When I came to my senses, I was already in the middle of a colorless world.

    Had my mind broken down?

    Everything I saw appeared in a dull gray hue.

    And yet, the sky shone an ominous red,

    Making me think, almost involuntarily, that the scene was simply unpleasant.

    "Where... is this?"

    I had been staring blankly at the sky for a while before I slowly lowered my gaze.

    What came into view was a ruined city, with corpses piled up everywhere.

    The scenery of the destroyed city was so blurred that it was difficult to imagine what it might have originally looked like.

    Yet, for some reason, I naturally realized that this place was NightHaven.

    It didn’t make any sense. NightHaven couldn’t have crumbled like this.

    There was the Dragon Mayor, and Raven, too... It should be the safest place in the world.

    "While the city ended up like this, where was Raven? Was he just taking a carefree nap?"

    I muttered to myself, furrowing my brows at the incomprehensible situation.

    Then, as if searching for Raven, who had to be hiding somewhere, I took a step forward.

    But I couldn’t find any sign of life in this city.

    The only things left were lumps of meat that had once been human, sprawled on the ground like weeds.

    In this world where everything had lost its color, only the blood retained an oddly intense red hue.

    How long had I wandered through the city, aimlessly searching for Raven?

    Suddenly, I felt something grab my ankle tightly, and I fell to the ground.

    "Ughyah!"

    Splat.

    The impact sent the blood pooled on the ground, like a puddle, splashing onto my face.

    It was sticky and uncomfortable. Blood was hard to clean off, and of all places to fall, it had to be here.

    I thought as much, struggling to lift my strangely sluggish body.

    Or rather, I tried to.

    Had the corpse next to me not turned its head abruptly to look at me, I might have managed it.

    Was it because I was so shocked?

    I couldn’t even scream. I just opened and closed my mouth, struggling to breathe.

    The corpse''s face was so damaged that it was unrecognizable, but it spoke in an utterly unfamiliar voice.

    "This is the masterpiece of the Nexus Project. The key for humanity to become the gods of all dimensions."

    "It was a stroke of luck that we secured the child of the gods. With this, we move to the next stage."

    "Death to the traitor. Death to the traitor. Death to the traitor. Death to the traitor."

    The voice was male. Also, it was old.

    Yet, it was a woman’s voice. And a child’s voice, too.

    A blend of sounds that made it impossible to determine exactly what it was.

    Maybe it was the incomprehensible noise that made my brain feel muddled.

    I shoved the corpse away, retreating backward on my hands and knees.

    Naturally, the ground was covered in blood, leaving my entire body sticky and drenched.

    But I couldn’t focus on that, not with the sharp fear that felt like a blade at my throat.

    "Why... Why is this happening...!"

    Then, I felt a firm wall against my back.

    I was sure there hadn’t been a wall there. Why now?

    Such faint thoughts vanished like a mirage under the weight of emotions overpowering my rational mind.

    I needed to run—anywhere. I thought so and frantically scanned my surroundings.

    Only then did I realize that I was surrounded by corpses that looked strangely familiar.

    And as I understood what that meant, I could only mutter in a hollow voice.

    "...Greg? Ra...ven? Alice...?"

    Of course, I recognized them.

    These were the people who had fallen into this world with me and whom I had come to cherish.

    There was no way I wouldn’t recognize their features.

    That meant this was a nightmare.

    A horrific dream where my precious world crumbled to pieces.

    I hoped it was a dream, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t wake up. It was a cruel truth.

    But I couldn’t just sit still.

    I instinctively realized that something terrifying was coming for me.

    But my body felt heavy, as if I were submerged deep beneath the sea.

    No matter how much I struggled, I couldn’t get up off the ground.

    "Don’t come... I said don’t come!"

    Kugugung...

    Through the dense dust storm that engulfed the ruined city,

    Something unidentifiable slowly approached me.

    It moved as if floating through the air, gliding steadily toward me.

    I looked up at it, my legs completely giving out beneath me, and let out a stupid, dazed sound.

    "Uhh?"

    The thing that pierced through the thick, colorless dust and stopped right in front of me was... none other than a cargo truck.

    It looked completely out of place in this destroyed city, shiny and new like a freshly polished car.

    It was as if a bleak comedy scene had cut into the climax of a serious horror movie.

    The terror and fear that had gripped me numbed under a wave of sheer bewilderment.

    As my emotions were stunned into stillness, my rational mind slowly began to return.

    Only then could I, for the first time, calmly assess my surroundings.

    "A truck...? Ah, is this perhaps...?"

    Various keywords struck my mind like lightning as I hurried to grasp the situation.

    Fixer exam, second task, illusion magic, overcoming fear...

    And when I finally managed to get my still sluggish body to stand,

    I realized that everything here was a fake created by the fantasy bracelet.

    "No wonder... My body wasn’t moving well. Is this a hallucination closer to a dream?"

    Thinking about it, nothing made any sense.

    The fact that I, who had just been in the exam hall, was suddenly standing in the middle of a deserted city.

    The baseless assumption that this place was NightHaven.

    The strange lack of unease I felt about the world being gray while only the sky was red.

    It was as if I were a fool who couldn’t tell sugar from salt.

    But I had a bit of an excuse.

    After all, this was a special device created by a truly extraordinary illusion mage, wasn’t it?

    Although the illusion wouldn’t physically harm or kill me, it was highly specialized in attacking the mind.

    It seemed that simply steeling my resolve wasn’t enough.

    After all, even if I had memories of another world, it wasn’t like my mental strength was particularly extraordinary.

    If a normal person like me could easily overcome it, there wouldn’t be such a low pass rate of barely 30%.

    "Is it designed to amplify feelings of fear and terror to the point where you can''t think rationally? Come to think of it, the corpses around me... When I look again, they don’t resemble Raven or Alice at all. I only saw them that way because I was afraid... Is that it?"

    I muttered lightly to myself and nodded,

    Finally realizing how naturally I had been speaking all along.

    Hmm, this was more proof that this place wasn’t reality.

    I wasn’t actually speaking out loud—I still didn’t even know what my real voice sounded like.

    As I continued to marvel at the strange situation, I turned my gaze to the pristine white truck standing in the middle of the road.

    It was odd that the most terrifying thing was supposed to appear, yet this truck had just popped up.

    While it had indeed broken my immersion and forced me to regain my rationality...

    Its strangely familiar appearance made me tilt my head in confusion.

    Was this truck supposed to be the thing I feared most? I didn’t feel that way at all.

    As I stared at the truck, a sudden thought flashed through my mind.

    "...No way! Is this the cargo truck that hit me in my past life?"

    What on earth?

    Rather than surprise, a sense of absurdity made my facial muscles twitch.

    So that’s why it felt so oddly familiar. I never imagined we’d meet again like this.

    I was utterly baffled.

    The moment of my death had been so quick that I didn’t feel much pain or fear.

    So why had this truck appeared as the thing I feared most?

    Was I unknowingly suffering from PTSD or something?

    "...But I don’t feel any strong emotions even while staring at it. Is this a defective product? No, if that were the case, the buildup earlier wouldn’t have been so scary..."

    Resting my chin on my hand, I pondered for a while before crawling up the truck and sitting on its roof.

    From up there, I could see the completely destroyed city and the countless corpses scattered everywhere.

    In the utterly unrealistic scene, it now felt like I was just watching a video game.

    So, this was supposedly the deepest fear buried in my subconscious.

    The collapse of NightHaven, and the death of everyone, including Raven and Alice.

    Yeah, it wasn’t a sight I wanted to see, for sure.

    It was fitting for the fantasy bracelet, which tested mental strength, to show such an illusion.

    Of course, it wasn’t that the bracelet had identified my fear on its own—it was more likely that I had subconsciously brought it up myself.

    "...Since I’ve escaped the illusion, it’s best to end this test quickly."

    I took a deep breath and slowly closed my eyes.

    In the deep darkness that followed, I focused my awareness on the edges of my body.

    In the empty, floating sensation where I felt almost paralyzed,

    I gradually started to regain the faint connection to my physical senses.

    ''This is it. My real arm is here.''

    Having recovered my lost senses, the next step was simple.

    While feeling the paradoxical sensation of moving yet not moving, I yanked off the fantasy bracelet on my wrist.

    It was like bursting through the surface after being submerged in the deep sea.

    I found myself standing right in the middle of the gymnasium.

    "...!"

    Perhaps because I had escaped the illusion through sheer willpower,

    The bright light that stabbed my eyes and the loud noise that assaulted my ears were almost overwhelming.

    Right in front of me stood Peacekeeper, the examiner, staring at me with wide-eyed shock.

    Of course, confirming this was reality, I still couldn’t hear any actual voices.

    "How did you... so quickly... And without any magic power, there shouldn’t be any magic resistance!"

    "Unbelievable mental strength. Is that kid a monster...?"

    "Not even 30 seconds... I guess you really can''t judge by appearances!"

    As I got used to the slightly awkward feeling of reality, I slowly looked around.

    Standing next to me were other test-takers, their eyes closed, letting out groans.

    Was I the first one to break out of the illusion among these twenty people?

    Well, considering they were all probably still fighting their enemies, while I escaped the illusion the moment I met mine...

    It made sense that there’d be such a difference in speed.

    Surely, none of them encountered a random cargo truck like I did.

    While surveying the situation, I quietly handed the bracelet back to the examiner.

    There wasn’t much else to do just standing around.

    I thought it’d be better to step back so as not to interfere with the other test-takers.

    "White Team Number 274... P-pass...! But please wait at your spot for a moment. Once all test-takers finish, a sedative will be provided to help everyone stabilize..."

    "..."

    Ah, I think there was a similar scene in the original story.

    Since that was the case, I nodded to show I’d wait quietly.

    Since the illusions were only visible to those wearing the bracelets,

    The test-takers around me just appeared to be struggling with their eyes closed.

    Some seemed unable to overcome the illusion, foaming at the mouth and losing consciousness.

    Others began to surrender, indicating they wanted to quit the test.

    So it wasn’t just difficult for me. This test was really tough, especially for humans.

    I genuinely felt like giving serious respect to anyone who passed this mental strength test as a pure human.

    "O-okay... The number of those who passed is... four! Next fifteen, step forward!"

    "Huff, huff... What the... That kid passed, too...?"

    "Just how strong is their mental strength...? Tch, I’d better avoid them if we meet in the next task."

    It felt like I was unintentionally gaining some sort of wary reputation.

    That’s really not the case... I could only hope they were mistaken.