He looked at the happy family that was playing happily in front of him and then thought of his family back in the world that he had lived in till now.

He did not know what to do as he stared at the happy family in front of him blankly when suddenly, he felt something appear in his right hand.

He slightly lowered his head to look at the sword that had appeared in his hand.

He felt his head throb immensely and he felt the urge to smash his head to a wall.

He controlled the urge to smash his head to a wall, but he couldn't think properly as emotions like fear and anger clouded his head completely.

He felt his eyesight becoming slightly blurry and he was sure that he would have a mental breakdown due to the pressure that he was facing right now.

But it was already amazing that he could withstand the pressure that he was facing and still stand upright without breaking down mentally. After all, to him, who had only one baseline and that was his family, the decision that he was faced with was extremely hard to decide upon.

Arnold took in a deep breath and let it out. He did this five times after which his emotions had become stable, and he mulled over the options that he was provided with and the consequences that he would face upon choosing any one of them.

He had to thank his uncanny level of emotion control, as if not for that, he would have probably gone mad due to the barrage of emotions and feelings that had assaulted him.

Arnold thought about what the older version of him had said.

He had two options. He could give up on the test and he would be given the option to live with the happy family in front of him. He would be given the chance to live with his dad..

But, Arnold was not a fool. For all he knew, the happy family in front of him could just be an illusion made by the tester, the older version of himself.

He might lose all that he had if he chose the happy family in front of him. But, was it assured that he would gain powers if he killed the family in front of him?

"Rest assured. My words are true. Kill them and you will gain powers. It is as simple as that.", declared a voice in his head.

Arnold eyes narrowed as he asked in his mind, "So the family in front of me is just an illusion? I knew it."

He had concluded that this was the case because the older version of himself did not talk about his doubts about his family in front of him, but instead only assured him that he would really gain powers if he killed them.

"No of course not. They're as real as they can be.", the voice declared calmly.

Arnold grit his teeth as he could not find any trace of panic in the voice that echoed in his head, which probably belonged to the older version of Arnold who was testing him.

Arnold felt a headache coming up as he looked at the sword in his hand. Suddenly, an idea popped up in his head.

Why didn't he just kill himself? What would his reflection do if he stabbed himself?

Without even wasting a second after having the thought of suicide, Arnold plunged his sword towards his stomach, ready to die.

It may seem cowardly, and it basically contradicted one of the reasons he did not want to give up on the test and join the family in front of him, which was that he did not want to abandon his real family.

But, the reason that he did not want to abandon his old family, his three cannibal siblings and join the happy family in front of him was because he knew that he would forever feel guilty if he took that decision.

He would not be able to live happily with the people in front of him if he abandoned them.

But his heart would not allow him to miss such an opportunity to live with his father, to forget about his past, to forget about the things he did.

He had a dilemma as he looked at the choices that he had.

And thus, he decided to die.

He would not feel guilty that he had abandoned his old family, or remorseful that he had missed the chance to live with this new family, as he would probably be taken to heaven, where he would become one of the great ancestors ruling over all the worlds. He could probably help his siblings from heaven then.

Yup.. he had grand expectations about his afterlife.

He hoped that this would work and he would die.

But, the sword that he plunged into his stomach just passed through his stomach like he was a hologram.

He looked at the sword in his hands that was passing through his stomach blankly.

Arnold did not understand why he felt no pain. He had expected that he could be stopped by his reflection, but he did not expect that the sword would just pass through his stomach without hurting him whatsoever.

Arnold felt dizzy as he did not understand what was going on, when a voice declared in his head,

"Hahahahaha! Good attempt. You think that I'm that foolish to not expect that? Don't worry, you won't die. You can't die as long as I don't want you to. Now stop your shenanigans and choose an option."

Authors note:

This chapter has been rewritten. All comments for it are for the previous version of this chapter. Please wait patiently as I rewrite the next chapters too.

For live updates of chapter rewrite status, please join my discord server. I give pings in the server as I publish the rewritten chaps. Also, I give a few spoilers in discord now and then.