Episode 1 - Supernaturals

"Ugh...!"

A young man groaned in pain as he was lying down on a cold floor half-naked, with only a pair of pants on him.

He slowly opened his eyes and the only thing he could see was a gray rock ceiling above him. His vision was a little blurry, and he had a slight headache.

He tried to move his body, but he felt a sharp, excruciating pain throughout the body as soon as he did that. For some reason, his arms were aching, and his legs were so frozen that it become numb. The only body part he could move freely was his head.

'Where am I?' He turned left & right and noted the surroundings with the limited eyesight he had.

He was in some kind of cave with luminous crystals stuck on the side walls, which brightened the place up. It was his first time seeing something magical like those crystals glowing on it's own. He wanted to explore more, to find out about this strange place, but he was unable to, considering his current condition.

An hour later, when he could feel his limbs again and was able to move a little, he tried to get up. At first, he struggled a lot, but he was able to stand up in the end. His face was as pale as a vampire who hasn't sucked blood for a long time and he was barely holding up while leaning onto the walls on the sides. On top of that, his body was shivering from the chilling temperature the cave had, causing him to breathe unevenly.

"Let's get out of here first."

He used those walls as a support to walk the path in front of him and searched for an exit. He kept walking until he reached the end of the cave.

'What the hell?' He cursed inwardly.

The exit was completely blocked with a boulder, which was placed onto the entrance so that no one could escape from there, even if they tried.

"Hello? Is anyone there outside?" He tried to call for help. "Someone, please help. I'm trapped here."

However, no one answered from the other side even after try yelling many times in a row and he eventually gave up in the end.

"Was I kidnapped?" The only plausible explanation he could come up with was this.

But the question was - who would try to kidnap him? And for why?

He wasn't filthy rich nor he had any valuables on him. He was a 31-year-old single and an ordinary salaryman who lived off from making money in a software company as a senior project manager. No one had any grudges against him since childhood. He was a peaceful man and would stay out of trouble all the time. The only dangerous thing he ever get involved with, was the incident happened in the convenience store.

He just visited there to buy some groceries and was going to leave quietly afterwards, but everything became a mess when a deserter showed up at the same time with a gun and explosives in his bag.[2]

Fortunately, there was a police officer present who deemed him suspicious and started interrogating him. However, that didn't turn out so well since the deserter took the young girl who was at the counter as his hostage to escape from there.

He was a regular customer there, and he knew that girl very well. She was an orphan just like him and was working there as a part-timer to cover her college fees. To him, she was a sweet and kind girl who always talked to him in a friendly manner whenever he visited the store. He wanted nothing happened to her, since she had a future ahead of her.

Hence, he rushed towards him and attacked the deserter from behind when he wasn't looking. The girl used that opportunity to break free from his hold and hid behind the police officer for protection. After checking the girl was safe, the old man sighed in relief.

But it didn't take long for that emotion to turn into regret as he heard a gunshot and saw lots of blood pouring out of his stomach. He collapsed on the ground and started losing consciousness. The last thing he saw were the worrisome faces of that girl he saved and the police officer whom he helped.

The girl cried and called out to him, 'Ahjussi! Ahjussi!' while the police officer shot several bullets in the direction the criminal was, before coming over to his side.[2]

That was all he could remember before passing out. When he woke up, he found himself in an unfamiliar place like this. He tried to think hard about what happened afterwards, but nothing came to mind.

This was a worst-case scenario to him. First, he was trapped in a cave with a temperature of less than 12 degree Celsius. Plus, he was half-naked. Imagine how freezing the atmosphere was for him there. Second, no food or water was available there so that he can survive even for a day or two. Above all, he doesn't even know why he was here.

Everything was a mess.

As time passed by, he became anxious and started punching the boulder with his bare fists, even though his arms were hurting like hell just by moving it around. He still kept punching it until he was satisfied. "Hah! Hah!" He was too frustrated to even think properly.

That's when he noticed something. The back of his left hand had some kind of tattoo which wasn't there before. It was black colored and had a two horned skull face drawn on it.

"What's this.." When he tried to touch it, the tattoo glowed.

It ignited into red flames and he felt a burning sensation in his hand. It's as if some hot iron was being burned into the skin, leaving a permanent scar.

"Aahhhh!!!!" He screamed in pain.

A few minutes later, the flame extinguished from his hand along with the tattoo mark and a window screen similar to a hologram appeared before him.

[System Activated]

Ding!

[You have successfully completed the tutorial quest.]

[You've received 500 coins as a reward]

"..?" He darted back a little and examined the screen.

It was blue colored, and the letters were written in white. When he tried to touch it, his hand passed through the screen like it was air.

Suddenly, another screen popped up out of nowhere.

[Quest #1 - Getting Familiar With The Environment]

Type: Tutorial

Difficulty: F

Simple Conditions: Examine your surroundings and quickly adapt to your new life.

Rewards: 500 Coins

Status: Completed

"What is all this!?"

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