I gasped sharply as I woke up suddenly, then a fit of coughing erupted from my chest. My trembling hand reached for the glass of water nearby; I grasped it with difficulty and took a quick sip, but the trembling didn't stop.
I curled up on the bed, hugging myself as the words slipped from my lips:
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm really sorry…"
Tears slid silently down my cheeks, and my vision gradually blurred until everything around me became a haze.
Zoe and Miro were still fast asleep, their breathing calm as if nothing had happened.
Minutes passed before I slowly got up and made my way to the bathroom with unsteady steps.
I stood in front of the mirror.
I stared silently at my reflection.
Pale blue eyes that had lost their sparkle, dark circles beneath them, and dry, chapped lips.
I kept looking at myself, my expression blank.
I turned on the faucet, and the water trickled quietly through my fingers; then I turned it off after a few moments.
Then...
A faint reflection of light appeared behind me on the mirror's surface.
I furrowed my brow and whispered:
"What is this…?"
The light began to expand slowly. I hesitated for a moment before turning toward it.
It was a blue vortex spinning endlessly around itself, twisting and expanding as if it were swallowing the air around it.
I froze in place.
And the moment I turned away for just a second...
It swallowed me.
It transported me to another place before fading away as if it had never existed.
I tried to process what had happened, but I remained frozen in place.
A vast, endless desert stretched out before me—a sea of barren yellow sand stretching to the horizon. There were no trees, no sounds, no sign of life… Just mounds of hot sand piled one on top of the other.
The wind blew fiercely, carrying grains of sand that struck my face and made my hair and clothes dance violently.
My chapped lips moved with difficulty as my voice came out trembling:
"Where am I…? Impossible… Just a moment ago, I was in the bathroom."
System: New Notification
The time limit for today's daily tasks has expired.
The penalty has been applied.
Penalty: Face a Class A monster.
Conditions for survival:
Survive for 30 minutes.
Or defeat it.
I sank to my knees, my expression unchanged. I stared silently at the ground, then dug my fingers into the hot sand. The heat gradually burned my skin until my fingers turned red, but I didn't pull them out.
My tears fell silently, but they evaporated before they touched the sand. My lips moved slowly as my voice emerged weak and muffled:
"Why…? Why…? Why…?"
My face contorted, and my breathing became ragged. Even the saliva that trickled from the corner of my lips vanished the moment it fell beneath that suffocating heat.
"Why…?"
Pain began to creep from the tips of my burning fingers, but I could barely feel it.
And suddenly…
A sharp screech shattered the desert's silence. I slowly raised my head—something was moving in front of me.
At first I thought it was a wave in a sea of sand, but the movement was unnatural. The sand was constantly rising and falling, as if something enormous were swimming beneath it.
Then it emerged.
A long, reddish-brown body, resembling a snake, but it wasn't a snake. Dozens of legs extending from either side were moving rapidly, diving into the sand and cutting through it. It was as big as a train.
Long fangs protruded from its mouth, and as its eyes slowly turned toward me, I saw that they were completely round.
It fixed its gaze on me. Then it stuck out its snake-like, split tongue...
and let out another sharp hiss.
I stared at it as I crawled backward, my lips moving unconsciously: "Damn... damn... Damn..." I pushed myself up quickly and ran as fast as I could, but in just a second, it lunged at me.
A split second before its fangs reached me, I threw my body to the side and rolled across the sand. My head hit the ground, and grains of sand got into my hair and eyes; I jumped up quickly.
My eyes darted frantically in every direction, left and right, as I kept muttering, "Damn… damn…"
It was gone.
I couldn't see it anymore.
All I could see was a glimpse of its back appearing for a moment above the sand and then disappearing again, accompanied by a roar.
It was moving beneath the sand at a terrifying speed, circling me constantly, as if I were trapped prey with no idea where the next strike would come from.
Suddenly, the sand exploded beneath me. The beast burst up violently from below, and my body was hurled into the air on a massive wave of sand. The wind slapped my face as I fell, and when I looked down, I saw its mouth wide open.
Its long fangs gleamed savagely as it prepared to swallow me whole.
I screamed, ".System"
The next moment, a blue aura appeared around my hand, and then strands of light began to gather around it, intertwining until they formed a black dagger streaked with dark red lines. I gripped it tightly, then leaped toward his head and screamed "Aaaaaaa!"
I aimed the stab directly at his body.
But nothing happened.
The dagger's blade stopped the moment it touched his skin, as if I'd stabbed a steel wall.
His tail twisted suddenly, and then a massive blow slammed into my ribs.
I felt the air drain from my lungs in an instant, and my body was hurled far across the sand before I crashed to the ground and rolled several times.
Blood slowly pooled around me on the hot sand...
but even that began to evaporate.
My fingers stopped moving on the blood-stained sand.
A few moments later, my whole body shook, and then it stopped I slowly got to my feet, my eyes cast downward, my hair—caked with dirt and blood—hanging over my face. In those seconds, a dense, blazing blue aura wrapped around me.
The veins in my body began to bulge and swell terrifyingly, to the point that my shirt tore and split under the intense pressure and transformation. As this unknown power surged through me, mysterious, indistinct black marks appeared on my skin, while my white hair suddenly grew long, sweeping back and dancing in the wind.
My eyes turned completely white, and in the center of my forehead… a mysterious mark began to take shape—faint, incomplete, and indistinct.
The corners of my mouth curved into a smile, and I opened my fist toward the ground. In the blink of an eye, the dagger lying in the sand shot toward my hand, drawn to it by a terrifying magnetic force.
A faint chuckle escaped me… then it grew louder and louder and louder, until I raised my head toward the sky, laughing hysterically and madly, shaking the very foundations of the place.
And then… I fixed my piercing gaze on the beast.