If I have fallen, it only means I've stood up before.

-------

Hello, our company is called Sigma.

You four are death row prisoners, but today is your lucky day... Or perhaps unlucky.

Us at Sigma have decided to buy you to work for us. We have some labs that have been taken over by monsters, causing us to lose the fruits of our research.

Since you all have Antisocial Personality Disorder, it should not be difficult for you to overcome your fear and relish in killing these monsters. After all, it's not like you haven't killed before, no?

If you reclaim a certain amount of our test results, you will even have the option to go free. Doesn't that sound great?

As our first team, we will name you Team Alpha. Now go and sweep the labs clean of monsters.

...Preferably before any of you kill each other.

...

Damien was unable to move. He, among three others, had many mechanical bindings, affixing them into a chair.

They were facing each other. The only thing missing to make the image complete was a table in the middle.

Once the intercom cut off, the four of them shifted their eyes back and forth, analyzing each other.

Their heads were held in place by metal plates while their mouths were covered with a tight mesh, bound to those metal plates.

Damien thought he might be dreaming, but knew realistically he could never come up with a dream like this.

When the voice on the intercom mentioned freedom, Damien's heart couldn't help but leap, even with the thick sarcasm that coated those words. The small fire of hope was lit. One that had died long ago as he counted down the days to his death.

Damien's first instinct was to assess his new teammates. Hearing that they were death row prisoners like him, he was already on guard. He had seen many people that were like him and knew that they were bad news.

Damien's eyes narrowed. It seemed his teammates had the same thoughts as him. If they were smart, it may be too difficult to take control of the situation.

There was a loud click before the four of them were slowly lowered along with a persistent whirring sound. After a good chunk of quality time spent with each other, the whirring stopped and the mechanical bindings released. The four of them were all wearing bright orange shirts and pants.

A door clicked open, but nobody went to go through it.

Many thoughts crossed Damien's mind, but ultimately, he decided to give up authority in order to avoid attracting aggression toward himself. He stood up but waited for someone else to speak.

The other three also stood up, but nobody spoke. For a moment the four of them were glaring at each other, a natural frown on their faces.

Eventually, the tallest of the group, roughly two meters, spoke up.

"Hey, my name is Adonis. So long as you don't do anything stupid, we can all be friends."

Adonis stood up to his full height, trying to tower over the rest of us. He was a young adult with long brown hair. He was decently muscular with his fists clenched and at his sides.

A middle-aged man with a thick black beard, standing at about one and eight-tenths of a meter, was next to speak.

"My name is Zenos, naturally, so long as nobody is a fool we won't have to waste our time."

Although he was not as muscular as Adonis, he was better than the average man his age. He kept his hands behind him and had his chest proudly puffed out.

Next was someone that appeared to be the type of person to go to college. He had blond hair and blue eyes. His face indicated that he was young and he was the same height as Zenos. There was a smirk on his face.

"The name's Killian, I can assure you I'm no fool, my only hope is that you all aren't just bark."

Adonis and Zenos narrowed their eyes. Killian did not seem concerned about their stares, opting to look back at the two of them with a reckless smirk.

Killian had kept one hand at his side while the other was picking at his nails.

Damien was the only one left. He was a few centimeters shorter than the rest. His hair was black and his eyes shone a deep blue.

"My name is Damien. Nice to meet you all."

Damien was standing there casually as if this was a meeting of old friends.

After one last look, Adonis was the first one to leave and the rest soon followed.

The four walked into a small room. There were four compartments labeled with each of their respective names on top. The labels were big and shone with a blue neon light, making it clear which each belonged to.

These compartments contained a set of tight black clothes. Next to that was a black mechanical suit, a katana, and two guns. There were also some miscellaneous supplies.

All of the supplies were futuristic, but resembled normal items.

Without a word, the four of them shed their bright orange clothes and put on their respective black clothes and mechanical suit.

The mechanical suit was not bulky as it layered on top of their clothes. The suit thinly coated their hands and feet, while the face itself was not covered.

Once everyone had their suits on, there was a light prick on all of their heads. A needle was inserted into their brains before something was injected into them.

Adonis clenched his fist.

"Fuck."

Zenos clicked his tongue.

"This damn company..."

Killian narrowed his eyes.

"Ha."

Damien simply frowned.

A high-pitched robotic voice chimed in Damien's head.

"Binding complete! Hello, my name is Emmett, your new helper for Team Alpha! Assessing condition..."

A translucent holographic screen appeared in front of Damien's eye. Damien looked towards the rest to see that everyone else also had a small blue screen covering their eyes.

Damien then focused on his status panel.

---

Name: Damien

Affiliation: Team Alpha

Team Credits: 0

Personal Credits: 0

Health: 2/2

Suit: 3/3

Physical Strength: 0.5

Willpower: 3

Skills: N/A

---

A bitter smile appeared on Damien's face when he saw his 'Physical Strength'. As for Adonis, he smiled confidently.

"What are your physical strength statistics? Mine is one and a half."

Zenos' expression did not change.

"One."

Killian's smirk remained on his face.

"One for me as well."

The three shifted their heads to look at Damien. Damien shrugged.

"Half of one."

Adonis scoffed.

"It seems that I will be doing the heavy lifting."

Killian's lip twitched.

The four strapped on the gear they were provided. Katanas were placed in sheaths, guns in holsters, and supplies in a small backpack.

Zenos was slowly turning over a sniper in his hand.

"No safeties..."

Killian laughed as he waved around a shotgun.

"As it should be."

The room itself was small and did not appear to have an exit. Right when the four were at a loss for what to do, a robotic voice appeared.

"Please go back to the transport shuttle to go to your first lab!"

After looking at each other, the four went back into the "transport shuttle".

The four found taking a seat was surprisingly comfortable even with the mechanical suit on. Mechanical fixtures immediately locked onto their limbs and faces, combining with the mechanical suit.

Once the bindings had been put on, there was a whirring as the door shut. With a sudden jolt downwards, they started to move as the sound of clanking and scraping echoed in the shuttle.

In less than a minute, the shuttle stopped and the mechanical bindings were released.

As the four stood up, a door whirred open, revealing a wide room. The room contained a gate that spanned the whole room size, with what appeared to be a keypad on the right.

Once the four left, the door closed behind them.

Adonis walked up to the keypad while the rest trailed behind.

He then looked at the keypad that stated it needed a handprint.

Emmett spoke out in everyone's head.

"Your suits will naturally give you the required handprint access for authorized sections!"

Adonis casually put one hand on the scanner while his other hand was on his light machine gun.

A line of green light went up and down Adonis's hand without any accompanying sounds.

The gate consisted of a large metal plate at its top half and another at the bottom half. After a second, the plates parted. It slowly and silently opened.

Adonis used both hands to hold up his light machine gun, while the other three got in a firing position as well. A frown was slowly forming on everyone's faces.

The inside of the room was dark, and nothing came out.

Adonis put the light machine gun down and took out a flashlight from his backpack.

Adonis pressed a button that turned it on, but it only gave a terribly weak light that hardly lit up the room. Adonis pushed up a slider all the way, making the flashlight shine brightly on the whole room.

What was revealed was a massive lab room containing many pale humanoid creatures with no facial features. When the light shone on them, they screeched before charging toward the group.

Adonis kept the flashlight on the ground and held up his light machine gun to start firing.

The other three quickly followed suit, sending countless bullets across the room.

For a good few minutes, a cacophony of loud noises filled the room. There was blaring gunfire, blood splattering, and dying screeches of monsters.

After a few moments, the gunfire slowly died down and all the creatures were shot down. Everyone was silent for a moment. A small trail of smoke came out from the ends of all of their guns.

Damien sighed.

"They cut close with the ammo, none of us have many bullets left."

Zenos shook his head.

"Hopefully they realize they must provide us with more ammo to clear these labs."

At that moment, Emmett's voice rang out in everyone's heads.

"Well done! You have cleared the first room of five, keep going!"

Adonis furrowed his brows.

"What?"