Morning rhythm clacked along the train tracks. The fluorescent light overhead hummed, casting a cold white glow across cracked seats and drowsy passengers. Aron sat tense against the window, his head wedged into the vibrations, muttering to himself, "Waking up. Shower. Eat. Go to work…."
A boy loudly chewed gum in front of him. Down the aisle, office workers hushed among themselves about a deadline. Near the doors, a street vendor held a plastic bag of snacks like treasure.
Dan, the sole friend on the early morning ride, settled into the seat beside him.
"You look like crap," he told him.
Aron had a weak smile. "Didn't sleep and also bored."
"What's new?"
They sat in a silence that was easy. The kind only long weeks and commuted miles could provide.
Then—BOOM.
A wall of sound and pressure ripped through the front of the train.
The metal creaked in the cry of a dying animal. Flame and wreckage burst into the center car, propelling bodies through the air. Aron's body crashed against the aisle railing, expelling the air from his lungs. His backpack vanished somewhere in the flames.
Lights exploded. Screams echoed, then stopped.
Aron blinked.
All had turned red.
Sparks fell from the sky. A chair had lodged itself in the wall next to him. Blood colored the windows. Someone close by was shaking—half a person, torn in two.
Dan was absent.
Not here, perhaps. But not dead, certainly.
Aron tried to move. His leg protested. He hauled himself behind a fallen food cart, gasping shakily.
Then—everything stopped.
Literally.
The flames froze mid-flicker.
Ash was kept suspended in the air.
Even the blood flow dripping down his arm was held in suspense, still.
A cold voice out of nowhere. Out of everywhere.
—------------------------------------
[System Booting.]?
SURVIVAL ENGINE ONLINE
Registered Players: 57
Players Alive: 33
Loading Scenario: "First Trial"
—--------------------------------------
[MAIN MISSION: SURVIVE – 5:00 MINUTES]
Failure Penalty: Death
Reward: +25 EXP, Random Item
To open interface: Say or think "Open."
—-------------------------------------
There was a warm golden light at the other end of the car.
There existed a figure.
Seven feet tall, two-headed jackal made of black metal. It was dressed in flowing robes with ancient symbols, shooting out bursts of static like a warped picture. Glowing gold eyes. Voice like stone grating on glass.
"You're all members of the Trial now. Survive, if you can. Most won't."
And then it vanished.
The world resumed.
And the monsters came.
They streamed out of vents and smashed open doors like feral animals let loose. They had unnatural and wiry bodies—too many joints, backward-bending arms, elongated heads that were parodies of human form with mouths that yawned open vertically, like overripe fruit.
Their flesh was burnt—seared in spots—hanging in patches above inflamed muscles that pulsed and spasmed.
Aron didn't scream.
He stiffened.
He hunkered further back behind the cart as one of the beasts passed, sniffing, hunched low like a hyena. It clicked wetly.
"Open."
The screen flickered to life.
—----------------------------------
[STATUS]
Name: Aron
Lv: 1
Exp: 0/100
HP: 91/100
Strength: 4
Agility: 5
Perception: 6
Endurance: 3
Defense: 2
[Inventory]
* Basic Sword
* Cloth shirt
* Blank Phone [Broken]
—--------------------------------
<-------------------------------->
[NOTIFICATIONS]
[NEW MISSION ACCEPTED]
<—----------------------------->
The sword lay next to him—a dull, iron thing with cracks on the hilt. It was heavy in his hand. Strange. His fingers trembled just trying to hold it.
He did not want to fight.
But as another of the survivors cried out close by—a young girl attempting to crawl across a shattered seat—one of the creatures turned.
It lunged.
Aron stepped forward without thinking and he swung.
The blade connected by accident. More like flailing than striking.
It slipped from his sweat-slick grip, careening sideways into the creature's temple. Bone cracked, not from strength, but the sheer wrongness of the angle.
It twitched once. Then it fell.
Blood poured everywhere across the floor, black and thick and smoking.
[Vanquished a higher-level Foe +75 EXP]
[You are the first player to kill a monster - You have achieved the title "First Blood"]
Aron recoiled, gagging. His ears were ringing even more than before.
It hadn't been skill.
It had been luck.
The girl gazed at him, eyes wide in horror.
He stood up and did not speak.
Just moved away—quickly—skimming under sparks and shattered handrails as more and more of the creatures flooded into the car. He saw two of them pound on a man crawling for the door. Another kept bashing a teenager's head into a window.
People around him screamed. Attempted to struggle. But to no avail, they failed.
He didn't assist, but not because he doesn't want to, but couldn't.
All he could do was avoid.
He moved back and forth between the fallen seats, ducking, avoiding the path of the monsters. When one blocked his path, he threw a broken phone to the other side. It followed the noise.
Aron went in the opposite direction.
The timer kept hanging in the periphery of his consciousness.
03:12… 02:34…
Every second felt like eternity.
He watched a girl being dragged into the ceiling, fingers against the wall. A boy attempted to cover his brother and was ripped in two along the back by one of the clawed creatures. Aron could still hear the cracking of bones.
He ran and simply kept going.
Using shadows and noise.
Staying small.
00:41…
00:10…
Then silence.
The monsters froze.
Then disintegrated into bursts of red particles.
The mission screen flashed:
—----------------------------------------
[MISSION ACCOMPLISHED]
Survivors Remaining: 9
Casualties: 48
Rewards:
+25 exp
New Item: [Broken Cog (??? Effect)]
—---------------------------------------
*-----------------------------------------------------*
You have leveled up to Lv 2, player gains +1 stat point
*-----------------------------------------------------*
Aron rested against a shattered bench, still sticky with sword in hand.
His breathing was strained.
His white face.
From the bloody automobile, the two-headed jackal figure returned, standing in the smoke and it tilted its head.
"Others of you will learn faster than expected."
Then it laughed and vanished again.
Aron remained silent. Didn't cry. He just stared at the thing floating in front of him. And whispered: ".What the hell is this place?"