1 Prologue: Survive

[System notification - Updated objective: Survive]

Eguru looked at it and his eyes widened. "Huh?", he was confused. But it's not only the fact, that he saw some pop-up before his eyes, but also was he in a massive, dark hall. He couldn't see much, but it was enough to tell at least that. His eyes slowly began to adjust to the darkness and more and more of what seemed to be out of his sight began to give information to his brain. A minute later, he didn't believe how immensive this chamber was. About 20 metres, no, if not even taller pillars were filling his sight and the expanse of this hall seemed to be infinite. At least, he believed that. 'I really don't know how I got here, but I better not think about it now. From what I've seen until now and the message that's been displaying the whole time, I'll probably have a bad time soon enough.'

The question is, when? The entire time this man just stood there and observed his surroundings, but nothing much happened 'till now. In fact, the only thing that's happened is his appereance in this place. He hasn't set a foot forward, since then. And only now, he's noticed the cold-and-emptiness he feels inside of him. It's as if you were alone on an rainy day, standing in the cold while thinking about your life. 'This atmosphere really is something. And the fact that it's been so quiet up until now, scares me.' A chill went down his spine.

Unpleasent pictures found their appereance in his mind. 'I really do hope I won't get chased by monsters soon. Or face the devil at some point'.

In the very moment, the corner of his eye picked up something crawling down one of the pillars. The sound that came from that direction didn't really give him any reason to look forward to this either. It sounded like something was walking through a pile of blood, sticky blood. The noise wasn't necessarily loud, but it definetely didn't sound pleasant to the human ear.

"..."

'I've jinxed myself, haven't I? God damnit.' He got a little angry at himself for it but soon enough calmed down as he realized he couldn't be here any longer. 'Should I run, hide or just lie down on the floor to make myself less vis...'

Suddenly, he had to swallow hard. His breath began to tighten. The horrifying sight right before his eyes paralyzed his body. A few centimetres in front of his face, was the face of the most frightening creature he's ever laid eyes upon.

It's tongue stuck out drooling and the creature's wobbly eyes constantly moving in different directions made a sickening clicking sound. 'Nooo. no. no, no. What the fuck is this monster doing in front of me? Oh hell no you don't want me to survive getting chased by something like this..'

Egurus body began shaking. He wanted to move, but simply couldn't. 'Is this what real fear is like?' This happened way too fast, but these few seconds feel like eternity.

Soon enough the monster let out a growl and disappeared into nothingness. The only thing left from it, is it's drool that was now on the floor. 'How many of these things are here?', he dropped to the floor as he was out of breath. 'If I want to survive, I better start running or hiding now. You never know what's luring in the dark...'

Taking a deep, calming breath Eguru stood up and maintained balance. 'Lights?', he looked around the chamber and noticed the rather sudden change. It wasn't much, but there were now little lights all over the pillars and walls.

[System announcement - Added description to the current objective: Survive for 3 hours. 2 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds remaining]

He quickly read the message and with that loud screeching and more growling could be heard. 'If my ears aren't fooling me now, they come from behind.. And above!'

His gaze swiftly moved up but even with more illumination, he still couldn't see the top of the chamber. 'Just how fucking tall is this?!'. Not wasting any more time his body now began to quickly shift forward. Just few seconds later, the same ugly creature dropped onto the spot Eguru last stood. It was still as horrifying as before.

The difference now though was that he could see it's whole body. 'Well it's just as disgusting as it's face' was the only thought about this being as he absolutely didn't have the time to examine it's looks.

Eguru ran as fast as he could and scouted the sides of the chamber. 'It'd be good if there were any doors. Or spots to hide.' But now was not the time for him to hide or run somewhere else. Instead, he soon reached another pillar and decided to turn left and circle the monster, as it was so big it had to slow down at some point.

'Yes!' It worked. Slamming against the wall, the creature let out a groan. For just a second Eguru decided to give it a closer look. It's stomach was as round as a pregnant woman's belly was. Only now he had also noticed that it was way bigger than it's head.

Before it got up again, he quickly ran off to find a place to hide. The last thing he saw were it's legs slowly growing bigger as the creature got up. 'Okay.. That's definetely more than just two legs, I guess'

After quite a bit of running and hiding behind pillars, he turned around to see if he'd be able to spot the monster. 'Phew..', he felt puffed after running for so long. 'How long has it been since I last ran this much? Probably around 700 years now. Ha. That's actually crazy.

----

| ...Eguru was by no means human at this point of time. He died exactly 697 years ago at the age of 20 due to being attacked by wild beasts. A rather slow and sad death. 'But how can he be here, alive?' you may ask. Well, it's simple. There are sayings that people go to either heaven, or hell after one's death. Though this is by no means wrong and to this day nothing about this saying has changed, something is missing. "The Void" as it is called.

If people did neither good, nor wrong and the "judges" can't decide where to send humans off to, they are put into the endless void. Between heaven and hell there lays another layer of existence.

The souls of humans visit this place and enter eternal slumber while remaining conscious. Either for a hundred years, five hundred years or thousands of years. Maybe even forever. If they get lucky, living another life is as good as it gets. Worst case: Their souls get erased from existence, vanishing permanently. "Game over" then. "Executioners" love their job.

However, there still is the chance of being reborn into another universe. This kind of reincarnation was quite rare, but still occasionally happens. So it happened. Eguru, a soul originally slumbering in an void was taken to his trial... |

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His heart dropped as he read the system announcement once again.

[System announcement - Updated current objective's description: Survive for 3 hours. 2 hours, 18 minutes and 46 seconds remaining]

"It's only been 40 minutes?!" He made a pained expression as he couldn't believe it. Those 40 minutes of surviving felt like at least double. But it simply wasn't. Sweat ran down all over his face and he took his time to get rid of his hoodie and wipe off his body fluids. 'Water.. Would really be nice. Well, something refreshing.'

Eguru has been hiding behind this pillar for around five minutes now and couldn't make out a single sound since then. 'Not a single noise in those minutes? Are you kidding me? That really doesn't make things better, jeez.'

Indeed it only made things worse. Not knowing where the creature he managed to seemingly get rid off was, gives him the chills.

'Actually, it may be better to stay here for a little longer. If I've seen correctly that beast doesn't have a nose and thus, can't smell. But if it indeed can smell for whatever reason, I'd probably be able to outrun it again.'

Eguru continued to hide. He got enough stamina left to outrun it once again. Of course there also is the possibility of another creature showing up, but right now he doesn't take this to consideration.

8 Minutes later still, nothing has happened. 'No way this is working..' After a while of just waiting, he got curious. He wanted to know more about this chamber and see if there were any doors leading to other halls or if he could find traces of that creature. Not only that but he was also wondering whether or not there was another human being with him that had the same task.

'Let's go I guess. There's no way I'll spend another 2 hours just standing here hoping to be safe.' With that in mind, he looked around once again to maybe spot the creature.

That was not the case though. So while silently taking one step after another and staying behind pillars most of the time Eguru advanced deeper into the chamber. 'Wait did I just hear something?' He stood still, listening to try if he can pick up the noise he just heard clearly.

As expected, his hearing didn't fool him. There indeed was something, or someone far away from him. But the sound was so quiet you couldn't make out what exactly it was. So he walked futher to pursue it. 'Please don't tell me this is going to be my biggest mistake.'

Soon enough, the distance between him and the mysterious noise was not that big anymore. As he could now clearly hear it, he didn't want to go further. He was scared. Just a few seconds ago he heard a female voice crying for help, her voice getting lower and lower each time. A few times later, her voice cracked and she let out her last, pained squeek before going quiet.

'So I was not the only one after all.. It's a bad thing I came here. Who knows for how long I'm going to be safe before getting hunted again.'

He didn't turn around but rather started slowly walking backwards now. 'Is she being eaten?!' Sounds of bones crunching and meat ripping off definetely came from that direction. 'Fuck this.. This is disgusting, I need to get out of here!'

Instead of now trying to be really quiet he picked up his pace. Of course he wasn't sprinting - that would cause too much noise and the creature would notice him. Instead he walked. Fast. The only thing he now wanted was to get out of here.

And for that, he needed to survive first.

[System announcement - Updated current objective's description: Survive for 3 hours. 1 hour, 47 minutes and 11 seconds remaining]

'I've just survived for more than an hour and if this continues, my chances of getting out alive are actually quite low... How I hate this' He let out a sigh. But he got used to being here, which was good in a way.

Being able to take full control of your body and stay relaxed in those kinds of situations is a good thing.

The fact that the woman was eaten didn't really bother him too much. When he was alive in the real world, he was part of an organization responsible for finding dead bodies of people dead in the wilderness.

Rotten flesh wasn't new to him. Especially not flesh of humans that got half way eaten by animals or beasts. Even the world he previously lived in was no ordinary one.

Surviving was his top priority. He didn't want to be eaten by these creatures. No one would like to.

So he got near the place he hid before, now hiding in a different spot. If he wanted to survive, silently switching locations from time to time was necessary.

Also, his plan of finding a door didn't succeed. Actually, the only thing he found out that no matter how far he went, this enormous hall always had the same layout.

'Now I wait and use as much time hiding here as I can. I've realized just running around carefree is too dangerous...'