12 May. Year 2502.

The City Hospital, Blue City - Central Region, Kalos Country, Human Continent, Asterion.

Rays of morning sunlight pierced the gap between the curtains, falling gently into the room. As dawn passed and the sun slowly began to climb, the warm light illuminated the dim hospital suite where two patients lay recovering in their beds.

They were none other than the childhood sweethearts, Zane and Serene.

A short distance away from their beds, Alen was dozing off in a comfortable chair.

After leaving the Ascension Realm, Alen had once again found himself in an entirely new place. The Ascension Realm had a habit of throwing its surviving participants into completely random locations across the continent.

Because of the chaotic phenomenon the realm used to accept participants, it rarely remembered the exact coordinates of where the Awakeners had originally entered the trial. After a trial was completed, the realm opened a spatial whirlpool for the Awakeners to exit back into the real world. However, they were almost never teleported back to the same Dimensional Link they had entered from.

Since there were thousands of Dimensional Links scattered across the globe, an Awakener could literally be transported to an entirely different continent upon exiting.

Historically, this brutal mechanic was one of the primary reasons for the grand alliance to form between the different races. Since the Ascension Realm could throw survivors anywhere, there was no guarantee that human Awakeners wouldn’t be transported directly into the heart of a hostile continent ruled by a different race. If that happened during a time of war, their chances of making it out alive were negligible.

To prevent their strongest people from dying meaningless deaths due to petty racial discrimination, the races signed a treaty.

After the world was connected to the Ascension Realm, old prejudices based on religion, race, and caste slowly began to vanish. People realized there was no point in discriminating against one another when they all bled the exact same red blood while fighting side-by-side in the life-or-death trials. It improved global society significantly.

But as the old saying goes: ’Humans can change their behavior, but they can never change their true nature.’

As Awakeners rose in power, they began to rule the world under the guise of "protection." There was even a time in recent history when a power-obsessed Awakener took control over half of the Human Continent. He single-handedly slaughtered several of the strongest Awakeners of his era. Fortunately, because the global alliance was already formed, the different races fought together to ultimately defeat him. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Following his defeat, the Human Continent slowly recovered. A grand council was established to act as a unified government, managing trade and relations with the other continents. As business flourished, the Human Continent began to grow exponentially.

Now, it stood proudly as the third most powerful continent out of the Seven continents in the world.

...

Alen sat in the hospital chair, sleeping peacefully. As a ray of sunlight crept across the room and fell directly onto his face, he slowly opened his eyes.

He blinked, staring blankly at the unfamiliar ceiling. It had been three full days since he had last slept. Due to the continuous, grueling waves of the battles, he had been tired to the very bone. The moment he had secured a safe room, he fell asleep instantly.

He looked around the hospital room. Thankfully, he wasn’t a patient here. He glanced at the two beds; since he had booked a private VIP suite, there were only the required number of beds for his injured companions.

Both Zane and Serene were sleeping soundly. Because they had been so badly hurt, Alen had no choice but to hire high-tier healers to treat them. The medical bills had cost him almost half of his total savings. But it wasn’t a charity case; he fully intended to ask them to pay him back. In fact, he was going to charge them double interest for saving their lives.

He stood up and stretched his stiff body, rolling his shoulders before turning toward the attached washroom to freshen up.

After washing his face, he walked back into the room.

’Damn, they are still sleeping soundly. When the f*ck are they going to wake up?’* Alen thought, clicking his tongue.

’I can’t even leave without making them pay me back first.’

Alen was a highly selfish and pragmatic person; he was absolutely not going to let such a large amount of money go to waste. Having already experienced the crushing weight of poverty in his past life, he knew the importance of every single penny. He understood a core truth: ’if you don’t respect money, money will not respect you.’

He sat back down in the chair, feeling extremely annoyed by the wait.

Just as he sat down, he suddenly heard a soft murmuring sound coming from Zane’s bed.

Alen narrowed his eyes and concentrated to listen to what the blonde boy was mumbling in his sleep.

"Ha... Hey! Don’t you dare get close to my Sera! She is mine! ...Don’t you dare try any funny stuff..."

Zane mumbled, tossing his head on the pillow.

"Tch! I am going to kill that silver-haired boy for looking at Sera. Who does he think he is? Just because Sera is here, I can’t do anything... but just you wait. I’m going to kick his ass..."

Zane smirked in his sleep.

"Hehe... Yes... Stay kneeling. Call me Daddy from now on. Tell me, ’Sorry, Daddy, for touching your girl.’ Hehe... You now have to lick my—"

Before Zane could finish his arrogant, dream-induced murmuring, a violent breeze of wind suddenly swirled around his body.

Using his Wind Magic, Alen forcefully lifted Zane’s sleeping body into the air and threw him straight across the room.

*BOOM!*

Zane’s body slammed brutally into the far wall and crashed to the floor. Because the VIP hospital walls were reinforced with high-tier magical barriers, the wall didn’t break.

Zane, who had been thoroughly enjoying his power fantasy dream, woke up instantly upon impact. His eyes snapped open as a sharp pain flared across his back.

"Damn, that hurts! Who the hell did this?! Where is the kneeling dog?!" Zane yelled, scrambling to his feet.

Just as he was cursing, a voice echoed from behind him. It was a sweet, gentle voice that instantly sent a chill down his spine.

"The kneeling dog is right behind you. Aren’t you going to greet him? Or do I need to kneel down and call you Daddy? Huh?"

Alen asked, smiling innocently.

Zane swallowed hard. Every survival instinct in his body screamed at him not to act arrogantly right now. He opened his mouth, desperately trying to formulate an excuse to defend himself.

"What’s going on...?"

A soft, groggy voice came from the other side of the room.

Zane’s expression instantly brightened. Completely ignoring Alen’s murderous aura, he brushed past the silver-haired boy and rushed over to Serene’s bed.

"Are you okay, Sera? Does it hurt anywhere? Let me see if you have any lingering injuries!"

Zane fussed, hovering over her.

"Hmm... I don’t know... You can check," Serene mumbled, rubbing her tired eyes.

Zane instantly went into detective mode, frantically looking her over for any bandages.

Suddenly, he heard a distinct whisper directly inside his ear. No one was standing beside him, but he easily recognized the voice. Alen was using his Sound Magic to throw his voice.

"Well... Her hands were grazed quite badly... but the doctor healed them," Alen whispered.

Zane immediately grabbed her hands, turning them over to make sure the skin was perfectly smooth and okay.

"Hmm... The doctor also said her legs were severely hurt... but he healed those too," the voice whispered again.

Zane quickly checked her legs, sighing in relief when he saw no injuries.

"Yeah... The doctor also said there was a massive wound right on her chest... which he wasn’t able to fully heal..."

Hearing that the doctor couldn’t heal it, Zane panicked. Without thinking, he instantly dropped his gaze straight down toward Serene’s chest to check the wound.

Realizing exactly what he was looking at, his face flushed a bright, violent shade of red.

"Just kidding... Relax," Alen chuckled.

Zane snapped his head up and glared murderously at Alen, realizing the silver-haired scumbag was just playing a dirty trick on him. Seeing that Serene was completely alright, Zane sighed in relief and sat down on the edge of her bed.

"So... It seems you must have used ’that’ in order to defeat the Dungeon Master?"

Serene looked at Zane and shook her head.

"No... I fell completely unconscious before I could use ’that’. I have no idea what happened. The very last thing I remember seeing was Alen facing down the fully regenerated Dungeon Master... I don’t know how we survived."

"But judging by the Dungeon Master’s terrifying aura, he must have been a Peak A-Rank monster..."

Hearing this, both Serene and Zane turned their heads. They looked at Alen, who was calmly leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. They desperately wanted to know what had happened in the final moments of the trial, and how they had managed to survive an impossible fight.

Alen noticed their intense gazes. He looked back at them and offered a sweet, innocent smile—the exact same smile he always used right before he was about to scam someone.

"Do you really want to know?"