"Action!"
A young man sprinted through the field. He was dressed in torn clothes, with dark curly hair glistening under the harsh sunlight.
Aries was a third-year law student, studying to please his parents. If they found out he was acting, in a minor role no less, they would kill him.
But that didn't stop him from pursuing his passion.
He ran across the field just as the director had instructed, waiting for the explosion to—
BOOM!
Aries felt heat slam into his body. Pain assaulted him so sharply that his senses almost shut down, and he fell flat against the soil.
"Shitttttt," he screamed inwardly. "The director didn't say it would hurt like this."
'Why is it so painful?' he grimaced, reaching toward his waist only to feel something wet. 'The director didn't say it'd be a real explosion!'
He opened his eyes, which had closed from the force of the explosion, and instantly noticed something wrong. There was still smoke, so he couldn't see clearly, but he could feel it.
The sticky feeling was obvious. Blood.
And the pain? Too real.
He grimaced hard, teeth clenching, and as if that wasn't enough, his skin felt like it was on fire. Before, the sun had been warm. Why did it now feel like he was trapped in a desert?
And then, the smoke cleared.
Aries finally saw everything.
It was blood on his hand, mixed with mud. His body was covered with dirt, his face too. He looked around, and gasped widely.
'Did I faint on set and now I'm dreaming?' he thought, scanning the surroundings.
Before him were humanoid figures. Tigers and wolves beastmen, locked in battle. It shouldn't have fazed him; this was exactly the script he was acting. But this felt too real. He could see their real aggression. He could hear the guttural noises.
He squeezed his eyes shut. 'Am I actually dreaming? Did the director find a way to add effects on set already?'
Seconds passed and he couldn't keep track. Then the atmosphere shifted. He felt eyes on him, and the hairs on his body stood.
The wolf beast seemed to be losing and retreated. Now only the tiger beastmen remained.
Aries' heart hammered painfully as one of the tiger beastmen walked toward him, each step heavy on the ground.
'This is the time to wake up, right?' he screamed inwardly. Nothing happened.
He watched as the beastman shifted—fur retracting, form twisting into a humanoid shape with a striped tail and tiger ears. He stood before Aries and yanked him up from the ground.
"A—" A scream stopped halfway up Aries' throat.
Face-to-face with the beastman, Aries' thoughts ran wild. 'What the hell happened to my voice?'
But he had no time to think. He was thrown hard into the arms of another beastman, and his head spun.
The beastman's mouth moved, but Aries couldn't understand anything. His brain tugged and twisted until the meaning suddenly clicked.
"Take him as a captive."
"Me!"
Everything was like a film to Aries, except it wasn't. He was truly being taken captive in a world he didn't understand. He was tied to a seat, and the first wave of pain that hit him snapped him fully out of denial.
'I am not dreaming!' he screamed inwardly. And he didn't stop, at least inwardly as the torture continued.
The beastlord, the king, had instructed the beastman to throw him into prison and torture him.
And the beastman obeyed. They beat him, shook him, and used tools to inflict unbearable pain. His eyelids were swollen shut, his breathing ragged.
His heart bled. His mind barely functioned. He was on the verge of death.
'So I wasn't dreaming… and I somehow fell into another world just to get tortured before dying?'
'Is this the end?'
He cried inwardly, and suddenly, when life was about finally sparing him from the world's torture, a robotic voice sounded in his head:
[Initiating 1…30…58… Celestial Breeder System Unlocked]
[Host is now being healed by system]
[Host has been awarded 50 Celestial Energy.]
'Huh?' Aries couldn't fully comprehend it, maybe it was death playing tricks on him, but his wounds healed. Both the ones from Earth and the ones in this godforsaken world.
His sight returned. His hearing cleared. The torturer was now standing by the prison door.
Seeing all this, Aries finally focused inward.
'So… are you here to also torture me before I die? Or here to save me and bring me back to my world?'
No answer.
He sighed heavily. 'As it turns out, it's the latter. Let the torture begin.'
[Tiger Beastlord is approaching. Stay focused and try not to die!]
'Huh?' Aries lifted his head toward the prison gate and froze.
The same beastman from the battlefield stood there, now without war clothes, his striped fur gleaming in the dim light, no streaks of blood on his face.
Aries' eyes immediately caught his face—chiseled, sharp, impossibly handsome. High cheekbones, a strong jawline, brown eyes glowing with a predatory intensity. Every feature radiated power, yet there was an irresistible magnetic allure.
Then Aries noticed his stance. Broad shoulders squared, chest firm and muscular, arms capable of crushing or commanding with ease.
The Beastlord's presence alone seemed to bend the air around him, radiating raw strength as though he could topple twenty men without breaking a sweat. Yet to Aries, this flawless combination of danger and poise made him paradoxically… approachable.
Aries' mind raced. 'He looks approachable… maybe I should beg him… bro to bro. I might be useful.'
The Beastlord stepped forward, and contrary to Aries' plan, he grabbed him by the neck, his claws scratching at his fair skin.
Color drained from his face. He felt breathless. His hands clawed at the Beastlord's grip—
Then the Beastlord suddenly released him.
The robotic voice returned:
[Tigerlord wounds are too serious.
Celestial Energy depleted.
Host body and brain have been stressed—healing side effects detected.
Fainting in 1…40…50…]
'What?' Aries managed to say before his eyes shut.
And the Beastlord?
He was just as shocked as Aries—how had a strange wolfman healed his wounds in an instant?