"Huff… Huff…"
Julien was running through a dense tropical forest, carrying the unconscious Evelyn on his back.
Above him, the night sky shimmered with countless stars — a breathtaking scene, if only it weren't marred by exhaustion and fear.
"Damn it…"
He stopped abruptly.A troop of mountain apes appeared — massive beasts, each nearly two meters tall.
They moved in packs of five, their presence heavy and hostile.
There were eight types of beasts in the eight regions, but most people ignored them.They weren't worth fighting — only obstacles that attacked anything nearby without dropping any rewards.
Julien had barely escaped Jax, that crazed monster of a man obsessed with killing for no reasonHe was still aching all over, barely holding himself together.
"Kuuh?""Krru?""Krrruuh…"
The apes exchanged strange cries and gestured at one another, their long arms forming odd shapes.Then, they suddenly dispersed into the forest, leaving Julien standing there, confused and too tired to care.
Julien ducked into a small cave nearby. Using a scroll of fire paper, he lit a small flame and sat down to rest.
Only now did he finally take a good look at Evelyn. Her injuries were worse than he thought—deep cuts along her ribs and back, and her right arm limp and swollen. She was in no condition to fight.
Still, abandoning her was never an option. As a frontliner, his duty was to protect his team—to be their shield.
"Hopefully... I'll find it soon," he muttered as he wrapped a bandage around his own bruised arm.
'That necklace... it must've been some kind of treasure. Maybe Jax took it from that cave earlier.'
Julien frowned, lost in thought.
'But how did he even know it was there? There are dozens of caves like that in this test field. Even with clues... it doesn't make sense to fight so many people just for one lead.'
Nothing added up. Either Jax had intel from the start—or he wasn't acting alone.
"Ugh..."
A faint groan pulled him back. Evelyn was stirring awake, her emerald eyes hazy and unfocused.
She brushed aside her short black hair, revealing the long, pointed ears of her elven bloodline—a race known for their fragile bodies despite their powerful mana sense.
Julien handed her a bowl of reheated food and traced a glowing mana circle in midair, creating a small sphere of light and warmth.
"Eat something. Do you still have painkillers or recovery potions left?"
The moment she heard his voice, Evelyn snapped out of her daze, fumbling to grab the bowl. From her spatial ring, she produced a few vials filled with faintly glowing blue liquid.
"Thank you..." she said softly, smiling—though her eyes betrayed disappointment.
Not at Julien, but at herself.
She hated how useless she'd been.
As she ate, a low growl echoed from the cave entrance.
"Rukkk... Rukkkk..."
Her body froze. She turned—and her heart skipped a beat.
"Julien... wake up!" she hissed, shaking him.
"What—Evelyn? I just closed my eyes for a second—"
His voice died mid-sentence.
At the entrance stood a massive mountain ape, at least three meters tall. It wore what looked like ancient tribal garments made of bark and hide.
'The chieftain...' Julien realized instantly.
The beast slammed its fists together and roared.
"RUK! GRKKK!"
Its posture—bent knees, flexed arms—looked eerily like a seasoned wrestler ready to pounce.
"Shit!"
Julien's mana flared. A black gauntlet appeared over his right arm, humming with energy. He shot forward—meeting the beast head-on.
The ape grinned.
"KRUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!"
The clash shook the cave.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Kale sprinted across the undergrowth. The tropical canopy stretched endlessly above, and behind him, the other teams gave chase.
The rules of this exam were simple—find the treasure, and you pass. Defeating others granted no points. Killing or stealing treasures didn't change your rank.
So why fight at all?
To Kale, the answer was obvious. It wasn't worth it.
For Kale — the Black Lightning — it wasn't.
His skin began to darken, veins glowing faintly.His eyes turned hollow and void.
BOOM!
In a flash, he vanished.Trees blurred into streaks of green and brown.
That was his Gift — Black Thread Puppet, the source of his title.
He surged forward until a shadow loomed ahead.
Kale stopped instantly, his form stabilizing as color returned to his eyes.
A mountain stood in his path — furious, primal, and unyielding.
"Tch."
Kale summoned a black spear, lowering into a fighting stance.
But instead of striking, he vaulted upward, leaping through branches, slicing obstacles aside with his weapon.
He activated his Gift again — a dark blur tearing through the canopy.
The one I'm looking for isn't you. It's your leader.
From the peaks he'd explored earlier, he had spotted strange markings carved into rocks — guiding him toward this area.
Three days had passed since the exam began.And since day two… everything had spiraled into chaos.
Teams had split apart. Some turned on each other.Others still cooperated — barely.
Kale had noticed something else:every "clue" they found was a colored, carved stone — beautifully detailed.
And when combined, they formed pieces of a map — a compass pointing toward the next fragment.He suspected the completed tablet would lead to the true treasure.
But was that worth the endless fighting?
Maybe that was the point.Combat and analysis… that's the real test.
He wasn't the smart, but that much he could grasp.
"KRUUU!!""GRRR!!"
Dozens of roars echoed through the forest.Kale stopped, vision adjusting —
And froze.
Hundreds of apes — from tiny half-meter ones to towering two-meter beasts — surrounded a single man.
It was Julien.
He stood on a rocky ledge, covered in tribal paint, wearing a torn fur cloak.His face was smeared with mud, shaped like a monkey's mask.
His expression… was both terrified and confident.
His black glove was still torn and tattered from some past battle.His body was streaked with dried blood.
"Phew…"
Julien exhaled, glancing toward Kale — calm, but wary.
"ESCORT ME TO THE DESTINATION! MOVE OUT!!"
At his command, the apes roared and surged forward.They lifted him up, forming a moving fortress of bodies — charging straight toward Kale.
Kale had no idea what was happening.And no time to figure it out.
He reactivated Obsidian Veins, retreating but from behind, more apes lunged out of the shadows.
"Gruuu!!"
Kale spun, his blackened hand slicing through one's throat.Using another's face as a foothold, he vaulted upward—
—but a sudden invisible force yanked him down.
He hit the ground hard.
Standing there was Evelyn.
Her face was smeared with mud like Julien's,her cold eyes fixed on Kale.
The apes swarmed him from all sides.
But Kale didn't panic.He couldn't.
He wasn't called Black Lightning for his speed—but for something far more terrifying.
As he touched one of the apes, his body began to fracture,then reform — stitched together by countless black threads that sparked like lightning.
The ape he touched was swallowed by darkness threads spreading across its body like veins of shadow.
From Kale's perspective, it was as if a bolt of black lightning erupted from his touch.
The ape screamed—then turned pitch black,its body glowing with crackling dark arcs.
"KRUUU!!""KGUUU!!"
Lightning exploded outward — black bolts tearing through the horde.
Moments later, Kale emerged from within the alpha ape's neck,his body reconstituting itself as the lightning returned to him.
The apes burned around him, their screams echoing into the night.
Now, he stood once more in human form—jet black from head to toe,lightning dancing across his body like living veins.
And above them all,a giant black hand reached down from the void—manipulating its puppet strings from afar.