The emergency alarms had been screaming in the east corridor of the USARD wing when a five-man team finally arrived.
They were a squad of four F-rank Players, led by an E-rank Player for these kinds of moments.
They had been on this job together for three years, but never had they gotten an E-rank containment alert in the research wing.
USARD wasn’t even authorized to house live specimens above F-rank; the lower labs were all designed for weakened beasts under heavy suppression.
Reaching the research unit, they quickly realized the reinforced doors were locked tight.
It took a barrage of heavy attacks to smash through the steel, and what they saw inside made them gasp.
The lab was a complete ruin.
Broken equipment, shattered glass, and wrecked containment units littered the floor.
But even worse was the monster itself: lying lifeless in the center of the room with a dark pool of blood spreading beneath it was the Goreboar.
The squad hesitated at the threshold, apprehensive to step inside.
Only after their E-rank leader took the initiative did the others fall into step behind him.
"Over here!" one of the Players called out, stepping over debris near a smashed console. "I found someone."
The team moved over to check. It was the technician guy, pinned against the wall. His chest was caved in and his lab coat was soaked in blood.
It was expected that a life would be lost in an incident like this, but they still held a brief moment of silence for him.
"If the guy is dead... what killed the beast then? Did it kill itself?" one of the F-rank Players muttered, staring back at the carcass.
He was still wondering when another Player, who had been searching the far side of the lab on his own, paused near a collapsed shelf.
"Hey... get over here!" he shouted, waving his hand frantically. "Quickly!"
Lying face down on the blood-soaked tile was a young man with distinct white hair. His clothes were drenched in blood, yet his body showed no visible jnjury. The Player knelt, pressing two fingers to the youth’s neck, and felt a faint pulse.
The rest of the squad rushed over. "What is it?"
"I think he’s alive!"
They exchanged relieved looks, but one of the team members frowned. "That doesn’t add up though. If he’s alive, does that mean he killed the beast? I’m confused."
"It’s obvious what happened," the E-rank leader replied, studying the white-haired youth closely.
"I think he awakened."
The squad looked at each other in surprise. "Wow... So you’re saying Resurgence? That was unexpected."
"I’m as surprised as you are," the leader said. "The odd thing is that he’s a non-combatant. For a civilian to hold off an E-rank beast long enough to trigger Awakening... that’s extremely rare."
The squad agreed and concluded that getting him medical help was the priority. As paramedics took over the scene, the leader adjusted his gear and prepared to head out.
"I’ll file a report with the Investigation Bureau," he announced before leaving. "Just in case."
***
blink, blink
Max eyes finally opened, and he recognized where he was immediately. It wasn’t a new place to him, but this was only the second time he had ever been here.
’The academy hospital, huh?’
Ordinary people didn’t get the luxury of coming here often due to the astronomical cost of treatment for non-Players.
It boasted the best healthcare in the country; after all, what regular doctor could outmatch a Player who could heal severe injuries just by chanting an incantation or laying on hands?
’Pretty sick world we live in,’ Max thought with a dry smile.
Then, his memories came rushing back. That prompted him to wiggle his legs, and his smile grew wider.
"Hold on... I didn’t die. And that must mean..."
It felt almost impossible, but when he closed his eyes, he felt a distinct connection between his body and the energy hum in the room.
He was awakened now!
"So I really became a Player?"
Max was grinning wildly. He had spent most of his life telling anyone who asked that he had no interest in awakening, that physical combat was for people who couldn’t do arithmetic, and that he’d rather understand a monster than punch one.
But Max was also a liar.
Hell yes, he wanted to become a Player. It was stupid not to wish for it.
Since the Descent, Players were revered as the heroes of humanity. Even presidents and world leaders who hadn’t awakened eventually had to bow to the authority of top Players.
That was just what it meant. Players got money, power, good insurance, high status, longer lifespans, and better health.
And above all, they got to fight monsters.
Max salivated at that thought.
He had spent so much time studying monsters, yet getting hands-on access to a live specimen had been nearly impossible.
After today’s disaster, he doubted the academy would ever let him touch one again.
Unless he was a Player.
Even the very academy he studied in was structured around becoming a Player.
Max had spent three years walking past the training facilities every day on his way to the labs trying to ignore that.
Awakening required a life-or-death encounter, so the only reliable method anyone had found in fifty years was to put a person in front of a monster and let the situation resolve itself.
Because of this, the government relied on low-rated F-rank Gates as their training pathway.
Even then, an F-rank monster was still a monster, and a normal eighteen-year-old with a spear was still just a normal eighteen-year-old.
That was why the academies came first. They included three years of combat courses, Gate tactics, and mana theory, all aimed at a single moment after your eighteenth birthday: walking up to a Gate where you either came back a Player or didn’t come back at all.
Max had qualified for the academic track via a scholarship alone. The Player Student track cost five thousand credits—equivalent to $10,000 USD—a semester. Even with testing programs for the less privileged, applicants needed a baseline of physical fitness and combat ability that Max simply lacked.
’And now I have it anyway,’ he thought with another smile.
His good mood lasted a few moments longer before reality crashed back in.
’Dammit... my research work ended in failure.’ Max suddenly facepalmed. He had been so sure he was getting it right this time, but reality had other plans. Now they were surely going to dispose of his proposal like the previous ones and cast him away.
’Sigh. The only silver lining is that I survived, thanks to Resurgence and my Awakening.’
Resurgence was a phenomenon humans still couldn’t fully explain. The moment the System registered a Player, their body was restored and flooded with power that didn’t belong to it, allowing them to handle whatever threat brought on their near-death situation. It was the exact reason he felt so rejuvenated and alive right now.
Max stretched out his hand. He had been deliberating for too long and still hadn’t figured out what sort of class he had awakened. After all, there were still some almost useless classes out there, and he had only one way to find out his.
’Status!’