Mark on a desk with Vysla besides him. He waited for his turn calmly, wondering when his name would be called. A number of students had already stepped inside, with most of them stepping out looking too dejected for his comfort. He wondered if he would be part of the crowd who were spat back out.

“Have you ever fought a beast before? How did you hone your skills in such a peaceful place?” Vysla finally broke the silence between them, asking a question she was sure would not be too personal for her to know. She turned to Mark, and seeing that he did not look too disturbed, she sighed in relief.

There was no way one could fight brutally if they were not exposed to war, and although he didn’t look like someone who had embraced the flames of war — he still managed to exude killing intent, something she did not expect from a child her age. Even adults twice her age would never understand the feeling of being able to intimidate enemies with the mere intention alone: a power honed through killing.

“Fought a beast, no. There are no beasts in this rim, but of course our greatest enemies are still humans and I have fought a lot of them. Besides, this place is not even up to a piece of the real world outside. It is a deadly place out there, and your skills and weaknesses are always tested.” Mark leaned back into his chair, “Of course, out there it is you kill or be killed. There is no such thing as peace in this world.”

Vysla wondered what kind of life do the inhabitants live here. She had believed that humans loved the idea of, which was why they fought so much to achieve peace. It was natural for the strong to conquer and the weak to be conquered. She wondered if it was different here, but she guessed it was the same.

Humans would never change, no matter the world.

“What about in your world? I guess you must have had your share of this feeling you call peace, it must be the reason you considered this place to be relatively peaceful.” Mark turned to Vysla, asking with his brow raised. He wondered what it was like on her world, and if it was as chaotic as this wasteland he’d been born into.

“It is a peaceful place, but even in peace we still had to kill a lot to maintain it. There were a lot of infighting and wars between factions, it was a mess with everyone struggling to maintain the peace.” Vysla grinned, “I was born to one of the authorities of my world — it me gave the chance to level up by killing without gaining any repercussions. It was why I wondered if it was the same here, but I guess there is a slight difference.”

“Yes, there is. I can’t go around killing people without getting in trouble. I could be executed by the law for murder or get mowed down by an angry mob for killing a member of some dumbly named group. I do not have the liberty to kill as much as the system suggests me to.” Mark sighed calmly. He was going to speak more on the matter, but as he opened his mouth to speak, the invigilator cleared his throat,

“Mark…”

Before he could finish, Mark shot up from his seat and strode towards him calmly. He stopped just before the invigilator, awaiting further orders from him. Vysla watched calmly, wondering what would happen to Mark and how it would affect his mood. She wondered what kind of expression he would wear if he failed to pass this test, and what path he would chose to take.

“Mark, please move into the room behind me.” The invigilator spoke before shifting his gaze to the others, clearing his throat again as he prepared to call the next group of children after Mark. He did not bother his self with Mark anymore, not even noticing when Mark carelessly slipped into a room that was just next to the one he had pointed to.

Mark, who had already walked in, found himself standing alone in a massive room with rows of weapons in stacked shelves around him. He wondered if there was not supposed to be some sort of guide or guard here as the room was completely bare apart from the weapons on the shelves and a spinning vortex at the far end of the room. He approached it calmly, wondering what weapon he would use in clearing the test.

[Basic Rifle — Zero Mods]

[Rank — Tier 1, Lower]

[Weight - 15.99 kg]

[Range - 1500 yd]

[Capacity - 80 (1/s)]

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[Recoil - Light]

[Reload - Slow]

Mark stared at the weapon details one after the other. There were a lot of guns he was most proficient in utilising against tests like these, and the rifle was not one of them. In tests like these were you would have to battle against waves of enemies, it’s limited ammo and slow firing rate would not compensate for basic damage it dealt. He lacked a group to cover him during reloads, making it even worse during wild moments.

[Drain Pistol — Plasma Mod]

[Rank — Tier 1, Enhanced]

[Weight - 5.99 kg]

[Range - 150 yd]

[Capacity - 50 (3/s)]

[Recoil - Very Light]

[Reload - Very Fast]

[Plasma Mod - Shots Fired at a Faster Rate with Higher Penetration Speed.]

Mark just stared at this gun for a second, then he skipped the rifles and pistols section altogether. He got to the next sections, and he calmly stared at their details calmly. There were shotguns and handheld missile launchers — both would prove devastating to a rushing group of mobs. Yet, he was not really the one you would want handling such weapons, even more so if he was wrong about the enemies swarming in waves.

He wondered why his system had not given him any alerts yet. He had been counting on it so as to avoid a moment where he would make a lousier decision than he was supposed to. It was a cheat he counted on to avoid dumb failures like carrying grenades into a test where he calculated swarms to be presents. He didn’t waste any time in skipping the crossbow, flamethrower and sniper sections as well.

Terrible at reloads… Weak in raw firepower… No one is rushing into an unknown area with the hope to snipe your way out of any mess you find yourself in: I mean no one, not even me. Well, at least no one in their right senses… Mark could feel a temptation as he stared at the weapon but he ignored it as he needed to focus for the test.

Mark paused. He decided to just skip all these areas completely and go for the one category of weapons he was most familiar with. The weapon his parents had trained him to use ever since he was a child — although the weapon was prohibited by the facility until he passed this test, it was a beautiful monster he grew to love. The chances of him finding something as good as it here is not high, so he had been ignoring this category to explore his options.

But, with the number of barely usable weapons in the area, he decided to just head for that one directory. Mark steeled his resolve and began marching forth, staring at the weapons one after the other. As no one was on ground to supervise him, Mark wandered deep into the arsenal, lifting and examining as many guns as he could possibly lay his hands on.

He was prepared to return to the snipers, but just as he was about to go back Mark halted,

[Reaper, Burst Mod]

[Rank — Tier 1, Enhanced]

[Weight - 270.99 kg]

[Range - 5500 yd]

[Capacity - 1550 (30/s)]

[Recoil - Heavy]

[Reload - Medium]

[Burst Mod - Modified The Number of Bullets Fired Per Shots Fired.]

[Recommended]

Mark turned to the gun. He wondered what a two-handed machine gun was doing here. He had not arrived at the machine gun category yet, so he pondered on what a gun that looked like a heavy handheld machine gun was doing in this category. There was an interesting modification installed on the gun and the recommendation of the system…

Mark approached the gun and lifted it up.

He was not exaggerating when he thought this thing heavy. It was well over 30 kg as stated right in the system statistics, and all the heavy metal components snapped to the layers of armour did not aid at all. He believed something like this should be in the cannon category; it was too monstrous to be in either the heavy energy or machine gun categories.

Then there was the mod — Burst: Fire a rapid explosion of shots after charging for a short time, dealing great damage over an area. It hinted that this leaned over more to the machine gun clan even though it had the build of a tank. The Modification Enhancement ‘Reaper’ hinted at the damage over time capabilities of this weapon, glorifying the burst damage capabilities.

This was even more tempting and dangerous than using a sniper, but he found himself dragging his feet to the gate. Passing by a few more weapons, he noticed that he began to view fewer that met the requirements for his ranged styles. Soon, he was standing before a swirling vortex that seemed to suck all existent matter within itself, as massive as a fully grown human.

He tightened his grip around his cannon machine gun energy firer and then he dashed into the vortex at full speed. The second he entered the twirling vortex, he felt his skin burn as all the light around him dispersed, volleying him into the darkness of the vortex. He remained calm throughout all this, understanding that he was not in any danger.

In a few seconds, he was blasted out of the darkness by a terrifying force and back into the light, his body sent crashing into the ground. As he stood up, he was met by the blazing fury of two suns, a phenomenon he not expected. The heat was immense compared to the blistering cold he was used to, and he found it difficult to adapt.

He held his weapon tight, trying his best to get himself used to the scenery before him. He had not expected the test to be set in a real dimensional rift, and wondered how he would cope under such circumstance. He let the sweat on his forehead roll down his face, his eyes narrowed down as the system alert finally appeared before him.

[Welcome Descender to “Soul Rift”]

[Defeat the Arena’s Boss to Clear the Test]

“Arena?” Mark felt the sweat on his head grow, and he smartly turned back to the vortex he had jumped into earlier, but to his horror, the vortex seemed to have disappeared from his sight. A frown formed on his face as he turned to the screen. He wondered what would happen if he failed to beat the arena boss, and where the arena itself was located.

[Failure to Defeat the Boss is Death].