Chapter 2: Where is Hell? Right Here!


    My eyes fluttered open, and I stared around in terror and confusion. At first, I thought—just maybe—I had somehow survived the river. But what greeted me could only be described as hell itself.


    A landscape of molten rock, glowing crimson under unbearable heat. Rivers of lava snaked across blackened earth like the spilled blood of a fallen god. Jagged obsidian mountains jutted from the ground like the fangs of some primordial beast. The sight was horrifying.


    Yet, impossibly, I felt no pain. No searing heat. As if this were all just an illusion.


    Had I miraculously survived, only to slip into a coma? Was this a dream?


    Or had I died… and now found myself damned?


    I scanned the hellscape in panic, but there was nothing—just the burning earth and a monstrous sun devouring the sky.


    I wanted to scream, to curse my wretched fate—when suddenly, I noticed the impossible state of my own body.


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    Why were my hands bone-white?!


    Why was there a third eye in the middle of my forehead?!


    Why did I have no mouth?! How was I even breathing—let alone thinking?!


    What the hell had I become?!


    Naked, I examined myself.


    Three eyes. No ears. No nose. No mouth. My skin was marble-white, unnaturally smooth. Long, colorless hair—pale as my flesh—cascaded down my back. No navel. No breasts. No sex. I had no reference for my height, but my limbs were slender and rigid, like carved driftwood. My body was neither male nor female, but something… other.


    This is terrifying… Have I become a monster?


    But if this is a dream, logic doesn’t apply.


    Yet this was too vivid. Too real.


    I touched my body, then the scorched earth—and realized the horrifying truth:


    "This isn’t a dream! What the hell is happening?! Why am I in this situation?"


    Darkness swallowed me. Consciousness flickered—just for a heartbeat—and then…


    I opened my eyes again.


    Now, I stood upon an endless sea. The water was perfectly still, so clear it mirrored the golden sky above. In the distance, nothing but white mist, swallowing the horizon.


    Dazed, I took a step. The surface was solid as glass, rippling faintly underfoot before smoothing back into perfection.


    Then, words bloomed across the water—crimson script bleeding into existence:


    Name: Primer


    Age: 0


    Core Level: 1


    Mana Capacity: 0/10


    "What… what is this?! Mana? Core Level?! Is this some kind of joke?! When did my name change?! My name… my name is…"


    Nothing came. I couldn’t remember.


    The world trembled. The golden sky shattered like glass, revealing a yawning void beneath—and then, it swallowed me whole.