Ravin was lying on the bed inside the tower, doing his current favourite thing—staring at the ceiling and wondering why the fuck he was even doing all this.
Intrusive thoughts, like wanting to truly die, had started to surface once he pushed his ??? stat to 0.5. If not for this familiar hospital room reminding him of his past, he would have given up long ago.
"Finally, I didn't die this time!" Smirking, he flipped over and picked up the diary from his side—only for it to suddenly fly out of his hand and open as the room began to crumble.
Miraculously, letters appeared directly in his mind, forming into sentences and experiencing a sharp pain in his head just before the room fully collapsed and he fell straight onto hard ground.
"Oh, did something impale me?"
His expression remained unchanged as he felt something pierce into his back. Feeling his blood flowing out, he stood up, tore his shirt, and tightly wrapped and knotted it around the wound.
Looking down, he saw that a small spike had impaled him. Looking around, he could only describe the scenery as hell. Jagged spikes jutted out of the ground in all shapes and sizes. The ground was mahogany, and the sky was pitch black.
"How the fuck can I even see? I mean, there's zero light. Did I drink a potion of night vision?" Laughing at his own joke, he started walkin—
[Location: First Floor of The Prison of ????]
[Goal: Survive for 7 days or find the hidden exit]
"Oh, oh great! Finally, some proper instructions. And surviving is something I'm known for, right?"
Remembering something, he chuckled and continued walking, feeling the hot wind brush against his bare chest—before tripping over a spike and falling face-first onto the ground. Luckily, there weren't any spikes beneath him.
Otherwise…
---
"HELLOOO, ANYONE HERE?"
Seeing no response to his antics, he climbed down from the spike. He'd been walking for what felt like hours, yet he couldn't find anything—not even an insect.
At this point, he had started to feel thirsty. The temperature was high, and there was nothing in sight.
"Sigh… I wish I had brought a few fruits with me."
He sighed again for good measure and started searching for water, or anything at all.
[???'s POV]
How long has it been since I've been walking in this godforsaken place? I should have killed myself. Why did I even choose this place for my trial?
She thought as she pulled a bottle out of her storage bracelet and started gulping down water. Then she noticed a silhouette in the distance. She continued drinking, unafraid, until the silhouette resolved into a shirtless man.
It's already the fourth person I've met.
Her lips curled into a smirk as she imagined how he would beg and crawl in front of her for water or food. The others had been the same.
"Hey, got any water?" he asked her, his voice dry and broken, as if he hadn't drunk anything in days.
She signaled for him to wait with her hand as she continued drinking. Finally, she stopped and looked at him properly. His T-shirt was tied around his back, soaked red with blood. His eyes were sunken, his lips cracked, and his skin pale.
"Yes, I do have water," she said. "But why would I share it with someone I don't know? Who knows what you'd do to me?"
She looked at him blankly, waiting for his response.
He licked his lips, his voice extremely dry. "Fair enough, I guess. But I'd really appreciate it if you could help me. I'll repay you in the future, for sure."
A glint passed through her eyes as she took out another bottle from her bracelet and held it in front of him.
"I can give it to you, but… that'd be so boring. You see, I've been bored—oh, very bored—these past few days. So let's play a game. I'll throw this bottle with all my strength, and if you catch it within thirty seconds, it's yours. But if you can't—"
She snapped her fingers, and a nearby spike exploded.
"This will happen to the bottle."
[Ravin's POV]
He finally looked at her properly. She was extremely beautiful—turquoise hair falling like silk, with a few strands clinging to her face, brown eyes gazing at him like he was a toy. But none of that mattered anymore.
He stared at her for a moment, then walked past her without looking back.
'Why didn't you say anything?'
A familiar voice echoed in his head. 'It's my fault for expecting something from people. It's pointless' he replied internally.
'I see'
"Hey, what are you doing?" he heard her shout, threatening how he'd regret it. He ignored her and kept walking. Even though it'd been 4 days since he last drank anything, he wouldn't do something which goes against his pride. It's not like he could truly die.
---
"Huff… huff… it's so much better not being dehydrated."
Ravin was back again. He had died only a few hours after rejecting that woman.
"Fuck that bitch. I'll just go in another direction. I refuse to believe I won't find anything."
With that, he started walking back toward the path he had come from.