In a shinny single cell a middle aged man woke up disoriented.
His clothes were changed to a pair of white shirt and pants, his hair and beard were shaved and he felt like mr. truck had taken him for a ride to another world.
(Wha-what the hell is going on...?)
Looking around he notices he is laying in a single bad, the only furniture available in this single cell.
The walls around him seem to be made of metal aside from a single one made of glass. He looks through the glass and sees a corridor extending from right to left full of cells like his.
(Fuck! Did I get captured by some organ traffickers or something?)
"Hey! What is going on? Where are we?"
Apollo tried to talk to the guy in the cell in front of him, but the guy doesn't answer.
"Hello! Can you hear me!?"
Apollo rises his voice, but the man ignores him yet again.
"Fuck, man! Answer me!"
Apollo shouts with all his strength but the man didn't react at all.
"Damn! Is this guy deaf!?"
Suddenly the other man notices his movement and approaches his own glass wall. Apollo, excited for finally receiving some attention, shouts out loud.
"Finally! Now answer me! What is going on?"
But the man answers with mimic instead. He hits his finger on the glass, then points his finger on his hears and crosses both arms while shaking his head.
(What do you mean...?)
The man sees that Apollo is still confuse and shouts something but Apollo doesn't hear any sound at all.
.
..
...
"FUCK! You mean this glass is sound proof!?"
The man seem to understand what Apollo had said and nods his head, agreeing with him.
What happens after is an exchange of signs to try to hold a conversation but since none of them knew sign language so the exchange proved to be almost as useful as all the shouting before.
Even so, Apollo learned that the man was just as lost as he was and also had no idea what was going on.
(Well, at least I'm not the only one...)
-
Time went on and finally a change happened in the cells. From the back walls a hole suddenly opened up and a bracer appeared along a message.
[Please put on the bracer]
[Those who don't put it will be eliminated]
A counter appeared above the hole showing 1 minute count down.
(What should I do? Should I put it? Hmm.... it seems like disobeying whoever captured me would be dangerous now, so let's cooperate.)
With that thought in mind Apollo approached the hole and put the bracer in his left wrist.
*Click*
A clicking sound was made and some short of needle shot out from the bracer, lightly piercing the wearer arm.
"Ouch! What the hell!?"
As if answering the question the bracer projected a virtual hologram showing the user's body status, like heart beating, pressure, weight and even what vitamins and minerals the body was lacking.
"Is this some kind of last gen health scanner??"
The screen was suddenly painted green and a message appeared.
[Approved! User registry complete!]
As for the guy in the cell in front of him a red message appeared instead.
[Reproved! User registry canceled!]
A gas was suddenly released in his cell and despite his desperate attempts to do something, the man soon fell unconscious on the floor.
This whole scene happening in front of him made Apollo afraid and at the same time glad he didn't suffer the same fate, though he didn't really had time to celebrate as his cell was soon filled with gas as well.
"What!? Why!? Wasn't I approved!?Hey! Stop! Someone! Help! HEEEELP!!!"
His shouts fell on deaf ears and soon he was in the land of dream as well.
-
At the same time, in the Monitoring Room, a scientist and his assistant were watching the candidates through the monitors.
"Haaa....It seems like none of the candidates read the contract."
"Can you blame them? Master's strategy was quite evil. Those who read it, even if they agreed with it, they would have no time to register as all vacancies were filled by those who didn't..."
"Well, yeah, but this will give us a big headache latter, you know. I can already imagine the huge number of lawyers coming after the company when this is all over. It would be a lot easier if all this mysterious bullshit was dropped and we explained them directly what this was all about."
"True, but Master said if they can't even face the unknown, they don't deserve to be part of the project."
"Haaa....Master is such a pain..."
"Yeah..."
"But at least he pays really well!"
"Yeah!"
"All right, all candidates are already asleep, send the disqualified ones out and the qualified ones to the health tanks, let's finish this as fast as possible as we have another twenty or so batches to test."
"Understood!"
-
Weeks went on without Apollo knowledge and finally he woke up again in a different room.
"Wha--t? I'm alive!?"
(Duh! Genius! Of course you are alive! If you weren't, you wouldn't be questioning yourself if you are alive or not!)
Apollo took a few seconds to recover his mind and finally started focusing on where he was.
(This is not the white cell from before... where am I?)
Instead of being in a white cell, the place he was located looked more like the insides of a escape pod and soon the whole room started trembling reinforcing this impression.
"Is this really a escape pod!? What the hell is going on!?"
The trembling intensified, getting stronger and stronger.
"Fuck! What the hell is going on!?"
Finally the trembling stopped and the feeling of falling started to be felt.
"I'm falling!? Wait!? Falling!? Was that trembling from entering the atmosphere!?"
Unfortunately there was no one to answer his questions, so all he could do was grab the walls and pray for the landing to be successful.
Minutes felt like hours and finally the capsule landing system activated, slowing down the descending speed, and a few minutes later the pod had successfully landed inside a valley almost fully covered by vegetation.
As the Pod's door opened, Apollo got out with his trembling legs, still feeling scared from the experience.
"Thanks God!.... It seems.... like..... I'm safe!"
One step, two steps, three steps...fall.
Apollo fell to his knees and began to vomit.
"Ugh....ugh....ugh....haaa...haaa...haaa..."
After taking a few seconds to recover his breath, Apollo sat on the grass and looked around.
"Fuck! Where the hell am I!?"
And as expected no one answered his question...
-
Above the atmosphere in a private space station orbiting the planet a meeting was taking place.
"How are the seeds?"
"They are all working perfectly, boss!"
"What about the monitoring system?"
"It's on stand by, waiting activation."
"Have all the candidates arrived safely at the testing ground?"
"Yes, Master! Aside the psychological burden, none of them had any problem!"
"Great! Activate the monitoring system! As soon as it's fully operational, initiate the second phase!"
"Understood!"
"Hahahahaha! People called me a fool, people said it was impossible, but look! After only 50 years of work and a few trillions spent we already reached the final stage! The true fools are the ones who underestimate the power of money! Now, let the game begin!"
-
Back inside the planet...
A female robotic voice sounded out of his bracer, scaring the shit out of Apollo.
[Loading Tutorial...]
"Tutorial??"
[Loading Complete!]
[Welcome to Golden Fang tournament!]
(Golden Fang tournament....)
"WAIT! GOLDEN FANG TOURNAMENT!?!?"
[The first phase will now begin!]
"STOP FUCKING AROUND AND EXPLAIN WHAT IS GOING ON TO ME!!!!!"