Seeing the objective hovering before him, Ethan felt his heart begin to race.
It was a mix of excitement and pressure.
The translucent interface floated calmly in the air, utterly indifferent to the fact that his life now hinged on a single line of glowing text.
{Objective: Survive for 24 Hours}
The countdown ticked away in the corner of his vision.
23:59:51
23:59:50
"So… that's how it is," Ethan muttered, throat dry.
All he had to do was stay alive.
The simplicity of it was what made his chest tighten.
It was the kind of objective that left everything unsaid, like being thrown into deep water at night, with no idea where the shore was… or if there even was one.
As if sensing his unease, the interface shimmered again, and another window unfolded in front of him.
{Current Status}
{Name: Ethan Crowe
Title: Lord of Beasts
Titled Rank: F
Strength: 8.5
Speed: 11
Stamina: 8
MP: 0
Beasts: 0/1
Skills: None}
Ethan stared at it.
"…That's it?"
No welcome package, hidden bonuses, or weapon he could use.
Just numbers that reminded him that he was nothing special.
A quiet line of information surfaced beneath the screen, not spoken but understood instinctively.
Ten represents the average stat of a healthy adult male at peak condition.
As for the stats themselves, the names themselves were pretty self-explanatory.
Strength covered raw power output through things like lifting and striking.
Speed was across his movement, reaction times, and agility.
Stamina was his endurance, but also his durability and recovery.
Then, lastly, and likely most importantly, MP - the resource for skills.
He absorbed it instantly.
'Seems about right,' he thought. 'Though I figured my stamina would be worse after all the cigarettes.'
To summarise, he was slightly faster than average and barely average everywhere else.
No mana.
No skills.
No beasts.
No margin for error.
'I've beaten stronger and bigger men many times before. Numbers and stats don't decide fights, choices do,' he told himself.
But this wasn't the streets, a bar, or even a prison.
This was something beyond logic entirely, that was designed to kill him the moment he made the wrong call...
The screen lingered for a heartbeat longer, then faded.
And the instant it vanished, Ethan immediately felt the atmosphere switch.
There was no sound or movement.
Something just felt... wrong?
The hairs on the back of his neck prickled as instincts surged to life - the kind carved into him by years where hesitation meant blood.
Slowly, carefully, he began to move.
His sandals crunched softly against the forest floor, which was covered with leaves, twigs and...
'What the fuck!?' he exclaimed internally.
He stepped on something hard that crunched slightly. When he looked down, his heart skipped a beat.
It was a pearl-white skull, half-buried beneath damp leaves.
Ethan stopped and lowered himself into a crouch.
His fingers hovered over it before hesitantly grabbing it.
'This is... human.'
There was no mistaking it
Holding the cracked skull up to his face, its empty eye sockets almost seemed to stare into his soul.
'If this isn't a bad omen, then what the fuck.'
Looking around, he began to notice the white among the foliage.
There were bones everywhere in the small clearing he found himself in.
A ribcage lay beside the skull, ribs splayed like broken fingers. A few steps away, a femur jutted from the soil, snapped clean by brute force. Near a tree, smaller fragments lay half-buried: knuckles, shards, pieces he didn't want to look at for long.
Whatever had been here hadn't just killed.
It had fed, gnawing them down to white, lifeless remains, picked clean and left behind without care.
His stomach twisted.
'Are these the 998 who failed this trial before me?' he wondered darkly. 'Or is it just other unlucky bastards who stumbled upon this place in their drunken sleep?'
The thought spiralled before he could stop it.
'Is this my actual body?' He paused, scanning himself weirdly, 'I mean, it looks and feels like it, but that just creates more questions... Why am I not hungover? Where are my clothes? Why are my knuckles healed?'
No answers came, and it seemed as though the system was done talking, at least for now.
Meanwhile, the sensation of being watched intensified, crawling up his spine like ice water.
Then...
A low growl rolled through the trees, cutting through the silence and yanking him out of his thoughts.
Ethan felt it in his chest before his ears fully caught up.
"Shit."
He spun instantly, and that's when he saw the creature approaching him from between the trees. Grey-brown fur rippled over lean muscle as it stepped forth. Its yellow eyes were locked onto Ethan, who reluctantly maintained eye contact with it.
'A wolf?'
It certainly resembled one, but it was larger than he had expected a wolf to be from what he'd seen on animal documentaries or movies.
'I mean, it's not massive, but it's... different.'
He couldn't put it into words, but ironically, he could feel it in his bones.
'This is no ordinary wolf.'
Its eyes were too aware, too sharp as it slowly approached Ethan, studying him intensely.
And then text flickered into existence, floating above its head, just like the screen that had appeared before him.
Ethan's breath caught.
{Beast Status}
{Race: Ulfen
Growth Stage: Juvenile
Beast Rank: E
Strength: 11
Speed: 13
Stamina: 10
MP: 0}
His heart slammed against his ribs, but his immediate reaction was confusion.
'What the fuck is an Ulfen? It's clearly some sort of wolf!'
He then studied the rest of its Status while remaining ready for it to pounce at him at any moment.
Its stats surpassed his, but not overwhelmingly so.
However, that didn't factor in its physical advantages, from claws to teeth to who knows what else. It was also only a young beast, a so-called Juvenile.
But its youth didn't comfort Ethan.
It terrified him.
Wolves rarely hunted alone, and if the Ulfen's behaviour linked as much as its appearance did...
'It's only a matter of time before more show up. Fully grown ones at that!'
His jaw clenched.
'I'm fucked.'
The wolf stepped forward slowly, lips curling back to reveal a rack of sharp, yellowed teeth.
There was no fear or hesitation in its abnormal eyes.
To it, Ethan wasn't a threat; he was prey.
'If this thing is only E-rank…'
The implication settled like lead in his gut.
'I'm more than just fucked.'
The Ulfen lowered its body, muscles coiling, claws digging into the dirt.
'Here we go.'
Ethan's instincts screamed at him to run, but logic crushed the urge immediately.
Humans can't outrun most animals, let alone a wolf, at least not ordinary humans that hadn't received Titles. And even if he could, running could very well lead him into something worse, like a whole pack of fully grown beasts.
'If I run, I give it my back and definitely die. If I fight, well, I probably die,' his thoughts were as calm as they could be despite his predicament.
'Probably is better than definitely, I guess.'
The timer continued its merciless countdown.
23:58:03
23:58:02
23:58:01
Ethan planted his feet.
He had no weapon or armour, just his body and will, yet he was oddly composed.
He raised his hands slowly, never breaking eye contact with the predator, every sense sharpened to the max as adrenaline flooded his veins. Simultaneously, his heartbeat pounded like a war drum in his ears.
The scene was set: man and beast faced each other amidst scattered human bones.
Ethan only had one objective, and right now, that meant standing his ground and fighting...