Doctor Erl woke up early in the morning to see that he still had a report to finish. He groaned as he realized he fell asleep at the desk without even finishing his yesterday's work.
"Fuck! " were his first words in the morning.
He slowly lifted his head to see the papers lying around and sighed.
"Well, time to start." He muttered as he picked up the pen.
However, before he even put a pen on the paper, he heard a voice inside his head.
"Good morning sunshine!" James said as cheerfully as ever.
"Fuck." Erl cursed again, after realizing that there must be another case if James was calling him so early in the morning.
"Fuck indeed! We've got a fresh case!" James chuckled.
"Who would have thought" Erl sighed, as he started to write the report on yesterday's mission.
"Anyway, what's the case?" Erl asked as he filed the report.
"About that. In the town of Cinderfrown, all the children disappeared." James finally got serious.
"Disappeared how?" Erl asked.
"I have no idea! We have an entire town, with no children. We're not even sure if there ever were any! However… James suddenly paused.
"The town has a kindergarten and school that's been running for years now. It never closed, despite the lack of children." James continued.
"Interesting." Erl said as he finished writing his report and scratched the back of his head.
"This could be anything. From a curse, to a monster." James added.
"Alright. Let me gather a crew and let's move out." Erl said as he stood up.
"Good luck." James finished the conversation.
Erl sighed, as he knew that there was no break time in Illuminati organization. It either monsters breaching their containments, or some sort of catastrophe occurring in a town in the middle of nowhere.
He was wondering about how or what he should do with this case. Sacrifice some children? Or maybe turning an E-rank into a child would work?
"I need some coffee." Erl said before leaving his lab.
***************
As Erl walked down to the prison, looking for a crew, he remembered the new E-ranks. Erl's plan to torment them was held up. One inmate in particular.
"Eric Jayson." Erl muttered the name and instantly shook his head.
"No. E-68." Erl said, as he walked toward's Eric's dorm. When he reached it, he paused near the doors before walking in. There he saw three E-ranks, staring at him with terrified and uncertain expressions. The fourth was sitting, muttering something under his nose..
He completely ignored the others and pointed his finger at Eric
"E-rank 68." Erl said, as he stared at three standing E-ranks.
"W-What?" Eric asked, looking to his cellmates for solace, but they gave him an uncomfortable expression.
The other prisoners were concerned about Eric's safety but were not concerned enough to intervene or take Eric's place in whatever would happen to him. After all, they knew Eric just for one day.
"You'll be required on the next mission." Erl said.
"W-What mission?" Eric asked, his voice was trembling.
"The guards will escort you to the lab in about one hour. Before that, you'll get to choose your breakfast. Anything you want." Erl said as he took out some a note, a pen and brought it to Eric.
"Write whatever food or beverages you want on this paper. The guard will bring it in a few minutes after you finish writing it. Nothing alcoholic tho."
'W-What is going on? Is this going to be my fucking last meal?!' Eric's inner thoughts were screaming.
"See you soon." Erl said as he left the room.
"W-What's this?" Eric gazed at the note and saw the words 'Last meal ticket.' His face instantly turned pale.
Everyone kept quiet for about a minute, before the Tom shook his head.
"You're fucked…" Tom muttered.
"How bad is your luck, man?" Brian asked in disbelief.
"What should I do?!" Eric raised his voice as he started to panic.
"What can you do?" Brian asked him.
"Do you think if any of us have a way of escaping whatever tests they do, I would miss this?" Tom pointed at his own hand.
"If we try anything, those guards wielding guns will simply shoot us down." Brian added.
"Guns? Are those the metal things they used to kill other E-ranks?" Eric recalled the incident where a couple of E-ranks were shot down on the same day the organization brought him here.
"You shouldn't worry about that. Just focus on a good and tasty meal." Tom shook his head, as he did not want Eric to waste time on a pointless talk in his probably last moments.
"Yes. Focus on the meal." Brian agreed with Tom.
After Eric realized the two would not answer his questions, he looked at the meal ticket. There were a couple of lines that he did not understand.
Tom came closer to Eric and pointed at the meal ticket. In the end, there was a line asking for a signature.
"Just write your wish for a meal. You only have an hour before they take you away." Tom sighed..
"What's a signature?" Eric asked.
"Just write your number there. Number 68."
Eric looked at his fellow E-ranks and wondered if he can ask for more food to share with them.
"What you guys want? I will add it." Eric asked.
"Don't. The guards won't allow us to eat it, anyway." Brian shook his head.
"Yeah, one will stay here to make sure we wouldn't eat it." Tom sighed.
"Oh…I don't want to eat alone.." Eric muttered in disappointment.
"Dude, this might be your last meal. Don't worry about us.
On his last meal ticket, Eric asked for a soup that was loaded with meat. The note vanished as soon as he entered his number.
"H-How?!" Eric's eyes widened.
"Oh yeah, you're a regular villager, huh?" Tom chuckled.
"You never heard of magic?" Brian asked, surprised.
"N-No…" Eric stared at his empty hand, which had just a moment ago held a note.
"This place specializes in that stuff." Brian chuckled nervously.
"Yeah, you'll might see something much crazier in their mission or whatever they are going to put you through." Tom said.
Few minutes pass, and the guard brings him his meal. He wore black leather armor and had a gun attached to his belt.
"You have 45 minutes, E-68." The guard told him, while putting a plate on a small table.
After Eric finished eating, the guard took the plate and left. There were still about 10 minutes left, and Eric was trying to stay focused.
'I will survive.' Eric thought to himself.
'I will survive whatever they threw at me.' Eric clenched his fist in determination. He needed to survive this. After all, he needed to find out who was the actual murderer of his family.
"E-68. It's time." Erl's voice from behind the door was heard.