I woke to that damned chime again.
[Reminder: Morning routine incomplete.]
[Failure consequences will be applied.]
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first five times," I muttered, dragging a shirt over my head. "Push-ups, squats, sit-ups, a marathon. Thanks, Coach Satan. I'll get right on it—right after I take a nice, romantic stroll with a knight who probably wants to stab me halfway through it."
The glow blinked stubbornly in the corner of my vision, but I ignored it. The only thing that mattered was not breaking my word to Kaela. After the way she looked last night—fragile beneath that scowl—I couldn't just leave her hanging.
I combed my fingers through my hair, glanced into the little polished bronze mirror, and gave myself a smirk. "Not bad, Carl. If you squint hard enough, you almost look like someone who belongs in a palace."
The notifications piled up again.
[Failure window approaching.]
[Complete tasks or accept consequences.]
"Tch. Empty threats," I muttered. "You've been saying that since day one. And look at me—still alive, still handsome."
I strapped on my boots, straightened my shirt, and strode toward the door. Kaela was probably already waiting somewhere in the courtyard, arms crossed, scowling. If I was late, she'd never let me live it down.
My hand touched the bronze handle.
And then—
[00:00:00]
The air shattered.
Sound collapsed, swallowed by a silence so heavy it felt like a fist closing around my skull. The torches lining the wall flickered, then snuffed out all at once. The door before me rippled like water, melting away.
"What the—"
The ground vanished beneath my boots. My stomach dropped as the world tore itself apart like a scroll unraveling, dragging me into a blackness that wasn't empty so much as hungry.
The Void.
[Ding. Failure registered.]
[Void Realm survival trial initiated.]
[Duration: 01:00:00]
A glowing red timer appeared above me, digits already ticking down: 59:59… 59:58…
"Oh, hell no." My voice echoed strangely, as though bouncing around inside my own skull.
Shapes stirred in the black. Not shadows—they were too sharp for that. Things cut from the fabric of the world itself. Wrong angles. Twisted silhouettes. They slithered closer.
And then I saw them.
Monsters in the form of shadows. Their smiles were all wrong, teeth too sharp, eyes like torches.
My heart sank. I prayed this was only a nightmare.
I squeezed my eyes shut, as if I could escape reality by refusing to see it.
And then it touched me. A hand—cold, lifeless, death itself. My body shivered.
I snapped my eyes open. Dozens of torch-like eyes glared back at me, peering straight into my soul.
Too dumbfounded to speak, I turned and bolted into the only direction without eyes.
I ran faster than I ever had before, though there was no time to admire it. Survival was the only thought in my head.
"Pathetic of you to run, don't you think?"
A deep, husky voice rumbled through the Void.
I froze.
"Wh… who's there? Who said that?"
The only reply was a hysterical laugh that echoed so violently my head spun.
I didn't need an AI to tell me—I was in deep trouble.
Out of desperation, I shouted:
"Screen! Get me out of here!"
[Portal will reopen once time elapses.]
"Gee, thanks," I snarled. Not that I'd expected much from the system—it was the reason I was in this mess in the first place.
The timer ticked: 52:14… 52:13…
"Fi… fifty-two minutes of this?" I wheezed. "I might just die here…"
"Screen, show me deployable stats!" I gasped.
[No deployable stats.]
The shadows closed in, whispers rising to a scream. My vision swam. My body wanted to quit.
But I couldn't die here—not yet. Too young. Too unfinished. So I ran like hell.
"I'm sorry for all the bad things I said! I swear I'll be nicer from now on—just please, get me out of here!"
The shadows didn't listen. They pressed closer, and with every step their forms sharpened. Limbs lengthened, fingers clawed the air, mouths stretched too wide. Some walked upright, others slithered like snakes, but all of them moved in perfect synchronization, like a single organism pretending to be many.
My lungs burned. The air here wasn't air at all—it was heavy, like inhaling smoke that never left your chest. My heart hammered, each beat a desperate reminder that I was still alive, still fighting.
The timer glowed overhead, merciless. 51:59… 51:58… 51:57…
Every second that passed felt stolen.
"Think, Carl. Think," I whispered to myself, though the sound of my own voice barely cut through the whispers. "There has to be a way out. A trick. A loophole. There's always a loophole."
I stumbled over something unseen and barely caught myself. The shadows laughed—actually laughed, a dry rasping sound that scraped my ears raw.
"Run, little prey," the husky voice crooned. "Run faster. Make the chase worthwhile."
I clenched my fists. "I'm not prey. I'm not—"
But the words died when one of the shadows darted ahead of me, impossibly fast, blocking my path. Its body rippled like oil, face stretching into something vaguely human before splitting down the middle into rows of jagged teeth.
I skidded to a stop. My legs screamed at me to keep running, but there was nowhere left to go.
The shadow lunged.
I dropped to the ground on instinct, rolling beneath it as its claws swiped where my head had been. The movement tore at my shirt, fabric peeling away like paper. My shoulder burned.
Adrenaline surged. I scrambled back to my feet and kept running, no plan, no direction—just away. Always away.
[Warning. Vital signs elevated.]
[Stamina drain increased by 12%.]
"Stamina drain?!" I shouted. "You think this is a workout session?"
The system didn't answer. It never did when I actually needed it.
50:44… 50:43…
The shadows didn't tire. They didn't slow. If anything, the more I ran, the faster they grew, their whispers swelling into a choir of voices. Some mocked, some begged, some promised, but all of them clawed at my sanity.
I pressed my hands over my ears, but the sound came from inside my head.
"Carl…" they whispered.
"Carl, stay."
"Carl, die."
My vision blurred. For a moment, the ground beneath me wasn't black but the cobblestone courtyard of the palace. I saw Kaela, arms crossed, scowling, waiting. Her lips moved, but no sound reached me.
The illusion vanished in a blink. I was still in the Void, still running.
My chest ached. My throat felt raw. The thought slithered into my mind: maybe it would be easier to stop. To let them catch me. To stop fighting.
But then the husky voice spoke again, closer this time, right behind my ear.
"Fall, Carl. Fall, and we will make you eternal."
I stumbled, nearly tripping. That voice—deep, rich, commanding—cut through my exhaustion. Eternal. No. No, I wasn't about to become some shadow's dinner.
"Not today," I hissed, forcing my legs to move faster.
49:59…
Still over fifty minutes left. Fifty minutes of hell.
I gritted my teeth. If I wanted to survive, I'd need more than just running. I'd need to think, to adapt, to fight back somehow.
Because the Void wasn't just going to let me run forever.
And neither were its monsters.