‘We meet again, best friend,’ I smiled, not bothering to hide it.

Yes, my best friend, Aizen. A really nice old man with an everlasting smile on his face, the kind of guy your grandma would take to bingo. He was present most of my time in this place as the boss of the operation, pretty much being the supervisor of the experiments and the lead researcher ( I had my suspicions he had an even bigger status but who am I to know).

He was really kind and always had his iconic old grandpa smile showing. Still, I kept calling him my best friend but I’d kill him at the first opportunity. And so would he, if I wasn’t useful anymore. Best friends ever, am I right?

The old man cupped his hands together and addressed the Red Bitch.

"Welcome Lady Alinna, it's good to have you here. How was the journey?"

Though she wasn't so polite.

"Yeah yeah, you know what to do," she said with a bored expression.

Even if Alinna seemed to have a high rank in the organization, Aizen was basically at the same level. They were both valuable assets. She couldn't be rude to him but didn't bother to be kind either.

Either way, the old man kept his kind grandpa expression.

"Of course, please come with me, ladies and gentlemen. You will be given your accomodations and will be grouped accordingly soon."

The earthling group made an uncomfortable expression but followed him anyway.

Nobody could hate this kind old man but he was their enemy nonetheless. It didn't matter though since they couldn't resist.

Alinna left together with Drag while having a disgusted expression, as if this place was too dirty for her. She didn't say anything and left, leaving behind Aizen and the rest of the guards.

That got a snort from me.

Superiority complex bitch.

But I couldn’t do anything about it so I shut up.

Aizen led us through the corridor, soon arriving at a huge room filled with boxes and men shouting orders everywhere. There were people carrying crates around while being ordered by their 'managers'.

The workers were basically treated as shit, as seen from their expression and their wounds, having the bare minimum as clothes while also sweating their ass off.

That was the fate of us from now on.

Even if they were taken here for experiments, why keep them in a cell when they could be working?

"Hundred percent efficiency"

That was what they were told when taken to work.

"Never waste a worker."

And that was their motto.

That's also why Aizen said we would be separated into groups. Able men would be used for manual labor and arena fights while rarely being experimented on.

Women would be fed poison that didn't alter appearance until they ran out of new ones when they would be sold as slaves.

Children would either be brainwashed to work for the organization or sold as slaves as well.

And people who were none of those were simply kept as lab rats and sometimes used for manual labor or fights. Since my chubby build and the thing in my pants didn’t fit the first two and I certainly wasn’t a child then my fate was naturally not so good.

Either way, it wasn't pretty.

Seeing the group, the workers started mumbling.

"Another group. Poor people."

"They don't even know what's waiting for them."

"Stay strong."

Very encouraging, thanks.

Hearing the mumbles, the newcomers grew uneasy; I could feel the fear in the air.

'Well I can't blame them. I had the same reaction'

Nothing to do about it, just go along and see what happens.

The group passed the workers and 'managers' and arrived at a corridor at the other end. This one was much bigger and better illuminated.

Going further, we encountered a massive metal door, with five burly men guarding it. Burly was an understatement. They were literally shaped like gorillas and were 3 meters tall.

Still small compared to the door that had a height of at least ten.

The guards saw the group and turned to open the door. From how they were struggling, it was easy to imagine that not many people could open something that big.

`Pfft, I’d also be able to do that if I had their level." I thought.

Meditation.

That was the way mages grew stronger. Though people might think about cultivating qi like in Chinese novels, it was different. That probably existed somewhere too but not here.

Even if it was called the Beast World, it was only a planet. A huge one, but still a planet. Here, people cultivated Mana. Each person had a Mana Core and would refine it.

Cultivators in this world were called Mages and were split in 2 categories.

The Magic Warriors or Warrior Mages, and just plain Mages. They were still just called Mages collectively for some reason. I didn't really know why they couldn’t choose a better name, but I didn't name them so it wasn’t my problem.

A Magic Warrior, besides refining their mana core, would train their body, refine it and strengthen it. Mages just focused on their core and that was it.

But one should not misunderstand. Both of them could cast magic like fireballs or thunderbolts or whatever else there was.

It's just that in training they did it differently.

Still, a Mage would have a much stronger body than a normal person. Even one who never trained their body would be able to smack a normal person to death.

Also, unlike what people normally see in stories, you didn't need any affinity or talent to become a Mage.

Of course, if you didn't have talent you wouldn't get far but actually stepping on the path of a Mage could be done by everyone. There were also special cases of individuals who couldn't use any magic at all but that was their personal problem.

Either way, I really wanted to throw fireballs from my hands or fly or summon lightning but I didn't get the chance to. I did manage to meditate for a little bit but spells were a no-no. You would think I could do it while in my cell but life wasn't that pretty.

All over the underground complex there were Formations and all kinds of magical gadgets that stopped mana from coming in.

It wasn't perfect since there was a little bit of Mana, so I did grow a few levels in those years of slaving away for others. But not much, and I also didn't manage to learn any advanced magic. I did manage to learn some fighting techniques and some basic spells but that was it.

Anyway, back to the present. The huge doors were opened with a bang and some screech, earning them a comment from me about oiling their hinges.

Beyond the doors it was what you would expect for a prison. Full of cells, guards everywhere and a pretty gloomy atmosphere.

But, it wasn't exactly that bad. Everything until now needed some renovation but this room was pretty good. Polished stone tiles, clean floors and walls, good lighting, the inside of the cells clean and sexy.

'Home sweet home. I liked this one better than the others.'

I was naturally happy about going to a clean cell. Of course, I didn't like to be inside something like that again but compared to the others I had been in, this one was awesome.

The group that was going to attack a year and a half from now, (when I would be making my escape) the Shadow Castle, had much worse accomodation and much worse customer service.

Same with the one after that. I was the only captive unlucky enough to switch captors 2 times. This one first, then Shadow Castle then another.

Since Shadow Castle was bigger and had a bigger influence compared to my current hosts, they didn't bother about treating their prisoners well.

This one valued mental health since they needed feedback from their lab rats but the others didn't even bother. Losing one or two wasn't that bad.

Anyway, getting to the cells, Aizen turned around and addressed the group.

"Welcome to your home from now on. Some of you may stay here for years and some for days. We made it to be as nice as possible. The cells have a nice bed, a toilet and a sink, along with a desk and a bookshelf. If you are good for the first while here then you might get some nice books or other things to occupy your time.

With a smile still on his face Aizen showed them their exquisite cells.

'Yeah, books on useless bullshit,' I grumbled.

The books they gave us didn't have any useful information about the world or magic or anything that actually helped.

There were mostly stories about heroes slaying dragons or cheap romance novels. You could find the basic information about spells online but anything above the fundamentals was protected by certain parties.

Organizations such as this one, kingdoms, academies and the like. You could get them from ruins or Dungeons or similar places on your own but they were either too hard to find or too hard to search through. Of course, you could also make spells yourself if you were a genius and had enough imagination.

Basically, most Mages were associated with a group that owned such information. And since I basically didn’t exist, getting any magic tomes was a dream. But here comes my knowledge from the future.

Several ruins were found and cleared in the period I was in this new world and people like to boast on the internet a lot. I of course didn’t remember all of them but the ones that I took a liking to were especially imprinted in my mind.

And, with this knowledge I planned on getting strong. If I managed to get out, of course.

After Aizen showed us our accommodations, the nearby guards started grabbing earthlings one by one and going towards the cells. Of course, they didn’t like that

They started struggling, trying to run away. If they managed to pass the hundreds of guards, an extremely powerful old man and a huge metal door with 4 meter tall gorilla-looking men guarding it. And then some.

Suddenly, they stopped struggling. All of them froze. Even the guards.

They all looked ati the old man whose smile disappeared. An unparalleled pressure hit them.

Normally a normal person wouldn’t be able to sense the pressure from a Mage since they couldn’t sense Mana but this wasn’t it.

Aizen didn’t use his Mana to pressure them. He used his pure existence as a higher being.

The first step in becoming a Mage was reconstructing the body. The moment you passed that you were a higher existence. I also heard that there was a similar step further down the line and Aizen definitely passed it.

Every being was able to sense the superiority in others if there was one. If you looked at your boss or your landlord, even if you were the taller one, you would feel that he was bigger. Because he was simply superior, whether you liked it or not.

That was pressure. And it was exactly what the newcomers were feeling. There was also the shock of feeling that an old man that always looked kind could change into something that resembled a beast ready to pounce on you anytime.

When the pressure finally stopped and me and the others could finally breathe, Aizen showed his kind smile again.

“Now that we got that out of the way, can you please get in? You even have your own personal cell,” he said.

The group didn’t utter a word again. They obediently went to their cells, guided by the guards.

Though, when a guard wanted to separate a mother and her child, she still struggled and started crying.

“No, please no, not my child, please!” with tears in her eyes she screamed.

Guess nothing can beat a mother’s love for her child.

Hearing this, Aizen addressed the guards with his usual expression.

“We can't separate a mother and her child now, can we? Let’s let them stay together for now,” he smiled.

The guard obliged and guided them together towards one of the cells.

“Thank you, thank you so much!” the mom said between tears.

Not with that out of the way, all the prisoners were fitted in their own cell.

Though 2 thousand people was a pretty large number, there were more than enough rooms to go around.

I hadn't even seen how the room that had the cells ended. It went on for probably kilometers. Eh, maybe. Either way, with the massive population that the Beast World had there were naturally enough cells for everyone. I got the same one as in my last life, obviously, since I didn't do anything special yet.

I was right at the edge, nearest to the big metal door. This helped if I needed to escape but that wasn’t an option, was it? Even if I somehow managed to pass that, the thousands of guards after wouldn't just wave and let me leave.

I needed to make sure to be outside when the attack happened to maximize my chances of escape. And, unfortunately, the plan I had until now of acting as last time wouldn't work since nothing would change and I would just be stuck.

For now though, I couldn't do anything.

With all of them set up, Aizen made his announcement.

"Alright then, please get comfortable since you will be staying there for a while. We will send you new clothes and food when you need it. And like I said, be nice and you will get some nice things.”

With that said, he walked out with his iconic warm smile.

Seeing him walk out, the prisoners finally heaved a sigh of relief and started lamenting their fate.

"Why? What did we do to deserve this? What's going to happen to us?"

Those were their thoughts. Seeing all the terrifying things that happened, none of them had any sliver of ambition to escape.

That was a stark contrast to the fellow gazing at the ceiling while in deep thoughts.

"Now how do I get out of here?"

Nothing else happened that day, until night came accompanied by faint sobbing sounds being heard from behind some of the bars.