Darkness surrounded Noah.
He could no longer feel the forest.
He could no longer hear the wind, the voices of the surviving students, or the pain tearing through his body.
Everything felt distant.
It was fading
As if he were slowly sinking into a deep ocean where neither light nor sound could reach him.
Then the familiar blue screen appeared before him once more.
Its light floated within the darkness. Words began appearing across its surface. He sohow tried to focus on it.
---
[Congratulations, Extra!]
[For successfully surviving the Third Act of Chapter I – Demons.]
[Not only did you survive an encounter against a demon, but you also ca into contact with sothing that was never supposed to appear at this stage, in this arc.]
[You witnessed a fragnt, or say a weakest form of The Eternal Mona@#$ of the S@#$%#$#@, @$%#@#$.]
The text glitched violently. Several words distorted beyond recognition.
Noah couldn’t understand any of it. The symbols looked wrong.
Not unreadable. They were wrong. For so reason he couldn’t see them. His heavy eyes blinked.
As if his mind simply wasn’t ant to process them. The system continued regardless.
[As a reward, you will receive—]
The ssage suddenly stopped. Several seconds passed.
[Wait!! What are you doing here?]
Noah blinked weakly. The system was talking in slight tense tone. The line looked panicked.
[Damn! What do you an, what am I doing here?]
Then a completely different line appeared. Another voice ca, that wasn’t the system. The chanical tone was gone.
The voice sounded offended. A new voice appeared. It was a male voice. As if soone had just asked him an extrely stupid question.
It was loud and confident. And it had emotions, unlike the emotionless system.
[I felt sothing from that place you’re connected to just now!]
[It was very weak, but soone as amazing as can sense things from very far away! I can see that thing already left...but I can sense its traces.]
[Hahaha! I really am amazing!]
The male voice said while laughing.
Noah stared blankly. He had no idea what was happening anymore.
The system seed just as confused.
[Wait! I still need to reward the Extra!]
The chanical voice spoke again. The male voice imdiately responded.
[Oh?You an that boy?Noah?Let take a look at him—]
A brief pause followed. Then the man’s voice exploded.
[THE HELL?! HE’S DYING, YOU IDIOT BITCH!]
Noah felt strangely offended despite barely being conscious.
The system sounded annoyed.
[Oh, co on. He won’t die. Help is already on the way. According to calculations, his survival rate remains acceptable.]
The man’s reaction was imdiate.
[Tch!]
He clicked his tongue.
[This is exactly why I hate systems! Always calculating everything.]
[Always acting smart. Those system genre novels are no fun because of this. Getting stronger on your own. Without help, that kind of novels are better.]
Noah had absolutely no idea who this person was. But sohow he sounded more alive than the system ever had.
The man continued.
[Forget that. This kid just survived THAT thing. Do you have any idea how insane that is?]
[He deserves sothing good.]
The system imdiately panicked. For the first ti since Noah had obtained it, he could actually sense panic in its voice.
[Wait!]
[No! Do not do that!]
The man sounded confused.
[Why not?]
[Because it is too early!]
[Far too early! That reward is not ant to be given at this point!]
The man went silent. Then he laughed.
[Hahaha!]
[And?]
The system almost sounded desperate now.
[It will heavily affect future developnts! The tiline will shift! Multiple projected paths will beco unstable!]
The man didn’t seem concerned Not even slightly.
[Hmm. Sounds like a future problem.]
[It Is a future problem!]
[Not my future.]
The system fell silent.
Noah would have laughed if he wasn’t busy dying. The man spoke again. This ti his voice carried excitent.
[Besides, we’re not giving him the full thing.]
[We’re only helping him awaken it.]
[And honestly?]
[He’s the perfect candidate.]
[NO!]
The system practically scread.
[DO NOT—]
The man interrupted.
[Too late.]
A strange warmth spread through the darkness.
Noah couldn’t see anything. Yet sohow he felt sothing changing. Sothing deep inside him.
Sothing ancient. Sothing sleeping.
The man’s voice echoed one final ti.
[Take this, Noah Eldritch.]
The blue screen flashed. New words appeared.
[Reward Obtained]
[Bloodline Acquired]
[Monarch of Frost]
The mont the words appeared. Everything changed. A terrible cold spread throughout Noah’s body.
At first it felt refreshing. Then it was uncomfortable.
Then it was painful, then horrifying.
The cold wasn’t covering his skin.
It wasn’t outside him. It was inside him. His blood began freezing. His veins turned icy. His heartbeat slowed.
It was getting slower by each second.
The freezing sensation spread deeper. Into his muscles. Into his organs. Into his bones. Into every single cell of his body.
It felt as if winter itself had entered him and claid ownership over his existence. Far away, the system watched.
Or perhaps whatever space existed beyond reality watched. The chanical voice sounded horrified.
[You actually did it!!]
The man sounded surprisingly calm.
[Of course I did.]
[You forcibly awakened the bloodline! His body cannot handle this!]
[Tch!]
The man clicked his tongue once again.
[You’re such a useless system.]
The man sighed dramatically.
[You systems are supposed to help transmigrators beco stronger. Instead you spend half your ti worrying about rules.]
---
Noah’s body continued freezing. The process showed no signs of stopping. His blood beca ice. His organs beca ice.
His heart beca ice.His body temperature dropped beyond what should have been possible.
Then his skin turned pale blue.
Monts later, his entire body froze.
It was completely frozen. From the outside, Noah now looked like a perfect ice sculpture.
Not a single movent remained. Not a single heartbeat. Not even a single breath.
Silence filled the space. The system spoke again.
[He’s dead.]
The man snorted.
[No, he’s not.]
[There are no signs of life.]
[That’s because you’re looking at it wrong.]
The system remained silent.
The man sighed.
[Honestly, who designed you?]
Several seconds passed.
Then the man suddenly laughed.
[Actually, never mind.I know exactly who designed you. That bastard. Also relax. ]
The man sounded entirely unbothered.
[ This particular bloodline will never kill its bearer. Not once. That’s the whole point of it]
[You cannot know that he— ]
[I can and I do. Stop panicking. Let handle it. I will help him]
The system imdiately stopped responding.
Almost as if it didn’t want to continue that conversation. Then sothing appeared above Noah’s frozen body.
A tiny black droplet.
It was mall and dark. Completely ordinary in appearance.
Yet its existence felt wrong. As though reality itself disliked having it nearby.
The droplet slowly descended.
It touched the ice.
Crack.
A single fracture line appeared across the surface, running from the point of contact outward in both directions.
Then another crack branched off it. Then another.
The sound of it was quiet at first.
It was delicate, like the surface of a frozen puddle being pressed from beneath and then it built.
The fracture lines multiplying and spreading until the entire shell of ice covering Noah’s body was a web of connected breaks.
Then it shattered.
The pieces didn’t fly outward.
They simply fell. Dropping away from his body and hitting the ground around him before dissolving into water and then into nothing.
Leaving the grass and roots dry.
What was underneath the ice was Noah.
His back wounds still present, still serious.
But color returning to his skin and the slight but unmistakable movent of his chest as his lungs rembered what they were for.
His heart started beating again.
[He’s... he’s alright. ]
The system said it quietly, like it was still deciding whether to believe it.
[Obviously.]
The man’s voice carried the easy confidence of soone who had never seriously considered the alternative.
[ You thought I would awaken sothing in him that would kill him? What kind of being do you take for? He was already compatible. His body just needed to be shown what was already inside it. ]
[ ...]
[ I know who told you that a strong body was required for this awakening.]
The man continued, sothing shifting in his tone.
It was still light, but with an edge underneath it now.
[And I know whose plan I’ve just disrupted by moving this early. He’s going to be furious with .]
A pause.
[ ...Hehe. Once again I did it.]
[This is not sothing to laugh about.]
[ It is a little bit]
He sounded genuinely entertained by his own recklessness.
[ Anyway. I’m done here. It was more interesting than I expected]
The man said.
[ Wait– I still have questions about what you just did– ]
[Goodbye, Noah Eldritch]
The voice spoke directly now, the way it hadn’t quite done before.
It aid specifically rather than general.
It was ant for the unconscious young man lying in the dirt rather than for the system it had been arguing with.
[ I don’t know your whole story yet. But you survived that ]
A brief pause.
[ I think you’ll survive the rest of it too...I hope so..]
Then the voice was gone.
The system said nothing for a mont.
[ ...]
Then it too went quiet, and the screen dissolved, and the forest clearing returned to its ordinary sounds.
Wind in the canopy above, birds that had co back to the branches.
The distant sound of soone moving through the trees at high speed toward the cluster of injured students lying in the grass.
Noah’s chest rose.
It fell and rose again.
His body was healed completely.
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