Manny woke up in a white room that resembled a hospital.
'Did I... did I faint?'
Manny felt an intense confusion. The last memory he possessed placed him within the Military Facility. He was confused about how he ended up like this.
The woman with glasses came in from the door that opened.
"Let's proceed." She walked towards the computer inside that white room.
"Wha—Wait wait waait... Is there someone there? Can we talk? What's gonna happen to me?" Manny shouted desperately, confused by his predicament. He only wanted a few answers. He even tried to move his body, but he could not. It was as if his whole body was paralyzed. The only thing he could look at was the white ceiling.
"Emmanuel, your Mother applied you here, didn't she? Were you not informed?" As the Lady sat down on her swiveling chair.
The Selection was not forced; it needed consent from the participants.
"Yes, I know. My mother applied me, but I don't know exactly what to do." Manny pleaded for the lady to understand him.
"They didn't teach you in school what happens during Selection?" The Lady asked him again. Still, her voice and tone were emotionless. But just sounded a little bit curious.
"I... never went to school..." Manny said with a tone of shame. Even if it was not his fault that he never went to school, whenever he remembered his situation and his family, he felt pity for himself.
"Oh. I see... Then I'll briefly explain it to you before we proceed with this." The Lady stood up from her chair. Her footsteps can be heard.
"Selection will give you trials, in a computerized virtual reality. It would be like playing a game. Exciting, isn't it? We already wired your entire nervous system to the system and all we have to do is log you inside the game with a press of a button." The Lady walked closer to where Manny lay. She held a tablet in her hand. She showed the screen to Manny.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH. WHAT... WHAT IS THIS???" Manny screamed in panic. He forced himself to fight. His body could not move, no matter how hard he tried.
"Your entire nervous system is already connected to a computer." The Lady was very calm while answering all these questions.
What was on the tablet was a photo of how Manny looked. His entire body was cut open. All the wires were directly connected to his nerves. A sight so terrifying to look at, while he was conscious.
"Don't be terrified, or you'll pass out. We need you conscious right now so we can get your consciousness transferred to the Selection." The Lady said in a very emotionless, calm voice.
***
All the participants of the said Selection were usually informed and prepared for it.
The Selection had a long, cold memory for those who could not bear the sight of their own, a sudden and total severance between the mind and a body it no longer recognized as its own.
In the early cycles, there was a candidate named Aris, a man of disciplined logic who believed himself ready for the Selection. When the tablet was first shown to him, with the image of his own viscera—exposed, pinned, and weeping around a lattice of copper wires—his logic did not save him. The optic nerve transmitted the horror faster than his reason could dull it. His heart couldn't take it.
The Lady had watched multiple deaths. She remembered a girl whose pulse spiked into a lethal, frantic rhythm the moment she saw her own body cut open. These failures were filed away as incompatibility, discarded once their own consciousness gave up on them.
****
"What... will... happen to me?" Manny asked a question again. He just wanted to hear that he would be fine. His tone asked for hope.
"You will be okay. As I said, it's like playing a game. If you survive the Selection, it means you are compatible for a blessed artifact. Good luck to you." The Lady answered the question while walking back to the computer.
"What happens... If I die inside?" Manny asked the Lady, and it sounded like he was losing hope. He never prepared for this. He knew his chances for survival were low. It was basically a suicide mission.
The Lady in a lab coat didn't answer that question. As she pressed the button on the computer, Manny's consciousness got transferred to the Selection.
***
A sight of stars—beautiful stars—was what Manny saw the moment he arrived inside this world. He lay on a hard surface, a concrete surface. He did not know if he would choose to move or just accept his fate to die inside this world. He noticed that he could move his body. He looked around. He saw that he was trapped in an enclosed area. He made an effort to stand and check the surroundings. While he lay there, he noticed the dried-up blood on his head, which had also spread to the spot where he had lain.
He was wearing old, rugged clothing. It was dirty, like he was a slave. He was used to a hard life, but this was another level.
Still, his left arm was not there.
He noticed he was alone where he woke up, but there was a path that looked like an exit. Fire was the only light illuminating this place. He followed the path that he thought was the exit. As he walked, he saw other people his age sleeping too.
Are they here because of the Selection? Same as me?
He was not so sure about those thoughts, so he did not bother to wake them. He just went straight to the path that looked like the way out.
If he went out, he did not know where he would go. He thought about that, but he did not care anymore except to know what was happening.
Even here, his left arm was still missing.
He thought to himself, but he accepted it. Since he was used to living his whole childhood without a left arm.
"Shhh..."
Manny heard a voice behind him. The voice of a girl his age. Manny looked back with confusion and was surprised when he saw this girl.
"Don't make too much noise." The girl same height as him intentionally lowering her voice.
She looked like she was hiding from something.
Manny didn't even dare to make a single noise; he just nodded to the girl.
The girl dragged his right arm to a secluded area, back to where he spawned.
"What do you think you're doing? You're gonna put us all in danger?" The girl vented her anger to Manny.
"What??... I'm so... Sorry." Manny felt ashamed when he heard that. He apologized for being ignorant about the situation that he now understands.
"Sorry?? Didn't you hear what the Obsiris said when they brought us here? If we ever try to escape, they'll kill everyone. Are you stupid?" The girl was still angry while grabbing Manny's right arm.
"Obsiris? Kill?" Manny replied in a confused manner as he really had no idea where he was and what Obsiris were; he figured they might be a group of murderers who captured them.
"YES, KILL. IF YOU WANT TO DIE DON'T DRAG US INTO IT." The girl fuming with her eyes glaring intensely to Manny. Stomping the ground in the process.
The girl looked at the ground as she stepped on something.
The dried-up pool of blood that was enough to kill someone from blood loss.
"Is this your blood?" The girl looked at him closely and remembered something from earlier. "It was you? The one the Obsiris hit earlier? I thought that person is already dead from that hit." The girl averted her gaze from Manny, She looked on an empty space, to the puddle of dried-up blood.
"Ummm, I don't know what you're talking about... I just got here in this world... I'm not really from here." Manny answered, meanwhile he was confused about what she told him. He couldn't have possibly died as he was right there, clearly alive.
"Amnesia...? That explains it." The girl calmed down from her harsh attitude earlier.
She now thought Manny had amnesia.
"Uh uh... Yeah..." Manny answered, realizing it was probably better to just go along with the situation.
"So, what do you remember?" She let go of the arm that she was grabbing so intensely earlier.
"All I know is I woke up right here. That's all."
Manny replied truthfully as he didn't want any misunderstanding to occur anymore.
"Oh," the girl visibly shocked.
She totally thought he had amnesia.
"But I still somewhat remember my name. I'm Manny," Manny said as he pretended to really just have amnesia. He didn't want to confuse them further in their situation; as it was already hard to understand, he didn't want to confuse the girl he was talking to either.
"That's good enough to remember I guess. Your memory could come back anytime. We could also find your family using your name if we ever come out here alive... I hope we really do come out here... alive... Even though the chances are low. Maybe we could just wait for the heroes to rescue us." The girl slumped to the ground, her knees suddenly lost it's strength.
"What's your name?" Manny sat down, he noticed her emotions from the reality they were in. Manny confirmed from their small conversation that she was from this world, not a person from Earth where he came from.
"I'm Vesperine Vane," she answered, though her mood remained the same. The feeling of hopelessness reached Manny himself as he suddenly thought that if he died here, he would also be dead in real life. The priority was to survive.
"Those heroes... are they strong?" Manny mentioned the heroes as he was interested if they were the only hope they could have, squeezed every possibility of survival inside his brain.
"Yes, they are... Once they're here we will be safe. The Obsiris are nothing to them." Vesperine grabbed both of Manny's shoulders.
She was also given hope by that very same fact that she believed the heroes would surely save them. Her mood improved.
"Do you think they will come soon? Even at this time?" Manny asked her a question while pointing up to the dark sky, pointing out the time. To ensure whether the possibility of heroes coming into this place would be the hope they truly clung to.
"They... will. I think. I hope." Vesperine is directly looking at Manny's eyes. Her eyes were full of hope and brimming with newfound energy.
The door that Manny was supposed to approach earlier—they heard it open. They heard footsteps.
They heard two Obsiris talking as they entered the enclosure.
"The princess is gone?" One was counting those who are sleeping.
"How could she escape? You are guarding the door right?" The other is just there, looking at his companion.
'Princess?'
Manny realized that Vesperine was a princess. He looked at her. She was intensely looking and listening to the conversation of the two Obsiris.
"Didn't the boss say we should kill all of them if someone tried to escape? Can I just eat them right here? I'm starving," while tightening his grip on the large cleaver he held.
"WAIT. I'M JUST HERE!" Vesperine said in a loud voice, almost screaming, and she hurried to get the attention of the Obsiris.
"Don't kill them, we didn't try to escape, we were just talking there, we don't want to disturb their sleep," Manny said while he followed Vesperine's run toward where the Obsiris were.
He finally saw what the Obsiris looked like. They had horns and they were built just like normal humans but with bigger frames and muscles. Their skin was also red and they had faces that looked like pigs.
'If I were to physically fight one of these guys, I will definitely die.'
Manny thought to himself. He would never try to try his chances against these creatures. He was physically weak, frail, and on top of all, he only got one arm.
"The princess is here." One obsiris turned his head, while looking at the other.
"Boss said, they are forbidden to be touched. Just check if anyone is trying to escape," the other told his companion as if only the two of them were talking. They ignored the existence of Manny and Vesperine.
"Then let's tell the boss the princess planned to escape," he said it smiling.
"I guess the boss won't mind if we taste a little midnight snack,"The other obsiris understood what his companion meant.
The two Obsiris looked at those sleeping earlier, who were now awake because of the conversation. Fear was clearly visible on their faces.
One Obsiris picked up a girl who was on the floor and sliced her body using his right hand which held a large cleaver. With the sharpness of the cleaver and the strength of the Obsiris, one swipe of the arm sliced the girl immediately. The Obsiris sucked the blood dripping from the girl's half-body.
This scene unfolded in front of Manny's eyes.