Ha? What is this? Don't tell me I'm inside a novel. Dante thought in surprise.
He wanted to laugh and mock himself for thinking such an absurdly hilarious thing, but this was truly unrealistic. He was also baffled at the mention of the words "candidate" and "god".
Perhaps it was an error of that System in his head.
He quickly organized his thoughts. In such an uncertain situation, this was the most ideal thing to do. He needed to be calm. More other surprising and unrealistic things happened just a while ago, this one was just another surprising thing.
Recalling something in his thoughts… When the voice said he would receive a gift pack, a pop-up notification came after, telling him the gift pack was stored directly in his Cyber Storage.
What's the meaning of that? He thought, but he suddenly paused for a moment and said, "Wait…"
"My System also comes with a Cyber Storage but it was unusable due to the defect. This couldn't be a joke, right?" Dante asked himself. "Hm…" He pondered for a moment and then glanced around.
It wasn't certain where he was at the moment. He was floating in the dark, surrounded by nothing but darkness all around him. Yes, darkness. Darkness here and darkness there. The feeling that he had become blind crept on him. Fortunately, it was nothing like that. His surroundings, although surrounded by darkness, weren't actually empty. In the distance, there were some floating objects like meteorites or planets. In this domain of darkness, his body was weightless, however, it didn't seem like this place was an outer space. The reason why he was certain about it was because he was still alive and breathing.
According to their science class, the longest a person could stay alive in outer space, without a spacesuit, is at least 1 minute and a few seconds. It was already beyond that time limit and he is still very fine. In addition, how could he breathe if he was in outer space?
"This looks like a fictional world," Dante muttered to himself. Perhaps it was a lucid dream.
But whether it was a dream or reality, he believed he could only get his answer later. That's why he remained calm—
"Wait, what the—!" Dante suddenly exclaimed, shielding his face with his arms right away.
In front of him, there was a blinding orb thing taking form like a shiny pearl. It looked very conspicuous in this world of darkness.
To Dante's perspective, it was just in front of him but it was also giving off a feeling that it was unreachable.
Dante was very surprised. It was the same voice that rang in his head just a few seconds ago. It turned out the voice originated from this shiny orb!
The voice was very unique. It sounded like the voice of a mature child. Dante shook his head slightly to reorganize his thoughts again and calm his mind.
About the gift pack, he had nothing to lose if he tried to check it, so he went and checked his Cyber Storage as the shiny orb suggested.
He felt relieved when he summoned his Cyber Screen, a Holographic Window, and it appeared right in front of his face. But soon, Dante's eyes widened in disbelief when he went and browsed his Cyber Storage.
[Cyber Storage Content: x1]
There was indeed an icon of a gift pack inside his Cyber Storage.
"Oh—"
The words in his throat disappeared in an instant. He couldn't help but be stunned for a second. This thing was supposedly empty because it was unusable from the very beginning.
"How come there's content in it?"
Could it be…
Dante's calm heart trembled a bit like ripples in a calm lake. A surge of bewilderment tickled his calm heart. No matter how calm he appeared to be, this made him a little bit excited.
His index finger slowly and cautiously tapped the icon of the gift pack. What appeared next were two options.
[Open] or [Take out]?
It seems like if he chose the "Open" option, it would directly open the gift within the storage. And if he chose the second option, it would appear in his hands.
Just like in a VR game!
He couldn't deny that most technologies nowadays are strongly depicted by VR and AI.
"I see. It seems like I can open it manually or directly…"
Without further ado, he chose the second option. The box appeared in his hand. It wasn't small and wasn't big either. It was a square box with about 6 inches in length on all sides.
The design of the box appeared extravagant. The color was gold and it was wrapped not by wrapping papers but by some sort of expensive fabric. To emphasize the gold color, it was tied by a red ribbon.
Dante loosened the red ribbon and slowly unwrapped it. His heart was secretly excited, but at the same time, he was perplexed. Both excited and perplexed.
"Ha? What is this?"
After unwrapping the box, what greeted his eyes was a golden thing shaped like an apple.
"Ha? Fruit of awakening? Immortal Land?"
Dante looked bewildered as he listened to the shiny orb. Regardless, the more he listened to it the more he felt like he was inside a story in a novel with a cultivation genre.
He already stopped reading novels long ago, but maybe they haunted him right now. He lightly shook his head to get rid of the thought for now. It was still uncertain whether it was real or just a dream. But playing along wasn't a bad thing in this situation, no? He thought.
"What to do with it? Should I eat it?"
"Simple as that?"
"I see."
Well, he was a bit hungry, so this is great. Without wasting time, Dante brought the fruit to his mouth and bit on it.
Crunch!
Num num num…
"This fruit has a surprisingly bland taste," he commented.
The shiny orb didn't say anything and just remained quiet while he was gobbling the fruit. When Dante swallowed the last bit of the fruit, his body started glowing. But suddenly, his mind trembled and his clear eyes were shaken.
"Ugh!" He groaned and suddenly fell to his knees. "What's happening? It's so painful all of a sudden." It felt like he was burning inside.
GYAAHHH!
Dante screamed as he rolled, twisted, and curved like a ball. What the hell! His body felt very hot and it seemed like it was about to explode. It felt like all his bones inside were being twisted and crushed. It felt like he was going to die any second.
'Does that thing contain poison? Does the shiny orb trick me?' He was worried.
Dante felt relieved when he heard it, but how long would he have to endure it? Can he even endure it? He had no confidence he could. He didn't even have the strength to ask these questions to the shiny orb. His body was in so much pain and he could only writhe.
In just a matter of seconds, sweat covered his body and his vision was dimming. Eventually, he reached his limit. He could no longer handle the pain and then he lost consciousness.
When Dante opened his eyes again. He was surprisingly in an unfamiliar room.
"Where am I?"
"Wait, I'm alive?!" He exclaimed in shock right after recalling what happened. His trainer had him chased by K9 dogs! And it seemed he collapsed due to exhaustion.
What happened after that was very surprising.
Dante touched his head as he mumbled. "Hehe, silly me. It was truly just a dream." Right after he muttered that he noticed the blanket in front of him shaking.
Ha?
Dante focused his eyes on it. Suddenly, a familiar object leaped out from it. It hovered in the air at the level of his head. But seeing it, Dante looked dumbfounded.
The shiny orb!? So it wasn't a dream!