Return (TOG)

9

Today, all of us were seated together in a big room. There were rows and rows of seats curved to face the middle.

As usual, I sat next to Endorsi. Then, I scanned the regulars.

"Why am I out?!" A regular objected. Hansung tried to explain, but the regular was adamant on not accepting the results.

Ah, he's irritated.

Hansung beckoned the regular to his level, then subjected him to physical torture. Then, Khun also objected to the results, but he was defending Michelle Light, or Rachel.

Must be for Bam. Wait, does Khun like Bam? Like, like like him? Huhuhu~ I'll ask him later.

Then, he suggested taking the test given by the administrator.

From the big fish! Eran suddenly felt enlightened.

She did it a few times before. It should be fine.

"... Because I'm an irregular!" Bam spoke loudly.

Haiz. Why did he reveal that to everyone... Arlene, he's making you seem smart. I guess love makes people do silly things.

Then, the regulars gathered for a discussion after the rankers left. They were deciding on whether they should take the administrator's test with Bam or not.

"I don't mind." I said, before sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Then, Khun and Rak did a fancy show, which managed to convince the other regulars to take the test too.

"... But I don't have a choice! I can't help an irregular! .... I'll be kicked out of my family! ..." Khun put on a wonderful show.

"You coward..." Hatz grinded his teeth.

Then, Rak punched him. He then gave a passionate speech about how all the regulars were cowards, for abandoning Bam. This lit the flame of determination in them. Rak's speech made them not want to be like the spinless Khun.

Cheeky boy.

"You did well." Eran praised. Again, she petted his head, before walking away.

After that, every regular continued to improve themselves. As for Eran, she tried testing and familiarising herself with the gifts that her family have given her.

...

"This is my present." Lo Po Bia said. "It's called shadow house. It's a strange thing. Inside, there are a few different shadows, each with their own personalities. I tried to tame them, but all of them disliked me, so I can't use it. I'll give them to you."

"Thank you!" Eran said. "Even if all of you just bought me a meal, I would have been happy."

"We know that." Lo Po Bia snorted. "That's precisely why we aren't doing it, or it'll turn into a competition again. Your brother can get very protective of you. So we figured we'll each give you something different. We aren't so poor to be unable to afford a gift to our friend after all."

...

Eran opened her eyes. She was shrouded in darkness.

"It's sister!" Someone yelled.

"Yay!" A few people cheered.

Immediately, a large swarm of darkness practically consumed her.

"Hahaha!" Eran laughed out loud. Somehow, the residents here really liked Eran.

There were many residents here, but most of them were just sleeping. Only a few were awake. Among the awoken, El was one of them.

Eran talked to them often. All of the residents here have no memories of who they were before, or why they were like this. All they know is that they can roughly take a general form of how they looked like before.

They were the souls of the dead, but were rejected by death. All of them used to be awake at some point. For every soul that entered this place, they would bring along some trace of shinsu. However, that was pathetically little. As the souls needed shinsu to stay awake and not to disperse, many of them chose to sleep. Among the souls, the stronger ones would fall into an eternal slumber first.

There were also many souls that perished in their sleep. Their spirits, disappearing into shinsu, which would be used by another soul. In this case, the weaker spirits would disappear first.

Then Eran appeared. Usually, this place rejects anyone with a physical body. When she entered, a few of the weaker souls woke up.

Well, Eran was essentially a spirit wrapped in thick layers of shinsu threads after all. Eran actually unthreaded a large piece of her own body, to be able to ensure that no other soul would disappear. Since then, the shadows would stick closely to Eran. Besides being their energy packet, she was also a very nice soul.

Each time Eran entered this place, the souls would get stronger. Some would even wake up.

...

Very often, Eran would also spar with the souls. Each and every one of them were strong, and skillful. Compared to training with the regulars, training with the souls helped her a lot more. They were honing her battle intuition, by exposing Eran to a lot of different types of attacks.

In her spirit form in the past, Eran saw various interesting battle styles. However, there was nothing better than experiencing them yourself. Just like that, everyone improved during the period of time between the present to the day of the administrator's test.

...

All of the regulars were on board a ship towards their examination site. After a while, a loud screeching sound could be heard. They then arrived at a large crack in the earth.

"We will now start the final test." Hansung said, with an evil grin. "It's called, the Submerged Fish test."