Punishment

Immediately, the voice echoed, reverberating throughout the room. Kaiza steadied his stance, adjusting his footing and bracing himself for what was to come.

Then, the voice came again.

[Basic skills detected.]

[Watch the clips and practice.]

The voice stopped abruptly, offering no further instructions.

"Is that all?" Kaiza muttered under his breath, frowning with dissatisfaction. He had expected a more detailed introduction into martial arts, perhaps something more engaging. But that was it.

Things weren't unfolding as Kaiza had imagined. He had expected the voice to guide him through the process, breaking things down step by step. Instead, the room fell silent.

Moments later, a faceless fighter materialized from the side of the wall, stepping into the center of the screen directly across from Kaiza. Without hesitation, the fighter began to move, demonstrating a series of techniques.

Kaiza followed along, mimicking the movements as the training continued. But as he moved, a thought lingered in the back of his mind—he already knew some of this. 'These weren't entirely unfamiliar concepts.'

His thoughts spiraled. 'Why isn't the system tailoring the training to my history?' he wondered.

For this training to be truly effective, the system should analyze his past and push him toward techniques he hadn't encountered before—something more advanced, something that would truly challenge him.

Kaiza's focus wavered, his thoughts drifting inward. Boredom crept in, and his attention slipped entirely. Distracted, he began performing the wrong moves, deviating from the clip playing on the screen.

Without warning, Kaiza's system interface suddenly activated, snapping him out of his trance. The abrupt appearance made him freeze mid-action as a message materialized on the screen.

[You broke the rule.]

[Host will be punished appropriately for their actions.]

[Action - Lost focus.]

[Punishment - Fire Land.]

[Instruction - Survive the Fire Land myth and creatures.]

"What?" Kaiza's jaw dropped, disbelief spreading across his face as he tried to process the situation. His mind raced, pondering what he had done wrong—until the system bluntly highlighted his offense. The punishment and instructions soon followed, leaving him no time to argue.

Before he could fully grasp what was happening, the ground beneath him shifted violently. Cracks formed, and in an instant, the floor split open. Kaiza was swallowed by the chasm, his startled cry echoing as he plummeted downward.

Moments later, Kaiza landed with a heavy thud on a mound of coarse, brown sand. Groaning, he pushed himself to his feet, brushing off the dust as he took in his surroundings. His eyes darted around, scanning the unfamiliar, ominous landscape.

'Where has the system thrown me now?'

All Kaiza could see around him was an endless expanse of sand stretching as far as the eye could reach, like a vast ocean without water. Not a single blade of grass or sign of vegetation was in sight.

"Am I in a desert?" Kaiza muttered, staring in disbelief. The reality of his situation began to sink in, and the shock on his face deepened.

"What now?" he sighed, quickly resigning himself to his fate. He knew he had broken the system's rules. The list of rules had been shown to him before, but in his rush to start training and gain power, he had paid little to no attention to them. Now, he was facing the consequences of his actions.

As Kaiza wrestled with his thoughts, the system interface appeared again, interrupting his contemplation.

[Punishment ground - Fire Desert]

[Punishment duration - Ten minutes]

[Punishment phase - Easy]

[Instruction - Cross the desert under fire rain to reach the finish line.]

[Punishment will now begin.]

The interface disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared. The sunny atmosphere dimmed, replaced by a foreboding darkness. Above and around Kaiza, thick, fiery clouds began to form, glowing ominously as they churned in the sky.

'It's really fire rain,' Kaiza thought, his chest tightening with unease.

Far behind him, the first drops of fire began to fall, and Kaiza's attention snapped to the scene. His eyes widened in horror as he watched the fiery droplets hit the sandy ground. Each drop burned through the soil, leaving scorched, blackened marks in its wake. The ground looked as though it had been consumed by actual flames.

"This… this isn't a joke!" Kaiza exclaimed, his voice trembling.

The heat rushed toward him, and the realization of what awaited sent a surge of panic through his body. Then...

Kaiza's system chimed, and a robotic voice echoed sharply in his mind.

[Run.]

Taking a deep breath, Kaiza stepped forward, crossing the invisible starting line. His jaw tightened as he steeled himself for what lay ahead. He saw this as a game—but one with dire consequences if he failed. That was the punishment's cruel twist.

Summoning every ounce of courage, Kaiza ignored the wild beating of his heart and the storm of thoughts racing through his mind. Then, he began to run.

Almost immediately, as if the clouds could sense their target, they began to move, surging toward him like predators closing in.

Kaiza pushed forward, refusing to let panic take control. He didn't sprint blindly across the desert; his eyes remained sharp, scanning the fiery skies. Earlier, he had noted that the clouds were spaced out, leaving narrow gaps—lanes where he could avoid being directly beneath the fire rain.

For the first few minutes, Kaiza's plan seemed to work. He zigzagged through the desert, mindful of the fiery gaps. Occasionally, he glanced back, watching the clouds chase after him. They seemed slow, or maybe his adrenaline-fueled sprint made him feel faster than he truly was.

However, his relief was short-lived.

Abruptly, Kaiza's system chimed again, and the familiar interface hovered in front of him, halting him in his tracks.

[First phase completed.]

[Phase two begins.]

"Phase two?" Kaiza muttered, his brows furrowing. Confusion and tension clouded his features. Then it hit him—the punishment duration. He had been running for two minutes straight.

But he knew something else—something he had learned from past trials. Each completed phase brought a new challenge, a more difficult test.

His suspicion was confirmed as the system displayed another message:

[Now survive raging clouds.]

Just then, Kaiza felt the air around him shift.

"Raging clouds?" Kaiza muttered, his mind racing to decipher the system's warning. As expected, something new had been introduced, but he wasn't sure what it entailed.

Then, it came.

A deafening roar erupted behind him, making Kaiza freeze mid-step. His heart pounded as he slowly turned to see the source of the sound.

Far in the distance, Kaiza spotted a massive cloud pouring fire in torrents, almost like a fiery storm—a windstorm in the form of a tornado. It stretched from the heavens to the ground, spinning violently as it moved at an alarming speed, tearing through the desert in his direction.

"The raging cloud," Kaiza whispered, dread sinking into his chest.

Instinct told him to run, but his body refused to move. He stood frozen, his gaze locked on the devastating sight barreling toward him. The flames roared louder, growing closer with each passing second.

The fiery tornado was only a few meters away when Kaiza's system chimed again, its familiar robotic voice slicing through his panic.

[Run.]

The word jolted him back to reality. Kaiza snapped his head forward, breaking free from the trance. Without wasting another second, he took off at full speed.

The fire rain began to pour again, each droplet scorching the ground as it fell. Kaiza darted through the fiery downpour, narrowly avoiding the deadly drops. Behind him, the raging cloud loomed, its fiery tendrils licking at the ground as it sped after him.

Despite the chaos, Kaiza pushed forward, weaving through the fire with surprising agility. The sound of the raging storm grew louder, threatening to overtake him. But then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the storm's roar began to fade.

Kaiza glanced back briefly, his chest heaving. The fiery tornado had slowed, its rumbling now a faint, distant echo against the scorched desert. The burning soil stretched behind him, but the immediate threat seemed to have lessened.

Still, Kaiza didn't stop. He kept running, his focus fixed ahead. He didn't care if the storm had truly stopped or if it was merely biding its time. All that mattered was reaching the finish line before the punishment's duration ended.

'But was there even a finish line?' Kaiza's lips twisted into a half-smile at the absurdity of his own thoughts.

"When this isn't even a race," he chuckled softly, though his feet kept moving forward.

After a while, Kaiza emerged from the fire rain into a stretch of clear skies. He slowed his pace, glancing behind him at the fiery clouds now far in the distance. Relief began to seep in—but only for a moment.

As Kaiza turned his gaze back toward the horizon, something strange caught his eye. In the sky above, a blazing fire split into three streams, streaking toward the ground.

"What now?" Kaiza muttered, his voice filled with dread.

He traced the fiery paths as they descended and froze when he realized what was happening. The raging storm behind him had divided into three separate tornadoes, each spinning violently and racing toward him at an incredible speed.

Before Kaiza could react, his system blared.

[Find Masha.]

"What's that?" Kaiza asked aloud, his mind racing.

[A mini house, proof against raging fire cloud storms.]

The message was brief, but Kaiza understood its urgency. There was a safe haven somewhere—a Masha—but he needed to find it.

Wasting no time, Kaiza scanned the barren desert ahead. The vast expanse stretched endlessly before him, offering no immediate sign of a structure or shelter.

"Maybe it's farther ahead," he muttered, trying to encourage himself despite the doubt creeping into his mind.

With renewed determination, Kaiza took off, his legs moving faster than before. The urgency of the situation drove him forward—he had to find the Masha before the storms caught up to him.

The three fiery tornadoes thundered behind him, their destructive power closing in with every passing second. Kaiza's focus sharpened as he raced across the desert, his only thought being to reach safety before it was too late.

Behind Kaiza, the storm wasn't his only problem. The fire rain now surged forward, moving faster than the raging storm itself. Its speed nearly matched Kaiza's, rapidly closing the gap between them.

Soon, the fire rain was just inches away. Kaiza felt its overwhelming heat pressing against his back, making it impossible to ignore. He couldn't shake off the suffocating intensity, his instincts screaming at him to keep moving.

To avoid being consumed, Kaiza glanced above, searching for the cloud-free areas he could use to navigate. The heat made every breath a struggle, but his focus remained sharp.

However, what he saw in the sky made his chest tighten. The free spaces weren't a clear, straight path—they formed a complex maze of vertical and horizontal gaps, overlapping chaotically. It was a puzzle he'd need to solve on the run.

Suddenly, the system interface appeared, hovering in front of him. This time, it wasn't the usual display. Instead, it was a translucent blue screen, with detailed labels and symbols suggesting something new.

Kaiza barely had time to glance at it as he continued to dodge the fiery droplets, his movements sharp and erratic. His focus wavered between his surroundings and the interface, but his survival instincts kept him moving.

Then, a message flashed across the screen, grabbing his full attention:

[Activate Dash Mode.]

Without hesitation, Kaiza activated the command with his mind.

In an instant, he felt a surge of energy coursing through his body. His legs moved faster than ever, propelling him forward at an unmatchable speed. The world around him blurred as he zipped ahead, widening the gap between himself and the fire rain.

Fifteen seconds later, Dash Mode deactivated, and Kaiza's pace slowed. He now had a slight lead on the fire rain and storm, but they were gaining speed, more relentless than before.

Catching his breath, Kaiza shifted his focus back to the translucent screen, taking in the details now that he had a moment.

The system was helping him survive.

On the screen, three paths were marked:

Green zones indicated safe paths he could take without danger.

Red zones marked areas where death was certain.

Yellow zones, however, were a gamble—paths where his fate couldn't be determined.

Kaiza clenched his fists, his mind racing. He couldn't afford to hesitate.

As he began to navigate using the green markings, something far ahead caught his eye. It was faint but distinct—a shape forming in the distance. His gaze narrowed as the system chimed again, sending new messages to his interface.

Kaiza steeled himself, ready to decipher the instructions while racing against the relentless fire behind him.

[Masha]

[Protection - Active]

[Get there to survive storm]