How strange.

This is how I feel right after regaining my consciousness.

What I see in front of me is a garbage dump at the corner by a high-end apartment building, just like the one I saw before I fainted.

But this garbage dump has become different. It is now a jumble of unrecognizable chunks and pieces in various bright colors.

I’m still sitting in the corner with my back against the wall.

I vaguely remember that when I was about to pass out, I sat down by the wall to gain support so I wouldn’t fall over.

But now the ground my right hand is pushing against and the wall my back is leaning against are no longer cold concrete.

The buildings around me retain their structures and layout, but they just don’t look like architectures from modern civilization. The whole street is built with numerous red bricks, large and small, stacked together.

Like I’m watching a rare exhibit created with toy bricks and glue by an artist with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

As I’m thinking of this, I touch the wall.

These red bricks feel slightly warm. Their texture is different than anything I know, not stone-hard but not plastic, either.

And they are twinkling in slow motion, which is very weird.There is neither sun nor clouds in the scarlet sky.

I look around nervously. There’s no other human being but me.Nor are there animals you often see on the streets, such as stray cats, crows, and rats.

But I can see a few fuzzy purple shadows wandering at the corner of the street in the distance.

Their creepy color and shape give me a clear warning that I definitely should not mess with them.“The hell. What is this place?”

This is not the real world.This is not the world in my dreams, either.

I clench my fists and feel the warmth of my palms. Now I’m sure that I’m not dreaming.

“Hmm? What’s this?”

I just noticed that I’ve been holding a small device in my left hand. It looks like a portable game console.

Just like an early version of Game Boy, it has a cross button on the left below the screen and two round buttons on the right, one red and the other blue.

This is the only thing, other than me, that came from the real world.

My head has never been so sober.The sobriety doesn’t feel right, either.

I’ve had a constant headache over the past few months, and my brain felt like mush most of the time. I heard a lot of strange sounds and even vaguely saw something.

As I’m staring at the gadget in my left hand—a cross symbol is flickering on its screen—I’m convinced that what has happened to me must have something to do with this thing.

I try to “wake it up” by pressing the buttons and even talking to it. But no matter what I do, the word “HypeSaints” just keeps flickering on the screen, and the cross symbol in the background remains the same.

“All right. Let’s take a chance.”

I take a deep breath and stick out my head vigilantly to observe the street corner in the distance.

The purple shadows wandering there are the only “living” things in this world.

“They don’t look like humans or other animals.” I can only tell the shape of those shadows with my limited eyesight at this distance.

But they do look dangerous. They haven’t attacked anything, but how they move with their four limbs makes me think of ferocious predators that can strike and kill anytime.

“Saint, are you ready for the trial?”

A clear digital female voice suddenly comes into my mind.

I don’t know this voice, but it sounds familiar to me now because I’ve heard it every time my head ached over the past few months. Only this time, it is so clearly heard.

“Trial?”

I’m sure this time it’s not my hallucination. I talk to the voice instinctively.

Right after that, a pair of things pop up by my side, giving me a real shock.

They are two huge hands, almost as tall as me, if not fully extended, with each finger thicker than my thighs. With the texture and luster of metal and the big knuckles, they seem to have extraordinary power.

They are floating beside me like two faithful dogs guarding their master.

“Saint has been authorized to gain power temporarily.”

“What are these?”

Looking at the metal hands that suddenly appeared beside me, I’m even more confused.

The metal hands float close to me and wrap my hands like a pair of gloves. The strange portable game console is now attached to the inside of the wrist of one metal hand, creating a magical link between the metal hands and me.

Now they seem to have become a part of me.

Without thinking, I raise my hands. The metal hands rise too. Then I clench my hands into fists, and the metal hands do the same again.

“I get it. It’s a weapon given to me for the trial. These are pretty cool!”

I get a little excited and wave my right hand, trying to throw a punch. The huge metal hand on the right moves simultaneously and with a bang, it smashes the weird red bricks on the ground into pieces.

“Wow! Awesome! Ha ha. It must be the power authorized to me that the game console just said! ”

I’m challenged with a strange trial in a strange world with a strange portable game console in my hand. The journey ahead is unknown to me.

But what I know is there certainly will be dangers.

Of course, I’m not an idiot who would get bigheaded when suddenly given some magical power. I got vigilant as soon as I heard the digital voice.

A trial often comes with a reward. But to get the reward, you have to overcome the difficulties first. And in this strange world, there probably will be dangers rather than difficulties.

Sure enough, I instantly notice three purple shadows wandering at the distant street corner begin to turn around and rush towards my direction.

“Darn it!” I can’t help but take a step back in fear. But I force myself to calm down and resist the urge to run away, which would be a stupid act in this situation.

In seconds, the three purple shadows rush tens of meters toward my direction. I can already clearly see their strange bodies.

These creepy things look like flickering holograms. Even though they are not substantial, their mechanical limbs still seem destructive. And on the surface of their bodies, there are sharp spikes, large and small, continuously wriggling as if they were alive.

They are monsters through and through.

Can I beat them with the mighty metal hands? I doubt it.

But I certainly can’t outrun them, so I have to fight.

First, I need to look like a fighter!

“Hey! You monsters, do you know Kung Fu?”

I try to recall how those excellent fighters fight in the Hong Kong kung fu movies I have seen. I love going to the flea market to collect old DVDs, many of which are surprisingly good cult movies.

The three monsters are approaching fast. I stare at them and strike a Kung Fu master’s classic pose with my arms raised and two palms stretched out, one behind the other. The two metal hands guarding me follow my movements, ready to take action anytime.

The monsters are intimidated. They are slowing down and cautiously approaching step by step.

My heart sinks. Their change of strategy indicates that these monsters are intelligent and have rich hunting experiences. They are not typical video game monsters simply programmed to dash over.

With one monster leading the other two, they are getting closer and closer. And suddenly, the leading monster jumps toward me.

I punch back by instinct.

However, I know nothing about fighting skills, and I’m not used to controlling the two metal hands yet. When I throw out the punch, the momentum of the huge metal hand drags me along. I lose my balance.

“Fuck! Wait, wait, stop…” I can't help cursing. My body spins with the metal hand and I can’t stop it.

I go round and round.

The two metal hands keep spinning fast and one of them happens to slap hard on the monster jumping forward.

With a muffled “bang,” the monster is thrown away. In a flash of electronic sparks, the monster shatters into pieces. It flickers a few times and eventually disappears.

I finally manage to stop myself from spinning just before falling to the ground.

“Eh? It worked?”

I’m surprised I just attacked and destroyed one of the monsters when I was spinning, even though it was by accident that I started to spin.

Now the remaining two monsters are hesitating. I guess they are trying to figure out my unusual way of attacking. 

I immediately get myself focused and adjust my stance. I should not act rashly again before I get used to these two metal hands, or I won’t be so lucky next time.

After holding back for a little while, the two monsters start to attack me again. They are pretty agile and cunning.

They take turns rushing at me. I open the metal hands and hide my own body behind them. The palms are big enough to protect me like two shields.

“You shitty monsters! I’ll let you beat me but only for a few minutes. Sooner or later, I will crash you into pieces!” While defending and swearing, I try to learn to control the metal hands.

Suddenly, a blue light circle appears between me and the two monsters.

“No, no, no. Why is the random portal opening again? I’m going to be late for class!”

A silvery voice yells, and then a motorbike rushes out of the light circle, knocking away one of the monsters. It makes a sudden U-turn in a cool style and stops. 

On the motorbike is a girl in a shirt and jeans who looks just like an ordinary college student, which is in stark contrast to the large-displacement vehicle she is riding.

“Well, another Trial World of Game Boy Bible?”[Junimo1]  mutters the girl as she turns to look at me.

“Watch out for the monsters behind you!” I warns the girl aloud without time to think why she came to this strange world in the first place.

Two monsters have sneaked behind her and are jumping on her together.

What happens the next second makes my eyes wide open. 

The girl, with her motorbike, flickers and vanishes into the air. The two monsters have caught nothing. They are looking around in confusion.

Then a green light circle appears beside me from which the girl riding on the motorbike is back.

She jumps off the motorbike, and then to my great surprise again, the motorbike begins to transform. In a blink of an eye, it becomes a robot tiger, or maybe I should say a giant robot cat. Anyway, I think this thing looks more like a cat.

The robot cat leaps effortlessly and in mid-air, it flickers and vanishes again. Soon after, it reappears behind those two monsters. With two or three swipes of its paw, the cat easily slaps the monsters into pieces.

I look at this mysterious girl who has just unexpectedly arrived, and notice that she is holding something I’ve seen—another strange game console that looks like a Game Boy.

"Hi, Saint...Name Unknown? Nice to meet you. You can call me Joo. Ah, I don’t need to know your real name. Just get yourself a nickname easy to be called." The girl greets me cheerfully.

I hesitate for a second and say, "Well, hello. You can call me JS."

Joo nods at me. She then looks down to check the game console in her hand. Finally, she raises her head and says, "You must have a lot of questions. But I'm sorry, I don't have much time to explain. Entering your Trial World this time was all because of my special ability. But the portal opens by chance and I could only stay here for a few minutes. You must keep fighting in this trial on your own and try your best to pass it. I will discuss with my teammate to find a way to help you as soon as I get out of here."

How strange.

This is how I feel right after regaining my consciousness.

What I see in front of me is a garbage dump at the corner by a high-end apartment building, just like the one I saw before I fainted.

But this garbage dump has become different. It is now a jumble of unrecognizable chunks and pieces in various bright colors.

I’m still sitting in the corner with my back against the wall.

I vaguely remember that when I was about to pass out, I sat down by the wall to gain support so I wouldn’t fall over.

But now the ground my right hand is pushing against and the wall my back is leaning against are no longer cold concrete.

The buildings around me retain their structures and layout, but they just don’t look like architectures from modern civilization. The whole street is built with numerous red bricks, large and small, stacked together.

Like I’m watching a rare exhibit created with toy bricks and glue by an artist with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

As I’m thinking of this, I touch the wall.

These red bricks feel slightly warm. Their texture is different than anything I know, not stone-hard but not plastic, either.

And they are twinkling in slow motion, which is very weird.There is neither sun nor clouds in the scarlet sky.

I look around nervously. There’s no other human being but me.Nor are there animals you often see on the streets, such as stray cats, crows, and rats.

But I can see a few fuzzy purple shadows wandering at the corner of the street in the distance.

Their creepy color and shape give me a clear warning that I definitely should not mess with them.“The hell. What is this place?”

This is not the real world.This is not the world in my dreams, either.

I clench my fists and feel the warmth of my palms. Now I’m sure that I’m not dreaming.

“Hmm? What’s this?”

I just noticed that I’ve been holding a small device in my left hand. It looks like a portable game console.

Just like an early version of Game Boy, it has a cross button on the left below the screen and two round buttons on the right, one red and the other blue.

This is the only thing, other than me, that came from the real world.

My head has never been so sober.The sobriety doesn’t feel right, either.

I’ve had a constant headache over the past few months, and my brain felt like mush most of the time. I heard a lot of strange sounds and even vaguely saw something.

As I’m staring at the gadget in my left hand—a cross symbol is flickering on its screen—I’m convinced that what has happened to me must have something to do with this thing.

I try to “wake it up” by pressing the buttons and even talking to it. But no matter what I do, the word “HypeSaints” just keeps flickering on the screen, and the cross symbol in the background remains the same.

“All right. Let’s take a chance.”

I take a deep breath and stick out my head vigilantly to observe the street corner in the distance.

The purple shadows wandering there are the only “living” things in this world.

“They don’t look like humans or other animals.” I can only tell the shape of those shadows with my limited eyesight at this distance.

But they do look dangerous. They haven’t attacked anything, but how they move with their four limbs makes me think of ferocious predators that can strike and kill anytime.

“Saint, are you ready for the trial?”

A clear digital female voice suddenly comes into my mind.

I don’t know this voice, but it sounds familiar to me now because I’ve heard it every time my head ached over the past few months. Only this time, it is so clearly heard.

“Trial?”

I’m sure this time it’s not my hallucination. I talk to the voice instinctively.

Right after that, a pair of things pop up by my side, giving me a real shock.

They are two huge hands, almost as tall as me, if not fully extended, with each finger thicker than my thighs. With the texture and luster of metal and the big knuckles, they seem to have extraordinary power.

They are floating beside me like two faithful dogs guarding their master.

“Saint has been authorized to gain power temporarily.”

“What are these?”

Looking at the metal hands that suddenly appeared beside me, I’m even more confused.

The metal hands float close to me and wrap my hands like a pair of gloves. The strange portable game console is now attached to the inside of the wrist of one metal hand, creating a magical link between the metal hands and me.

Now they seem to have become a part of me.

Without thinking, I raise my hands. The metal hands rise too. Then I clench my hands into fists, and the metal hands do the same again.

“I get it. It’s a weapon given to me for the trial. These are pretty cool!”

I get a little excited and wave my right hand, trying to throw a punch. The huge metal hand on the right moves simultaneously and with a bang, it smashes the weird red bricks on the ground into pieces.

“Wow! Awesome! Ha ha. It must be the power authorized to me that the game console just said! ”

I’m challenged with a strange trial in a strange world with a strange portable game console in my hand. The journey ahead is unknown to me.

But what I know is there certainly will be dangers.

Of course, I’m not an idiot who would get bigheaded when suddenly given some magical power. I got vigilant as soon as I heard the digital voice.

A trial often comes with a reward. But to get the reward, you have to overcome the difficulties first. And in this strange world, there probably will be dangers rather than difficulties.

Sure enough, I instantly notice three purple shadows wandering at the distant street corner begin to turn around and rush towards my direction.

“Darn it!” I can’t help but take a step back in fear. But I force myself to calm down and resist the urge to run away, which would be a stupid act in this situation.

In seconds, the three purple shadows rush tens of meters toward my direction. I can already clearly see their strange bodies.

These creepy things look like flickering holograms. Even though they are not substantial, their mechanical limbs still seem destructive. And on the surface of their bodies, there are sharp spikes, large and small, continuously wriggling as if they were alive.

They are monsters through and through.

Can I beat them with the mighty metal hands? I doubt it.

But I certainly can’t outrun them, so I have to fight.

First, I need to look like a fighter!

“Hey! You monsters, do you know Kung Fu?”

I try to recall how those excellent fighters fight in the Hong Kong kung fu movies I have seen. I love going to the flea market to collect old DVDs, many of which are surprisingly good cult movies.

The three monsters are approaching fast. I stare at them and strike a Kung Fu master’s classic pose with my arms raised and two palms stretched out, one behind the other. The two metal hands guarding me follow my movements, ready to take action anytime.

The monsters are intimidated. They are slowing down and cautiously approaching step by step.

My heart sinks. Their change of strategy indicates that these monsters are intelligent and have rich hunting experiences. They are not typical video game monsters simply programmed to dash over.

With one monster leading the other two, they are getting closer and closer. And suddenly, the leading monster jumps toward me.

I punch back by instinct.

However, I know nothing about fighting skills, and I’m not used to controlling the two metal hands yet. When I throw out the punch, the momentum of the huge metal hand drags me along. I lose my balance.

“Fuck! Wait, wait, stop…” I can't help cursing. My body spins with the metal hand and I can’t stop it.

I go round and round.

The two metal hands keep spinning fast and one of them happens to slap hard on the monster jumping forward.

With a muffled “bang,” the monster is thrown away. In a flash of electronic sparks, the monster shatters into pieces. It flickers a few times and eventually disappears.

I finally manage to stop myself from spinning just before falling to the ground.

“Eh? It worked?”

I’m surprised I just attacked and destroyed one of the monsters when I was spinning, even though it was by accident that I started to spin.

Now the remaining two monsters are hesitating. I guess they are trying to figure out my unusual way of attacking. 

I immediately get myself focused and adjust my stance. I should not act rashly again before I get used to these two metal hands, or I won’t be so lucky next time.

After holding back for a little while, the two monsters start to attack me again. They are pretty agile and cunning.

They take turns rushing at me. I open the metal hands and hide my own body behind them. The palms are big enough to protect me like two shields.

“You shitty monsters! I’ll let you beat me but only for a few minutes. Sooner or later, I will crash you into pieces!” While defending and swearing, I try to learn to control the metal hands.

Suddenly, a blue light circle appears between me and the two monsters.

“No, no, no. Why is the random portal opening again? I’m going to be late for class!”

A silvery voice yells, and then a motorbike rushes out of the light circle, knocking away one of the monsters. It makes a sudden U-turn in a cool style and stops. 

On the motorbike is a girl in a shirt and jeans who looks just like an ordinary college student, which is in stark contrast to the large-displacement vehicle she is riding.

“Well, another Trial World of Game Boy Bible?”[Junimo1]  mutters the girl as she turns to look at me.

“Watch out for the monsters behind you!” I warns the girl aloud without time to think why she came to this strange world in the first place.

Two monsters have sneaked behind her and are jumping on her together.

What happens the next second makes my eyes wide open. 

The girl, with her motorbike, flickers and vanishes into the air. The two monsters have caught nothing. They are looking around in confusion.

Then a green light circle appears beside me from which the girl riding on the motorbike is back.

She jumps off the motorbike, and then to my great surprise again, the motorbike begins to transform. In a blink of an eye, it becomes a robot tiger, or maybe I should say a giant robot cat. Anyway, I think this thing looks more like a cat.

The robot cat leaps effortlessly and in mid-air, it flickers and vanishes again. Soon after, it reappears behind those two monsters. With two or three swipes of its paw, the cat easily slaps the monsters into pieces.

I look at this mysterious girl who has just unexpectedly arrived, and notice that she is holding something I’ve seen—another strange game console that looks like a Game Boy.

"Hi, Saint...Name Unknown? Nice to meet you. You can call me Joo. Ah, I don’t need to know your real name. Just get yourself a nickname easy to be called." The girl greets me cheerfully.

I hesitate for a second and say, "Well, hello. You can call me JS."

Joo nods at me. She then looks down to check the game console in her hand. Finally, she raises her head and says, "You must have a lot of questions. But I'm sorry, I don't have much time to explain. Entering your Trial World this time was all because of my special ability. But the portal opens by chance and I could only stay here for a few minutes. You must keep fighting in this trial on your own and try your best to pass it. I will discuss with my teammate to find a way to help you as soon as I get out of here."