A hiss of cold air seeped out of an opening recovery pod.
The glass chambers moved as the hydraulics pulled it open, revealing a sleeping young man laying on the soft cushions of the pod, covered with misty blue gas.
His eyelids twitched, fingers curling as faint sensations began returning to his numb body.
The mist around him was slowly dissipating into the small room, built out of a white metal that glowed mysteriously.
In the middle of the room floated a glowing monitor; the screen was dark and filled with strings of green text, resembling the infamous hacking scenes in movies.
"Argh…" with a grunt of pain, the young man parted his eyes slowly, his vision appearing blurry but slowly clearing up.
Instinctively, he moved his hands and bumped against the walls of his recovery pod, which was 3 meters long and barely half a meter wide, cozy enough to lay in with hands folded, but a nightmare for a claustrophobic.
Although Adrian wasn't claustrophobic, he preferred having more space than less space.
He curled his fingers around the edge of the pod and slowly climbed out of it, his body feeling sluggish and numb all over.
Finally, he had enough time to look around the room he suddenly found himself in.
It was a 3x3x3 meter cube, with the monitor floating in between and the recovery pod tucked in one of the sides.
The opposite side of the cube contained a 3 meter tall metal door that was around a meter wide.
"The f**k...?" Adrian blinked and rubbed his eyes in disbelief and a tint of denial.
He remembered dozing off while watching a random Metube video, and suddenly, he found himself in a weird looking small and futuristic room?
Still, after imagining himself in similar unrealistic scenarios after binge watching countless anime, Adrian took a deep breath to retain his sensibility and walked closer to the floating monitor.
As that was the closest and most eye-catching thing in this tiny little cube, followed by the futuristic glass pod and then the inconspicuous door on the wall.
Adrian walked in front of the monitor and stared at the moving texts for a good few seconds, but he was unable to make out the language on the screen.
Not getting any form of response from the monitor, he gently tapped his finger on the screen.
The moment he touched the monitor, the screen flashed into bright white light and glitched back into the black screen.
But this time written in the language he actually understood, English.
Though, the hacker like console was long gone and only 2 lines of text were written on the screen, using white colour.
[ Welcome, Manager 0420 ]
[ Retrieving the scan results… ]
Below the text was a loading bar that was quickly approaching 100.
Once again, the screen changed and now it was a blue background with fancy designs as well as multiple tabs and an interactive interface, something that reminded Adrian of survival games.
[ Introduction ]
[ Control Hub ]
[ Tech Tree ]
[ ??? ]
[ ??? ]
[ Help ]
On the top line, the tabs were listed horizontally, and among which the introduction tab was selected.
[ Manager: Adrian Cross
Region: Verdant Plains
Difficulty: Low
Area: ~31,415 Meter square. ]
[ System loaded.
Tap to continue. ]
Adrian furrowed his brows in confusion, but he complied with the instructions and cautiously tapped the screen again.
However, the moment his finger came in contact with the screen, a jolt of electricity passed through his body and sent him stumbling back with a numb sensation on his finger.
"Mother fuc*in-"
A blue hologram suddenly appeared in front of Adrian's eyes causing him to jerk his body backwards and stumble against the pod he woke up from.
[[ Host: Adrian Cross
Level: 0
Exp: 0%
HP: 100
Mana: 100
~Stats~
Physique: 10
Magic: 10
~Talent~
// 100% Capture Rate (Unique) (Passive) //
~Skills~
Nil.
~Spells~
Nil.
~Inventory~
Empty.
~Server~
Locked. (Please unlock the Map first) ]]
The hologram appeared similar to the design on the monitor, however it didn't contain any tabs, just a list of features it held.
Adrian's eyes were instantly attracted to the talent section of his holographic window, but before he could tap it for further knowledge, the hologram seemingly minimized from his view and disappeared completely as if it never existed.
Though he did notice the name of his talent, '100% Capture rate.'
The monitor's screen began to change and a new text appeared under the introduction tab.
[ Manager Adrian Cross, you have been summoned from Earth to help curb the corruption rampaging all across the Sphardia Planet.
You have been assigned to the area number 0420, in the region Verdant Plains of Grassy Behemoth Plateau.
I am the control chip of the area number 0420, would you like to proceed with the tutorial? ]
[ Yes / No ]
A choice appeared on the screen, prompting Adrian to move his hand to click on the 'yes', but freezing midair.
"Yes." he said, retracting his hand back in fear of getting shocked again.
[ Tutorial loading… ]
Adrian stared at the loading bar swiftly filling to the 100%, something he wasn't quite used to.
[ Tutorial.
1) Finish the first quest in the 'Tech Tree' menu and unlock the fabricator.
2) Capture your first beast.
3) Use the 'Control Hub' to deploy your first helper.
Rewards: Unlocks new tab- Map ]
Frozen for a good few seconds, Adrian's mind worked in hyperdrive.
And the first and most absurd thought took place in his mind, was this world like one of his favourite and childhood gem of an anime?
'That's what capture should mean right? It said CAPTURE your first beast! Not tame or something, but CAPTURE!'
Without a hint of caution about the electric shock, Adrian excitedly clicked the Tech tree menu of the monitor.
[ Tech Tree ]
[ Quest ]
// Open the door. (Beginner)
Task - Open the door of the control room and drink the water of regeneration.
Reward - 1 TP (Tech Point) //
[ Tech ]
// Fabricator - 1 TP //
// Bioreactor - 1 TP //
// Extraction Altar - 2 TP //
// ??? - Requirement not met. //
// ??? - Requirement not met. //
// ??? - Requirement not met. //
…
]
Adrian hummed, 'That sounds easy enough.'
Figuring that overthinking kills, he cautiously took a few steps towards the door and pushed it with his foot, causing it to release a sharp hiss of white mist and swing open.
Sunlight poured into the open gate, and Adrian was momentarily blinded from the bright world outside the dimly glowing control room.
His eyes had gotten too used to the dim light that he didn't expect to be hit by such a bright light outside.
He covered his eyes for a few moments before slowly peeking between his fingers to look outside the door.
"Oh… wow…"
At a loss of words, he stared at the beautiful scenery that he had only seen in some vlogs or movies, tall trees growing across the fields, short and tall grass littering the ground, bright blue sky blanketing the world and gentle white clouds floating through the air.
If the floating monitor hadn't mentioned corruption, Adrian would have thought he was in a safe haven of some severely strict nature preserve sanctuary.
But as his eyes swept to the reality of 'corruption', his awe was mercilessly curbed and a subconscious gulp travelled down his throat…
'Wow… it's not just beasts huh…'