I opened my eyes and what met my eyes was pitch black darkness.

I jerked my body up from the cold ground in which I was laid. I looked around at my surroundings. But everywhere my gaze landed, all I saw was darkness.

I took two steps forward, but I was obstructed by an invisible wall. Then I took four steps backwards, but I was just met with the invisible wall. I did the same on the sides just to check, but the outcome was the same.

Then suddenly a tangible thread of fear attached itself to my heart. I felt afraid for some reason? I felt if I stayed here any longer I would be devoured, swallowed by this darkness. This void

These emotions came in sudden bursts and disappeared as quickly as they came. Like the opening and closing of a dam.

Why was I feeling such emotions? I felt fear, despair, rage, guilt, sorrow and many other emotions, which ate away at me.

As if my heart was in a conflict with my mind.

My mind knew this was not real, but my heart said otherwise. Or was it something else?

‘I still remember, I was just inside my room in the Lock's dormitory.’ I inwardly thought, my mind focusing back, when I had exited the portal.

‘But after I entered my room, those voice—!’

But my thoughts came to a halt.

Suddenly, the darkness was devoured by a bright light. Colourful lights began to brighten this dark world. Colours running and disappearing like wax. I closed my eyes under the vertigo of the sudden shift. My body shivered as I felt the bottom part of my stomach fall.

Then after a few seconds, I reopened my eyes and saw I stood in the middle of a road.

There were pedestrian walking along the sidewalk. Children’s joyous voices entered my ears. They were playing in the small park to my left, some playing tag, some playing in the sand box, and some one the swings.

The shops and stores bustled with customers, who entered and exited to and fro. The loud and bostoruos voices of the pedestrians entered my ears.

Cars, vans and buses passed by as I stood in the middle of the road. The tyres screeching and horns echoed in my ears.

Everything looked peaceful, but the anxiousness I felt on the back of my head made me nervous. As if something was about to happen. Something horrible.

Every second that went by felt like an eternity. My body basked under the warm light of the sun, as everything went on normally.

But nothing happened!

The pedestrians walked by, the children played and the vehicles went to and fro.

But my anxiousness didn’t subside. The hair at the back of my head stood under the constant worry that something was bound to happen.

Then after a few more seconds passed... suddenly the scenery shifted. The sun had almost set. The orange sheen of the sun, made the sky look enchanting and beautiful. The clouds drifted across the sky, as my gaze shifted in front of me.

What I saw made my eyes shot wide open and made me take a full step back.

The bursts of emotions returned and now the emotion I felt the strongest among them was... “fear”.

But why was I feeling like this?

The pedestrians, children and vehicles, all came to an apparent halt, and everyone looked up at the sky, which was tearing apart.

Fissures began to appear in the sky—like glass shattering—soon after the light fissures, followed huge cracks in the sky. Like the sky was tearing apart.

With a loud glass shattering screech, the civilians held on to their breath, as they witnessed what was happening in front of them.

Soon following the cracks, came floods of monsters from within the cracks.

It was a dungeon break!

I heard shouts of many and soon everyone began to hurriedly run as far away as possible from the dungeon gate.

A youth came dashing in my direction, but just as I was about to dodge, he passed through me as if I was non-existent to him.

But from within those loud shouts and screams, I heard a muffled voice of a child. Almost completely drowned by the loud screams.

I don’t know what overcame me, but I took a step forward and then another. This time I was not obstructed by the invisible wall like before.

Soon I reached where the muffled voice was coming from. I saw a child crying on the side of the road.

He had short glossy black hair, a small stature and obsidian black eyes.

He wore a black tunic and a pair of white shorts.

But his gaze was fixed in front, where the dungeon break had occurred. His eyes never once left the gate.

This child reminded me of someone.

“You’re...” Then I extended my hand forward and placed it over his small shoulder.

But the moment I touched him, I felt as if I had put my hand over ice. He was obnoxiously cold.

“This is where everything happened and where everything changed for me...,” the child exclaimed. Or to be precise, he was me, no... he was the real Jiwoo.

But what made me surprised was how cold and emotionless his voice had came out. Then the tears falling from his eyes stopped and what replaced his face was an expression which was devoid of all emotions.

His eyes looked dull, as if there was no light in them. I felt like I was looking at my past self.

Someone who didn’t have anything to live for. Or someone who perfectly knew what despair felt like.

I followed his line of sight and saw what he was looking at.

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“Jihye, take Jiwoo and run away from here,” I heard a loud shout coming from a few meters away.

There I saw a man, who struggled to reach his daughter and son. He had brunette hair, his eyes the same colour as mine, obsidian black and his chiselled jaw which added more to his looks. He looked overly good-looking. But the crowd of people didn’t allow him to reach his children. He struggled, desperation flashed over his sharp face. He pushed through the crowd, but to no avail.

“Jihye, take your brother and run as far away as possible, alright?” He shouted.

“Daddy, what about Mommy?” Jihye asked. Her voice on the verge of tears. My heart felt like it was being pinched the moment I looked at my sister's face. But on her back was a child—Jiwoo—who was unconscious.

What? I snapped my head and looked to my side, at the Jiwoo that stood beside me.

He was still there. But now, a sorrowful expression had replaced his emotionless face.

“This is where our parents died."

“What...?” Then the emotion of rage and sorrow engulfed my being.

I didn’t feel in control of my body. As if someone was making me feel these emotions.

“This is where everything started.” His cold voice echoed inside my ears.

But every word that he spoke made the storm of emotions within me to outburst into a frenzy. I felt if I didn’t hold on, I would be devoured by these emotions.

“Just go...,” he again shouted, then following his shout, Jihye began to run along with Jiwoo who was on her back.

My gaze fell over the man’s face and I felt like a nail was being pierced into my heart.

His face displayed despair. Something I was all too familiar with. The expression of desperation and sorrow was laced over his sharp brows and face.

“I’m sorry, Jihye... Jiwoo...” I heard their father’s voice a final time.

Nooo—!

Just as I extended my hand forward, the scenery again shifted and everything was swallowed by the pitch black darkness. I looked around me, in this void. But there was nothing.

I tried to comprehend everything but I felt overwhelmed.

What I had just witnessed, were the memories of the past. Jiwoo’s past.

'But why now? Why did I see these memories now? And why was he there?'

Many thoughts crossed my mind, but I couldn’t understand what was going on.

Again the scenery shifted and now I saw I was standing in the middle of a battlefield.

But this time, Jiwoo was not with me. I alone stood there. I peered through the battlefield, and saw the many bodies, laid over the ground lifelessly, as the sky and ground were dyed beautifully with the shade of crimson. There was a red moon which witnessed everything from above.

There were two people who stood a kilometre away from each other.

I couldn’t perfectly see their features, as if a veil was preventing me from looking at them, but I knew they were someone strong. Their auras spoke for them. I felt my breathing harden for a moment, as the oppressive pressure—unlike anything which I had felt before, bore down on the area to miles away—in front of me where the two individuals stood.

“You were always nothing but a fool, ■■,” then one of them spoke.

With a gesture of his hand the space around his palm cracked and with a subtle shattering sound echoed in my ears, the ground beneath my feet began to quake uncontrollably, as the the atmosphere around me become more and more heavy. I felt short for breath. I focused my gaze in front and saw the space around the individual had cracked and fine lines had appeared in the air.

[Warning!] [Warning!]

Then I heard a monotonous voice inside my head. It was the system.

I saw darkness start to envelope the edges of my eyes.

Just as I tried to take a quick look in front, at the two individuals, my vision became even worse and soon my vision had completely blurred.

With a deafening sound of glass shattering, I held on to my chest, as I felt my heartbeat quicken. My mind became foggy, as my eyes could no longer see anything. My body fidgeted uncomfortably, as I held on to my consciousness. But a moment later, a painful squeak escaped my mouth, as my mind blanked out.

***

My breathing was rigid and my body felt as heavy as lead.

“What the hell was that?” I couldn’t understand anything. A moment ago I was seeing Jiwoo’s memories, then all of a sudden I found myself on a battlefield, filled with corpses.

I was confused, no, I was beyond confused.

“Who were those two?”

My mind raced, but everything I saw felt almost unreal. Like a dream.

Those voices, Jiwoo’s memories and the error noise I heard while watching those two individuals.

‘What was going on?’

Getting up from the floor, I sat down on the chair and took my phone out of my pocket.

“What...?” I was surprised to see that two days have passed since I lost consciousness.

“What the fuck is going on?” I leaned back into the chair and thought.

Everything I saw and felt, seemed almost like a dream, but at the same time undoubtedly true and real.

But I was still doubtful. And the two people I saw at the end... who were they?

“Thinking about it won’t do me any good, but...” I frowned as I remembered about Jiwoo.

That look he had, and the look his father had on his face... I just couldn’t get it out of my head.

Losing someone precious to you was not something you could get used to. And I knew best just how painful it was to lose someone precious to you.

“I lost everything and everyone. Master... Koeji and... Rachael.” Remembering about them made the frown over my face to deepen. I was not strong enough to protect them in the past.

Getting up from the chair, I grabbed my phone from over the desk and exited the room.

I felt like if I thought about those things any longer, I would go insane. I exited the dormitory building and took a deep breath. Inhaling the fresh air.

It was evening time. The sun was setting and the sky was dyed with a beautiful shade of red and orange.

After aimlessly walking around I sat down on a bench near the garden.

I sat down and enjoyed the view. It looked beautiful. The flowers growing in the garden and the trees which made the scenery look tranquil.

For a moment, all my worries disappeared.

There in the garden I saw a batch of tulips growing. I stood up from the bench and walked towards where the tulips were.

I crouched down and looked at the tulips up close. They looked beautiful. They were in full bloom.

“She also used to like tulips, didn’t she?” I mumbled to myself.

“Perfect and deep love, was it?” I mumbled to myself again as I gazed at the tulips.

I stood up and saw someone approach me from my right side. And it was not someone I was happy to see.

“Come with me trash.” Thomas ordered.

“Can we please do this another time Thomas?” I asked.

Seriously I was not in the mood to deal with this little shit. I already had a mountain full of things on my mind.

“You have grown some balls, trash.” He scoffed. “Do you really want your sister to lose her job, huh?”

“What did you say...?” I threateningly said. I clenched my hand in to a fist and my eyes turned cold.

“If you don’t want that to happen then follow me quietly. " Thomas said as the frown over his face subsided.

In the end, I followed him from behind.

His blonde hair fluttered as he walked in front of me. Soon we reached the training facility and we went behind the training facility.

This was mostly likely a blind spot. I looked around and saw that there were no cameras here.

“So what do you want?” I bluntly asked.

Following my words, his leg connected to my abdomen area and I stumbled down on the ground.

Then he started to kick me continously.

I could have dodged easily, or fought back, but decided not to. Didn’t want to reveal my strength just yet.

And there was a good reason for that.

“Where the hell were you for the past two weeks?” Anger flashed on his face, as the strength of his kicks increased. “When I told you to come here two weeks ago, why didn’t you come here?”

Then with another kick to my liver, Thomas stopped and took a step back.

‘I see... this was the kind of life Jiwoo was spending here in the Lock,’ I thought as I got up from the ground and wiped my lips, and shaked the dirt off of my clothes.

“I asked you something trash?” Thomas’s bark simply went in from one ear and out of other.

I glared at him with my emotionless eyes. ‘Should I just kill him right now?’ I inwardly thought as I glared straight in his eyes.

“But let’s end it for now. I will properly punish you for disobeying me during the tournament. You better be ready?” With that, he bumped into my shoulder and left.

I looked at my hand and closed it into a fist. ‘I should have just killed him?’ I thought to myself.

Then I stepped out and saw Jiyoung standing there with her arms crossed, and a confused expression over her face.

I had already felt her presence but ignored to point it out.

“Why did you let yourself get beaten up?” Jiyoung asked. She sounded confused.

Well with the strength I had, taking down someone like Thomas was as easy for me as stomping a bug.

So her confusion was evident. I had already killed a ranked demon, but got beaten up by a brat, who was on the borderline of breaking through to the rank.

But I didn’t answer.

Looking me straight in the eyes, she calmly exclaimed. “You're stronger than all of the first years and might even be on pair with some of the strongest second year—!”

But I cut her off and spoke.

“I have my reasons. Thanks for caring, but... you don't have involve yourself in this matter." With weary smile I said, then stepped forward, leaving Jiyoung behind.

I just wanted to get some rest at this point. I felt lethargic.