With a bang, the huge doors opened and a smiling old man walked in with his hands behind his back.

"Rise and shine darlings, today your job starts."

Behind him six guards walked in and started going to each cell. When they got in front of the first one, things appeared out of nowhere in their hands.

Clothes, a toothbrush and toothpaste, toilet paper and everything a human needed everyday. It had to be said that it was a really nice toilet paper. I gave the customer service a 10/10 for that.

With this, the newcomers were officially settled down and it was time for the separation.

“Now, you will get a notice from the System and I’d really appreciate it if you accepted without any hassle.” Aizen said.

Indeed, a blue box filled with text appeared in my vision.

[ [Information Containment Device] is requesting permission to activate. With this, you will only be able to use guest accounts and all messaging functions of the system will be restricted.]

[Would you like to accept?]

[Yes/No]

What this did was obviously ban you from interacting with anyone on the internet. The system functioned as a phone, computer, TV, and many others - which naturally meant there was a web. I already accessed it before and did everything I was capable of so this didn’t really bother me.

The restriction was pretty simple, you weren’t allowed to type a comment or anything similar anywhere, including even liking or subscribing to things. Even if you had an account before, you were obligated to use a guest one. But who would’ve thought that someone already knew how to use the system and already went online before.

I obliged without hesitation, along with the others of the group, who seemingly got tamed pretty quickly. Lovely.

“With this out of the way, now it’s time to separate you. I’m going to go to each of you and you will have to show me your Status panel. Do not worry, I will guide you through the whole process.” With that said, Aizen started heading to each cell.

When using the System, you could choose to show others what you were looking at or you could keep it to yourself. Like any other function, this also worked by only using your mind.

And it just so happened that I was first. By asking us to show our Status they only wanted to know the names and if we had any special Traits or Bloodlines, but mostly names, so they could write it down and make the whole process easier.

Giving out your name wasn’t really a bad thing in this world but I wanted to be sure. Since I happened to have gotten a really good reward for being the first to open my Status, I used that.

[ Identity Change allows the user to make another Status panel with a name of their choice.]

[Traits, Bloodlines, Titles and Skills must be chosen from the initial existing ones. Race must stay the same. Can only be changed once.]

Now that was pretty cool. Right now, it didn’t seem like much but man it would be so useful outside of this damn place. Especially for me, since my new Status was pretty special now.

I got everything ready and was all good to go.

“Please go ahead gentleman” Aizen nodded when he got to me.

“Here you go, sir.” I smiled.

“Clay Lusac. Very interesting name. No special abilities, as I expected.” Aizen reciprocated my expression.

“Thank you, sir. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Not saying anything else, Aizen went on. He never expected that a random guy from a random world chose such a name because he couldn’t think of a better one.

It took quite a while to go through every person and when the whole thing was done, the old man finally broke the news. He cupped his hands together and started speaking.

“Now, we should finally tell you why you’re here. You should already know you are far far away from your world, or planet if you will. That means you have no identity, you technically do not exist here, which also means we can do whatever we want with you, since no identity means no rights, right?”

“You might think we are crazy, or sick in the head or whatever you want. You need to know that this is a world where you can’t accomplish anything without personal strength. You had the misfortune of being teleported to a place away from any authorities with actual power. Maybe you would’ve had a better experience if you appeared somewhere else. That’s too bad.”

“Now onto the important things. Our group is called Valley of Secrets. We mainly deal with poison and all kinds of toxins, along with several methods of assassinations. You are unfortunately going to be tested on with all kinds of substances and toxins for observing their effects-” he stopped for a while for everyone to calm down” -besides being experimented on you will be given the best treatment we can offer. And as I said, as long as you behave we will behave. Thank you.”

Seeing that every captive started either screaming, crying or pleading, Aizen raised his hands and made a huge green flame appear in front of him. That was his favorite trick, a 5 meter green flame to calm the atmosphere. It always worked.

And it did now as well. Seeing that silence was again prevalent, he continued.

“I know it is a lot to take in so we will give you a day to calm down and adapt to the new environment. The most important thing to do in a new world is adapt, isn’t it?” he smiled. “As to show you our good intentions, you can also choose an item of your preference and we will give it to you later today. Please don’t request anything exaggerated, okay?”

Before leaving, he instructed a guard to go to each cell and have every person write down their item. This guard looked the same as the others, pretty young, square-faced with a sharp jawline and huge muscles. Every guard had a black leather armor on and they all carried a shortsword on their belt.

I always thought it was for intimidation since they all had a storage space, no matter how small. I’d seen it before in person and online how every mage could pull anything out of thin air. Storage devices were pretty cheap and spread all over the world, since every normal person had one, even if it was minuscule. They could also be integrated in the System but that was to be explained later.

Since this opportunity came I wanted to request something I always wanted to do but never had the chance. A wood carving set. Very useless, I know. Since days in captivity were long and boring I watched a lot of random things online, and with magic being restricted, I somehow stumbled upon videos about sculpting, mainly in wood.

The question now was if my request would be approved or not. Normally you wouldn’t give a prisoner a knife or a chisel, but if these guards would be outdone by something like that then they might as well not be there. Thus, I wasn’t worried about it.

I know what you want to say, but I'd already read all the books they could give us, so shut up.

The guard probably wondered about the weird guy’s decision but his questioning looks were only met with the biggest shit-eating grin I could muster. So he could only go on.

And as such, with nothing else to do, I went to sleep. And I slept so well that I woke up the next day only to see a big stack of logs and a bunch of tools next to it. I didn’t even realize it when they brought those in. As always, lovely customer service.

Not even my previous night on Earth allowed me to have such a good sleep.

Anyway, now that our leisure day had ended, it was time for the fun part! Working!

What, you thought you could laze around more? You’re still a captive, even if the customer service is pretty good.

And so, dear old Aizen came back again and led all the men all the way through winding shady tunnels to a kind of back room where the working clothes were stored. Some asked why the women stayed back but when they realized they would be carrying the big boxes from yesterday, they eventually shut up.

Nobody suspected anything.

After that work started. Carrying boxes, pallets, all kinds of strange machines while getting ordered around by shady-looking men. I was having the time of my life, though.

“Still better than fighting,” I mumbled. I never liked fighting.

After a long day of hard labor the earthlings finally returned to their cells only to realize that besides the men everyone was gone. They tried asking the guards but were given no response, and it just so happened that none of them were related or knew any of the women or children so nobody cared enough to make a scene about it. So they let it go.

‘Some are being used as lab rats and most of them are probably already on the market. Not my problem,’ I yawned.

When returning to my cell I was already too spent to start my wood carving dream or do any exercise so I hit the bed. Tomorrow was a big day. Experiment time!

—--------------

It was a beautiful sunny morning. Birds were chirping, politicians were scheming, and captives were… not so good.

Notice had already come that it was their first experiment day and some of them would be taken to the lab. Even if the organization dealt with poison, there weren’t a lot of researchers in this town so Aizen and a few assistants were participating in every experiment. That meant they couldn’t go through a lot of people each day. Usually only 2 or 3.

Guess who was first? The person for the first cell, the mighty and handsome Lukas! I was already prepared a long time ago. I even woke up earlier and tried cutting into the wood to calm down but gave up halfway. Not that I was weak, or nervous no no no… I was just too lazy.

Even if I’d already gone through this a long time ago, now it was different. Last time I gave up and went through the experiment anyway but now I had hope to get out. Acting was key. I’d already gone through the plan multiple times and changed it even more times. Now it was showtime!

Finally, at who knew what hour (the clock function in the system had a fee. Capitalists) a kind old man came in and announced it was our first experiment day and Resident #1, as I was called, would be taken to the lab.

“Are you ready, young man?” Aizen said with his usual smile.

“As ready as ever, sir,” I said, looking as righteous as possible. The temptation to do a military salute was nagging on the back of my head, but I held strong.

“Very good. Please follow me.”

And so I did. Only the two of us best buddies, nobody else went out the huge door, through winding tunnels, as always. The silence was a little awkward though.

“So uh… no guards? Just us?” I tried to strike a conversation.

“Do you really think I need guards?” Aizen shot me a smile.

“I suppose you don’t…” I mumbled. Then I shut up.

And that was it, the rest of the walk was painfully silent. All the way to another big door,though incomparable to the former.. At only about 5 meters and made of something that looked like concrete - if that was possible - and it guarded what was the most advanced lab I had ever seen in my past and current life.

As mentioned, though this was a fantasy world, humans from Earth weren’t the only ones to be transported here so all types of cultures and technologies were intertwined. That also meant the lab was extremely high-tech, even for an earthling. I couldn’t even recognize half the apparatus.

In the middle, as expected, was situated a reclining chair you could normally see at a dentist, along with a few smaller chairs next to it, obviously for the ones doing the experiment. Along with all the strange machines and the familiar environment, it looked just like I came to my dentist appointment. Even the smell was the same. Just lovely.

Aizen led me to the chair in the middle, strapped me down (very necessary) and put on a white lab coat along with some white gloves and a mask. Just like a dentist. After a few minutes, as he was preparing the materials, 3 other assistants came in all dressed up with a mask and everything.

“First, we’re going to inject you with a toxin coming from a big scorpion. The toxin is called a Lesser Paralyzing Toxin, nothing special. We want to see how it reacts after injecting you with one that boosts your adrenaline and metabolism. Please don’t move, lest you want things to get messy “ Aizen always had a habit of explaining the procedure. Maybe it made him feel better? Probably not. Either way, I didn’t complain.

I desperately tried to shut down my ability in any way I could, not letting anyone suspect anything. I tried to control it while in my cell but with no actual poison to work with it was pretty unfruitful. Unfortunately, the “on/off” part his Status panel mentioned wasn’t controlled by the System itself, rather it was me.

Fortunately I didn’t laze away in my past life so I managed to hide it the best I could. So, when the needle came in and injected a very beautiful green liquid in my veins, I actually became paralyzed. The bad thing was, little old mischievous me wanted to experiment with it a bit now that I was here I tried activating my Trait in only a part of my body. The foot, to be exact.

It took a while for the toxin to activate so while Aizen and his assistants were talking I somehow managed to move it away from my toes. Hurray! It wasn’t much but it was still something.

Sadly, that was all I managed to do before an assistant started inspecting me so I stopped and let the poison go back. They would've gotten a big smile from me if I weren't unable to move.

Following that, Aizen took another syringe and injected me again, after which the old man started hovering his hand up and down above my body. I felt a little ticklish where it passed, even though I shouldn't have. Magic was always fascinating.

From what I knew, Aizen was inserting mana into my body to see the process from inside; an ability you could only get at a very high level. Or so the internet said. I was tempted to use my Trait this time as well but I fortunately restrained himself. It would’ve been a disaster.

Anyway, Aizen then scribbled something in his notebook. A really thick notebook, mind you. One interesting thing was that the system gave you a free “notes” function so most people used that since it was easier for multiple reasons. Even I did. But not Aizen, no. The whole time that he experimented on poor old me, he used his really thick notebook.

Peculiar, to say the least.

Either way, it didn’t really matter, just a young (not so young) man’s thoughts. Since the whole process was done, the assistants removed the straps (not like they were necessary) and, after cleaning up, called a few guards in to carry me back to my cell.