Kaiser exhaled through his nose, a faint breath carrying both respect and disdain. The world around him still trembled from the events that had just occurred, though he had no time to dwell on the chaos. Every inch of reality felt off-kilter, as if the air itself was holding its breath, waiting for what came next. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, centering himself, and spoke within his mind:
"Status."
The air before him rippled softly, bending light in subtle, almost imperceptible waves. The atmosphere seemed to respond, folding itself into quiet compliance. A translucent window slowly unfolded, floating in front of him, its edges shimmering faintly as if acknowledging his command.
𓆩 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐒 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐖 𓆪
{Name: Kaiser Ashbornê}
{Level: 0} [League: ∅ None]
Attributes:
ᚱ Strength: 12
ᚱ Stamina: 16
ᚱ Agility: 11
ᚱ Arcane: 10
ᚱ Luck: 21
ᚱ Charm: 25
×Talent Rune: 𓂀 Eye of the Unknown
Rank: ✴ Proto Rank (Lowest Rank)
Description:
The Eye of the Unknown is a sealed and dormant talent whose true nature has not yet been revealed. At present, it grants no visible power. However, the Record recognizes it. Its awakening conditions are hidden, and its potential remains unreadable—
Kaiser let out a slow breath, letting his focus anchor him. The air around him felt unusually heavy, as though reality itself had not fully accepted the events that had just occurred. Carefully, he reached beneath his coat and drew out the relic—the small statue that had carried him to Rank–7 in another future.
It rested in his palm, cold and silent. Smooth. Enduring. Patient.
For a moment… nothing happened. Just the quiet weight of potential. Then—
A faint tremor passed through the statue.
A soft glow bloomed across its surface, thin lines of light tracing the ancient, arcane patterns carved into the stone. At the same time, Kaiser felt a sharp pulse behind his eyes, a flicker of awareness awakening deep within him, as if some part of himself that had slept for eons had finally stirred. The air seemed to bend slightly, as if reality itself was noticing the surge of latent power.
The world blurred for a heartbeat, tilting just enough to feel unreal.
A quiet chime echoed inside his mind, clear, melodic, affirming.
The air before him rippled again. The familiar Status panel reappeared—but this time, it was different. Changing. Shifting. Alive.
⚠ RECORD NOTICE ⚠
Talent Rune Resonance Detected
External Relic Interference Confirmed
Kaiser's vision dimmed for an instant, then refocused. New words formed before him, shimmering with authority:
𓆩TALENT 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄𓆪
Talent Rune: 𓂀 Eye of Judgment
Rank: ✪ Transcendent | Level: 1
Description:
The Eye of Judgment is a supreme perception-type talent Rune:
• Detect structural weaknesses in monsters and enemies
• Identify vulnerable points and inefficient defenses
• Sense abnormal traits or hidden dangers
• Judge the relative threat level of a target
+Hidden Feature: {Stands beyond the Trial Record's conventional hierarchy. It does not merely analyze power or status. It judges existence itself. It can perceive hidden truths, concealed intent, karmic weight, and the silent laws governing beings and objects. What it sees is not limited to the present—but echoes of the past and possibilities of the future. Its authority is sealed behind layers of restrictions.}
The air around Kaiser felt subtly different now. Not heavier. Not brighter. But aware. Watchful. Like the world itself had taken notice of him. The quiet hum of power seemed to resonate faintly against every nerve, every thought.
He slowed his breath. Closed his eyes briefly, letting the pulse settle in his mind, then reopened them, sharper, colder, more precise.
A Transcendent talent Rune. Apex.
Kaiser's gaze lingered on the glowing rank beside his Talent Rune. Transcendent. Apex. For a moment, he simply stared, as though willing the word to imprint itself on reality, confirming that it was not an illusion.
Then a slow grin appeared on his face. Quiet. Satisfied. Not arrogance. Not malice. Just recognition. Of potential realized. Of inevitability achieved.
He thought back. Twenty-one years. Twenty-one years of crawling through leagues that ignored him. Twenty-one years of being overlooked, surviving in obscurity, scraping relevance from the margins of existence. He had been nothing special. Just another survivor clinging to life, to chance, to hope.
Until the day the Eye had awakened.
Until the day it had become Transcendent.
From that moment, everything had changed. League after league had fallen behind him. Rank after rank had shattered before his ascent. The impossible had become routine. And in the end… Rank–7.
Now, standing here, at the very beginning once more—with that same power already in his grasp—he let out a soft breath. His grin widened slightly.
"So I don't have to wait this time…" he murmured in his mind.
"No crawling."
"No obscurity."
Only ascent. Only inevitability.
The faint numbers in the sky—the countdown, the Trial markers, the ticking measure of time—reflected faintly in his eyes. Every second seemed magnified, stretched, as though each tick carried the weight of centuries.
⚙ RECORD ANNOUNCEMENT ⚙
Attention, Participants.
Tutorial Phase will now commence.
All registered individuals will be transported to the Tutorial Zone.
Purpose: Survival Assessment and Basic Adaptation.
You may not refuse.
You may not delay.
Transportation will begin in: 10…
The crowd around him erupted again—confusion, fear, and panic spreading like wildfire through the streets. The air was thick with cries, shouts, and the chaotic stamp of feet against pavement. But Kaiser remained perfectly still. Focused. Calm. Each heartbeat measured, each breath deliberate.
9…
8…
He closed his eyes briefly, letting his breath slow, steadying the rhythm of his body. The chaos around him was irrelevant. It could not touch him. He was the calm at the eye of the storm, the beginning and end of what was coming.
"Perfect timing…"
3…
2…
Light gathered beneath his feet, bending and stretching, almost tactile in its intensity. It rippled like molten glass, the boundaries of his body merging with it, with reality, with the flow of existence itself.
And then—
The world folded.
The ground beneath him, the air above, the people around—everything blurred and shifted. The wind screamed, the streets twisted, and the sky fractured into a thousand impossible reflections of itself.
And Kaiser vanished.
Along with the rest of humanity, he was carried forward into the first true stage of the Trial. The world he had known—the streets, the buildings, the faint smells of dust and human sweat—collapsed into irrelevance as the next phase of his journey began.
The sensation was not disorienting. Not for him. He could feel the power of the relic, the weight of the Eye, the inevitability of the path ahead. Each pulse, each breath, each moment was a confirmation: he was no longer the man who had crawled through leagues unnoticed. He was the storm that leagues would have to reckon with.
The Trial Zone awaited. And with it, the first real test.