******
The ruined village street, which was previously filled with hopeless and starving villagers when Xylen and Lilith had ventured into the forest for training the previous day, now lay eerily deserted.
It was as if the entire population had suddenly vanished into thin air.
The silence was so suffocating that, combined with the devastation and creeping shadows around it, the village resembled a haunted graveyard rather than a living settlement.
At this moment, a group of seven demon guards marched through this wasteland, their heavy footsteps resounding like war drums.
Each step ground dust and debris underfoot, echoing through the empty streets like an omen of death.
The team leader, a hulking demon with two grotesquely twisted horns resembling a mountain lion’s, strutted at the front, his overly long arms dragging twin great swords that scraped against the earth, leaving deep gouges in the dirt.
His mouth, filled with jagged teeth, twisted into a nauseating grin as he savored every moment of dominance.
Behind him, three demons carried Lilith, who wouldn’t stop struggling fraying, and yelling for herself and her lord to be released. Yet, despite her struggle, the guards handled her carefully, almost delicately, as though she were made of porcelain.
But it wasn’t out of kindness. Instead, it was fear of damaging something their master wanted intact.
Despite this, however, their words were anything but gentle, heavily laced with venom.
"Go on, girl. Keep struggling. It just makes it all the more entertaining when you finally break," one sneered, though the slight tremble in his hands betrayed the helplessness lurking beneath his mockery.
The last team, however, was far less gentle.
They dragged Xylen like discarded cargo, his limp and unresponsive body dragged without a shred of care.
One guard held his bound wrists like a hunter catching prey, dragging him forward, while the other two gripped his legs like he was a lifeless animal.
His body scraped against jagged rocks and broken wood, sharp pain tearing through his limbs, but he made no sound.
Xylen remained limp, his face slack, feigning unconsciousness.
It wasn’t that he failed to feel this pain tearing through him, but instead, his mind was currently a storm.
That’s right.
A deep terror was clutching him more tightly than the ropes binding his wrists.
It was the most intense fear he had ever experienced—greater than the panic of being assigned the wrong race and class, more suffocating than when he had learned the consequences of failing the mission.
Even the terror of facing death in the forest the previous day or the anxiety of nearly being caught the night before paled in comparison.
Why was this?
Because today would decide everything.
Whether he would fail once again, just as he had done in his previous—no, even more miserable than he had done in his previous life or he would succeed.
According to the mission description, failing simply means he would never be able to use his game pod or play Fallen Realm Online ever again.
What punishment could be worse than this, particularly for someone like him?
None!
Even death would be much preferable because at least then, he wouldn’t have to endure the agony of what lay ahead of him if he failed.
But if he was barred from playing Fallen Realm, how would he survive?
How would he give Lilith the life he had promised her?
How would he avenge the endless torment he had suffered in his past and present life?
How would he make his father regret his decision of always treating him with such a level of cold indifference?
And finally, how would he ever uncover the truth behind his mother’s said mysterious death?
All of these were his life goals in this life, but their success depended entirely on nothing but Fallen Realm.
And for this reason...
’I can’t fail.’
Xylen’s mind suddenly hardened with newfound resolve. ’Even if I have to sacrifice every resource, including the NPC ally... even my own life, I will not fail.’
This iron conviction took root in his heart, and with this, his senses returned.
In the following second, however, he nearly flinched as unbearable pain surged through his body and veins—but then, he noticed something strange.
The village was empty.
’Where are the villagers?’
He cracked his eyes open the tiniest bit, glancing around.
In the next second, his pulse quickened.
’The quest was to save this village, and I’m sure that includes the villagers. I just hope that so-called uncle hasn’t slaughtered them all,’ he thought anxiously. But then, he dismissed the idea as soon as it appeared.
The sym
He would have already received a notification of the mission failing.
Thinking this, Xylen became relieved, but then his confusion returned.
’Where could they have gone then?’ he wondered.
And just then, Xylen heard it... a faint, distant buzzing, like the low hum of countless flies filling his ears.
He cracked an eye open, just enough to peek at his surroundings, and he saw it.
The village square was currently packed with demons. Pale, gaunt creatures with lifeless eyes and sunken faces, their clothes reduced to tattered rags.
They huddled together like cattle awaiting slaughter, their murmurs blending into an unsettling hum.
Seeing this, Xylen instantly realized that these people were the villagers he had just been worried about. But then his confusion only deepened.
’What are they doing here? ’ He wondered. Just then, fragments of conversation began to drift to Xylen’s ears.
"Why did he gather us here?"
"Is it another punishment?"
"What could be possibly worse than what we’ve already suffered?"
"But... what’s with the decorated platform?"
"Could it be a celebration?"
"Maybe there’ll be food..."
Hearing all of this, Xylen’s heart slowly sank.
He then turned his gaze further, squinting through his barely opened eyes.
But just then, he felt it.
A suffocating pressure — crushing, overwhelming, and cold.
It descended like a mountain, suffusing the air with dread. The weight of the aura was so intense that it felt as though the world itself bent beneath its might.
Xylen’s eyes snapped shut, panic pounding through his chest.
’What... what is this?’
The pressure wasn’t just strong; it was monstrous — far beyond what he had anticipated.
The plan was already dangerous, but now, Xylen realized the true scale of the threat. As the guards dragged him closer to the platform, where the villagers huddled and trembled, Xylen’s fear swelled to new, unimaginable heights.