Well, Damn. Jonathan thought to himself as he looked over his 'status'. This is a problem.

The status on the piece of paper in front of him was adding fuel to two fires burning in his mind. One of them was his theory that this was all some grand kidnapping and that if he could only just escape, he would be home. The structure of the status being similar to role-playing games he played in his spare time helped add some credibility to this, because if this was some other world, why would it be so similar to media on Earth?

The second was that all of this was real, or at the very least, real to him. Delusions weren’t really that uncommon, at least where he came from. So there was a possibility that he was just on a very weird trip to the mental ward. He decided to put the idea of this being a hallucination to the back of his head, because it left a bad taste in his mouth. This left him with the idea that all of this was real, which while he wanted to deny, he still couldn’t out rule.

He started to wish Eddie was there with him, an awful thought all things considered, but a thought he couldn't help but have.

If Eddie was here, he thought, he would call this situation 'Morton's fork', a situation in which either scenario inevitably ended up with you, screwed.

He smiled to himself, Eddie used to use 'Morton's fork' whenever he talked about the government and girls.

"Both are the same, if you think about it" he would say, "they both take your money to spend on things you don't care about so you can get things you don't need."

Jonathans' eyes started to water, so he decided to distract himself by taking a better look at his status, with the hope that a clue lay there.

He took a second look at his status. All of his attributes were below 10. From what he remembered from all the games he played, 10 was usually the average minimum stat that characters had in all their attributes. This gave Jonathan a bad feeling, he didn’t want to compare what he was going through to a game, but he had no choice other than to start from a point of reference that he could understand.

From his experience in games, this meant that he was weaker than even the weakest of creatures. Naturally, Jonathan still had his doubts about the whole ‘status’ thing but he couldn’t think of any evidence to dispute it, so he decided to believe the status for now. If the status and his experiences were correct, this meant that as he was now, he had no hope of escape. The ‘strength’ and ‘attack’ stats made sense, he wasn’t a very athletic man, and in fact he was about average. The ‘defense’ and ‘agility’ stats made him wonder, he was a bit paunchy but he didn’t think that this would make defense his highest stat while his agility was so low.

He also looked at the clothes he was wearing to see if they had an effect on his defense. The clothes he had worn on his date with Marie were taken away and all he had was a grey long sleeved shirt, short grey pants and simple leather shoes that looked like they were patched over many times, and then decided to hold off his theory until he had better clothes.

He disregarded all magic related stats and looked at his ‘luck’. Jeez; he thought. He didn’t think of himself as an unlucky guy but he didn’t think of himself as lucky either. If he had to put it as a number, he would have put it as a ‘5’, with ‘10’ being average. He took look at his status conditions and the ‘luck’ stat made sense.

“Gods Displeasure, huh?” he said to himself. “That’s a clear case of discrimination if I ever saw one”

He looked at his other status condition and the color drained from his face.

“Damn, this makes things harder than I wanna admit.”

He then looked at his skills, hoping to see better news than the rest of his status had shown. At first he could only see the skills’ name but when he concentrated on it he got a description of his skills:

[Quick Learner]

You obtain, process and remember information easier than the average person. Your chance of learning skills increases by 5%.

[Calm Mind]

You have an increased resistance to mental strain and control. You are more likely to stay calm in stressful situations. The efficiency of all mental skills increases by 5%. You are 10% less likely to inflicted with the ‘madness’ status condition.

[Attention to Detail]

You can notice and make inferences from small details. The chance of learning skills and important information increases by 2%.

Jonathan exhaled in relief as he looked over his skills. This meant he could learn new skills or information easier than the average person, although this did nothing for his physical condition, it meant that he had more tools to use than the average person. He wondered why he, an average guy, would have them but soon came to an answer. As a college student, it would make sense that all 3 could be obtained from studying hard.

At first this was a relief, but soon he saw that this realization also meant something else; that these 3 skills weren’t particularly special, because if he could get them, which meant that it was entirely possible that everyone he met would have the same skills or at least one of them, meaning he had no real advantage.

While he thought about his lack of luck and resources. The door to his room or rather, cell, opened. It was the old man, Florence and a grey haired man that Jonathan had never seen before.

“I have news for you!” Florence announced.

“Soon your loneliness will come to an end!”

Jonathan felt that there was no point in interrupting the old man, so he just let him continue;

“From today up until a week from now, you will undergo tests to determine if there are is anything that made you worth the mana used to summon you! If you survive, you will then be sent to add whatever abilities you may have to any department that needs it. Any questions?”

‘This bastard’ Jonathan thought to himself before confirming a few things he heard from Florence;

“You said ‘If’ I survive, what does that mean?”

Florence laughed before answering in a cheery tone.

“The tests are very intensive, you see. This is all to ensure that all goods are of a high quality and to gauge your potential in case you are foolish enough to try to rebel against us”

Jonathan tried to punch Florence but when he tried to swing his fist at Florence, a pain shot through his body from his neck down his back, paralyzing him in pain. After a few seconds, the pain stopped and Jonathan had a hard time breathing as he put together what happened.

“The collar- the status wasn’t lying.”

“That’s right! With the collar around your neck, I don’t need Michael anymore! Anyway where was I?”

Florence paused and scratched his head as if slightly confused before continuing;

“Ah, yes! As I was saying, the tests are extremely intensive and it’s not uncommon for subjects to die in the process. If I were to estimate, based on what I saw from your status, you have a 40% chance of survival.”

Jonathans face became paler as the old man continued as if what he had said had no meaning.

“Don’t worry, even if you die, you will still be contributing to our empires growth. Your body can be used for research and after that, as fertilizer, so you don’t have to worry. There will be no waste.”

Anger rose in Jonathan as he looked at a man, who thought of him as nothing. He wanted nothing more than to shut him up, to humiliate him as much as he was humiliating Jonathan. He decided not to do anything stupid. Any action he took against Florence would end up with him in pain. So he calmed himself down and tried to get more information from the bastard of an old man that stood in front of him.

“If I live?”

“You will be given a function to perform for us.”

“A function?”

“Yes! You will be given a job to do. The type of job is determined from your status and the results of the tests and varies from person to person. Your stats mean that you can’t be a battle slave or a meat shield, which also disqualifies you from jobs that are too physically intensive. Additionally...”

Florence walked up to Jonathan to get a better look at his face.

“Your face is to plain to be used for any pleasure related fields and your body is a bit on the heavy side, so you will most likely be used for research or sold.”

Jonathan wanted to vomit. A mix of anger and fear could be read on his face. He swallowed the saliva in his mouth and asked;

“Sold?”

“Yes, every month we sell excess or useless goods to other countries, or people.”

Not only would Jonathan be sold, from what he could infer from Florence, he would be cheap too. ‘Damn it!’ he thought to himself, ‘I have to get out of here’

His mind ran fast as he was tried to think of ways to get the collar of his neck and escape, Florence smiled and spoke while gesturing to the grey haired man next to him;

“Anyway, let’s begin your examination”

“What?”

The man next to Florence ignored Jonathan and left the room before reappearing with a moving tray stacked with sharp tools and syringes. Jonathan tried to run before being tripped by the shackles on his ankles. As he was getting up, the man took a syringe from the tray, walked up to Jonathan and used his free hand to push him back down on his stomach before injecting the contents of the syringe into his neck.

After a few minutes of struggling, Jonathan found himself unable to move. All he could do was move his eyes. After checking that he couldn’t move, the man then removed the chains tied to Jonathan’s ankles before dragging him to the opposite corner of the room, where it was darkest.

Jonathan hadn’t noticed it in the time he was in the room, because of the darkness, but now he saw a large wooden table that was surrounded by four chains attached to the floor, onto which he was thrown. His limbs were then tied down to the floor..

The silver haired man then disappeared from his sight before returning with Florence and the tray.

When they came back, this portion of the room lit up because of the torch Florence held. Jonathan strained his eyes to look at them and he saw Florence’s mouth twist into a smile.

“Augus here is one of our principle researchers! What he injected you was an expensive paralytic which keeps you from struggling and accidentally hurting yourself, while keeping you aware of the pain. You see, Augus is going to need you aware to when he cuts you open, one of the things he needs to know is how you take pain.”

Jonathans eyes widened in fear. As if Florence was waiting for this, he continued.

“First he will determine if you have normal organ function by introducing you to different stimuli, after which he perform will implant some of the basic functions a slave needs after which-”

Whilst Florence was speaking, Augus said something to Florence in a tone which couuld only be described as annoyed, causing Florence to hurreidly stick the torch in a crevice in the wall before leaving the room.

Jonathan then heard the sound of metal scraping something and the tray moving.

He tried to move, to scream, to beg as his shirt was ripped open.

Then he felt a shooting pain run down from his chest down to the top of his bellybutton as his insides were exposed to the cold air before felt the warmth of his own blood.