"I never even imagined this."
Cale looked around. He could see a high school located on top of a steep uphill road.
This was his high school, Raon High School. The uphill road to this school was quite famous.
"Haaa, can't they just, like, cut up this uphill road?"
"That's crazy. Do you even hear what you're saying?"
"My calves are on fire!"
Cale could see many students walking past him.
They were climbing this uphill road that made them swear on their way up every summer and winter. Many students grumbled about how Raon was not a fitting name for this school as, forget joy, they felt as if they would die every time they had to climb this hill.
"Mm."
The current time was 7:45 am according to his watch.
He was certain that his memory was not wrong to remember that he needed to be in the classroom within 15 minutes in order to not be late.
"Haaaa."
Cale was in disbelief the more he thought about it.
'I did think that it may come up at some point.'
He had thought that his past prior to the cataclysm would pop up at least once between these five emotion illusion tests.
However, he presumed that it would be based not during his high school days but much further back, during a time when everything in his life seemed to be full of darkness.
He had been full of indignity, wrath, and failure at that time for sure.
In fact, his life as Kim Rok Soo as a freshman in high school was one of his few peaceful moments after having lived in the orphanage for a few years by then.
Unlike his mother, who was the only child of her generation, his father had a distant relative who became Kim Rok Soo's guardian after his parents died from an accident.
He had a decent job and was a pretty good person.
At that time that is...
He enjoyed small amounts of drinking and gambling at that time, but he ended up getting extremely addicted to them not long after taking Kim Rok Soo in.
Kim Rok Soo had to deal with that bastard as he became crazier and suffered all sorts of indignity as he figured out how to survive on his own.
However, he was able to survive through it all and made it to an orphanage.
Of course, he had not done it on his own.
What could a child do on his own? The only thing he knew how to do was to submit to his uncle and do whatever he could do to survive. A lot of people helped him, and the systems set up in society helped him get out and be relieved that he did not have to get beaten anymore.
The fact that he didn't need to curl in fear underneath his blanket or hold his pee because he was not allowed to leave the room simply made him think that he could now live in peace.
He had stayed in the orphanage until his last year of high school.
His life in the orphanage was not that bad. In fact, he was having an average but good time. It was great in all aspects of food, clothes, and shelter.
"Hey, hurry up! Do you want to be late?!"
"Ow! This rotten uphill road!"
Cale observed the backs of the students running past him.
