[One day, I woke up in this hell]
"Hell.. What do you mean?"
[Remembering the past was a great fortune and a painful curse at the same time]
"Hey! My name is Orion. And I don't know what you are talking about!"
[I did anything to build a life in this cursed land]
"What are you talking right now?"
[Leaving the past behind and accepting my fate was very difficult]
"Hey FU*KER! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"
[Maybe this was my punishment, for something I did before]
°•○●
The system's mark pulsed inside his vision like a colorful phantom.
He gasped.
Cold air. And blood in his throat.
Screams, but not his own.
And then, voices in his head.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETED]
[New Name: Orion
Gender: Mal-Co (Male)
Type: Humanoid
Genetic Heritage: Homo Sapiens (B-46)
DNA Details: Locked
Age: 19 (Soul Age: 30)
Level: 0
Essence and Abilities: LOCKED
Stats: LOCKED
Condition: Stabilized (Death by Fall+Heart Failure Prevented)
— "Cheat Your Death" Triggered ]
"I would prefer a girl voice in my interface", but anyways.
Orion blinked.
Walls made of stone and no ceiling under starlight spun around him. This place looked like a stone maze under a gorgeous night scene.
There was chaos, blood and violence.
A dozen young people were cosplaying in a burning area.
Someone cried. Someone bled.
And someone, a girl with blonde hair and eyes like a blue gems was staring at him like he just crawled out of hell.
Orion grinned.
"Okay. This is new." he muttered, wiping blood from his lips.
And better graphics than Skyr*m. Definitely!
Orion tried to stand. But his legs weren't fully on board yet.
His ribs were broken. Or had been. Now they weren't.
Was this healing?
Resurrection??
Deadpool Onii-san???
He checked his hands. White and humanic. Still shaking.
Just as he was about to open his mouth, the devil whispered into his ear.
The system talked with a sweet female voice this time.
[Welcome to Midka]
[Your New Life has begun]
[Good Luck]
Orion didn't feel confusion.
And he didn't scream.
Not when he fell. Not when he woke up in this strange body. Or when he saw some kid's corpse on the floor with his head twisted the wrong way.
Because somewhere deep inside his fractured psyche, one idea burned brighter than fear.
It's just a game!
And games should be fun.
In a corridor of magic and fire, among strangers with weapons drawn and monsters in the mist, Orion Vale took his first step.
Into the Academy of Pain and Pleasure.
He was already smiling with his future of endless desires.
..
POV: Seraphine V. DuMont
Another scream.
Another fallen.
Another corpse.
Seraphine's mana-enhanced vision scanned the battlefield like a hawk. She updated a tactical map in her head moment by moment. It was draining but also necessary so she couldn't complain.
The chaos of the trial was half intentional.
Everything was calculated to survive and win in this hell-maze's first stage.
VIP's had to do a lot of shady things like she is doing now. She even memorized the list of all the students who would be taking this hell-exam.
Seraphine knew everything in this exam area.
Who would survive, who would freeze in fear, who would break or shine first. Some dark horse candidates.. Their personality, traits, powers, bloodlines and other secrets.
She was in control of everything. All measurable by her magic and wits.
Of course there were others like her. Those trained like her would survive by their instincts or others who had the preperations of their impressive families.
And the most basic rule was, all the weaklings should be colloteral againts monsters.
She didn't feel bad for the weak. They should have never entered in the first place.
Which is why Seraphine was frozen when she saw that boy getting up from the floor.
"That boy...had just died."
She knew it!
A gargoyle took him into the air and threw him to the ground.
His neck had been twisted.
His chest collapsed.
No breath or chest movements.
Whole flore was covered with blood. His blood?
She had seen it with her own eyes.
Short black hair. No armor. No glow, magic or other bullshit.
Nothing!
His fall had been brutal. She could still hear the snap of bones.
But there were many others in this hellhole, similarly died and stayed that way.
And now, he was standing up.
He wiped blood from his mouth. His lips moved.
"Is he..?" Seraphine was shocked by the strange expression. It was an illogical sight amidst this hellish background.
Dead boy was smiling.
"Actually, he isn't dead anymore."
Then she asked the first question.
"How?"
Seraphine walked a bit closer. She searched for any trace of magic; a glyph, a charm or an external spell.
She tried her best to find a magical item that was brought here secretly. It will be cheating, yes, but at least that would explain this insanity.
There was nothing. The air was clean. The aether was still.
But just moments ago, he had been dead.
"Necromancy?"
No. This wasn't like a dragged soul or any other dark spells.
He definitely had risen by his own will.
No invisible or dark hand had lifted him.
Everything about it felt wrong.
Seraphine's blue eyes sharpened with tiny amounts of her mana. The boy looked back at her.
She had to force herself not to flinch.
Just his eyes looked at her, not his head.
It is creepy as hell.
Something cold and intrusive bloomed in her chest. A little bit fear and curiosity. But mostly a sense of overturned balance.
Everyone here was supposed to be equal. Or so she'd believed.
They had similar bodies in the same low energy levels. No weapons or family heirlooms.
Some were nobleborn with tiny advantages. Others trained for years. But all shared the same rules and logic of this world.
And now, one of them was walking forward like those rules didn't apply.
Seraphine couldn't make sense of it.
Fu*k!- even the monsters they'd been fighting for hours were ignoring him!!!
It was pure madness!
As if reality itself was mocking her. Mocking the Crown Princess of Vera.
She kept swinging her blade, issuing commands to the stunned candidates around her.
This black haired creep strolled through chaos like he was in a children's playground, while they had to fight their way forward.
It wasn't fair.
She pushed into more dangerous grounds just to close the distance.
She ran. She attacked all the monsters. She stopped reacting to the explosions beside her.
Just to go faster.
Another student's blood splattered across her arm. But she didn't react to anything and only focused on him.
She didn't even blink while running. Fighting. Killing.
But this had never been fair.
Then came the second question.
"Why?"
Something inside her snapped. All her effort, ambition and her plans to prove herself to her family...
Seraphine tilted her head slightly. Her lips trembled. Her eyes misted over.
This boy, this unnamed candidate wasn't just an oddity or inaccuracy of her calculations.
He was outside of her intel!
Fu*k me!
At this rate he would surpass her in this damn exam!
Years of preperations for today and she could never have imagined something like this.
Seraphine V. DuMont,
First Princess of the Vera Kingdom,
Crown Heir of the Giant Vera Continent-
For the first time in her life, she felt threatened by someone her own age.
And finally, Seraphine asked the right question.
"Who are you?"