---
[An Emergency Task has been created!]
[Task #1]
[•Objective - Escape from the building.]
[• Time limit - 10 minutes]
[• Reward - ???]
[• Failure to reach outside within the given time will result in your death.]
---
Almost instantly, his facial expressions grew tense. He narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth in frustration.
*Keuk!*
His brows arched down towards his eyes as he clicked his tongue in spite.
'This is way worse than I thought...' a thought crossed his mind. Suddenly, his soles banged louder against the ground and his speed increased.
Normally, when the System chooses someone, it offers its host a head start — either by an overpowered talent or a harmless task like swatting insects.
It's to build a level of confidence that one requires to surpass others and climb the ladder faster.
In both cases, System assures the host's safety as it judges the threats to be minimal to none.
'However, in this case, it's clearly telling me to escape — not from the building, but the creature that is lurking around me...' he clenched his fists tightly, and hurried towards the main gate as fast as he could.
Lucian understood the System's message completely. It was a single word just divided into many — run.
'Whoever... Or whatever's lurking around me, it's probably way out of my league, even if System helps me with all its might. The chances of my survival have become extremely low.'
For a split second, his eyes followed the ground, and his ears twitched, 'Even more so since I'm creating so much noise.'
'But again, I don't remember the main hall being this big...' his mind eerily remarked, piling more stress on his body.
It was true, the main building that Lucian used to live in used to be smaller and congested. Walking for mere seconds would've gotten him outside in no time.
Although that didn't seem to be the case now, as he had been running non-stop for over 3 minutes.
"I'm definitely running in circles, since I've crossed this same puddle of blood twice." He muttered as his feet slowly began to become lighter.
In seconds, his body came to a halt. He took in long, deep breaths — though disgusting, he had to calm his gasps down.
Then, he looked around and found something amusing.
"Wow, looks like I really am being affected by something."
For some reason, Lucian's vision had been restricted. He could not see anything beyond roughly two meters around him. As such, except for the narrowed walls and the straight path, his senses could not track anything further.
"The good thing is that I know that the path ahead leads to the exit, but the bad part is that I don't know where 'that' is..." He grumbled in a low voice.
Lucian stood in the same place for another minute, confused. His eyes constantly wandered towards the small system screen; the timer slowly ticking down in front of him only seemed to worsen his anxiety.
---
[Time remaining - 6 minutes]
---
4 out of 10 minutes had been wasted. Yet, Lucian hadn't figured out any way out.
Without a doubt, it was the worst situation one could ask for since not long after, a sound came piercing through his head.
A wild, unkempt laughter thundered right beside him. At first, Lucian was left completely startled as he jumped against the wall. Instantly, his eyes darted to his side as he saw a dark blurry silhouette from the corner of his eyes.
The bright crimson glow that leaked out of the crevice of its eyes crackled in jagged patterns — almost like the unkempt nature of lightning.
With just a mere glance, Lucian felt a sharp chill run through his spine. His feet ran cold as a seed of frost budded within his chest. For a moment, he had lost all sensations in his body.
Although as he tried to sharpen his gaze, the silhouette disappeared. Almost as if it never existed in the first place.
Lucian gasped soundly as his sensations came back almost immediately. His right hand softly grabbed onto his chest's left side, trying to comfort his heart.
"Wh... what the fuck was that!?" He sneered, his voice uneven with the lack of breath.
For the first time since this nightmare began, he lost his composure. No doubt, he had been fear-struck before.
But this time... It was different.
He had witnessed the one system that had warned him about. The one that even the system fears would kill him if not handled carefully.
"He was so close, yet he didn't attack... Only laughed..." He lowered his gaze in disdain and frowned at his own incompetence.
Lucian knew that he neither had any powers to begin with, nor the means to fight back such threats. Yet, feeling the horror up close, toying with him like a toddler, seemed to have hurt his pride.
However, at the same time, a new question had taken root within his mind.
"Whatever it was, it definitely stood on two legs... Was it a creature? Or just... Another human?"