Chapter 37: Three Tasks

Zayn lay on the floor.

His minor cuts had miraculously healed, but something still ravaged his heart, as though invisible hands were kneading it.

"Fluffles?!"

Zayn’s eyes darted around, but the cat was nowhere in sight. Worse, his apartment seemed to have disappeared. Moreover, Zayn himself had vanished from his apartment, not the other way around.

’A-am I dead?’

Slowly, the sickness that had gripped him began to leave his body.

The initial wave of panic still hadn’t subsided, but he was able to sit up and look around.

Zayn was in a peculiar forest surrounded by gigantic black trees sprawling in every direction. Flowers sprouted everywhere.

’And... people.’

They stood all around him, looking just as confused and out of sorts as he was.

For some reason, Zayn could tell this wasn’t the afterlife, yet the place felt strangely familiar. Something gnawed at the back of his mind, almost as if whispering, ’Don’t turn from reality.’

’How’d we get here?’

It didn’t seem like anyone knew.

At that moment, a bright blue light shot down from the sky and pierced the ground next to Zayn. He shielded his eyes and rolled back in surprise.

’Did I just narrowly avoid lightning? But the sky is clear!’

As the blue light faded, Zayn spotted a man with short brown hair kneeling where it had struck, gasping for air and clutching his chest.

Zayn stood and took a step to help him, but before he could move any closer, another beam fell, then another...

Blue light began raining from the sky in a flurry, causing him to shield his eyes in horror.

’What on Earth is going on?!’

Even home seemed preferable to whatever hell he now found himself in.

When he lowered his hands, Zayn saw someone with a deranged look glaring at him. The devilishly handsome man was tall, with short blond hair that hung just above his ears.

"There you are, you son of a..."

’Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! What the hell?!’

The tall man began sprinting straight at Zayn, only to suddenly stop and clutch his head. His anger crumbled into despair as he dropped to his knees and started crying.

’Is this guy mentally stable? What the actual fuck is going on?!’

The tall man began jabbing his finger into the ground so hard that Zayn was surprised it didn’t snap in half. Then, without warning, he stopped and reached into the grass. When his hand reappeared, he held a rock that could easily be mistaken for an arrowhead.

Zayn couldn’t bring himself to stare directly at what happened next.

The tall man began slamming the rock into his arm so hard that it immediately split his skin. Blood oozed from the wound, but he continued carving at his flesh.

Though he looked completely insane, the determination on his face made it seem as though he was fulfilling some noble objective.

Most people were too confused and overwhelmed by the lingering sickness to pay attention, leaving only a few others focused on the deranged man.

Eventually, the man’s desperation gave way. He dropped the rock and passed out, only to jerk awake moments later and begin writhing in pain.

The crazed man rolled across the ground, tore off his shirt, and clutched his arm.

Zayn considered trying to help him, but honestly, he was scared. Apparently, he wasn’t alone in that assessment. A small crowd formed around the man, yet only one person dared to kneel beside him.

Surprisingly, the person who stepped forward had witnessed the entire thing. They must have been extraordinarily kind or remarkably level-headed. They removed their jacket and began pressing it against the crazy man’s wounds.

’Huh, what’s that...?’

While watching them, Zayn noticed something peculiar on his own arm. A black line peeked out from beneath his collarbone.

Pulling his shirt aside, he saw it in full.

A tattoo stretching across his left arm.

All of Zayn’s attention immediately shifted away from the crazy man.

’I’ve never gotten a tattoo before... Where did it come from? Was it engraved during my transportation here? Do the others have the same tattoo?’

Zayn lifted his gaze and studied the others’ arms.

None of them appeared to have anything similar, unless the tattoos were conveniently hidden or invisible to him.

That wouldn’t make any logical sense, though...

"Welcome."

’...So much for logic.’

A being clad in white descended from the sky and addressed them with a metallic voice that seemed to emanate directly inside Zayn’s mind.

"You have all been chosen."

People’s screams grew louder, and the being responded in kind. With a wave of its hand, an invisible force froze everyone, including Zayn.

"You have all been assigned a [Task]. Fail to complete the [Task], and you will die. Complete all the tasks, and you may be rewarded with a chance to live."

’Task? Like a quest? And... a chance to live? Does it plan to kill us? Well, I mean, it seems like it could. But... could it at least explain a little more before disappearing? Like, come on! At least give us some context!’

This was beyond frustrating. He’d just been kidnapped and dumped into a forest straight out of a nightmare. There was no way this place held any kind of reward.

Then again, when had anything good happened to Zayn?

The man with short brown hair beside him opened his mouth to scream:

"Task!? At least tell us what to d— AGGAGghhhh!"

He promptly fell on his ass, seemingly frightened by nothing. He looked at the woman next to Zayn, panic in his eyes, and screamed:

"You! Say ’task’!"

"Task? Hu-wah!"

’Uhh...?’

"What’s wrong with saying task?"

[Tasks]

[Slay the Goblin King in the Castle] - (Time remaining: 719:55:04 hours)

[Hunt Disasters] - {Failure: Human Extinction} — (Disasters Identified: ???, ???, ???, ???, ???) - (Disasters Slain: 0/16)

[???]

A blue window materialized, obstructing Zayn’s vision. It provided partial information about the tasks they had been given.

They seemed to have thirty days to kill a Goblin King, whatever that was. They also had to hunt disasters, whatever those were.

Zayn waited a few seconds before the window vanished as if it had never been there.

The man with a scar on his lip yelled at Zayn:

"See!"