As the taste of the wine flooded Venn's taste buds, and down his throat, he could feel a burning sensation from within his stomach and esophagus.
Before long, a searing pain could be felt all over his body.
Venn was sweltering profusely in his current state. After he drank the wine mixed with the mysterious liquid, he felt excruciating pain in every part of his body as if his entire body was set on fire.
The pain was unlike anything he had experienced before. He could feel something crawling underneath his skin, trying to invade his veins, bones, and down to his marrows.
The agony was so intense that Venn had released the grail he was holding onto and dropped his knees to the ground.
"What is this? Why is this happening? Isn't this just a game?" Feeling confused and in agony, Venn cried out internally. He wanted to scream but he no longer even had the capability to shout or speak properly.
Kneeling down with his back hunched, Venn opened the game setting panel to reduce the pain receptors setting. It was currently set at 90% which would mean any injury inflicted on him would feel similar to a stinging toothache.
Something had gone horribly wrong for Venn to experience this kind of suffering pain.
With trembling fingers, Venn managed to turn off the pain receptor after a few tries. However, different from what he had envisioned, his situation did not improve a single bit.
The agonising pain was still eating him up from the inside.
"Hyukk!"
"Hyukk!"
Several moments after Venn found out he couldn't turn off the pain he was currently experiencing, he started dry heaving.
He was on the verge of breaking down as he found his airway gradually blocked and that he was suffocating from the lack of air. The feeling was so real that Venn questioned himself.
Suffocation in a game? The whole thing doesn't make sense! What about the others? There must be a way out of this.
Tilting his head with struggle, Venn managed to turn his head to the right to see the conditions of the other three candidates that drank the same stuff as him.
In his mind, he was thinking about observing the others as it should give him a clue on what to do in this dire situation.
But then it happened.
At the exact same moment that he turned his head to find out how the others were faring, the furthest initiate from him yelled out in pain all of a sudden.
A gigantic and deformed arm the size of a building pillar sprouted from his shoulder blade and crushed the skull of the initiate to his left in the process, killing him on the spot with no time to react.
The initiate who had gone berserk from the pain subsequently went on to attack the rest of the black robes that put him to the trial. The same time he did so, large irregular lumps were forming underneath his skin at the other parts of his body as well, reshaping his tall figure into a grotesque and unrecognizable shape.
Venn could clearly see the horrifying transformation and the numerous black scales on his deformed arm as it thrashes about in the air. The force was so great that the wind which was generated from a swing of the arm was enough to knock everything in the chamber up by a few feet into the air.
Plates, candlesticks, chairs and other miscellaneous items were toppled from the long table and onto the ground, plunging the room into total darkness.
Fortunately, within seconds, a ring of fire magically appeared and surrounded everyone in the chamber. The light produced by the fire was reassuring to Venn as it provided him with precious visibility.
Immediately after he could see again, Venn turned his gaze back to the initiate that had transformed.
However, Venn could only see his lifeless body slowly slumping down.
His head had gone missing from his neck.
And in turn, the scythe wielding woman was standing behind the corpse holding her blood stained scythe.
The whole sequence of events had exceeded any predictions Venn had before he drank the glass of wine. Never did it cross his mind that it would turn out this way.
Although he kept convincing himself that the whole scene was just simply a part of the game and the people that died were just NPCs, the fear he felt was very real.
He couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to get out. It was so much easier being a library rat.
Opening the game menu, he tried navigating to the log out button. But unfortunately, the system notified him that he couldn't log out in the middle of a trial.
The bad news plunged him further into despair. But that was not the worst.
Several seconds later, he could hear rumblings from the last remaining initiate. The ridiculous murmurs that were coming out from his mouth and the endless trembling of his body had proven to Venn that he had lost his mind.
Thankfully, this time, before he could reach the point of transformation, his head had cleanly sliced off.
However, the momentum of the swing caused his head to roll along the floor, and stopped right in front of Venn, making Venn feel like he was staring at him with eyes filled with grievances.
The scythe woman had claimed another life once again.
"The last one. Will you be able to make it?"
A charming voice sounded from behind. The woman who the voice belonged to, squatted down in front of Venn with a smile and met his gaze at eye level.
However, Venn couldn't see her face as his vision became more and more blurred. His mind had been in total disarray from the start and his insides were burning as if it was scorched by strong acids.
Then, as if Heaven was taking a pity on Venn, a game notification popped up in his game log.
[Ding]
[Detecting that user's heart rate had exceeded one hundred and thirty five beats per minute for an extended period of time. Does the user want to exercise the option of emergency log out?]
[Yes / No]
***
"Log out?" Venn muttered to himself without any strength when he saw the message with his lifeless eyes.
He desperately wished to escape from this hellish nightmare and he finally got the chance to exit the game.
However, contrary to his thoughts, he found himself unable to say yes; something was stopping him from doing so at the back of his head.
If he does select to log out now, wouldn't that be counted as running away? Furthermore, what would happen to the trial?
Would it be counted as a success or a failure? He had no idea.
After steeling his resolve time after time and the constant reminder that he would do everything it takes to save his sister, what kind of coward would he be if he was to run away?
Didn't he swore to protect Rena?
What kind of pitiable excuse would he give to himself this time, especially when he was given a second chance to correct things.
"I can't do it."
"It is fated."
"I'll do better next time."
Could he bear to say these to Rena?
Was the agony of losing Rena greater than the agony he is experiencing right now?
Was the pain he is feeling now even comparable to the organ failure that Rena is eventually going to suffer from?
A million thoughts crossed his mind.
"No one has any hopes for me..."
"There's no one who dreams that I'll accomplish anything someday..."
"There's no one that believes that I'm even remotely capable of protecting somebody..."
"Not even that…"
"But Rena does!"
"Time and time again, she will steadfastly cheer me up."
"Time and time again, she believes me to be a capable big brother."
"She truly believed me when I said I will buy her a mansion!"
"She truly believed me that I will protect her smile even at the end of her life!"
"If I run away now. Wouldn't I be the same as those Gods that Argos Von Kaiser had mentioned in his dairy?"
"What's the point of living a life of cowardice if you can't protect your loved ones!"
"I'll do it. I'll do whatever it takes!"
Venn shouted with all his might!