Seth didn't like pain—no one did, really. This skill was genuinely good, perfect even, if only that pain component didn't exist as part of the package. But hadn't he just come across another skill moments ago that offered the potential to develop willpower so overwhelming that he could literally hold off death itself through sheer mental fortitude alone?
'I guess I should take a page from those cultivation novels I used to read,' Seth thought to himself, his mind working through the logic. 'Don't those protagonists have absolutely absurd levels of willpower? I should try to match that same energy and approach.'
With his decision made, Seth turned back to retrieve the crystal that held the skill [Survival]. As for [Thrive]? He would definitely come back for it later, once pain no longer frightened him the way it currently did.
The moment he absorbed the skill crystal, Seth instantly understood exactly how to use the new ability. He closed his eyes and focused inward, and in the next instant, he found himself floating within an endless void of absolute nothingness.
[How much do you wish to increase your willpower? Note: the higher the level you select, the more cruel and dark the trial would be for you to overcome.]
"Let's see what the hardest thing you have available is," Seth said with a confident smile, ready to face whatever challenge awaited him.
Instantly, the void around him completely disappeared, and he found himself being violently slammed down against hard ground with crushing force.
"Make him look. I want him to see absolutely everything," a cold, mocking voice commanded from somewhere above him.
The massive man holding Seth down with overwhelming strength forced his head up, physically controlling his line of sight. Instantly, Seth's eyes turned blood red with pure, unfiltered rage. Directly in front of him, resting comfortably on a bed, was his elder brother. Next to him was Seth's girlfriend, and she was clearly trying her absolute best to hold back tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.
"You bastard! Leave her alone! Your problem is with me, not with her!" Seth yelled furiously, struggling desperately to break free from the iron grip holding him down. But the guards restraining him were far too strong for him to overcome.
"What? You're making it sound like I'm forcing her to do anything," Seth's brother said with cruel mockery dripping from every word. "If that's really true, then maybe I should just leave right now."
Seth's girlfriend's eyes immediately widened in panic and fear at those words. She instantly turned to look directly at Seth, her teary eyes now burning with what appeared to be hatred instead of sadness.
Before Seth could even process what was happening or react to the sudden shift, a vicious kick slammed brutally into his face. Blood sprayed everywhere, painting the floor and walls.
"Mind your own damn business! We're not dating anymore!" she yelled angrily, her voice filled with venom.
Seth's brother burst into loud, genuine laughter at the sight, clearly enjoying the look of complete betrayal and utter disbelief that was now written across Seth's face. Seth stared at his girlfriend as if he were seeing a ghost, as if the person before him couldn't possibly be real.
"She was nothing more than a gold digger from the start, little bro," his elder brother explained with casual cruelty, clearly savoring every moment. "The very moment our parents officially disowned you, she was more than willing to let me have her for some cash. Easiest transaction of my life."
As he spoke those words, Seth watched in horror as his girlfriend began to undress. She kept her eyes tightly closed, saying absolutely nothing in response to the accusations, refusing to defend herself or deny anything. Then she climbed into bed with Seth's brother, and right there before Seth's eyes, they began to have sex.
She did things she had never once done with Seth during their entire relationship, putting in her absolute best effort to please his brother in every possible way. Because at the end of the day, regardless of how she felt or what she had to sacrifice, she desperately needed the money to get her little brother the medical help he required to survive.
"I really didn't need to see all of that again," Seth muttered quietly while trapped within the mind of his past self, forced to relive this traumatic memory.
He wasn't able to do anything or say anything different from what he'd said originally—he could only watch this devastating scene play out exactly as it had happened before. It was this specific event that had truly broken him as a person, that had made him simply stop trying to form meaningful connections with other people…. Well, humans, that's why he was cool with Chu Yin; she wasn't human.
He couldn't bring himself to truly hate his ex-girlfriend, not completely, for the simple reason that it had been her against the entire world. She had been utterly broke and desperate. Seth, although spoiled and privileged at the time, had genuinely done his absolute best to give her whatever money he could scrape together to help her brother get treatment.
But even he hadn't possessed that much available money, since his parents had never valued him the way they valued and invested in his elder brother.
Without his support, and her brother needing the help, what else could she do but accept his it in order to save her brother? She had even tried to contact him after everything that had happened, but he had adamantly refused to have anything to do with her ever again and moved to America.
Suddenly, the door to the room shifted open, and through it walked a white-haired woman. Seth frowned deeply in confusion, because he definitely didn't remember this detail from the original event.
This was the second strange thing that had occurred, which didn't match the actual past—that vicious kick his ex-girlfriend had delivered had been completely new and hadn't happened before. And now Chu Yin was here?
"You see, little brother, you were away for far too long in that elf world," Seth's brother said with an arrogant, cocky grin spreading across his face. "Since you clearly can't take proper care of your woman, I'll gladly do it for you instead."
His eyes roamed over Chu Yin with an unmistakable look of raw lust.
And at that sight, Seth absolutely could not just sit back and watch passively anymore. He didn't know what the trial was about; maybe it was to watch and endure this… he could endure the part about his ex, whom he felt nothing more… it's just that this trial was bringing things up he wished to never relive. But Chu Yin? He would honestly kill himself then passed this trial.
From within his past self's mind, trapped as a passenger in his own memories, he began fighting desperately to take control of his body.
But the moment he tried to seize control and change what was happening, he felt pain—pain like absolutely nothing he had ever experienced before in his entire life. Every nerve in his body screamed in agony, and his mind felt like it was being torn apart.
But he didn't care about the pain, couldn't afford to care. He absolutely refused to allow the events of the past to repeat themselves again, especially not with Chu Yin. This was the main reason he had trained so brutally hard in the first place—to ensure that what was his remained his, to gain the strength to protect what mattered. And Chu Yin had become his, had become precious to him. The day he would ever allow a repeat of that terrible day to happen, illusion or not, would be the day he chose death instead.
Back in reality, Evelin stood near Seth's frozen form, deeply confused as to why he had suddenly become completely unresponsive. She frowned while experimentally poking at his face, trying to make physical contact with him to snap him out of whatever state he was in. But even while he wasn't consciously paying attention to his surroundings, she still couldn't actually touch him—his passive barrier remained active.
She was genuinely stunned by that fact. But her confusion didn't stop her from continuing to play around with the phenomenon, fascinated by the invisible force field, until she suddenly paused in shock when blood began flowing steadily from Seth's mouth, then his nose, then his ears, and finally even from the tiny pores covering his entire body.
She stumbled backwards instinctively, not understanding what was happening or whether this was some kind of attack she needed to defend against. She watched with growing alarm as Seth, his eyes now turned completely blood red, let out an agonized cry that echoed through the treasury.
Then he suddenly paused, frozen mid-scream, and found himself abruptly back in reality. He looked around for several long moments in complete confusion, disoriented and struggling to understand where he was.
[Congratulations! The skill Survival has reached level 4. Your Willpower has greatly improved. Great Job.]
[A/N: Chu Yin isn't pregnant. When the MC was talking to the universe and said he didn't want to disappear, only for Chu Yin to face trouble just as she finds out she is pregnant—that was just his imagination running wild. He's read a lot of novels, so he naturally assumed something dramatic or cliché would happen.
Now, about the MC's ex—what do you think of her? Put yourself in her shoes, because I want to know whether what she did was right or wrong.
In her situation, she only had one family member left: her little brother. He had an illness that, if not treated in time, could become fatal. But the treatment was extremely expensive.
You have a boyfriend who doesn't have much money either, but he loves you deeply and treats your little brother like his own. The two of you start working hard, saving every bit you can for the treatment. For a moment, it looks like you might actually make it.
Then everything collapses.
Your boyfriend's awful parents suddenly disown him, and as a result, he loses his job. With no income coming in anymore from his end and only you, you realize you won't be able to save your brother. And then your brother starts showing early symptoms, meaning you have far less time than you thought.
That's when your boyfriend's brother approaches you with an offer: To save your brother, you just have to sleep with him.
So what do you do?
Do you accept—saving the only family you have left, but at the cost of betraying and devastating the man you once hated but slowly grew to love, the man who became the center of your world?
Or do you refuse—choosing your relationship, but letting your brother die, knowing full well you could have saved him?
I honestly don't know if what she did was right. To me, this is one of those moments that has no right or wrong. Is she a hero, or is she a villain?]