[IN...ITIATI-G UNIVE-RSE ONE]
It ended with a quiet, sickening screech.
A low vibration that rushed through the floor of the building. The concrete walls of the boxing gym twisted and stretched like wet clay molding into a fragmented sky of darkness.
Leo glanced at this hands which he rudimentarily taped up from his last sparring session. The tape was gone and his hands were clean of any scrape almost betraying the damage he did to them.
They were unmarked. clean — wrong
Suddenly something invaded his mind it wasn't innate from himself but something else completely, It was a consciousness of unimaginable scale, a voice that was both ancient and newborn.
[P…ROV…ING // GROUNDS]
Leo clamped his hands over his ears to prevent the voice or sound whatever you could even call it. it wasn't even a thought. he didn't even dare to breath, but it was meaningless, this thing was absolute.
[ONE THOUSAND PARTICIPANTS]
Leo staggered, the words shook his whole body to the very core, it felt like language. but something about it felt incomplete. He looked around for anything of semblance to latch onto but the punching bag was painted into the void, its very atoms reclaimed.
A beat of silence, and then another thought.
[SURVIVAL IS YOUR ONLY OBJECTIVE]
---
Leo lay flat on a sea of sand, the air reeked of ash, surrounding him were glistening marble walls, looming to the horizon, there wasn't a sky, it wasn't darkness — it was the void..
with a quick glance, there was people, hundreds of them. Some were only kids in school uniforms, Some in gym clothing like himself, the system spared nobody..
Terror slowly crept up Leos face as reality seeped from his heart to his brain.
Trying to stumble out words or even a sound to express himself in the moment as-
[ROUND ONE // BEGIN]
Suddenly a plethora of weapons were scattered on the ground: knives, sharp shards of stone, even bows and arrows.
In the distance an ear piercing plea grabbed Leos attentions as he looked over to see another participant stab a young girl with a spear. It was as if humanity crumbled in that one moment as hell erupted.
[NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE]
Leo's body was running on primal instincts, he locked eyes with a middle aged man who had hastily gripped a jagged rock from the ground.
A moment passed... then two...
The man sprinted at him, flailing the rock with all the grace of an elephant.
Leo's body acted on his own, muscle memory from years in the ring, he closed the distance with a few swift steps and pivoted his lead leg and put every ounce of muscle fiber into one precise, brutal overhand. His fist connected with the temple.
The mans eyes instantly lost their gleam. It was silent, he slumped back crashing down on a rock with the back of his head, there wasn't any round two. He was gone..
Everything seemed to freeze, the smell of blood permeated through his nose and soaked the air in an almost palatable density. The System confirming it.
[ELIMINATION CONFIRMED]
....
[ESSENCE ABSORBED]
Leo lurked over the body as his chest was rapidly moving up and down, his whole body flowed with a new alien power, it felt as though he could feel his blood rushing through his veins, it was much more refined and quicker than before.
The lifeless corpse that stared right through him started glowing, it dissolved into atoms like the gym he was initially in, returning to the void or that thing.
Leo swallowed hard but the lump in his throat clung on.
"Did this thing just reward murder?" he thought to himself.
A tapestry of lights weaved together forming a screen of sorts in-front of him, floating just inches from his eyes, he stumbled backwards at the sight but it just followed him.
[SCANNING]
CLASS AWARDED > FIGHTER [COMMON]
F-GRADE HUMAN CONFIRMED
SCANNING ERROR--
FIGHTER [COMMON] UPGRADED > SANGUINE PUGILIST [RARE]
[VISION... GRANTED]
Suddenly, his was mind was being tampered with, it was being filled with not a voice, but a memory. A vivid vision started to unravel itself unto him as he was back in the ring his body bruised and battered, taking a jab in the heat of a match that almost knocked him out for good, but then his body started moving on its own, pain flared up in his body as his blood vessels surged feeling like fire in his veins, he wanted to scream but he had no voice.
Suddenly there was a loud pop, and a squelch as the his blood gathered in his fist and exploded when it landed on the face of his opponent, but he felt it. the raw source guiding his blood to the hand, flowing in that body of his.
The last thing he heard was his coach's or that things? voice "LEO DON'T FIGHT THE PAIN, I SAID DON'T FIGHT IT, LEO."
The vision shattered.
Leo was back in his own body shakily standing up from the cold sand beneath his feet, his entire body was on the verge of collapse from shock as he put his trembling hands up and held back his emotions, five more seconds he kept telling himself, he just had to be brave and survive another five.