Turning Myself In.

After talking for a while with Mr. Roberts, I left and headed to the saviour's tower, where I was supposed to turn myself in.

The saviour's tower was the base of operations for all awakened nearby. Each saviour tower was built 100 kilometers away from each other (≈62 miles)—not a long distance so they could respond quickly if an attack occurred.

They were also considered to be military bases, as 90% of the awakened were in the military. The rest were hunters in the world of corrupted.

*Sigh*

I really didn't want to awaken. Although there are many benefits to it, like power, money, and fame, there are also harms—mainly risking your life.

Looking out of the window of the taxi I was in, I watched the streets of the city, which were bustling with people. The streets, the buildings, the scent—everything was extremely beautiful. I was very lucky to be born in this city. Paris is its name. It is in the North-Central European District, north of the borders of the Mediterranean District.

Fun fact: It was once the capital of a country named France, where they spoke French! Well, it doesn't really matter now, as after the apocalypse, there are no longer any 'countries.' There is a singular central government, and there is only one language spoken—English!

Technically, English isn't the only language spoken, as there are people who still hold on to their language. But these languages are always just a second one, after English.

The government has five different districts. They are all self-governing, like the states in the ancient country, the United States of America. Just like the USA, all states—or districts—are under the federal government—or the central government now. But instead of a Senate, there is a council, a group of nine who control everything in the government. Five of them govern a district, one governs all the small districts of the Americas, and three control the central government.

Their names are not known, but each of them is symbolized by a color of the rainbow, while the strongest two are symbolized by black and white. They are a group of the strongest of the original saviours. Their strength is unimaginable, and nobody knows anything about them—not even which color controls which district.

But it really isn't our place to know. Life is perfect; there is no reason to hate the government. Those who insult it and insult the glorious council are just attention seekers!

Interrupting my thoughts was the taxi driver.

"Hey, we have arrived."

"Alright."

I got out of the taxi and gave the guy the taxi fare.

"Thank you, sir," I said while mustering up a smile.

"No problem. Glory to the council!"

"Glory to the council."

After finishing with the guy, I turned to look at the building before me. It was a huge glass building, more than 2 kilometers in height. It simply looked stunning. It is said that it was built in the place of an ancient monument called 'The Eiffel Tower,' which was destroyed during the apocalypse.

With a sigh, I calmed my heart, which was beginning to beat violently, and entered the building.

As soon as I entered, I froze for a second due to the number of people inside. It was my first time entering the building, and I couldn't see inside as it was daytime outside. Regaining myself, I went through security and went over to one of the receptionists, who was a handsome young man with brown hair and brown eyes.

"Good morning, sir. How may I help you?"

The receptionist asked with a friendly smile.

"Uh, I just awakened and wanted to turn myself in."

The receptionist's eyebrows slightly lifted, and a slightly surprised expression appeared on his face.

"You have?" He paused for a second, looking me up and down. "Come with me, then, new saviour!"

He got up from his seat and started walking towards the elevator, with me following behind him.

But as soon as we entered and the doors closed, my eyes started to feel heavy, and drowsiness washed over me.

"W-What is h-happe—"

Thud

William's body fell to the ground.

***

"Why?"

"I trusted you. Why?"

"Why did you kill me, William?"

"I had to, Ethan."

"Had to? What do you mean you had to? You could have just stayed in this world. There wasn't even a time limit or a fail condition for the challenge!"

"I wanted to return," William said quietly, his words coming out as a whisper.

"Oh, you wanted to return? You killed millions—no, billions—just because you wanted to return?"

Ethan was standing in front of him, so angry that he wanted to just rip William apart, but he couldn't.

"WELL, THEY AREN'T EVEN REAL, SO WHY THE HELL WOULD IT MATTER IF I CAUSED THEIR DEATHS?!"

William responded by raising his voice, and Ethan responded with a chuckle.

"O-HO! THAT'S WHAT YOU SAY TO YOURSELF? THAT'S WHAT MAKES YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?"

William opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway," Ethan said in a quiet voice while he was pulling his sword out of its scabbard and approaching William.

"Goodbye, William."

Ethan swung his sword towards William's neck, and William was just frozen in place, staring at his impending doom.

And when the sword was less than an inch away from his neck...

***

*Gasp*

William sprang upward from the ground, sweating profusely and gasping uncontrollably.

"Get up," a voice ordered him, but the words didn't seem to register in his mind as he was still on the ground.

"GET THE FUCK UP!" the voice screamed at him.

It was so loud to the point that it violently shook the ground. William immediately sprang up, still not fully registering what was happening, but his intuition told him that he had to stand up.

"So, that's all of you awake then?" the voice that shouted at William asked.

"Yes, sir!" another voice responded.

'Where the hell are these voices coming from?!'

William thought while he was looking around. It was a very odd situation. Last he remembered, he was in an elevator with the receptionist at the saviour tower. Then everything went black.

Now he found himself standing in a small room with a group of nine. All of them stood as straight as arrows, with their arms at their sides and their feet together. None of them spoke a word, so where the hell were these voices coming from?

Then, an intense feeling of dread filled William. He felt as if death was looking him in the eyes—a feeling similar to what he felt with Oliver. But to Oliver's credit, he was a lot more dreadful. Still, the overwhelming fear took over William.

"Eyes forward." a voice whispered in his ear. William was smart enough to realize that the five people next to him weren't standing like that on purpose—they were just as afraid as he was.

What creeped William out even more was that there was still no source for the voice. It just appeared out of thin air!

Quickly mimicking the way the others stood, he looked forward.

"Ten in this batch... decent."

Then a figure appeared in front of the six. They couldn't make out anything about it except that it wore a military camo uniform.

They couldn't tell its skin color, its face, or anything else. Its size changed with every blink, ranging from as small as a cat to as tall as the ceiling of the room.

Its voice was distorted and changed between high-pitched and low-pitched, just like its size.

"Welcome, all of you, to the world of the awakened. First things first, I would like to congratulate you on your completion of the first challenge."

The voice paused, and applause rang out, startling the ten to the point that one of them jumped in surprise and fell to the ground. As soon as they did—

Boom**Spurt*

Their head exploded, making everyone freeze on the spot. The applause died out, and the figure began to 'speak' again.

"Only one corrupted this batch? That's impressive, extremely so."

Other than the figure, all the people present were shocked, afraid, and wary. They had just watched somebody standing next to them die in a split second just because they fell. How could they be sure they wouldn't be next?

"Now, you are all probably wondering why you are here, right?"

While the figure was speaking, the headless body next to them slowly stood up, and the fragments of its destroyed head started to come back together.

They all turned to look at it, horrified by the sight—all but the figure, of course. Nobody could tell where it was staring.

"Uh, don't worry about that! Look at me!"

The figure 'spoke' in a lighthearted tone, but they were all already scared of it. So they all returned their gazes to it—all including the (dead?) body.

"To keep this short, you have all awakened, but you still haven't become saviours. So, to become one, you will all be sent to the world of the corrupted! You need to make an outstanding achievement, either in a group or solo, to be sent back to Earth."

Before they could even fully register what they were told, the voice 'spoke' again.

"Without further ado, good luck and glory to the council!"

"Hey, HEY WAIT!"

William shouted while trying to approach the figure, but as soon as he took a step, a portal opened under him, and he fell into it.

Portals opened under everyone except the figure and the now not-so-dead body, with the other eight also falling into the portals, just like William.