Jason Thorn expected to wake up.
That was the first thought clinging stubbornly to his mind through the strange emptiness swallowing him whole. That this was temporary. That whatever the Herald had done to him at the Selection Grounds would wear off eventually.
Maybe he would open his eyes back in the arena.
Maybe this was some twisted compatibility test.
Maybe—
It didn't end.
The sensation remained.
He was still falling.
Not fast enough for panic.
Not slow enough for comfort.
Just falling.
No wind. No cold air whipping against his face. No gravity dragging him downward.
The feeling existed without anything that should have produced it.
Something about it felt wrong in a way Jason couldn't explain.
Like reality itself had broken somewhere.
His body drifted endlessly through darkness that wasn't really darkness. No up. No down. No sound.
Only silence.
And memory.
The Selection Grounds replayed in fragments inside his head.
Rows of students standing beneath blinding white light. One after another, abilities awakening.
Fire. Enhancement. Spatial affinity. Flux manipulation. Gene Modification and Mutation.
People cheering. People crying. People realizing their lives had just changed forever.
Then came his turn.
Nothing happened.
Jason's jaw tightened at the memory.
He still remembered the examiner's face when the system failed to classify him properly.
Confusion first. Then disappointment. Then disgust.
Deficient Candidates.
The words echoed louder than anything else in the void.
Weak and powerless,
Deficient.
Like something missing parts.
Then Darius laughed.
Jason shut his eyes tightly.
That bastard's voice still lingered.
"Guess not you weren't meant to be here after all."
The memory burned worse than the exile itself.
Then came Aurora.
Stepping forward. Trying to say something before the guards pulled her back.
Peter shouting somewhere behind the crowd.
And finally—
the Herald.
That thing wrapped in white light. Cold eyes watching him without emotion.
A sentence delivered without hesitation.
Exile complete.
Then light swallowed everything.
Jason exhaled slowly through clenched teeth.
"Yeah… screw all that, I'll be back…"
The darkness around him trembled faintly.
Then—
impact.
Reality returned all at once.
Jason slammed into solid ground hard enough to knock the air from his lungs.
Pain exploded through his entire body as he rolled across rough terrain before crashing shoulder-first into a thick root jutting from the earth.
"—Ghk!"
For a moment, he couldn't breathe.
Sharp pain stabbed through his ribs while dirt filled his mouth. He coughed hard, forcing air back into his lungs.
The first breath hurt. The second hurt worse.
But it meant he was alive.
Jason groaned and pushed himself onto one knee.
Everything ached. His head throbbed. His shoulder burned from the impact.
He stayed there for a moment, breathing heavily as reality settled around him.
Then the silence hit.
Not normal silence.
The kind that made instinct scream something was wrong.
Jason slowly lifted his head.
The forest stretched endlessly around him.
Except it didn't look natural.
The trees were enormous.
Not just tall—massive.
Some trunks were wider than buildings, their branches disappearing into layers of darkness above. Others twisted unnaturally, bending sideways like claws reaching through the forest.
Nothing grew evenly. Nothing looked normal.
Even the spacing between the trees felt deliberate.
Like the forest had been arranged instead of grown.
Jason stood slowly, ignoring the protest from his legs.
The air itself felt heavy.
Every breath carried pressure with it.
Not enough to hurt.
Just enough to remind him he wasn't on Earth anymore.
"…Edenfalls."
The word slipped out.
The Exile Zone. Unregulated territory. Uncontrolled ecosystem.
Where defective candidates were thrown.
Jason let out a short, dry laugh.
"Great."
He turned slowly, scanning for anything useful.
Nothing.
Just endless forest.
No paths. No ruins. No signs of civilization.
Only giant trees stretching beneath the dim green canopy overhead.
Jason took a step forward—
and froze.
Something shifted inside him.
Not around him.
Inside.
Cold. Sharp. Precise.
A faint blue light flickered in front of his eyes.
A translucent screen appeared.
---
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
---
Jason stared silently.
He remembered this.
Right before he lost consciousness during exile, he had seen something similar.
A fragmented message. A voice.
[ SYSTEM ACTIVATED ]
At the time, he thought it belonged to the Herald.
Now he wasn't sure.
The screen shifted.
---
[HOST DETECTED: JASON THORN]
[STATUS: EXILED]
---
Jason rubbed a hand over his face.
"…No kidding."
The interface didn't respond.
More text appeared.
---
[CORE STATUS PANEL ACTIVE]
---
Information flooded into his mind.
Not like reading.
More like remembering.
---
Name: Jason Thorn
EXP: 0 / 250
Race: Human
HP: 82 / 82
Stamina: 47%
Strength: 6
Agility: 8
Endurance: 5
---
Jason frowned slightly.
The numbers were unimpressive.
Actually, they were bad.
Especially compared to the enhanced students back at the Selection Grounds.
Then his eyes stopped on the final line.
---
Aether Compatibility: ———
---
Blank.
Not zero. Not unreadable.
Incomplete.
Jason stared at it.
"…What's that supposed to mean?"
No answer came.
Of course not.
The system didn't feel alive.
More like a machine forcing information directly into his mind.
Then another message appeared.
---
[ENERGY ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS]
---
The pause stretched longer this time.
Seconds passed.
Then—
---
Aether: Present (UNSTABLE)
---
Jason felt something pulse deep in his chest.
Faint. Small.
Like an ember buried under ash.
Not power exactly.
More like awareness.
Something had always been there.
The system was only pointing at it.
Then—
---
[CLASSIFICATION FAILURE]
[ENTITY OUTSIDE STANDARD PARAMETERS]
---
Jason blinked.
"…Outside standard parameters?"
So even the system couldn't classify him.
That explained a lot.
Not weak. Not defective.
Just different.
The screen flickered.
---
[BASIC INTERFACE UNLOCKED]
Skill Acquired: Perception (Lv.1)
— Detect nearby movement
— Identify hostile intent (limited)
---
Jason understood it instantly.
A survival tool.
Nothing more.
"…Convenient."
Then—
something moved nearby.
Jason froze.
No sound reached him.
He felt it instead.
A pressure brushing against his senses.
Watching.
The new skill reacted.
Hostile intent detected.
Jason turned slowly toward the trees.
Nothing moved.
But the feeling remained.
Like unseen eyes locked onto him.
A cold sensation crawled up his spine.
Then the ground shifted.
Jason stepped back instantly.
Soil cracked softly as a metallic container rose from beneath the earth.
Clean. Untouched. Completely out of place.
---
[EXILE PROVISION KIT DEPLOYED]
---
"…Seriously?"
Jason approached carefully and opened it.
Inside were a few supplies.
A short alloy combat blade. Ration packs. Water. A medical kit. And a fragmented map.
Jason picked up the blade first.
Lightweight. Balanced. Reliable enough.
At least they hadn't thrown him in completely empty-handed.
He took the map next.
Most of it was covered in distortion-like static.
Only one section remained visible.
A faint marker blinked near the edge.
"…Guess that's where I'm supposed to go."
Or where something wanted him to go.
Same difference.
The system appeared again.
---
[DAILY QUEST GENERATED]
Objective: Establish shelter
Optional Objective: Reach marked location
Reward: +5 EXP
Penalty: Unknown
---
Jason stared at it.
"Unknown penalty" sounded like trouble.
Still, he understood.
Survive. Adapt. Move. Or die.
Simple.
Jason secured the supplies and started walking.
The deeper he went, the stranger the forest became.
Distance didn't feel consistent.
Sometimes he walked for hours without change. Other times, the world seemed to blur forward.
No visible sun. No time.
Only dim green light filtering through endless branches.
And silence.
Always silence.
Perception activated repeatedly as he moved.
Each time, Jason changed direction without hesitation.
Level 1 wasn't for fighting.
At one point, something massive moved overhead.
A shape leaping between branches far above.
The branch bent under its weight before snapping back.
Jason kept walking.
"Not my problem…"
Glowing eyes appeared between trees at intervals.
Watching.
But not approaching.
Yet.
The forest felt less empty with every step.
Eventually exhaustion crept in.
Jason leaned against a massive trunk.
That's when he noticed it.
A structure high above.
He narrowed his eyes.
Wooden planks. Rope. Metal supports.
"…A treehouse?"
Not normal.
Huge.
Built between branches nearly thirty feet up.
Old, but intact.
More importantly—
defensible.
Jason searched for a way up.
Old footholds were carved into the bark.
Some broken. Some unstable.
But usable.
"…Better than sleeping down here."
He began climbing.
The higher he went, the larger the tree felt.
Bark like stone in places.
Halfway up, he stopped.
Perception triggered.
Something below.
Jason looked down slowly.
A wolf-like creature stood near the base.
Wrong in shape. Too thin. Joints bent unnaturally.
White eyes fixed upward.
Jason held still.
It sniffed once.
Then growled.
A distant roar echoed through the forest.
The creature froze.
Then backed away.
Fearfully.
And vanished.
Jason stayed still for several seconds.
"…Okay."
Whatever made that sound was not something he wanted to meet.
He continued climbing.
The treehouse creaked under his weight.
Dust covered everything. Rotten cloth. Broken tools. Old containers.
Someone had lived here once.
Not anymore.
Jason set down his pack.
For the first time since arriving, something close to relief settled in.
Not safety.
Just distance from the ground.
He reinforced weak sections. Blocked openings. Rearranged debris.
By the time he finished, his arms felt heavy.
"…Good enough."
---
[QUEST COMPLETE]
Reward: +5 EXP
EXP: 5 / 250
---
Jason sat near the edge, staring out through the broken wall.
Everything still felt unreal.
Yesterday he was just a student.
Now he was in another world, trying not to die.
A dry laugh escaped him.
"What a joke…"
His thoughts drifted back.
Aurora. Peter. The others. Training. Progressing.
Meanwhile, he was here.
Jason clenched his fists.
No.
Not stuck.
Not permanently.
He would survive.
And when he got stronger—
he would return.
Not for revenge.
Not entirely.
A sudden scraping sound cut through his thoughts.
Jason tensed.
Something moved below.
Slow. Heavy. Circling.
He grabbed the blade.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Branches snapped.
Perception flared.
Danger.
Real danger.
Jason moved to the opening and looked down.
Nothing at first.
Then—
two glowing eyes.
Large. Too large.
A massive shape in the dark.
Dark fur. Heavy shoulders. Claws digging into soil.
Circling the tree.
Testing.
Searching.
Jason slowed his breathing.
Don't move. Don't breathe wrong.
It stopped.
Several seconds passed.
Then—
---
[NEW QUEST AVAILABLE]
Objective: Survive the Night
Failure: Termination
---
Jason stared.
"…Yeah. Figured."
Outside, the creature moved again.
The tree trembled slightly as it tested the trunk.
Jason stayed still.
Blade ready.
Darkness thickened below.
And somewhere deep inside him—
something stirred.
Faint. Unstable.
Waiting.
Aether.