The Author's POV

Pain.

An immeasurable amount of pain engulfed my entire being.

Slipping in and out of my consciousness I felt my whole body burn. Every part of my body was engulfed by flames.

At some point, I had lost track of time. Perhaps only minutes and seconds had passed, but for me, who was being burnt alive, such moments felt like an eternity.

Before long, my body hit something hard and cold. But, being in the state I was in, my mind wasn't able to process what was happening around me.

Instinctively, I just rolled around, trying to get rid of the flames engulfing me.

"Ah...ah..."

Whilst slipping in and out of my consciousness, mustering every bit of my last strength, I swallowed something that I had put inside of my mouth beforehand.

After that, despite all of my struggles to remain conscious, the world turned dark.

***

"Have you got anything?"

"No, his facial features are too deformed. We can't get a proper read on his identity."

'What's going on? Who's talking?'

Awakening my somber mind was the sound of two people conversing. Though I tried to focus my mind on what they were saying, my mind was too muddleheaded to be able to comprehend anything. In fact, I found it hard to even think properly at the moment as everything felt dull and slow.

"Hmmm, what about after we heal him?"

"That's possible, but it may take a couple of months for him to fully heal from these injuries. Almost half of his body is burnt. Perhaps if we use a high-grade potion, but..."

"No, we definitely can't do that. It'll be a waste of money. We can just wait a couple of months. Anything else?"

"For now no. All we know is that he suddenly appeared in the hall with third-degree burns all over his body. I'm more surprised by the fact that he's still alive."

"Were there any items on him?"

"No. Given the state he was in, there's a high chance that all the items he had got destroyed. From the looks of things, he must've survived some sort of explosion. He had no clothes on him when he appeared, and even the ring he had on him was badly damaged."

"...I see, alright, you may leave."

"Understood, call me if you need anything, professor."

Minutes after the conversation ended, slowly opening my eyes, I was met with an unfamiliar white ceiling. A bright white light entered my vision constricting my pupils slightly.

Turning my head slightly, I found myself laying atop a cold metal table with wires attached all over my body. My body was numb.

"Oh, you've regained consciousness?"

A voice suddenly called out for me.

Turning my head towards where the voice came from, an old man with a white lab coat appeared in front of me. With an amused smile, he studied me from top to bottom.

"How peculiar..."

He muttered.

Under his observant eyes, I felt like a lab mouse. Insignificant.

'Who are you? Where am I?'

"Ghaaa..fhhiuuu"

The words that I wanted to speak did not come out. Instead, a zombie-like sound escaped from my lips.

"Ah, I wouldn't recommend you to speak right now."

The old man said whilst a chuckle escaped from his lips.

'Where am I?'

"Huaagh..."

Unable to comprehend what he was saying, I once again spoke. The same zombie-like sound escaped from my lips.

"Tsk. What is it with you patients? Whenever I say something, you end up doing the exact opposite of what I tell you to do"

The old man grumbled.

bring me

the room. Lifting my head slightly, I

"...yes!"

his assistant. The assistant quickly rushed towards

attendant came back with a mirror. Taking the mirror, the old man walked up to

what I'm saying, I'll just show you

the mirror around, my mind

be...is that

"huagh...guhhhg..."

hair on my head and burn marks all over my face. The clear white skin that I used to have was no longer there as my face was now dyed red with pus flowing

I looked horrendous.

I had many questions that I wanted to ask, but as if something was

"hgugha...haefa"

that I slowly started to recall what had

taken from professor Thibaut a couple of months back, I desperately channeled all of

goal was to teleport

I knew it was a bad idea, this was the only way I could survive. Unfortunately, even though I successfully managed to teleport myself to the Monolith, by the time I

wasn't hard for me to understand what had happened. Having teleported directly in their headquarters, they must've

be too hard...but, unfortunately for you, the higher-ups aren't willing to fork out the

my reaction,

real quick" Lowering his head slightly, the old man introduced himself. "Nice to

"!"

the old man mentioned his name, my mind instantly cleared up. Cold sweat trickled down my

stay here. I'm going to check out my other subjects, I'll be seeing you in a bit. By

Joseph Sharp.

He along, with a couple of other

super soldiers

that felt no emotions nor pain, almost like robots. Each soldier ranked

from now and were responsible for many

"You."

thoughts, Joseph called out to the same assistant

"Yes!"

small dose of the

"...how much?"

don't know. Given his state, I guess 2mg would be

"Understood."

Joseph smiled.

I'll see you soon, test

whistled his way out

me out of

"ghuuuaa!!!"

from my mouth. It was almost instinctive. Even though I survived, I was now in

soldiers. It was a liquid that eroded someone's mind, essentially turning them into brainless puppets. From there the brainwashing would

"ghuu!!"

strength that I had in my body, I tried to get out of the

how much I struggled, the binds

I was truly powerless.

me. Though I

"Shut up."

assistant glared

I'm

assistant put a strange blue liquid inside of it. Squeezing the bottom of the syringe, a droplet

"Perfect."

me. Opening my eyes wide, I struggled even more fiercely than

'No! Anything but that!'

"Ughhh! guauhhhah!"

it's not going to

my suffering, the assistant slowly moved the syringe in my direction. Whilst he did that, with his other hand,

"hmmm...hmmm!"

a good boy and take the

slight tap on my shoulder, I knew that the assistant had already put the syringe

—Squeeq!

of my body, my

'No...help.'

"ghh..."

***

—Fffwhheeu! —Fffwhheeu!

Joseph's brows suddenly

"Hmm, another failure."

glass window, Joseph took out

subject 037 failure...300mg seems to be too much for a single dose," Joseph muttered, scratching the

Yet another failure.