POV: Recruit 79
I walked down the familiar hallway, encrusted with the gold swirling patterns, just behind future emperor Zhang.
Even as he casually walked down, distorted face trailing, the pressure he emitted was choking, almost as if it was sucking the life out of me. If I hadn't gotten a miracle, I don't think I'd be conscious just from walking near him.
We had been walking for an unusual amount of time...
"Sorry to seem impatient, but—where are we headed?" I asked, still shaking slightly.
Zhang's head slowly lowered, and so did my pace naturally.
The unmistakable silence had left me thinking I asked something I shouldn't have, but he didn't take much longer to reply.
Zhang stopped in the midst of his step, and so did I.
"We're here," he answered.
Almost robotically, Zhang twisted his body to the left and leaped to the door just in front of him. The door itself had many cracks and was notably withered, clearly not holding up well against the test of time. However, it unmistakably bore a painted title across it's frame, similar to most doors down this long hall.
[ Space 2B ]
'What the hell does that mean?' I thought to myself, slightly confused as my brow furrowed.
Zhang took a slight glance over, and I quickly corrected my expression.
Hoping that he didn't notice, I watched as Zhang turned his head back and opened the door quickly, wasting no time.
From my perspective, I could only see a slither of darkness peeking outwards from the inside of the room. As Zhang entered, him along with his presence faded in less than a second, undetectable and untraceable to perfection.
It was like he was never here, at all...
Quickly, I rushed on over to get a better look inside of the room.
As my view of the inside became greater, I didn't see anything. It was just... darkness. No reflection bounced back, and an eerie whistle of death overtook my eardrums.
Each step I took near it felt like another step towards death.
Finally, I stopped just before the entrance of the door, still nervous to enter.
'The future Emperor just walked into this room so casually, is there something I'm missing? Or am I just that much of a loser?' I thought.
Still, my legs trembled.
All of a sudden, however, something grabbed my shirt.
Looking down, a hand encrusted with patches of running shadows held a snug grip on my shirt, even scratching my skin underneath ever so slightly, causing me to scoff just out of pure surprise.
With no time to spare, the hand quickly tightened it's grip, before pulling me in.
For a few moments, there was nothing.
I was nothing.
I felt so alone. So dark. Empty.
And then, my perspective changed.
From feeling like an outsider to my own body in a sea of darkness, to being back to normal, in another room. That fast.
As I snapped back to my senses, I noticed what was around me.
General Zero stood just in front of me, his hand grabbing my shirt still, with Zhang loosely hanging in the background. 'So he was the one that pulled me in?' I thought.
The room around me felt like... paradise.
Beautiful palm trees surrounded a hilly landscape, mixed with patches of sand dunes and bushes scattered so messily.
Sunlight pierced through the lands, adding an extra layer of beauty.
Wait—
Sunlight? A sun?
There was a sun sitting high in the sky...
"Is any of this real?" I asked.
"Well, yes," Zhang answered from a bit farther away. "However the sun isn't, of course. It's artificial sunlight," he finished loudly.
"Artificial sunlight?" I questioned. "Why isn't this in more places?"
'I might be getting too full of myself...'
"It's still experimental," Zero cut in, answering on Zhang's behalf. "And plus, this type of invention would cause more harm than good in the sunlight depleted hounds of people out in the world."
I suppose he was right.
"Why... am I here?" I questioned once more, admiring the place around me.
As time sunk in more, it became even more obvious that this entire area was fabricated. It may be real, physically, but is not the real thing. Any of it. The sky bore streaks of nexus energy, fluttering with unique colors and speeds like a perfect orchestra.
"From forces beyond me," Zero began after a cough of embarrassment flushing up on his cheeks. "I've been named your temporary instructor."
"Y-you? Instruct me?" I stuttered.
"What are you trying to say," Zero spat, crossing his arms.
His presence was already visible enough, but it seems I came off with the wrong words, because his aura came rushing out.
"No no," I quickly corrected myself. "I meant that, what did I do to deserve this?"
Zhang looked up. "Because I said so," he spoke calmly.
Almost as if he didn't want to say anything, Zero only nodded in reply, as if it would be his dead if he disagreed.
I used everything I had at my disposal to force back a smile.
Zhang's distorted face however, did manage to push out a smile by choice as he began walking out of the room.
As Zhang passed me and slowly entered the shadows, he shot back one last glare.
Not at me, but at Zero.
Zero definitely got whatever signal was being passed, as he stood up for attention with just the faintest bit of sweat trickling down his dried skin, eyes refusing to make eye contact with Zhang as he was fully enveloped by the shadowy gate.
Zero finally rested, clearly thankful for Zhang's departure, oddly enough.
However that didn't exactly rest his attitude with it.
He shot me a look, an unexplainable look that you can only feel. That look of 'I don't want to be here, and I'll do everything in my power to make your life a living hell,' type of stare that twitched at your bones.
And I understood it very, very well...