Chapter 3- The World Beyond

The moment he saw that floating, holographic image, Malice froze in his place. His eyes blinked silently. It took him a few seconds to gather up his mind and finally blink for the first time. Moving his head, he noticed the boxes move along with him as if they were a part of his vision rather than a foreign object on their own.

Feeling weirded out, he moved his head again and the boxes moved again. Then, he instinctively extended his hand and tried to touch the boxes. But, his finger went straight through them as if they had no corporal presence in that world and were mere illusions.

It took the boy a good few seconds before it suddenly clicked in his brain.

"This…" Rubbing the back of his head confusedly, he took a moment to remember something. "I remember hearing someone talk about something like this…"

During one of his scavenging hunts for food near an old restaurant, he once heard a group of people, presumably mundane soldiers talking about the Marked Nobles. Naturally, Malice was aware of the supernatural abilities the Marked ones possessed so he secretly listened to them and one of the details they went over was the fact that they can see some kind of holographic imagery that links them to the World Beyond.

He knew what holographic images looked like since this city was stuffed full of them with all the cheap advertisements on buildings and roads. However, the specifications were still not there so it took him a few seconds to understand it.

'Did I… Get Marked?' He asked himself in disbelief when the realization hit.

"Uh… I think these boxes are telling me that… But, I can't read so I can't tell for sure…" Squinting his eyes, he tried to understand the symbols written in front of him, only to give up rather quickly.

Since he lived his entire life as a slum rat, education was naturally out of the question. Even things as simple as reading or writing were unsurmountable walls for Malice. These floating boxes looked as much of a gibberish as any other thing he had seen.

'Of all the times education became important.' Sighing at his horrible luck, he decided to simply guess based on the bits and pieces of information he had at this point.

"Let's backtrack for a second. I saw this weird red crystal, I touched it, it disintegrated and then a mark appeared on the back of my hand… A mark… Then, this weird set of holographic boxes appeared a few seconds later… If I'm not mistaken, this could very much be the case." 

Reaching that point, he stared at the skull mark on the back of his hand. The terrifying tattoo was still ominously staring at him and it only made him frown harder. "I have seen some Marked Nobles with these marks on the back of their hands before if I recall correctly. But, I can't recall if they had something like this."

Though, since his eyes were always set on their pockets rather than their hands, he didn't care much about that detail before. 

"But, then again, why did that Shard make me a Marked one? And if I became a Marked one… Can I… I can go to another world?" Just muttering those words made him feel even weirder inside. The number of people who wished to be Marked was simply unimaginable.

They could see on their TVs and news outlets across every major city in the world how these Marked ones achieved great things. They were the shining lights of humanity and the beacon of hope they never knew they needed.

Malice had seen the Marked Ones in the news before. Walking through the streets of the city in their expensive attires and glamorous appearances, being cheered by countless people while they simply treated them like background noise.

He would be a damn liar if he said that he didn't feel jealous of them. Hell, Malice felt jealous of every single human who had food to eat daily without worrying about dying from hunger. But, that was that and this was this. 

Here he was now, potentially seeing a point of change in his life that he never fathomed could happen. Being Marked was like hitting the jackpot. No, more like hitting five jackpots in a row. Yet, for some reason, he didn't feel anything different from normal.

Perhaps because the fact didn't dawn on him yet or perhaps he was simply numb to the feeling of happiness, if he ever even knew what happiness meant in the first place. Either way, he felt nothing different than usual. So, even when he was faced with this reality, he was able to think rationally and calmly about the ramifications of such a development.

"Uh, I know that people who get Marked can go to a different world… Uh, what was its name again? The World Beyond? Yeah, that's the name."

The 'World Beyond' is, as the name suggests, a realm beyond the eyes of most people. A magical land, vast enough to engulf this world, filled with all kinds of supernatural things that Malice had never seen in his life.

Different creatures, treasures, and all kinds of mesmerizing things a normal person cannot see in their lifetime. That place is also called humanity's second home since across its entire history, humans were able to establish a presence there and even develop an entirely different culture and civilization that differs from the one in this world.

'I have seen some monsters that were brought out of that place before… They looked really terrifying.' He mused as he recalled a few instances where the Marked Ones brought dead carcasses of monsters they had killed in the World Beyond to this world as a way of celebrating their achievements and getting even more praise and attention from the mundane fools.

Just a single glance at those corpses was enough to send fear into his heart like nothing else ever did. They were the most hideous-looking things he had ever seen and that came from someone who dived into dumpsters every day for a living.

This brings Malice to the second most important detail of this entire problem. Apart from its glamorous appearance as the treasure trove of all dreams, the World Beyond had a prominent dark side too… It was simply deadly.

No, deadly isn't even the right word to describe that world. Malice had heard that every single thing in that world can kill you, and if it can't kill you, then it can do things to your body that this world wishes to keep hidden from its people.

However, how can they hide something like that? The news of Marked Ones, nobles, and others alike, getting killed in one way or another was basically daily news. Malice didn't know the details about how most of them died, but the fact that he had never seen their corpses in the burial marches they conducted for these fallen ones told him more than he needed to know about the nature of this world.

"If I'm gonna be sent there, how can I survive?" He frowned as he looked down.

Malice had a frail body, or to be more precise, a bunch of rattly bones covered with pale skin. He had no physical power whatsoever. If he was sent there, he knew for certain that he was dead, no questions asked.

Which brings him to his third problem and arguably the crux of this entire dilemma. 

'What should I do now? Do I have to tell someone? Or go to a place to seek help? Do they even help people like me?' 

The more questions he asked himself, the more nervous he became. He felt the fear of death slowly crawling into his heart. Putting his hand against his chest, he tried to calm down.

"I need to calm down. I haven't been sent to this world yet. I don't know when that might happen or if it's gonna happen on its own in the first place. I just need to think of a solution."

'Yeah… A solution… Like hell I'm gonna find a solution to a situation like this!!' Grabbing his hair, he cursed the ever-living hell out of his luck and lack and intelligence. 'I should've just ignored that damned thing and went back to sleep.'

As he was like that, he heard another small noise that caught his attention. Looking up, he noticed the floating boxes in front of him had suddenly shifted on their own.

[The Shard Of Hatred had sensed your distress.]

[Guiding Beacon has been established.]

[Your path has been set in stone.]

[Transportaion will begin.]

"Huh? What is happening right now? Why is it sending so many messages?" Feeling a deep unease at the sudden change, he tried to understand what the messages were trying to tell him.

[Transportation has been initiated.]

[10… 9… 8… 7… 6…]

"Numbers? Why is it counting down now?" Finally seeing things he was familiar with, Malice felt even more worried. "What are you trying to do, goddammit? Talk to me!" He yelled.

But, the thing didn't respond.

[5… 4… 3…]

Malice's heart started beating loudly. Meanwhile, on the other corner of the street, a sleeping homeless man heard his cries and woke up. He then started walking toward the corner where Malice was sitting.

"Shut your damn mouth, you stupid brat! I'm trying to sleep!" 

[2… 1…]

[Teleportation begins.]

[Good luck, Marked Malice. May the darkness guide you.]

The moment the homeless man peeked angrily, Malice suddenly vanished from sight in an instant.

"Huh?" The man saw a fleeting glimpse of it and it stunned him for a second. Blinking silently, he rubbed his eyes for a moment.

"What in god's name… I swear I heard that kid yelling… Where did he go?" Looking around curiously, he couldn't see any trace left of the boy. It was as if the earth had opened and swallowed him.

"... Oh well, less noise for me. I need some sleep." Yawning loudly, he turned around and went back to his small, not-so-comfy bed and went to sleep again.