"Are you sure that everything that we're doing is 'everything' that this kid must take? Every test seemed pointless. It has been eight years since we got any results from him."

Sighs filled with disappointment enveloped the room surrounded by different gadgets. Plastered on their faces were disbelief and dissatisfaction, as they had already been doing this for years, yet their test subject wasn't even showing any hope of a result.

"He's already 16 and yet he still hasn't shown any sign of awakening. This won't be any good as the funds have been focused on this... trash..." hissed one of the middle-aged men in the room who wore the exact same medical gown as the others. With the mask covering his mouth, he rumbled the words out of it.

"Such a shame... The strongest magician and the best healer have a son who is even useless at this point. The entire world would be shocked if they discovered this. Even if they knew that the kid was dead, they would still laugh at him if they know this."

"Enough with your complaints," the room's head scientist said authoritatively. He was staring deeply at the young boy who was lying down on the cold metallic table commonly used for dissection. "We still have one test to do. Even if it fails, we will not stop until we get an acceptable result."

"But," the head scientist hushed another scientist who was about to speak.

"I already said, enough. Continue the operation." The head scientist clicked on a button and spoke into a microphone, as before them was a wide glass window, which on the other side was the operation room containing the young boy they were using as a test subject.

The assistants that were standing at the sides of the young boy nodded. The young boy was oblivious to what everyone was talking about on the other side of the soundproof glass, although as he had heard different beeping sounds an uncountable number of times already, he knew that it was time for another experimentation session.

He closed his eyes as one of the assistants flicked the tube of the syringe, then inserted its needle into the tubes that were connecting his body to the small liquid containers bubbling above him.

The scientists continued to discuss their goals and expectations. In the meantime, the young boy, who had just been injected with another foreign liquid into his body, suddenly felt piercing pain.

The boy had black hair, fair skin, and deep eyes that had lost hope. His body appeared normal, but despite his appearance, he was weak and starving.

One of the experiments he had suffered was checking if he could survive starvation, and as he didn't show any result, the liquids above him were enough to keep him hydrated to at least keep him alive.

The red liquid flowed into his tubes, entering his body. It continued to invade his body, and he felt more pain, making him close his eyes.

This kind of torture was nothing to him. Compared to all the experiments he had experienced, this feeling was tolerable. However, there was one fact that he hadn't realized yet. As he was lacking in nutrition, and despite thinking that the pain was tolerable, he was suffering more.

"Gahhh!" the young boy shouted, and seeing through the glass window, the scientists were praying for him to awaken.

This was their last resort. Through the years, they had been giving light tests to him, slightly triggering the genes for him to awaken, but they couldn't trigger them, and furthermore, they couldn't identify the genes, which dragged their experiment longer and more anticipated.

But alas, they were just not as fortunate as they thought. The genes that the young boy had were still mysterious. They were even thinking that his genes might be just normal.

Stolen story; please report.

"Do you see any light?"

"No, I haven't seen any light in his eyes since earlier. He had been shouting for almost two minutes, but he hadn't awoken. Is the suffering sufficient enough for him to awaken?"

"We have no other way to determine his powers. Forcing him to awaken is the only way. Let us wait longer."

As the young boy shouted more, their hopes became higher. But, suddenly, the shouts stopped and his heart went flat. It was a fast-paced scenario for everyone. The assistants rushed to revive him, and while they were reviving him, disdain filled the eyes of the scientists.

"Still useless..."

"I had high hopes for him, but it turned out that he was just a reject. A normal human after all."

The solemn face of the head scientist reflected on the glass as he stared at the dying young boy inside. And as thirty seconds passed, and no sign of him reviving was visible, he turned his back and released a disappointed sigh.

"The chance of him reviving is low. He was malnourished, and even if he wasn't, he wouldn't have survived that strong serum. It was the prototype awakening serum, to force humans to awaken by triggering their genes. But, the downside is that if they can't awaken, their hearts will get attacked by the serum, eventually killing them."

The scientists nodded in unison and followed the head scientist. But before they could leave the room, the assistants tapped the glass, making the operators of the gadgets call the scientists.

They looked at the reason behind it. They stared at the lines that were going zigzag, up and down. And then, a smile slowly appeared on their faces.

"Even if you have already disappointed us, you won't disappoint your parents. You have tenacity; hence, it makes you special."

The young boy was successfully revived, and his heart rate became normal. As this scene was spectacular to the scientists, they built up the hope they had before.

"Bring that young boy to his chamber... He will have another experiment tomorrow."

***

'Why did I even survive that? I just want to die and be with my parents...'

The young boy's last bead of hope disappeared as he went from being dead to being revived a minute after.

He was in total despair, as his consciousness was being dragged by two people. He could see that he was being brought back to his chamber. He thought it was just another side of hell.

'Just kill me already... I don't have any chance to live anyway.' Despite being taken away from society at a very young age, he had a slight idea of feelings toward things. He wasn't totally ignorant that he knew the people surrounding him were just using him to have some hope of breaking through and use him as a tool in case he awakened.

But, what could he do? Escape? He had no chance as he didn't know this place. He just knew the distance between his chamber and the operation section. Furthermore, he wouldn't even find some help; the assistants were blind and deaf to his sufferings.

And just as he was now near his chamber, the assistant opened the systematic lock of his chamber. His chamber was just a small room of four meters in width, height, and length. Nothing special; there was just one camera installed to monitor him. After that, it was just a cold room.

As the young boy knew that he would enter his chamber again, he closed his eyes and was driven to the edge of his thoughts. Tears appeared in the corner of his eyes. He thought of escaping from this place. He had lost all of his reason, and that was the only thing that came into his head.

The assistants tapped the buttons, then a click sounded with the door opening. But, before they could even bring the young boy to enter his room, the lights suddenly went black. For some reason, electricity was nonexistent, as even the power generators weren't working.

This became the boy's opportunity. In the darkness, he heard the assistant murmuring about trouble because of the reason why the power generators didn't work.

The young boy moved his body, and only a thud could be heard, which made the assistants know that he had fallen.

The young man tried to crawl away from his chamber, but the assistants were unable to find him due to the darkness. However, when the lights came back on, they only saw him lying on the ground.

They looked at each other and moved to get him back to the table, but something happened that they didn't know what triggered it. Suddenly, his eyes lit up with white and one thing came into their minds: "Awakening."

A sudden explosion destroyed the surrounding area, tearing the bodies of the assistants into pieces and scattering concrete. But what was certain was that it built a way for him to escape, as the facility was just a one-story building.

Despite being designed for personnel to easily escape in case of emergencies, it wasn't for the test subjects. Around the facility was a watchtower, which was guarded by awakens.

But an unexpected occurrence occurred, and it was too late for them to know that the young boy had just escaped.