[Quest: Survive. Rewards: ???]
"Why is there a quest for survival" Harry asked panicking he has some vague guess what it meant.
[ Because according to this system your chances of winning is close to zero ]
Before Harry could ask what Krish was talking about, the door swung open.
A middle-aged man in a white robe entered, followed closely by four other men.
Seeing him, Harry could tell that this man was powerful and wore tough armor under his robe.
Adjusting his robe, the man came forward and sat in front of Harry. The others stood firmly in the corners of the room.
"Who are you, and why did you kidnap me?" Harry asked, looking into the man's eyes. He was nervous but determined not to show it.
"It's very unfortunate that you will never know who I am, but the important thing is what we want from you," the man replied in a serious tone. "So start talking. Give us all the information you have."
"What kind of information do you want?" Harry asked, ready to tell anything to secure his freedom.
"We want to know why that girl is out here in the normal world. Answer without hiding anything, or we have other ways," the man demanded.
Harry was confused by the terms the man used, like 'the normal world' and the girl he knew. "Which girl are you talking about?" he asked.
"Drop the act, we've seen you with Maria. It's surprising that a weakling like you is with that girl, But it's good for us, we can get the information we want from you. Now, start talking."
"Maria? I've never heard that name."
The man shook his head, not convinced by Harry's denial. He clapped his hands twice.
The door swung open again. A woman in a similar white robe entered the room.
Sizing Harry up and down, she asked, "Are you sure you don't have any use for him later?"
"Yes, I just need the information. You can proceed," the man said, gesturing to one of his men.
That man stepped forward and grabbed Harry's hands. Harry tried to fight back, but he was powerless against such strength.
The woman approached and placed her hands on Harry's head, her indifferent from any emotion.
Mystical white particles began seeping into Harry. As she attempted to probe his mind, her face darkened, and sweat ran down her forehead. She gasped for air.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man threw a punch towards her elbow.
When she came to her senses he asked, "What happened?"
Calming down a little, she replied, "No, I can't find anything. It's as if there's already a supreme power inside this boy's mind, far more powerful than I've ever encountered."
With a bang, the door swung open again, and the man holding Harry fell to the floor unconscious. Standing confidently over his body was a girl.
It happened so fast that Harry couldn't register the situation immediately.
When he finally understood, he saw Cia standing beside him. The man who had been holding him was now crawling towards the corner.
Cia met Harry's curious gaze and said, "Sorry, you're in this situation because of me."
Harry was bewildered. He wanted to know what was happening, but he knew this wasn't the right time or place to ask.
After confirming that Harry was alright, Cia turned around and commanded, "Take care of them. I'm heading back."
Python nodded putting another body down.
Cia and Harry left the room, revealing a small warehouse in the middle of a jungle, about 50 km away from Princeton University.
They drove back to the city and went to a restaurant. Python joined them shortly after.
Harry was puzzled about how Python had arrived at the same time as them, considering there were no other cars when they left the warehouse.
"Did you find out who sent them?" Cia asked Python.
"No, madam. They are bound not to reveal any information, but I've used all our sources to investigate. We would find out soon.
It's not safe out here any longer, so your father said we need to return to the academy as soon as possible."
"Who told my father about this?" Cia inquired.
"Pardon me, I informed him to get more information about the people behind this. So he naturally found out."
Cia held her head, thinking for a moment. "Okay, we'll head back, but first, I need to talk to Harry."
"Alright, I'll book a private room."
They moved to a private room in the restaurant.
After sitting down, Cia saw Harry's curious green eyes and began to explain.
"I don't know how much you learned from those men, but I'll tell you everything I can."
"My real name is Maria, and I'm from a place called Domain. It's a world that normal people can't access, where powerful humans live with different abilities and powers."
Harry's expression changed with every word.
"If you think that the whole of humanity is unaware of this, you're half-right. Higher-ups in the government know about it, and there's an agreement between the government and the people from the Domain not to interfere in each other's matters."
"People from the Domain aren't allowed to leave unless they have a good reason. I came here because we detected some energies in the normal world, but we haven't found the source yet."
Harry was trying to process the information bombarded at him. Although he had assumed Cia's real name was Maria and there were strong humans, but discovering a whole other world was shocking.
"Can you tell me where this other world is?" he asked, not expecting an answer.
Cia pondered for a while. "You've been friendly with us, so I can tell you. It's not that big of a secret anyway.
The world is called the Domain, and there are different gateways to enter. The closest one to us is in Mount City. I can't tell you more, but you can find out a lot with some research." Cia concluded, standing up.
"Thank you for saving me. I'd be happy if we could meet again," Harry said, reaching out his hand.
Cia shook his hand warmly and said goodbye.
Now sitting alone in the room, Harry saw a screen floating in the air.
[Congratulations on completing your first quest, and you survived with no injury.]
[Rewards: your awakening will start.]
With that, his body started aching, as if every part of it was reconstructing itself. He groaned in pain for a while but eventually lost consciousness.
After a while, he awoke to a knock on the door.
"Your time is up. Can you leave the room, please?"
Hearing this, he got up and exited. The person outside yelled and covered their nose.
Noticing the stench from his body, Harry saw a black, sticky substance covering him and was confused.