Hayden opened his eyes.
He was in the center of an abandoned, cavernous warehouse.
A ring of men in black suits surrounded him.
Sitting leisurely on a folding chair in the center of the circle was the scarred man in the silver suit, holding several heavy leather leashes wrapped tightly around his fist.
Snarl!
Hayden’s eyes widened.
Several massive, vicious hounds strained against the leashes, barking furiously.
Thick strings of foul saliva dripped from their bared fangs.
He tried to stand, only to find himself tied securely to a metal beam.
No matter how hard he struggled, the thick ropes would not budge.
Haa…
haa…
A weak, ragged breath caught his attention.
Hayden snapped his head to the side.
Diana was tied to a chair just a few feet away, completely unconscious.
Suddenly, the heavy metal doors of the warehouse shrieked open.
Two thugs dragged a bloody, battered man inside.
They tossed him forward, and he crashed onto the concrete floor.
The man’s legs were completely shattered.
He could only drag his broken body forward using his elbows.
He crawled to the feet of the scarred man, his voice a hoarse, desperate plea.
The man in silver kicked him away in disgust.
“What do you think I am?” Garrison Cross snarled.
“Do I look like some street vendor haggling over scraps at a flea market?” A look of total despair washed over the broken man’s face.
He began to sob uncontrollably.
Snap!
Garrison checked his gold watch and snapped his fingers.
One of his subordinates immediately handed him a heavy plastic bucket.
It was filled to the brim with a rancid, foul-smelling slurry.
With a sweeping motion, Garrison hurled the bucket’s contents, drenching the broken man in the vile mixture.
The hounds went feral.
Driven mad by starvation and the overwhelming scent of the slurry, they lunged forward the second the leashes went slack.
“Ahhh!
No!” The man’s agonizing screams echoed off the high ceiling as he rolled frantically on the concrete.
The hounds tore ruthlessly into his flesh.
The sickening, wet sound of tearing meat and crunching bone filled the silent warehouse.
The surrounding thugs stood as rigid as stone statues, entirely unfazed by the carnage.
Garrison adjusted his lapels and slowly walked over to Hayden.
“That man screaming over there?
He was the General Manager of the Apex Corporation.
It was a Tier-7 bounty.
Three million dollars.
Do you know how much the bounty on their CEO was a few days ago?
Nine million.” Hayden locked eyes with him, his gaze venomous.
“So you were the ones who hit them.” “You actually kept up with the news?
Impressive.
You guessed right.” Garrison crouched down, a cruel smirk on his face.
He held his encrypted smartphone directly in front of Hayden’s eyes.
“Take a look at your cooldown timer, kid.
In less than sixty seconds, the Black Sovereign Syndicate will reactivate the bounty on your head.
Your life is officially on a countdown.” “Why do they want me dead?” Hayden demanded, staring Garrison down.
“We just pull the triggers.
If you want answers, you’ll have to find them yourself.
It’s a shame you won’t get the chance,” he sneered.
Hayden glanced at the holographic timer hovering in his vision.
The numbers were ticking down relentlessly.
59…
58…
57…
“But before the clock hits zero, I thought we’d enjoy a little show.
Such a shame to ruin such a pretty girl.” Garrison spat his cigar directly into Hayden’s face.
He waved his hand, and a subordinate brought over a second bucket of the foul-smelling slurry.
The silver-suited man tilted the bucket forward.
The rancid liquid began to pour.
Ding.
A sharp, mechanical chime echoed through Hayden’s mind.
In a fraction of a second, the entire world froze.
It was as if someone had hit the pause button on reality itself.
The slurry hung suspended mid-air.
“Timer for [Trial Instance 1] reached.
Constructing Trial Space…” Hayden suddenly realized his 24-hour safety window had just expired.
His vision went black.
A terrifying gravitational force ripped his consciousness out of his body and dragged it into the void.
When the darkness broke, a muffled roar rang in his ears.
“Roach!
Hold on, General Shepherd’s reinforcements are right here!” …
Hayden snapped his eyes open.
He was lying on a patch of dirt at the edge of a war-torn forest.
The air was thick with the suffocating smell of cordite and burning pine.
Excruciating pain radiated through his body.
Blood poured from multiple bullet wounds in his chest and arms.
He turned his head.
A soldier wearing a tactical helmet and a haunting skull balaclava was dragging him by the collar of his tactical vest, pulling him toward an open clearing.
A dense barrage of automatic gunfire erupted from the tree line.
Dozens of heavily armed mercenaries burst through the smoke, firing relentlessly.
The System’s mechanical voice echoed in his head.
“Welcome to the Trial Instance.
Host must use their own experience and intuition to deduce the victory conditions.
There are no restarts.
Failure will result in severe penalties.” Hayden was stunned.
They weren’t even going to give him an objective?
However, as he stared at the skull-masked soldier and the forest behind him, a wave of profound recognition washed over him.
He knew exactly where he was.
This was the ending of ‘Loose Ends’ from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Hayden took a deep breath, forcing down his panic.
He instantly activated his Auto-Aim and Wallhacks, firing precise pistol shots to suppress the pursuing ultranationalists.
Enemy soldiers dropped one by one, but their return fire was fierce.
Stray rounds grazed Hayden.
To his surprise, his new digital body was incredibly resilient.
He felt the sharp sting of the bullets, but his health bar barely dropped.
It fluctuated wildly as his passive regeneration fought against the incoming damage.
Ghost was panting heavily, his muscles straining as he dragged Hayden into the massive clearing.
“Roach, hang in there!
We’re almost safe.” Thwup-thwup-thwup!
The deafening roar of rotor blades filled the air as a massive transport helicopter touched down in the center of the LZ.
Hayden felt a sharp chill run down his spine.
Looking through his Wallhacks, every single soldier stepping off that helicopter was glowing with a hostile red box.
Even without the System’s warning, Hayden knew exactly what had to happen next.
A tall man wearing a beret and a three-star general’s insignia marched down the helicopter ramp.
Hayden’s eyes locked onto General Shepherd’s right hand.
It was already drifting toward the heavy .44 Magnum revolver holstered on his chest.
Click.
Before Shepherd could draw, Hayden raised his pistol and leveled it directly at the General’s chest.
Ghost snapped his head around, staring at Hayden in absolute shock.
What the hell was he doing?
Shepherd stopped in his tracks.
He stared coldly at the bleeding soldier on the ground.
“Stand down, soldier!
You are pointing your weapon at a commanding officer of the United States…” Hayden took a deep breath, praying his gamer instincts were right.
Without a fraction of hesitation, he pulled the trigger.
The bullet punched straight through Shepherd’s skull.
In that exact microsecond, the entire world shattered like glass.
Hayden’s vision vanished, and his consciousness was violently sucked back into the void.
“[Trial Instance 1] Completed!” As the System announcement rang out, Hayden let out a massive sigh of relief.
If he hadn’t spent hundreds of hours playing that exact campaign mission in his past life, Shepherd would have burned him alive.
“Clearance Rank: SSS.
Rewarding Overclock Skill: [Juggernaut].” “Effect: Equips advanced bomb-disposal armor and an M60E4 Light Machine Gun.
Grants total immunity to melee, ballistic, and explosive damage.” “Activation Requirement: 5-Kill Streak.
Duration: 30 Minutes.
Kills secured while Overclock is active do not count toward future streaks.
Note: As a reward for First Clear, the Host receives one free immediate activation.” “Flushing Trial Space data…” Hayden crashed back into his physical body in the real world.
The frozen timeline instantly shattered.
Time resumed its natural flow.
Snap!
Without a microsecond of hesitation, Hayden clenched his fist.
Heavy, overlapping plates of explosive-resistant armor materialized onto his body out of thin air.
The sheer force of the metal expanding instantly snapped the thick ropes binding him to the chair.