The world was peaceful.
Yeah, right. That was just a high-budget lie plastered on every neon billboard and history textbook in the city.
On the surface, humanity was thriving in a golden age of technology. But beneath the bright lights and towering skyscrapers, the truth was a lot bloodier.
There were certain people in this world who were... different. Actually, calling them 'different' was the understatement of the century.
They were the ones who had been dragged kicking and screaming into a literal nightmare, only to claw their way back out. They were the 'Archons'.
The survivors of the DreamScape.
*Beep...* *Beep...* *Beep...*
The piercing shriek of the alarm clock echoed through the bedroom, practically begging for attention.
On the bed lay a young man who had just turned eighteen. He was sprawled out in a gravity-defying pose, half hanging off the mattress with a steady string of drool escaping his open mouth. He was completely dead to the world. Unless a bomb went off, he wasn't moving.
Time passed...
Eventually, the alarm just gave up and stopped ringing, likely burning out its mechanical soul trying to wake him.
The early morning sun climbed higher, casting a bright, judgmental beam of light directly across the boy's face.
Finally, he stirred.
*Yawn…*
Sam aggressively rubbed his eyes. His messy, jet-black hair stuck up in every conceivable direction like a bird's nest. He sat up, scratching his stomach, looking around the room with the dazed confusion of a man who didn't know what year it was.
Lazily, he threw a glance at the digital clock on his nightstand.
09:48.
The sleepy haze in his sharp gray eyes vanished instantly. A look of pure, soul-crushing panic replaced it.
"Damn it! I forgot to turn the alarm on!"
He shouted out loud, completely and shamelessly blaming the innocent machine. If the clock had hands, it probably would have slapped him.
Sam scrambled out of bed, tripped over his own discarded shoes, and launched himself into the bathroom.
He had exactly zero time. Today wasn't just a normal day. It was graduation.
Sam moves at the speed of light, he managed to get completely ready in two minutes flat. His hair was still dripping wet from a rapid-fire shower, making a mess of his collar. He scrubbed his head with a towel, threw on a plain white T-shirt, and grabbed his favorite black jacket.
Stopping in front of the hallway mirror, Sam ran a hand through his damp hair, trying to make it look socially acceptable.
He stared at his reflection for a second. His face was, honestly speaking, frustratingly average. He didn't look like a handsome prince, and he definitely wasn't going to be a model anytime soon.
Yet, a wide, arrogant smirk spread across his lips.
'Not bad at all,' he thought, admiring himself.
Average or not, he was practically living the dream. He had somehow managed to snag the most beautiful girl in the entire Celestial Academy as his girlfriend. Clearly, his hidden charm was simply unmatched.
Snatching his bag from the floor, he shoved his scattered notebooks inside and bolted for the front door. But right as his hand grabbed the doorknob, he froze.
He slowly turned his head toward the small wooden table resting against the wall. On it sat a single, silver photo frame.
The girl in the picture had the same sharp gray eyes as him, but there was a terrifying weight to them. She was none other than his sister.
Sam's cocky smirk softened. "I'm going to make you proud, Sis," he murmured to the empty room.
"Just wait. I'll definitely find you one day."
He pushed the door open and stepped out into the morning air.
His sister hadn't just been a normal Archon. She was a living legend. While most people struggled as Bronze-rank fodder at the bottom of the food chain, begging for scraps of power in the DreamScape, she was an undisputed Paragon-ranker!
She was someone rumored to have crossed the threshold of 'The Vessel' and touched the mythical boundaries of 'The Origin' stage of magic!
And then... she vanished.
No news. No distress signals. No body. It was as if the world itself had simply erased her existence. The public immediately presumed her dead. The DreamScape always claimed the best of them eventually, after all.
But Sam knew better.
His sister wasn't weak enough to die, and she sure as hell wouldn't just abandon him. After their parents died in a car crash when he was six, his twelve-year-old sister became his entire world.
She raised him. She protected him. And even after gaining the terrifying, god-like status of an Archon, she never pushed him aside.
Even now, he was surviving off her legacy. His ridiculously expensive Academy tuition, his food, his apartment—all of it was paid for through her Archon luxury pass. A black card that let him exchange DreamScape loot and currency into real-world cash.
Shaking off the heavy thoughts, Sam bolted down the apartment stairs and made a beeline for his motorcycle. He threw a leg over the seat, jammed the key in, and twisted the throttle.
Nothing. Not even a sputter.
He stared blankly at the fuel gauge.
Empty. He had forgotten to fill the tank.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Abandoning the useless hunk of metal, Sam took off running down the pavement, his legs pumping furiously. The city streets blurred past him.
The Academy was miles away, and he had exactly... he glanced at his wristwatch.
Three minutes.
If he was even one second late, the automated gates would lock, and the Academy guards would gleefully throw him out. That was the absolute rule of the Celestial Academy.
He moved like a maniac. He dodged a startled businessman, vaulted over a park bench, and wove through the morning crowd with practiced agility. As he sprinted past a street-side food stall, he expertly flicked two silver coins onto the counter.
*Clink...* *Clink...*
"Keep the change, old man!" Sam yelled.
Without breaking his stride, he snatched a warm loaf of bread from the display and shoved a piece into his mouth. The vendor merely shook his head, entirely used to the local menace.
Taking a sharp left, Sam ducked into a narrow alleyway. He used the brick walls to climb over his way over a tall chain-link fence, completely bypassing the main intersection.
His lungs burned, but as he rounded the final corner, the massive structure of the Celestial Academy finally loomed into view.
The courtyard was dead silent. There were no students loitering outside. Everyone was already inside.
Up ahead, the colossal Academy gates—powered by a humongous, glowing blue mana stone—were already in motion. The heavy steel doors were sliding shut with a menacing hum.
'No, no, no!'
Sam pushed his legs past their absolute limits. He threw his school bag forward like a missile, wedging it right between the closing doors!
The mana-stone sensors blared a short warning, halting the heavy metal plates to stop them from crushing the bag.
Without missing a beat, Sam dropped to the concrete. He slid across the rough ground like a baseball player stealing home base, slipping through the narrow gap just as the sensors reset. He yanked his bag inside behind him.
*Clang!*
The gates locked shut right behind his heels.
Sam lay on his back, gasping for air, staring up at the sky with a triumphant, breathless grin.
He pushed himself up and dusted off his jacket. The two heavily armed guards standing by the entrance just stared at him with utterly deadpan expressions. They had watched him pull this exact stunt for the last three years.
"Morning, fellas," Sam wheezed, throwing them a shameless salute.
He jogged toward the massive outdoor assembly grounds. Thousands of students were standing in perfectly organized rows. He spotted his class immediately and quietly slipped into the back of the formation.
His friends were already there, keeping a spot open for him.
One of them, a lanky kid named Mark, leaned over. "Overslept again?"
"The alarm clock betrayed me," Sam whispered back, waving a dismissive hand.
He didn't pay much attention to the fact that Mark, along with the rest of his friend group, was looking at him with an incredibly strange, almost pitying expression.
Instead, Sam was busy scanning the front rows. He was looking for her.
He spotted her a second later.
Kira Thornvale.
She stood with perfect posture, her flawless golden-blonde hair cascading down her back, her sharp azure eyes focused straight ahead. Just looking at her made his chest swell with pride.
'Yep. That's my girl.'
Before he could attempt to catch her eye, the deafening screech of a microphone feedback echoed across the grounds.
Up on the massive central dais, the Principal stepped up to the podium. He was a stern, middle-aged man with a nasty scar running down his jawline. He was an experienced veteran Archon who had been diving into the DreamScape for over twenty years.
The low murmur of the crowd instantly died.
"Graduates," the Principal's voice boomed, magically amplified to reach every corner of the courtyard.
"Today marks the end of your childhood. Tomorrow, your true lives begin."
He gripped the edges of the podium, his hardened eyes sweeping over the sea of teenagers.
"The DreamScape is not a game! It is a bizarre, merciless phenomenon. To survive, you must face trials that will shatter your perception of reality! But in exchange for your survival, the Trial will grant you power."
The Principal's voice echoed with authority.
"The greater your contribution, the greater your reward! Whether you awaken as a mere Bronze-ranker or something far beyond depends entirely on the blood and sweat you leave behind in that world!"
Sam listened intently, even though he knew all this by heart.
"Every human who reaches the age of eighteen is called," the Principal continued. "Tomorrow, on the first of January, all of you will have your souls pulled into the First Trial. You will have to survive. You will have to fight. And you will have to win."
The Principal paused, letting the heavy weight of his words settle over the nervous students.
"A century ago, the survival rate for the First Trial was barely thirty percent. It was a slaughter. But today? Through the blood of our predecessors, that survival rate has climbed to seventy percent! The DreamScape is no longer just a death sentence—it is an opportunity It is your chance to become the pride of your nation!"
The Principal went on to detail the mechanics of the transport. The trials could take an unknown amount of time subjectively, but in the modern world, exactly one month would pass.
If they survived, they would wake up, rest for two months, and then be pulled back in. A total of four trials a year. A never-ending cycle of violence and evolution.
"This year, one thousand students will graduate from the Celestial Academy," the Principal concluded, his voice ringing out. "Show the world that you are not just fragile mortals. Show them you are Archons!"
The crowd erupted into a thunderous, passionate roar.
Sam clapped along, his blood pumping with excitement. This was it. The moment he had been waiting for all his life.
"And now," the Principal announced, gesturing to the side of the stage.
"I will call forth the top-ranking students of this graduating class. The pride of our Academy."
The cheering intensified.
"Rank One. The undisputed top student... Alias Velkrath!"
A tall, handsome young man with sharp, aristocratic features and piercing crimson eyes stepped out from the side of the stage.
Alias.
'Hell yeah, that's my boy!' Sam cheered loudly, genuinely happy.
Alias wasn't just the son of one of the current strongest Archons in the world. He was also Sam's best friend. Sam had met him years ago at an obscenely wealthy banquet his sister had dragged him to, and they had hit it off immediately.
"And Rank Two," the Principal smiled. "Kira Thornvale!"
Sam's heart soared as Kira walked gracefully toward the steps of the dais. She looked stunning, like a literal angel stepping up to claim her rightful place.
But as Kira reached the top of the stairs, Alias, who had been walking toward the center, stopped.
He turned toward her.
Sam's clapping slowly came to a halt.
Alias extended his hand toward Kira. It wasn't a formal gesture. It was intimate. Soft.
'Wait. Did she trip? Is he helping her up?' Sam's brain practically did backflips trying to justify the scene in front of him.
But no.
Kira paused. She looked at Alias, and a radiant, breathtaking smile broke across her usually cold face. It was a smile so gentle and full of absolute affection that it made Sam's stomach drop.
It was a look she hadn't given him in months.
She reached out and placed her small hand into his.
Alias's fingers intertwined with hers. Tightly.
And together, holding hands like a picture-perfect couple, they walked to the center of the dais to stand before the Principal.
The Academy exploded into deafening cheers and wolf-whistles.
The arrogant smirk on Sam's face vanished. It was wiped clean, replaced by an expression of utter, hollow shock.
'What?'
He stood completely frozen in the crowd. The roaring cheers rang in his ears like television static. His mind scrambled to process what his eyes were seeing.
'Is this a joke? A publicity stunt?'
He slowly turned his head to look at his friends. Mark wouldn't meet his eyes. The others were looking away, shuffling their feet awkwardly. A few of them cast him glances filled with unbearable, suffocating pity.
'They knew.'
The realization hit him like a physical blow to the chest, knocking all the air from his lungs.
They all knew.
Sam looked back at the stage. Alias and Kira were smiling at each other, laughing softly as the Principal handed them their ceremonial plaques. They looked perfect together. The wealthy, powerful prodigy and the beautiful genius.
His girlfriend of three years. The girl he had bought cheap coffee for, the one he had walked home in the rain. The one he had shamelessly bragged about to his own reflection just this morning.
She had stabbed him in the back.
And the knife had been held by his best friend.
A terrible, freezing cold spread through Sam's chest. It wasn't anger. Not yet. It was just a hollow, icy pit opening up in his stomach.
He felt incredibly small. Incredibly stupid. He had been so blind. So utterly naive. A total clown.
The cheering around him was suffocating. People were whispering, pointing at the new 'power couple' with obvious jealousy. No one was looking at the average boy in the back row whose world had just been torn to shreds.
Without a word, Sam took a step back. Then another. He bumped into someone, muttered a hollow apology, and pushed his way out of the formation.
He couldn't breathe. He needed to get out of there.
As he reached the edge of the courtyard, he stopped and forced himself to look back one last time.
Up on the dais, Kira happened to glance out over the sea of students. For a fraction of a second, her azure eyes locked onto his sharp gray ones.
There was no guilt in her expression. No hesitation. No apology.
Instead, a flicker of mild annoyance crossed her face, as if his mere presence in the crowd was an inconvenience to her big moment.
She turned her head back to Alias, dismissing Sam as easily as one would dismiss a passing gust of wind.
He was absolutely nothing to her.
Sam turned his back on the stage, the cheers fading into a dull buzz behind him, and walked away into the shadows of the Academy walls.