It was evening—inside a modestly lit apartment, Draven, a young man with curly white hair, sat on the rough floor of his room, watching TV with a bored expression on his face.
On the TV screen, a gorgeous newscaster calmly delivered the evening headline.
⟨"Just this morning, officials confirmed that seven people have vanished without a trace. Among them is Mirabela Stars, a beloved superstar whose sudden disappearance has set social media abuzz. These cases bring the total number of missing people in Astoria Nation alone to one hundred and fifty. One question remains on the lips of every concerned citizen—what is happening?"⟩
"This is getting old," Draven complained, frowning in frustration. "It's been over six months now since news like this started airing every evening."
He swept his hand across the smooth floor to grab the remote control, then switched to another channel currently airing a music video featuring a tall and beautiful red-haired singer.
Draven immediately recognized her as Mirabela Stars, the popular musician who had gone missing alongside several other victims today.
"Boring," Draven scoffed, tossing the remote control to the ground before standing up to take a quick stroll.
However, the moment he took a step forward, a splitting headache struck, forcing him to grab his head instinctively. The pain grew sharper with every passing second, spreading throughout his body, weakening his legs until he dropped to his knees.
"What the hell is happening to me?" he thought, fighting the agony with all his willpower.
Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the headache and the body pain that followed it disappeared completely.
Before Draven could even question the strange occurrence, a set of glowing texts appeared on two floating holographic windows in front of his eyes.
[ Survival System activated ]
[ You've been selected as survival candidate #18333 ]
[ Your trial survival mission will begin in ten seconds. ]
[ Countdown: 10…9…8 ]
"Survival System? Survival candidate? Survival mission? What the hell!?" he exclaimed in disbelief.
Suspecting that he was hallucinating, Draven quickly rubbed his eyes. But when he opened them again, the texts were still there.
[ Countdown: 5…4…3 ]
A frown appeared on Draven's handsome face as he watched the countdown draw closer to zero.
[ Countdown: 2…1…0 ]
In the next instant, Draven vanished from his room, leaving behind a heavy silence and an unnaturally still air.
====
"Help!"
"The village is on fire!"
"Everyone, run toward the stream!"
"Mommy, save me!"
"Please, anyone! I'm crippled—I can't flee! Help me!"
These were the voices that invaded Draven's ears the very moment he appeared in the middle of a chaotic and unfamiliar place right after disappearing from his room.
The strange location was currently burning, and its terrified inhabitants were fleeing in all directions. From the look of things—and the people's screams—it was a village.
The ancient wooden houses surrounding him were engulfed in thick flames. Dark smoke coiled upward, floating toward the night sky where a full moon hung, its pale glow illuminating the fiery chaos below.
Men, women, and children dressed in crude leather and cotton garments ran frantically past him, heading somewhere he couldn't see.
Luckily, the houses nearest to Draven were still untouched, but the fire was spreading fast. Within minutes, this area too would be swallowed by the inferno.
"What the hell is happening? Where am I?" he panicked, his pulse quickening.
As if responding to his confusion, the same holographic window from before reappeared before his eyes and this time it was filled with a longer set of texts.
[ Trial Survival Mission ]
[ Difficulty ] F
[ Mission ] Survive the burning village for two hours
[ Sub-mission ] Rescue as many villagers as you can and find the source of the chaos.
[ Tips ]
-Be careful as failure will result in death.
-The potency of your soon-to-be-awakened talent will be determined by how you perform in your Sub-mission.
"This…" Draven was speechless. He had been ripped from the comfort of his room without consent, tossed into a burning village, and now he had to survive and save strangers just to avoid dying?
Draven let out a long sigh and focused on the chaos unfolding around him. He saw a baby crying beside a burning hut and a frail grandmother being shoved to the ground by a fleeing villager. None of them even turned back to help her.
Draven clenched his teeth. As much as he despised his current situation, he couldn't just stand there and do nothing.
He jumped into action immediately.
"Hey, you!" Draven shouted, his voice cutting through the noise.
He grabbed the collar of a middle-aged man running past him. The man froze, confusion and panic flickering across his face. "Why are you stopping me!? I need to escape!"
"Tell me where everyone's running to," Draven demanded, his tone sharp and serious.
"The stream! The fire can't reach the stream, it's the only safe place nearby!" the man replied quickly, his voice trembling with fear.
"Hm." Draven released him, and the man bolted away immediately.
Draven hesitated for a brief second, then took off as well, sprinting in the same direction as the others.
"I could just run with them to the stream," he thought grimly. "But the system said my sub-mission affects my talent…"
With no other choice, he made up his mind. He spun around and dashed straight into the burning village, the scorching heat washing over his body instantly and making him flinch.
Still, Draven pressed on, charging through the thick smoke toward his first target—the elderly woman who had been knocked down earlier.
"Is this how I die… burned alive?" the weak old lady whispered to herself, tears streaming down her wrinkled cheeks. She had cried out to those she had lived beside all her life, yet none of them stopped to help.
"Hey, granny! I'm here to help you!" Draven called out, panting heavily. He didn't wait for her to respond. He rushed forward, grabbed her trembling hands, and helped her to her feet.
He placed her arm around his shoulder, picked up her wooden stick, and guided her toward a section of the village that the flames hadn't reached yet. There, he stopped and spoke quickly. "Keep going that way! Don't stop!"
He couldn't afford to stay with her any longer.
A faint chime sounded in his ears.
[ Good job, you've rescued one villager. ]
Draven ignored the notification completely. There were still others who needed help. Without wasting another moment, he dove back into the burning chaos.
He rescued two crying infants and handed them over to other fleeing villagers before pushing even deeper into the inferno.
The heat grew unbearable, yet he didn't stop. He risked his life for strangers—something he had sworn two years ago, after a life-changing event, that he would never do again.
"Why am I even thinking about that now?" he gritted his teeth and pushed the memory aside. "I'm only doing this because it's necessary for my survival. Nothing more."
...
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