Chapter 1 : Congratulations

Dante didn't want to go to school; his mother had passed away a year ago, leaving behind a dying wish.

'Don't miss on your education,' a memory of her lingered his mind whenever he thought about quitting school.

Dante opened the door to his class, instantly making himself the main target of Ryle and his cronies.

Ryle approached Dante's desk and began taunting him, "Did you manage to finish your work, you old geezer?" He tugged on Dante's gray hair, which he had inherited from his mother.

Dante tried to act calm as Ryle pulled his hair and took out the homework that Ryle had given him yesterday from his bag.

Ryle directed a menacing question at Dante as soon as he saw him, his furrowed brows betraying his anger. "Only three tasks completed? What about the other two?"

"I didn't have much time left, and these math problems were tougher than I thought," Dante defended himself in a timid voice.

Ryle laid out the consequences for Dante's actions: "Your lunch is mine, and you're staying after school again. Two punches for not doing my work and three for talking back to me." With his terms set, Ryle returned to his seat as class was about to start.

Upon entering the classroom, the teacher's first instruction was, "Before we begin with our lesson, kindly ensure that your works have been submitted."

All of the students in Dante's class, including Ryle, had submitted their work. However, as usual, Dante was without any work to turn in.

"Dante, again?" the teacher asked, noticing that Dante hadn't come to submit his work. "This is going to affect your grades, son. Please make sure to complete and submit it by tomorrow," he continued.

The cycle repeated itself in the following classes, without fail. Each teacher had their own way of dealing with Dante's behavior, with one even going as far as marking him absent for failing to complete her tasks. And during lunch, as Ryle had threatened, Dante was left with an empty stomach as his food was taken away...

Ryle dumped his assignments on Dante's desk, as he usually did, expecting Dante to complete them by the next day. Later, behind the school building, Ryle held Dante back.

Ryle taunted Dante after landing a clean punch to his face, "That's two punches so far. Dying already?"

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

"Here it goes!" Ryle's cronies were cheering for him. "TEN!" they shouted as Ryle landed his final punch.

Dante crumpled to the ground, unable to withstand the force of Ryle's final blow. The beating he received was a routine punishment, with five compulsory punches and additional ones inflicted whenever Ryle deemed Dante had wronged him. This was the daily reality for Dante.

Ryle left him alone after that. Dante climbed up to his feet and dusted away the dirt, proceeded to wash his face in a sink nearby. He checked his phone only to see that he was late again.

Despite his desires for a better life, Dante was stuck in a cycle of abuse and mistreatment. He faced scoldings from his boss at the general store for being late and relied on his colleague to provide him with bandages after enduring Ryle's punches.

"Want me to help you?" his colleague Glory asked Dante.

"Nothing, I'm fine. Thanks for the bandages again," he replied taking the bandages from her.

After his mother left, Dante was left with no option but to work part-time to look after himself.

He feels disappointed thinking about waking up early the next day as he finishes his work at sunset, and it's time for him to go home.

As he was heading home, he came across a person wearing a top hat, surrounded by some young-looking men, trying to extort money from him at an empty street corner.

"Give us the case, you freak," said one of the men as he tried to snatch the top hat man's bag away. However, the top hat man held a firm grasp on his suitcase.

Dante found himself in the top hat man's predicament, just as he was always around Ryle. The thought of Ryle made him angrier. He swiftly took out his phone, punched a few numbers, and shouted, "Leave that man alone, or I'll call the police," demanding the men to stop.

The group of young men turned their heads towards the direction of the intruding voice. Although they were angered, they realized that getting involved any further would not do them any good.

A man from the group gestured to the others and said, "Let's go, we don't want any trouble," and the rest followed him, leaving the top hat man alone. Dante's intervention had saved the top hat man from harm.

The top had man walked up to Dante and said, "Thank you, my savior. If it weren't for you, this little soul would have perished," expressed the top hat man gratefully.

"You're welcome," Dante fumbled in response, as he looked at the top hat man's face. The man's face appeared pale with glowing red eyes, reminding Dante of the eye contacts he had seen cosplayers wear for anime characters. He did look like a freak.

"This little soul is called Enzo, and this Enzo will forever be indebted to you Dante," Enzo introduced himself, his words were tuned to a rhythm as he spoke. He shook Dante's hands and began walking briskly away from him. Dropping a thin book on his way.

Dante noticed that Enzo had dropped his book without realizing it as he moved along. Dante quickly picked it up to return it to Enzo, but the top hat man had already disappeared from sight, leaving Dante feeling puzzled.

Dante took a closer look at the leather cover of the book. He didn't want to invade someone else's privacy, but he couldn't resist the temptation to peek inside. "A little peek won't hurt, maybe there's an address or something," Dante reasoned with himself, trying to justify his curiosity. He knew he was just looking for an excuse to peek inside the book.

As Dante peered inside the book, the first page read, "This diary belongs to Draco Blackwood." He recognized the weird name instantly; it was his father's name. Also, Dante wondered how did Enzo knew who he was.

Dante felt a chill down his spine. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Selfishly, he decided to keep the diary for himself.

Back in his room, Dante eagerly delved into his father's diary. He was surprised to discover that it contained detailed information about a different world called "Enigma," along with various other contents.

"Was my father trying to write a webnovel?" Dante wondered to himself, questioning the diary's contents.

As he flipped through the pages, Dante came across a chapter that discussed at length how humans could achieve superpowers. The chapter outlined two methods for achieving them.

The first method described was used by the people of the planet Earth. Powers were achieved through several years of meditation. Super strength, levitation, teleportation, invisibility, immortality, and various kinds of superpowers were mentioned. The only drawback was that the process took several years to achieve, and the success rate was as low as 1%.

And the second method talked about how Enigmans do it. These Enigmans drink the blood of the wielder of the superpower, and the blood infects them with the power of the wielder, or a different power according to their conditions.

"But where in this world would one find Enigman blood running in them?" Dante thought to himself.

As he flipped through more pages, he found a chapter titled 'Beta Test'. This was an experiment in which his father was involved in the making. Currently the success chances were 50-50 it mentioned. The person has to draw a circle, a star, some patterns, draw his blood in the middle and say, 'I summon thee who hath created the ruins', and that's it. Super powers granted.

"What nonsense!" Dante thought, but he could not forget how elaborately his father had written down every detail. So he decided to give it a try, although his mother would have beaten his ass to death if she were alive.

He carefully drew the circle, took his long ruler to draw the star inside the circle, and drew the patterns carefully in between the spaces of the star and the circle.

"There, done!" Dante said, taking pride in his drawing skills.

He went to the kitchen, running awkwardly, and brought back a knife to his room. He panted heavily as he held the knife and made a quick stroke, slitting his palm and drawing blood directly in the middle of the star.

And then he waited patiently, thinking he had already obtained superpowers. He gazed at a glass, concentrating hard and trying to levitate it. But nothing happened. He tried to lift his sofa, but he was still too weak. He couldn't teleport to the toilet, so he had to walk in to take a leak. Literally, nothing had happened.

Dante took the diary, looked at it angrily, and then slammed it on the floor. "Damn you, Enzo!" he exclaimed.

[CONGRATULATIONS]

[YOUR PASSWORD 'DAMNYOUENZO' HAS BEEN VERIFIED]

[YOU ARE NOW LOGGED INTO THE BETA TEST]

Dante was startled as a screen suddenly popped up in front of his eyes.

[USER : DANTE BLACKWOOD]

[LEVEL : 1]

[EXP : 0/1000]

[CLASS : ???]

[DAILY QUESTS COMPLETED : 0/3 ]

[THEME SONG : NOT AVAILABLE]

"What the hell is this?" he said, moving his eyes away from the floating window, but it remained latched onto his area of vision.

He then tried tapping the back button on the top right corner, and saw the skill section. He tapped on it but found that there were no skills available. The skill tree read, 'Skill tree unlocks when you receive your first achievement'

He looked for the achievements section and there it was.

[ACHIEVEMENT OF VALOR]

[UNLOCKS WHEN FACING YOUR FEAR WITHOUT ANY POWERS FOR 10 MINUTES]

[UNLOCKS THE FIRST SKILL IN THE SKILL TREE]

Dante knew what he had to do next and he wasn't exactly happy about it.