The court has finalized the death sentence for the criminal Ethan Winterbell for the deaths of innocent lives lost in the recent blast at the eastern seaport.
The military judge didn't even flinch when delivering the death sentence for Ethan, whose hands were tied and mouth shut for the crime that shook the country like a storm.
Ethan, who had served as a special forces soldier, was in utter shock. He was tied in a way that he couldn't even move, with a wrap around his body.
"From helping the criminals, smuggling military explosives, weapons, and providing them resources that caused the incident, Ethan Winterbell is hereby sentenced to death within a week, with immediate execution."
The judge gave his judgment without giving Ethan a single chance to prove his innocence, as if he didn't even deserve the chance.
"Captain Smith Bowler, for your bravery and intelligence, you will be awarded a promotion. Congratulations." The judge ended his verdict by giving a promotion to the man who risked his life exposing Ethan's crimes.
But was it the truth? What was the real story hidden behind the false fabrication of Ethan Winterbell, a soldier who became the prey of internal politics or corruption?
...
In the military prison, where not even a small bug could crawl inside, the young man with a cold expression on his face remembered everything that happened to him.
Three months ago, he was tasked with a private case by his direct superior, Captain Smith Bowler. His mission was to infiltrate the gang, collect evidence, and return.
However, soon enough, with a sudden raid from the army and an accidental explosion at the eastern seaport that took over 22 lives, some of the gang members were killed in front of him, while the rest were arrested.
Ethan was among them. He easily surrendered, revealing his identity, and waited for Captain Smith to clear the misunderstanding. However, things suddenly took a U-turn when Ethan found out that the raid was conducted based on Captain Smith's intel.
While Ethan was arrested as an accomplice of the gang that caused the blast, and when he tried to prove his innocence, Captain Smith himself presented evidence against Ethan for smuggling military weapons, including the explosives that caused the blast.
As if the whole unit was corrupted, Ethan was court-martialed and sentenced to death.
His hands trembled in anger. "Smith Bowler, you'll die a dog's death!" he muttered, knowing that it was all orchestrated by Captain Smith Bowler for a promotion, at the cost of Ethan's career and the many innocent lives lost during the incident.
However, Ethan's anger wasn't just directed at Captain Smith, but towards the military, who didn't even give him a chance to prove his innocence, proving that they were all connected to the case.
This was the last day of Ethan's life, meaning he was going to be executed the next day, but he wasn't troubled by his imminent death. Instead, he was saddened that he wouldn't be able to see his little sister whom he hadn't met since she was hospitalized, and he joined the military to support her treatment.
If not for financial problems, he might not have given a thought to joining the military, but with the promise of enough funds, which he could use to support his sister's treatment, he signed up for the military. He hadn't thought that his decision would become his worst nightmare.
Now he couldn't even meet her, and just thinking about it was gnawing at him very deeply.
His anger turned into sadness which he couldn't even share with anyone, inside his dark cell, when suddenly he felt a tremor, as if the whole military facility was shaking.
"What... is going on?" He stumbled back, as the scale of the tremor rose before everything once again went still.
Just as Ethan recovered from the shock, he saw something unbelievable in front of his eyes: a portal, the size of a human, materialized in front of him, followed by a message he heard.
[CHOSEN ONE]
[ENTER THE DESOLATE WORLD]
It was hard to believe, but everything was in front of his eyes, which was impossible to ignore.
The blue aura coming from the portal was magical, something Ethan had never seen before, but what shocked him most was the message he heard in his head.
"It was calling me? It wants me to enter the Desolate World through this... I guess it's a portal like in the movies?"
Stunned, Ethan stepped forward, but the thought of his sister was gnawing at him again. With no idea where it would lead him, was he going to leave his sister behind?
But soon another realization hit him. This was his last day of life, and tomorrow was the day he would die, meaning leaving might give him a chance to live and even return, but not leaving was certain death.
As if he himself knew the answer, his legs started moving toward the shimmering portal, with his heart beating so fast that he could hear it clearly.
Ethan couldn't call it excitement, nor was it fear, but something he had never experienced before.
His body vanished from the dark prison, entering the void, but he only felt like he was stepping from one door to another when darkness enveloped his eyes.
Not even ten seconds had passed when he felt a change in the air, and his vision cleared once again. However, what he saw wasn't what Ethan had expected.
"I thought this would be some dead world, but it is!" Around him was a forest, a vast green forest with nothing but fresh air touching his skin, something he hadn't seen for days.
He looked around and found nothing, not even a single soul, thinking he was the only one there. Though oblivious to the fact that, like him, there were hundreds of humans summoned to this world.
"But where should I go?" Thinking this, he turned only to find that the portal behind him had vanished, and now he was really in this unknown world with no purpose.
"I don't believe we were summoned here without any purpose. Maybe I will know if I leave this forest?" Ethan thought, and then began moving when he heard a rustle from the nearby bush.
This made his trained instincts tingle, as he stepped back. "Huh! It's just a rabbit."
He, in an offensive stance, was ready for whatever was in the bush, believing that anything could be here. But then a white snowy rabbit jumped out of the bush.
"But something is strange... usually animals like rabbits run when they encounter humans, but here this little thing is staring at me..."
Ethan felt something wasn't right, but then he thought maybe the beasts of this world might be different from the ones he knew.
Which made him lower his guard and step forward toward the rabbit, which suddenly jumped toward Ethan. However, something changed.
The rabbit's mouth swelled and became bigger with its monstrous canines, ready to bite Ethan.
"Oh shit!" Ethan cursed, and dodged just before the big monstrous mouth that could have crushed half of his body.
The rabbit hopped, turning for another attack, while Ethan—vigilant as ever—again avoided. His training as a special forces soldier was paying off, but the situation was something he had never encountered in his life.
Betrayal, death sentence, strange portal, and now a tiny rabbit with a mouth like a tiger was coming at him, and his instincts were yelling at him that if he didn't get rid of the rabbit, he was going to die here.
The rabbit, on the other hand, was persistent. It kept bouncing at Ethan with quick speed but always missed by inches due to the trained reflexes of Ethan, who finally decided to do something.
As the creature lunged again, jaws unhinged, Ethan sidestepped and side-kicked. His bare foot connected solidly with the creature's midsection.
Thwack.
The beast didn't just stumble; it was launched backward through the air like a ragdoll, completely limp. It hit a tree trunk with a comical SQUEAK—like a rubber chew toy being stepped on—before sliding down to the roots, motionless.
Ethan stood frozen, leg still slightly raised, blinking in confusion as he looked at the dead creature.
"That... that was it?" he whispered, shocked that a monster with such terrifying jaws was actually so fragile, proving that in the end, it was still a rabbit.
Ethan stared at the lifeless white ball of fur, his chest heaving slightly. Not from exhaustion, but from the sheer absurdity of the situation.
One moment he was a death row inmate waiting for the gallows, and the next, he was kicking a mutant rabbit in a mysterious forest.
"This... this is insane," he muttered, reaching out to touch the dead creature to see if it was even real.
But before his fingers could graze the soft fur, a sharp, high-pitched ring pierced his ears, causing him to wince and clutch his head. It was the same sensation as before, back in the military prison.
Zzzzt.
The air in front of him distorted before a translucent blue light flickered into existence. It hovered right at his eye level, unmoving even when he turned his head away in surprise.
Then, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind again, devoid of any emotion.
[FIRST KILL CONFIRMED.]
[INITIALIZING SYSTEM INTERFACE...]
The flickering light stabilized, expanding into a rectangular holographic window. Ethan blinked, realizing that the text floating in the air wasn't a hallucination. It looked exactly like the status windows in the video games he used to play with his squadmates during downtime.
...
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Ethan Winterbell
Race: Monster (None)
Gene Level: 1 (0/100 EXP)
Class: None
Title: None
Health (HP): 100/100
Mana (MP): 50/50
[ATTRIBUTES]
Strength: 12
Agility: 14
Stamina: 11
Intelligence: 9
Sense: 15
[SKILLS]
Passive: [Military CQC (Level 3)], [Firearm Mastery (Level 4)]
Active: None
...
Ethan rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things wrong. He read the second line again.
"Race... Monster?"
He looked down at his hands, then at his legs. He was still wearing his prison uniform. He still had ten fingers and ten toes. He felt completely human.
"Is this thing broken? I'm a human, dammit!" he shouted at the floating blue screen. "And what the hell is a Gene Level?"