Chapter 2 – “First Death”
Volume 1 – Realm: Nocturnis
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Darkness.
No color. No light. No time.
Just a void.
Then a voice.
> [Entering Personal Realm: Nocturnis][Time Flow: 1 hour = 5 days][Initial Sync: Complete][Survival Tutorial – Commencing]
Light slammed into Mikey’s eyes.
He blinked. Gasped. Crouched low on instinct.
A massive, circular stone platform stretched out around him—empty, silent, and cracked like something had smashed it centuries ago. Beyond its edge, just black fog. No exits. No sky.
He stood, disoriented.
Then the next message appeared.
> [Day 1 Task: Push-ups – 2,000][Time Limit: 24 Hours]
Mikey squinted.
> “…Are you serious?”
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Day 1 – Push-ups. 2,000 reps.
No system help. No buffs. Just his own body.
By 300, his arms shook.
By 500, he was vomiting bile.
At 800, his elbows locked and he collapsed, breathing in shallow bursts.
But there were no skips. No penalties. No “game over” screen.
So he got up. And kept going.
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Day 2 – Pull-ups. 1,500 reps.
He woke to burning muscle and a floating metal bar in the center of the arena.
He jumped for it. Missed. Tried again.
Blisters tore open by the hundreds mark. His vision blurred. He screamed without sound.
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He reached 1,500 with blood running down his arms and no feeling in his fingers.
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Day 3 – Sprint Laps. 200 rounds.
A circular route around the arena’s edge. Constant movement. Trip, and the floor shocked you with raw mana.
He fell 37 times.
At lap 199, he blacked out.
Woke up. Crawled the last lap.
> [Day Complete.]
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Day 4 – Reflex Drill
Blades. Falling from the sky.
At random intervals. Random angles. Some dull. Some real.
No timer.
You passed when the system said you did.
He learned to stop flinching.
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Day 5 – Combat Evaluation
He stood alone, panting, every muscle on fire.
> [Final Test: Live Combat Trial][Enemy Incoming – Category: Goblin Variant]
He heard the growl before he saw it.
The goblin was lean, snarling, wielding a rusty blade and intelligence behind its red eyes.
It dashed forward and—
SLASH.
Death.
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He respawned in the same spot.
Second attempt: feint left. Dodge right.
Death.
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Third. Fourth. Fifth.
Each more brutal than the last. The goblin learned faster than he did.
Mikey lay on the floor after his fifth death, panting, trembling.
Then he exhaled.
> “Okay.”
He stood.
Sixth attempt.
He let the goblin come close—closer than ever.
It lunged. He sidestepped.
Slid beneath its arm. Grabbed its wrist. Disarmed it.
Then—he drove the blade through its own chest.
The goblin let out a final snarl, then disintegrated into ash.
> [Enemy Defeated.][Combat Assessment: Passed – 6 Attempts][Trait Gluttony – Energy Absorbed: 7%]
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Mikey fell to his knees.
Bloodied. Quiet. Too tired to celebrate.
Then the system spoke again.
> [Skill Unlock: Pain Resistance – Pending Calibration][Do you wish to activate now? Y/N]
He hesitated. Then whispered: “Yes.”
> [Confirmed. Calibration Process: Initiated.][Duration: 5 hours real-time / 25 days in Nocturnis]
Chains burst from the ground and dragged him down.
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He was locked in a small, metal cube. 2 meters wide. No light.
Then it began.
First, the heat. Skin boiling under invisible sun.Then cold. Freezing. Joints stiffening.Blades. Small at first. Then surgical.Hooks. Ripping fingernails.Worms under skin.Screams in his ear that sounded like his own voice.Visions—Renji and Akira’s bodies, torn apart. His mother begging him to stop.
None of it was real.
But his brain didn’t know that.
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He died 113 times in that box.
The system revived him each time. Reset the pain. Started again.
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By the end, he didn’t scream anymore.
He just breathed.
Steady.
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> [Pain Resistance Acquired – Level 1][Neural Sync: Complete][Session End – Returning in 3 minutes]
Mikey sat on the cold floor of Nocturnis, staring into the dark.
Emotionless.
> “...This world has teeth.”
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[END OF CHAPTER 2 – “First Death”]
