Aarav's P.O.V :

I cannot feel anything, even my own body and all I can see is darkness.

"Hello! Anyone there?" I try asking to see if that ominous voice is present inside my head or not.

Well since I have some time alone right now, so I should try to organize everything going on as best as I can. First of all, I can safely assume that I am not hallucinating because I am in this place. And even if I am hallucinating then this world is my reality for now.

Now, this situation seems pretty similar to the online novels I used to read when I had no friends, so I should make one big change in myself if I want to cure Valerie. I will try to use my morality as a guideline from now on, and not as a strict rule. I have only one goal right now, cure Valerie. Lastly, lets pray to god that I don't have to face ghosts.

"Wow! Although I have only had 10 participants before you but no one was as calm and composed as you." Suddenly a sweet voice sounded beside my ear. It felt so soft and pleasant that I almost went to dreamland. I turned around imagining how beautiful the owner of this voice would be, but all I found was a green blob of.....something?

"Hey! that's so rude. I am not something. I am your guide Ella. I cannot materialize completely because you are so weak. And if you saw my real appearance right now, you would be completely captivated by my charm." replied the madly dancing blob of some *cough* Ella.

Wait! so she can read my mind? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't say anything about her appearance out loud. But strong is her ability. Can she know everything inside my mind or just the surface thoughts?

"I can only read the surface thoughts without your permission. It was implemented in the contract after one participant died because he was not able to verbally or physically choose the option that could have cured his injuries." replied Ella in a solemn tone, which for some reason felt so out of place.

Seems like there are a lot of things I don't understand like what is a participant. I should wait for Ella to provide whatever information she deems necessary and then I should work from there.

"Seems like I have finally got a good seed this time. We should get out of this boring place first."

As soon as she said that a bright glare of light covered both of and it disappeared as quickly as it had come. Ella gently flew on my shoulder and wrapped herself around my neck. "This place will be the safest place for you except for Earth."

I look around me and take in everything about this so-called safe place. All the wall and the ceiling are shades of blues and purples, which are my favourite colours. The floor is covered with a black carpet, which looks like it is even softer than my bed. There is a simple wooden stool at the centre of the room and a wooden chest beside it. The room is a perfect cube, and each side looks like 3 meters in length.

I can finally feel my body now.

"It feels so good to be able to speak again." I walk towards the stool trying to get over my surprise of.....magic? as quickly as I can. I sit on the stool in silence for a couple of minutes. "Nice to meet you, Ella. I am Aarav Winehouse and I hope I can be a good participant."

"But you don't even know what a participant is?" She asks me while bringing a portion of the blob in front of my face.

"Anyways since your first mission will be starting soon, so I will explain the most important stuff right now. Try to stay alive and when we meet again I will tell you more about this whole thing." She cuts me before I can even get a syllable out.

"You only goal during the first mission is survival. If you can survive for 365 days then you will officially become a member of the society. Each participant is given some basic help like a guide and the initiation gift to get them started because our goal is to produce strong members rather than genocide. According to my knowledge, you are very familiar with RPG games developed on your planet. I will mould the initiation gift to be as close to the RPG structure you are familiar with."

"Your explanation has created even more questions, but I suppose I should say status right now." I am a bit annoyed by how quickly all of this is escalating and I can't do anything to stop it. "First tell me how can I save Valerie? I don't have 365 days right now."

Ella suddenly started laughing like a crazy villain and said, "You are so stupid! When you are here time passes very slowly on earth. 365 days during the training won't even be equal to 10 seconds on Earth. And before you ask I would like to make it clear that a very high-quality puppet is being used to replace you right now."

Ella increases her pressure around of shoulder as if giving a hug and says, "Don't worry. Just do your best.......and hopefully you won't die."

"As for status, saying out loud is not necessary but you do need to think a little hard about it. You also have a skills menu but no skill right now."

I try focusing on the word status and it appears almost instantly. It looks like a dark purple, almost black, table with various basic but important information about me.

Name - Aarav Winehouse Race - Human Health - 40 Energy - 100 (Locked) Health regen. - 0.04 / s Energy regen. - 1.8 / s Strength - 5 Intelligence - 10 Agility - 4 Wisdom - 8 Flexibility - 4 Willpower - 10 Endurance - 4 Soul - 2 Health = Endurance * 10 Health Regen. = Endurance / 100 Energy = Intelligence * 10 Energy Regen = ( Wisdom + Willpower ) / 10

The ominous voice sounded inside my head again * 60 seconds till first mission begins. *

Ella jumped away from my shoulder and said, " Seems like our Q&A session will have to wait. I will give you an advise though, Never underestimate anything. And do anything outside of your mission parameters if and only if you are confident about your strength."

I tried to keep my emotions in check and appear completely calm. "Thanks Ella!" A trace of nervousness still appeared in my voice.

Suddenly everything went dark again. My last thought before going unconscious was 'Why do all these supernatural things like darkness, it is creepy as heck.'