Gulgi finished his announcement with a manic grin, teeth glinting like porcelain daggers. The lights overhead flickered, once… twice… before steadying with a sickly, artificial hum. Shadows slithered across his pristine white fur like oil stains. His crimson eyes gleamed—brighter than rubies, darker than blood.
For a breathless heartbeat, no one said a word.
Then, all at once, reality screams erupted. Primal and panicked, as the air inside the convenience store thickened with terror. People rushed toward the front doors, an avalanche of limbs and desperate breath. Elbows flew. Palms slammed against the glass. Shoulders collided with the metal frames. But nothing gave.
The exit stood there, silent and absolute, like a tombstone forged from solid stone. Seamless. Impenetrable.
"Get it open!" someone shouted, pounding harder.
"I can't—I can't!" another voice shrieked.
Others tried the windows. The black, reflectionless glass showed no hint of the outside world. No street. No cars. No city. Only darkness—a void so complete it felt like the store had been swallowed whole.
Someone cursed. A woman dropped to her knees and sobbed into trembling hands.
Phones lit up, frantic fingers tapping at glowing screens—calls to 911, messages to spouses, parents, lovers.
No signal.
Then, without warning, every device died. Screens winked off simultaneously like a graveyard of fireflies. The silence that followed wasn't just quiet. It was oppressive.
And that was when panic fully bloomed.
The store became a pressure cooker of hysteria. Voices rose. Someone threw a can of soup across the room. A child cried. A man started shouting for help from no one in particular. It felt like the walls themselves were closing in.
But amid the chaos, Gulgi remained perfectly still.
He sat cross-legged on the shelf where he'd first appeared, dangling his legs like a schoolboy awaiting recess. His cloak stayed folded over his back, not a wrinkle disturbed. His white fur glistened under the flickering light. Unbothered. Detached.
Then, with exaggerated boredom, he sighed. The kind of sigh one gives before disciplining a room full of unruly children.
He raised a paw, lazily, and his voice rose above the din with terrifying clarity.
"As I was saying…" Gulgi chirped in a honey-sweet tone, "I am Gulgi, conductor of Trial Number 1509. Pleased to meet you all."
No one listened.
The panic drowned him out.
And that—clearly—annoyed him.
That was when a voice broke through, full of trembling bravado.
"I don't care what kind of trick this is!" someone yelled. "I'm done playing!"
Everyone turned.
The speaker was a teenage boy, maybe sixteen, clutching a metal baseball bat. His eyes were wild, fear teetering on rage. Sweat streaked down his temples.
"You think you can trap us in here? Scare us with your freak puppet show?" he shouted toward the ceiling. "Where's the real culprit, huh? Come out!"
He began swinging the bat wildly, knocking over snack stands and toppling a wire rack of bottled water. Then, snarling, he turned toward Gulgi.
"Fine! If you won't come out, I'll drag you out!"
He charged.
Gulgi's expression shifted—his grin vanished. In its place: cold contempt.
With the grace of a man flicking lint from his coat, Gulgi raised one paw.
"Idiot," he said flatly.
SPLAKKT!
There was no dramatic sound. Just an instant red mist.
One second, the teen was rushing forward. The next, his head was gone. A pink haze hung where it used to be, suspended in the air like a grotesque halo. Bone shards pattered across the floor like hailstones. His body hit the ground and twitched once before going still.
Time froze.
And then chaos erupted again.
Screams, high-pitched and guttural, rang out as people tripped over themselves trying to escape from something they couldn't comprehend. A woman near the drinks vomited. A man staggered into a freezer door and collapsed.
Blood was everywhere—splashed across the fridge doors, smeared across the tile floor. Thick trails of it painted the snack aisle in streaks of viscera.
Some of it had landed on Jude Ashen's cheek.
But he didn't blink.
He didn't scream. He simply stood there, still and calculating, as the pieces snapped together in his head.
This was real.
Another man bolted toward the back door, wild with fear.
POP!
His head exploded just like the first.
Two more tried. Two more fell. Red geysers. Wet thuds.
Five corpses now littered the floor, all of them the loudest voices from before.
A terrible hush descended.
No one moved. No one dared.
Everyone understood now.
Make noise, die.
Gulgi twirled his paw idly and sighed, as if he were cleaning his nails.
Finally—peace.
He stepped forward, his small figure light, yet impossibly heavy. As though reality itself bent to accommodate him.
Jude watched in silence. His heart beat slow, precise. A rhythm born of clarity, not calm.
Gulgi spread his arms like a magician about to unveil his next trick.
"Now that I have your attention…" he said brightly.
His cloak fluttered despite the still air.
"Your lives, as you knew them, are over. This world no longer belongs to you."
The silence was deep, religious. Even breath felt forbidden.
"The Demon Alliance has claimed your realm," Gulgi said. "Governments have fallen. Cities burn. Millions are already dead. But you…" He pointed at the room. "You're the lucky ones."
He let the words settle.
"You've been chosen. Not to die. But to be tested."
Eyes darted between the corpses and the creature. The meaning wasn't lost on anyone.
"You'll be given the chance to enter Nirvana. A realm where power is limitless. Where reality obeys your will."
"But paradise must be earned," Gulgi went on, eyes twinkling. "You'll face two simple trials to prove yourselves worthy. Pass them… and the Tower opens."
Around the room, fear warred with disbelief.
"To aid you," Gulgi said, holding up a paw, "you'll be granted access to a System. A universal interface tailored to your fragile little species. Efficient. Beautiful. Simple."
Then he paused.
"Now," he said, "summon your status screen."
Nobody moved.
Then a voice spoke.
"…How do we do that?"
Heads turned again. It was Jude.
He stood with shoulders square, voice calm. Focused. Somehow, in the middle of a nightmare, he sounded… curious.
Gulgi's head tilted, clearly pleased.
"Good question," he said. "You just say… 'Stats.' The system is voice-activated."
Jude hesitated. Then exhaled.
"Stats," he said.
A soft chime echoed in his ears, like a tiny bell ringing from another world.
Then—blue light.
A translucent window shimmered into view before him, floating in the air.
[Character Information]
Name: Jude Ashen
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Class: None
Level: 1
EXP: (0/100)
Stats:
Strength: 9
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 12
Stamina: 10
Constitution: 11
HP: 100/100
MP: 0/0
Skills: None
Items: None
Allocatable Stat Points: 0
Shard Stones: 0
Jude stared at the floating screen.
It looked exactly like the HUDs from games he used to play—only this wasn't a game. It was a death sentence dressed up like one.
Around the room, others began to whisper.
"Stats…"
"Stats…"
"Stats."
More screens lit up the store in flickering blue hues.
Gulgi began to pace along the counter like a teacher preparing a lecture.
"A ten in any stat means you've reached the human peak," he said. "Anything higher? That's when the fun begins."
"Strength governs your power. Agility is speed. Intelligence affects perception and skills. Constitution keeps you breathing. Got it?"
No one dared answer. But everyone listened.
"You'll gain experience by killing monsters. Level up, and you unlock new skills, gain stat points. Oh, and shard stones—like this." He raised a glowing crystal.
"One hundred stones equals one stat point. Kill. Loot. Grow. Build yourselves into the monsters you're meant to be."
The crystal vanished.
"Oh, and classes? Those come later. Survive long enough to reach the Tower."
Jude absorbed every word. His mind snapped into focus. A system. A structure. A way out.
Gamified survival.
Life, measured in stats.
Death, only one mistake away.
Then Gulgi clapped.
"Now then!" he chirped.
And a bell tolled in Jude's mind as another screen popped up.
[First Trial: Prove Your Worth]
Quest: Survive the Goblin Horde and Escape Alive
Time Limit: 15 Minutes
Reward: 500 Shard Stones
Penalty for Failure: Death
[Trial begins now...]