Seven woke up in a strange place. It was a dark room with only enough light to discern the shapes of other humans nearby. From their actions, it seemed like all had awoken before him.

[The last participant has arrived, we can proceed with the explanation.]

A female voice announced. It was distinctly robotic and came from all sides of the room.

-Don’t joke around, who the fuck are you? Do you know who I am, asshole?

-My child... Where is my child? Where have you taken him?

-Tsk... Fuck me, that another jail experiment? Don’tcha need my consent or somethin’?

-I have no time for this, how much do you want for the ransom?

People screamed all around, angry, desperate, sometimes indifferent or indignant. Seven remembered stories that started just like that. No one believed the situation they were in, but they were rapidly thrown into despair, one after the other.

He didn’t want to believe it either, but someone capable of kidnapping multiple people and putting them in the same room was nothing short of a powerful organization. Even if that was for a sick reality show, he could tell from the voices that some of them were important figures, not anyone could capture so many of them. Unless, of course, those important people were actors, among other possibilities that flashed by Seven’s mind in a few seconds.

Regardless, it would be nothing good.

[Please be silent, I will not resort to violence but to suppress the opposing sounds, I will have to speak louder, which has a high probability of hurting your tympanum.]

“... High probability?”

-How many decibels? - Seven asked.

[120 decibels. As a comparison, I’m currently using 75 decibels, and I expect you to be completely quiet and pay attention to my instructions in the next few minutes.]

Some people chose to stay silent after hearing this, more afraid that the perpetrator would raise his voice even higher to hurt their ears. It was better to follow the procedures than to fight against the kidnapper, they figured.

When the thing mentioned a “high probability”, Seven was suspicious of it being an actual machine, and those doubts were intensified when it accurately spoke of its sound level. Even with an amplifier, unless the voice was pre-recorded and graded, the perpetrator would need to know his exact level of sound. He wasn't an expert in the subject, though.

Seven tried to think of a trick question that would reveal whether the voice was pre-recorded or not, but no matter what he thought of, they were either very dangerous to ask in his situation, or easily covered. Why he was acting like that so suddenly? He was surprised. He just felt like discovering everything about what was happening.

The voice beat him to it.

[Most of you have calmed down. Proceeding with explanations:]

[Welcome to the Tutorial. This is where you will learn the basics to survive in this world, but before that, a few things to acknowledge:]

[This is not Earth. You will never return to your homes. The Gods you believe in cannot affect this world and no one is coming to rescue you. The people you knew on Earth are not necessarily in this world, and all institutions you are acknowledged with do not exist here. By extension, the rules of your societies do not serve any purpose here. Your normal lives are forfeited, abandon hope]

Seven looked around the room. There was only a mortifying silence for a moment, and the thing stopped talking, as if to watch for their reaction, or maybe whoever was operating it already expected that such “truths” were hard to swallow.

He didn’t swallow them either, but he didn’t think it was impossible. Kidnapped into a spaceship and brought to another planet, he had already acknowledged the fact that the mastermind was a very powerful entity, from that point many possibilities opened up.

But he couldn’t understand why someone would go to such lengths.

-Don’t fuck with me... This is not Earth? Ha! Okay, guys, you can bring up the cameras, that was a good one.

-Cameras? Oh... Then, is it all a... Prank?

-This is not funny... Just... This is just sick, who would do this?

-No! She might be telling the truth!

-Who are you kidding, this is not a manga dude. We’re being toyed with.

[This kind of reaction is expected, but the faster you accept it, the better your chances for survival. Proceeding to the first test]

A blue screen appeared in front of Seven.

||Tutorial: Lesson 1||

||Destroy the opposing forces||

||Effective in two minutes||

[This is a message from the Human System. It is embedded in the crystals beside your dominant hand, which detects waves from the surrounding environment and translates them into information that will aid in your survival. Take care not to lose your crystal, it is irreplaceable. To make it easier to operate, all the functions you would find in a normal MMORPG are listed in the Human System and it can be accessed by voice, touch or thought, after this battle I will explain in further detail for those that do not understand.]

Paying attention to the screen, it was exactly as described. There was a Status, Quest, Skills and Party screens, others like Guild and Market were greyed out.

Seven quickly looked into his status screen:

||Character Name: Seven||

||Attributes||

||Strength: 7||

||Agility: 9||

||Intelligence: 9||

||Dexterity: 6||

||Vitality: 8||

||Wisdom: 8||

||Luck: 1||

If the stats were to be trusted, Seven understood that, almost like a trick of fate, 7 was the average number for humans, except luck. After all, he couldn’t be called anything but average if his fascination for books was cut. But he had no time to wonder about such things, two minutes had passed and the white lights shone on their faces.

Because the voice of the robot concentrated in the center, with no echoes, he had thought it was a room. But in reality, it was a cave. It wasn’t humid there, so there shouldn’t be a nearby water source, and the smell didn’t give out anything either.

The cave branched into three paths, from which an unsettling sound came out. He couldn’t tell what it was like, since he never experienced such a thing, but in terms of descriptions, he would’ve read about it in a horror novel. “The squirming of strong muscles beneath the strong carapace, the spiky hairs brushing one against the other, slicing apart the wind, but it was quiet and contained as if everything was a nightmare and they would soon wake up. Above all, a sense of disgust creeping through our skins, a feeling that death approached in the most gruesome way imaginable”

Just remembering this passage, Seven felt fear. A primal fear, as if he was meeting with a natural predator, and his blood ran cold to his legs – the instinct to escape.

-Wh-What is this? Stop playing with us!

-This is getting boring, I want to go home.

-Guys... This is serious!

-...

Seven finally woke up. He was in a stupor and couldn’t breathe, his chest felt stuffy for some reason, but the pain of being deprived of oxygen filled his lungs for a moment before the fear faded.

Pain. Something he had never felt before. How was it possible? He looked at the stash of weapons just beside him and quickly picked a small blade, pressing it against his skin.

“It... Hurts...!” Tears filled his eyes as the blood flowed down the weapon. His heart pumped faster than ever, it felt like it would explode at any time. It was exciting, he was about to piss himself every time he heard the sounds coming from the cave paths, but he couldn’t help but gobble it all.

Fear, pain, the blood pumping in his veins and arteries. It was a new world for him.

Seven felt like meeting an old friend, if there was anything like this for a person like him. He knew of all those feelings and, to an extent, felt them through reading. He was always the perfect vessel to hold these emotions through the work of others.

But once they mixed with pain, something special was attached.

Everything felt more real than ever. Everything felt right, and suddenly, all the actions previously devoid of emotion became ripe with meaning.

He could feel each of his breathes, the movement of his muscles, the grains of dust and specks of light in the cave, the tremors from the entrances, the slow fall of droplets of blood from the blade’s edge, its red glister more beautiful than any ruby. He didn’t understand any of those, and that only made the experience that much better – he didn’t want to understand them, he wished for the mystery to remain unsolved, for them to remain a novelty.

He stared again at the blade, it was a medium-sized crescent sword with a double-edge. He never wielded a single weapon in his whole life, but he had read many books and delved into swords and martial arts. Immediately, he felt familiar while looking at the particulars of the weapon, ignoring the status screen.

If anything, the screen was a needless hassle that interfered with his experience, he dismissed it.

And in those few seconds that passed, the things that were causing that disgusting noise finally appeared.

They poked their bent antennae forward, followed by the large protruding mandibulae that looked to harbor scythes. They kept walking forward with the large bodies carried over by six huge hairy legs.

Ants as big as humans, and of a breed he had never seen in books.

As soon as the ants came in, they started to rush the other humans and kill them. They did not eat them, just killed them quickly and efficiently as they moved to the next target. The people screamed and tried to fight back as the last moments approached, but the fear took the best of them. Those who reacted faster picked their weapons and fought back.

It was the scene of a massacre.

-N-No! Why?! Why is this happening?!

-This... It’s not real... Hahahahaha... Hahahahaha! It’s not real... Not real... - a young man muttered just as an ant passed by and cut his head.

-Shit!

-The weapons, quickly!

The insects filled the room and all that could be seen was fresh blood being spilled everywhere. Naturally, they would come for Seven, too.

He was strangely familiar with this.

Seven branded his sword. It was like he had experienced this before somewhere.

He had seen this in books, multiple times.

He looked at the ants’ bodies and could tell from the biology books he read what was the best course of action for dueling them. He also saw others as they battled the things. He had already analyzed his own blade, and could somewhat tell what he should do.

So, he moved.

And he slashed away.

Blood, blood and more blood.

Both his, others’ and the ants’. He was drenched in blood.

And he felt the pain of his injuries intertwine with his aching muscles, drained out of energy. But he kept moving forward as if nothing happened.

There was no stopper. He didn’t flinch even once.

He kept going until his body couldn’t move, dropping into the cold hard floor with a thud. How much time had passed? It all felt like a dream.

He was no athlete. His stamina was slightly higher than a normal person's since he exercised regularly, but other than that he wasn’t strong. He never went above his limits.

He knew what to do beforehand, but his body didn’t follow him. He was not fast enough, not strong enough, and his reaction time was slow.

His fight was not beautiful, it was sloppy and he was excessively exposed.

But he was alive.

||Tutorial: Lesson 1||

||Objective completed.||

||Casualties: 72 humans||

||Rewards: Rations (1 day)||

[Congratulations on passing the first test. By now, even if you do not believe what I told you earlier, you should understand your situation. Before I better explain the functions of your crystal and the Human System, I will give a reward to the one who performed the best. As an incentive for you to do better, the three humans who killed the most enemies in this quest will receive additional rations according to their rank]

||Special Rewards||

||Natalya Wolskev – 29 kills – Rations (2 days), Leather Armor||

||Arthur Bell – 13 kills – Rations (2 days)||

||Seven – 9 kills – Rations (1 day)||

Seven turned his head to the other side, he was too tired to get up. It wasn’t hard to see where the people looked at, and who they avoided.

Natalya Wolskev.

Arthur seemed like a military man, although with none of the domineering aura, and Seven was hanging by a thread. Their minds quickly linked that information and made it affordable.

Natalya, however, was none of that. She was unfazed by all the death at her feet as she surrounded herself with walls of ant carcasses and human corpses, the foul smell was enough to make someone puke – to begin with, those ants already gave off a pungent smell. She wielded a huge circular shield and a knuckle, both of which were painted red and brownish.

No one would have believed that she killed 29 with a knuckle, had they not seen with their own eyes. Her punches were so powerful that their size didn’t matter, it was the same situation of squashing a bug that happened every day.

Not one injury was visible in her body. The rewards materialized in front of her and she equipped the leather armor after giving it a disappointed look, as if it didn’t fit her beauty standards.

Natalya ignored the fearful stares as she went out of the cave, creating confusion. They could leave just like that?

[Whenever you accomplish a feat, you will be given fitting rewards.]

The thing started to explain the Human System and particularities of the crystal, but it was mostly on how to use it for confused people. The new information was the following: the crystal is almost impossible to break; the Human System will continue to work as long as the crystal functions, even if unattached from the hand; Only the owner of the crystal can access the information inside it, unless it is completely unattached from the biological tissue or the owner is dead.

[Now you can go explore.]

-B-But... What should we do?

-Will you keep us here forever?

[You are free to do whatever you want, but pay attention to the System. You will periodically receive tutorial missions and must complete them to go forward.]

With that, the voice disappeared and no matter how much people wailed and roared, it didn’t come out again.

Seven managed to crawl out to one of the entrances of the cave. It was the same one Natalya had left.

As he approached the entrance, he felt a huge arm pulling him up and helping him to walk.

-Hi, I’m Arthur Bell, just call me Arthur. You’re headed towards that girl, too, huh.

Seven nodded weakly, he lacked even the strength to talk, all he thought of was to get out of this place, but in truth, he had no idea what awaited him outside. He just hoped that Natalya should be able to clear the path if he followed her.

Arthur was a bulky guy with an impressive build, wearing a tank top that fit his muscles, trousers, and sneakers, he looked like he had just gone out of a running session. But what looked funny about him was his face, it was a bit childish and his big green eyes appeared innocent, contrasting greatly with his strong body. He was the opposite of the feeble looking Seven that had a scholarly feel – long black hair tied in a ponytail and glasses to cover for his bad eyesight, he was also about twenty centimeters shorter than Arthur.

Seven cast him a doubtful look when he helped him walk towards the exit. Noticing it, Arthur smiled.

-You know, people should help each other out, right guys?

-That’s right!

-I guess so...

-Hmph...

The replies were mixed, he couldn’t expect anyone to be cheerful in this kind of situation, but somehow or another he managed to control a small group of people. Seven had nothing to complain about, in his current state he was just a burden, but he didn’t eliminate the possibility of Arthur recognizing him during the fight. There were originally 120 humans and 100 ants in the counter of the mission, and most of the job was done by some 30 guys.

Seven dealing with 9 ants was almost 10% of their strength, it was impressive for a guy like him, and he had extra rations that would likely be shared later.

He didn’t believe in a free meal.

Once they were out of the cave, what greeted them was a facility with a gym, bar, a swimming pool, a library, casino, restaurant... It looked simply out of this world, especially since the ants should have passed through that place to get to them.

-Huh?

At the time, they were again convinced that the place was Earth, but it was more of a hope than anything else. Otherwise, would the giant ants be just a dream? The pain was real, the deaths even more so.

Arthur looked around and saw a healthcare center. Robotic creatures operated the facility for free, he doubted them at first but after asking, the tutorial voice guaranteed nothing would happen inside there. He left Seven in their care and left.