The inside of the plane was a mess.

"My.. my son is not breathing...!"

"Help... My leg..."

Various cries came from all over the places.

Lucas himself felt his back was throbbing from shielding the cart earlier. It probably got bruised, but he was lucky enough judging from the cries of other passengers.

As Lucas turned on the flashlight from his phone, the first thing he saw was a bloody flight attendant laying on his feet. The flight attendant didn't move for a bit, not even from breathing.

Following after him, countless flashlights were lit. But, it didn't make the situation any better. Now that people could see what happened in the plane, shrieks of horror filled the air.

The plane's body was heavily dented, that some head compartments got pushed far down to the passenger's seat. Blood was dripping from those who got crushed in between, creating pools of red liquid on the floor.

Ignoring the commotion, Lucas calmly walked over to the emergency door.

"Where are you going?"

Hearing that faint voice was directed to him, Lucas looked over to Garnet.

She was unharmed. Not even a scratch was shown since Lucas protected her earlier. However, her complexion didn't look good. Her face looked very pale.

Garnet gazed straight at Lucas with her honey eyes looking obviously shaken. She seemed to try hard not to look down, where the dead flight attendant was.

Seeing Garnet like that, Lucas felt strange. During his time in the abyss, he never really met Garnet in person. He only knew her from the talks of other people, saying that she was cold and manipulative. Yet, the fierce woman that he heard was now trembling on her seat like a small animal.

Still, Lucas didn't have time for trivial stuff like that. 

"Stay there for a bit," Lucas told her, as he twisted the lever and started pushing on the door.

"Wh-what are you doing??"

Garnet raised her voice, surprised over his action.

Ignoring her, Lucas had the door opened with a plopping sound.

Right that moment, a gush of wind blew in, bringing an extremely foul stench. Getting nauseous from the odor, Garnet almost threw up. Although Lucas felt the same way, he persevered with a surgical mask and mint candies that he brought. It did help a little, although Lucas didn't expect it to stall the stench forever. 

Looking to the outside, Lucas was taken aback.

The sky was looking bleak, not even a single star was seen. Although, there hung a giant moon on the sky, giving him enough lights to at least tell what was on the ground. The ground was almost black in color, and dead tree trunks were scattered around without any single leaf on them. There were also some cracks on the ground as if it was dehydrated for a long time.

Looking at the scene that came out straight from a nightmare, Lucas slid down the evacuation slide without any hesitation.

[Welcome to area 5,  Player 793. Please choose your username]

The moment Lucas stepped on the ground, he was greeted by a floating notification window.

"Faith to God," Lucas muttered unhesitatingly. 

[Your name is set to "Faith to God"]

[You received 10 crystals!]

As expected, the system gave him a reward for that username.

Lucas was by no means religious. He certainly was a Catholic before, but it was just something that he was born with. After what happened to the world, he would be crazy to worship something that never actually saved human beings until the moment he was dead.

On the other hand, the system seemed to like the idea of God. Lucas generally had an idea why, but he didn't care much as long as he could exploit it.

Looking around, all he could see were dead trees and wilted grasses that barely covered the black ground. Further ahead, an eerie mountain range covered in fog could be seen. The mountain range looked pitch black as if nothing could grow on it anymore. As it was the only distinct thing in this plain filled with nothing, Lucas felt there must be something on that mountain range.

Although, there was something else that bothered him.

No matter how Lucas looked, no monsters could be seen. As far as he knew, monsters were the fundamentals of the early trials. Yet, not only this open space couldn't hide them, but he also didn't feel any of their presence.

Decided to just see it later for himself, Lucas walked approaching the scattered cargo containers on the ground. Those containers filled with the passengers' luggage were mostly spilled over due to the collision.

Seeing the condition of the plane in front of him, he thought it was a miracle that most people inside were still alive. The plane got severely bent, as the front wheel was broken. The wing and the bottom part of the plane were ripped open. And there were countless scratches and dents on the plane's body.

Without wasting his time, Lucas started to open up the small cargo containers one by one, looking for his bright yellow suitcase. He purposely bought it with inconspicuous color so he could find it easily in times like this. Although, putting his equipment in the baggage was completely a bet for him.

Since he couldn't bring any kind of weapon inside the cabin, Lucas reluctantly stored his knives and equipment in the suitcase. However, he already prepared himself in case he lost it.

No, he wasn't going to fight monsters with a butter knife or chopsticks.

Believe it or not, Lucas could rely on his fist alone depending on the monster although he preferred to at least had something sharp with him. Of course, using a fist would be impossible for the current Lucas. But, the key was the crystals that he received earlier. 

As Lucas luckily spotted his bright yellow suitcase, a notification window popped out again.

[Ongoing Trial

Goal: Hunt 0/25

Completion Reward: 150 crystals]

The trial could only start if there were sufficient 'players' around.

Looking behind him, people were already crowding beside the evacuation slide. Most of them were still in disbelief and bawling their eyes out, and only a couple of them actually paying attention to the panel in front of them.

Lucas read the task window carefully.

The goal, the reward, there wasn't anything different from the first trial that he went through before, aside from the venue. However, that fact made him feel uneasy instead.

Why? Because there weren't any monsters in the vicinity.

In his first trial, there were countless monsters to hunt. However, that wasn't the case in this venue. No matter how Lucas thought about it, it didn't make any sense for the system to give an impossible task.

Then, Lucas suddenly remembered the famous story from long ago, told by his seniors. They said, during the first phase of the trials, everyone was busy hunting for monsters. However, there were two lunatic survivors who hunted down humans. 

One of them was Garnet.

During that time, everyone thought those two were crazy. But looking at this situation now, Lucas could see why.

"Status" Lucas muttered.

[Faith to God

Strength 2

Agility 2

Resilience 1

Aura 0%

Skills: none]

Lucas quickly put 6 crystals that he owned towards his strength and agility, evening them out.

An Olympic runner would have around 5 in agility, and the same went for a bodybuilder, with 5 in strength. However, with the existence of crystals, he could instantly reach the state of those athletes, who had trained for years to reach their current stats.

Feeling satisfied, Lucas, who was done transferring his equipment to a backpack, was thinking about heading to the mountain range.

Yet, Lucas quickly swung his butterfly knife as he felt something touched his shoulder. 

"What.... the hell?"

Garnet stood there with wide-opened eyes. The blade was only an inch from her neck.

Lucas, who cursed himself for his reflex, promptly pocketed the knife in his cargo pants. "Sorry, you surprised me."

Garnet frowned, as she gave him an indescribable stare. She seemed to have a lot to say, opening and closing her mouth several times without ended up saying anything.

Decided to wait for her, Lucas stood there in silence.

"Tell me, what is happening?" Garnet finally asked.

"Sorry?"

"You know something, don't you? You don't hesitate at all when you came down here. What are those numbers floating on everyone's head? And what is this transparent thing that told us to hunt?" Garnet said without a single break. Her gaze demanded answers.

Hearing that, Lucas went silent.

Numbers floating on everyone's head? Of course, Lucas couldn't see anything. All he could see was the task window that Garnet mentioned and his own status.

"Then, you see a number on my head?" Lucas asked, pointing to an empty air on his head.

"Yeah? It's 4. That guy over there is 2, and that lady is 1. What is it, really?" 

Lucas smiled as he knew what it might be.

Traits.

Fundamentally, a trait is an ability unique to an individual. It would appear anytime after humans entered the abyss, though there wasn't any exact timing for it. It could develop a minute after, or even fifty years later. And unlike skills, which could be possessed by numerous people, a trait was like a fingerprint. There wasn't any exact copy of one's trait, even if they fall into the same category.

After people knew how important a trait was, people who were awakened with a strong trait were basically a celebrity.

Like how Lucas finally awakened his trait after fifteen years and got scouted by the guild.

As far as he knew, Garnet's trait called 'clairvoyance'. She could see the information about other people. Although, even the guild didn't know what type of clairvoyance she had and how much information she could see. All this time, Garnet was always meticulous, didn't allow anything about her to leak out.

But even without knowing about it in detail, Lucas knew he needed Garnet's trait. Especially after he learned that Garnet was one of those who got awakened early.

That was the sole reason he went out of his way to see Garnet here.