Xavier was seeing stars when he finally woke up. It was all he could think of or see. He groaned loudly, his head throbbing with pain as he opened his eyes to see the ceiling.
"Shit." He muttered. "What in the hell happened to me?"
His memory was a bit fuzzy in places, but then he remembered what happened. He was knocked out and was very badly hurt. He was completely outmatched and outclassed in every way. And not only that, he was knocked out by a shameless naked woman.
And now he was embarrassed to even think about it. It was truly infuriating.
"This is so annoying." He sighed, in frustration. "I need to leave this place."
He tried moving his body but nothing happened. His thoughts froze for a moment then he frowned and tried doing it again. Nothing happened. He couldn't move an inch.
'What's happening. " He thought. 'Why can't I move at all.
Thoughts flew through his head. 'Did that crazy woman paralyse him or use another ability. No, it doesn't seem like one.'
He tried to move himself, shaking rapidly, but he didn't budge. That was when he heard it, the loud, unmistakable sound of rattling chains.
His eyes widened in shock. 'No, no, no ,no no, no.'
He forced himself to look up, straining with effort. He saw a padlock and chains wrapped around his body, and he could also see his legs poking out. It didn't take him long to figure out he was chained. Again.
"I'm trapped again!" He spat in anger, now struggling against the chain with all his might. "Dammit! Why again!"
He struggled furiously, but it was no use. He was trapped. And he was hanging upside down like a slab of cow meat in a butcher's shop. He needed to get out.
With the limited use of his eyes he could muster, he stared at his surroundings hoping he didn't die from brain damage. He looked to see that he was in a room. A wide one at that. And what he saw made his blood run cold with fear and horror.
He saw standing pods filled with a suspicious green liquid that smelled bad and looked repulsive at the same time. It looked like acid, but he knew it wasn't by what he could see inside. He noticed a discoloured body part that resembled a leg from the hip down to the toes. The part was gray, with purple veins encircling and crossing it, like the toenails, a shade of blue. It resembled a human leg.
"What the hell is that?" He whispered in fear and horror.
He turned his eyes to see other pods resembling the first one. And what was inside was far worse. Heads, chest, arms, and even private parts were inside and reduced to different states of both colour and size. Then he saw things that nearly made him throw up. He saw a body hanging by the neck from a metal chain. Its body was pitch black, but he knew it had resembled a human. Horn sprouted from his head, and its eyes were pitch orange. Spit rolled out from his mouth and Xavier was not sure if it was dead or alive.
Another one with the colour of violet, six arms connected to the shoulder, with its eyes resembling those of a cat. The 'human' was big, muscular half-dead. It groaned softly as it was strapped to a board.
'Where did that crazy woman keep me?' He thought.
Then it hit him. The letter he read. The dead man had something about a base he had stumbled upon. A place where human experiments were held and it was F-ranks that had been kidnapped and brought here after they were banished here. And it had been going for years. And now he was the latest victim. Now he needed to escape before he became one of them.
"System." He called out. "This is not the time to be stingy or principled. Your host is about to die. You have to help me. Give me a weapon or something to use so I can escape."
[The host can only get a weapon from system-given missions, gifts, and completing the given experience of a weapon he possesses.]
"Then gift me, dammit! Or at least a mission or something. I'm about to die."
[If the host is not able to overcome this challenge, then he is not fit to possess the system. The system was not created to make things easier for you, it's meant to help you become better. The path to being powerful is through your determination and experience.]
Xavier was silent after reading the notification. It was understandable. It looked like he had to get out of this by himself.
The place was quiet except for the occasional sounds he heard from the green liquid in the pod. He silently equipped the gauntlets on his hands and began to pull the chain with all his might. The Zenrokushu Gauntlets' grip was impressive, and if it was able to smash into stones and rocks, then it could pull down a chain. The only problem was that he hoped the chains were not unique or mechanical or scientifically engineered not to be removed by brute force.
"I think this will work." He muttered to himself. "It has to. I'm not ready to either become a guinea pig or a freaking lab rat."
Just as he was in the process of removing the chain, he heard a whirring sound and suddenly a huge slab of rock began to open. Xavier, thinking fast, silently unequipped the gauntlets and returned to his usual position, which was upside down.
Xavier watched as a figure entered. It was the woman. The one that knocked him out. The one with the loud mouth. The one that was stark naked, and now she was staring at him with the face that penetrated his soul and sent shivers down his spine.
Xavier gulped as he watched her come forward.
" Hey, " She spoke. "You're awake." Then she smiled. "That's good."