Blood dripped from his chin as he was pulled away by a hair's width, barely avoiding decapitation.

  The chains roared as they clashed against the vent system followed by the monster's thunderous shriek. Its large hands merged and followed after him.

  "Pull harder!" The two's voices echoed throughout the canal before reaching his fading consciousness.

  'I'm still awake? But I can't move…' He tried moving his limbs to no avail, his eyes fixated on the monstrous arm inches away from his face.

  "Pull!"

  "I am fucking pulling!"

  The two's hands dripped with blood, completely disregarding their pain, yet still shaking in fear as the bloody mist was growing thicker and thicker.

  "Hyup?!"

  Their lungs were emptied, almost forgetting to breathe.

  The sound of metal being pierced through reached their ears. It was the sound of the monstrous arm trying to harvest their friend's life.

  The two pulled harder and harder, pulling with all their strength before Hyunwoo's limp body was shot up the vent canal and up to their feet.

  It was then the monster's arm emerged as well. The bloody mist grew thicker than air, blocking their breathing as they watched, their eyes shook, bodies frozen in fear.

  "I c-can't move…!"

  "The damn mist?!"

  They finally realized that the mist was the reason they couldn't act as freely as they should've.

  'Fuck! Is this how it ends?!'

  Jake's eyes fixated on the arm before him. But instead of cutting them in half, its arm turned gray and fell to their feet before it quickly withered away along the mist as air finally entered their lungs.

  The view beyond the mist slowly went transparent, and what had happened finally became clear.

  The bars making the outside domes have appeared inside of the vent system as well, cutting off the monster's arm in t.

  And along with it, something more strange appeared.

  "Bleeeghh?" As Hyunwoo gained back control over his body, his intestines moved violently.

  His wounds burned away, and the bruises coloring his body purple faded away, leaving behind bloody rags for clothes as he collapsed, completely unconscious this time.

  The two were no exception, their injuries and light wounds disappeared.

  A blue screen emerged in front of them. Its light illuminated the dark vent tunnel they were in.

  .

  +

  [Congratulations, you've passed the audition.

  You'll now be transferred into the first scenario]

  +

  .

  Their bodies glowed in blue, and shortly after, they completely disappeared in a blinding flash.

  ???

  “Oi! Hyunwoo! Wake up!” Jake’s hand smacked Hyunwoo’s face repeatedly. His cheeks were getting redder and redder until finally, he awoke.

  “Ah?!” His eyes shot awake but his body’s sensation hadn’t completely come back.

  “Move if you’re awake!” Jake’s hand didn’t stop, but instead kept mercilessly going back and forth, making an unreal impact on his cheek every time it hit.

  His hand begrudgingly moved. He felt as if his muscles were being ripped off with every subtle movement.

  “I’m awake you bastard! Stop hitting me!” He grabbed Jake’s hand with difficulty, but something bewildered him.

  ‘Was he always this strong?’ The aura surrounding Jake changed.

  His eyes which used to be full of joy were now burned down to ashes as he sat down with his uniform’s jacket on his shoulder, facing Hyunwoo.

  ‘W-who is this person?!’ Hyunwoo’s eyes were fixated on his friend, silently staring at him.

  But then, as if he wore a fake facade for the last few seconds, Jake jumped into His embrace.

  “Hyunwoo!! I thought you died you fucking brat!” Jake hugged him tightly, so tightly that he felt as if he would throw up again.

  ‘Seriously now, Since when were you this strong?!’ His body felt loose and out of place, moving was a difficult task by itself for him.

  "If you thought I died, why would you slap me like this?! Who would beat a dead person awake?!"

  "It's your fault for being unresponsive for too long!"

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Glad to see you’re still alive, Hyunwoo-ssi.” Han Suho's warm voice arrived from behind his shoulder.

  He turned to find him wearing a gentle smile accompanied by an empty look in his eyes.

  "Suho-ssi, are you alright…? You seem a bit different."

  The changes occurring to his friends didn't sit well with him. A sense of dread was roaming around them.

  "Don't worry about me, you should worry about yourself. Compared to me who held the door for only a few seconds, you suffered much, much worse." His vacant eyes capturing Hyunwoo as he sat down next to him.

  "Don't worry about it. I'm just happy the work I put in during the summer paid off!" He replied.

  "I still can barely move my body, but, strangely, I don't feel much pain. Shouldn't the adrenaline or whatever have worn off by Now?"

  Hyunwoo lifted his shirt in bewilderment. The punches that minced him, and the scratches that peeled off his skin, all disappeared, leaving him perfectly healthy.

  'Actually, did I just gain more muscles…?' His figure was sharper and more well-defined than how it was when he checked himself in the mirror.

  "My muscles feel stiff and I can hardly move right now, but other than that, I'm completely fine.

  "You should be extremely tired being the one who was injured the most."

  "What do you mean?" Hyunwoo raised his eyebrow, questioning Jake.

  "Lethargy. It's the side effect of the recovery. After escaping from that monster, a sudden flash of bright light surrounded us and teleported us here."

  Jake got up as he spoke.

  "Us who had minor energy weren't affected much. But you, who was on the brink of death, lost consciousness for a long time now." He spoke while pointing his finger toward Hyunwoo, not showing any emotions in his voice or expression.

  "I don't remember anything beyond holding up the door…" His memory became foggy whenever he tried to remember what happened inside the closet.

  "Having early Alzheimer's now? Not so tough unlike how you choked me that morning, heh."

  Whenever Jake made fun of him, Hyunwoo would see a resemblance to the Jake he knew. But what he had said just now caught his attention.

  "Wait, 'that morning'?"

  "Yeah?"

  "It has been 3 days since that happened, Hyunwoo-ssi."

  "H-hey!"

  Jake was about to answer, but Han Suho interrupted him. Making him growl back as his eyebrow twitched in irritation.

  "But since you're now awake, we can finally start."

  Han Suho also got up and offered his shoulder for Hyunwoo to support himself on.

  The three were in a dark room with the only light source being a small candle.

  "This Is…?"

  "It's one of the classrooms. We put you here to rest while we worked with the others." Han Suho replied.

  "Yep, remember the fuckers running with bags when we got here? It's their group." Said Jake, subtle anger filling his voice.

  The three walked out of the classroom into a similarly dark corridor and shortly after reached a double door. It was the cafeteria.

  "We don't have electricity, phones have no reception, and there's no access to the internet. From the domes we saw outside when we were first trapped, we suspect that this is a nationwide phenomenon." Han Suho spoke with Hyunwoo on his shoulder.

  "We got gathered and put them in the cafeteria and made it a meeting place. They were uncooperative, so I had some work to do because of that." Jake grinned slightly as he pushed the double door, beyond it a dozen or so students came into view.

  The tables and chairs had been strategically stacked against the door in a way that would hinder anything barging in, leaving but one table in the middle where the students were gathered around.

  "I got everyone. Everyone but that one little, bitch." He said, narrowing his eyes at the sight of one short girl.

  She sat on the table, surrounded by candles, while everyone else was standing or crawled up, shaking in fear.

  "Well, well, hello there, Mr. Leader. It looks like your friend finally woke up." Her voice was filled with sarcasm when the word 'Leader' left her mouth.

  She painted a malicious smile across her face and shaped her eyes like crescent moons at the sight of the three coming in before hopping out of her spot and approaching them.

  "Is he going to be my next sacrifice?" Her smile crept upwards, reaching her eyes.

  She extended her hand to touch Hyunwoo, but her hand was quickly caught by Jake.

  "What do we have here. Don't you think you've gotten a bit too cocky?" His voice wore a threat within it.

  The girl didn't back down. Snatching back her hand, she spoke.

  "That's not a very nice thing to do to the one keeping everyone alive, is it now? Ahh, what will I ever do if your grip left a mark on my wrist, huh?"

  "..."

  "You better think well before doing that again, Leader-ssi."

  She spat venom with her eyes towards Jake who stood there in silence before turning around back to the group of students, wearing an innocent smile unlike what she had shown.

  "Everyone, the traitor has come back again! Please be careful. Otherwise, he'll feed us to that horrible monster!" Tears ran down her eyes as she shouted at them.

  "Harin-ssi, please don't cry!"

  "We'll protect you from that monster!"

  "Yeah! Count on us, Harin-ssi!"

  "We'll kill him if he even gets the slightest thought of sacrificing you!"

  Hearing her, comments of encouragement and love flew at her, accompanied by ridicule and hate aimed at Jake.

  "What is this about? Why is Jake being villainized?!" Hyunwoo asked.

  He tried to go to Jake, but as soon as he left Han Suho's shoulder, he'd have fell face first if it weren't for Han Suho catching him.

  "Careful now, we can't attract attention to us by helping him. We'll be seen as a weakness to Jake-ssi." Han Suho spoke as he stared at Jake who stood alone in front of them, regret seemed to be eating him whole.

  "This is what we were doing in the last 3 days. Rather than explaining it, it'll be easier if you see it for yourself." He continued.

  "Hyunwoo-ssi, try thinking of some sort of a 'Quest menu'. You'll understand then."

  Hyunwoo was bewildered, but he did as was told.

  'Quest menu…'

  Immediately after, large blue screens popped up in front of his very eyes.

  Holograms with the appearance of a blue game-like notification screen popped up before him, and his confusion grew the longer he read through it.

  .

  +

  [You've been teleported to the main scenario area.]

  +

  [Main Story Scenario #1 ? Proof of worth.

  A random person has been designated as an ally of ‘Rebertha’, The Deformed. Avoid being targeted and survive the winter.

  Objective: Survive.

  Difficulty: C

  Reward: 100 coins per day.

  Failure Penalty: Existence erasure.]

  +

  .