Chapter 2: Journey's Start
Inside a white, padded room, a young boy named Jacob Faust rested on a metal bed. As he stirred from his slumber, he found himself dressed in nothing more than a jacket and jeans.
"Where did they send me to?" He asked himself. Now that he is awake he could not help but notice his surroundings. The only memory he could remember was a group of men taking him out of his academy and putting him in a van before all faded to black.
Cameras were set up on all corners of the room, giving him the creeps as they watched his every move. Unsure of who was watching or where they were right now.
Along the walls were tiny holes, their use unknown to Jacob. But with everything else he saw, it sure wasn't meant for something good.
But one wall had a long rectangular one-way window. Someone seemed to be watching him from behind it, but Jacob didn't care right now.
With a snap of his fingers, a screen appeared in front of him. It resembled an interface one would see in some basic RPG game, showing rank, energy, abilities, and other stats.
'Wonder if that glitch got fixed,' He thought
On the right side of it were abilities, and at this moment, he only had harvest, something meant for farming due to where he came from.
"Seems like everything is fine…-" Before he could snap the screen away, a small text box suddenly appeared at the very center, startling him and causing him to stumble back to his bed.
[Hello dear friend!$&#^#]
White-coloured text appeared out of nowhere. Jacob squinted his eyes and struggled to look.
[We shall have a very good time today!$^#^]
"Great, this glitch isn't gone yet!" He shouted in frustration.
His memories started to return, and he began to remember why those men came to his academy.
What was supposed to be a day of finally unlocking his system, only became a day of confusion as this weird text thing kept appearing over and over again, making him confused as to what was happening.
When he was lost as to what to do, those men arrived, kidnapped him, and threw him here, in this strange padded room with small holes and cameras and whatnot!
A voice echoed throughout the room from a speaker in the corner.
"Subject Jacob, may you step near the door please," A stern male voice ordered. Jacob looked at the thick metal door in front of him, with a single slot to put food and items through and no windows.
"When they said they'd give me a better life out of that damn city, this wasn't what I was expecting." He muttered, recalling what the men said before taking him to a van.
Standing just a few steps from the door, he heard something jiggle and a loud click.
The door grinded open, revealing a small team of researchers donning lab coats, and other more mysterious figures covered in black armor, resembling soldiers. The only thing he could see was their green eyes.
"Greetings, I assume you know why you're here?" A young woman from the researchers asked, holding a screen pad and phone.
"No, none of you told me that part," The woman sighed in defeat after hearing his response.
"Man, those guys are idiots," She regained her composure and took a deep breath, "In short, you're an anomaly. Like what you said, a glitch."
"Is that good or bad?" Jacob asked, the girl tilted her hand in uncertainty, still holding the phone.
"Ehh, as long as we train you right. We already ran some tests so we can let you out. Come," Jacob stepped out of his cell to the outside, unsure of where he was at the moment or what else they'd do to him.
The black-clothed soldiers and other researchers stepped away from Jacob, all except the woman.
"Right this way, we'll get you some more stuff and you can begin training," She gestured to him to follow her.
They walked down a large hall filled with screens and tables covered with different equipment. The place resembled some futuristic laboratory.
On the way, the researcher typed away on her phone, seemingly very focused on it, unlike the others who had their eyes beamed on Jacob.
"What is this place?"
"Let's just say it's somewhere normal people aren't allowed to go to," She mockingly replied.
'Well that was helpful,' Along the way, Jacob saw other researchers running around, some giving him confused looks.
After a while, she stopped and turned to Jacob.
"Mind showing that screen again?" He snapped his fingers, revealing the screen he saw earlier.
But unlike in the room, the text didn't appear.
"Everything looks normal right now, odd. This isn't like what we saw in the padded room." She explained before turning back and walking forward again.
"Who are you?" Jacob asked.
"Curious one aren't you?" The woman replied, "My name is Clara, senior researcher and task manager. I was assigned to lead you and train you," She explained. Jacob didn't know what more he needed to know about the system right now aside from that text.
Everyone already had the same stats and abilities when they unlocked it on their 18th birthday, was the odd glitch that special to them?
"What's so special about this thing anyway?" Jacob asked. The woman sighed again and pocketed her phone.
"That text box you see is only for tasks that give you money when you become 18, not for weird texts from someone, or something," She explained.
The rest of their walk was filled with an awkward silence. Jacob felt the cold wind of the many air conditioners hit him, thanking himself for wearing a jacket before he got sent here.
They reached a white gate, guarded by more of those dark-clothed guards, this time though they carried advanced spears and crossbows, ready to fight if needed.
With a single dismissive wave, the gate's center twisted and slowly began to open. It revealed another room, a small lounge with couches and a table in the middle.
"Take a seat." Jacob awkwardly entered and quickly took a seat away from the others, still unsure of what was going on.
The woman cleared her throat and set the pad on the table.
"As you may know, you're in an odd place, and have a unique problem. That glitch in your task givers. This is a new anomaly we found, and wish to research further on it." She paused for a moment to catch her breath.
"Because of this, you have been sent here. We only want to learn further about this glitch, and hope it may strengthen our city." She sat down across Jacob, crossing her legs while still looking at him. The deal felt nice for Jacob, but he was still worried about what may happen next.
"Is that all?" The woman chuckled at his question.
"As you may know, there's a war, for this you shall be conscripted as a special asset once your training and research is completed."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Razemaker
Razemaker 2nd chapter and hope you enjoyed! Leave a stone or comment!
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