Land of Trials

A young man with dashing good looks could be seen lying on a cold, hard, polished concrete floor.

He laid with his back to the floor.

His handsome face was framed by raven-black hair that was styled in a tousled, effortlessly chic manner. His skin was pale white, and his eyelashes were long and mesmerizing. He looked extremely attractive, even while asleep. 

His eyelashes fluttered like the wings of a butterfly—a sign he was about to wake up.

The next second, his eyes snapped open.

The young man was James, and a plain white ceiling came into his view.

'Looks different than the one I am used to waking up to,' James thought to himself groggily.

He was making such a silly comparison because he was still not fully awake.

It took some moments for him to come to his senses and recall the last thing that happened before he fainted—he was chosen to enter the land of trials. So he must be in it now.

Ugh!

Immediately, he sat up with a grunt.

The reason for his discomfort was the stiffness that had set into his muscles from lying on a cold, hard ground for an indeterminate amount of time. 

He gingerly rotated his shoulders to ease the tightness he felt in his body as he looked around to make sense of his surroundings.

He was in a white, featureless room with no visible entrance or exit.

It was empty, save for him.

James thought, 'So this is the infamous white room that kick-started Melody's nightmares.'

'It's exactly the way it was described in the novel.'

'The author has definitely been here before.'

'They could be among the creators of the land of trials.'

'But there is also a chance they are a player who managed to grow strong enough to leave this accursed place.'

James thoughts shifted.

'The administrator should have already felt my presence. It should be arriving here soon.'

'The administrator can't read minds, so I don't need to be careful about what I think in its presence, but I definitely can't afford a slip-up that reveals I had prior knowledge of this place.'

'Otherwise, I will be dooming myself to an ill fate.'

The Administrator of the Land of Trials has a lot of responsibilities.

Its most basic responsibility was to give a basic introduction of the Land Of Trials to newcomers.

As James was a newcomer, a meeting with the administrator was inevitable for him as much as he dreaded it.

A few moments later, a slender and tall humanoid with large, pointed ears that stood upright on the top of his head appeared before James out of thin air.

It had black eyes that looked like marbles, as they had no irises, and its skin color was different than humans.

It was a head taller than James and the color of its skin resembled snow. Its snow white skin shimmered softly like a polished mirror reflecting faint lights.

It was the administrator James had been expecting! 

However, he acted as though he hadn't expected someone to pop out of thin air, especially a non-human, and not only widened his eyes to the size of saucers but also gaped, perfectly displaying a look of extreme shock.

"Greetings, Earthling," the administer said.

Its black eyes gave nothing away of its thoughts, and its thin lips didn't move when it spoke.

Seemingly startled and afraid to hear a being that popped out of nowhere speak, James stepped back in shock while drawing his hand closer to the gun strapped to his right thigh.

"Trust me, you don't want to go there with me," the administrator threatened.

Its threat seemed to have worked as James didn't pull his gun out of its holster. However, he kept his hand close to it.

"Where am I? And who the hell are you?" James asked in a voice heavy with nervousness.

James knew the answer to his question as he had read 350+ chapters of the novel "Tales of My Regressions," and there was ample information about the Land of Trials and the administer in charge of it in it. 

For example, he knew the real purpose of the land of trials. 

He also knew that the administrator was able to fulfill all its responsibilities with the help of its countless clones. 

Even the one he had come across might not be its real body.

Actually, it could only be its clone as a normal body can't stand being in the presence of its real body. The administrator was just that powerful.

Although James knew all there was to know about the Land of Trials and its administer, he had to act like he didn't, and his acting had to be believable.

Otherwise, he would end up dead like the Melody of the 4th regression, who had let it slip that she knew about the land of trials and its Administrator before the latter even had the chance to give her an introduction.

As a result, she triggered a Death Flag.

On top of all its responsibilities, the administrator had two important jobs.

Its first job was to weed out anomalies before they could penetrate deeper into the land of trials where it didn't have any influence.

Its second job was to find out how these anomalies were created and destroy the source or cause of their creation.

What qualifies as an anomaly? An anomaly is someone who possesses prior knowledge of the Land of Trials even before their summoning. In her ignorance, Melody had revealed herself to be an anomaly.

The administrator smiled softly before he flashed up to Melody and cracked open her skull. Melody was unable to put up any resistance. The administrator was just too strong. She was nothing but a fish on a chopping board against it.

The administrator cracked open her skull in order to pull her brain out and eat it.

The administrator was a special type of being that could gain the memories by eating brains.

By eating Melody's brain, he would know how she came to know about the Land of Trials. 

However, before he could consume Melody's brain, she died, and her innate ability "Regression" was triggered.

Time reversed by a few months for all of existence, and she escaped complete erasure! 

James knew he would face death by the administrator's hands if he aroused the latter's suspicion, and he wasn't as lucky as Melody. If he died, it would signify an end for him.

A James would appears once Melody dies and regress to the past, but who is to say it will be the same James as him? 

Luckily, James had taken many acting classes back in his high school days as he was a member of the drama club. And since his life depended on it, he put in more effort into his acting. 

It seemed realistic.

The administrator, with discerning eyes that couldn't be fooled easily, fell for it.

"You are in the land of trials, and I am the administrator in charge of it. You can call me Administrator White," the administrator replied.