Kryzen was jumping and down excitedly in front of the treasure chest and he started dreaming of all the loot inside and his future life of riches.

‘Wait wait, gold and jewels are useless.’

He piped down and stared at the chest in suspicion. As a person from the modern world and gamer at that he was no stranger to hidden traps in the chest lying in wait for greedy men. Even worse it might be one of those mimic monsters.

Just to be safe Kryzen took cover behind some debris and threw some metal scrap at the chest but nothing happened. He then took a worn-out slab of metal and used it as a shield as he approached the chest.

He then used his knife to open the chest. After flicking the chest open, he immediately took a leap back. There was no reaction from the chest so Kryzen slowly approached it and peered inside to find a single object.

A single black crystal was lying inside the chest. Kryzen looked at it curiously before carefully picking it up with his claws. The crystal didn’t look nor feel special in any way but just as he was going to stow it away and search for other valuables, the crystal hummed with life.

Kryzen watched with awe as the crystal transformed into particles that entered into his hands. For a few seconds, he just cluelessly stood there in the same position.

‘What did I just see? What just happened?’

He started doubting whether he was hallucinating and whether there was a crystal in the first place when a system notice appeared.

[Activating….. ]

‘It doesn’t look like a system window, what is it?’

[Analyzing host….. ]

[Calibrating….. ]

[Nanite system has been activated]

[Requesting permission to link with the System]

[Yes/No]

The notices before him were more akin to holographic text. It was clear to Kryzen though it wasn’t from the System itself since it was asking permission.

‘Should I give it though it could be dangerous but nanites means….’

Kryzen’s thoughts shifted towards all the powers nanites could give him, super strength, super healing and maybe even shapeshifting. Deciding it couldn’t be so bad Kryzen confirmed yes. Moments later a regular system window appeared in front of him.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

VIKI is recruiting you to join the Beyonders. Do you accept?

Yes/No

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kryzen was confused by the message and didn’t understand what connection it had with the nanites. For all he knew it was all a trick. This situation was eerily similar to signing off his soul to the Devil.

“What happens if I don’t want to?”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

VIKI: The Basic Nano machine package will be permanently deactivated and you will forever lose the chance to become a part of the Beyonders. Second Chances will not be given.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

‘It responded back? This VIKI person can use the system like this?’

It was a difficult decision to make as Kryzen had little to no information at all regarding either VIKI or these Beyonders. It could be determined that the Beyonders were either a group of people or an organization of sort but would it be wise to join them, and what would they do to him if they knew what he was gremlin.

He tried asking VIKI what the Beyonders was and what it would mean to be a part of their organization but he didn’t receive any further replies. It was like VIKI deemed it useless to further communicate with him if he didn’t become a part of the ‘Beyonders’.

The way this VIKI person speaks about losing chances to become a Beyonder did make it seem like a big deal and its more likely an organization given once can become a member through random nanites found in garbage.

‘Dammit it doesn’t matter. These nanites could be the key to escaping this place I can’t lose it.’

“Okay, I accept,” said Kryzen as he confirmed yes to the System. This time there wasn’t a message or a notice from the system instantly. Kryzen was confused but he patiently waited. His gut told him something would happen arrive sooner or later. After few minutes afterwards a new system message arrived.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Welcome Recruit. Membership has been successfully registered and Basic Nano machine package has been activated.

Notice:

It has been noted that Recruit Kryzen is currently in a Locked Dimension. This prevents Recruit Kryzen from accessing Delivery services and teleportation services of the Beyonders. Please exit the dimension to resume services.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

‘This is amazing.’

After swiping away that message, Kryzen found he could access the Beyonder site through the system. It had his details from the system as well as his current rank of recruit. There was even a beginners manual containing all the information about the Beyonders.

The Beyonders were similar to a guild found in games. They were elites who performed a variety of missions and offered numerous services to those who were willing to pay.

Assassinations, Bodyguards, hunting monsters and even medical services were offered. Albeit most of these services could be found anywhere, what made the Beyonders special was they were Top Tier Elites who were different from the random nobodies that could be found everywhere.

Further reading told Kryzen that he wasn’t truly a member of the Beyonders and right now he was considered a provision member. It was only through proving himself through the Beyonder Examination that he would truly become a Beyonder.

Access to the Beyonder services in the system allowed him to explore more of the Systems capabilities. Apparently even though he was a provisional member he still had a few benefits. He was able to use the Shop services to some extent barring some tiers of products and services that were out of his reach. The items in the shop were split into different tiers based on their value and provision members or recruits such as him could access only the first tier.

The Beyonder shop function featured products from fellow Beyonders and other sources. Weapons, Ships and even Live Beasts were traded. It was a platform that only people who were willing to the pay the price were granted access.

It was quite exciting until he saw the price tag on those products. Even though he wasn’t familiar with currency of this new universe, he could still recognize what a string of zeros meant. Knowing he couldn’t use this now, he navigated to the missions section.

Here there were missions which Beyonders could accept to use earn money and other rewards. The missions were also split into tiers and he could only accept tier 1 missions as a recruit.

While all this was exciting and all, there was one benefit of being a Beyonder recruit that excited Kryzen the most as person from the modern world. It was access to the internet or as it was called here Universe Network or the UN.

A basic name but it perfectly fitted it as this one network connected all the people of the universe. As long as you had the money, you can create a UN account and access boundless features and services. The UN was created and maintained by the System itself and thus it could be trusted by the denizens of the universe. Most communication and transactions were done through the UN to ensure security and privacy.

While Kryzen was desperately wanted to search and obtain as much information as he could it had been a while since he left the Gremlin dwelling so he decided to go back. By the time he came back to the dwelling he realized there was still an hour before he had to mine again so rested on his throne/rock couch and browsed through the UN.

His UN account subscription was paid by the Beyonders and since his Beyonder status was linked to his UN account he was granted access to some restricted information as well.

The casual browsing brought to light many things to Kryzen. There were plenty of dimensions or planes in the universe. These dimensions could range from normal civilization dimensions to War dimensions where battle was constant. A single dimensions could in itself contain several galaxies or even star systems whereas other dimensions could be the size of a room.

From his digging Kryzen was mostly inside a mining dimension. He also investigated about dimension locks remembering what the Beyonder notice told him and the results left him depressed. Dimension locks were a powerful ability that prevented or controlled entry and exit to and from the dimension.

Such things could only be used by powerful entities akin to gods. This alone made Kryzen discard thoughts of rebellion and revolution. The lock prevented Kryzen from using the Beyonder services to teleport to the Beyonder dimension which recruits would normally visit upon becoming a Beyonder.

Anything he bought from the Beyonder Shop would also not be delivered to him but since he was broke anyway it didn’t matter much. What Kryzen needed to do now was find the mines exit. If he right then there was probably a teleportation facility in the mines that could get him out of here.

‘Why does it have to be so complicated? Why can’t I just beat up some people and walk out of a cave?’

Even if he got to the teleporters he wouldn’t know how to use it to get out of here and plus security would probably be super tight. While Kryzen was deep in thought it suddenly struck him that he forgot about something.

“Nanites!!” Kryzen screamed before he used the system to bring up info regarding the Nano machines.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Basic Nano Machine Package

Increases Hosts immunity and digestive capabilities. Allows host to survive in hostile environments.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“NOOOOO, COME ON MAN!” Kryzen roared in rage ignoring the gremlins who looked at their leader’s screams with fear.

“Where is my super strength? My accelerated healing factor? My shapeshifting dreams?”

Kryzen summoned the Nano machine system itself to question it. The information he obtained was disappointing. The “Basis Package” didn’t include any physical or mental enhancements at all. In order to upgrade the Nano machines he would have to meet certain conditions and pay a price. The upgrades would be performed in the Beyonder dimension as well.

The basic package would ensure he could drink contaminated water and most edibles without fear of disease and also prevent common sicknesses. This in itself was a big deal but Kryzen being an otherworlder had huge expectations. Even if there was the word basic in it he thought the enhancements would be small but for it to be nonexistent was a bit infuriating.

There went his plans of relying on the Nano machines to overpower the undead and escape. If that black crystal was found by anybody else outside of this mine dimension it would have been life changing and they would be a typical main character but in his hands it was like a painting in a museum, “all see and no touch”.

Kryzen got up and went to complete his next mining quota. It wasn’t too demanding and he started thinking of his next plan. He decided that after completing the quota he would resume exploring the mines with the added goal of finding anything resembling a teleportation facility.

‘I should UN it to see how it looks like.’