‘Man I love these kinds of experiments’ I thought. And frankly, who wouldn’t, when compared to the others, they were child’s play. I didn’t even feel anything during the whole process. Just the initial part of the needle going in and then nothing, not the other injection nor the ‘mana scanning’ thing.

Of course, I was paralyzed, but I thought he would at least feel the magic part. Nope, nothing. Frankly, I didn’t remember how it was in the beginning, but later on I could vividly recall feeling the pain even after my senses were cut off. Could’ve been just the experiments being more brutal, though.

Getting back to the present, they carried me back under the worried watch of the other prisoners, clearly eager to ask about the process. Sadly, they would have to wait; the toxin was really potent, so instead of staring at the ceiling, poor me went to sleep while the next prisoner was called in, only after making sure to activate my Trait. The experiment barely took an hour, apparently.

A few hours later I woke up after sleeping like a log, despite only having been awake for a few hours before. Maybe it was the stress? Either way, I realized I probably slept for a long time since quite a few cells were empty and everyone was talking loudly.

I checked my system notifications only to realize I forgot about my super-powerful Trait.

[Gained immunity to Lesser Paralyzing Toxin.] was the conclusion. Pretty simple stuff. Strangely, there was no notification about the adrenaline injection but probably wasn’t deemed dangerous so the Trait didn’t activate. Magical stuff was cool.

I could already hear the other prisoners chatting about their experiments, with the ones having experienced it being bombarded with questions from all sides. Frankly, with no way to communicate normally they had to yell from their cells, making a ruckus. The guards didn’t give one shit about it, anyway.

I initially wanted to join them but eventually reconsidered.

“Too much of a pain,” I mumbled. While it would’ve been good entertainment to look at ignorant idiots yelling, I wasn’t really in the mood. Even before the whole mass ‘transmigration’, I wasn’t good with crowds and didn’t really go out. Mostly because of laziness. Not the magical kind or anything, just normal “teenager” laziness.

Most of the time, I had some kind of intuition telling him that my voice wouldn’t be heard anyway, so I almost never tried yelling (yes, big bullshit). Looking back, it was kind of dumb, making a few friends and making yourself heard as a teenager never hurt anyone (probably). But that was then, now friends were just a waste of time.

So instead, I decided the best thing to do was wood carving! Thus, I went online again and searched for my favorite tutorial that I watched multiple times and probably already knew everything about. But just to be sure, I watched it again, getting a bit nostalgic.

“Good times,” a smile crept up to my face.

After carefully watching everything and inspecting my tools, (which were just right; again, 10/10 service) I started his first work. Got me giddy just thinking about it.

The set consisted of quite a few things. You can probably imagine: a few types of chisels, a hammer, some small scraping thingies (called gouges, actually) and a few others.

Oh, and a small axe, too.

I decided to start with a spoon, as the tutorials said. Yes, some pretty boring stuff, but the experts said it was the easiest one, and who was I to judge?

I started by taking the axe and chopping a log in two, beforeI taking the biggest carving knife and smoothening the part that was cut, removing any splinters. Then, with the axe, I tried to make it at least resemble a spoon, only to give up halfway and take a medium-size carving knife and make the desired shape.

Thus, I ended up with a really bulky spatula-looking thing. Now was the gouges’ spotlight. With a medium-sized U-shaped gouge, I started scooping up the wood from the part of the sponge that actually held the food. Then, after a few pauses and multiple splinters in my fingers, there was an actual dent in it.. Now came the details, such as making the handle thinner and the wood smoother.

As such, I ended up with a slightly clunky and nonuniform wooden spoon.

“Pretty good for a beginner, if I do say so myself,” I smiled, wiping my sweat. One had to wonder how a person could sweat that much from only using their hands.

Since the other prisoners weren’t going to shut up anytime soon, I decided he got the hang of it and started making more spoons. Oh, was I wrong. Poor me ended up with a really bulky one, a really thin one, one that had a hole in it, and one that just snapped in half during the process.

Yep, definitely beginner's luck. After a few more failures I eventually got mad and went to sleep, tossing the abomination (supposed to be a spoon) in the corner of the cell.

Fortunately, the others were asleep so they couldn’t hear me mumbling about how the hell it was so hard to make a damn spoon.

-------

The next day was a peaceful one. The ones who already went to the lab weren’t called again. One of the rules that this group always followed was that you wouldn’t be experimented on two days in a row. And there were a lot more from the thousands of people waiting in line so I was definitely excused for now. Not to mention there was no work scheduled for a while, so I just needed to sleep, eat, repeat.

Except doing any other hobby, like wood sculpting for example, or going online, something that some people already found out but didn’t tell anyone, thinking they held an advantage. Too bad, they didn’t know it was common knowledge among the citizens of the Beast World.

I kept trying to perfect my work in the meantime, ending up with a pile of utensils-looking-things in the corner. I eventually managed to make it resemble an actual spoon, marking it as a record in my book. I also tried making a fork and a knife but failed miserably. Though in the end they all turned out great after some work.

Naturally, I also went through a lot of wood but the guards were oh-so nice to supply me with more. One nice thing with the gifts we were given was that if you had a consumable they would resupply you with it again and again as long as you didn’t destroy it for no reason.

Oh, they also cleaned your room if there was a mess you weren’t capable of getting rid of. In this case, a mound of wooden utensils. Sadly, they didn’t pay anything for the hardworking young man’s (me) beautiful products.

One of the guards came in and the pile of wooden abominations was sucked towards him, eventually disappearing. Storage devices, I mused. The stern man then turned around and walked away, not bothering with the young man and his innocent smile.

Anyway, days passed and boredom settled in as each prisoner was taken to the lab in order, no longer looking scared. They eventually settled down when they saw how the experiments didn’t leave any long-lasting effects and nobody died. Yet.

The newcomers also finally found out how to access varying functions of the System, spreading the word around until everyone learned about it and even started gossip about what was online. I also got bored of so much wood at some point that I also went online, although I had already seen everything before. Only to realize what an idiot I was.

“I forgot about that!” I smacked my forehead.

While being taken here, I went online and made an account on every site I could remember. In the process, I also got a reward for being among the first 100 newcomers to go online and the same about making an account.

I already knew about the achievement system and the rewards for it but forgot about it since coming here. Only now, opening the system, did it strike me.

[For the achievement of being among the first 100 newcomers to access the internet, you have gained a reward.]

[Gained access to surrounding regions]

[For the achievement of being among the first 100 newcomers to create an account, you have gained a reward]

[Gained access to the Dark Web]

The interesting thing about the System was that on the internet function, all sites were created and maintained by individuals, the System only served as a way to display them. But in this case, the Dark Web was owned by the System itself, including every site. It also meant that anything was allowed since the System only cared about maintaining it, and you also couldn’t be traced no matter what.

Anyway, it was cool and all but it was useless right now. Maybe for entertainment, nothing more. You see, the system wasn’t that advantageous. The internet, TV or messaging function was separated depending on the Kingdom.

Basically you would only have access to the information from the country you were born in, (or appeared in, in this case) and gaining access to a bigger area was done by paying a massive fee. Going to another area would just switch your access to the current one and delete the former.

Wasn’t exactly practical in my opinion, but who was I to judge? Anyway, gaining access to more regions was good and all but besides some more entertainment I wouldn’t get anything. News spreads, and after a while you would find out what happened in the nearby areas anyway. Another reason why it wasn’t that good.

Still, I couldn’t complain.

—-----

And so, the days went on and on, I went to a few more experiments, worked even more, advanced my carving a bit, eventually getting to little animals, mostly birds and foxes. I also asked for a few more books since I’d forgotten what most of them contained.

I even got some exercise in, getting rid of that fat I had. Gotta look good for the (inexistent) ladies.

Meanwhile, some other prisoners started disappearing, either not coming back from the experiments or being taken for “transfer” and never coming back. While the others expressed their concerns, obviously nobody cared about it and Aizen just waved it off and proclaimed it a transfer.

‘Meh, not my problem’

I also managed to get a few more immunities, not that it was anything too special. Good thing they didn’t use the same poison again since I had no idea how to “cancel” my immunity. Seriously, I tried, but the most I could do was make my body create that poison, without me getting affected.

Advancing my strength was also out of the question, so yes, it was boring. The extra regions helped, though. Other races had some weird shows, I gotta say.

And it continued like that until three months later.

I was going about my day, minding my business, carving away when I decided I should take notes about my progress. Like I said, the System had a Notes function that anyone could use. And so, when I opened for the first time in this life, there it was.

My fucking journal.