[Name: Ace Underwood]
[HP: 80/80] ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝕟𝕖𝕥
[Rank Up: Blood Knight.]
[In the Blood Mutant classes, the Blood Knights possess the strongest skills amongst the high classes in terms of strength and brutality. This class has the power of controlling blood within its victims’ bodies, bending it to do its will. However, such strength requires intense willpower, energy, and blood strength, as they can lift three times their body weight in terms of blood.]
[Congratulations: You can now control your blood mutant form with ease.]
[Your Strength and Health Points have increased due to your increase in body size, weight, structure, and age. However, those stats can be increased through blood points. Blood Points are either obtained as rewards or through joining stat points. Ten stat points equal one blood point.]
Upon reading his system’s notification, Ace’s cube and the others lowered to ground level and were taken to a separate room that was fifty times larger than the one they were in. The room was made completely out of metal with lights on the walls and ceilings. The floors and walls had different blood stains, cracks, and a couple of chunks of flesh lying around.
As soon as their cubes were placed inside the room, the thick doors behind them were sealed shut, leaving no crevices or cracks to escape from in their blood mutant forms.
{Greetings.} The ship’s integrated AI spoke as the room’s physics changed from a metallic texture to a plain, arid desert. The simulation was so realistic that the four humans felt the hot, dry desert wind and scorching sun shining on them, even though they were still in the cubes. {Simulation in Progress. Location: Planet Hoven.}
Ace, Cherry, and Jim’s cubes opened up, and they stepped out onto the simulated desert. The entire room, now filled with "sand," felt so realistic that they could feel the sand in their toes, the hot sun beating down on them, and the dry air blowing against their skin.
"Ace Underwood," Jim called out in a low tone, his head hung with his long hair covering his face. "I should have known there was something wrong with you from the first day I saw you getting chased by those damned bastards. I should have left you to die at their hands."
"I didn’t mean to turn you into a blood mutant, Jim," Ace replied with guilt choking at his throat. "I didn’t even know this was possible until now."
"Save it, kid, or more correctly, man," Jim replied, his face relaxing a little. "Like me, you were a victim of these aliens and their experiments. It seems they fear us, or this... blood mutant thing." Jim continued, looking at his arm, transforming and reverting it repeatedly. Finding it senseless to fight Ace, knowing he didn’t willingly transform him, Jim decided to keep his calm and go along with whatever his alien masters had planned for him. "It must have been terrible for you, wasn’t it?" he asked. "How did you navigate this blood mutant thing by yourself...?"
{Training Simulation in Progress.}
While Ace and Jim tried to settle more of their issues, the Granian Mother Ship’s AI interrupted, bringing up the topic of the simulation that was yet to happen. Just then, Grim walked in with Huntress and One Horn behind him, each carrying a weapon. Huntress had the same ring blade she had back on Earth, while One Horn carried what looked like a sword smashed together with a set of nunchucks and shurikens.
"Compared to the blood mutants I fought," Grim spoke while Huntress and One Horn stood beside him like bodyguards, "You three are nothing, except for you, Ace. That little stunt you pulled while ranking up is the only reason you managed to kill my comrade." One Horn grunted as he glared at Ace with wonder, confused by how a little human like him was able to defeat one of the greatest Granian warriors.
"Until you get to our planet, you’ll be put through a lot of training, and don’t bother rejecting it because if you do, you won’t get to meet your family."
"How do you know about our parents?" Cherry asked, resisting the urge to throw herself at Huntress’ neck and drain every single drop of blood.
"Patience. You’ll get to know in time."
"QUIT PLAYING WITH ME!" Cherry yelled as she shot a tendril toward Grim. To her surprise, the Grim standing before her was a hologram that looked too realistic for comfort.
"Did you really think we were stupid enough to come that close to you in that sorry state you’re in?" Grim taunted while smirking. "Defeat the first set of cloned species you’ll fight in the coming future. Use whatever means and dirty tricks you’ve got. Spare nothing for these clones because they won’t spare you."
"And if we don’t want to?" Ace asked, with his hands folded.
"Then your friend dies." Sky’s cube was lifted off the ground, placed in the center of the massive simulation room, and flipped outside down with her dangling on the edge for dear life. "Those things have never smelled anything like your kind, so I suggest you start running. Beat them to the center of the room and keep your friend alive. Begin!"
The three Granian holograms disappeared, and in the distance, a thick dust cloud could be seen changing course from them to Sky’s cube. Sky held onto the cube’s edges for dear life, struggling not to fall over.
[Blood Sprint: Activated.]
Cherry and Jim transformed their legs and began to run after Ace, who was already steps ahead. As they got closer, they caught clearer sights of what was after Sky, and to them, they were the most horrifyingly and terribly ugly beasts, like degenerates, they had ever seen in their lives.
"I’m starting to hate these aliens even more."