The forest never stayed still.
Its silence was broken by the constant whisper of leaves that didn't move, the low groans of trees that bent toward him even when there was no wind. Every hour passed like a battle — not always with monsters, but always with fear.
Junseo didn't sleep. He couldn't. The moment he closed his eyes, the darkness moved. Shapes lurked in the corner of his vision. Sometimes they were real. Sometimes they weren't.
By hour three, he learned how to run quietly.
By hour six, how to tell the difference between glowing fungus and monster eyes.
By hour ten, he'd eaten bitter roots that tasted like ash and drank rainwater from cupped leaves to stay alive.
And by hour fourteen, he stopped waiting to be saved.
[New Objective: Resist Hostile Influence]
[Time Remaining: 09:58:42]
"Hostile influence?" Junseo whispered. His voice cracked from dryness.
He leaned against the hollow of a twisted tree, barely able to keep his hands from shaking. His shirt was torn, smeared with blood and his knuckles were raw. The forest floor beneath him pulsed faintly, like it was breathing.
Then the whispers started.
It was soft at first. Like a memory.
So he jerked his head toward the sound.
Nothing.
Then a different voice. His own, maybe. Or one of the teachers at the academy.
"You don't belong here."
"You were born empty. Stay that way."
Junseo covered his ears, but the words echoed from inside. It was like it was etched inside his brain and it wouldn't get out.
His mind felt like it was cracking open.
He stumbled forward, teeth gritted, refusing to scream. He had nothing. No magic. No weapon. No blessing. Just nothing.
But he had his will.
He kept moving. One step. Then another. He counted each one.
At hour sixteen, he nearly gave up.
He'd fallen way too hard into a pit masked by vines. His ankle throbbed, maybe fractured, but he dragged himself out with his hands. Something watched from the trees as he limped away, bleeding and delirious.
He whispered to himself to stay sane.
"Not yet," he muttered. "I'm not done."
[Emergency Adaptation Triggered]
[Skill Gained: Pain Suppression (Lv. 1)]
A cool wave of numbness crawled through his leg. The pain dulled — not gone, but manageable. He stared at the notification.
"I didn't earn it," he said hoarsely.
But the system disagreed.
By hour twenty-two, Junseo no longer looked like a student.
His uniform was in tatters. His face was scratched and bruised, hair clumped with sweat and leaves. His eyes were wide and raw — never rested in one place.
He was hunted, but he had become something more.
The boy who had once stood on the rooftop trembling now crawled through branches with his teeth clenched and jaw set, heart hardened by survival.
And yet, he still was not strong.
He was only enduring.
[Warning: Final Hostile Approaching]
[Estimated Threat Level: Fatal]
[Survive until Trial Completion.]
[Time Remaining: 01:13:07]
The world shook with the creature's steps before it arrived.
Junseo didn't run. Not because he didn't want too, but because he couldn't.
There was nowhere left to go.
The monster was unlike the others. It taller than the trees, plated in shadow-wrought armor, face wrapped in thorned bone. Its eyes burned violet, and its presence made the trees themselves wither.
Junseo stood in its path.
His ankle was still weak. His hands empty.
But his spine stayed straight.
"You're not going to stop me," he said — not loud, but sure.
The monster didn't hesitate.
It charged straight towards him.
He dodged the first swing by instinct because Reflex Step activated just in time. The next blow shattered the ground where he'd been.
Junseo grabbed a branch that was the closest to him, ducked under a claw, and jabbed it into a gap in the monster's plating. It screeched, but didn't falter.
Every second was survival.
He didn't win by power. He won by refusal to stop, to fall, to quit.
And then—
[Time Completed.]
[Gate Trial Simulation: Success]
[Award Granted: Ability Unlocked — "System Root: Awakened (Lv. 1)"]
[System Root allows growth through adversity. All skills gained from survival are permanent.]
The monster froze mid-swipe.
So did the trees.
So did the air.
Everything blinked white and Junseo collapsed.
When he opened his eyes, he was back on the rooftop.
Same steel railing. Same air. Same cold breeze.
But the sky was no longer dark.
Faint rays of the morning sun broke over the mountains, casting the school buildings in gold. Birds chirped in the distance.
He sat up slowly. His body still ached. His uniform was whole again, but the pain lingered like a memory. His hands trembled.
The system hovered beside him, quiet now.
Junseo didn't speak.
He looked at the horizon and felt alive, changed, and still weak, but not powerless.
Later that morning he walked into class as if nothing had happened.
No one looked at him twice.
To them, he was still the powerless heir of Korea's strongest family. The "failed son." The outsider.
They didn't know that he had survived the Trial.
That something inside him had awakened — not a flash of magic, but the System Root. A power with no shortcuts. A path only he could climb.
The academy would teach elite awakened how to fight, how to lead. But Junseo?
He was the last to rise. And he would rise from the very bottom.