The beginning

Murmurs and discussions could be heard in the vast coliseum that had tens of thousands of audience. However, it was not a normal one. A light seemed to be radiating from the building itself almost blinding to the eye. If one were to look at it from afar, they could see that this coliseum was floating in the sky.

An old man dressed in a magnificent battle armour suddenly appeared in the middle of the Coliseum. The moment he did all the sounds stopped, and everyone's eyes turned to the figure.

"The time has come. I, Odin, king of the gods, hereby declare the start of the new trial for the next king. Rules are the same as always. Everyone is prohibited to interfere with the subject's trial, apart from giving them the power of the Chosen.

Now let the Trial begin!"

As soon as Odin finished talking, he took out a purple crystal from his pocket, and it slowly rose to the sky. When it reached a height above the Coliseum, it broke into countless pieces and scattered around the universe.

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'Ah... Too bad my vacations are almost over, this cruise was great!'

A young man around 27 years old could be seen standing at the deck of a cruise ship.

His short brown hair could be seen slightly moving from the breeze. His green coloured eyes were radiating brilliance, reflecting the sea on them. He was dressed simply, wearing black shorts, a white t-shirt with a black stamp in the middle and wearing black All-Star shoes. His body was quite athletic, proving that he wasn't neglecting his training.

'Two weeks around the Caribbean was relaxing as I thought. The drinks, the girls, the parties, everything was great. If only those bastards weren't calling me for help all the time, it would have been perfect.'

"Mr George! There you are!" A sweet voice could be heard behind him stopping his reminisce.

The man turned around to greet the one calling for him. She was a cute looking young girl, with long black hair, wearing a black skirt reaching her knees and a white shirt with a pin with her name on it. It was a dress up that you could see in any of the restaurants on the cruise ship from the girls working there.

"Ah, Natalia? What's wrong?" George asked confused.

"Mr George, you forgot your phone and the boss asked me to bring it to you."

"Ah, thank you very much. My mind wanders all the time and I end up forgetting stuff." George joked.

Natalia let out a small laugh before slightly bowing and returning.

George turned around and gazed at the sea again playing with the phone in his hands.

The phone starting beeping and vibrating and George's eyes immediately looked at the caller ID before picking up the phone.

"Master George, hope you are well."

"Galik, I would mention how happy I am to hear from you, but that would be a lie. What is it this time?" George replied.

"Master George, your father asked me to give you one last warning. Stop with this foolishness and come back to the family."

"Galik, I know you are my father's attendant, but as I told you many times, he can call me himself. However, my answer will never change. I will never come back to this disgusting family. I prefer to live my life instead of following the old man's orders."

"Very well Master George, as I said this was the final warning. Your father ordered that if you refuse to come back, I am to notify you that if you have not arrived in the family's estate within 15 days, you will be declared as a traitor." The voice of Galik sounded for the last time before hanging up.

'A traitor huh? So I guess these will be the last 15 days of peace I am going to have. Then, let me enjoy it as much as I can!' George decided and threw his phone to the sea.

'Damn, that felt great!' he thought while looking at his phone making an arc in the air. However, just before it touched the sea, it froze midair.

'Huh?' George wondered before realizing his body was completely immobile and he could only move his eyes. 'What's going on? Why can't I move?'

The sky was slowly turning darker even though it was in the middle of the day. George slowly moved his eyes towards the sun and he saw something that looked like a huge rock covering the sun's view.

'Eclipse?' George asked himself.

A thundering sound was heard and he saw the rock splitting up into thousands of fragments scattering across the Earth. They were falling like meteorites and one of them was heading towards their ship.

'Fuck.' was all he could think of.

Strangely after the rock hit the ship and drew a hole in the middle of it heading to the bottom of the sea, nothing else happened. The ship was not sinking. It seemed as everything was normal except that hole.

With the corner of his eyes, George could see that nobody was moving. That made him feel better somewhat since he wasn't the only one in this strange situation.

After a minute, that seemed like ages for him; a strange voice sounded in his mind.

*Host number XXXX was found. Name George Castle. Initializing the assimilation process...*

'What the fuck was that?' he wondered, feeling a tinge of fear.

*The assimilation is complete. Waiting for other hosts to complete theirs.*

*All hosts have completed the assimilation. Proceeding with releasing [Time Stop] on the world.*

*[Time Stop] is released.*

*System will load in 60 minutes. Please be safe until then.*

George could move again. He checked his surroundings and saw everything slowly falling into chaos.

The ship started sinking due to the hole caused by the strange rock and people started jumping in the water while screaming. George was thinking of jumping as well but the moment before he jumps, he saw the mouth of a beast emerging from the sea, swallowing some of the people that had already abandoned the ship.

'WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?' George was screaming in his mind.

He decided that risking his life by staying on the ship was better than swimming next to that monster. He started searching to find a life vest. It might not save him from the monsters but it can definitely keep him afloat. It wasn't long until he found one in a random open cabin and he immediately wore it. He then went back outside to the corridor.

People were screaming and running all over. A man even tried to steal his life vest, forcing George to punch him and run away from the corridor he was in. He went back outside to the deck when a tremor coursed through the whole ship and a crackling sound could be heard. The ship was being separated into two parts.

'Oh fuck, there is no evading swimming.

I guess it's better being one of the last ones to fall in, perhaps the monsters will be full by then'. George mocked.

He grabbed the rail to avoid falling due to the angle the ship had and slowly crept up to the highest point of the deck, the one that would be the last to submerge itself into the sea. Clearly, he wasn't the only one with such a thought since he could see people around him trying to climb as well.

Every passing minute was making it harder for him to hold on, forcing him on using all of his strength and focus just to hold on to the rail, not having enough time even to consider the strange voice that sounded before in his head.

After an unknown time has passed, the last of the ship with George and some others were sinking. During the whole time, while hanging from the rail, George could see the people below that were already in the sea, being eaten by massive fish-like creatures, painting the sea red from their blood. Only a few lucky ones survived the onslaught.

As soon as he was in the sea, he tried swimming but when a ship is sinking, a whirlpool is being formed and George was unable to get out of it. Thankfully, he was wearing his life vest, so he was keeping himself afloat. He kept trying to swim, but he slowly felt his strength leaving him.

He was holding the rails for quite some time before and now he had to use all of his strength just to swim so he won't get sucked into the centre of the whirlpool.

If that wasn't enough, the smell of blood and the human remains around him, left by the fish monsters feast, were making him want to vomit.

'Focus on swimming George, focus on staying alive. Ignore everything else.' he was reminding himself every second.

Soon, he felt something swimming next to him. To his horror, he realised it was one of the monsters. When the monster reached him, it tried to take a bite from him, but thankfully, it was also tough for it to swim freely since the whirlpool formed was extremely strong even for the natives of the sea. Instead of killing George, it only managed to wound his side, tearing the life vest apart in the process.

That was the last straw, sapping the rest of George's strength. Unable to remain afloat anymore, or even swim, he started getting sucked into the whirlpool. He was gasping for air all the time, but soon, he was completely submerged.

'Damn, what shitty vacations.' he thought contradicting his previous opinion. Just before he lost his consciousness, George heard the voice in his head once more.

*System initiated. The trial for inhabitants of the world#3533 is starting. Please wait...*

*Ding! Quest received!*

*Survive for 30 days.*

*Introduction to the system will follow, please pay attention*

*While the explanation is in progress, your life will be preserved*

Then everything went black.