章 2: The Soul System (edited)
After they completed the work for the evening, Henry and the others all headed straight for the dormitories that had been prepared for them, after eating dinner. The rooms were not well maintained and looked shabby. All the same, none of the youths complained as they jumped on the already worn-out mattresses.
Henry and Adam were sharing a bunker bed. Adam slept on the one that was at the top while Henry on the one that was at the bottom. They always had shifts on how they were sleeping on that bed. And today that was how they were supposed to sleep.
After lying on the bed, Henry finally began relaxing. Although he had always tried to make sure that he didn't lie on the floor during the times that he was working, that didn't mean that he wasn't tired or something like that. This was a chance that he always used to relax his tired body that had already begun getting sore.
As he was laying down, Henry began thinking about the way that life had been. Ever since they were brought over here, things had always been about working, doing the menial labour without salary. Even the meals were something that they would have wanted to complain about, but had nowhere that they could do that.
He had been here for more than a decade already and could be said to be a veteran amongst the youths that were here. All of them were males that could handle these kinds of jobs.
The people that owned the facility that they had been brought to had made several arrangements for them. There was a division when it came to the age. The older a person was, the difficult the tasks that he would be receiving.
As he grew up, he always wished to find a way that he could use to get out of here, but that was something that he had deemed impossible according to the current situation. There was a very tight security and there was know any kind of laziness amongst the ones that were on the guard duty.
So, the situation where he could snatch a gun and use it to pave his way out of the place was out of question. Not to mention that there were more than thirty armed men here and whether he really could deal with them, there was still a fact that he didn't know how to use the gun.
So, for all this while, he had always been trying to look for the weak points that were present in the facility so that he could use them to get out of here if there ever was a chance. But over the years, although he had mastered several layouts, shifts and patrol of the security, he had yet to get any chance that he could use to get out of here.
Just as he was deep in thought, Adam who was on the top bunker bed peeped down and asked, "If you got a chance to get out of here, would you seize it?"
Henry looked at Adam as if he was looking at a fool. He wondered where that question came from, as this was something that was obvious. If any of the youths that were in the dorms were asked about that, they would with no doubt agree immediately. This place was no different from a living hell.
When he saw that Henry wasn't replying, Adam could only sigh as he got back to the position that he was in. He was only trying to find something that could make Henry start talking as ever since the last conversation that they held last time, he had not talked again. And, he was getting bored by all the silence.
The two of them were not that close to the other youths. That was simply because none of the youths were close to others as there were times that they had no choice but to go against each other, especially during meals. Bullying was existent here.
Henry on the other hand closed his eyes as he tried to rest. Although he had been treating the work that he had been doing all this while as a form of exercise, due to the lack of a good meal, the muscles on his body had not developed by much. Had he gotten good nutrition during all these years, perhaps he might be amongst the top body builders.
But still, although he was not that muscular, the strength that he could exhibit was not something that could be underestimated at all.
Just as he was starting to sink into sleep, he suddenly felt the world around him rotating. In the next moment, he appeared in a place that was dark, where he couldn't even see himself. He frowned as he tried to know where he was.
"Hello?" Henry spoke, but there was no response other than the echoing of his own voice. He looked around and finally took a single step forward. He could feel that his feet were stepping on a solid ground but at the same time, it seemed soft.
As he walked for a few more meters, there was no any kind of response. He tried waving his hands around and tried a few other things but couldn't find anything.
Currently, his heart that had always been calm after being tempered in the facility for a long time finally began beating erratically. He wasn't sure, but he suddenly felt that he was being watched by someone in the boundless darkness.
He held his breath as he tried to listen if there was any other kind of sound in the surroundings. But even after waiting for a few minutes, there was no sound at all. But still, the feeling of being gazed upon didn't disappear.
After a few more minutes, Henry took a deep breath and threw everything to the back of his mind. He didn't even know how he had gotten here and neither did he know how he was supposed to get out of here.
Since that was the case, then he might as well start strolling around the place and see if he could be lucky to get to know where or what he could use to get out of here.
But after walking for a while, Henry finally realized that there was an abnormality on his body. Although he was tired before he got here, now, he felt that his body was suddenly filled with boundless strength. Although he wasn't sure about what had happened, he decided not to focus on that for the moment and find his way out.
He walked inside the darkness without knowing about the concept of time. He walked and walked without getting tired. That was of course physically. But still, mentally, he was getting tired due to the aimless walking in a place that he could see nothing at all.
Still, he hardened his resolve and continued walking towards a destination that he knew nothing about nor did he know where it was.
Just as he was continuing to walk, he suddenly felt the surroundings trembling. This was the first time that something like that happened ever since he came in here. He stopped walking as he became vigilant of his surroundings.
As he was standing still, light suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The darkness was being illuminated, but there was no source of the light in the surroundings.
Instead of the expected white light, the light that was illuminating the darkness this time was blood-red. It gave Henry an eerie feeling in his heart.
As time went by, the light that had been dim not long ago began brightening up and soon, the whole place was illuminated red. Henry could finally see his body at that moment and was surprised to find that he was actually stark naked right now.
Furthermore, he realized at the moment, something that he didn't realize even after a long period of time that he had spent here. There were actually no any environmental changes in the atmosphere, no wind, no high or low temperatures or the sort. It felt like he was just wearing clothes inside a house during a normal weather.
SCRATCH! SCRATCH! SCRATCH!
Just then, he was forced to look in front of him by the sounds of someone scratching a glass surface with a sharp object. And as he looked forward, he was suddenly stunned by what he saw.
In front of him, in the air, words began appearing one after the other. It was as if there was an invisible person that was writing there. This was a phenomenon that was out of the world. An invisible person writing on an invisible board.
Henry began reading the words that began appearing in front of him.
'THE SOUL SYSTEM!'
The words were written in blood-red and the words were bold. Even if Henry didn't want to see them, as long as he was looking in front of him, he couldn't miss the words that had appeared in front of him.
Furthermore, there was a pale blue screen that had appeared out of nowhere and had formed a rectangular frame that was around the words.
Just as he was wondering what the heck was going on, his mind suddenly blanked out and in the next moment, a huge amount of information was dumped into his mind.
The content of the information was something so shocking that Henry felt his scalp tingling. This was just unbelievable!
Just as he was beginning to process the huge amount of information, his mind suddenly blanked out again as the surroundings began to become blurry.
And in the next moment, everything went black as he passed out.
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