"Most people believe that the stage after denial is Rage."
"Most people are wrong."
"There is a period of transition as one leaves behind their Denial but still haven't given in to Rage."
"A period during which one is still coming to terms with their new reality."
"I call it…"
"Bewilderment"
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["Welcome to Purgatory! Enjoy your second chance at life!"]
Sebastian woke up with his head feeling incredibly groggy.
His head somehow felt incredibly light and heavy at the same time.
It was as if it had been hollowed out and then someone dropped a few tonnes of training equipment inside.
It felt like shit.
He painfully opened his eyes to find himself staring at the sky.
Red, bloody skies.
Without a cloud in sight.
'Oh... I must be in Purgatory.'
Sebastian opened his mouth to speak but realized that he could still taste the cake in his mouth from his lonely birthday.
In an act consisting solely of rock-hard dedication and sheer fucking will, Sebastian forced himself to sit up.
Now that he was no longer lying spread-eagle on the scorching ground, he managed to take a better look at his surroundings.
He was sitting up in front of the entrance of ... what seemed to be a hamlet.
Around him were 4 other individuals that looked equally disoriented and out of place.
Sebastian surmised that they must have also just gotten out of their respective tutorials and just arrived at this accursed place.
'gotten out of their tutorials...'
While he could logically understand that he had been freed from his eternal torture, his emotions and mental state still hadn't caught up to his new circumstances.
Sebastian cleared his head and decided to focus on his current situation instead.
He couldn't afford to slip up right now.
Remembering the series of notifications that had assaulted him before waking up Sebastian concluded that he must be at the entrance of Hamlet 444.
He scrutinized the new arrivals around him.
The first to catch his eye was a girl that looked a little younger than him dolled up in a bloodstained wedding dress.
She had short shoulder-length black hair, and crimson blood pupils and held a knife with fresh blood on it in her hands.
She still had her back to the ground as she held up the knife above her face while she kept on giggling like an innocent little girl playing with a teddy bear.
The droplets of blood dripped done the knife and onto her face but she didn't seem bothered in the least.
Forcibly shifting his gaze away from the eerie spectacle Sebastian focused on the second person.
This time it was a well-maintained man in his early 30s wearing a doctor's lab coat. He looked like he had just stumbled out of the hospital as he looked down pensively at the filled syringe in his hands.
As he sat up on the ground, he pushed the plunger a little pouring a few drops of the unknown liquid onto the ground before nodding in satisfaction.
The third person seemed like a perfect contrast to the previous man.
He had a scraggly beard, unkempt hair, a large brown trenchcoat and twirled a revolver in his left hand.
His entire appearance screamed out hard-boiled detective.
Of course ... appearances could be deceiving after all.
The final person in the group had already gotten up to his feet.
He wore classy black trousers and a red-checked semi-formal shirt. He was checking the time on the golden Rolex watch bound to his left wrist. Unlike the other three, he didn't have any weapon held in either hand.
Speaking of weapons, Sebastian looked down to notice that the Colt M1911 pistol from the tutorial was held tightly within his grasp.
The cold metallic touch and familiar weight of a fully loaded magazine gave Sebastian a sense of security unlike no other in this unfamiliar environment.
He looked at the rest of his apparel and noticed that he was dressed up exactly the way he was during his one-man birthday party.
Blue faded jeans, a black hoodie, eyes bloodshot from crying and traces of cream from the cake on the corner of his lips.
Sebastian couldn't help but smirk at his appearance despite himself.
In the eyes of others... he was pretty sure he looked like an addict.
Wiping away the cream from his face, Sebastian forced himself to stand up as well.
Looking around he noticed that quite the crowd had gathered at the entrance of the hamlet, eyeing the group up and down like they were delicious pieces of meat.
Sebastian immediately tensed up but relaxed after confirming the presence of the pistol in his hand.
For some reason, he felt an extremely deep connection to that piece of metal.
"Tsk, tsk, Looks like we got quite the crazy bunch of newbies this time."
A middle-aged man rubbed his hands together in glee as he looked at the newbies.
"Never seen such a combination before myself."
A second voice chimed in from behind.
"We got a runaway bride, a doctor, a detective, a young master and a crackhead."
The first man replied.
"If they started a sitcom, I would watch every episode."
A third feminine voice joined in.
"The doctor seems to have a pretty unique core, you think it's worth it?"
"Don't be in such a rush nitwit, nobody who comes to Hamlet 444 is a normal person. The simpler they look, the crazier they are."
"Then I think the crackpot will make easy pray, he is just an addict with a gun."
"The most common core in this blasted place are guns after all. The brat might not even make it past the first trial."
"Haha that's true, these kids must have gotten used to the easy and forgiving nature of the Tutorial ... just wait till they experience true hell in their first trial."
"Tsk, weren't you unable to speak for almost an entire week yourself after that."
"Idiot, didn't I tell you not to bring that shit up!"
.
.
.
The group seemed like a classic bunch of neighbourhood uncles and aunties gossiping at the vegetable market while looking at the goods in front of him.
However, what made the scene absolutely eerie was that there was a sense of absolute disregard toward the beings in front of them.
In their heads, the fate of all the newbies seemed to have already been written in stone.
This was Hamlet 444 after all!
None of these kids were going to make it out alive!
The bunch from last month was just a freak coincidence!
This time they would show the newbies their place!
The chatting slowly came to a stop as they all parted ways to let an elderly man approach the group of newbies at the entrance.
They all scurried away like children in the presence of the school's headmaster.
The aura the man gave out was that of a stern yet gentle grandfather.
His wizened gaze, silvery white hair and crisscrossed wrinkles that ran all over his face resembling the roadmap of some dystopian city all indicated how ancient the man before them was.
Despite holding a walking stick in hand, the man was, by no means encumbered in his trot.
His back was ramrod straight and he seemed to exude a youthful vigour unfit for his age.
"AHEM!"
The man cleared his throat loudly before slamming his stick into the ground twice.
*TAP!* *TAP!*
"Welcome to Hell Kiddos! This is Hamlet 444 and I am the 'Chief' here."
"There's only one thing you need to remember if you want to live here. Within this hamlet, my word is the law!"
"Each hamlet is only allowed to have 50 members by the end of each month, with the addition of you 5 we now have 55 members."
He placed his cane in front of him, resting both hands on it as he stared straight into the eyes of the newcomers.
"You have one month to either reach level 10 and head for the village or kill one of the original residents and take their place."
"I will personally get rid of those who haven't done either of the two!"
Palpable, and almost visible killing intent gushed out of the elderly man's body as it pushed down upon everyone around him.
The 'young master' was forced to his knees while the 'crackhead' had to take a few steps back under the pressure.
The other residents of the hamlet weren't spared from the fate either.
Their faces all went pale as cold sweat ran down their back and their legs trembled in fear.
Those of the group already lying on the ground seemed to be in better states though.
The 'doctor' put away his syringe and gave the old man a fervent and interested gaze
The 'detective' just grunted in pain as he indifferently shrugged off the pain, or at least pretended to do so.
The girl shifted her gaze away from the knife for the first time since she came here.
She sat up cross-legged and looked at the old man with eyes gleaming full of childlike curiosity.
Satisfied with the results of his performance, the old man retracted his deadly aura and directed a gentle and kind smile at the newcomers instead.
"Sorry about that. Now that we have got the formalities out of the way, how about I tell you about this place?"
He made a come-hither gesture with his hands.
"Come along now and sit here, I will tell you all you need to know about your new home."
The scene was oddly reminiscent of a kind grandfather inviting his grandkids to gather around for storytelling.
Perhaps it was because these grandkids still remembered the killing intent from a few seconds ago but none of them took even half a step closer to the old man.
Whether the old man was upset about this development was unknown as he continued with his speech without skipping a beat.
"I will first tell you about the trials. "