Free Web NovelChapter 18: Mission: Survive.
Two days passed in a blink of an eye in this cage.
No different from when he was in the clan, where his parents restricted his movements in order to hide his identity when he turned out to be trash.
Training was still the same, but a bit boring. Since he had gained the Sovereign of Slaughter Instinct, he was like a battle killing machine.
Ding!
[Reminder: Mission 2, The Hunt.]
[Time Limit: 4 Days]
[Objective: Kill a hundred Initiate Realm Volkoids.]
[Reward: 2 Random Gacha Tickets.]
[Remaining Time: 30 minutes.]
Under the shining moonlight, Lucien, who was planning to rest, was jolted by the system notification.
Within these two days, he had tried everything to convince Seraphina to let him leave the castle, she could even follow him.
She didn’t agree.
No matter what he tried, she refused. Lucien eventually gave up, his pride wounded, and didn’t bring it up again.
Looking at the system notification before him, he shook his head. Thank goodness there was no penalty for failure.
He could only blame his luck and his weakness.
Thirty minutes passed in the blink of an eye, and the system notification came through.
But Lucien didn’t know he had made a big mistake.
Ding!
[Host has failed the mission, The Hunt. Host’s first ever failed mission.]
Ding!
[Detecting Host has failed a mission before ever completing one. What a disappointment.]
[According to system protocol, punishment must be given for failing a mission while completing none. This is laziness.]
Ding!
[Beginning commencement of Host’s punishment.]
The notifications dropped one after another, and before Lucien could utter a single word, his body vanished from the room.
---
Seraphina, who was in a meeting with her subordinates, suddenly felt Lucien’s aura disappear from the castle.
She panicked.
Her figure vanished from the throne room in an instant, leaving the elders stupefied and frozen in confusion.
Her figure reappeared in his room. She stood in the center, her gaze sweeping across the empty space where his presence had been moments ago.
Her expression turned ugly. His aura had been suddenly cut off, completely severed, as if it had never existed.
She closed her eyes. Originat began to flow toward her surroundings, swirling around her like a living current. Her hands moved with insane speed, weaving intricate patterns in the air as she activated the tracking technique.
She had left something on Lucien, a trace of her own essence, buried deep within his aura. With it, she could track him no matter where he was, no matter how far he ran.
Her eyes snapped open in shock and disbelief.
She couldn’t trace him.
Nothing.
The connection was gone, severed as if it had been erased from existence.
Killing intent began to pour from her eyes, her gaze turning frighteningly cold. The temperature in the room seemed to drop, the air growing heavy with her fury.
She didn’t know what was happening. But the power that could teleport Lucien away from here without her noticing, without her sensing anything, showed that the person responsible was far stronger than her.
She hadn’t even sensed the aura of the one who took him.
Her fists clenched. Her breath came slower, colder.
Someone had taken him.
She disappeared from the room, appearing back at the throne room in an instant.
The elders, who were still discussing her sudden disappearance, suddenly felt a heavy killing intent descend upon them.
Their expressions turned ugly as they found it hard to breathe under the oppressive aura.
And the culprit was none other than their Empress.
But her expression scared them. They had never seen the Empress like this before.
Her eyes were filled with killing intent, cold, ruthless, and utterly terrifying. They felt as if Doomsday itself was arriving.
"Who is it? Who took him?" Seraphina’s shrill, angry voice rang through the throne room, echoing off the walls like a blade.
Some elders unconsciously took a step backward, their faces pale.
"Who are you talking about? Can’t you see you are harming your subordinates?" Granny Cherry stepped forward, waving her hands to reduce the pressure on the elders.
"Are you the one responsible?" Seraphina’s gaze landed on Granny Cherry, cold and piercing.
"Who the hell are you talking about?" Granny Cherry was already losing her composure. Who was the Empress talking about?
"Aren’t you supposed to know? I am talking about my Darling, Lucien." Her words shook the elders. Even Granny Cherry was shocked.
"He’s missing from the castle. And I can’t track him."
All the elders now knew the reason for her outburst, and they began to shiver. Even though Lucien had stayed here for a short time, they knew how much the Empress cared for him, how deeply her obsession ran.
Granny Cherry’s eyes flickered. "So you think we are responsible for it?"
Seraphina’s cold eyes surveyed everyone. "I hope not. Or else..."
"Or else what?" Granny Cherry countered, her voice steady but strained.
"Or else I don’t mind massacring everyone."
Her cold voice rang out in the ears of the elders, and they felt chills run down their spines. Even Granny Cherry’s expression turned ugly.
The elders began to curse the person responsible for this. They knew that Seraphina wasn’t joking, and there was no way they could run.
---
Lucien felt his vision turn upside down, and when he recovered and checked his surroundings, he realized he was no longer in the castle.
Forests. This was the first thing he saw.
And when he assessed his surroundings, his expression turned ugly.
He was in a forest, vast and endless, its edges hidden beyond sight. The trees rose like mountains, their trunks thick and ancient, their branches clawing at the blood-red sky. The ground beneath his feet was uneven, littered with jagged rocks and patches of withered grass.
The surroundings were ferocious. And when Lucien glanced around, he saw incomplete skeletons and bones scattered among the roots, remnants of creatures, some large, some small, all long dead.
The air gave a bloody vibe, heavy, chilly, and thick with the scent of rust and decay. It pressed against his skin like a warning.
This was no ordinary forest.
The most surprising thing was the sun. It wasn’t golden. It was red, deep, crimson, and bleeding light across the sky like an open wound.
Where am I? Lucien thought, his expression darkening.
He remembered the system notification about the failed mission and the punishment.
His expression drooped. He had never expected to be punished for a mission failure.
Ding!
[Host, welcome to the Land of Death.]
[Mission: Survive.]
[Objective: Survive for 5 days.]
[Time Limit: 5 Days.]
[Reward: None.]
[Penalty: Permanent death. Your soul will be bound to this land for eternity.]
[Additional Conditions:]
· System access is temporarily locked.
· No external aid.
· No experience points from kills.
· Killing intent will attract stronger predators.
[Description: There is no saviour. It is only you and yourself.]
[Surviving is victory. Everything else is failure. Whatever it takes, survive.]
[Good luck, Host. You will need it.]
[Time Remaining: 00:00:01]
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