The world dissolved in a scream of static.
One moment, I stood before the shrine, my friends' shocked faces frozen around me—the next, fluorescent lights burned my eyes. The stench of antiseptic cleaner filled my nose. A familiar voice dripped like poison in my ear:
"Pathetic."
I knew this place.
Hwasong High's hallway stretched before me, lockers gleaming under harsh lights. Students milled about, their laughter sharp as knives. And there, leaning against the wall with that same cruel smirk—
Jisung.
His fist slammed into the locker beside my head. "Freak forgot how to speak?" Behind him, Minho and Doyun chuckled, their eyes glinting with malice.
My body reacted before my mind could catch up—muscles tensing, breath quickening. This wasn't real. Couldn't be.
Then she appeared.
Seoha.
She drifted through the crowd like a ghost, her perfect lips curled in disdain. "Baek." My name sounded like an insult on her tongue. "Still following me?"
Jisung's hand clamped on my shoulder, fingers digging in. "He thinks he's good enough for you, Seoha. Can you believe it?"
The scene was too precise. The way Minho's sneer showed his crooked canine. The floral perfume Seoha always wore. The ache in my ribs where Jisung's kicks had landed last week.
A trial.
The dungeon's voice slithered through my mind: Prove yourself.
Jisung's fist drew back—
—and passed right through me.
He froze. The hallway rippled like disturbed water.
"Walk away." The dungeon's whisper now.
Seoha's eyes narrowed. "Where do you think you're going?" Her voice cracked, the illusion straining. "You'll always be nothing, Neph. Nothing."
The words should have cut. Should have sent me crawling back for scraps of their attention.
But I'd already turned my back.
The hallway shattered.
The scent of blood and damp earth rushed back as the school hallway dissolved. For a heartbeat, I floated in darkness—then new walls solidified around me.
White tile floors. The hum of a refrigerator. The too-clean scent of lemon disinfectant.
Home.
Not the shed. The real house.
My mother stood at the kitchen counter, her back to me, chopping vegetables with precise, vicious cuts. My father sat at the table, a newspaper obscuring his face. The scene was so ordinary it hurt.
Then the refrigerator door swung open, and she stepped out—
Seyeon.
My little sister froze when she saw me, a juice box clutched in her hand. Her eyes—my eyes—widened. "Neph...?"
My mother's knife stilled. "Don't talk to it, Seyeon."
The words punched through me like a blade. It.
Seyeon hesitated, then ducked her head and scurried past, careful not to brush against me. The juice box trembled in her grip.
"Disgusting," my father muttered, turning a page. "Coming into my kitchen like you belong here."
The dungeon wasn't even trying to be subtle. This was a wound picked raw.
"Prove yourself," the trial whispered.
I stepped forward—
—and my mother spun, knife flashing. "Stay in your place!" Spittle flew from her lips. "You think we don't know what you are? F-rank. Abyssal. Nothing."
The words should have burned. Once, they had.
But now...
I looked at Seyeon. Really looked. The dungeon's version of her was wrong. Too still. Too obedient. The real Seyeon had climbed fences and slipped money under my door.
This was just a ghost.
I turned away.
The kitchen door led not to the yard, but to a vast black space where the others floated, each trapped in their own glowing sphere of memory:
Evelyn screaming as her father raised his belt
Leon kneeling before a man with his eyes—his brother?
Isla staring down at a grave with her own name
The dungeon's voice echoed around us:
"The Abyssal Seven have passed. Now rise."
The darkness shattered like glass.
One moment we were floating in that void, the next we collapsed onto the cold stone of the shrine clearing, gasping as if surfacing from deep water. The twisted forest loomed around us, the blood waterfall still pouring its silent cascade.
Evelyn was the first to move, clutching her head. "What the actual fuck was—"
A chime cut her off.
The sound was wrong—deeper than the System's usual alerts, more like a church bell tolling through fog. One by one, our screens flickered to life, the familiar blue interface glitching violently before dissolving into crimson static.
[REWARD: MARK OF THE ABYSS]
[STATUS: HIDDEN]
[DESCRIPTION: ONLY TO THOSE WHO ARE FORGOTTEN]
[WARNING: DEFIES SYSTEM RULES]
Alden's hands trembled as he reached for his missing glasses. "This isn't—the System doesn't give rewards like—"
Pain lanced through my skull.
I doubled over as my eyes burned, vision swimming with black spots. Around me, the others cried out—Evelyn cursing, Leon's knees hitting stone, Isla's sharp gasp.
Then, silence.
Evelyn lifted her head first.
Her pupils were gone.
In their place, the symbol stared back at me—◉⃘—the same hollow eye from the trees, now etched into her irises. The others turned to each other, their eyes all changed, the mark pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.
Ryuu touched his face, his voice eerily calm. "We're infected."
Leon's laugh was jagged at the edges. "Or upgraded."
A new notification unfurled like a bloodstain across my vision:
[MARK OF THE ABYSS: ACTIVATED]
[HIDDEN STAT UNLOCKED: ██████]
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE: INITIATED]
The ground trembled. The shrine's statues wept fresh sap, their blurred faces finally clearing—revealing our features but older or atleast somewhat different.
And from the blood waterfall, a voice echoed:
"Welcome home."
The crimson notifications erupted in rapid succession, each one hitting like a hammer blow:
[ABYSSAL MARKET UNLOCKED]
[A place between places—where the forgotten trade.]
[+10 BLOOD MONEER (BM) ACQUIRED]
[Currency of the outcast. Spend wisely.]
[BLOOD QUESTS AVAILABLE]
[Complete offerings to grow stronger. Fail and pay the price.]
Then, the words that made my stomach drop:
[XENE IS WATCHING]
[The anomaly that cracked your System. It hungers.]
The final message scrawled across my vision like living ink:
[NEW MECHANIC: PATH OF THE FORSAKEN]
[Earn stats through blood. Grow through pain. The System cannot stop you now.]
Evelyn let out a shaky laugh. "Well, we wanted power..."
Leon's marked eyes flickered as he scanned the air—reading his own prompts. "There's a map function now. Shows the Market's nearby."
A chorus of pings echoed as we all received the same waypoint. Alden flinched when his chimed, his fingers twitching toward his missing glasses. "This isn't normal progression. We're being groomed."
The realization settled over us like a shroud. The trials, the Mark, the Market—it was all connected.
Ryuu's tanto flashed as he spun it, the blade now edged in faint crimson light. "Don't care. If it lets me carve up the bastards who threw me away, I'll take it."
A new prompt appeared, this one personalized:
[NEPHRIOS: FIRST BLOOD QUEST]
[Kill 10 living creatures within the dungeon. Reward: +1.0 to any stat. Bonus for humanoids.]
My fingers tingled. The others' sharp inhales said they'd gotten their own.
Isla was the first to move, stomping on a black beetle scuttling near her boot.
[ISLA: 1/10]
[+0.1 AGILITY]
[+1 BM]
The Mark in her eyes pulsed hungrily.
Evelyn grinned. "Game on."
The air itself seemed to shudder as a final notification tore through our vision, its edges pulsing like an open wound:
[XENE'S OFFERING: ACCEPT Y/N?]
Before any of us could react, the screen dissolved—and pain lanced through our Marks.
NEPHRIOS - [PATH OF THE FIST]
"Techniques live in your bones now."
Effect: Any combat style observed (real or fictional) can be replicated at 80% proficiency after one viewing.
Limit: 24-hour cooldown per new technique.
Flaw: Muscle memory fades after 48 hours unless practiced.
My hands itched with phantom movements. For a fleeting second, I knew how to break Leon's arm six different ways—techniques I'd only seen in mangas.
EVELYN - [GUNSIGHT WHISPER]
"The steel sings for you."
Effect: Firearms become instinctive—recoil control, trajectory calculation, and quick-reloads are preternatural.
Limit: Requires handling a weapon type at least once.
Flaw: Burns through ammo 30% faster due to hyperfocus.
Evelyn's fingers twitched like she was already gripping a pistol. "Oh hell yes."
ALDEN - [GHOST CHESS]
"See three wars ahead."
Effect: Tactical prediction sharpens dramatically—can anticipate enemy movements in short bursts.
Limit: Drains mental stamina (nosebleeds at overuse).
Flaw: Can't turn off; constantly analyzes everything.
Alden gagged, clutching his head as the world became "moves" and "countermoves."
LEON - [SERPENT TONGUE]
"Words are your venom."
Effect: Voice gains subtle hypnotic weight—not mind control, but nudges.
Limit: Works best on those already emotionally vulnerable.
Flaw: Truths you speak also cut deeper against yourself.
Leon touched his throat, his next words slipping out honey-smooth: "We're going to be okay." Against my will, my shoulders relaxed.
RYUU - [BLADE ECHO]
"Every weapon remembers."
Effect: Weapons "speak" their history—instant proficiency with any arm held.
Limit: Fades after 1 hour if not bonded through bloodshed.
Flaw: Phantom wounds from past wielders sometimes bleed through.
Ryuu's tanto hummed in his grip, its edge shimmering.
ISLA - [RUNE EATER]
"Magic is just hungry."
Effect: Absorbs magical energy/runes on contact to fuel spells.
Limit: Only one "stored" spell at a time.
Flaw: Hunger grows with use—eventually risks consuming you.
Isla's Mark flared as she inhaled—and the shrine's weeping sap bent toward her.
SYLAS - [IRON HERITAGE]
"Your blood remembers the legion."
Effect: Muscle growth/training yields 5x normal results. Pain tolerance skyrockets.
Limit: Requires constant caloric intake (10,000+ kcal/day).
Flaw: Body becomes fatter fast without combat.
Sylas's veins bulged as his biceps gained visible definition.
XENE'S FINAL MESSAGE:
"Grow. Fight. Feed me."
Then—silence.
The forest waited. The blood waterfall slowed. And the dungeon collapsed.