"Today is the day you all fill out your assignment preferences!" Teacher Javion announced seriously as he handed out the assignment forms to each student.
The whole classroom was filled with tension and fear. Everyone stared at the forms in front of them. Some even started crying, gripping their desks tightly.
"Teacher Javion, I don't want to graduate. I'm not ready to grow up!" a chubby boy sobbed.
"Teacher Javion, where will we be assigned? Is it safe there?" a timid girl asked, looking at Javion with hopeful eyes, begging for reassurance.
Bertram looked down at his assignment form, feeling a heavy sense of unease. This wasn't like the world he came from before he crossed over.
Back there, graduating from high school meant freedom. But in this world, graduation meant leaving the safe zone and going straight into dangerous areas.
A hundred years ago, peaceful cities were attacked by terrifying creatures from another dimension.
Brutal one-eyed giants smashed through doors, tearing apart anything in their way.
Fast and savage two-headed wolves roamed the streets, and enormous unicorn beasts could swallow helicopters whole.
There were also powerful humans from that dimension who destroyed entire cities without mercy.
Faced with this disaster, humanity was nearly wiped out.
Only one city managed to survive. That last stronghold was split into zones, surrounded by a buffer area protected by the military.
This city was humanity's final safe zone. Only people who had made huge contributions were allowed to live there.
People like Bertram and his classmates, whose parents didn't qualify, were protected by the Federation until they finished high school.
After graduation, they'd be sent out of the city to fight the creatures from the other world.
The power of those beings was way too much for normal humans to handle.
Only those who trained in martial arts or awakened special abilities could even stand a chance.
But both martial arts and awakening depended on talent. Every student was tested when they first came to the city.
Bertram's martial arts talent was rated F-level. He didn't have any special abilities at all.
The talent levels went from F, E, D, C, B, A, to S.
A person's talent level didn't just decide how fast they could train, but also how far they could go in the future.
And that was the scariest part.
For example, Bertram's F-level meant that even if he trained super hard his whole life, the best he could reach was still F-level. He had almost no chance of ever breaking into E-level.
And F-level was basically the weakest tier when it came to fighting the otherworldly creatures.
Even worse, Bertram hadn't even reached that level yet.
His class was just a normal one at the academy, and most of his classmates were in the same situation.
That made the upcoming assignment process even more depressing.
"Almost all the assignment locations are high-risk areas."
The last human city was called Dawn City, and the assignments weren't far from it. In fact, their whole purpose was to defend Dawn City.
Bertram took a deep breath. He had been preparing for this assignment day for a long time. After carefully studying past data, he found a few departments in certain areas that were relatively safer.
He picked up his pen and started filling out the form, praying that not too many people would pick the same ones. If too many applied and he wasn't chosen, he'd get assigned randomly.
Random assignment meant getting put into the Dawn Army—also called the Death Army—where half the new recruits didn't even make it through their first month.
As Bertram was filling out the form, a strange yellow metallic disk suddenly appeared in front of him.
It looked like a clock face with a bunch of detailed markings on it, and at the top, it had the words "Infinite Life."
Just as Bertram was confused, the metallic disk suddenly transmitted a burst of information.
---
Host: Bertram
Level: Unranked
Martial Arts Talent: F-level
Special Ability Talent: None
One unlimited life simulation available...
---
What does this mean? Could it be that my golden finger, after all these years, has finally remembered me?
Bertram's eyes lit up with excitement.
He was pretty familiar with life simulations.
They let you simulate your future based on your current situation and gave you helpful insights and references.
Right now, he was in the middle of filling out his placement preferences, super anxious about what would happen to him next. This golden finger couldn't have shown up at a better time. He could finally see if the choices he was about to make would actually work out.
Bertram put down his pen and activated the golden finger for his first unlimited life simulation. The bronze metallic disk began to spin like crazy, and soon, the first simulation appeared.
---
[Year Z100, June 12: You received the placement preference form that would decide your fate from your homeroom teacher, Mr. Javion. With a bit of hope, you filled in three relatively safe options you had researched ahead of time.
Year Z100, June 18: The results were announced.
First option: East Zone 25 Health Management Office — 3,025 applicants. You were not selected.
Second option: West Zone 16 Logistics Office — 4,321 applicants. You were not selected.
Third option: South Zone 2 Cleaning Department — a place that rarely hired anyone. You'd heard about an opening by chance and had the most hope for this one. There were only 3 applicants, and your final grades were the best among them. You were successfully selected.]
---
On June 22, Year Z100, you were thrilled to be officially assigned to the South Zone 2 Cleaning Department. It was a relatively safe place, and the annual rookie death rate had never gone over 20%. A lot of your classmates were jealous of you.
However, you soon received a notice that crushed your hopes: you failed the political review, and because of that, you couldn't join the Cleaning Department. You were going to be randomly assigned to the Dawn Army instead.
You were shocked. Your record was clean, and both of your parents were gone, so there was no reason for you to fail any review.
---
July 1, Year Z100: You officially joined the Dawn Army on a mission to eliminate the otherworldly creatures. You felt so wronged and angry. But while traveling with the team, you started to uncover what really happened.
Out of the three applicants for the Cleaning Department, someone named Hayden—who had ranked second—used some kind of unknown influence to replace you. You were powerless to do anything and got sent to the Dawn Army instead.
---
July 3, Year Z100: You were part of Dawn Army Squad 36. During a cleanup mission, your squad got surrounded by three two-headed wolves inside a house. You watched in horror as your teammates were killed one by one, their bodies ripped apart and eaten.
At that moment of life and death, something inside you broke through. You finally reached F-rank in martial arts.
But the sudden miracle didn't change much.
Even as an F-rank, you still weren't strong enough to beat three two-headed wolves.