Ethan led his half of Group Five into the realm’s western stretch, where the land rose sharply into jagged ridges of black stone veined with molten light. The air here was thinner, colder, and carried a metallic tang that clung to the back of the throat. Every step felt watched.Grant broke the silence first. “This terrain funnels movement. Narrow paths. High ground.”“Which means traps,” Juniper added quietly, eyes already scanning the rock faces for spores, vines, anything alive.Fenn’s shield hummed faintly as he adjusted his grip. “I’ll take front-left. Ethan, call it.”Ethan nodded, mind already mapping angles and distances. “No rushing. The orb won’t be easy, but the system wants attrition. It wants us tired before the real fight.”Seren flexed her fingers, a thin lattice of light briefly forming and fading between them. “Then we don’t give it tired. We give it precise.”They moved.The first attack came without warning.The stone beneath Grant’s foot liquefied, turning into a s

Ethan was dreaming.He was in a place filled with light.Not light—white. Empty. Endless. A void so complete it swallowed sound, depth, and time itself. He stood barefoot on a floor that reflected nothing, not even his own shadow. When he lifted his hands, they trembled—not from fear, but from pressure. As if the air itself pressed inward.Then the Overseer appeared.It did not materialize so much as assert itself, the way gravity does. The space bent around it, light folding into a towering silhouette of smoke and glass. Its mask shifted endlessly—faces layered upon faces, none holding long enough to be human.“You resist beautifully,” the Overseer said.Its voice wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be. It vibrated inside Ethan’s skull, threaded through his thoughts like invasive code.Ethan clenched his fists. “Get out of my head.”“This is not your head,” it replied calmly. “This is where you go when your defenses lower.”The floor rippled. Images bloomed beneath Ethan’s feet—bodies. Pl

The decision came quietly. No announcement. No system chime. Just a cold shift in the air. When the rest of Group Five was summoned to be reassigned, Ethan already knew. Rami, Lila, Trace and Rei They stood in a thin line beneath the hovering transport ring— their faces drawn all of them eyes avoiding his. The absence was louder than words. Where there had once been closeness, shared glances, silent coordination, there was now distance measured in inches and fear. Marcus did not appear. Instead, the system spoke—flat, emotionless. “GROUP FIVE RESTRUCTURING IN PROGRESS. REMAINING MEMBERS WILL BE REDISTRIBUTED FOR OPTIMAL STABILITY.” Ethan didn’t react. Sky did. “What do you mean redistributed?” Sky snapped. “We’re a unit.” Silence. Then the answer: “UNIT COHESION HAS FALLEN BELOW ACCEPTABLE THRESHOLD.” Claire’s hands clenched at her sides. She looked at Ethan, searching his face for something—regret, explanation, anything. Ethan gave her nothing. No

The training hall was quiet, save for the few players who trained and the system hummed softly. The Metal floors absorbed the impact without complaint, glowing faintly with embedded runes that tracked the players movement, force, and fatigue. The air smelled sharp—ozone and sweat and something synthetic that reminded Claire too much of hospitals.She moved anyway.Claire ducked, twisted, rolled—her body reacting before her thoughts caught up. She wasn’t a frontline fighter, not really, but the system had taught her a brutal truth: healers who couldn’t defend themselves didn’t last long.Her knuckles stung as she struck the padded drone again. The machine reeled back, recalibrated, then lunged.Claire pivoted, planted her foot, and shoved her palm into its core node.The drone collapsed, lights flickering out.“TRAINING COMPLETE.”Claire exhaled sharply and bent forward, hands on her knees. Sweat dripped down her temples, darkening the collar of her shirt. Her muscles burned, but t

Sky closed his ears as heard the gunshot TEST TRIAL COMPLETE The system said, He looked up and Claire was still alive, her face a mask of pain and disappointment. Their ropes were cut and she and Bim fell to the ground. Bim got up looking at him with a strange look, while claire just say frozen.The atmosphere was heavy, the silence almost suffocating.Claire stumbled along the uneven ground, knees trembling, hands shaking from the adrenaline that hadn’t yet left her veins. She had expected the worst, had expected the system to take everything, and yet she was alive. Bim, the girl Sky had chosen, stood a few meters away, unharmed, safe. And that simple fact ignited a firestorm inside Claire that she hadn’t anticipated.Her legs faltered, and she collapsed onto a fallen log, staring at the two of them—Sky, his face taut with guilt, Bim smiling nervously, unaware of the depth of the damage.“How… how could you?” Claire’s voice cracked, high and raw, echoing across the empt