001 The Soul Trial

Chapter 000

To get a superpower, I joined the survival game. But a small system glitch changed my mission in the Soul Trial from the universal “Survival” to… “Slay Sitri”.

Sitri is the great prince of hell who reigns over sixty legions of demons. And his specialty? He creates love between two souls from thin air.

When I first met that devil, he smirked with those fox eyes, taking pride in holding the hearts of all mortals in his hand.

Me? I smile, too.

Because I was born with alexithymia, meaning I’m a heartless sociopath that doesn’t feel any emotions.

Nice to meet you, Mr. Devil. I grin at him, licking my canine. How are you going to manipulate my heart, when I don’t have one?

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Chapter 001 The Soul Trial

[Thanks for joining the Soul Trial, hero D25M12! Upon your triumph, you will be blessed with a superpower personalized for you!]

[Future is the new mankind!]

Glorious words delivered by an emotionless voice, mixed with buzzes like from an old landline. And the landline falls into absolute silence with the last word barely landing.

Meph opened his eyes slowly so they could adjust to light. A worry in vain. Surrounding him was pitch darkness. Even the presumed old landline was nowhere in sight as if it never existed.

He had no idea where he was.

Recently, the Soul Trial has been hell-bent on recruiting, sending the once valuable invitations through junk mails like some desperate dying company. It has been peaceful for a thousand years ever since the Magic Age ended World War Three, and the Internet Age along with it. The excitement of getting a superpower was decaying as people started crawling out of the shadow of war.

[Your superpower is just one drop of blood away]

That was the Soul Trial’s slogan. As easy as they made it for people, less and less are willing to join.

To register, one needed only to put a drop of blood on the invitation. Blackness gulped Mephthe the moment his drop of blood landed on the invitation’s ancient kraft paper. The next thing he knew, he was waking up to this passionless “welcome”.

No introduction. No preparation.

Of course the Soul Trial’s death rate was high as 89%. And they were wondering why people are no longer as eager to join.

Light crawled in sneakily, finally giving Meph a glimpse of the surrounding. Meph looked up, realizing he was in a deep dark well. Somewhere above his head,  some dark clouds just released the moon.

In the mouth of the well, the moon looked like a cold eye in the sky, watching mercilessly as Meph scouts around.

There wasn’t much.

An iron door, chained tightly by a five-digit combination lock.

A window, stuffed by an Ivory twig sticking in, one that felt more like a broken bone if giants actually exist.

A raven shaped dirty little coffee table in the center, one side of the wing cut off cleanly, leaving the table crooked to the other side, almost falling.

That’s it.

That, and some posters on the wall with different images of a little girl wearing a cute red hoodie, and the same word at the bottom:

WANTED.

Meph went for the raven desk.

Right on its edge was a dirty plate holding a slice of cake, a corner of it bit off. Green mold growing on the old piece of cake, faintly revealing a card beneath. By its side, an empty bottle without a cap. On its neck ties another card--

[Drink me]

Weird. Meph shook the impossible idea out of his head. His eyes landing on the card under the mold.

Thinking for a second, Meph grabbed some of the moist dirt by his feet and kneads them between his fingers. To create a crude layer of protection, sort of,  before he reached for the card covered in mold.

Who knew. Anything can be poisonous in this world. The 89% death rate was no joke.

[Eat me]

The ink reserved by the mold reads, vaguely.

Reluctant as he was, Meph could no longer ignore the impossible idea his brain was shouting at him, even though that idea has the least to do with a lethal game—

Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland.

A little girl fell into a rabbit hole, found a cake with a card that says “eat me”. She grew big as a giant eating it, made a bunch of friends, and woke up intact.

What a kind world she lived in. Whoever wrote it couldn’t have witnessed a war.

Was Mepn in that rabbit hole?!

Meph shot his head up in the sudden realization, pressing close to the walls under the dim moonlight. A hollow log. The wall around him was dusty with spiderwebs, hardened almost fossil-like, but a definite, hollow, log. Of something once enormous.

His eyes shoot to the lock on the door. A five-digit code, to freedom. What could it be? If the hint is Alice and Wonderland, then...

Meph twisted the combination lock into the first thing he could think of that had anything to do with this peculiar setting--

Alice.

Nothing happened.

There wasn’t excitement in Meph’s eyes when he found the two cards, nor was there disappointment when his first try failed. He takes a look out of the peephole on the door before falling silent into his own thoughts.

Unlike his calm aura, somewhere on some screens, bullet comments were flying with a speed that actually matched real bullets right now--

[Finally he found out! I thought he was going to die without knowing anything lolll]

[A newbie in the Trial of Alice? And his portal opened in THE death zone?! The first blood this time is too easy...boring!]

[But I seem to remember that the system has a long intro in this trial. Am I crazy or...?]

[You are not crazy, the system is! I have been camping at the death zone of this trial for a long time now. The system did not just skip the intro of the trial, it hasn’t even assigned him any mission! The code is “queen”, and he might be able to figure it out if he got the mission of “Key to escape: Who sent you”. But now he WILL die.]

[He still has a chance. The Rabbit would ask him again upon arrival.]

[Yeah, before the Rabbit skins him! LOLLL! A high-level player might be able to pull a clutch, but not a newbie.]

[I almost want to tell him. A pity to see such a pretty boy die so fast. sigh]

[Even without the spoiler filler, he can’t see our hints because he can’t open his screen yet. It’s a function explained in the intro he skipped. This, my kids, should teach you about skipping game tutorials haha]

--- Bullet Comments with spoiler will be screened out for the hero ---

Knock, knock, knock.

Three painfully slow knocks broke the absolute silence in the rabbit hole, and instantly Meph noticed the temperature around him pluming as if whoever knocked brought a silent snowstorm with them.

His eyes landed on the door. The heavy, iron door that just trembled at the three seemingly polite and harmless knocks.

“Alice, are you in there?” A low, creepy voice asked as if someone was suppressing a malicious laugh from escaping.

The hair on Meph’s arm stood up. According to mother, this meant he should be scared, and flee if he can.

That was no an option--

Unlike the homeless ones who joined because they were left with no option in life, he CHOSE to be here.