I woke up on a hard surface. My head pounded like someone had cracked a pipe over it, and every part of my body ached. For a second, I didn't know where I was, only that the air smelled too clean, too sharp, like chemicals and metal.
White lights burned above me. I tried to lift my hand to block them, but my arm wouldn't move. There were straps across my chest and wrists, holding me down.
My heart started racing.
The last thing I remembered was running through fire. Eli screams. Those crawling things with yellow eyes. The heat, the panic, the sound of something cracking open.
Now I was strapped to a table in a room that looked like it belonged in a lab, not a hospital. The walls were smooth metal. There were machines nearby, beeping quietly, and something was humming , like a generator under the floor.
I looked down as much as I could. There was a thin, translucent band on my forearm with glowing numbers that kept shifting. I didn't understand what it meant, but it was cold against my skin.
My throat felt dry. I tried to speak.
"Where... am I?"
No one answered.
I started to struggle, pulling at the restraints, but they didn't budge. The panic came back fast. I didn't like being helpless. Not again. Not after what happened.
The door finally hissed open.
A woman stepped into the room.
She wasn't dressed like a nurse or a doctor. She wore a black uniform with red trim, gloves, and boots that made no sound as she walked. Her gray hair was tied back in a tight braid, and her eyes, pale and sharp, landed on me like a blade being drawn.
She didn't introduce herself. She just stood beside the table and looked at me.
"You're awake."
"Where is this?" I asked. "Where's Eli? What happened—"
"You're in a SERO containment facility," she cut in. "Your friend is dead. Two others were incinerated. Your body was recovered from the remains of the mansion site after it was targeted by a Class-3 incursion. You're lucky to be alive."
The words hit hard. I tried to sit up, but the straps still held.
"What do you want from me?"
"You were exposed to something you shouldn't have survived," she said. "Your body responded to the artifact surge. The system acknowledged you. Whether you like it or not, you've been activated."
"Activated?" I frowned. "What does that mean?"
"It means you've been bonded with a proto-leveling sigil," she replied. "It's embedded into your nervous system. You're now a candidate for SERO's external combat unit."
"I didn't ask for this."
"No one does." She tapped a tablet on the wall, and the restraints unlocked with a hiss. "But you're alive because something decided you were worth saving. Now you have two options."
I sat up slowly. My limbs were shaky, but I could move. I looked at her cautiously.
"Options?"
She nodded. "One, you join the program. Train. Fight. Level up. Survive. Two, we consider your survival an anomaly, classify you as unstable, and terminate you before you become a threat."
She wasn't bluffing. Her tone didn't change. Her eyes didn't blink. I'd seen people lie. This wasn't that.
I swallowed hard. "And if I say yes?"
"Then you start from the bottom," she said. "F-Rank. You fight your way up. You live, you level. You fall behind, you die. There are no shortcuts."
I looked at my hands. They were still scratched from the mansion. I could still see Eli's blood on my fingernails.
If I said no, I would have died. If I said yes, I might still die, but at least I had a chance.
"I'll do it," I said quietly.
"Good," she replied. "I'm Director Sael. Get dressed. You're late."
She turned and walked out without another word.
I sat there for a moment longer, trying to figure out what the hell I'd just agreed to.
Then I stood up, found the black training clothes folded on a nearby chair, and started getting dressed.
The walk through the facility felt longer than it probably was. Everything was made of matte steel, walls, ceilings, floors, broken only by the occasional light strip that hummed faintly above. I followed behind a soldier in full gear, silent except for the soft stomp of his boots.
I didn't know where we were. Underground? In another country? All I knew was that this place wasn't made for comfort. It was built for control.
We stopped at a set of sliding doors. As they opened, I stepped into a dark room that was wide and circular, with a sloping floor that drew your eyes to the center.
In the middle was a massive projection, a glowing blue table in the shape of a hemisphere, pulsing with moving data, maps, red zones, creature markers, tactical overlays, squad positions, timelines, and something called "Breach Levels."
Around the table stood men and women in uniform. Some were older. Some barely looked older than me. Everyone wore that same expression, focused, exhausted, sharp.
Director Sael stood at the far end.
"Step forward, recruit," she said.
I approached the war table. The data shifted as I neared, not reacting to me, just updating in real-time. I saw blinking red lights over places I recognized: Lagos. Manila. Istanbul. Then smaller points on the edges, red dots turning black. Extinguished.
"Welcome to the War Table," Sael said. "This is where we track every known rift, portal, and hostile entity within the Earth zone. SERO operates as the last line of defense for humanity. What you're looking at is the current state of our world."
I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. The whole map looked like it was on fire.
A younger officer turned and handed me a small device, the size of a phone, but thinner, heavier.
"This is your ID tablet. It syncs with your level status, tracks field missions, and receives updates from Command," he explained. "Check it."
I turned it on. A login popped up, but it already recognized me.
[NAME: Lucan Rath]
[UNIT: Unassigned]
[RANK: F-Tier]
[LEVEL: 1]
[SYNC: 42%]
[Power Score: 110]
That number meant nothing to me yet. But the way the officer raised his brow told me it was higher than expected.
"F-Tier doesn't mean weak," Sael said. "It means new. Everyone starts there. You'll level up with missions, combat, and survival. Nothing else matters."
I nodded slowly. "And the glowing monsters? The ones with the yellow eyes?"
"We call them Crawlers. Scavengers. Low-level, but they hunt in swarms. What you saw was just the edge of the breach," she said. "You weren't meant to survive that. But you did."
My tablet pinged.
[New Notice: Induction Test Assigned]
"Your first assignment is tomorrow," Sael continued. "You'll be placed in a provisional team. You either prove you can survive and be useful… or we scrub your file."
Another message appeared below it:
[Assignment Code: Initiation_01]
Objective: Survive and Support
Location: Tier-1 Breach Zone, Tokyo Outskirts]
"You'll be briefed at 0600. Dismissed."
I turned to leave, but glanced once more at the War Table.
So many blinking lights. So many lives hanging in the balance. And I was supposed to help stop it?
I walked out without a word.
If this was hell, I had just taken my first step into it.