The Author's POV

Inside of a large empty white room.

—Crash!

A loud crashing sound reverberated across the room. The source of the sound was a large metallic humanoid robot.

Opposite to the robot was a youth. The youth was fairly muscular and had thin short black hair that spiked upwards. Hair aside, the most striking feature of the youth were the terrifying scars that covered half of his face. Tracing from the top of his head to the bottom of his head, the youth looked absolutely terrifying.

This, coupled with his indifferent eyes, would've made anyone look at him in fear. He looked terrifying.

Coldly looking at the robot, the youth took a step back.

WHIIII—! WHIIII—!

Instantly two robotic arms appeared in the position he was previously standing. Once the two arms appeared, lifting his foot slightly, 876 twisted his torso 45 degrees and kicked one of the robots right in the head.

—Bam!

A dully metallic sound rang out.

—Thud.

Following this, one of the robots fell to the ground. Without wasting a single second, 876 thrust his sword downwards.

—Beep!

Once the sword made contact with the robot, a beeping sound came out of the robot. Ignoring it, 876 jumped on the robot and tensed his legs.

WHIIII—!

Upon making contact with the robot on the ground, 876 released the tension between his legs and jumped backward. The moment he jumped, a terrifying fist flew towards the area he was standing, barely missing him by an inch.

—Thud!

Softly landing on the arm of the robot, channeling his mana, and using his right leg, 876 kicked the last robot in the head.

Bam—!

Another dull sound rang out as a shockwave swept the area.

—Thud!

Falling alongside the robot, 876 softly landed on the ground. He was completely unharmed.

—Beep!

Repeating the same thing he did with the other robot, stabbing downwards, a beeping sound rang out. Having eliminated the last robot, sheathing his sword back, 876 calmly looked upwards. Towards a tinted glass window by the side of the room.

—Beep!

[Alright, good job 876, your test ends now. You're dismissed for now]

Joseph's voice rang out from the speakers around the room.

"..."

Without saying anything and nodding his head, 876 made his way towards the entrance of the room. Arriving before a thick metal door, 876's footsteps halted.

—Kshiii!

Slowly the doors opened and 876 left the room.

***

Inside of a different room.

Looking through a series of recordings regarding 876, Joseph laughed out loud.

"Excellent! Excellent! 876, has grown much more than I had anticipated."

Three months had passed since 876 had arrived. During that period of time, alongside two more test subjects, 091, and 654, Joseph had finally managed to develop his first prototypes of the soldiers he wanted to create.

An emotionless machine that would disregard anything for their goal.

Out of the three, 876 was by far the most successful subject. Not only was he capable of remaining under the emotionless state for the longest out of the two, but he had also shown the most growth in combat.

Compared to 091 and 654, 876 was by far a more completed super-soldier.

"It's a pity though..."

Recalling 876's face, Joseph shook his head. With scars covering a better part of his face, he looked absolutely hideous. Fortunately, looks didn't matter, so Joseph didn't really care about his scars.

—Triiing! —Triiing!

Disrupting Joseph out of his thoughts was his phone. Looking at the caller ID, Joseph's brows knit.

"...Xavier." He muttered underneath his breath.

The one person he disliked the most.

"What do you want?"

He answered.

—Joseph. How are you doing?

"Cut the crap, get to the point."

Knowing full well that Xavier also didn't like him, Joseph went straight to the point.

—Very well then...I would like to tell you that the three months are up. It's time to show us what you've achieved.

"...now?"

—Yes. By tomorrow.

"..."

Joseph remained silent for a moment.

Although he had expected such a day to come, now that it was quite close, he couldn't help but become nervous.

'What if they don't act as I intended them to? What if they fail?'

Many questions crossed through Joseph's mind as he bit his nails and walked around the room with his phone in his hand. This was a bad habit of his that showed up whenever his emotions were out of control.

—Did you hear me?

"Ah, yes...I heard you."

Snapping him out of his thoughts was Xavier's calm voice.

—Okay then. I will come tomorrow on behalf of the higher-ups to see what you've accomplished. You better not disappoint me.

"...wait you're the one coming?"

—...Is there a problem?

"No, I just thought that we'd have to go to them."

—Ah. Right, you must've not heard yet since you're always stuck inside of your lab.

"Heard what?"

Joseph's tilted his head in confusion. 'Is there some sort of event that's happening that I'm not aware of?'

Because he whole himself up in the lab most of the time, Joseph was unaware of what was happening in the outside world...or more like he usually didn't care. Therefore it wasn't strange for him to not know the situation outside of his lab.

—...We're currently at war. The higher-ups are busy.

"War!? What happened?"

Joseph's mouth dropped as he screamed out loud.

"Just what ar—"

—Know your place.

Before he could finish speaking, Xavier's grave voice cut him off. Realizing his mistake, Joseph instantly apologized.

"...ah, I apologize. I was just shocked."

He was but a mere researcher. It was impudent of him to ask for such sensitive information.

—That is understandable, however, you better watch your tongue....all I can tell you is that it has something to do with the union. But that's all.

"The union?"

—Yes...Anyhow, we've derailed from the original purpose of this conversation. I'll be seeing you tomorrow. You better show me something worth my time.

"...understood."

Joseph seriously nodded his head.

—Good. I'll see you tomorrow then.

Tak—!

Xavier quickly hung up the call.

"huuu."

Putting his phone away, Joseph took a deep breath. Turning around and looking at the three profiles on his table, he closed his eyes slightly.

"It's time for you three to finally make your debut."

***

Moments after leaving the training facility, putting on a couple of bracelets that suppressed my rank, the effects of Monarch's indifference instantly wore off.

After suppressing my rank, accompanied by the same guard as before, I was brought back to my room.

Fortunately, because of my elevated status, he couldn't abuse me as he did in the past. Thus after bringing me in and cursing at me, he directly left the room.

Clank—!

Once the guard closed the door, silence enveloped the room.

Blankly staring at the ceiling for a good minute, I closed my eyes slightly and muttered.

"Three corridors to the right...two to the left...and from there keep going straight till you find a large metallic door with a red lamp by the side..."

Those were the coordinates of the surveillance and communications room of the lab facility.

Passing them each day to get to the training room, I made myself repeat the steps to get there every time I came back from training. I couldn't allow myself to forget this piece of information.

If I wanted to escape, that was the first place I needed to destroy. Only when that was destroyed would I have a shot at escaping this place.

—Phsssss!

Calmly walking towards the bathtub, I twisted the valve upwards. Water instantly ran down the tub.

Walking towards my desk and taking out a small box, I opened it. Inside of it was a small glass bottle filled with green liquid.

Tu.Tu.Tu. Walking back to the bathtub, I poured the contents of the bottle into the tub. As I poured the liquid, the water inside of the tub slowly turned murky green.

"Hmm."

A faint smell of sulfur enveloped the room, prompting me to frown slightly.

The substance I was currently mixing in the bath was something Joseph had given to me. It was made from all sorts of rare medical ingredients, and it only served one purpose, and that purpose was to tamper my body.

Since Joseph wanted to train super-soldiers, to those that were actually successful, he provided adequate resources to aid their growth.

This substance being one of them. It helped reinforce the bones and muscles of the body.

—Tssssss!

Once the liquid was fully mixed, I took out my clothes. Taking one step into the tub, I slowly lowered my body. Upon making contact with my skin, vapor rose in the air.

"Huuuu."

Exhaling, I closed my eyes and grit my teeth. A stinging sensation enveloped my body. Like millions of needles were puncturing my body, my body was put under an unimaginable amount of pain.

Since Joseph thought that we could now not feel pain, he opted for the most painful method of growth. One that was could cause any normal person to go insane.

"Khhh."

A light groan escaped from my mouth.

Biting my lipd till they bled, I remained seated in the bathtub. At the ten-minute mark, my whole body turned red as my fists shook uncontrollably.

'Twenty more minutes...twenty more minutes...'

Enduring the pain, I grit my teeth and tried my best to remain inside the bathtub for another twenty minutes. According to the professor I had to endure the pain for thirty minutes for optimal results, therefore, clenching my fists tightly, I tried to endure the pain.

For the past few months, using the same method as what I was using just now, I was able to boost my strength considerably. I had already gone up by a sub-rank since coming here.

I was now <D> ranked.

Using this method, <D+> rank wouldn't be an impossibility to reach within the next half a year.

Splash—!

Eventually, thirty minutes flew by and unable to handle the pain anymore, I shot up and left the bathtub.

"Haa...Haa..."

With heavy breaths, I supported my body with my knees. Catching my breath for a minute, I weakly walked towards my bed and put on some clothes. Laying down on my bed, I muttered.

"...Almost."

Within the next few months, I was ready to finally get out of this place. By now, three months had passed and I was already almost fully healed. During these three months I didn't stay idle, every day I would contemplate to myself on how to escape this place. Slowly but surely, a plan formulated itself inside of my mind.

Though it was currently still filled with holes, given time, I could cover those. I just needed time. At least a couple more months. By then I would be able to have set up enough to properly escape this place.

'Till then, I need to lay low and continue planning.'

As long as I was still deemed useful to Joseph, I should be able to find ways to fill those holes.

...but I knew that I didn't have much time. I was now almost out of potions.