Kaelen opens his eyes on the floor, choking on freezing air. His head throbs with a blinding headache. He scrambles up, eyes locking onto a steel table where a single, dusty teacup sits. Panic squeezes his chest as his mind pieces together his reality. He is an international student. He traveled across the ocean for the guidance of the legendary Dr. Victor Vance. He remembers arriving, the brilliant scientist smiling warmly, offering him tea... and then, a black abyss. He is locked inside a hidden underground vault. Completely trapped.
He has been alone in the suffocating silence for two days. Suddenly, a violent spark of electricity cuts through the dark. The heavy vault door glitches and grinds open. Hope flares. Kaelen rushes into the narrow passage. Freedom is right there.
But the moment he crosses the threshold, a heavy steel collar around his neck triggers. A violent, white-hot electrical surge rips through his spine. The agony is unspeakable. His skin burns and smokes, dropping him to his knees with a throat-tearing scream. Yet, the desperate desire to survive forces him forward. Sobbing, he drags his blistering body through the haze.
He looks up and sees the heavy metal exit door. He reaches out a trembling, burned hand, pressing his bloody fingers against the handle.
But Dr. Vance is a monster. The door is a horrific illusion—a hyper-realistic painting on solid concrete. As Kaelen’s hands touch the flat surface, the painting vanishes, revealing a massive, floor-to-ceiling photo of Dr. Vance, staring down with cold, manic, laughing eyes.
The crushing despair, mixed with the blinding burns and the psychological terror, completely shatters Kaelen's mind. His brain cannot handle the trauma; his psyche short-circuits and undergoes a total reset. His memory is wiped clean. He forgets the exit. He forgets the burns.
A faceless, rusted security robot rolls into the passage. With no empathy, it clamps a heavy metal claw around Kaelen's deeply scarred ankle and ruthlessly drags his unconscious body backward, throwing him into the cell. The vault door slams shut.
Miles away in a police precinct, Dr. Vance has just died in a jail cell following his arrest. He took the secret location of the vault to his grave. No one is looking for the international student who disappeared across the ocean.
Inside the dark room, Kaelen regains consciousness on the floor. His mind is a total blank. He doesn't feel the fresh scars covering his body. He looks at the dusty teacup on the table, believing he is waking up for the very first time.
His trembling voice whispers into the dark: "Day... three? No. Day four. I need to get out."
He stumbles toward the door. And the loop begins again.10Please respect copyright.PENANAAjwTnzB0j6


