Prologue

He fell into the darkness. Falling deeper and deeper.

Everything around him was black.

Pure and deep black. A black that seemed to emanate from the very depths of hell.

'I died,' he thought as he sighed, continuing to fall. He had expected it, but seeing it happen in reality made him falter.

'Perhaps I should not have… but in the end, I felt it… fulfillment…' He tried to grasp onto that feeling, that feeling that had emanated from his very soul, the moment that he had died, but he was unsuccessful.

'Whatever…'

And just like that, with a single word, everything that had happened prior to his death and even his death itself was pushed to the back of his head, boxed into a small container that would never see the light of dawn.

He slowly observed his surroundings.

Darkness and black. Two quite different concepts, yet they could both be used to describe his surroundings.

'So this is the so called 'afterlife', eh… I have to say that I am a bit disappointed.'

He had never been a religious person, but that had not stopped him from making contemplations about the life after death.

'So this is it?' Was he supposed to float in this unfathomable darkness, for eternity?

Perhaps this was the true meaning of death… If the soul is locked in an environment with no outside contact, then what would happen. Studies on earth showed that within 3 days of solitary confinement, a person would begin to lose their minds. Now imagine something much worse than solitary confinement, imagine an environment where you have no one, no thing to interact with and at the same time know that there is no one out there to get you out of your room after your time is up. Just the thought would drive some people crazy.

'So this the end huh…' Even with his impressive mental fortitude, he saw no way to escape such a situation. His body couldn't even move.

'Still, isn't this too much, facing this type of torture before my existence is destroyed?'

[Processing]

A loud metallic emanated throughout the entire space.

'Sound?' It was impossible. This whole environment seemed to be a vacuum, almost like a black hole – a place where no sound could travel. He himself could only think inside his mind. So how was it possible?

'Interesting… guess I am going to find out.'

[Participant 6P309 has entered the testing field. Please survive for one year to prove your worthiness]

Silence once again descended.

'Participant? Testing field?'

Questions started to swirl around his mind. After waiting for a while, he noticed that the metallic voice had completely disappeared; it no longer made any noise. It was quite hard to communicate with something in a world where you could not make any sound.

'But still… that gives me a chance right… a chance is all I need.' He continued his descent into the darkness.

The clogs began to spin. Instantly numerous pieces of information began to fill his head.

'Necessary information: Due to the instinct of being with others of our species and our need for some form of interaction, the brain comes under stress when in situations where there is nothing to interact with. Current situation: The brain cannot interact with the body, because body cannot move. Solution: None'

His brain went over the normal situations used to deal with this type of stress. Counting and thinking would be his only two options. Counting could be ruled out. In situation with a limited time frame, this was a plausible solution, but in a situation where the time frame was too large, it placed too much pressure on the counter. So that left thinking.

But what could he think about? Within a few hours at worst and days at most.

'This really is unforgiving towards normal humans.' Rye sighed. It seemed as if this test was designed to kill nearly everyone.

'Too bad I am not one of them.'

Using conventional methods and the average human mind, it was simply impossible to escape such a situations.

However, Rye could be considered to be an anomaly. The average human had an attention span that was a few seconds at worst to a few hours at most. This meant that once someone finished thinking about something, they would begin to think about something else, continuously repeating this cycle, until eventually they would run out of things to think about for a split second and the reality of the situation would flood in. Then the panic began and then… madness. All it took was a split second.

'So what about it? All I need to do is not let my mind wander.'

He first needed to pick a topic.

He thought for a second.

Death.

It has always been a topic that had astounded him.

'What is death? It can be said to be defined as the loss of all body functions and the ability to interact with one self and one's surroundings…'

His thoughts constantly revolved around the single word of 'dead', not daring to think about anything else.

Slowly days passed by.

'The existence of the soul can be thought of as an argued topic among many. My current body is that of a soul… I can say after close analysis. The soul seems to not require any sleep or food. However it seems that even it has a limit'

His mind constantly processed new ideas, as his won knowledge of death continued to increase.

Days turned into weeks and weeks rolled into months.

'The events that… happen… after…'

But even Rye had a limit. The soul itself had an innate limit, a limit that would impend someone.

His mind was weary. It seems that his soul was slowly drained…

His mind began to falter, his soul began to ache. He felt pain… deep pain, a pain that seem to etch itself into his very thoughts.

Slowly, if one were to observe his soul from the outside, they would notice that his soul was shrinking.

Minutes passed as the pain continued.

By now the soul was the size of a pea, so small that you could flick it with one hand.

His thoughts began to haze. The fire of life began to dwindle.

He thought back to his previous dull life… that life that he hated and thus abandoned.

'Is this it… is this my limit? This feeling… HAHAHAHAHA… this is the feeling… this feeling… fulfillment. The thing that was missing from my past life…'

A wave of energy burst out from his mind, rekindling the fire in the deep in his mind, causing it to explode with life and energy

His soul instantly began to shine and expand, lighting up the deep darkness with a beacon of hope. If one observed closely, they would notice that the soul itself has become much brighter.

'I will see this path through, till the end.'

He continued.

'…death are commonly argued about, by different religions. Some say that the souls of people reincarnate based on their deeds, while others say that souls go to heaven or heal based on their deeds. It seems however, as if they were all wrong… but even I could be wrong…'

His words continued. His thoughts into the realm of death continued to grow and expand. It was as if a haze had fallen off.

Finally the allocated time of one year passed.

[Participant 6P309 has passed the testing field. Participant is eligible to partake in conquest. Participant soul conversion… processing… completed. Preparing transportation.]

'It seems like it has finally finished… I wonder what the next stage will be'

Just the thought off it made him excited. Just this preliminary stage forced him to use everything he had. So… what about the next part? What about the future? Just the thought made him glad that he died.

'This is what I live for…'