Skyler coughed up blood. His entire body screamed in pain, but his anger was palpable as he glanced back at the boar that had shattered the tree.
'So... fight, is it!'
With all the speed he could muster, he reached for anything sharp within his grasp.
A wind beetle attacked him with a buzzing sound, but he grabbed a tree branch and tried to drive it into its abdomen.
However, with a resounding crack, the branch splintered, failing to breach the beetle's tough exterior.
Skyler's eyes contracted; this was the power of a 5-star monster.
He had killed many 1-star beasts by stabbing them with sharp objects and some 2-star ones yesterday, so he thought taking down others would be the same.
But no, how wrong he was.
A wind blade slashed across his body, leaving a gaping wound on his shoulder and sending him reeling backward, crashing into a tree behind him, which splintered from the forceful impact. He couldn't even scream when another attack struck him. One of the boars charged forward, its horns driving into his stomach and launching him through the air as if he were weightless.
505 watched all of this. It could not intervene since it was against the rules. Even if it could, there was nothing it could do, so the system hoped for a miracle. It still wanted to ascend to the first level of Battle Royale. However, as it witnessed the unfolding events, it accepted that it should light a candle for its 1889th host as well and hope the next one would be better.
Skyler's eyes fluttered shut as his body crashed into another tree.
His breathing was shallow.
The sounds of countless monsters approaching from one side drew eerily near, while the many beetles and boars were already around him, wreaking havoc.
It was a fleeting moment, just a few seconds for the outside world. But for Skyler, after he closed his eyes, that moment felt like an eternity.
He found himself in an alternate timeline where he had never entered the preliminary test of the Battle Royale.
He spent his 18th and 19th birthdays with his parents, living like an ordinary person with no powers or future as a Light.
Then, abruptly, when he was 20 years old, an Epic-tier huge red crystal materialized out of thin air near his home and shattered, releasing countless powerful beasts.
He witnessed his parents fighting to save weak citizens, saw people dying, including the elderly neighbor from next door who had given him dumplings every New Year, even after he was declared a waste.
Johnson Ironhart shouted at him to flee, as he wasn't even a 1-star novice Light.
And how could he attain that? He had only awakened a 1-star potential.
But he didn't run; instead, he leaped into danger to save others and those he loved.
He fought valiantly, and everyone felt confident they could manage the situation with few casualties until a towering dark monster with multiple eyes emerged from the rift created by the shattered crystal.
Skyler saw the beast, turned its glowing eyes toward his mother, who was fighting another powerful creature, and rushed forward to push her aside.
The beast's long tail sent his body flying instead of Riya Ironhart, and he was hurled straight into the open rift.
He thought he had died. He truly did. The last thing he heard was his mom's horrified cries. That was it. Maybe the entire world thought he had died as well. For them, Skyler Ironhart died at the age of 20.
Yet, that wasn't the case. He saw himself breathing and opening his eyes in another realm—the world of spirits.
He saw himself fighting, eating grass and dirt to survive. Then everything went blank... and then he saw a vision of himself seated atop a massive white throne.
It was one of the 3,000 thrones everyone was battling to attain in the Battle Royal. Yet he reached it and occupied it without even entering the Battle Royal. The aura around him was so powerful that it could destroy anything and anyone. Both of his eyes were white as he watched the spirits who bowed before him from above.
Suddenly, the white eyes lifted, staring directly at Skyler, who was watching. Pure confusion flickered in their depths.
"Why am I watching myself?"
The eyes widened abruptly, as if they had realized something.
"Who... who altered my op fate?!"
With that, everything shattered.
Skyler didn't witness the struggle or how he had ascended to the top in the spirit realm. But he had reached the pinnacle!
How could he die so easily now?
His closed eyes snapped open, startling 505, who was about to issue a message to the main system stating that its host had died and failed the preliminary test, so they could begin searching for a new host for it.
The crystal-like blue hue in his eyes faded, giving way to a white color that symbolized purity and righteousness.
With a shout, Skyler sprang to his feet, despite the injuries on his body and broken bones, and with a strength he didn't even know he possessed, he lunged forward and punched one of the incoming boars in the face.
The sound of his fist slamming against the boar's skin echoed in the air, and the beast was actually pushed back slightly, letting out a loud, angry yet startled cry.