tick tock

The clock sounded unbearably loud in Serena’s ears. The room also felt unnaturally quiet, to the point where she was left alone with her thoughts.

The smile had long since slipped from her face, and her hollow eyes wandered around the room with a detached expression. She looked at everything around her, but nothing truly registered in her mind.

Nothing except the ray of sunlight coming through the window.

It beckoned Serena closer, urging her to give in. She looked down from the second-floor window she stood beside, and for a moment, all she wanted was to let gravity take her.

She had already half-climbed out the window before she caught herself and shook herself out of her daze.

"Hey, snap out of it. You know this wouldn’t work."

The reason Serena knew this was because she had tried before. She had tried all sorts of things to make sure she would not have to keep living like this anymore. But her powers healed her every time, making it harder and harder to continue trying.

Serena was not suicidal. She just did not want to live anymore.

There was no one left in her life who mattered to her, so she wanted to be with the people who did. And the only way to do that was to stop being alive.

"No one survived. I did my best...so why?"

Once upon a time, Serena had taken a child’s advice regarding her financial situation, and it had saved her and her family. She, along with her mother and younger brother, had escaped the crushing weight of debt.

But that was before the apocalypse began.

Once it did, it did not take Serena long to realize that her family would never survive. They were too weak-willed for this world.

And yet, they realized that she was strong enough to make it. So they cursed her with their final wishes.

Her mother held her shoulders and whispered desperate words into her ear. Her younger brother clung to her, his fingers digging into her mind like hooks.

They kept telling her the same thing.

’You need to survive. You need to make it out alive. For our sake too.’

Why had those words become her chains? They refused to let Serena find freedom.

Every time she tried to end it all, those words became shackles that dragged her back.

It was all too much, and Serena felt like she was slowly breaking apart.

But just when everything became unbearable, Madam Yao approached her with an offer. And it was an offer Serena could not refuse.

After all, it was the very thing she had been longing for this entire time—death.

"It’s only a matter of time before I’m finally free and can join you both. I hope you’ll welcome me with open arms."

Serena whispered those words before pulling the covers over herself and falling asleep.

Sometimes, there were things that could not be changed no matter how much effort someone put in. And it made Serena wonder—would it have been better if she had remained trapped in debt? At least then she would have had something to live for.

__________

Rin tried to find a quiet moment to talk to Serena, but he never managed to get the chance. There was too much to prepare, and Collin also dumped a mountain of work on him beforehand.

What little free time Rin did have was quickly taken over by Shelly and Reina, who insisted on making sure he was actually healthy enough to leave without collapsing halfway through the trip. (Reina’s words, not his.)

By the time Rin finished everything, it was already time to leave.

"Good luck. Keep us updated on your adventures. Ah, they grow up so fast."

Madam Yao was clearly exaggerating, but she genuinely looked excited to see them taking the Guardian Egg on one final adventure.

Rin disliked how willing she was to use others to achieve what she wanted, but he also understood her desperation. After all, her son’s soul was on the line.

"Let’s get going. Reina, Collin, I’m leaving this place in your hands. If anything happens, make sure to use Madam Yao to your heart’s content."

"Hey—! That’s not fair—!"

Madam Yao complained, but the car had already left the driveway.

It was a two-day drive from the settlement to the volcano.

The roads were mostly empty, which made it easy to travel at full speed. The only interruptions came from a few small groups who tried to rob them, only to flee before the fight even properly started.

Albus and Shelly were simply too powerful for most people, and their ranks gave them a dangerous aura that made others instinctively back away.

However, the closer they got to the volcano, the more those attacks disappeared. And the reason soon became obvious.

...

"Hey, do you guys feel this tension in the air too? It’s suddenly getting harder to breathe. And I’m not talking about the heat."

Albus pointed it out while panting through his open mouth. He was not the only one struggling to breathe properly.

Even Rin could feel how poor the oxygen quality had become.

It almost felt as though they were no longer on Earth, but had slipped into another world entirely.

[You have improved your understanding of your surroundings.]

[You have uncovered the hidden setting of the area.]

[The Dungeon of Awakening will now open its mouth to you. Please be careful. Once you enter, you will not be able to leave until the Guardian Egg has hatched.]

The message lit up in front of Rin, and judging by the serious expressions around him, he knew he was not the only one who had received it.

"Looks like this is a warning not to enter. If this is a dungeon, then does that mean there will be monsters inside?"

Serena asked without the slightest trace of fear on her face. If anything, she looked somewhat eager to enter the dungeon.

Rin was suddenly not so sure about this mission anymore, but the KPI was not going to wait for him.

[What are you worried about, Rookie? It’ll be fine. The system specifically designed this KPI to ensure you won’t die during it.]

[But if you still don’t trust this senior, then there’s nothing more I can do.]

The system kept reassuring Rin that he would survive.

But it never once said the same thing about everyone else.