In A Maze

Some hours later...

A loud bing echoed in his mind, dragging Daniel out of slumber and into a wave of uncomfortable heat.

His eyes fluttered open, vision dull at first before slowly sharpening.

His body temperature rose sharply, and a sudden, pulsating pain throbbed in his temples, rendering him unable to register his surroundings.

Ugh, my head... It hurts like... ahh!

Struggling to focus while contending with the intense heat and pain, he looked down at himself and noticed tremors running through his skin.

Dull pink, swollen spots had appeared all over his body—there was no escape.

What the hell is happening to me...?

Suddenly, the symptoms intensified.

The sensations tightened around him like a vice.

He lifted his head and screamed, like a man driven to the edge—screamed until his voice cracked and his eyes welled with tears.

Then, just as suddenly, it all stopped.

The pain, the heat, and the tremors faded—vanishing as quickly as they had come.

Unsurprisingly, he was still in the same place where he had passed out from excessive bleeding.

It was now late at night, and the area had grown eerily quiet, as if even the monsters had moved on.

That was when the memory returned—the strange game-like screen that had appeared before him, asking if he wanted to survive, followed by the sudden binding with a Sin.

He still had no idea what it all meant, but whatever it was had clearly saved his life… though it came with a cost.

A brief moment of hell, he concluded.

He turned his gaze to his surroundings.

His eyes landed on the mutated corpse of his mother, still impaled on the iron pole she had run into—perhaps to restrain herself from killing him.

Tears slid down his cheek almost instantly.

His mind went blank.

Not until he realised that all his wounds had healed—including his once-shattered leg.

It felt like a small miracle, but it meant little compared to the loss of his mother.

That pain weighed more than any injury.

Suddenly, the system screen appeared before his eyes again, startling him and momentarily distracting him from his grief.

This one looked different from the last:

Name: Daniel Lee

Race: Human (???)

Alignment: Wrath Sin

Class: Sin-Eater

Grade: V

Status:

Health: ████████□□ (80%)

Sanity: █████□□□□□ (50%) — Slightly insane

Corruption: ███□□□□□□□ (30%)

Skills: None

Loots: None

"Huh? What's all this?" Daniel muttered, staring in confusion.

He wasn't much of a gamer—not at all, really—but even he recognised this sort of interface from games.

What unsettled him most was the sanity bar.

The phrase slightly insane made him pause. In truth, he couldn't argue.

Back in school, during one of his worst periods, he had almost been referred for rehabilitation.

Not that any of that mattered now. School was over.

The rest was history—literally.

"Do I even need to think about that now...?" he muttered under his breath, glancing back at his mother's body.

He exhaled deeply.

Then, something strange happened.

A small book appeared on the ground, materialising from a dark light.

It was only slightly larger than a pamphlet and had an eerie appearance.

Daniel felt no instinctive urge to pick it up—only hesitation and unease.

But after a while, curiosity overcame his fear.

He searched the area until he found a long iron rod.

Using it, he prodded the book, nudging it gently to test for a reaction.

Nothing happened.

The book remained still.

"Well... that means I can pick it up."

He set down the iron rod and cautiously lifted the book.

As soon as his fingers touched the cover, the book sprang open.

Pages flipped rapidly, and a flood of information surged into his mind, as though the knowledge was being downloaded directly into his brain.

When the final page was reached, the book snapped shut and vanished.

Then, another system screen appeared:

[You have successfully absorbed all the necessary information from the Manual Book to survive the New World Order. Good luck surviving, User 101.]

"Huh? User 101?" Daniel repeated in confusion.

However, his question was soon answered.

The solution emerged directly in his mind.

This system was now commonly referred to as numbering.

Humans were being assigned numbers, which meant he wasn't the only one who had received it.

The Sin Gods—rulers who had descended upon Earth—had initiated the new world order.

Along with them came fallen gods, monsters, and a host of other terrors.

They were the root cause of the chaos now sweeping the planet.

As part of this numbering format, Daniel was currently number 101 among those who had received the system—hence User 101.

He had been chosen by the Embodiment of the Sin God of Wrath, not the Sin God itself.

At his current grade, he remained not much different from an ordinary human, which explained the three question marks beside his Race status.

His body had undergone only minor enhancements, just enough to resist some of the dangers posed by monsters.

Humans were now categorised into six grades:

• Grade V – Latent: No awakened abilities; can merely sense or slightly resist monsters.

• Grade IV – Awakened: Basic sin alignment with one or two abilities.

• Grade III – Branded: Stronger Sin presence. Gains a Title and begins suffering from sanity decay, a slow descent into madness as the Sin's influence deepens. Those who endure can retain control.

• Grade II – Crowned: Recognition by a Sin God becomes possible. Grants access to the Authority skill, allowing the user to impose a domain over a certain radius.

• Grade I – Apostate: Full manifestation of Sin. Can rival high-class monsters. This is the final and most dangerous rank.

Alongside these grades, individuals were assigned classes—the manifested identity of an Awakened.

A class was shaped by the Sin they bonded with, determining their combat style, abilities, and the curses placed upon them.

"Hmm. Interesting… So now the world has become a playground for the Sin Gods. Eventually, we'll all be forced to become Players in this so-called new world order," he muttered, staring at his open palm.

"In that case, there'll be a change of plans. Since I'm currently weak as hell, I'll have to grow stronger—by killing monsters. And then… my main target will be the world."

"Why, you ask? Because that's the new order—the world itself."

"Game is game. And I will avenge what it took from me."

Daniel glanced back at his class name and manage to pull a short grin.

According to the knowledge now embedded in him, his class was among the most powerful, even though he himself was currently one of the weakest.

Isn't that a good start?