The old ID flickered, then went completely dead. It's useless now, he thought, putting it back into the box. Then he connected the same microchip to the golden card.
A few seconds passed.
Kai then drew out another small box from the larger one. Inside were several thin cubes, each no bigger than a sugar cube. Small enough to disappear into a pocket without notice.
He slipped on a hoodie and packed his bag carefully. Opening the map on the golden card again, he studied the blue panel. Red zones glowed faintly, scattered across the map, while tiny white dots marked specific points.
Okay… he said the red areas are surveillance zones, and the white dots are where I need to plant these cubes. Damn. These cameras are everywhere. This won't be easy.
He kept the map condensed on his wrist-screen rather than projecting a hologram panel. Out here, even a stray glow could draw the wrong eyes.
Stepping out of the toilet, he slid into the corridor, keeping to the edges where the cameras' arcs didn't overlap. By the time he reached the first checkpoint, his posture had changed: shoulders slightly hunched, eyes fixed on his ID card, thumbs flicking at nothing. To anyone watching, he was just another student scrolling through messages while killing time.
He let the act run a few seconds longer, then palmed a microcube from his sleeve and, without looking up, dropped it into the narrow maintenance slot along the wall. The white dot on his screen blinked, then shifted to green. Dozens of other dots still pulsed red.
'The assessment starts at six. Seven hours. More than enough.'
Five minutes later he hit the second checkpoint. Students were still being ushered away, so he loitered by a pillar, pretending to read instructions on his ID. When the coast cleared, he knelt by a column of strange machinery — polished black plates, faint mana-lines running like veins through its surface. Whatever its function, it was valuable enough to be locked down. He could see the schematics unfolding in his head as he slid another chip into a thin seam between panels. A soft click, and it vanished.
This hallway was darker, quieter. The light panels above flickered occasionally, and the air tasted faintly of ozone from the machines. He shifted his path again, tracing the blind spots between cameras like he was dancing through a grid.
An hour later, sweat clung to the back of his neck. The task that would change everything was nearly done.
"Just two more checkpoints," he murmured, smiling inwardly at the irony: the last spots had no surveillance at all. "Easiest ones. Let's finish this."
After another thirty minutes, he stepped into a small clearing beyond the campus walls. Old trees with yellow leaves swayed above him. For a moment he allowed himself to breathe; the wind smelled of damp earth instead of sterilised air.
He dropped onto a massive rock in the tree's shadow, eyes closed, drawing in the fresh air. The surface was slick with algae. He lost his footing and slid off, hitting the ground with a muted thud.
"Ah… damn, that hurts." He flexed his hand, shaking off the sting, and let out a small laugh. "I'm guessing even nature wants me to get this over with."
Kai quickly returned to work.
Here! he thought, eyes darting to the glowing map on his wrist.
Ahead stood a crooked pole-like structure rising from the earth, its surface rusted and eaten away as if it had been forgotten for decades. Thick moss clung to the metal, making it look like something nature itself had tried to bury.
Without hesitation, he pressed the cube against the corroded frame. The small light blinked once, then merged into the circuit.
"Just one more checkpoint and I'm free from this boring life," he muttered, a rare smile tugging at his lips.
The forest thickened as he walked, yellow leaves falling like dying embers. For fifteen minutes he pushed deeper into the quiet woods, the silence gnawing at him more than he wanted to admit.
Let's just hope I don't run into some wild beast, he thought, glancing around at every crack of a branch.
Finally, he reached the last marker—a half-buried panel of stone and steel, hidden beneath twisting roots. He crouched down and pressed the cube into place. A green dot lit up on the map.
"It's done."
Kai sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, about to leave when something flickered at the edge of his vision.
Really? Am I hallucinating?
He crouched again, pushing aside dead leaves and tangles of vine until a dull platform of stone and metal was exposed. Thin, red patterns glimmered faintly across its surface like veins under skin.
"Wait… it's glowing," he breathed, leaning closer. "What is this?"
He brushed the markings with his fingers.
The light pulsed. In an instant it was no longer faint or red — it blazed bright yellow, climbing up the lines like wildfire.
Kai jerked, trying to pull his hand back, but his palm wouldn't move. A strange pressure locked his muscles. His veins bulged beneath his skin, glowing the same yellow as the platform.
A strain like molten electricity coursed through his arm. His teeth clenched hard as he fought the urge to scream — and then lost.
A ragged cry tore from his throat. His black eyes flared, turning molten gold. The forest around him blurred, swallowed by light.
Kai's eyes snapped open. A stabbing pain shot through his skull, and he clutched his head with both hands.
"Ah… it freaking hurts!" he groaned, pushing himself up from the cold black metal floor. His vision spun, the world around him a blur of darkness.
Instinctively, he patted his pockets.
'Damn the goddess!' he cursed when his fingers found nothing. The golden card—his 1000 Cenytes—was gone. A goldmine, vanished.
Despite the pounding in his head, he forced himself to think, dragging memories up through the haze. The deal with Kyro. The microcubes. Those strange glowing patterns hidden around the DMI campus. And then—
He was here.
"What the hell happened after I touched that thing?!" he muttered, his voice echoing in the dark. "Am I dead? Is this heaven?"
He laughed bitterly under his breath.
"Damn it. I didn't even start living, and I'm already dead…"
"Wait… if I'm dead, then why the hell does my head still hurt?"
The headache was fading now, ebbing like a receding tide, and with it his vision sharpened. Shapes formed out of the blur until Kai realized he was standing in the middle of nowhere—thick mist curling around him like a living thing.
'Where am I?' he thought. There was nothing in his memory bank that explained waking up here.
Since he couldn't do anything about it, he slowly lowered himself onto the ground. The place seemed endless, and he wasn't about to accidentally step on something—or someone—he couldn't see.
'Now that I think about it… those patterns… they were familiar yet different.' He scoured his memory, forcing his foggy mind to rewind. 'Come on… I've seen those before. Where… where…?'
And then it hit him.
'Damn, I remember now! It was in that video clip another servant showed me—about how soulmarks are awakened. Yeah, it's too similar.'
Kai let out a shaky laugh.
'Did I just awaken my soulmark in the middle of a forest?'
He pictured the boy from the clip, hand pressed against an orb-like crystal covered in those same patterns. The glow. The screaming. Just like him.
He couldn't help but scoff.
'I actually have a soulmark. Guess I'm lucky… in a weird way.'
Still, knowing he had an ability and knowing how to use it were two completely different things. He started trying random poses, mimicking the superheroes he'd seen on TV.
Raising his hand, he focused on his palm, picturing a beam of light shooting out.
Nothing.
"I give up!" he shouted, frustration cracking his voice.
At first, he'd been cautious, but the endless waiting gnawed at him. He couldn't sit in one spot forever.
"Who the hell brought me here?!" he roared, breaking into a run in a random direction. His feet pounded against the unseen ground—until suddenly a blue panel blinked into existence before his eyes.
[Do you want to begin the first trial?]
[Yes] [No]
Kai's jaw nearly hit the floor.
"What the fuck is this? Some kind of game system?"
He stared at the panel for five straight minutes, then sighed.
"If this is like a video game… then there's gotta be a lobby. And if there's a lobby, there's gotta be an exit."
He reached out to press [No], not eager to get into trouble before figuring out how to leave. But the instant his finger touched the panel, it rippled like water—and his finger went straight through.
He tried again. Same result.
"Nnno!!" His shout echoed into the mist.
Kai sucked in a deep breath, forcing his heartbeat to slow.
'If I can't control it, it wouldn't be asking for my decision. That means… either some external hardware controls it—which is unlikely—or it's directly linked to my mind.'
He didn't hesitate. He pictured himself choosing [No].
The option dimmed.
A grin spread across his face.
'Yess!!'
He instantly flicked back to the home screen. Multiple options floated in front of him, lines of text and symbols he didn't bother reading. His eyes locked straight onto the one thing that mattered—an exit button glowing faintly in the top-right corner.
Without hesitation, he willed himself to press it.
For a moment, relief tugged at his lips. But then the panel blinked, and his smile collapsed.
[Please complete at least one trial first]