Standing tall on the stage with the hand resting on the edge of the podium, the chairman of the College talking about the scenario which going to unfold in moments later.
"I won't take much of your time since the awakening is now nearing. But as the chairman, I promise that every student who fails or is unsatisfied with their awakening result can submit an application to our T&P cell."
The chairman's words resonated in the hearts of every student in the hall, including Star, who sat near the middle of the assembled students.
Next to him was his girlfriend, Parineeti, and on the other side was his friend, Vaibhav.
"I don't know when the speech will end,"
Vaibhav muttered under his breath, arching his back.
"It's a common scenario for them to say they won't take much time and then proceed for about 20 to 30 minutes."
Having sat in the same position for hours, Star spat out.
Suddenly, a sharp glint flashed before Vaibhav's eyes, and he turned to the duo, Star and Parineeti.
"I heard that a guy named Marcus in the neighboring city failed to awaken and his girlfriend broke up with him. Is there a plan..."
Before Vaibhav could complete his sentence, both interrupted him.
"Impossible!"
Staring at both of them, Vaibhav leaned back into his seat, muttering under his breath.
"Boring."
Likewise, similar situations were unfolding among the assembled students, where everyone teasing each other while the speech drew to a close.
Tap!
Tap!
As the chairman proceeded to exit the hall after giving his speech, the chancellor took the stage and double-tapped on the podium to attract the attention of the students. The chancellor picked up a file from the podium before him and began calling names.
"Now is the time for the awakening; Lilian!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
The first student called was a girl. Upon hearing her name, she immediately stepped toward the podium, but perhaps because she was too excited or nervous, her body was trembling nonstop.
However, no one laughed or made a joke about her. On any other occasion, they would have made fun of her, but now? That was impossible, since everyone was facing the same outcome. And what if fate made a joke of them?
The chancellor, who had seen many such scenarios, just gave a faint smile and reassured her, "Don't worry. Just lighten your heart."
Nodding her head, Lilian stepped forward on the stage and, without wasting any time, placed her hand on the awakening orb under the chancellor's gaze.
If there is any flickering of light in the awakening orb, one has awakened, but if there is not... may fate have mercy on him. Also, the intensity of the light decides the grade of the class.
All the students' attention was purely on the awakening orb; though it was Lilian's awakening, the students were trembling as if they shared the same fear of not awakening.
Under everyone's gaze, the awakening orb flickered and a dim bright light illuminated the center before dimming again, while the data was projected onto the screen.
Intensity of light 100 cd
Possibility of awakening: D-grade Class.
Star watched all of this as it unfolded before his eyes.
From what they had been taught in senior secondary school, they knew that every flickering light in the awakening orb was intercepted by a machine and read in candela, the unit of luminous intensity. Over numerous attempts, they had learned to determine the class grade from the light's intensity.
Lilian took a deep breath to calm her trembling body, as if all the burden had now been removed from her shoulders.
"Congrats on awakening a D-grade class."
The hall erupted in applause. Star also clapped along with everyone, since a class can be upgraded alongside the advancement of the Sanctuary; as long as anyone has awakened a class, there are numerous possibilities to explore.
Two more names were called, of which one reading was 10 cd and the other was 1 cd. The boy who got 1 cd did not announce whether he had awakened a class or not, since 1 cd is the reading for a null or F-grade class. But from his hung head, it wasn't hard to guess what grade had been awakened. The moment he sat down at his previous seat, silence permeated the area and bit by bit everyone distanced themselves from him.
Star's complexion wasn't much better as he witnessed reality in action, seeing how an intangible boundary was woven in that instant, and his eyes narrowed toward his girlfriend.
As if by coincidence, they looked at each other with narrowed eyes and gave a dry laugh. Unknown to them, Vaibhav almost stood up to curse, but watching the ongoing awakening, he sat back down and muttered while staring at the duo.
"How can someone be so vile..."
Vaibhav's voice almost choked in his throat as he asked while blinking his eyes, "What's going on between you two?"
Suddenly, Parineeti waved her hand in a panic, "N-Nothing!"
"Yup, nothing," Star added.
Vaibhav's eyebrows furrowed even more. "What are you guys hiding from—" As if déjà vu hit him, his eyes widened and he stared incredulously at the duo.
"Y-You both won't be thinking what I'm thinking, would you?"
Both of their faces flushed, as if Vaibhav had hit the nail on the head.
"Star, even you? And Parineeti, you?"
Vaibhav was too stunned to speak, his brain overloaded just by thinking about the two of them.
Star suddenly interrupted, realizing that Vaibhav was going to stretch the matter beyond measure, and explained everything.
"Just seeing the situation, I got insecure that she would abandon me."
"Me too," Parineeti added.
Too stunned to even voice a thought, Vaibhav simply laid his back on the seat.
"It's better to resolve all insecurity before hitting a wall where everything gets blocked."
Chapter 2: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Parineeti!"
Parineeti stood without hesitation, smoothing her hair as she walked to the podium.
Star watched her go, hoping nothing bad would happen despite the little misunderstanding just a moment ago. They had been together for four years, after all.
Suddenly, his thought was interrupted as Vaibhav placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Everything smoothen between you?"
Sighing at his overthinking, Star rubbed his temples.
"How should I explain? The issue wasn't that big. The issue was that she was fearing the same thing I was, but we weren't talking about it. That's why the misunderstanding just built up the moment we both saw Aman getting isolated."
In the middle of the conversation, a sudden brilliance covered the hall for a moment before returning to normal, though no one was blinded, as if the light had no effect on the human eye.
The data also projected on the projector.
Intensity of light: 100,000 cd
Possibility of awakening: S-grade Class.
In that instance, without giving the chancellor a moment to speak, loud applause resounded in the hall.
The normal possibility of awakening is at most A or B-grade, while S-grades are rare and can be counted on one hand. Ever since humanity began the journey of awakening, only 3 to 5 humans have managed to awaken an S-grade class each year, and this is the highest grade ever awakened. While a grade can be upgraded as a human advances in the Sanctuary, those below S-grade have little possibility of reaching Sanctuary 6 unless they manage to encounter fruitful opportunities.
Star was very happy for her, as she had passed the biggest hurdle by awakening an S-grade class.
She blinked as she returned to her seat and playfully teased Star by blowing in his ear and whispering.
"Now, you are secured in my cage."
A faint smile appeared on his face as he responded, "It's my pleasure, my majesty."
As both were chuckling and enjoying themselves, Vaibhav watched them as if he were eating a spoonful of dirt.
"Star!"
"Time to go," Star whispered, standing up and walking to the podium. He could feel every eye in the hall tracking his movements.
Maybe that's how everyone feels.
Whispering under his breath, he stood before the awakening orb, following the success of the previous student.
His heart felt like it would leap out of his chest!
His lips were so dry, it felt as if even his spit had dried out!
His mind went blank, though there wasn't a bit of silence in the hall!
The fear of the world crumbling in an instant!
His legs trembled as if they might give out at any moment!
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm his turbulent mind, his trembling palm almost pressed against the awakening orb, though his mind tried to stop him from touching the object that could decide his worth in an instant.
Beads of sweat had already formed on his forehead, even though the hall was fitted with cooling machines.
Finally, his palm touched the awakening orb, and in the next moment, he felt a cool sensation. Energy circulated through his body as if giving him a massage and relieving all exhaustion and anxiety; then, the energy withdrew from his palm and subsided into the orb.
In the next moment, Star felt his existence liberated from every worry as the brilliance of the light passed through his body and illuminated the hall, as if the only thing that existed was that light.
Intensity of light: 100,000 cd
Possibility of awakening: S-grade Class
The same loud applause resounded in the hall while Star's focus was entirely on the brilliance of the light, as if he were lost in it. Coming out of his daze, he quickly returned to his seat, his legs still trembling slightly in fear that his entire body might give out.
Sitting in his previous seat, he regained his composure and posed a question to Parineeti.
"How were you so normal?"
Chuckling, Parineeti showed her tongue.
In that instant, Star understood, as there were faint red marks on her tongue.
Sighing, he slumped back into his seat while his body still fidgeted excitedly just thinking about the invisible adventure ahead of him.
Likewise, the awakening continued, and soon it was Vaibhav's turn, where he awakened an A-grade class.
....
As the awakening process drew to a close, a distinction between high, mid, and low-grade classes formed in the invisible web of fate, until a voice cut through Star's mind.
"Star, want to join our party?"
Michael Miller stood at the end of their row, one hand extended politely toward them as if to show a willingness to become friends.
Shaking hands, Star gave a faint smile.
"I'll willingly accept your friendship. As for joining the party," he said, withdrawing his hand, "that would dull the competition since we both have awakened S-grade classes. And besides, I'm entitled to be your arch-competitor."
A faint smile appeared on Michael's face as he rubbed his hands.
"I couldn't expect less from the son of my father's rival company. I'm waiting."
Michael soon returned to his teammates while the trio—Parineeti, Star, and Vaibhav—watched him walk away.
Vaibhav clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"That was a good proposal."
Parineeti also nodded her head while Star just gave a faint smile.
"We need a competitor to gauge our progress, and Michael is a good person; that's why I accepted his friendship. We can trade with him if needed."
Parineeti and Vaibhav exchanged glances but couldn't bring themselves to refute him, since they all came from the same circle and the competition until now had been healthy and enjoyable.
Patting their shoulders, Star brought them back to reality.
"We have only half an hour before we are summoned to the Sanctuary. Do you remember every point?"
"Yup" x2
Both nodded their heads, quite excited for the upcoming journey into the Sanctuary, having listened to its tales since childhood. Now, the time had come for them to explore that story for themselves.
Chapter 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The history of Homo sapiens before the arrival of the Sanctuary is traced in the "Doctrine of Human Legacy," a book taught as a history subject to every human—
How Homo sapiens derived.
How Homo sapiens carved a way out of the horrors of the Sanctuary.
In the context of human derivation, it was stated that we all followed the iron-clad law of infinite progress of causes, where every event become the cause for the advancement of civilization. But soon, advancement reached a peak where humans could freely roam the universe by spaceship, leading them to believe they were the sole existence in the cosmos.
But they didn't stop there; they reached a point where a department was created to roam the universe and extract its origin. Their greed was indeed rewarded—by a ripple in the horizon of the universe.
In that instance, everything stopped, as if every concept in the universe had been frozen while calculating data to register. All human beings related to this cause were vaporized from existence, and memories of them were erased.
With those erased memories came an intuitive feeling in every human: the names of all the erased human beings and a warning not to become the cause of something unspeakable.
But the harm was already done; numerous self-healing worlds with specific rules became bound to the periphery of the universe, and today they are called the Sanctuary.
It was also stated in bold letters in the "Doctrine of Human Legacy": 'Something unspeakable, something unknown hated by the Original Creator, an anomaly loathed by the void, lurking in nothingness and assimilating every concept, every abstract within...' These were the words conveyed by the Original Creator of this universe. And those were the words that were heard for the first time, and no one knew if they would also be the last.
From then on, no human ever stepped outside the horizon of Earth, even though they attained the prestige of deities during the Sanctuary era, as if their cells warned them not to cross a boundary that would entirely engulf their existence.
All this was in the context of human derivation, summarized with detailed images to engrave it into every new generation.
The second portion of the "Doctrine of Human Legacy" covers how Homo sapiens carved a way out of the horrors of the Sanctuary, summarized in great detail.
The introduction of the Sanctuary into the universe wasn't done in a fancy way, but by pulling every grown human in as if there were a glitch in the database. Humans were left to survive amidst monsters that could entirely evaporate a city overnight.
Their greed rewarded every human being with death, massacre, plague, and suffering, as if their every effort to survive mocked them, offering only instant annihilation.
In those centuries, the Sanctuary taught them how to be satisfied herding grass and drinking their own urine, as humans were left with no choice but to be trampled under the glitched system.
Homeless, poor, rich, ugly, beautiful—every adjective defining the achievements and failures of human beings was now equal before the Sanctuary.
The timeline of human development spanned several millennia, but a single decade brought them to their knees, forcing them to overwrite the instincts of those millennia.
The Sanctuary operated by only one hardcoded rule. Nothing could ever bypass the intangible periphery around the Sanctuaries, so exporting or importing was not an option. The only choice left was to hunt monsters.
Every one to five years, human beings were transported to a new Sanctuary. Over the course of time, there were numerous Sanctuaries where humans established organizations, but the probability of being transported to a new one remained.
Time continued to flow as generations were processed and refined under the Sanctuaries, and Earth became entirely different, reflecting those changes.
Now, there is only one thing on Earth—the Sanctuaries.
Studies, jobs, scientific development, sports, and everything else revolve around the Sanctuaries, and Earth is managed by talented people supervised by deities.
....
As these thoughts processed in Star's mind, he felt as if every fabric of his existence digitized and passed through a tunnel. It was instant; the digitized format reassembled everything tightly, and his existence stood before a new beginning—the Sanctuary.
With his arms open as if waiting for someone to embrace him, and the fresh air blowing his long dark hair against his nose, his eyelids uncovered his eyes.
That's amazing!
His face blooming with a smile, he stood unbothered by time. A message notification brought him back to reality, making his eyes open wide.
[System Initializing...]
[Initialized]
[Death Island System is now at your service.]
Everything was new to him; he had only read and seen these things in texts, but now he was facing them. His attention was drawn to a deep dark background with the red text of the panel.
How magical!
Unconsciously, his finger went to touch the system, but it passed through seamlessly. He attempted to swipe the panel, but there was no change, and the system continued to hover without obstruction.
The prefix of the system defined the name of the essence of the Sanctuary.
While his body was busy with the tale of the Sanctuary, his mind was contemplating something else that chilled his heart.
He was the sole existence in the periphery of the coordinates linking back to Earth, and his only relief was that all monsters within this periphery could only be level 10. The worst part was that he was the first human being transported to this Death Island Sanctuary.
At this moment, he felt that every soothing breeze, the gently swaying bushes, and the long trees buckling under the wind were conveying to him that his death would not be easy.
It was chilling his bones and freezing his existence...
Taking a deep breath to calm down, he narrowed down all the possible routes to search tonight. Though his heart was beating as if it could leap out at any moment, he held his composure.
He didn't have time to view his panel, the tattoo imprinted on the back of his right palm, or any other details, as his focus was needed elsewhere.
He needed a high-rise place from where he could get the geography of his location.
Tree!
Suddenly, trees clicked in his mind, as only a myriad of unknown breeds of trees existed in the Sanctuary that could help him get a detailed view.
In the sharp breeze, some long trees buckled, while others stood straight but were short. As his eyes captured the details, he noticed some trees that had gained resistance against the wind and were standing tall, with branches on one side hanging downward while the other side was normal.
Controlling his ravaging thoughts, he strode toward the tree, but a thought occurred to him—what if there was a nest of aerial monsters?
That thought shook him to his core, but controlling his urge to search for another tree, he decided to climb the tall, straight one.
He treaded carefully so as not to cause any noise, soon grabbing the lowest branch and standing on it.
Scanning above his head, he reached a conclusion: there were no visible nests for now, and he again treaded onto a higher branch.
Likewise, he continued until he reached a height sufficient to get details of his surroundings. He saw a nest in the hanging branches but decided not to push his luck further.
Memorizing the details, he quickly descended, cut a portion of the bark of the tree with a sharp stone, and drew a clear map using his location as the center.
With the center as the beacon joining back to Earth, he carved a flowing stream from north to east to south to west. The only corner joining this beacon to the remaining area of the island was the northwest.
As far as his eyes could see, the horizon of the flowing stream coming from the north was lost in the shade of trees and bushes, while there were unwavering tall mountains in the west. The flowing stream had carved its way out of the mountains.
Star congratulated himself on his luck. If there hadn't been a mountain, the river would have created a loop enclosing this beacon, but because of the mountain, a stream was formed over time.
After getting the gist of his surroundings, his perception of threats became even more sensitive, since there were no noises of monsters. Even by surveying the location from the tree, he found only silence.
An utterly long silence!
"There must be high-level monsters outside the beacon!"
This was his attitude, so he decided to quickly find a shelter that could give him a view of his surroundings.
A tree hole!
Without delay, he soon stepped out in search of his destination.
Time continued to pass while the sky remained the same—twilight—as if the sky itself were mourning the desolation of Death Island.
He soon found a tree hole.
Surveying the surroundings, he really couldn't gauge anything, since there was only silence without any chirping of birds, buzzing of crickets, or other insects.
At this moment, his entire being was either highly alert or utterly calm.
He needed razor-sharp tools as weapons and something for defense.
Analyzing his needs, he soon became busy.
As far as his eyes roamed, there were scattered logs of every size, angular or rounded stones, vines creeping on the trees, and bushes covering the ground.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
"At least there is everything I need for survival."
Picking up a log, he tied a sharp angular stone to it with vines. He also collected several logs and stones and scattered them around his chosen tree.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he soon became busy harvesting the bark of the tree after resting.
.....
Sitting below with all his tools, he sewed the bark together with vines; on the other side of the bark were 12 logs, which added sturdiness to fend off potential threats.
Doing all this put a lot of strain on his body, though that was manageable, since every human being from childhood was trained for such a possibility.
Carrying all this, he climbed the tree and entered the tree hole, which was roughly 25 feet from the ground.
Embedding numerous angular stones inside the tree hole, he framed the bark outside and tied it to the stones with vines. In an emergency, he could hold the logs attached to the bark. He also had his stone-tipped log as a weapon to fend off low-level monsters.
His nerves settled as he scattered stones and logs below the tree to alert him if any monsters approached. As his mind registered that his basic survival needs were met, a surge of exhaustion washed over him, and his stomach growled.
Gently patting his stomach, he looked at something hanging on the tree—fruits, perhaps—but this was his first time seeing this type of fruit, as the Sanctuary was new. He didn't want to take unnecessary risks.
After surveying his surroundings, he decided to take action tomorrow, depending on the movements within the next 24 hours.
Sighing, he laid down, needing to know the basic details and to gauge the time himself.
Peeking through the bark, he reclined on his stomach with his legs toward the hole.
And time continued to flow.
Chapter 5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sky remained the same, covered in clouds and void of any sun, stars, or moon, as if the only thing existing in the entire cosmos was this floating world—Death Island.