Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 38: The Life or Death Test

A roaring sound echoed from Leon’s back as he stumbled three steps backward and leaned against the glass prison the two-headed dog was inside.

He blinked, trying to let the view of a half-human, half-snake humanoid being grind its metal teeth on the head of an undead human.

"Leon," Hayes’ voice echoed, turning the grinding to a stop.

When Leon turned to Hayes, he shook his head and dashed forward.

...

Entering through a black door, Leon swallowed hard.

At first, he saw one lady sitting at the back of a transparent door, her eyes open wide – but without life.

One step after another, he saw countless people in the same posture, and with the same black-colored eyes.

Grrr.

A groaning sound erupted when Hayes opened one of the transparent doors and stood at the side of the gate.

"Sit." He said, using his eyes to gesture to the boy, and grinned.

Stepping into the small room, Leon whirled his gaze around, scanning the black lines of wires and the operational touches placed at the edges of the room.

He sat calmly on the seven-foot foamy bed and stared at the man.

Leon sat still as the man walked and stood behind him, forcing his head to touch the top of the bed.

"Ouch!"

Leon screamed in a low rumble and grinned, yet he couldn’t counter the man.

After two minutes, the man tied Leon’s arms and legs to the metal hinges of the bed.

"Leon Storm," Hayes said, folded his arms at his chest, and smiled. "This test you’re about to go through is a life or death test."

He paused, moved to the side of the wall, and flipped all four switches up.

Bright white light stabbed Leon’s eyes, although he turned his head and closed his eyes, he could feel his skin peeling off.

"This is not just a psychological test." Hayes’ voice tensed as he closed in on the bed where the boy was tied.

"As you can remember, all that you experienced the moment you stepped into the entrance of the building was never there."

"Your mind created them for you."

Hayes paused, turned toward a table at Leon’s left side, and picked up a syringe filled with a black liquid.

"This will help your mind to be stable, but not for long."

Leon gritted his teeth as the sharp needle of the syringe pierced through his upper-left shoulder skin.

His vision turned blurry in an instant, causing his body to go limp.

"Remember to survive, or else you’ll die in your test."

As darkness swallowed him whole, he could hear Hayes speaking, yet the actual words, sentence, or phrase didn’t have a meaning in Leon’s mind.

...

Leon’s vision buzzed as his eyes fluttered open, and for a moment, nothing made sense.

The sky above was an uneven smear of gray and amber, like molten metal frozen mid-pour.

Leon blinked, once, twice, trying to focus, but the edges of his vision trembled heavily, as if the world he was in was breathing.

Beneath his feet, the cracked asphalt road stretched endlessly, disappearing into the ruins of collapsed buildings on both sides.

A groaning sound echoed as debris slammed down, letting dust rise and form tiny clouds and circle him.

It brushed against his skin, clutching Leon’s tongue with a dry and metallic taste.

With force, Leon moved a step, but when he moved five steps away from the dust, golden, brown, and brittle leaves drifted at his side.

Stopping by the front of an upside-down light pole that shimmered not light but darkness, Leon gasped for air.

A bright light shot up at his front, causing him to continue forward.

After reaching the building where the light erupted from, a gust of wind swept across the road, carrying a faint scent of scorched metal and rot.

Leon flinched as a scrap of paper flew to him and hit his cheek.

Trying to make sense of the scene and place he was, Leon tilted his head to the left.

For the first time, after spending ten minutes finding nothing, he found someone of the same height as him walking in the far distance.

"HEY!" Leon screamed, shot his arms upward as he ran toward whoever the person was, paddling his arms.

The building he ran past glinted unnaturally, its broken glass and twisted metal catching light in ways that defied reason.

And when he paused at where he saw the person, discarded rubber hopped around him as if alive.

"Wasn’t that a person?" Leon whispered as his mind spun with questions.

With trembling legs, he moved two steps forward but stopped the moment he felt a warm arm moving on his shoulder.

He steadied his breathing, then tilted his head in the same slow movement he felt the arm move on his shoulder.

He froze when he saw no one, yet he had the feeling of something moving on his shoulder.

...

Around the bed, Leon lay on, Hayes stood by the side of Leon’s head, tapping on the boy’s shoulder as if leaving traces for the boy to follow.

After two minutes, a smile tore on Hayes’ face when he saw the boy twitch sideways.

"Maybe he won’t be stuck like the rest," Hayes said and chuckled softly.

He moved to the table he took the syringe from, picked up a long, tiny needle, and walked back to Leon’s head.

Hayes’ face glittered with a sinister grin as he pierced the tiny object into the boy’s skin.

Leon’s eye twitched as if wanting to open, but his mind remained numb, almost as if it had lost its essence of living.

Meanwhile, in the virtual world, countless humanoid beings reappeared and disappeared, confusing Leon about their direction.

But when he noticed one particular being wasn’t vanishing like the rest, a stupid courage rammed through Leon’s bones, causing him to run toward it.

...

Sweat beaded Leon’s skin when the tip of the sixth long, tiny metal pierced through his skin and reached his skull.

At that instant, Leon’s mouth opened wide, yet his mind remained in the dull mode, causing his mouth to freeze immediately the gasp ended.