As Zack was scanning the shelves for some food, the mechanical voice echoed through the entire room. It was coming from the speakers around the corners.
[Attention, Survivors: Status Update Initiating]
He slowly exhaled and close his eyes, trying to calm himself from the trauma this voice brings. As he opened his eyes, his screen appeared before him.
'The status were different…again…,' he muttered.
ZACK'S SCREEN:
UPPER LEFT:
[Participant: Zack Martin]
[Role: Medic]
[Survival Rate: 90% + 6% = 96%]
[Attribute: Adaptive Focus: 95% +3% = 98%]
[Next Trial: Pending]
UPPER RIGHT:
[Points: 1088 points +] MAX: 25000 points
Leadership – 15 points
Strategy – 15 points
Focus – 10 points
Teamwork – 10 points
Courage – 15 points
The Transmigration Trial Complete — +1000 points
LOWER LEFT:
Abilities:
Vital Scan - Level 1(Instructions: Use this frequently to level up)
He looked at the lower right, where his weaknesses was listed before. But, there is nothing on it. It's empty. 'Why? So, that was all part of the trial before?' he thought.
Zack stared as his glowing screen. His eyes flickered to the points he gained from the previous trial.
'+1000 points? So, it would give us a thousand points if we complete each trials?" He whispered to himself.
He scanned the room, and each of them are focused on what appears in front of them, their screen — visible only to each one of them.
Arya watched as Zack tensed, his eyes scanning something only he could see. Across the room, Nicole frowned slightly, her fingers twitching, as if she had discovered something unsettling. Ellie and Mark exchanged glances, clearly uncertain whether to share what they had learned.
Arya swallowed. She saw her new ability: machine whisperer is still on level 2, she also gained 1000 points from the previous trial, giving her a total of 2095 points. Her eyes skimmed the update, but something else caught her attention.
The countdown. It is still going. But, when she looked at the others, they don't seem to have a violent reaction about it.
Does that mean, she was the only one who could see it?
She glanced at Ambrose, who, unlike the rest, looked entirely unsurprised. As if he had expected this.
But before she could dwell on it, Jake stood up abruptly, his expression clouded.
"So, let me get this right. The system will not announce when the next trial is anymore, but they give us 1000 points for the following trials we will complete?" he asked the group, exchanging glances with everyone.
"Yes," Nicole said without hesitation.
"What else should we know?" Jake asked, crossing his arms.
"That's about it," Clark said.
Meanwhile, Zack was busy looking at the inventory store. He was looking if he could purchase something. Then, it hit him — the bladepiercer that Clark has might be a good purchase.
He clicked on it.
His eyes widened when he saw how much it costs.
It is worth 2000 points.
'Damn it. Should I purchase this or not?' Zack muttering to himself. He was touching his screen, undecidedly.
'Oh what the hell, if it saves my life, then so be it. I'd rather buy this than save so much points and not be able to spend it later on because I'm dead,' he said to himself. Then, he exhaled sharply before clicking on it.
Then, a glowing light appeared in front of him. He lift his hands on the level of his stomach, and the bladepiercer appeared.
"Nice, you got one too," Clark nudged Zack's arms. "And also you, and you," pointing towards Mark and Jake.
"You must have been impressed by me, huh?" he chuckled.
"Well, I can't deny that it looks like one hell of a weapon," Jake said while swinging it across her fingers.
The bladepiercer's sleek, black blade had a faint silver glow, pulsing as if it were alive. It was light to hold but carried an undeniable weight of power. Strange symbols ran along the metal, shifting slightly when looked at, as if whispering secrets only the blade understood.
The handle was wrapped in tough, dark leather, fitting perfectly in the wielder's grip — almost as if the weapon had chosen them. At the base, a deep red gem flickered like a heartbeat, feeding off something unseen.
—
Jake saw that his new ability: battle trance was leveled up to level 2.
'Shit, I got another 2000 points from leveling up. Maybe it was from trying to open the locked room before. It didn't budge though, but at least I tried,' he thought to himself.
'Then, there's another 1000 points from the previous trial, nice!" he said, excitedly.
"Wow, you look…happy?" Mark said when he turned to Jake who was beside him.
"Well, I got a lot of points…So, I guess I'm happy," he said, while scanning the inventory store for things he could purchase.
'Let's see, I got a total of 3098 points,' he muttered while scrolling through the items. Then, he saw Zack purchased the same weapon that Clark has. 'That's something…If I purchased that, I still have 1098. Sounds pretty good.'
He bought it, and scrolled again. He saw something. A system token. Maybe if he purchased this, they could use in the future. He remembers that this was what they needed to open the locked room. But, they didn't have any. So, who did? He started wondering. But before he was lost in his thoughts, he bought one system token worth 1000 points.
'That's interesting. How did they open this room with a system token? We don't have one, let alone two. Arya, Ambrose and Nicole were the ones assigned here. It wouldn't be shocking if Nicole had a system token since she was ahead of us. But, where did they get the other one?'
Jake started to get suspicious.
His fingers hovered over his inventory screen, his mind racing. Something wasn't adding up.
Nicole having a system token made sense. She'd been ahead of them, likely gaining resources they didn't have. But Arya and Ambrose? They shouldn't have had access to one—not unless they found it somewhere. And yet, the locked room had been opened.
His jaw tightened. He'd kept quiet up until now, letting the others celebrate their new weapons and points, but this — this needed answers.
He turned his gaze to Arya. She was standing slightly apart, her arms crossed, eyes flickering from person to person like she was cataloging their reactions. Observing.
That only made him more suspicious.
Without a word, Jake pushed off the wall and strode toward her.
"We need to talk," he said under his breath.
Arya arched a brow. "About?"
"Alone."
She hesitated for a fraction of a second before nodding. He gestured toward a quieter corner of the room, away from the others. They walked in silence, the faint hum of the system's presence lingering around them.
Once they were out of earshot, Jake crossed his arms and leaned against the cold metallic wall. "Tell me the truth."
Arya frowned. "About what?"
"You, Ambrose, and Nicole opened this locked room. You needed two system tokens to do that." His voice was steady, but there was an edge to it. "Nicole probably had one. But where did the other come from?"
Arya didn't flinch, but there was a pause. "Why does it matter?"
Jake narrowed his eyes. "Because we didn't have one. None of us did. And now, you suddenly do? That's not normal. Either you're hiding something, or the system is playing with us more than we thought."
Arya exhaled, rubbing her temple. "I bough it, if that's what you're asking."
Jake studied her face, searching for any sign of a lie. Arya was smart—too smart to slip up easily. But something in her posture, the slight tension in her shoulders, told him there was more to this than she was letting on.
"You bought it? How?" he repeated, skeptical. "Then why didn't you mention it earlier? Why keep it a secret?"
Arya crossed her arms, meeting his gaze evenly. "Because I wasn't sure if I should. And frankly, I still don't know if telling you is the right choice."
Jake's expression darkened. "We're supposed to be a team."
She let out a bitter chuckle. "Are we? Because last I checked, the system is designed to pit us against each other. You think just because we survived together this long, that makes us allies? You saw what happened in the last trial."
Jake clenched his jaw. He hated that she had a point.
Arya sighed. "Look, I did buy a system token. But I didn't know if it would actually work. And I sure as hell didn't know if I could trust anyone with that information. What if someone decided they wanted it for themselves?"
Jake studied her for a moment longer, then exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. "Fine. But next time, we don't keep things like this from each other. If the system is screwing with us, we need to be ahead of it, not hiding things from each other."
Arya gave a small nod, but something about her expression made Jake uneasy. Jake already knows something, she couldn't bear to lie to him anymore.
Just before Jake walks away, "Jake, there's something else," she said softly.
Jake turned his head towards her. "What else?"
"I was able to buy that system token because I learned how to access the system," she said calmly with arms crossed while looking down on the floor.
"What? How? Since when?" Jake asked, his face laced with frustration, anger and concern.
"Before killing the Shadeborns," she said, meeting up his gaze.