Seven was nursed to full health in no time, and most of his stay in the healthcare center was spent sleeping till night. He didn’t feel any backlash or strain from his activities, in fact, his body was better than ever – such things should be impossible, but he had already discarded the name impossible from his dictionary after that fight.

He had read many books, but his comprehension of technology was shallow to understand how those machines worked to restore him completely.

Going out, he finally noticed the surroundings. The place was like a small district, with many facilities for self-improvement, beauty care, and entertainment. There were compartments in a huge area of the floor and smaller ones in the ceiling.

||New Quest||

||Tutorial: Lesson 2||

||Survive the monsters||

||Number of waves: 30||

||Time until the next wave: 15 hours...||

That would be the evening of the next day, but he wasn’t sure since there was no clock in this place, and the light was artificial.

The first thing he did after skimming the surroundings was to go to the library. He wasn’t interested in the books on display, he was looking for paper and a pen to start writing. He had to write right now before the feelings faded and the memory of his struggle died alongside it.

There was no one in the library, there were lights in the windows of the dormitory, most should be there or asleep. Others he had seen near the restaurant, a reasonable choice, and the gym had the lights on, too.

Seven found the things he wanted and searched for a quiet place in the library to start his first book in that new world. To be precise, he didn’t know whether that one would be a finished piece or not, but he felt that the quality should be completely different from the other ones, he was much more motivated, too.

Seven wouldn’t write about himself, maybe one day he would be the protagonist of a story, but right now he had nothing that made him special. And even then, there would be nothing new to write about.

He was interested in the mystery, and the system already gave him two options.

Arthur Bell.

Natalya Wolskev.

Of course, he decided to write about the two in the same story, after all, wasn’t that the reality of the situation? Antagonists and supporting characters, even protagonists themselves would rise and fall, giving rise to an organic world.

Just thinking about their potential, Seven got excited. The possibilities were endless.

He picked up the pen and wrote so fast his hands ached. They ached! He was even more pumped up, and the scene of that death struggle revived on his mind just in time to write the action scenes.

The setting was different, and the enemies too, but the essence was the same, almost a record. The only thing he genuinely needed to figure was how Natalya could crush the opposition with her bare hands. And Arthur, he already had an idea, but he never had the time to look or to ask.

Seven painted such a realistic picture with his pencil that he himself got goosebumps just reading it. “It will be an action-packed horror novel”, he decided. He loved horror novels, mostly because he couldn’t find many that satisfied him.

-Having fun, eh?

-Hm?

He was so engrossed in writing that he didn’t pay attention to his surroundings.

In the blink of an eye, it was already morning, and the one who spoke to him was Arthur himself.

-Let’s go, everyone is having breakfast at the restaurant. I mean, there’s some sort of price to eat there, but we have the rations. Wanna come?

-Ah, right. I’ll go soon. Thank you.

-It’s fine.

He was about to wrap up the chapter, but with this reminder, his stomach started to growl and he felt like his throat was dry. He lost focus and didn’t quite remember what he was supposed to do next. “Whatever, I already finished the climax for this part”.

He put away the book and the writing material as he went to the other building. He still didn’t know where to put the curved sword, and honestly, it didn’t seem like a good idea to let go of it, so he brought it inside.

Entering, he noticed that the mood was gloomy, but the smell of gunpowder was noticeable. It was very easy to ignite a spark between them. That unstable peace was probably maintained by Arthur.

He could roughly count forty people in the room, that was a bit more than half the survivors. That meant, during the time he was recovering they had split into factions, and he unintentionally became a part of Arthur’s faction.

-There are only 6 hours before the invasion, shouldn’t we prepare?

-We don’t even know what we’re up against, it’s no use preparing right now.

-That’s not true – Arthur spoke – I’ve inspected the place and there are a few locations from where the creatures can reach this base. There are materials in the warehouse we can use to make barricades and traps, if we need other things we can just dismantle from the other places. I’ve also devised some plans we can employ to take advantage of our position in the defense.

-I’ve checked with that damn robot, they are limited and once we make a barricade and they are damaged, it won’t be easy to recover. If we don’t know who our enemies are, we should first obtain information before taking action. Indeed, we can’t just wait and do nothing, but keep in mind there are 30 waves and if we waste everything during the first one, we’ll take a huge blow.

-And who is this little shit?

-If we die on the first day, saving up on resources would've been pointless.

-This “little shit” there killed nine ants yesterday.

-What? Nine?

-What’s that got to do with anything if you’re dumb.

-How can you guys be so calm... What the fuck!? So many people died already!

-Bitch if you helped us yesterday, not so many would have died.

The meeting quickly went down different paths and many people started to argue at once. Seven glanced at them briefly, taking account of their facial expressions, gestures, and choice of words, to make an analysis of the group and how it would fare in different situations.

Seven considered himself neither a good or a bad person. He wouldn’t argue with the mob to make them listen to reason, especially since he didn’t have that power, and he didn't know much either. The only one they seemed to respect was Arthur, he had a likable attitude and good achievements on the past day, they relied on him.

“Already out of instinct, they are leaning on the strongest person available”.

He figured some might have chased after Natalya, but from a glance, he could tell she was a loner. Her actions were very explicit and her eyes honest.

Almost no one knew each other in this place, but he could already see links being formed. This group was composed by weaklings who couldn’t protect themselves, teenagers, old people, cripples and people who couldn’t enter the stronger group, but it also had specialists of important fields: medics, engineers, pharmaceutics, trainers, people that would be useful in the long term and constituted a backbone.

But they didn’t know what they were up against, and on the first failure the group would break down because of the weakest links. And for how much longer would they drag the weaklings with them? They needed to get strong to make up for their shortcomings, otherwise, they wouldn’t survive.

The purpose of buildings like the gym and the training range was exactly this, to prepare them. But they didn’t take the hint.

And Seven didn’t bother explaining to them.

After all, the truths mentioned by the thing on the other day, they still didn’t accept them, and its words were clear: the faster you accept them, the better your chances at survival.

He was sure that Arthur would create a circle of people that worked with him to keep the group alive, but he didn’t know his true intentions yet, only that this seemed to be the moral-upholding group, and mingling with him any longer might bring him trouble in the future. He didn’t want to carry dead weight, and he despised the idea of being dead weight himself.

With those thoughts, he quietly slipped out with his breakfast and moved to locate the other groups.

About fifteen people were grouped near the warehouse, probably to prevent Arthur from taking anything out of there. “A direct opposition”

If they held the same ideals as Arthur, but a different strategy, they wouldn’t be doing this with that big of a number. That meant the leaders of this group cast aside the rules kept by society and quickly accepted this new reality. “The strong group”

He could enter this group by using his name, but many saw Arthur acting friendly towards him and he was far from strong. His technique was lacking, he only touched upon the surface of martial arts and the sword arts. Against other humans, he assuredly had no chance to prove his value.

He couldn’t be part of such a dangerous group without any guarantees.

The other 15 were either loners like Natalya, with their reasons to keep to themselves, or just staying near her as she didn’t do anything.

This chaotic composition covered the entirety of the facility.

Since he didn’t know how to proceed with his story just yet, he felt like it would be a good idea to train his body. He had tried to talk with the thing and squeeze out relevant information, but it was tight-lipped about it, so he had no other choice.

Seven headed to the gym.

There were already some people there. Natalya was training some kind of martial arts near the wooden dolls, and Seven thought it would be a waste not to observe her.

He sat to the side and observed her movements, pen and paper in hands. Natalya gave him a cursory glance and continued to ignore him, just fitting.

She didn’t make any unnecessary movements, all of her actions were concise and optimized to deal with her enemies efficiently while using the least amount of energy. Inherently, it wasn’t beautiful and it didn’t look like anything special, but each strike was perfectly aimed and held an unimaginable amount of power.

Natalya donned training clothes and she wasn’t sweating much, but the movements of her muscles were discernible for the observant eye. Seven didn’t possess such eyes, he needed to get closer to accompany the changes in her stances and to understand her actions, and he didn’t fear to do so. He got a few steps in and started to draw what he saw, watching her destroying the wooden dolls without blinking an eye.

Every half an hour, Natalya would make a short pause to stretch before continuing with her training, and Seven took extra notice of this. He was absorbing the information on the group of muscles he should first train to appropriate this technique for himself. He had come upon other martial arts books, but he wasn’t as interested in movies and martial arts flicks, so he never got to see a person applying its principles. Just from watching her, he continuously linked the knowledge he had from books to real life.

This continued for two hours until she came to a stop and went out. He also got up and started stretching, putting the drawings inside his bag.

Seven was one of the few people with his own bag, since he was kidnapped on his way out of university, but there were all kinds of places around the facility and everyone ended up getting one.

-Hey, you’re some kind of fan or stalker?

He didn’t think someone would go out of his way to talk to him like this, he couldn’t help but frown. “Why is this person bothering me?”

-Can I help you?

Looking back, it was a muscular guy not that different from Arthur in build, only that his skin was tanner, he was hairy and the face had strong contours. His visage was quite unkind, and he couldn’t tell if it was just his mood that was awful or the looks he was born with.

-Yeah, you sure as hell can. Stay the fuck away from the girl, you creep me out.

Seven raised one of his eyebrows.

-Why should I?

-Heheh, kid, she’s way out of your league, just give up.

Seven discovered many characters like these while reading books, and he understood that this conversation would lead to nowhere.

-I’m not trying to get close to Natalya. If that’s all, I’ll be on my way.

He didn’t want to get into any unnecessary fights, he couldn’t justify wasting time with pointless arguments.

Putting on some gym clothes he found in a nearby room, Seven started warming up and exercising his muscles. He already had a reasonable amount of stamina to work out without getting saturated quickly.

Every time he started on an exercise, the guy would appear at his side and easily perform better than him. He ignored him every time, but on the third time, he couldn’t help but think there was something wrong with his triumphant look whenever Seven stopped to do stretches.

-Hey kid, that’s all you got? Hahaha!

-Damn, you’re such a weakling!

-Can’t go on anymore? Oh well, everybody’s got their limits, it’s the best you can do.

Similar remarks flew by as he continued to ignore him. It wasn’t that Seven was a patient person, it was simply that he deemed it below his intelligence to even interact with such a person. “Maybe that’s what Natalya feels towards everyone here. We aren’t fit for interacting with her”.

In his case, he felt like it was an insult to his brains. Maybe for Natalya, it was an insult to her muscles? Seven chuckled at the thought.

-Oy, you bastard, are you laughing about me? Got the guts, huh?

Seven felt something wrong with this remark, but before he could find out, he was staring at the floor with a ringing pain in his head. For a moment, his thoughts felt jumbled and he couldn’t think of anything, nor hear anything.

“...”

“...”

“What?”

When he came to it, he was being helped up by someone else while he stared, confused, at the muscular guy with a red face being held up by three other people.

-Are you alright? - the girl who helped him asked.

-What happened?

-That guy over there, Nathan, he knocked you down... I’m actually surprised you recovered so quickly, it’s been just five minutes, we thought you wouldn’t wake up for some time. Hey, not that bad!

Seven tried to stand up. Bolts of pain ringed in his head continuously, but he didn’t react.

-I think it’s better if you lay down for a while, someone is bringing ice packets and some medicine, don’t worry it’s not going to take long. You should go to the hospital later, though, just to be sure.

-What’s wrong with that guy?

-You don’t know him?

He shook his head.

-I’ve been out cold since yesterday, when I woke up, things were already like this.

-What? You are Seven?

Seven was completely battered and covered in blood when he came out of the first trial, only Arthur who helped him up could tell who he was, and not everyone was acquainted with each other yet. All they knew was through Arthur, her reaction was only natural as she couldn’t believe that a weak-looking guy like him could be Seven.

Compromising with this new information, the girl shook her head and continued.

-Well, there’s not much to talk about it. A lot of people flocked to Natalya yesterday, she put off all of them. But Nathan persisted and got beaten up by her. Since then, he’s being a pain in the ass to anyone who gets even a bit close to her, but he wasn’t hurting them... Ah, by the way, my name is Catherine, my friends call me Kate. What about you?

-I’m Seven. You already knew, actually...

-You mean... Your actual name is Seven?

-Yes.

Seven and Kate chatted for a bit before the guy with the ice packets came. Because of his obsession with different kinds of books, Seven could easily connect in any kind of conversation, while demonstrating a healthy interest in Kate herself – after all, she was a possible character model for his book.

Kate didn’t look strong like Natalya, she was at the gym because exercising was calming to her nerves, and most people couldn’t be as cool as Seven or Arthur in this situation. She had a good physique and a good face, and her hair was pretty much identical to Seven, they even used similar beauty products.

-How fun – she sighed – I wish I had met you back in the real world. I mean, it doesn’t look right to feel relaxed in this kind of situation, but if I don’t try to be cool about it, I might just break, haha... Damn, I need to brood for a bit... This whole thing is... - she sighed again – You know what I’m talking about.

She expressed her sadness and parted with him. Thinking about her words, Seven thought they were wrong.

He didn’t know what she was talking about. He understood her from a logical point of view, but he couldn’t feel the same way – there was no sense of empathy.

Seven had a detachment from reality and could easily accept the fast changes happening around him, a side effect of living so far away from the real world.

Looking at the wooden dolls, he got up and practiced the moves he copied from Natalya.

First, he began slowly, observing his own body and muscles through the mirror while looking at the pictures. Each one of them followed a logical decision, the same one that had been done multiple times in other martial arts and training regimens. For him, it was only a matter of finding that thread and using it to connect all the dots.

He was trying to understand that martial art he read nothing about.

Why use this posture? Why turn his body like that and not another way? Why was the follow-up move this one? It was as if in his eyes there was a shadow, a specter left behind by Natalya that followed the same decisions and executed the same moves against imaginary opponents, and those same opponents appeared right in front of him.

Only once he grasped at the beginning of that thread did he start for real.

Speed.

Strength.

Precision.

He needed to eliminate all the useless movements to fit in strikes and time to regain his breath. His stamina was a precious commodity and he couldn’t let a single drop of it go to waste.

But what was Natalya’s enemy? What was it doing? It took a bit of time for Seven to understand that his opponent was not a human being.

She was fighting monsters.

Maybe, if he was to observe Natalya back on Earth, she would show him moves used to kill other human beings, or maybe, because of the rules of society, she would only show the lighter versions meant for health and friendly bouts.

But not here.

She wasn’t simply perfecting her moves and getting better. She was changing and adapting herself to deal with a multitude of enemies. Everything seemed random and chaotic at first glance, but that was because that new reality was obscure.

She didn’t know what was the next move, the shadows were restless. All she could do was move first.

Her mind needed to be sharper. Her eyes, quicker.

No one was her equal, no one could help her during the fight.

It was a lone battle and a desperate struggle.

Kill or be killed.

Seven stopped suddenly.

“The view from the top is lonely. Is that what you feel?”