[Log 2: Recording started]

[Time to homeworld: 04:00:00]

Numbness flooded my consciousness.The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the metallic ceiling of a dark room. The bed I'm on was soft enough to prevent me from escaping the boundaries of sleep, even the pillow was fluffy, as if it was a live sheep.

The only thing I saw stuck on the ceiling was a sticky note that held a message.

Come to my office after you wake up,

Sign,

Your boss

When did I ever have a boss?

The thought came as fast as it went, when a sudden surge of pain shot through my skull. It felt as if my brain were rupturing, spreading that gooey, icky substance that would later cause an infection in my head.

I clutched my head with both hands while still lying on the bed, intending to sooth the pain by applying pressure to it. Turns out, it stopped the same time I stopped trying to recalling the past.

"Well, at least I have some hints as to what I shouldn't do..." A silent mutter of optimism left my mouth as I struggled to escape the clutches of my almighty bed.

The first thing I noticed was my body felt heavy and my limbs felt detached, but the most prominent of all was the feeling given off by my chest as it gave off a phantom pain. The pain made my chest feel like being torn apart then stitched back together again. Though the strangest thing was, the feeling was nostalgic. I trembled slightly as I recalled the gruesome scene of watching my own exposed heart beat while lying on a surgical bed.

Christ...

Looking around, I found a black T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Since there weren’t any other clothing available, I pulled on the clothes before checking to see whether there was a scar left behind from the surgery, or not. I was surprised beyond belief when the skin on my chest was as smooth as a baby’s. But with that said, that could only mean that the surgery scene was actually one of my own imagination. Yet, the scene somehow felt too real to be a dream. I shook my head to clear the thoughts, now determined to face the main problem first which was what exactly happened for me to end up here.

God, I've got to find my friends and family to know what happened...

Sliding my legs off to the side of the bed, I stood up, albeit wobbly at first. The natural equilibrium for walking slowly came back to me as I felt my semicircular canal’s fluids stabilise. There was a feeling of foreigness when I moved around at first, but the feeling gradually left me when I started using my five main senses.

Strange... The metallic surface doesn’t feel cool to the touch and there isn’t any kind of metal scent given off by the walls at all...

There was also the fact that although the room was dark, I could see around it as if daylight was spilt. Perhaps my eyes had gotten used to the darkness, that was the only plausible reason I could tell myself and believe, yet deep down, I knew it was just an excuse to ignore the strange fact. On the logical view of things, I knew I would be a permanent object of this room if I kept noticing the strange details, thus I went for the door. It opened up when I approached it, revealing an empty, long hallway that seemed to stretched for miles on both my left and right. The walls of the hallway was plated with the same type of metal as my room did, but the only difference was, there were bright powerlines that occasionally pulsed, or zoom pass without a sound. The floor was covered with the same material, only it gave off a slippery effect. I thought I would've slipped and slid away on the floor when I tried stepping on it, but the traction it provided said otherwise.

Slowly, I could feel the sturdiness of the corridor. Every step I took gave me, surprisingly, more confidence. Whenever a powerline pulsed on the floor and I stepped on it accidentally, there was a slight shock as my muscles energized. Together, the synergistic effects of the powerlines and the confidence given by just stepping on the floor made it seem like everything was possible, if not outright easy to accomplish.

After walking around the same spot -which was in front of my door- for around ten minutes, I got bored of just feeling the same feelings over and over. Since there was nothing else to do but to explore a little, I started wandering a little farther down the corridor when the door to my room slammed shut. The slam made less sound than I expected, but nonethelsss, panic surged through my mind as I ran over and pounded on it, hoping to open it since the room was the only place that made me feel comfortable enough in such a foreign place.

"Open! Uh, open sesame!" I yelled at the door in frustration, before sighing and giving up on getting back inside without exploring the place further.

"Now..." which way should I go?

”Hmm... Eenie meenie minee moe.. I’ll go with this one I guess..” after choosing a path down the left side, I forced myself to drown in the confidence I was partially feeling, but I still couldn't completely ignore the panicky feeling that was beginning to grow.

I continued walking and walking when I finally saw a corner where I turned and bumped into someone.

”Uwahh!” Her voice resounded, breaking the previously silent-except-for-my-breathing-sound atmosphere.

”Oh god, I’m so, so sorry!” I tried explaining myself in defence. If she heard it, she showed no signs of responding to it. Her only response to falling was rubbing her hips with one hand while supporting her sitting posture with her other hand. She had autumn red hair and blue eyes, now that I noticed. It was rare for someone to actually have this kind of characteristic, but her other features were even more amazing. Even though her head approached my chin, her feminine curves were prominent to the point where one would wonder if she was working as a supermodel. Her long hair was left to swing around, and it seemed to unbalance her somewhat if it swayed too much. If I was forced to blame the person or thing that made us crash into each other, the chances of me pointing at the hair than admit I was the one in the wrong was almost as high as my IQ was.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

”Ehhh..” she finally looked up, before looking down again. As if suddenly jolted awake, she looked at me, wide-eyed this time.

”Are you the newbie?!” Her voice boomed since the small corridor echoed most of it.

”What newbie?” The clear confusion on my face must’ve shown itself, because right now she was kind of frowning.

Cute!

She stared at me for a while. As if it was a courtesy of sort, I stared back. There were shadows moving around in her eyes, and I couldn't help but start suspecting that I'm hallucinating. Focusing onto the shadows more, I could make out a word that was mirrored in her eyes.

”Newbie”

The confusion seemed to clear up for the girl because she immediately grabbed ahold of my hand, before turning around and walking back from where she came from, with me along this time. Common sense told me I shouldn't follow a stranger, but her iron grip made it hard to escape through brute forcing. Even if the best case scenario happened, where I freed myself from her grip, the friction between my wrist and her hand would likely end up shaving my entire arm's skin away. Therefore, with no options left but to follow her around, I walked just behind her. Whenever the distance between us was too wide, she would jerk me forward, forcing me to occasinally jog to keep up with her almost-inhuman walking speed. Finally though, we reached a wooden door. There was a sign hanging on the front, stating clearly in English:

”Your boss, boi”

Just when I thought the worst was over, the girl knocked a few times, which was responded by a man's voice.

”Come in!”

”Ok, get in and don’t do anything unnecessary. By the way, do you know-“ she was interrupted by the same voice that came through the room.

”Come! In!”

"N-"

I was forced through the door with a slight but firm push from the girl. If I had went against the push, my spinal cord would've snapped in two. Forced to go, I knew I couldn't escape what was coming next as I walked towards the desk in the middle of the quite-empty room. Perspiration never stopped as sweat leaked out profusely, especially cold sweat. The sense of dealing with an unknown and being pressured from behind was overwhelming.

The door closed after I reached the desk. While my gut was twisting in an almost impossible fashion, forcing my left hand to soothe it, my eyes wandered around the room. It was painted white, with only a single desk in the middle of it. The room had four pillars in total, placed at the four corners of the room. Those looked like the real deal, but at the same time, it felt like the purpose of them being constructed in the first place was for decorating the place, not due to some practical reason such as maintaining the structural integrity of the room.

Why would anybody use pillars for decorations... even though I said that, there were many examples in history that said otherwise.

History... Argh! A surge of pain passed through for a moment as I tried thinking back.

After the pain subsided, my hands went and touched the wooden desk unconsciously. Although the desk seemed like it would break at any moment, the firmness proved me wrong, again. The polished brown reflected light, giving a kind of shiny texture to it. There was also a chair with its back facing me, though for not long as the person sitting on it turned it around to look at me.

"Ah, you must be the new guy," his tone indicated he was a professional in dealing this kind of situation. He proceeded to place both his elbows onto the desk before crossing his fingers together.

"What'd you mean, 'new guy'?" I asked, annoyed he was actually taking me for an employee of his.

"Ah, questions, questions, questions... You people always start with questions!" He mumbled to himself as his eyes dropped, but his gaze found mine again soon. "Well, for starters, you've been hired!" he exclaimed with a practiced enthusiasm which was clearly revised multiple times. I stared through him, just to let him know how embarassing what he did was.

"Is it really that bad?" He asked when he finally picked it up.

"Yes," I replied honestly.

"Good, at least you're honest and not the type to suck up to the powerful," He let out a breath. I could sense relief from his tone.

The man took a set of printed papers from his drawer and placed it on the desk. He then pushed the papers to me while handing me a pen.

"I need your new name written onto the paper," he leaned back into his chair, relief flooding his face.

Hesitating a little, I flipped through the entire thing. I couldn't read it exactly, since it looked to be written in a mixture of hieroglyphs and ideograms. But one thing for certain, when I saw the signature spot on the last page, I immediately recognised the signature.

"My signature-" A surge of pain shot through my skull. This time, it was even more intense than the previous ones.

"Yes, and try not to look at it too much, or fiddle it around your thoughts, because if you recall anything from your past, anything at all, the pain will come back. And," He cleared his throat, "it'll get worse the longer it has happened."

I didn't know what to say. What he said made sense, since whenever I tried recalling anything from a long time ago, pain was all I could think about. Yet at the same time, this line of thoughts were bizarre. I couldn't believe, didn't want to believe, what he just said. Conflict emerged as the logical part of me fought against my desires, and I could only think that reality was a cruel joke.

"Just write it already," He pointed to an empty space, "H.E.R.E."

Now, I knew it was a contract I was facing. Whatever dealings I had, including the devils, wouldn't matter now, as I had already signed the contract placed before me, and now my contractor's here to reclaim what I owe him.

"JUST WRITE YOUR NAME," His patience was clearly thinning and since I couldn't do anything now to escape, I had to think of a name that would suit me. Thus, I began brainstorming on names I can have. But then I thought of using my old name, though the idea was quickly shot down by a disruptive bolt of pain that subsided after it had suceeded in doing what it was meant to.

How bout Citrus? Nah, sounds stupid... maybe with an 'X' instead of an 'S'? Can't, sounds like 'truck'... Maybe turn the 'U' into an 'I'? Sounds good, looks even better.

Thinking 'Citrix' is a good one, I started writing it down onto the space provided.

"Looks like you've made your final decision.. Very well, disgusting, indecisive young man. From today onwards, you shall be known as 'Citrix'! I hereby officially change your status from 'player' to 'hunter'!" the man, who was now my boss, announced.

"You are now officially a hunter. So, spin the Starting Roulette to determine your starting equipments over there," he pointed over to the left corner near the door where a large spinning wheel was attached to the previously empty pillar.

"How'd-"

"Just spin it!" He yelled.

Frightened, I walked over and pulled the lever to spin the wheel. The wheel started spinning at a probably faster than normal pace, before gradually slowing down and eventually stopping. It took almost a minute just to wait for it to stop spinning. When it was done spinning, the wheel's pointer landed on a segment stating, "melee, assassin, weapon".

"Congratulations, you got the shittiest starting set! And now, here you go!" snapping his fingers, two daggers appeared out of thin air. One was black, while the other was white, both looked sharp and capable of beheading a person if used in conjunction with the right techniques.

He thought it was a good idea to toss me the weapons, so he threw both at me. Instinctively, I started running for cover before tripping, which caused the daggers to fly by my head harmlessly and hit the door. Although shakened, I stood up and went over to collect the weapons.

"Good dodge, knew you were different. Now you've got to go for lessons at the northeastern sector. Oh yeah, almost forgot, you're going to faint after a few more seconds for a system update," 

"Wha-" a sudden unbearable drowsiness hit me, weakening my body until it collapsed right on the spot. I felt the last vestiges of consciousness leave me, but I was too weak to resist it. Just when I thought I fainted completely, a voice entered my mind.

"My name's Victor, and I'm your boss,"

[Active Log: End]

[Log 2: End]