Two hours later, Welter slowly regained his senses.
He groaned, blinking against the dim light of the room. To his surprise, the agonizing pain in his stomach had faded to a dull throb; his side had been expertly patched and bandaged. Standing directly over him was the Metropolis Combat Medic, packing medical supplies back into a tactical kit. A few feet away, the Metropolis Ranger stood guard, his assault rifle raised defensively.
The Ranger glanced down at him. "Explain where we are. This definitely isn't the Metro."
Welter carefully pushed himself upright and stood on shaky legs. He extended a hand, shaking both of their hands in turn. "To be honest, I have no clue what's going on. But assuming this floating blue screen is a system, I probably just unlocked some kind of power."
As if on cue, the floating translucent screen chimed. Text began scrolling smoothly across its surface.
[I am the Summoning System. You may summon all kinds of combat units from different video games. Currently, you only have access to units from the Metro game series.]
Welter stared at the text for a moment before pulling a worn notebook from his vest. It contained his personal sketches and detailed logs on how humanity had ended up trapped underground. He handed the notebook to the Ranger.
The Ranger flipped through the pages, his brow furrowing. "I see. So this massive planetary dome keeps the surface from heating up?"
Welter nodded grimly. "Yes. We shifted completely over to green energy, but the Earth naturally started to cool down afterward. When the global temperature dropped to freezing, humanity panicked and built the dome. It only made the problem worse."
The Ranger relaxed his posture slightly, handing the notebook back. "This place also seems to have a lot more variety in its mutant problem compared to home."
"Tell me about it," Welter muttered, tucking the book away. "We need to get back to the city."
The trio walked toward the heavy metal door. Welter cracked it open and peeked out, taking in the scorched blast marks and lingering gore left behind by the veteran soldier's noble sacrifice. The blast had successfully wiped out over half the swarm.
Stepping out into the main corridor, the group began the long trek back toward the checkpoint gate. The journey was relatively quiet. They encountered no major resistance, only fending off a few stray E-class mutants. E-class creatures were so weak that even a ten-year-old child could win a fight against a single one.
As the massive security gate came into view, the blue screen chimed once more in Welter's mind.
[System: Would you like to put 1x Metropolis Combat Medic and 1x Metropolis Ranger into storage?]
Welter formed a quick thought: Yes.
In a flash of light, both soldiers dissolved into particles, retreating back into his unit storage. Welter walked up to the heavy security barrier and banged loudly on the reinforced metal.
The gate groaned open. Welter stumbled inside, still instinctively clutching his stitched side. The station guards took one look at his blood-stained clothes and his missing squad mates, immediately realizing the grim reality of what had happened.
Within minutes, a base medic grabbed Welter and rushed him to the medical ward. He hadn't been resting long when the door flew open. Salme sprinted into the room, her face pale with worry.
"Are you okay?" she cried, rushing to his bedside. "Tell me you didn't get hit by a poison mutant!"
Welter smiled warmly, reaching out to squeeze her hand. "I'm fine, Salme. A passing wanderer patched me up out in the tunnels. The medicine he gave me is incredible—I'll be fully healed in a day."
───
True to his word, Welter was back in his private apartment twenty-four hours later. Sitting on the edge of his mattress, he stared intently at the glowing blue interface floating in the middle of his living room.
"Ummm... System?" Welter murmured.
The screen chimed instantly.
[System: What can I do for you?]
Welter's eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, you can actually talk?"
[System: Yes.]
Welter reached out and tapped the glass-like surface. "So you're really a system? Like the ones in the old fantasy web novels?"
[System: Yes, human.]
"Fascinating," Welter said, leaning in closer. "Tell me exactly what you can do."
[System: I allow my user to summon standard units from games and other forms of entertainment. This includes basic infantry, vehicles, and monsters. However, you cannot summon main characters or plot-important figures from those properties.]
The screen flickered, displaying detailed, rotating 3D models of the Metropolis Ranger he had summoned earlier.
[System: To summon them, points are required. To earn points, you must transport yourself into a randomized target world. When deploying, you could be dropped in as anything—a monster, a human, an animal, a male, or a female.]
Welter's face fell, his expression less than happy. "A female? Yeah, I'd really rather not."
[System: It is a rare occurrence, but the possibility exists. There is no need to worry; I will attempt to avoid that outcome. Consider it a routine disclaimer.]
Welter scratched the back of his neck, processing the information. "Do these target worlds include video games?"
[System: Yes. As well as movies, anime, major franchises, and entirely random dimensions—like a standard high-fantasy world.]
A wide smile finally broke across Welter's face. "That's amazing."
[System: Thank you, human. Your validation means something to me.]
Welter began clicking through the interface, exploring the various tabs. He found a Unit Shop and a Random World Generator page.
Under the world generator, a brief description read:
Generate World
You will be able to revisit major, plot-important worlds even after death. Minor, unimportant worlds will return to the generator pool upon your departure, with only a small mathematical probability of being rolled again.
Curious about his options, Welter clicked over to the Shop tab. A list of basic units from the Metro universe popped up, complete with their point costs:
• 1x Polis Ranger — 20 Points
• 4x Bandits — 20 Points
• 2x Lurkers — 10 Points
Welter scanned through a few more entries before his eyes locked onto a locked option at the very bottom of the page:
• Unlock New Game Units — 100 Points
Realizing he needed to start earning currency immediately.Welter navigated back to the main screen. He took a deep breath, hovered his hand over the glowing prompt, and firmly tapped the button.
[Generate World]
The screen flashed a brilliant, blinding gold.
[System: Generating world...]