In an underground laboratory

A surgeon dressed in a white blouse and gloves was working on a devastated body. Saving the patient at that stage and after that amount of time wouldn’t have been possible for the human surgeons forty years ago.

Stich after stich, the surgeon worked with an unheard mechanical precision, sewing precisely each cut after the lightning-fast operation.

“First things done, now he is all yours.” Said a childish woman’s voice to Drew.

“Of course it’s done and well since it was you Amy.” Drew responded

‘The same old jerk.’ The Beyonderess thought while puffing her cheeks and going out of the room.

Weirdly, when she went away from the operation table, the patient didn’t look to have escaped from the grasp of death. Instead, he seemed to be quietly asleep, like a beauty waiting for her charming prince on a white horse.

Drew came closer to Eiron while brandishing extremely pointy and dangerous looking syringes.

Without warning, he injected the purple looking liquid into each of his meridians, swiftly and soundlessly.

After a short spasm, Eiron’s body was back to its previous tranquil state if not for his now black pupil and iris.

This was just a secondary effect of the operation and was in no way related to compassion.

In a dark room, two women and a man were sitting around a round table.

One of the women was old, had a rough hairstyle, crook nose and wore a long black robe. If not for her pure white skin, children would have taken her for a real witch.

The other woman was younger but was dressed similarly. Her hair was cleanly held in a ponytail and her skin was glossy.

“Do you really think such a usual boy who hasn’t even finished his growth can survive in the ‘farm’?” An old women’s voice was heard.

“He looks kinda cute, but it still seems like a waste of our last and only vial. Especially that Amy accepted operating him only because it was you who asked.” A younger but mature looking woman said.

“A little stronger or more intelligent than another? This humans are all the same at the end of the day. All always come to luck with them. I just had a slight liking to him.”

“Well I guess…” An annoyed voice was lastly heard in the darkness.

In a desertic region

Dallol, an extremely hot desertic land. Located in old Ethiopia, it was considered the hottest inhabited place on earth.

Actually, it was more of a ghost town for miners and adventurous tourist than a long-lived city although that was in the past. Now, seeing a human being there would be extremely rare.

No roads nor means of access are available if not for our god old feet and camels’ backs.

The temperatures could go up to 35°C (96°F) yearly while the most easily accessible liquid sources are colorful lakes filled with sulfur and acid.

Eiron woke up in the middle of nowhere and wondered if he was now in the afterlife.

The sun was shining high in the sky while the clouds were totally nonexistent. No animals, plants, birds or any other kind of live form could be seen in the endless horizon.

South, North, East, West, all that could be seen was an endless arid land.

‘Shit! What is this unfairness, even in front of the ‘gods’ and ‘angels’ I’m an eternal misunderstood sinner. I didn’t even have the opportunity to get judged or explain myself in the purgatory and here I am in hell.’ Eiron thought while grinding his teeth.

While readying himself to curse the gods of all other religions, Eiron realized he wasn’t alone after hearing behind him a familiar mechanical voice.

“Subject finally awake. End of the mission, protect him till he wakes up. Starting the new mission following the protocol, explain the situation to him with the information available in the database.” The drone said.

Even though he couldn’t totally feel his body, Eiron, already familiar with this situation understood he was not yet dead. He was probably sent in this place regardless of his volition because of the Beyonder.

‘AH! What is so difficult in let me die in peace.’ Eiron thought while contradictorily cherishing his life deep in his mind.

He looked at the drone attentively while waiting for the so-called explanation but instead of a speech, he received a sharp pain in the head.

The pain was excruciating and gave him the desire to cut his head off. Luckily, he was alone and had nothing in hand.

*“I thought you were giving me explanations, what the heck is this freaking pain for!”* Eiron wanted to scream but could not properly control his vocal cords.

Author’s note: *”…”* defines an inaudible text.

“Extracting available data: survive and escape from the desert, end of mission, explaining the situation to the subject. Starting new mission, monitoring the target’s growth.

*“Daymn itch waikt! Ish dis all?”* Eiron forgot about his incapacity to talk properly.

‘How can they send someone to such a deathly place without proper equipment and rations?’ Eiron thought disgruntled.

After failing to stand up, a weird purple-ish window appeared in Eiron’s vision while the pain finally subsided.

Status window

Name: Eiron

Age: 16

Specie: Human

Gender: male

Subject’s ID: 1203

Physical condition: Advanced-low musculature, uncompleted growth (1.79m), weak heat/cold/poison resistance, average well-functioning immune system, currently naked, unable to properly control his body (baby level).

Mental condition: Ungrateful jackass, medium-low trust to humans, medium-medium intelligence, confused.

Alignment: Chaotic-Neutral.

Assessment: mid-low survival chances, should find rations, a water source and a shelter.

Current progress in the quantic clock genic mutation technique (opening): 1%

Eiron was quite stunned when figuring out that the status window reflected his general condition with some additional details. The whole thing looked surreal since it was quite true.

All his farm work seemed to have been useful since his musculature was rated advance-low.

His physical, intellectual and resistance rating seemed to be in the average for human beings while his alignment was quite weird.

‘Hmm…’ Eiron read his whole status window from the beginning to better assess his situation before realizing something pretty weird.

*“Nrakwed?!”* Eiron tried screaming before hurriedly looking at his whole body.

‘They couldn’t even dump me here with some proper dresses.’

He was sure his incapacity to control his body properly was due to something the Beyonder did to him.

‘A baby? SERIOUSLY! So all those hard years spent to control my body were for naught. Do they even know how frustrating is a baby’s life when he can neither talk, walk, properly eat nor even poop alone?!’

‘Ungrateful jackass? Should this even be in mental condition?!’ Eiron thought disapprovingly after reading the next section.

Okay, they gave him a second chance at life and he understood that nothing in this world was free, but did he ask any of this? Surely no!

The harsh insult aside, he realized he should rapidly learn how to control his body if he wanted to live longer, but what was that genic mutation thing.

Were they trying to transform him into something else? And what would happen if the percentage gauge reached 100?

Before thinking about all those complicated stuffs, he thought he should first find a way to walk away and find some water because the heat was starting to make him feel thirsty.