n

n

nSmall disclaimer : Some parts of this may be disturbing for some. I'm warning you in advance. (well, although I say this, I'm not really sure how disturbing it is. But I'll put this just in case.)

n---

nBam—!

n

"khhh

"

n

"Take your food and eat it.

"

nThrowing the tray filled with food on the floor, Mark looked at subject 876 with disgust. Exactly two days had passed since he started to be in charge of subject 876, and although he always ate his food, he never showed any reactions to his abuse and beatings.

nThis annoyed Mark quite a bit. There was simply no fun in abusing someone that showed no reaction.

nEven though this was supposed to be something to treat his stress, it was starting to annoy him more than actually helping him.

n

"Tsk, how boring.

"

nKicking, subject 876 on the foot, Mark decided to call it quits for today. Stepping out of the room, he smashed the door behind him.

nClank—!

n*

nAn hour passed since then.

n

"Huuu...

"

nOpening my eyes, I exhaled. At this point, the effects of Monarch's indifference had worn off and my mana was completely depleted.

nHolding onto the wall, I weakly stood up. Making my way towards the toilet, I sat down. With my whole body shaking, I bit my tongue and patiently waited for my body to do its business.

n'Please let this be the one...'

nI repeatedly muttered inside of my head.

nPlop—!

nEventually, a splashing sound reached my ears. My eyes lit up as a result of the sound.

n

"khhh...

"

nGritting my teeth, standing up slightly, I reached my hand downwards. Towards the bottom of the toilet. This was the third time that I had done this. The previous three trials had all ended up in failure.

nFeeling a slightly mushy feeling in my hand, my stomach churned in disgust. Even so, I was not discouraged. Moving my hand around the toilet, I tried to feel anything hard.

n

"——!

"

nAfter searching for a minute, I finally felt something hard. My eyes lit up.

nSplash—!

nRemoving my hand from the toilet, a black bracelet appeared in my hands.

n'F-finally...'

nStaring at the bracelet in my hands, I was almost unable to hold back my emotions. But, I couldn't help it.

nThe light had finally shone in the dark tunnel that I could see no end of. I could now hope. I could now hope for a tomorrow in this hellish place.

n

"Khhh..

"

nBiting my lowering lip, tears had started to gather in the corner of my eyes.

nRight when the explosion started, I knew that there was a high chance I would get caught by the Monolith. Desperate, whilst channeling mana inside of the Monolith ring, I put my bracelet inside of my mouth and swallowed.

nThis was my last hope. Thankfully it paid off.

nSplash—!

nWalking towards the sink, I turned the tap on and washed the bracelet. After thoroughly washing the bracelet, waiting ten minutes, and channeling the last bit of mana in me, I instantly took out two lower-graded potions from my watch.

nGulp—! Gulp—!

nUncapping them, I quickly downed them. Instantly, my mind which was slowing down with each passing day cleared up. My injuries also showed visible signs of improvement.

n

"H-hello?

"

nOpening my mouth, I tried to say something. Though groggy, my voice finally came out. Biting my lower lip, the edges of my lips curved upwards slightly.

n

"I-I can f-finally speak.

"

nIt was only after I spent three days like this that I realized that I had taken too many things for granted in my life.

nI had taken my voice for granted. Only after losing it for the past three days did I realize how important it was for me.

n

"huuu...

"

nTaking a deep breath, I tried to calm my erratic emotions. Now was not the time for me to get emotional. I had other priorities to take care of.

n'five hours...'

nThat was how much time I had at my disposal.

nAt the six-hour mark, the guard would come back with the food. Thinking of the guard, my teeth clenched.

n'...when I get out of here. I'll definitely make sure to kill him first.'

nFor what he put me through these past few days, I was definitely going to make him pay. Just the thought of him caused my blood to boil.

n...but of course, that wasn't anywhere near the rage I felt for someone else.

nAaron.

nKrrrr. Krrrr.

nThe sound of my teeth grinding together echoed across the room.

nJust the thought of him caused my eyes to turn red. Everything that I was going through was because of him. If not for him, none of this would've happened.

n'If I ever get out of this place, I swear on my life, that I'll kill you!'

nThis was a promise I was intending to keep.

n

"Haaa...haaa...

"

nTaking deep breaths, I forcefully calmed down my rage. I needed to keep my feelings bottled up for now. My priority, for now, was escaping.

nRevenge or any other thoughts were secondary.

nWeakly lifting my body and walking up towards the bed, I took out an energy bar from my bracelet and quickly devoured it.

nBecause I had to focus on keeping my mind sane right after each dose, my food always ended up being cold. Furthermore, because of my injuries, the food was some sort of paste. It tasted terrible.

n—Fwau.

nTapping on my bracelet, a small transparent glass container appeared in my hand. Inside of it was a dark green liquid.

n

"Mother's kiss...

"

nAn extremely potent poison that upon ingestion could even cause rank creatures to die. It was something that I had found back in Immorra.

n

"huuu.

"

nStaring at the liquid in my hand, I long exhale escaped from my lips. What I was about to do next was going to be very gruesome.

n—Fwau.

nOnce again tapping on my bracelet, a small dagger appeared in my hand. There was another feature of the mother kiss poison. It could be used to scar someone's face. To the point where only an incredibly expensive potion could heal scars.

nMother's kiss was only truly dangerous upon ingestion. If not ingested, it would seep into the skin scarring it completely.

nThat's right. I was about to scar my face to the point where only an incredibly expensive potion or lotion could heal me.

nAfter having spent the last three days thinking about how to get out of this place, I realized that three months wasn't enough time for me.

nIf I wanted to get out of this place, I neeed to make thorough preparations. For that I needed time. I estimated that within two months my face would've healed enough.

nEnough for them to finally recognize me.

nI couldn't allow that to happen.

nTherefore.

nTaking out a couple of pain killers from my pocket, I directly shoved them in my mouth.

n

"khhuuu...

"

nPatiently waiting for ten minutes, and feeling the effects of the pain killers kick in, with shaking hands, I brought the knife closer to my face.

n

"khhuuuua!

"

nA muffled scream escaped from my lips. Despite my attempts at being quiet, a scream couldn't help but escape from my mouth.

n'I wanna die...I wanna die..I wanna die...'

nScarring my face with the knife, I repeated those words inside of my mind. The pain was unbearable. It felt as though I had millions of needles puncturing my face at the same time. The pain was even worse than when I was being burnt alive.

nThe reason I was doing this whilst my face was still burnt was because no one would notice anything if I did it now. By the time my face healed up, it would be covered in scars.

nDrip—! Drip—!

nBlood seeped down from my lips as I bit them as hard as I could. Many times I almost passed out, but thinking about my family and my friends, I persevered.

nIf this was the price I needed to pay to get out of this place and reunited with the ones I was close with then so be it. I was prepared to do anything to get out of this place.

n

"khhuuuua!

"

nFor the next couple of hours or so, pained muffled screams resounded across the room.

nRegardless of how much pain I felt, I continued to persevere.

n***

nSince then a week had passed.

nApart from the usual routine of shots and abuse, nothing in particular happened. Fortunately, I now had my bracelet with me. It was filled with potions. With it, I didn't need to worry about my mind getting eroded.

nUnfortunately.

nThe number of potions inside of my bracelet was limited. This once again reminded me that I had a limited amount of time to get out of this place.

nIf by the time I used up all of my potions, I wasn't able to escape, I was practically doomed. It was as simple as that.

nFurthermore, because I would always swallow my bracelet back each time I used it, I had to wait two to three days for it to travel through my body.

nGiven that there weren't any places to hide the bracelet, it was the only thing I could do.

nIf by chance they found out that I had the bracelet with me, they would not only find out my identity, they would also get rid of my last hope at surviving this place.

nThere was no way I was going to let that happen.

nEspecially not after what I had done to myself a week ago.

nClank—!

nDisrupting me out of my thoughts was the sound of the door smashing open.

n

"876, the professor is calling for you.

"

nThe guard shouted as he entered the room.

n

"Hurry up and get ready, I was ordered to escort you there.

"

n

"...

"

nWithout saying anything and staring at the guard who had suddenly shown up in the room, I weakly stood up.

n

"Hurry up

"

nGrabbing the side of my shirt, the guard shoved me forward.

n

"When the professor is calling for you, 876, you need to be there as fast as possible! Now follow me.

"

nThe guard then turned right. Silently following from behind him, I tried to memorize everything.

nFrom the layout of the place to the corridors we were walking on. Not one single detail was missed. If I wanted to get out of this place, every little detail was crucial.

n

"Alright, we're here.

"

nArriving before a familiar room, the guard stopped right at the door.

nTo Tok—!

nHe then knocked on the door.

nClank—!

nBefore long the door opened and a familiar face showed up. It was the assistant that I met during the first day here.

n

"Oh, it's you.

"

nLooking at me, he enthusiastically said

n

"Come in.

"

nHe then turned around and walked towards one of the cabinets. Heeding his orders, I slowly walked into the room. Just as my foot stepped past the door that led to the room, closing my eyes I muttered inside of my head.

n'Monarch's indifference.'

n