The only sound in the corridor was the thud of boots on metal plating.
Cold, steady, and rhythmic.
Like some kind of ominous countdown.
Two fully armed guards flanked Keran as they walked.
Their grips were like iron.
They hadn’t loosened their hold once since he’d stepped into this hallway.
At the end of the corridor stood a heavy steel door.
The electronic panel flashed green.
Several locking bolts slid back with a deep mechanical clank that echoed down the hall.
Keran had just lifted his foot to step forward when both hands on his arms shoved hard.
He stumbled inside.
“Hey,” Keran snapped, turning around.
But the door slammed shut behind him with a deafening boom.
He stood still and scanned his surroundings.
The arena was far bigger than he’d imagined.
Or rather, the word “arena” didn’t do it justice.
It was a circular space easily half the size of a football field.
The floor was paved with thick, dark gray stone slabs.
Dark stains marred the stone in places.
Keran didn’t bother wondering what they were.
The metal walls rose twenty meters high.
The stands were empty.
Only the observation booth at the very top was lit.
He could just make out the silhouettes of Rufina and her assistant behind the glass.
Keran looked away and scanned the arena floor again.
It was empty.
Nothing there.
Just then, the steel gate at the far end of the arena slowly rumbled open.
A gust of wind reeking of blood and rot blew out from the darkness.
Keran tensed instinctively.
A massive rat stepped out of the shadows.
It was bigger around than a full-grown wild boar.
Its matted gray-black fur stood on end, every muscle bulging beneath its skin.
Its jaws were wider than its skull, two huge incisors sticking out like curved daggers.
Its blood-red eyes glowed with dull, mindless ferocity in the dim light.
His System Panel popped up automatically.
Name: Rift Rat
Level: 3
Health Points: 120/120
Attributes: Strength 8, Agility 7, Endurance 6, Intelligence 1, Spirit 1
Skills: Pounce Lv2, Bite Lv2
…..
Rufina’s voice came over the loudspeaker above, cool and steady.
“If you want to live, defeat it.”
“Damn it. You couldn’t even give me a knife?” Keran muttered under his breath.
The Rift Rat ignored his complaint.
It began circling slowly, paws alternating, body low to the ground.
The stiff bristles along its spine stood straight up.
Keran recognized that stance.
He’d seen it a thousand times in games.
But seeing it for real still sent a cold shiver down his spine.
He moved to the left first, deliberately slowing his steps, stumbling slightly like he was panicking.
The Rift Rat reacted like a snapped spring.
The ground thudded as its massive body launched itself, crashing down exactly where he’d been standing.
Keran slammed on the brakes at the last second, pushing off hard with his right foot and diving to the side.
He felt the wind rush past his ear.
The shockwave from the impact ruffled the hem of his shirt.
The Rift Rat landed on the stained patch of floor.
The smooth stone made its left front paw slip out from under it.
Its huge body teetered off balance for half a step.
Less than a second.
Keran was already turning and charging.
He drove his bracer hard into its exposed neck, pressing down with everything he had.
The sharp metal edge sliced into its flesh.
The Rift Rat screeched, whipping its head around and clamping its jaws down hard on Keran’s left forearm.
“Fuck!”
Keran’s vision went black for a split second.
The force was unbelievable.
Like a hydraulic press closing directly on his bone.
The bracer screeched in protest, denting deeply, but it held.
It saved his life.
The next second, the Rift Rat shook its head violently.
Keran was lifted completely off the ground and thrown sideways like a rag doll.
He crashed hard into the barrier wall.
A searing pain exploded up his spine, and his vision flashed white.
He slid to the floor on one knee, gasping for air.
So that’s what getting thrown by a rat feels like, Keran cursed inwardly.
His left arm was completely numb.
Deep tooth marks scored the bracer, and most of its internal structure had been crushed in that single bite.
The Rift Rat righted itself, shook its head, and began walking toward him.
It walked.
It didn’t run.
It knew he couldn’t escape.
Smart rat, Keran thought bitterly.
The thing had an intelligence stat of 1, but it was way more dangerous than he’d expected.
Talk about false advertising.
He glanced down at his bracer.
Frayed internal wires poked out of the broken edge, tiny blue arcs flickering along their ends in the faint breeze.
The energy circuit he’d deliberately left intact when he took apart the testers still had some juice left.
This was his only shot.
He jammed his hand inside, grabbed the bundle of wires, and ripped them out.
The insulation tore, and electricity shot up his fingers.
He hissed in pain, his hand twitching uncontrollably, but he didn’t let go.
The Rift Rat was five meters away.
It stopped.
Its red eyes locked onto him for a heartbeat.
Then it dropped low again.
Keran moved.
He didn’t run backward.
He ran forward.
The move caught the Rift Rat completely off guard.
Its pounce came half a second too late.
By the time its massive head came crashing down, Keran had ducked underneath its belly, his back almost scraping the floor.
Its front paws slammed down on either side of him, punching shallow craters into the stone.
The world was suddenly filled with the overwhelming reek of animal rot and the rough press of fur against his skin.
“God… the stench is overwhelming.”
Keran clamped down hard on the burning wires, ignoring the searing pain as the current scorched his skin, and drove them straight into the Rift Rat’s soft underbelly, right below its throat.
Crackle!
Blue-white electricity exploded outward.
The Rift Rat’s entire body went rigid.
A broken, wet shriek tore from deep in its throat — like something had been squeezed and burst, moist and ragged.
Its limbs began twitching uncontrollably.
Its full weight crashed down on top of Keran, heavy as a brick wall.
He was pinned underneath, unable to move.
It took several seconds before he managed to push the corpse off him and crawl out.
The Rift Rat didn’t move.
[You have killed a Rift Rat. Gained 120 experience points.]
Keran sat on the floor, gasping for breath for a long time.
His left hand still tingled with residual numbness.
His shoulder and back throbbed.
His clothes were soaked through, and he couldn’t tell if it was sweat or blood.
The heavy steel door slowly opened.
Rufina walked in.
Her white lab coat was spotless, her silver hair draped over her shoulders, her face still that same calm, almost blank mask.
Several armed guards followed behind her, but they stayed half a step back, like they didn’t dare get too close.
She stopped in front of the Rift Rat’s corpse and looked down.
The charred wound near its throat still had faint traces of electrical burns.
Then her eyes moved to Keran.
Keran was leaning against the wall, his chest heaving.
He could barely lift his left arm.
Blood was dripping steadily from the gash on his shoulder.
The makeshift bracer was destroyed, and shards of metal scattered around him.
They stared at each other for several seconds.
Rufina spoke first.
“Good work.”
She looked down at him from where she stood.
“What’s your name?”
Keran opened his mouth.
His throat was dry and raw.
“…Keran.”
His voice was weak, barely more than a rasp forced out of his lungs.
Rufina nodded slightly, like she was committing the name to memory.
Then she turned toward the door.
“Take him to the infirmary.”
…
Rufina had just pushed open a door when a deep, steady male voice came from the other end of the room.
“Is the experiment over?”
“Initial testing is complete. Everything went as expected.”
There was a moment of silence.
She knew he never spoke about anything that wasn’t results.
Sure enough, the voice spoke again, still steady but with an undercurrent of pressure.
“The Undercurrent wants the perfect test subject.” He paused.
“Are you sure you still want to do this?”
The air in the room seemed to grow heavier.
Rufina met his gaze steadily, but her fingers tightened unconsciously, the veins on the back of her hand standing out faintly.
“It’s the only way to save my sister.”
The man looked at her.
His eyes were complicated.
There was restrained anger there, and something that looked almost like helplessness.
But in the end, he said nothing.
…
Three days later, Keran was led by two guards to a sealed training facility.
A huge man was already waiting for him there.
“I’m your combat instructor. I’m also the training director for this facility. Darien.” The man stood in the center of the training room, his voice deep and gravelly.
A brutal old scar ran from his eyebrow all the way down to his jaw, making his already harsh features look downright ferocious.
Keran had no idea what Azure City had planned for him.
But he guessed they valued him more as a test subject than anything else.
As long as he was still useful to observe and study, he’d have access to more engineering technology.
There was no way he was escaping this heavily guarded facility anytime soon, let alone all of Azure City.
Keran took a deep breath and steeled himself for a long stay.
“Keran. Starting today, you will train in hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship every day.”
He tossed a set of black padding to Keran.
“Put it on.”
This was going to hurt.
Keran pulled the padding on quickly.
He’d just finished tying the last strap when Darien moved.
Darien twisted on his heel, his combat boot screeching against the floor.
He charged forward like a fired cannonball.
A fist the size of a cinder block came flying at Keran’s face so fast it was just a blur.
Bang!
Keran didn’t even have time to raise his arms.
The punch caught him square in the shoulder, sending him flying backward.
He hit the ground hard, and his padding crunched dully.
Even through the protective gear, it felt like his shoulder blade was about to shatter.
He gasped in pain.
“Too slow,” Darien said, looking down at him coldly.
“If that was outside the walls, you’d be dead already. Get up. Again.”
Darien’s training methods were brutal to the point of barbarism.
No technique explanations.
No unnecessary words.
Just nonstop fighting.
“Psychopath,” Keran muttered through gritted teeth.
He reached back to touch his shoulder, and his palm came away warm and sticky.
One wall of the training room was a one-way mirror.
Behind it was the observation booth.
A researcher in a white lab coat stood in front of the glass, watching Keran dodge desperately around the training room.
He shook his head.
“You’re investing too much in this test subject, Director Rufina.” He crossed his arms, his tone annoyed.
“Transdimensional summons are rare enough as it is. Instead of wasting resources training him, hand him over to me for deep dissection. I can extract far more data on Otherworld Lifeform biology from him.”
Rufina stood beside him.
A flicker of disgust crossed her eyes, gone so fast it was almost impossible to see.
“Do your job, Cyrus. I’m the director here.”
Cyrus’s mouth twisted into a sneer.
“With all due respect, Director, if I hadn’t calibrated the summoning device’s frequency, all we’d have down there is a pile of failed transdimensional meat.”
He stared at Keran through the glass like he was looking at a piece of property.
“He was an experiment the second he arrived here.”
Rufina said nothing.
Cyrus knew she couldn’t argue with that fact.
In his eyes, everyone was a tool.
They just had different values.
Three hours later, Keran collapsed on the floor, gasping for air.
Every inch of his body hurt.
He was convinced the man’s fists were made of solid iron.
Something flickered softly in his mind.
[Darien (Lv18) is teaching you Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat. Current Progress: 6%]
When training was over, Darien didn’t say a word.
He just turned and walked out.
A few minutes later, another figure walked into the training room.
It was Rufina.
She was wearing her usual black high-collared uniform.
Her silver hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, revealing the elegant line of her neck.
She was holding two pistols.
One was a standard military kinetic pistol.
The other was pure silver, faint blue light rippling along its barrel.
It was an energy weapon.
“Marksmanship training this afternoon.” She tossed the kinetic pistol to Keran.
“Load it with training rounds.”
Keran caught the gun.
It was heavy in his hand.
He’d fired a thousand different guns in games, but this was the first time he’d held a real one.
The cold metal against his fingers made his stomach twist slightly.
“Thirty-meter targets. Random movement.” Rufina stepped twenty meters in front of him and raised her energy pistol.
“I will be shooting at you. Your job is to hit the targets while dodging.”
Keran’s head snapped up.
Was she going to shoot at him?
Before he could react, Rufina pulled the trigger.
A pale blue energy bolt zipped past his ear, leaving a small black scorch mark on the wall behind him.
The searing heat washed over his face, and his heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
“Stay focused,” Rufina said, her voice still cool.
“The next one won’t miss.”
The next two hours were the most humiliating of Keran’s life.
Rufina’s aim was terrifyingly precise.
Every energy bolt came within inches of his body, forcing him to dodge and roll constantly.
He never had time to aim.
On the rare occasions he managed to get a shot off, he missed completely.
Sweat soaked through his clothes.
His arms ached from holding up the gun over and over.
He dodged desperately, cursing under his breath the entire time.
Holy shit…
so this is what the energy system is actually like in this world?
Real gunfire wasn’t just numbers ticking down a health bar.
It was the absolute terror of knowing your skin could melt, and your eardrums could burst at any second.
Keran gritted his teeth and fired blind as he rolled.
The kinetic pistol’s recoil jolted his already sore wrist almost out of its socket.
The bullet went who knew where.
Bang!
Another energy bolt hit the ground right at his feet.
Shrapnel flew up and stung his legs.
[Rufina (Lv30) is teaching you Basic Marksmanship. Current Progress: 7%!]
Keran stumbled, almost falling.
Fine.
You win this round.
But when I level up, you’re the first one I’m practicing on.
By the end of training, Keran couldn’t even lift his arms.
He leaned against the wall, gasping for air.
A large red burn blistered his arm where an energy bolt had grazed him, throbbing hot and painful.