Full of expectations for the afterlife, Zachary Collins slowly opened his eyes.

Upon glancing around the room, his mixed emotions rapidly transitioned to pure confusion and fear.

The human shaped monster, known as Halt Ingral, lazily glanced at him while he rested against the doorframe.

“Y-y-you, I thought you killed me?” Zach Stammered.

“Hah, it would be beneath me to kill a bug like you. Anyway, things don’t work back like they did on your tiny rock anymore. If your Health Points or HP does not fall to zero, it is possible to recover from anything.”

Noticing Zach’s shocked expression, Halt, who was rather amused, continued.

 “In retrospect wasting, even the shittiest of health potions on you is quite a crime. But, the retarded-expression you made when you first opened your eyes made it all worth it.”

“HP? Like from a video game? How is that possible?”

Mocking smile fading into a mask of seriousness, Halt replied.

“Most places besides your home-planet are part of something called the Complex. Any life form which enters the Complex will become part of it. It is easier to experience it than have it explained to you, try thinking: “Select Profession” and you will understand.”

Playing along, Zach repeated, in his mind, “Select Profession”.

Suddenly a message bubble, visible only to him, popped up.

After nearly falling over in surprise Zach began to read it.

Greetings Zachary Collins!

Since this is your first time contacting the complex you must pick a Profession.

Would you like to be a Warrior or a Mage?

Pushing his petty-wishes for magic aside, he made the rational choice and mentally-selected Warrior.

In his excitement Zach noticed a screen pop up, replacing the message bubble.

There were several tabs on the screen including Map, Condition, Self, and Friends list.

Curiously selecting self, he read the content of the screen:

Zachary Collins

Warrior Level 0

HP: 100 Health represents how far you are from death.

Stamina: 100 Stamina represents your ability to perform actions, including usage of battle aura.

Current Stats:

Strength: 6 Strength represents your ability to produce force.

Precision: 10 Precision represents your accuracy and timing.

Vitality: 7 Vitality represents health regen, bodily toughness.

Endurance: 8 Endurance represents stamina regen and bodily toughness.

Reaction: 12 Represents your ability to respond to events physically and mentally.

Perception: 15 Perception represents your ability to learn, and sense danger.

Skills:

None

Seeing his disproportionately low strength Zach felt some embarrassment. Though he was skinny he knew his lack of muscle would make him poor at hand to hand combat.

Halt, noticing Zach’s disappointed expression, inferred that he was looking at his stats. Assuming that the brat’s stats were truly garbage; Halt’s patience started to wear thin.

Now that the Complex had quantified Zach’s stats Halt leveraged the massive level difference to directly inspect Zach.

Halt mentally-cringed upon seeing how pathetic Zach’s strength was. Was this maggot even a man? At least his precision was not as low as his other stats. However, his expression rapidly changed to one of surprise.

Halt was surprised by the brat’s reaction stat being 12; which is quite excellent. However, when he saw his perception stat of 15 he was absolutely mind-boggled.

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Halt had received a briefing-report from HQ prior to heading over to meet Zach.

Zach’s excellent affinity for Battle Aura was enough to qualify for advanced warrior training but was nothing special by itself. However, this brat also had excellent affinities for Earth and Space.

Dual affinities were uncommon, but not hard to find. However, individuals with dual excellent affinities were quite rare. Even more so dual excellent affinities which complemented each other so well.

These factors barely justified HQ asking one of their upper warriors to personally train Zach. Therefore, even though Halt would do it, he saw training Zach to be a total waste of his time.

However, after seeing Zach’s stats his opinion couldn’t help but change. Perception and reaction were not like normal stats; they could not be increased by leveling up.

Reaction-time could only be improved by lucky chances and combat experience, and perception was even harder to improve. Only very rare lucky chances and mental-breakthroughs could result in increases to perception.

Recruit’s base reaction stats were checked when judging talent, and recruits with high natural perception were always highly valued.

Quickly covering his surprise, and determining that he would put more effort into training this recruit, Halt addressed Zach.

“Brat your stats are garbage! Why is your strength so low? Are you even a man? Since you are too weak to harm a fly you will be doing intense strength training, and body conditioning, for most of this month!”

Feeling too embarrassed to retort, but also wondering when he had been elevated from “Maggot” to “Brat,” Zach nodded his head.

After grunting his approval Halt proceeded to exit the room while giving some final advice.

“Get some rest for the next few hours, you will need to muster all of your pathetic strength for your morning training.”

Feeling a mixture of excitement and dread Zach once again laid down in bed, marveling at how ironic it was that he was once again attempting to sleep.

**********************************************************

Zach was awoken, once again, by a loud noise as his “master” threw open the door.

“What time is it?” Zach asked in a drowsy voice.

“It’s time to train! And call me “Master Ingral” from now on! Unless you want to eat your own guts for breakfast!” Halt belted out.

After drawing the painfully-obvious mental comparison between Halt and a drill sergeant, Zach reluctantly got out of bed.

As he stood up Zach noticed that Halt was somehow now holding some clothes.

“Hurry the hell up and put these on. Now.”

Ignoring the discomfort of changing in front of the small angry man, Zach quickly changed into the clothes given to him.

The outfit was simple and all black. The pants were like very thin sweatpants and the shirt was long sleeved but very breathable. Fingerless gloves and thick black work boots were also included, likely for protection.

Halt’s expression darkened upon seeing Zach change. He was the epitome of scrawny, not to mention he looked like even more of a dandy when wearing actual clothing and not pajamas.

“Follow me,” Halt grumbled.

Regardless of the difference in leg length, Zach struggled to keep up with him as he followed into the all-white hall.

Halt tossed something to Zach, mid stride, and started to speak.

“This is your breakfast, it should provide you with plenty of energy for today’s training. You will do strength-training and conditioning in the morning, followed by aura training, and you will finish-off your days with combat training. This will be your life for the next month.”

Hearing his upcoming training-menu Zach was glad that the strange jerky he had been given for breakfast had filled him with energy.

It was quite a peculiar feeling eating the strange meat. He felt like he had consumed a combination of coffee and steroids.

Moments after Zach had finished the last of the jerky, Halt led him into a room.

The room was an indoor biome roughly the size of a football field. The ground was solid-rock with many boulders and pebbles scattered around. There was also a small pool in the center of the room; which was filled with some sort of red liquid.

Seeing Halt’s evil smile Zach shuddered. 

“Welcome to your new home Brat. Let’s start with some basic conditioning, gather ten of the heaviest rocks you can lift here. If you take too long I will double the amount.”

Shocked by the difficulty of his task, yet pressed for time, Zach rushed towards the closest medium sized rock.

Exerting as much strength as he could, and directly using a portion of his stamina, Zach barely managed to lift the boulder. After getting it a couple of inches off the ground, Zach began waddling towards the location Halt had designated.

As he was hunched over, he suddenly felt a searing hot pain in his back. Zach instantly dropped the boulder and fought the urge to scream.

He turned around, clutching his now bleeding back in agony, only to find a small bloody pebble between his feet. Zach shuddered when he realized that he had lost ten health from Halt flicking a pebble at him.

Giving Halt a questioning, and clearly pained look, Zach waited for him to speak.

“What the hell would be the point of carrying rocks if you squat down like you are on the shitter while you do it? Carry the rocks above your head and do lunges over here! If you slack, expect to feel some more pain.” Halt said while smiling evilly.

Shuddering, Zach walked over to a smaller rock and shakily hoisted it above his head.

Arms and core burning, Zach lifted a smaller rock and took his first shaky lunge forward. Feeling his legs nearly give out, Zach barely managed to straighten his legs again.

Steeling himself, Zach took another shaky step forward, and then another… After an enormous amount of effort, Zach managed to reach the designated location and dropped the rock.

Zach knew he could barely complete the task within the given period. Cursing Halt’s ability to judge his physical condition and stamina usage, he continued…

After gathering the rocks Halt, who had been meditating nearby, finally stood up, while wearing a dangerously serious expression, and addressed him.

“For the next part of your training, it is necessary for me to put you through immense pain. However, the first time will be the worst, and afterward, you will understand its value.”

Halt slowly approached the now terrified Zach then before Zach could react Halt grabbed his arm and squeezed.

As he heard multiple cracking noises come from his left arm Zach was unable to prevent himself from screaming out in alarm and pain.

Halt mercilessly broke almost every bone in Zach’s body; he even inflicted slight trauma to his skull.

Red flashing messages appeared upon the barely conscious Zach’s screen.

WARNING LOW HP IF HEALTH REACHES 0 DEATH WILL ENSUE!!!

As the barely conscious Zach noticed his measly HP of 1, an even greater pain rapidly woke him.

Zach found himself floating in the red pool, however floating was a rather gentle way of describing his current circumstance.

It felt like he was being cooked from the inside out! His entire body felt like it was melting in a fire!

Zach was unable to prevent tears of pain from streaming down his face as he continuously screamed.

Suddenly, through teary eyes, Zach saw multiple message bubbles pop up…