"Mom, I want to go home. I don't want to die." Tristan Caldwell lamented as he was forcefully pushed into the teleportation device by the other youths who were getting incensed by his cowardly and childish behavior.

Many years have passed and humans have found a way to grow stronger and evolve to the level of deities. With evolution came longevity, money, wealth, fame and power.

Many people had been dreaming of evolving so that they could be powerful in their nations but that was not Tristan's wish, he wished to live his life as an insignificant figure but how could fate allow that!

Tristan had begged his mom to talk to his father so that he wouldn't be put among the youths who were being teleported to the cursed lands to grow stronger but how could his father allow Tristan to stay back like a coward? That was how Tristan found himself at the teleportation device with the other youths who were agitated and restless so that they could get into the cursed lands to cultivate.

Tristan could only see his mother waving her hand to say goodbye to him before he went through the teleport device.

---

On the other side of the teleportation device, Tristan found himself in a building and he was not alone but with the other youths that went through the teleport device with him. Even though thousands of youths went through the teleport device, it seemed that not all of them were sent into this building.

Tristan looked at what he was holding in his hand and he was shaken to the core. The thing that he was holding was what made him realize that the situation that he was in was not a dream. He glanced around on the floor and he could see that everyone had objects in their hands and they were staring at these objects with disoriented faces.

"What is the use of this thing?" Tristan asked himself in a murmur as he fiddled with a small cleaver in his hand. The cleaver's cutting edge was 20 centimetres long with a handle that only his hand could fit in fully without leaving any space. The cleaver was so shinny in that it glistened in the disco lights of this hall. Tristan could even see his own face on the shinny surface of the cleaver.

Anyway, just as Tristan was still pondering, an interface surfaced in his mind which startled him at first before he saw that the information of the cleaver was written on the panel.

"So, this is what I can depend on in this time of struggle? I thought a gun would have been much better that this. Anyway, at least I have a weapon to protect myself to what is coming my way." Tristan thought inwardly.

The panel flickered and Tristan's status information was showed,

Name : Tristan

Age : 16

Longevity: 100

Survival level: 1

Exp: 1/100

Agility: 5

Vitality: 10

Stamina: 10

Spirit: 10

Endurance: 5

[ Survival level will improve when the exp bar is wholly filled. Agility is the current speed of the user, Vitality is the lifeforce of the user that determines the life that the user has remained with, note that vitality can also be improved with stat points obtained after a level up. Stamina is the energy of the user and it is measured in (dings), Spirit is the will of the user that helps in mind control mage- like skills and attacks.]

[ Level 1 cleaver - has the ability to kill the corrupted ones. If you kill the corrupted ones with this cleaver, you will receive their boons which will be added to your stats. Yes. Kill the corrupted ones to survive or be replaced by them.] This was all that Tristan read on the panel. But the question that remained in his mind was who were these corrupted ones that had been said? After all, since Tristan had not wanted to grow stronger, he had not been asking information about the cursed lands and that was why he was confused with this whole thing.

"All this is sick stuff. I don't believe it." Ojo who was among the youths in the room spluttered the bar table beside him into splinters in anger. He had also seen the panel inside him and everyone had seen it but Ojo refused to accept the reality. Just like the other youths, even though they were exited to enter into the cursed lands, the notion of putting their lives on the line still scared them. Most of these youths came from wealthy backgrounds and they had never even held a slasher let alone a sword, how could they remain calm in this situation even if they were prepared?

Tristan glanced at Benjamin who was once his friend, he could see that the guy was utterly devastated. He couldn't even stand up from where he was. What Benjamin was thinking right now was how he was going to survive in this world after leaving his good life behind. How was he going to survive in this mayhem?

Benjamin threw the hammer that he was holding in his hand aside and burrowed his head between his palms. However the next moment, Benjamin stared at Tristan with determined eyes and then the hammer that he had just thrown away.

"I have to kill you for real today. Do you think that I have forgotten about what you did to my girl?" Benjamin stood up tiredly and picked up the hammer, he was adamant this time. He hated Tristan's guts to the core and the guy had been a sore to his eyes, if he didn't send him on his way to his maker today, then he would not be Benjamin. All the stress and helpless of his was thus pointed at Tristan, Yes. He blamed Tristan for his misfortunes so, he had to take Tristan out so that his agitated heart could calm down. He just wanted to finish off Tristan. Back then, Benjamin's girl had a crush on Tristan and he was just using Benjamin to reach to Tristan, that incident had left a bitter taste in Benjamin's mouth and he wanted nothing but to finish off Tristan.

Clearly, it was these kinds of friends that made Tristan scared of going to the cursed lands and unfortunately, he just had to meet Benjamin here.

However, the moment that Benjamin wanted to move forward, they all could hear cries and shouts of agony from the lower floors of the building. These cries appalled them and no one moved as they waited for what was about to unfold.

It didn't took too much time and they could all hear rashed footsteps on the stairs as several people seemed to be coming towards their way but those people didn't even have that chance as Tristan's group could then hear that the rushed footsteps came to a halt before a cry of help reverberated in the corridor, after that, there were several cries of agony before the owners of the voices became quite.

"Why have they became quite?"