Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 60: Existence Grade: ERROR

A cold trickle of understanding dripped down Leon’s spine as he turned to Mr. Lee and pointed a finger at the portrait. "What does this mean?"

"You will know," Mr. Lee said in a low tone, "once you’re done with your test."

Leon’s chest tightened as his stomach churned. ’Another test?’ Leon screamed in his head.

His hands clenched, knuckles white as though he could squeeze the very thought out of existence.

He watched as Mr. Lee turned the handle and pushed the door open.

The room beyond was like a symphony of light and information as he stepped in. The walls, which he’d seen earlier as only three screens, had now changed.

Now, it was lined with countless tapestries of flowing data.

From biometric signatures that twisted like neon snakes, combat statistics scrolling in endless columns, and a complex wave of patterns that pulsed with silent energy.

His breath caught when his gaze landed on the largest central screen, which was directly ahead. On it was a video feed.

It showed a hospital room, the one he had been taken out of by Mr. Lee and Feng.

He saw himself, standing at the front of a blasted golden light beam that looked as if it was swallowing the room whole.

The video instantly paused when the horrifying transformation of the fair nurse into a skeletal figure popped up.

Leon’s heart pounded like a war drum, each beat threatening to burst through his ribs.

The skeletal figure’s hollow eyes burned into his memory. For a moment, he could hear the screams again as if the room itself had returned.

His hands shook violently, betraying the calm he tried to summon.

"Ahem..."

The clearing of his throat pulled him back from his dreadful memory.

At his side, Mr. Lee moved past him and folded his arms to his chest. "He’s ready."

A figure detached itself from the console in front of the central screen. There, Leon remembered the face to be the same lady he’d met the other time he visited.

But now, the clinical white light of the room made her pale hair glow as she stepped closer.

"That’s good. The test is also ready." Her heels clicked on the polished obsidian floor as she stopped in front of Leon.

She looked up and down at Leon, then brushed her palm over his messy hair.

"How are you feeling, boy?" she said and nodded, as if confirming something to herself.

"I am fine," Leon said, his voice echoing in a forced tone.

"Good." A thin smile appeared on her lips. "I can see in your eyes that you’re eager to join the trials any day from now. Right?"

"Yes," the words leaped from his lips before he could curb the hope in them. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Excellent." The proctor turned and walked back to the console. With a tap of her fingers, the horrifying hospital footage vanished.

All the screens in the room flickered, then synchronized, displaying a single, vast landscape.

’Another ruined city?’ thoughtS reeled in Leon’s mind as the memory of the psychological test land also popped in his mind, intertwining with the one now presented to him.

"This seems more structured," he whispered. He gave a tense look at the skyscrapers that snapped like twigs, streets that were choked with rubble, and a sickly twilight that hung over everything.

His eyes darted across the screens, picking out shapes: wolf-like creatures with obsidian fur and glowing eyes like the one he saved Zoe’s from. Massive bat-like beasts circling broken spires and other less definable things.

"This is a short introduction to the test you will be taking today," the proctor said and raised her right arm.

She pushed back the sleeve of her white coat and pressed a button on a sleek white watch encircling her wrist.

In a blink, the screens zoomed in, highlighting the creatures individually. A label appeared beside each as they slid on the screen.

[Corrupted Canis – Skill Expression Grade E, Uncommon]

[Void Bat Swarm – Skill Expression Grade E, Common]

[Ghoul Stalker – Skill Expression Grade E, Uncommon]

"These are all the creatures you’d have to fight once the test starts," Mr. Lee said, moved and leaned against the wall by the door, and folded his arms.

’Fight them? All of them?’ Leon’s mind raced as he tried to tally the numbers flickering across the screens.

"Yes," the lady confirmed, as if hearing his thoughts. "Don’t worry, they are all within the same E-rank classification." She paused as a wired smile tore on her lips.

"These are the ones the system detected using your Skill Expression Grade. You may face stronger ones that are beyond existence, only if you possess strange powers that are hidden from the standard Existence Grade threat matrix."

’Existence Grade? Uncommon? Threat matrix?’ The terms swirled in Leon’s head. Before he could formulate a question, the lady turned and stretched a slim, black scanner at his face.

"Baseline scan," she muttered. A beam of cool blue light erupted from the device.

Leon flinched and closed his eyes instinctively as she passed the scanner slowly from his head to his feet.

Once he cracked his eyes open, he saw his body outlined in wireframe. Then, after a few seconds, text and numbers began populating beside it.

================= STATUS =================

Name: Leon Storm

Rank: E

Level: 1

Class: Awakened

Strength: 5

Agility: 7

Speed: 9

Endurance: 4

Intelligence: 10

Willpower: 11

Potential: 0

Durability: 1

Authority: 0

Existential Weight: 1.01 (Unstable)

Existence Grade: ERROR

Stamina: 2 / 9

Talent Grade: low

Growth Rate: Below Average

==========================================

The numbers were meaningless to Leon as he stared at the data, but the words were clear enough. Low. Below Average. Error. Unstable.

"Your foundational parameters are... abnormal," the proctor murmured, more to herself than to anyone else, while studying the data.

She looked at Mr. Lee, the screen, and back at Leon. After two seconds, the clinical smile returned.

"The objective is simple: survive the designated runtime. Your performance will be graded on threat elimination, damage mitigation, and environmental adaptation."

She gestured to a circular platform in the center of the room.

It was etched with a silver rune identical to those in the arena. "Sit in the chair, please."

Leon’s heart began to pound heavily in his chest. He looked from the platform to the screens filled with monstrous forms, to his condemning status screen, and finally to Mr. Lee.

Mr. Lee gave a single, slow nod.

Leon swallowed hard the moment he sat in the leather chair. A mechanical hum sent his bones vibrating when a curvy metal erupted from the chair and wrapped itself around his waist.

He could feel liquid metal forming a helmet around his head, yet his neck didn’t allow him to turn and look.

The mechanical hum rose in high pitch and drowned out all other sounds.

The last thing Leon saw as his vision turned blurry was the proctor’s finger hovering at his face, the wired look in Mr. Lee’s eyes, and the unnerving words floating above his eyes:

Existence Grade: ERROR