CHAPTER 11

11 A monster stood gallantly, its back turned to an open gate a few meters away. It looked like it was playing "eeny meeny miny moe" to decide which of the two humans before it would taste better.

One of the humans, Neo actually, was struck by an epiphany in the middle of impending danger.

-How timely-

He had finally realized the reason for their weakness and lethargy. Since the vaccine's effect was waning, the virus was trying to take over their consciousness. He already had quite a similar experience during his test for allegiance trial so he was quite sure of the feeling. But it was of no use anyway; they were a few seconds away from being monster dessert.

Speaking of vaccines, Neo had one of them stashed away in his pocket at the moment.

At that moment, Neo suddenly had a crazy idea. What if he took it to suppress the virus, making Beauty—the most virus-infected—between them? The caution only said he might die; it didn't say it wouldn't work, so it was a fifty percent chance, the kind he had been used to recently.

Since the monster didn't show any signs of genuine sapience, he had to outsmart it one way or the other.

"Well, here goes nothing," Neo thought, reaching for the vaccine.

The monster stared at Neo taking something from his pocket and drinking it in one go. It felt bitter to the taste.

"Is that even how I'm supposed to take the vaccine?" Neo thought.

"Who cares, as long as the medicine gets inside me," Neo thought again, shrugging.

Suddenly, Neo felt something burning inside him. He felt like there was a shredder inside him; hot blood filled with viscera flowed down from the side of his lips onto his clothes, but the medicine somehow seemed to be working, or was it the pain? Neo didn't really know, but even in the face of death, he regained his strength back.

It felt so good, and hell painful!

The monster tore its gaze from Neo and went after Beauty. The elusive Beauty was too slow to dodge; in the face of the monster's speed, she was slower than a snail so she couldn't avoid the inevitable.

Neo stared at the gate in front of him. There was nothing preventing him from reaching the long sought salvation; it felt too… unreal.

Neo quickly put himself together. There was no time to contemplate the gate's reality; nothing was real in that world anyway, more so, his life was on a timer.

Neo raced towards the door, but he was just too late. The scrawny figure of Beauty didn't bid him as much time as he anticipated; it took the monster a few seconds to decimate her.

Neo's eyes widened as he saw the gate closing up a few meters away from him, and the monster breathing down his neck right behind him. The monster opened its maw to harvest Neo's head off his body, but Neo slipped and fell, escaping the monster's maw for a moment. But he wasn't out of the woods yet; the monster was in the air about to land on Neo and tear him apart, but fortunately that moment never came.

The heavy alloy gate closed in on the monster's head like a guillotine, cutting it off in one fell swoop. The head rolled beside Neo, its maw still wide open. Neo shuddered. He didn't even realize he was out of the gate already. His heart was pounding as if it wanted to escape his ribs.

Neo turned around to run, but suddenly a blinding light erupted from within the DCC, vaporizing bones and metal alike. Neo wasn't spared either. Only the heat emanating from the DCC was vaporizing his body so fast that it was painless! But before Neo could vaporize completely, the world suddenly became dark.

Neo didn't think he would be so happy to be back in that thick manifestation of darkness, but there he was, reeling in joy. His presence there meant he did the impossible.

He passed the allegiance trial!

"Or what if I failed!" Neo thought.

It's not as if he knew what happened to those who failed anyway. Moreover, the last thing he remembered was him vaporizing from the impact of a nuclear explosion. Once again he was back with his old pal, "fifty percent chance."

As if answering his questions, the voice of the Reaper, mighty and ancient, echoed in his consciousness.

"Well done, dear reapling, you have succeeded."

Neo was beside himself with joy. If he wasn't floating in a cloud of darkness, he would have jumped up a few times. The fact that he had graduated from foolish mortal to dear reapling made him happier.

"Take that, shitface!!"

The voice sounded again.

"Compiling feats!!"

And then, a wave of energy entered his mind, but this time he still had his consciousness to himself. The wave of energy moved through his mind, making Neo feel as if he was recalling the whole thing vividly.

Neo frowned, noticing so many anomalies in his experience in that illusory world, things he should have thought about, or rather things he wasn't allowed to think about.

A good example is the fact that he didn't know if he was still in his own body or he was transported to another body. It was part of his consciousness was locked away. Also, why would Reaper prepare some weird sci-fi setting for him when there was no such thing as that in his memory except for his few years in the junior academy?

"Probably he was trying to make things really hard for me. Who knew what went on in the head of an elusive demon anyway?" Neo thought, choosing to let go of that anomaly.

The funniest part of the whole allegiance trial was that he never really found out who or what the threat was. For all he knew, it could have been the monster, Beauty, something or someone he never even had the chance to meet, or even the whole DCC itself. But since he was out of the crazy illusory world, he couldn't care any less. All that was in his mind was the benefit he would receive for passing Reaper's test.

The wave of energy finally left his mind, giving way to the words Neo's ears had been itching for.

"Dear reapling, you have done wonderfully well."

[You have received a spectre]

[You have unlocked Reaper's gifts]

"You are on your way to the afterlife."

"Ahh, finally. Maybe… just maybe my plans would finally come to pass," Neo thought, bracing himself for the future.

End of pre-Volume: ALLEGIANCE TRAIL