[.....]
[System synchronizing with the host]
[Rebooting...]
"Come in? Walk the fuck in!" He heard an impatient female voice shouting at a distance.
"You're next, Sergeant... Dion," another female voice called, her tone calm and gentle. As he heard those words, he felt a hand across his shoulder, and his eyes snapped open.
As he opened his eyes, he saw a lady, pretty, with black hair adorned with few shades of pink. Her dark brown eyes were fixed on Dion's chest.
He wondered what she was looking at, so he quickly looked down.
"She might be staring at my dick!" He wondered, his heart racing, as he remembered being naked when he passed out in Hellestra's kingdom.
To his shock, he was dressed in a black suit, not the one he was wearing when he got knocked out by the car on Earth, but way better. It was pitch black, with a small tag across the shoulder that the lady was staring at.
Written on it was his name, but with "Sergeant" before it.
The lady must have known his name from there.
He looked up and saw the lady's eyes fixed on his for a moment, waiting for his response.
"Uhmmm, Hi," he managed to say, not really sure of the right response at that moment. He knew he was definitely not on Earth; the atmosphere felt... better.
'Is this Hell? How is the atmosphere this good?' he wondered.
His eyes searched around her chest, trying to catch her name, so he might address her properly, but there was nothing there. Though she was wearing an almost identical black suit to his.
"I thought the new guy we've anticipated for a while now is deaf and dumb," the lady said with a smile.
She was indeed pretty, but he wasn't in the mood for making new friends since he didn't intend to spend much time down there.
"Where the heck is he?" The impatient voice from inside the room rang out once again.
"There you go," the nice lady by the door gestured for him to go in.
"O... okay," he said and turned to walk into the room, but surprisingly, there was no handle or button to press, and the door didn't seem like one that would open when he got closer, because he was standing close enough for it to respond.
He turned to ask the lady behind him, but she seemed to be aware of his contemplations. She gestured for him to go in and said, "Just walk through."
He walked to the door and passed through as if the door was made of gas or just a mere illusion.
As he entered the room, he saw a big lady, tall despite sitting on a chair. She wore an emotionless face, her hand on a screen that seemed to be hanging free in the air. Her eyes fixed on him like someone who had just seen a ghost, well, maybe he is.
As he approached, his eyes caught a banner displayed on her desk, reading "Captain Ally."
"Captain?" His mind raced. He looked up and saw numerous banners like that of the military, although not well organized. Written on the banners was "Extinguishers."
"Wait? Am I in the barracks of the Extinguishers? That means Captain Xalvador is somewhere close. I guess even down here, things are beginning to work in my favor," he smiled inwardly.
"Why do they always have to send guys like you down here?" Captain Ally said, referring to Dion, who stood lost, thinking about the new development.
"'Guys like me?' What does she imply? Am I ugly or do I look scary?" he wondered, but that wasn't the time to raise a voice against her.
He could very much take her feeble insults for the meantime, as he was not going to be there for a long time.
So he stood still, staring back at her, although her gaze was that of a kid staring despicably at a piece of shit.
She sighed, looked at the screen before her, and sighed once more. "Pick it up," she said plainly, without pointing or making reference to something in particular.
Dion looked at the desk and saw a black box, a small pen-like object, a glass screen and a plain rectangular object. He wasn't sure what to pick.
His instinct was telling him to pick the black box as it looked like the only thing of importance there.
As he stretched forth his hand to pick it up, a menu appeared before him:
[Pick the rectangular object]
He was a bit surprised why the menu appeared. Was there an eyeglass on his face or something of that nature?
He reached his hand skillfully, making sure she didn't see him do so, along his face, confirming that there was nothing there.
He quickly picked up the object and stared at Ally. She raised her head, and the look on her face softened a bit as she said, "You're not wholly useless after all. You're the first person to pass this test," explaining that allowing him to decide which object was useful on the desk was more like a test.
"What an awkward test, that is,"
He replied with a weird smile, knowing he wasn't the one who made that decision; someone or something must have helped him out.
"That will be your weapon, utilize it wisely. You can go; your room is M15," Captain Ally said once again, nonchalantly without taking a breath.
He nodded and took his leave without asking any further questions about how to wield the weapon.
"There's no need to learn something that will be useless. All I need is right here," he said to himself, referring to the Soul Sword on his neck given to him by Hellestra.
As soon as he walked out of the office, he noticed the nice lady outside was nowhere to be found, so he decided to find his room by himself.
A menu suddenly appeared before him:
[Take your left]
"And who are you to give me orders?" Dion asked curiously.
[I'm Viza, the help that was promised], a voice echoed in his head.
[Do you want to check your stats?] Viza asked once more.
Dion recalled Hellestra mentioning sending help to him, so he didn't bother about that.
"Thanks, but I'm good," Dion replied, not in the mood to know any irrelevant stuff.
He could now see his room, situated right at a corner among the array of rooms.
"Are you also a member of M-Series?" He heard the voice of the nice lady he met earlier, speaking from behind him.