In a park.
A young man lay on the ground, the fresh marks of blows clearly visible on his face.
He showed no expression of pain, as things like this were nothing new to him. Even so, it was evident in his eyes that something he had held back for a long time had finally shattered.
Yet Kayen did nothing explosive. He only uttered a single sentence.
"Why has my life turned out like this?"
Kayen had only one wish.
A peaceful life.
But that was extremely difficult to achieve.
First, because his deceased parents' debts had been passed on to him.
Second, the monsters that once existed only in fictional stories had come and attacked Earth fifteen years ago.
And just like in those fictional stories, humans awakened superhuman abilities called Essence.
However, for someone to awaken their Essence, they had to go through a test first.
The Essence Trial.
The Essence Trial was an examination in which a person would experience a scenario that had once occurred in a realm known as the Essence Realm. In that scenario, the person would be given a Role.
Within the scenario, the challenges that appeared varied. But one thing was certain: all of them were meant to kill The Challenger. And if one was killed there, they would die in the real world as well.
Someone who wished to undergo the Essence Trial had to be either extremely lucky or extremely unlucky—depending on perspective. No one knew the criteria for being chosen, so all one could do was hope to be selected, or not selected.
Kayen himself knew that the Essence Trial might be his only hope to live a peaceful life. However, having read many fictional stories, he knew one thing.
Once you step into a pit, the only way out is to climb.
"If I can't live peacefully, then at least let me stay alive."
After saying that, Kayen slowly got up from the ground. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up at the star-filled sky. His eyes stopped at a light that shone far brighter than the other stars.
"The brightest star is the one that burns out the earliest."
After saying that, Kayen left the park. He did not go to the hospital, but headed toward his home. It was not that he did not care about his body, but the cost of an examination was far too expensive for him to afford.
Kayen then walked in the direction of his home. The distance was very short—only 200 meters from the park.
However, after walking only a little, his legs began to tremble violently. Seeing this, Kayen immediately sat down on a bus stop bench.
After sitting down, he slowly massaged his legs. When he reached the area around his knee, he felt a sharp stab of pain as he touched it.
"*Sigh* Looks like I'll lose my job again."
Kayen did not quite understand why the debt collectors continued to harass him with violence. If that violence had never happened, he was confident he could have paid off his parents' debts within ten years.
"What a pity. That seems difficult now."
Kayen then stood up from the bench and continued on his way. He supported his body using nearby objects such as buildings, electric poles, streetlights, and parked vehicles.
Finally, after dozens of minutes that felt like hours, Kayen arrived in front of his home.
However, calling Kayen's place a house would be an exaggeration. It was more accurate to call it a shack.
The structure was made of wooden planks of different colors. The door was a thick wooden board, but it was not large enough to cover the entire doorway.
It left fairly large gaps at the top and sides.
To cover them, Kayen used a piece of cloth that looked like a window curtain.
Wind from outside could still enter, but at least it reduced its force enough to keep Kayen from freezing to death.
The door had no handle, only a hole about the width of four fingers.
The shack looked as though it could collapse at any moment, yet six years after it was first built, it still had not fallen apart.
Of course, it had shown signs of collapsing several times, but before that happened, Kayen always repaired it.
Kayen then walked toward the door of his home.
But when he was only one step away from it—
A voice that sounded neither male nor female was heard from behind him.
["Congratulations. You have been selected to undergo the Essence Trial."]
Hearing the voice so close to him, Kayen looked around, trying to see who was pranking him.
But there was no one around except himself, indicating that the voice was inside his head.
"Have I really been chosen?"
Kayen did not know whether this voice was stating reality or merely an illusion of his mind. He refused to believe it was real. After all, he only wanted to live, not to step into a abyss.
The voice sounded again.
["Transferring to the Divine Trial in ten…"]
The voice began to count down.
At the count of seven, Kayen slapped his own face, trying to think carefully whether this was real or just an illusion caused by exhaustion.
At the count of four, Kayen took a deep breath. Panic was not his way. He needed to calm down.
And at the count of one—
A golden light emerged from beneath him and enveloped his body. With so little time, Kayen had not yet been able to decide whether this was truly real or just an illusion. But seeing this, he knew it was real. It was hard to imagine that someone who least wanted to be chosen would end up being chosen.
"Shi—"
Before he could even finish his sentence, in the blink of an eye, Kayen—who had been standing near the door of his home—
Was gone.
Only footprints remained on the ground, showing that someone had once stood there.