Chapter 2: Where is Hell? Right Here!

  My eyes fluttered open, and I stared around in terror and confusion. At first, I thought—just maybe—I had somehow survived the river. But what greeted me could only be described as hell itself.

  A landscape of molten rock, glowing crimson under unbearable heat. Rivers of lava snaked across blackened earth like the spilled blood of a fallen god. Jagged obsidian mountains jutted from the ground like the fangs of some primordial beast. The sight was horrifying.

  Yet, impossibly, I felt no pain. No searing heat. As if this were all just an illusion.

  Had I miraculously survived, only to slip into a coma? Was this a dream?

  Or had I died… and now found myself damned?

  I scanned the hellscape in panic, but there was nothing—just the burning earth and a monstrous sun devouring the sky.

  I wanted to scream, to curse my wretched fate—when suddenly, I noticed the impossible state of my own body.

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  Why were my hands bone-white?!

  Why was there a third eye in the middle of my forehead?!

  Why did I have no mouth?! How was I even breathing—let alone thinking?!

  What the hell had I become?!

  Naked, I examined myself.

  Three eyes. No ears. No nose. No mouth. My skin was marble-white, unnaturally smooth. Long, colorless hair—pale as my flesh—cascaded down my back. No navel. No breasts. No sex. I had no reference for my height, but my limbs were slender and rigid, like carved driftwood. My body was neither male nor female, but something… other.

  This is terrifying… Have I become a monster?

  But if this is a dream, logic doesn’t apply.

  Yet this was too vivid. Too real.

  I touched my body, then the scorched earth—and realized the horrifying truth:

  "This isn’t a dream! What the hell is happening?! Why am I in this situation?"

  Darkness swallowed me. Consciousness flickered—just for a heartbeat—and then…

  I opened my eyes again.

  Now, I stood upon an endless sea. The water was perfectly still, so clear it mirrored the golden sky above. In the distance, nothing but white mist, swallowing the horizon.

  Dazed, I took a step. The surface was solid as glass, rippling faintly underfoot before smoothing back into perfection.

  Then, words bloomed across the water—crimson script bleeding into existence:

  Name: Primer

  Age: 0

  Core Level: 1

  Mana Capacity: 0/10

  "What… what is this?! Mana? Core Level?! Is this some kind of joke?! When did my name change?! My name… my name is…"

  Nothing came. I couldn’t remember.

  The world trembled. The golden sky shattered like glass, revealing a yawning void beneath—and then, it swallowed me whole.