"As you all know, for unknown reasons, you have been given the ability to travel to another world. We still do not know if, at the end of the current countdown, you will return to the same place, but for now, we will assume that you will. Around the world, about ten million individuals such as yourselves transmigrated three days ago. Preliminary reports suggest that only fifty percent of the ten million have returned. From witness accounts of other transmigrators, we believe the ones who didn’t return are all dead."

Gasps and murmurs of fear began rising from the crowd below the colonel. Biran paused, letting the weight of his words settle in. The crowd's eyes widened, faces paling with fear.

"But do not despair," Biran's voice boomed, silencing the murmurs, "because General Alexander, my superior, has decided that everyone in Golden Dragon City be given training and equipment to increase their chances of survival as much as possible. The general’s heart bled, and I personally heard him weep from sorrow, when he heard that out of the thirty thousand people who transmigrated from the Golden Dragon City department, only half remain."

"The general vowed that he would do his best to protect those remaining, and he moved swiftly after you returned and brought you all here with the purpose of training you into the best versions of yourselves, so that you may survive this ordeal and return home to your families!"

Colonel Biran stopped again, watching as the fear in their eyes slowly turned to determination. He knew it would take time to foster loyalty to the general, but a loyal person was ten times more valuable than one who submitted to fear. He waited a full minute before continuing.

"We have gathered the best scientists in our country to help us figure out how to best adapt to that foreign world and the transmigrator power. But we cannot do it alone. We require your help! Help us uncover as much as possible about that world, and we will do our very best to help you survive."

A voice from the crowd shouted, "How can we gain contribution points?"

Colonel Biran smiled, not minding the interruption. "This is not going to be easy. It is yet to be determined exactly what you have to do to gain points," he said, looking sorry. "But one thing is certain: if you bring back valuable information or interesting resources, we will not hold back in our goodwill."

He then waved to one of his guards, and a young man, a head shorter than Colonel Biran, began climbing the stage. The young man’s movements were crisp, and he vaulted with ease as he climbed the small hill of tables, leaving the whole crowd in awe at how agile and elegant his movements were. They all thought this must be some secret forces child trained from a young age to become a deadly weapon.

But two transmigrators in the crowd were left dumbfounded. Ace’s eyes trembled with shock as he saw Norman climb to stand by the side of Colonel Biran. An ominous feeling assaulted his mind, and he couldn’t help but think that something bad had happened. Why was Norman smiling while sitting at the side of the colonel like he was his most trusted underling?

Colonel Biran grabbed Norman with one hand like a father would grab his son, and he proudly looked at him.

"This is Norman. A fellow transmigrator like yourselves, but he has already proven himself to be a valuable member of our unit. As most of you have figured out by now, your bodies have undergone a mysterious transformation, hypothesized as a result of coming into contact with that world. You can feel your body is stronger, you can lift more weight, and you can run faster than an elite athlete. However, your body is still far from the level of a guard; in fact, ten of you might not be able to match a single one of my guards. Norman here is, however, grew even stronger than you, and you're probably assuming he is genetically enhanced. But he is not. He has shared with us the secret to his power. Pay attention! He has confessed that if you eat the meat of animals from the other world, your body becomes even stronger."

Down in the crowd, Ace listened but could feel his mind begin to drift apart. He still hoped that Norman had been tortured and that’s why he had confessed this to the military. Although Ace knew that the secret would be found eventually, he hoped it wouldn’t be so soon.

But this was not his biggest worry. If Norman had confessed the meat was the source of his strength, what else had he told them?

Colonel Biran continued, "Despite weighing only one hundred and thirty pounds, Norman can lift ten times as much and run faster than a car. His chances of survival have increased by more than a thousand times due to his mighty body. But this is not all. When Norman was in that world, he discovered the body of what we now call a Hyper Wolf."

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"A large beast that can run faster than a sports car, and with the power to fight an entire army brigade."

Ace could feel his entire world crumbling, and he heard from his side a muffled sob. When he turned to Mira, he saw tears welling up in her eyes and could see her body shake.

He heard her mutter, "I told Albert to guard the meat with his life. What have I done!"

Ace realized that his plan to grow strong had been completely foiled and held no more hope of ever seeing the wolf meat again. As much as he hoped Norman was on his side, he knew deep down that he’d been betrayed by his own nature.

When he first arrived back on Earth, he knew he had a limited amount of time to figure out how to get enough cash and safely store the meat, and so he went to Norman for help.

He did this because he greedily wanted to keep all the meat, all two thousand pounds of it. If he had been more realistic and kept his ambition low to only a couple hundred pounds, he could have found a way to keep some of it without telling Norman. But he wanted all of it for himself. Now all the meat he had left was the one slowly being digested by his stomach.

He had bitten off more than he could chew, and now he was paying the price. The colonel’s voice boomed in his head.

"Miraculously, Norman only ate a single pound of this meat to grow this strong. But this next fact is going to shock you: he brought back with him two thousand pounds of this meat. Because of this revelation, and with the information we now possess thanks to Norman’s sincerity, we gifted him twenty pounds of Hyper Wolf meat, and elevated his rank from Cadet all the way to Private. An enormous leap in status."

"This allows him to have access to superior living conditions, and if he pleases, even have a companion in his room. I’m sure he will have no problems finding one with how valiant and brave Norman is."

The colonel was talking about Norman as if he were presenting his own son. He had a hopeful look in his eyes, as if he were encouraging everyone to follow in his footsteps.

"He will also be gifted special armor and weapons that are superior in quality to the ones the normal cadets are given, to match his heightened status. He was also awarded one thousand points for the wolf meat, one thousand points for the information that meat can increase the strength of the body, and one thousand points for his honesty and integrity."

"But don’t be fooled into thinking it’s this easy to accumulate points. After all, information can only be shared once. To provide context, one thousand points can improve your rank from Cadet to Private, and two thousand points from Private to a Two-Star Private. Three thousand points for Three-Star Private, at which point you will be allowed access outside of the base. For example, if Norman wishes, he could buy the rank of Three-Star Private and go home to see his family."

"With this information in mind, I hope you all will work hard and help this base learn as much as possible from that world. If you have any information that you think might be valuable, please do not hesitate to contact the Science Department and share with them what you know."

Colonel Biran then pointed to the side to a row of terminals. "Those are terminals that let you access the internal base store. You can exchange for cold weapons and armor among many other things, most being much more valuable than the basic items you will be provided."

"Now, with all that out of the way, I would like to announce a competition. A simple and direct test of strength to quickly figure out who has the highest chances of survival for the next transmigration. The top one thousand among all of you will receive one pound of Hyper Wolf meat, to further increase your odds of survival."

Boom!

The whole crowd erupted into cheers, and one could see the light of hope ignite in many of the people present. But at the same time, many women and older men couldn’t help but hope that the method of testing would take into account variables such as gender or age. Colonel Biran quickly dashed those hopes.

"The test will simply measure your punching power, and regardless of who you are or have been, the top one thousand will be rewarded. Norman will be the first to test his strength."

Colonel Biran and Norman both jumped from the twenty-foot-high platform, landing heavily on the ground, causing everyone in their vicinity to feel a tremble under their feet.

They then went to one of the corners of the plaza, where, in a long row, fifty punching machines were located.

Norman chose one at random and cocked his fist back. After about two seconds of silence, his hand shot forward, causing the air to whistle violently.

Boom!

Everyone in the plaza heard the impact, despite many not being able to see it. It sounded as if a car had smashed into the machine, not a human fist.

The machine, which was placed on top of tracks, was pushed back an entire foot, despite it weighing close to a ton.

The digital display located on the side of the machine momentarily displayed the icon of a clock, after which a string of numbers appeared. The number was one thousand and two hundred.

Most of the guards present nodded, as most of them, despite having basic genetic enhancements, could only strike a score of at most five hundred.

But Colonel Biran himself did not care about the number, but about the shock of the transmigrators who witnessed Norman’s strength. If anyone was ambivalent about the test before, that indifference would have disappeared when they saw what one pound of meat could do—making a stringy teenager capable of pushing a one-ton machine with a single punch. And if they got into the top one thousand, they could have this power as well. How much would such strength improve their odds of survival?