A second earlier, I had been looking at Yuna, about to fire back with

  some stupid remark that would make her double down and ask why she even cared about my past life.

  And now, one moment later, I found myself in a void of white

  emptiness. It wasn't like the Purgatory I remembered from before I was

  ”invited” into this world. That place had felt heavy and suffocating,

  like the air itself was pressing down on you from every direction. This

  one was the complete opposite. It felt peaceful and calming, an endless

  stretch of white visible in all directions that somehow didn't burn into

  my eyes at all.

  Where the hell am I?

  I looked down. My bloodstained clothes were still there, my shirt

  still half-torn from the fight. Dirt clung to my hands and dried blood

  streaked across my arms. Nothing about my condition had changed, which

  meant one thing.

  I didn't die.

  I had been taken exactly as I was and placed here. The only

  difference was that the Wave Tutorial EVENT panel and timer were no

  longer sitting at the center top edge of my vision.

  I instinctively opened my status panel. It appeared normally, but

  another window immediately slid over it alongside a green icon shaped

  like a peace symbol. This was what the panel said:

  [Status Effect: Safezone]

  Safezone Designation: The Greed System Neutrality Committee (GSNC) Headquarters - Azalos City Division

  You are currently in an area

  designated as a Safezone. Unless authorized by an admin, you can neither

  use skills nor use your inventory within the Safezone’s boundary.

  I'm in the Neutrality Committee's domain?

  A cold feeling crept down my spine. If I had been forcibly dragged

  into their territory, that couldn't possibly mean anything good. Yet at

  the same time, another thought surfaced almost immediately after.

  Wasn't this a good thing?

  There were questions I wanted answered. Questions about why I had

  been dragged into this world, why the invitation had been rescinded at

  the last second, and most of all—

  The Soulbound Contract.

  As I drifted slowly through the empty white space, a figure gradually

  came into view. He stood at roughly my height, his face hidden behind a

  perfectly smooth, blank white mask. His clothing matched the void

  around us: a white coat with long sleeves, a cape draped behind him, a

  neatly tied necktie, white slacks, and polished white shoes. The only

  color on him was the strand of purple hair spilling from beneath his

  white top hat.

  From just his hair, I recognized him immediately.

  He tilted his head slightly as if inspecting something mildly interesting.

  “So you’re the one. Interesting.” His voice echoed faintly through

  the empty space. “I’ve never seen you before, but judging by that

  expression, I assume you already know who I am.”

  “Yeah.” I recalled, “You’re the one who told us to finish the EVENT

  if we wanted another chance at life. The one who said we shouldn’t

  become parasites in this world.”

  The man paused, and let out a quiet sigh.

  “That’s… not quite what I meant,” He started speaking. “You see,

  people like you misunderstand things very easily. The Awakened God loves

  glorifying their martyrs. They love turning desperate fools into

  inspirational stories. But let me ask you something, Devon.”

  He took a few steps closer, each one echoing throughout the void like

  cleats on a wooden floor, the sound seemingly paradoxical as there was

  not even a visible surface in the air. Then, with his white mask nearly

  touching my face, he continued.

  “Would you die for a cult that doesn’t even remember your name after

  you’re gone? Because I’ve watched it happen more times than I can count.

  All of it are meaningless once you’ve already served your purpose. But I

  can change that for you. All you have to do is to tell me everything

  you know.”

  “I’m sorry,” I truthfully answered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He rubbed the bridge of his mask like someone dealing with a

  headache. “Fine. Just answer my questions and don’t resist. What’s your

  true name?”

  “My true name is Devon Crocus.”

  My eyes widened. The words had come out of my mouth without

  permission. It felt like something had grabbed my throat and squeezed

  the truth out of it.

  I reacted with “What the hell—” but the man was already continuing

  with his questions. My mouth immediately clamped shut. The following

  questions, I also answered truthfully. I couldn’t stop myself from

  telling the truth, anyway.

  “How did you get registered into the Wave Tutorial EVENT?”

  “I was registered into the Wave Tutorial EVENT through an invitation given to me at the last minute.”

  “Who helped you get into this EVENT?”

  My mouth moved on its own again, “Someone called t—”

  Then, the name stopped halfway. My jaw remained open, yet the words

  weren’t coming out of my mouth. A new System panel I hadn’t seen before,

  suddenly appeared before my eyes. The background of this panel was

  colored a deep red with the color of the text being black.

  [You are Soulbound.]

  [As per the immutable laws laid

  upon entering a Soulbound Contract, you cannot divulge any information

  regarding your Contractor.]

  What the hell?

  “Oh, I see.” The purple-haired man nodded, and said, “If you’re not

  going to cooperate, I guess we can do this the hard way. I suppose a

  little bit of pain should put you back to your senses? You should be

  familiar with this, right?”

  Suddenly, a sharp jolt of pain began tearing up my insides. “AGHHHH!”

  I screamed in pain. I squirmed, contracting my body, trying to dull the

  pain and shaking as if it was going to help at all. I still hadn’t

  recovered from my injuries last wave, and being hit by Agony again—it

  really felt like I was about to die.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The only difference now was that this Agony didn’t have a duration.

  [(Debuff) Agony]

  [Duration: --:--:--]

  I kept screaming in pain. Sweat beaded not just on my forehead but

  throughout my entire body. It felt like my muscle fibers were

  individually being twisted. I wanted to make it stop. I kept trying to

  tell him about The Deliverer and the Soulbound Contract, but every word

  triggered that same panel.

  [You are Soulbound.]

  [You are Soulbound.]

  [You are Soulbound.]

  My mouth—won’t tell—a single fucking thing—about him.

  And worst of all, I couldn’t do anything to escape from this torment.

  When it ended after just a single minute, the pain suddenly vanished,

  yet I’d already stopped struggling even before that. Not because I gave

  up, but because I couldn’t move anymore.

  It hurt too much. Each little movement was enough to make me jolt into submission.

  “So,” the man addressed. “You ready to talk?”

  “Stop.” I tried to get the words out. “I can’t say it. I want to tell you, but I can’t.”

  “Hmm. I wonder why. You knew you were going to die the moment you

  invaded this EVENT, anyway. Why did you even agree to having a curse

  restricting you from what you want to tell?”

  “I’m telling you! It’s not a curse! It’s because of this—”

  [You are Soulbound.]

  “AGHHHHHH!” I screamed in pain as the debuff came active again. I

  could feel my consciousness trying to fade, my vision tunnelling, but it

  felt like the debuff wasn’t allowing me to pass out peacefully.

  So, in a desperate bout to escape, I shouted out something different.

  I gritted through the pain. “The Purgatory of… Lost Souls! I came from there! I—”

  [You are Soulbound.]

  But as soon as those words successfully came out of my mouth, the Agony debuff disappeared.

  “What… did you just say…?”

  For the first time, the man sounded genuinely stunned and

  dumbfounded. Suddenly, the white void around us began collapsing inward,

  folding like paper. The endless space condensed into a single point of

  light above me before everything plunged into darkness.

  And when I realized what had just happened, it’s just that the white

  void turned into a single room with a dim, hovering light bulb in the

  middle. A metal table sat between me and the masked man. The air smelled

  faintly of disinfectant and old dust, like a neglected interrogation

  room.

  I leaned forward weakly, gasping for air.

  The man set a glass vial on the table with a soft clink. The potion

  inside glowed a deep crimson, the glass rim trimmed with delicate gold

  filigree.

  “Take this, Devon Crocus. This is a [Full Healing Potion]. It will

  instantly heal your injuries from the Agony I caused you, as well as any

  remaining injuries from the previous waves, should you have any. It’s

  the least I can do for mistakenly judging you as an intruder.”

  Forcing my arm to move, I grabbed the potion, uncorked it, and

  chugged the entire contents of potion bottle. Almost instantly, my body

  felt rejuvenated. The sweat in my body suddenly felt cold, almost

  chilling when earlier tried to regulate my body temperature by cooling

  it. And when I moved, there was no more pain in my body anymore. It had

  suddenly vanished.

  I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I told you I was in my best physical

  state right now. I knew healing potions in this world are overpowered,

  but that one just confirmed it might be too much so.

  The man slowly removed the featureless white mask off his face and

  placed it in the table. I could see the black line streaking from his

  eye down his cheek, and with an apologetic expression, he bowed at me

  from his chair.

  “My name is Tesla. I am a Field Operator under the Threat Balancing

  Committee of the GSNC.” He continued, “And in behalf of the Greed System

  Neutrality Committee, I humbly apologize for disturbing your

  participation in the Wave Tutorial EVENT.”

  I glared at him blankly, as I didn’t really know how I should react. I

  was about to be killed by him in a torturous manner earlier and now, he

  was apologizing for making a mistake about me being an “intruder.”

  My mind just drifted to this thought that when someone from the

  higher management makes a mistake, much like how restaurants do when

  they serve a customer something raw and dangerous…

  Without a shred of shame in my face, I said, “I want to be compensated. You do realize you were about to kill me, right?”

  I thought the man will be at the very least remorseful considering

  that he was being very hospitable right now, but all I got was an

  expression that was failing to keep joy from leaking out of his face. He

  was literally biting his lips just to keep himself from laughing.

  He enthusiastically agreed with a nod, “Yes, yes! You will be

  compensated! We have to follow a protocol for these kind of situations

  so please follow me!”

  As he carried his featureless white mask with him, I followed the

  purple-haired man named Tesla out of the room. He suddenly stopped on

  the doorway.

  “Tesla! Did you get any information from the intruder?!” A woman’s

  faint voice was barely audible through the endless noise of printers and

  high-pitched beeps filling up the entire room. Hell, from what I can

  see through the door, they were probably fax machines, which was

  probably the number one cause of office noise pollution before

  modernization.

  Jesus Christ. For a world with magic in it, this place feels like I’m stuck in the 70s, I thought.

  Tesla shouted through the room as well, saying, “No! False alarm! The guy just has a Soulbound Contract!”

  My eyes widened. I hadn’t told him that before. I pinned that

  question into my mind as soon as we get out of this noise-polluted room.

  When Tesla started walking again, he gestured for me to follow him out of the interrogation room.

  Rows of desks filled a wide office floor covered in thick gray

  carpet. Fluorescent ceiling lights hummed overhead. Dozens of fax

  machines lined the walls and tables, all of them spitting out endless

  sheets of paper that piled into trays. The air buzzed with the

  mechanical whirring of printers and the constant screeching tones of fax

  transmissions.

  A woman with silver hair in a bob cut and black eyes in that same

  white formal attire greeted Tesla. If not for her—well—inappropriately

  sized bust, I would’ve probably mistaken her for Yuna with a shorter

  hairstyle. They were literally in front of each other, but they still

  had to raise their voices to be properly heard.

  The woman said, “If it’s a false alarm, Devon Crocus has a divine sponsorship, then?!”

  “Yeah!” Tesla turned his head around and gave me a rather long blink, ”You got a sponsorship from a deity, right?!”

  Going along with whatever he’s doing, I nodded in response.

  The woman moved to grab my arm, “Then I’ll take you back to the EVENT—“

  But Tesla stopped her, “No, not yet! Not until the end of the Wave!

  The viewers will get suspicious if he suddenly appears in the middle of

  the Wave!”

  The woman groaned. “Oh, what difference does it make?! Even if he

  already has enough kills to make it to the fourth wave, it won’t stop

  them from getting their theories out! They’re already suspicious when he

  didn’t appear in the first Wave! Just drop him off right now!”

  But her complaints went unanswered when Tesla waved her off.

  He led us to another room—and when the door closed, silence

  immediately followed, the fax noises replaced by the hum of an air

  conditioner. The new room looked nothing like the interrogation chamber.

  Soft lighting illuminated a comfortable lounge with a blue sectional

  sofa, a glass coffee table, and a large television mounted on the wall.

  There were even a glass bowl filled with lollipops sat in said table.

  Tesla gestured his palm, “Take a seat. The next wave is still some time away, so you can relax for now.”

  I let my rear rest on one of the single-seated sofa across Tesla.

  Resting on the cushion made my body sink into it effortlessly. If only I

  didn’t have to go back out there, I probably would’ve given myself a

  good nap into this sofa already.

  “So Mr. Crocus, what my colleague said is true. I should’ve already

  put you back into the EVENT regardless of my reasons. But what you said

  back in that interrogation room was… extremely alarming.” Tesla said as

  he fiddled with his faceless white mask.

  I blinked. “You mean about the Purgatory—”

  “Ah-ah—“ Tesla raised a finger. “Don’t say that word anymore. Don’t

  even think about it, especially when you’re out there at the EVENT. If

  you do, even I don’t know what will happen to you exactly. Do you

  understand?”

  I could sense his urgency. I nodded and followed with, “Is that why

  you deliberately didn’t tell your colleague everything? And how did you

  even know I had a—?”

  [You are Soulbound.]

  I continued. “I mean, how did you know that I have that kind of written agreement with someone?”

  “Alright. I know this is still a bit too early for you to know, but I

  think it should be fine,” he smiled. “I’ll answer your questions. But

  first, let me tell you what the Greed System Neutrality Committee is all

  about.”