I did not rely on power.
I relied on intellect.
Every attack taught me their pattern.
Every death I inflicted refined my instincts.
The fifth enemy came disguised as a wounded soldier offering peace.
I slit his throat before he finished a word.
[Threats Neutralized: 5 / 7]
[Cognitive Stability: 92%]
By hour four, my body shook from fatigue. My hands were blistered. My knuckles were bloodied from brawling a two-meter tall berserker with nothing but bone and stone.
My mind? Clear.
Focused.
Cold.
The sixth enemy… was myself.
Literally.
Same face. Same voice. Same knowledge.
"You've become a monster," he said, smiling with my mouth.
"No," I replied. "I became a survivor."
We fought. Every move I knew—he matched. Every feint—he anticipated.
It took creativity, not logic, to win.
I feigned collapse, baited him into overreach, then used the environment: a cracked floor tile leveraged into a spike trap.
[Threat Eliminated. Final Threat: Inbound.]
I waited.
The ground trembled.
And from the gray fog… she emerged.
Queen Lira.
But not my mother.
A version corrupted—eyes black, hair like burning wires, body covered in arcane machinery.
"Nexus breach detected," she said in a layered voice. "Subject: Terminate."
She fired a beam of pure force.
I ran.
Not because I feared the illusion. But because something about her felt too real. My instincts screamed this wasn't a construct—it was something else watching me.
Testing me.
Learning.
I dodged behind a wall, pulled rebar loose, set a crude explosive trap using flammable gas lines.
When she entered—
I detonated the chamber.
The entire building collapsed.
Silence followed.
[Final Threat Neutralized.]
[Trial 1 – Complete.]
[Reward Unlocked: Sovereign Trait: Cold Strategist]
[Partial Empyrean Bond: 6% Synced]
[System Reactivated.]
[Returning to Conscious Realm…]
I opened my eyes in bed.
Blood soaked my sheets from where my nails dug into my palms. My breathing was ragged. A healer stood nearby, wide-eyed. Elrin and a masked Crimson Seer stared from across the room.
The King stood at the foot of my bed.
"Alive," he said. "Good."
Then he smiled—not warmth, but satisfaction.
"I feared I birthed a thinker. I see now... I forged a warlord."