As Kaeden regained consciousness, he suddenly found himself surrounded by darkness, unable to see or feel anything before he suddenly began to see his entire life flash before his eyes as though he was reliving it.
However, this time, instead of feeling sad for letting his family down or angry at himself for his current situation, the only thing he had left was regret. Regret that he didn't take advantage of his resources, regret that he lacked the knowledge to do so, regret that he didn't succeed.
Once he regained some semblance of control over his emotions, all that was left was a desire to go back, a desire to correct the mistakes he committed, an urge to slap some sense into his old self and tell him to gain some useful knowledge for once.
Kaeden stared into the void, the thought of him being stuck in the void and having wasted his life haunting him. Soon, Kaeden began cursing at nothing, wishing to get a second chance, demanding to be allowed to prove he had the potential to go way beyond what he did before.
It was then that a shining light suddenly blinded Kaeden's sight before he once more lost consciousness, wondering if his plea was heard or if he was unknowingly facing death and living his final moments.
As he opened his eyes, Kaeden was greeted by the briny smell of the sea, causing him to examine his surrounding in confusion, trying to understand where he was and what had happened to him.
Kaeden had a dazed expression as he realized he was now inside of what seemed like the orlop of a wooden ship, dimly lit by some lamps revealing the horrific sight of no less than 50 malnourished people barely fitting within the tiny space.
Kaeden, clearly horrified by sight, almost stumbled backward, only stopped by the fact that there was no room for him even to move.
<Redemption test #78,725,652,489; Subject claims to deserve a second chance due to wasting their potential under the excuse of lack of knowledge.
Passing requirements; Using the tools given to them and knowledge they acquire, the subject must give other people forced to waste their potential the chance to make the most of their gifts.
Reward; Have the subject receive a chance to fix their mistakes.>
As Kaeden read the text written on the glowing screen before him, he stood motionlessly, not quite comprehending what was going on and only connecting the dots that the screen was probably related to the reason why he escaped the previous nothingness he was trapped inside of.
Regardless of whether what the screen displayed was true or not, Kaeden found himself unable to find a better explanation of what was going on, so he chose to take what the text showed at face value and assume that he had received a chance.
The screen then began displaying some text followed by three different symbols, a fist, the Melpomene and Thalia masks, and finally, a scroll.
<Three seedling pieces of knowledge have been randomly selected, basic combat, basic acting, and basic translation>
Seeing the options presented to him, Kaeden felt that acting would probably be helpful, as he had no idea where he was. In addition, it would probably help him get on people's good side and gain more information on his situation.
However, right before he was about to select the Melpomene and Thalia masks, he stopped himself and turned over to somebody right next to them and asked, "Hello, I'm Kaeden, who are you?"
"Wejurj qkf'i vkiajm bj…" Replied the seemingly old man with an annoyed look on his face, almost as if he was telling him to bother someone else.
Without hesitation, Kaeden turned back to the screen, selecting the scroll, feeling relieved that he caught himself before making a mistake, seeing as a translation ability would be vital for him to be able to communicate.
<Status Page:
Name; Kaeden
Current skills; Basic Translation; Mastery 0%
Current Balance; 0 MP>
After seeing the status page that appeared before him, Kaeden once more turned around to the same person as before, this time asking who they were with eyes full of expectation.
"D ikeq gkz ik fki vkiajm bj" Th old man replied, seeming more annoyed than before this time, not even sparing Kaeden a glance.
Not bothered by the old man ignoring him as he still felt pity for him due to his current condition, Kaeden checked back on his Status page to see if anything had changed, noticing that the mastery had increased to 0.01%.
Not having anything else to do, Kaeden opted to ask all those around him simple questions hoping for a response, using their tone of voice and repeated words to try and figure out what they meant.
In no time, Kaeden found himself having achieved 0.08% mastery, mainly thanks to everyone around him responding similarly to his questions, with only a single person answering in a confused tone rather than an annoyed one.
Seeing that he was ignored whenever he tried to ask those around him questions, Kaeden set his mind to moving somewhere else.
However, before he could attempt to do so, Kaeden heard the sound of wood creaking right above them, followed by everybody looking towards the hole in the roof near the middle of the orlop with expectation.
Tension soon engulfed the room, with everybody except Kaeden switching from looking at the hole in the roof to those around them almost as if daring them to make a move.
Kaeden could tell that everybody in the orlop would soon be running towards the middle, causing him to instinctively curl up and put his hands over his head, facing the nearest corner as best as he could within the tiny space he had.
Closing his eyes, Kaeden concentrated on protecting his head and neck, not even getting a minute to mentally prepare before he heard the sound of what appeared to be meat slamming onto the floor of the orlop, causing all hell to break loose.
Kaeden got pretty lucky, having only a couple of people step on his feet and legs as they ran towards the center with only a single person almost stepping on his neck were it not for him punching them off.
Not wasting time, Kaeden dashed for the corner of the orlop fueled purely on adrenaline, only stopping when he could no longer sense imminent danger and moving around his neck slowly to check for any damage.
He couldn't do so for long though, as his attention was immediately drawn to the screams and shouts of people piling themselves on top of each other inside of any tiny opening they could find, not fearing for the consequences.
Kaeden was left speechless, feeling as though he was living in a nightmare seeing things he only thought happened in horror movies come to reality.
With every scream and the cracking sound of people's bones, Kaeden wanted to run even further away, yet there was nowhere left to go.
After what felt like an eternity, the screams finally stopped as the food ran out. Kaeden could be seen staring blankly at the twelve corpses on the ground, with the word 'skkq' (presumably meaning food) still engraved in his memory.
There was only silence in the room, with the occasional growls coming from those that hadn't eaten enough, or in Kaeden's case, nothing at all, yet as much as he wanted to blame someone for the death that transpired, he couldn't bring himself to.
After all, thanks to hunger flooding his mind after his sprint, Kaeden himself had also had the brief thought of perhaps joining in the struggle for food emits his frozen state.
Kaeden didn't do much after that, eventually having his hunger be overpowered by his lack of energy and need for sleep.
'I wonder how long I can go without food before I collapse?' Kaeden thought before he fell to sleep, holding hope that everything that happened was nothing more than a messed-up dream he had.
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