Chapter 1: Prologue

’Shit shit shit! Why is this happening to me today of all days?’

I asked myself as I kept running, pushing my body to its extreme. I panted hard, raking in a large amount of oxygen – or whatever air this weird planet possessed that served as an equivalent for oxygen.

I could barely see what lay ahead, all gratitude given to this damned mist that seemed to encase the entire planet at night. The mist, dark and shadowy, was suspended in the air, like stale air. Tiny particles of dust kept getting sucked into my lungs alongside every breath I took, almost choking me, but that was actually the least of my problems.

The screeching sound behind me grew louder, a terrifying reminder that one of the unyielding predators of this planet had its eyes locked on me.

My Inventory Storage Bag hung loosely on my shoulder, running like a maniac caused the hard metal to crash against my thighs.

I made the mistake of peering behind me. I could see that the beast was already gaining on me, its feral yet alluring blue eyes locked on me through the mist. If I don’t move faster, I’d become dinner for a Lesser Beast. A damn Lesser Beast

"Bollocks!"

What was I even thinking? That I could outrun a beast? Even if it was just a weak Lesser Beast, thinking I could outrun it was a misguided thought. Actually, trying to outrun it was nothing but a fool’s errand.

I exhaled hard, my speed reducing gradually as I made up my mind. I may have to fight it one way or the other. Even if I could outrun it – a big assumption that was, per se – I’d only be leading it back to camp; a far worse consequence awaited me there if I did. So I decided against it.

A Lesser Beast was the weakest beast recorded on the database. A ten year old with a strong Rune Ability or weapon could slay a Lesser Beast without much work.

I am an 18 year old who had attained a certain level of combat training – I may not possess a powerful Rune power, but I had a pretty decent weapon. I could do this.

I stopped running completely. Tossing my Inventory Bag, it crashed with a thud, a quarter of it now buried on the red sand.

I slowly reached for something hanging on my waist but my gaze remained locked on the pair of glowing blue eyes somewhere in the mist

I could feel my heart pounding hard underneath my ribs. Beads of sweat trickled down my forehead as the beast got closer. My fingers wrapped around the hilt of the weapon beside my waist. I gulped, waiting for the right moment.

Then, a slicing sound ripped through the air as I pulled the weapon at my side, my trusty Dune Sword. The blade shimmered faintly under what little moonlight slipped through the mist, its edge humming with a low charge that pulsed in time with my heartbeat.

Dune-forged blades weren’t much to look at – thin, almost brittle-looking, but the moment I thumbed the stud on the hilt, a thread of raw energy would race down the length of it, and with the right swing, that energy left the blade entirely—an energy slash that could cut through most beasts.

The mist peeled back just enough for me to finally see what had been chasing me, and I almost wished it hadn’t.

It ran low on four thick legs, its body was armored in overlapping plates. A tail trailed behind it, long and sinuous, more snake than lizard.

That beast is Reptilian. I have read about them in the database, never actually seen one.

"Should’ve kept running," I muttered.

Too late for that now.

Upon approach, the beast’s tail came first. It whipped up out of the sand, aimed clean at my neck.

I dropped and rolled hard across the ground and the tail whipped into the spot where my body had been a half-second earlier.

That tail is the real threat.

Firming my grip on the sword, I pushed a button at the hilt and the blade lit gold.

"Screw your tail!"

With a single slash, energy broke out from the sword, cutting through the Reptilian’s tail. The severed length of tail hit the sand and kept twitching like it hadn’t gotten the news yet.

The Reptilian’s painful screech split the air and that shriek made my teeth ache.

Green blood sprayed from the open wound and rained on the ground. Right before my eyes, the red sand sizzled.

Acid!

Of course. Of course it had to be acid!

I threw myself sideways as a fat gout of the green blood arced toward my head.

If I don’t kill this creature, I’m dead. If I do kill it, I might get bathed in acidic blood.

What a fucking dilemma!

The beast recovered faster than I expected and I swear, I could see a facial expression—Rage. Pure, wounded rage.

Realization dawned on me that this creature was stronger than your regular Lesser Beast. If I wanted to kill this beast, I’d have to use ’The Probe.

I dug into my pocket and reached for the circular device.

I still didn’t fully understand what the thing did. I’d been handed a set of instructions when I got it and told, in no uncertain terms, to follow them exactly, so I did.

I pushed a few buttons and tossed it into the air. I sent a pulse of energy from my blade and the moment the energy touched the probe, a strange mechanical clicking erupted.

It was deafening to a point where I had to slap a hand over one ear just to think straight. Even the Reptilian froze, its head tilting toward the sound, momentarily forgetting I existed.

Then the probe suddenly shot forward like something had fired it from a gun.

It punched through the beast’s exposed stomach with a wet, tearing sound, burying itself deep. The Reptilian shrieked in pain as the probe drilled its way inside it. Then the clicking sound stopped.

The Reptilian, very pissed, glared at me.

Maybe I should have been informed that probes didn’t kill beasts. It only pissed them off even more!

I gripped the hilt of the dune sword with both hands, bracing for whatever came next.

I half expected the Reptilian to devour me in one single leap, but suddenly, its legs buckled. In response to that, its entire body crashed into the sand, it remained unmoving.

I paused, waiting for it to get back up, maybe this was some sort of ploy to get me to lower my guard, but it didn’t.

The Reptilian stayed sprawled across the ground. It wasn’t dead but it looked paralyzed.

So that was the main purpose of the probe? It didn’t kill, rather it immobilized.

Without wasting too much time, I strode over to where the Reptilian lay. Activating the energy pulse of the dune sword, I slashed as hard as I could. My target: the Reptilian’s neck.

A large amount of blood spluttered from the open wound, trickling down its neck.

The beast wasn’t insusceptible to its own acidic blood. Its skin burned as the blood gushed, eventually killing it.

The irony is uncanny.

Harvesting the crystals from every slain beast was a norm, but I think I’ll pass on the Reptilian. Although the crystal of an acidic beasts sounded like a good idea, I couldn’t risk it.

Exhaustion crawled up to my throat. The insurmountable adrenaline rush I got from fighting the beast had worn off, leaving me with the aftermath. I felt exhausted.

Barely a week spent on the terrain of this planet and I’d come face to face with death three times. I wondered how I was meant to survive the next seven years.

Thinking back to how I ended up here, a surge of rage ruptured my insides. My fists clenched as the image of the reason I ended up here displayed in my mind.

There was little to nothing that I could do about my current situation. The oppressive system of the New World never favoured peasants like me; especially one born without the Rune Gene.

Picking myself up, I decided it was time to return to camp – camp was simply a fancy word for prison.

This planet was a prison, each prisoner was allowed to explore the planet in search of anything useful to the government back on earth—minerals, beast crystals, beast remains, if the bones were strong enough to create a Dune Weapon.

Even as we risked our lives traversing the treacherous lands of a foreign planet, we weren’t allowed to keep anything for ourselves.

Today, I had only managed to carve out a single crystal from something even weaker than a mere Lesser Beast. The second beast I was successful in slaying was crumpled on the ground a few meters from me. Carving out its crystal was a death sentence.

I picked up my inventory pack from the ground. Dusting a bit of sand from it, I was about to resume my journey back to camp when I heard a faint mechanical sound.

The mechanics of such sound pointed to something putting itself together, but it didn’t sound like something I’ve ever heard from any machine or computer system.

What was it?

My brows furrowed, my eyes glanced sideways as I tried to pinpoint the exact source of this strange sound.

The red mist made it hard to see anything—to see what might be causing this disruption and the sound seemed to be coming in a different direction all at once.

A second sound soon accompanied the first. Something of a bellowing from something not human. A beast perhaps?

My pulse picked up immediately I realised a second beast might be stalking me. If my guess was right, this beast ought to be on a level above the Intermediate level.

My hand instinctively reached for the Dune Sword hanging on my waist.

This shouldn’t even be possible. There was no intermediate beast in a Blue-Zoned planet. Only lesser beasts roamed here.

If an intermediate level beast is stalking me, then an encounter with it would spell certain death for me.

Suddenly, the sound stopped. It felt abrupt, like something had interrupted it.

Whoosh!

The last thing I heard was a whooshing sound behind me. I had barely turned around when I felt something hard slam into my head. Everything went black and I felt my body connect with the sand.

But before I passed out, I saw something strange

►[ Congratulations! You have successfully acquired the Advanced Romulus System. System synchronization will commence soon. ]

◇◇◇

My vision blurred for half a second when I woke up.

How long was I out? An hour? A day?

The thought of that petrified me. A day out in the wild was more than enough time to become food for beasts.

My head was pounding, hard, but that didn’t stop me from seeing some sort of holographic screen in my field of vision.

►[ Advanced Romulus System synchronization complete. ]

►[ Host Compatibility Status: Compatible. ]

►[ Host seems to be currently serving a seven year sentence. Time served: Seven days. System will hibernate for the next six years, eleven months and twenty four days while the host serves out his sentence. ]

►[ A new system objective has been assigned: survive your prison sentence, avoid death, avoid trouble. ]

► [ Reward: full access to the ARS ]

"Am I dead?"