“After 15 years of endless war that leads to countless casualties on both sides, the Astra Federation signed a peace treaty with The Magna Empire, the home of the daemons. There were 2 important point of the treaty: 1) Land and sea borders between countries, and 2) An agreement from both side that they will strive to build a good cooperation in order to support the development of each countries. But no long after it was signed, the Magna Empire was drowned in civil war and a new king was crowned. Magna Empire’s 14th King openly stated that there won’t be any cooperation between the 2 countries, and so 50 years after that, our diplomatic relations with Magna Empire still in a stalemate.” The teacher paused to glance at his wristwatch, he swept through his gaze in class, noting how his students were now mostly half awake.

“Now, I need you all to write an essay on your opinion about should we mend our relation with Magna Empire or not. See you guys next week” the teacher ended his lecture and left, leaving the still groaning students.

Yisheng quickly grabbed his bag and skipped to the exit door.

“Ah Sheng wait up!” Jingyi hurriedly cleaned his desk, put everything haphazardly inside his bag.

“Slowpoke” Yisheng muttered as he halted and stared at Jingyi helplessly. Truthfully, he couldn’t bear to be in this class anymore. Since he became senior in high school, the school made it a compulsory for students to attend night class in preparation of university exam. From Monday to Saturday, every morning to night he had to study, as a physical person who enjoyed invigorating exhilarating activities outdoor, having to stay put for hours listening the teachers blabber on and on made him feel like his brain gonna burst, then he gonna threw up math formulas soon or even better, the long history of power struggle the Federation had with neighboring countries.

Jingyi threw his hand over his shoulder “OK, lets go now Ah Sheng\~” then both of them made their way back home.

Yisheng and Jingyi has been friends for as long as Yisheng could remember. While Yisheng was an ordinary civilian living modestly with his grandma and his older sister, Jingyi’s family was once a prestigious family known in the military world. His great grandfather was once a general who leads thousands of troops in battles, but since the general died his family declined continuously. Now they had no privilege, no governed area, their social status were only an inch higher than commoners.

“Anyway, isn’t tomorrow your birthday?” Jingyi inquired

“Nah” Yisheng denied lazily

Not giving up, Jingyi tried to remember Yisheng’s student ID “...1008.. it IS! You liar” he exclaimed as he slapped his friend’s back.

“So?”

“What else, treat me something tomorrow!”

Sighing defeatedly Yisheng agreed “Fine, anything worth 2 coupons (equals to USD 2)”

“You cheapskate!” another slap landed on his back.

“It hurt, you fool!” Yisheng slapped back as he laughed.

They were laughing and joking around when they saw a commotion at one of the house at the corner of the road. Curious, they made their way there.

A police line was drawn around a small 2 floored house. Excuse me, what happened here?” Jingyi asked to nearby old lady. “Aiya, the world is not safe anymore. This family of 4 is nearly annihilated in one night, some crazy murder did that. If the young woman were at home I’m afraid she would be dead too, God have mercy” she explained as she held her chest.

Eyes widened in shock, both Yisheng and Jingyi glanced back at the entrance of the house. There were body bags being carried into the ambulance, a young woman with blood smeared on her clothes standing at the porch. Her eyes were bloodshot as she stood there motionless. Even if she looked like she had cried her eyes out but the feeling Yisheng caught from her gaze was... eerie cold emptiness.

“I don’t know why but I feel that... something seems wrong with her?” Jingyi blurted.

When the young woman suddenly turned her head to look at their way, Jingyi got goosebumps all over

“Ugh lets get out of here, quick!” He said as he pulled Yisheng away hurriedly and ran as fast as he could.

“Fuck, that was so scary” Jingyi said between gasps. “People had gone mad. I’ll tell dad to up the security measures in my home. You should too, install some CCTV or something”

Yisheng indeed felt the same way too. There were too many murder cases as of late, it won’t hurt to take extra precaution. “Will do” Yisheng affirmed.

Jingyi’s house was just a little further away from Yisheng’s. As they arrived at Yisheng’s house, they saw the home was shrouded in darkness.

“Hey, isn’t your grandma usually at home?”

“She should have been”

They cautiously made their way to the main entrance, seeing the broken door lock, both of them got alerted.

“We should call the police” said Jingyi

“You call. I’ll get inside” before Jingyi could hold him, Yisheng already pushed open the door and quietly went inside.

The inside of his house was dark, except the area near the windows who happened to have the moonlight seeping in. As he slowly entered the dinning area, he faintly heard a male voice muttering incoherent things. The sound came from the kitchen.

He readied his fists as he approached the kitchen.

The man was crouching on the floor, his right hand was holding a knife- dripping with blood. He continuously drove the knife into the lifeless body in front of him, the corpse of Yisheng’s grandma.

STAB - STAB - STAB

He repeatedly mutter “Die.”with every stab he did.

Enraged, Yisheng rushed toward the killer.

———————————————-

Yisheng woke up with a sharp headache. He realized his head was bandaged, as well as his torso. Slowly the memory of that night pouring inside his head.

A mad man stabbed his grandma.

He tried to get the bastard, but he was far stronger than he thought. Despite his struggle in the brawl, Yisheng’s head was smashed to the wall and a knife lodged at his stomach.

He ended up utterly defeated, but he wont forget that face, and how disgusting the manic expression he wore that night when he managed to hurt him.

“Ah you finally woke up. What a lucky kid” an elderly man wearing a white coat approached him.

“Doctor, how is my grandma?.... Jingyi?”

The doctor shook his head, “Her bleeding was too severe. She was already dead the moment police came. As for your friend, he’s treated next door, still not yet regain his consciousness”

Yisheng gritted his teeth, guilt filled his chest. All sorts of ifs popped in his head.

If only he came home earlier..

If only he’s stronger..

If...

“Anyway, do you remember anything before you fainted?” The doctor inquired.

Yisheng told everything he could remember, but the doctor knitted his eyebrows “You sure you don’t remember who shot you?”

An injection? That mad man couldn’t possibly do that, wait... if he recall, there seemed to be another figure.. but he wasn’t really sure.

“We found a foreign substance in your blood. It’s what we called as M Substance. It holds a construct that modified your DNA”

Modified... DNA?

“For 2 days, as you went in a comma your body was undergoing a genetic recombination and luckily the chain didn’t collapse and you didn’t die. But the result is... you are no longer a human”

Yisheng stared at his own reflection.

The solid black collar on his neck stood out against his pale skin. As if mocking him on his new status.

Dangerous Entity.

The doctor claimed, the ones with modified genes like Yisheng were the ones who held responsible for the high death toll these days. They were likely to develop mental disorder, aggressive/destructive behavior and majority of them had uncontrollable blood lust. This was a distinct feature of Dangerous Entity, they no longer need normal human food to sustain their life but rather, blood. That’s why they were deemed as non-human.

The Federation had been trying to investigate who were the ones behind substance M, what purpose they had in mind, what gain they would have from the disorder Federation was in, how could they track all Dangerous Entity and contain them before they wreak havoc.

But now, all Yisheng could do was surrender to fate.

Tomorrow the authorities would escort him to the containment zone.

Yisheng laughed dryly.

It was as if the life he had before was a fleeting illusion and all of the suden the mirage broke.

His grandma had died.

His friend Jingyi was still hovering between life and death.

He became a freaky creature with mental disorderwho soon-to-be prisoned for the rest of his life.

No longer human. No longer free. No future.

Anger, despair, sadness flooding his mind. His chest felt constricted as he gasped for air, the drumming of his heart could be heard loudly in his ears.

He was sweating profusely, his face pale like lacking blood and his eyes were bloodshot red.

Was this.. the onset of his madness?

_____________

Early in the next morning, the dreaded time arrived. Yisheng’s eyes were covered, he was handcuffed as they brought him to the transport vehicle. The officers didn’t say anything, the only sound he heard were the car engine, and click clacks of metals in between.

Some hours later the car stopped and the engine turned off. They must have arrived.

He walked for a few meters, entering what seemed like an elevator, and then another distance of walking until he was seated and they took off the blind. The light stung his eyes immediately.

“10081 Gu Yisheng” an elder man around 50 years old, wearing a gray uniform called, an acrylic name plaque on the table. Head Warden.

Yisheng silently stared at him.

“Your room is at C10 on the B3rd floor. No smoking, drinking, fighting, killing and drug use allowed except for prescribed meds from the medic. Everyone will get 1 blood bag every 2 days, you don’t have any right to ask for more, on what type of blood, how high the iron level and all the crap. No. Lights out at 9 PM. Obligatory medical check up every 1 month, every violation of the rules mentioned before will be punished accordingly. Do you understand?” The head warden looked at him intimidatingly, his eyes were cold with apathy. Like he won’t receive any other answer except yes.

“Yes” Yisheng answered.

“Ok, get him to his room” the man gestured another warden who stood by the door.

Just as he was about to leave the room, the head warden called him.

Yisheng looked back at him.

“Forgot to tell you. Welcome home to The Den. Enjoy your stay” clear sarcasm dripping from his tone.

Even if he wanted to deny it, but it was the bitter truth. This cage will be his home from now on. But that shitty head warden words were like rubbing salt all over his wound.

—————-

“Your name is Yisheng right, high schooler?” the warden tried to make small talk.

“Um”

“I’ll be the one in charge of your block. Name is Huang Ming” Huang Ming extended his hand for a handshake.

“I’ll be in your care” Yisheng smiled weakly.

They went into the elevator, Huang Ming pressed the B3 button.

“I know it isn’t right for me to say this but.. please don’t give up”

Their eyes met, Yisheng could perceive the sincerity of Huang Ming’s words.

“Thank you” Yisheng smiled out of courtesy.

How could he not give up? Didn’t he already lost everything? What’s there to fight for, what expectation should he have for his life? Zilch. Might as well just die and end everything. But the concept of death seemed to be too scary for him, and besides.. he still need to know about Jingyi, whether he could survive or not; whether he could still have a shred of connection with normal life or would he take another burden on his life out of the death of his grandma and Jingyi.

They stopped in front of a barred room, Huang Ming opened the lock as he informed loudly “Hey guys, you got new friend here!”

Yisheng’s eyes swept through the 2 persons inside the room.

A man wearing glasses who looked like in his late 30s. He was scribbling on a paper and in front of him was a thick book of God knows what.

A young man sitting on his bed, his long legs dangling at the bed’s edge. He might be taller than him by a few inches. His dark red eyes seemed to be glinting under the lamp’s light.

Yisheng got inside, nervously he tried to introduce himself.

“My name is Gu Yisheng, 18 years old. I’ll be in your care” he bowed slightly.

“Ye Jianwen, 36. I was a lecturer on anthropology at the Empire’s National University” the glasses man answered.

“Xiaohui, 20. Your bed is over there” he pointed at the bed far at the corner of the room. It was a bit messy, t-shirt, socks, photos and other trinkets scattered around the bed.

“Before you ask, that bed is unoccupied. Just throw those things to the trash” Xiaohui added.

“What happened?” He curiously questioned

“The guy was heavily neurotic right from when he got here, and it got worse. He killed himself yesterday” Xiaohui explained.

Yisheng paled. Jianwen caught how the color drained from the youth’s face. He got to his feet and approached him.

“Scared? Let me help you” Jianwen started to pick up the scattered things, Yisheng stiffly followed after.

“Thank you” Yisheng said, Jianwen nodded.

“Suicides isn’t a rare occurrence here, maybe everyone here ever thought about it, even only once” Jianwen’s voice was calm, like he was merely telling Yisheng about something common like the weather outside.

“Not me. Only weaklings did” Xiaohui interjected.

Jianwen smiled, “Then we should be glad we have a strong man like Xiaohui as our roommate”

“Damn right you should” Xiaohui sniggered.

“And you, Yisheng. Stop being drowned in pity party and depression, your mental heath would only get worse” Xiaohui stated firmly.

Yisheng blinked. Was his emotion shown clearly on his face? He didn’t notice. He felt ashamed.

“You better focus your energy on controlling your aggression, mental power or whatever the hell it is inside yourself. Maybe you can gain something” Xiaohui added.

“Something? Like what?”

“You see, Xiaohui had been training his control for months and suddenly 3 days ago his eyes turned dark red like now. He also claimed that at times, he got stronger physically, but to know the exact requirements of how the burst of power occur we need more time to research it” Jianwen explained, Xiaohui looked proud of himself.

“Maybe one day he would be like an Edward Cullen- minus the sparkly effect under the sunlight” taunted Jianwen, Xiaohui frowned in distaste.

“Does the authorities know about this?” Yisheng asked.

“I guess. Maybe it was also the reason why they will hold a tournament next month? Well, officially they say its purpose is as a media to vent our negative energies, lowering the aggression level but yeah.. highly likely they know about this”

“A tournament?” Yisheng asked.

“Yep, they will grant 1 wish of the winner. Of course it still have to be within their power”

1 wish. Maybe he could ask for 1 day out to visit his grandma’s tomb and Jingyi. But right now, what Xiaohui said was true.

He should stop being depressed. Learn to control his mental. Join the tournament and win. That’s his short term goal for now.

“You guys seems to get along well!” A familiar voice woke Yisheng up from his dazed state.

“Warden Huang” Jianwen offered him a polite smile.

“Here’s your dinner” He said as he put down the tray on the floor. There were 3 blood bags and 3 straws on it.

“Thank you Warden Huang” Jianwen took the tray and went to distribute the bags.

Yisheng’s eyes trembled in horror.

Seeing the unmoving Yisheng, Jianwen and Xiaohui shrugged. They stuck the straw into the bags and drunk the blood nonchalantly.

He saw the thick red liquid went out of the bag, straight into their mouth. Bile seemed to rush outward and burned his throat. He gagged, then ran to the toilet to vomit.

Xiaohui rolled his eyes and sighed. “Damn new kid”.

Without communicator (equal to cellphone these days but more advanced), The Den’s residents life almost seemed like it was disconnected from outside world. Their only way to know what happened beyond the wall was the small televisions installed in every room and public area.

As for food, The Den also provided normal human foods for the wardens as well as The Dangerous Entities (tho in small amount with less frequency than normal person). Most of the Dangerous Entities (DE) enjoyed normal food just to feel a slight sense of normalcy in their life, so that’s why Yisheng could get away without consuming any blood bag. It was pretty strange. The doctor gave him his blood analysis result, it mirror of what the DEs had and so he was brought here without any resistance. Yet why he didn’t feel the craving, the urge for blood like other DEs? He kept this abnormality of his as a secret from everyone.

The high schooler’s first two weeks here felt so long, even worse with him knowing nothing about his best friend’s current condition. He realized his first priority now was to win the tournament, that’s why the 3 inmates in C10 were busy these days.

Xiaohui made his own physical and mental training menu, he even made one for Yisheng but except his improved muscle mass and endurance, he still didn’t manage to grasp any ability until now.

Claiming that he had no ability and “this oldman’s bones and joints are too rusty for a melee fight”, he took the initiative as the brain of the team. He went out to mingle with other residents and made a database on how many people are there, estimated participants of the tournaments, do they have abilities, if they did then what it was and how to counteract it.

From his investigation, there were approximately 100 residents in The Den, and estimated 24 DEs would join the tournament. Excluding Xiaohui there’re only another 3 people who felt that there were changes in their body. 2 of them claimed that they can manipulate the so called ability freely. The abilities of the 3 ability users are: invisibility, metal skin, and the other one remained unknown for it was from the West Wing part of The Den, where the women resides.

Seeing that the percentage of an ability develop in a DE is at 4:100 (4%) which is a relatively small figure, then he presumed that the ability was a result of an unpredicted mutation. It was truly a double sided sword for them, the good part is: the chance of a strong ability user enemy to show up is small- while the bad part is: the youngest’s chance to develop one was also slim. But that didn’t discourage Yisheng from trying. He kept on practicing his physical and mental power, he refused to give up too early.

———

The day of the tournament arrived. In the middle of the courtyard, stood a 400 m square arena. As per what Jianwen reported before, there were exactly 24 people in the tournament. All 24 contestants were assigned a number and randomly paired.

The rules were: anyone can surrender in a fight, if they went past the arena area then the contestant would be disqualified.

Round 1:

- Yisheng vs the unknown ability Jiejie

- Xiaohui vs Mr. Metal Skin.

“Oh damn. What a bad luck” Xiaohui suddenly cursed.

“Why? I’ve told you his weaknesses right? Shouldn’t be hard for you to beat him” Jianwen said

“Nah, I’m talking about our youngest” Xiaohui stated. Jianwen could only nod, “Well, hope your training menu isn’t for nothing” both of them crossed their fingers.

Yisheng stepped up to the stage confidently. A pretty lady with auburn hair stood across from him, the opponent with unknown variable. There were only 2 meters distance between them, the referee stood at the center. The whistle blown and the match officially begun.

Yisheng got his stance ready for an attack but suddenly the lady raised her hand. “Wait please!” She squeaked. Yisheng frowned.

“Younger brother, please be gentle with me ok... don’t hurt my face” the lady plead pitifuly. Yet when Yisheng looked at her, their eyes met and he saw the glint of her red eyes.

Yisheng’s mind suddenly blanked. His head nodded on its own, without his order.

“Now, please get out of the arena quietly dear” the lady ordered.

Then again, his body moved against his will.

“Damn stupid body stop! Stop!” He yelled inside his mind.

He remembered of what Xiaohui had told him:

Never panic if you are attacked. If they attack you physically, learn their move pattern. If they attack you mentally, you have to kick their *** out of your mind.

Yisheng, with all his might concentrated his mental power to regain his body.

His body walked all the way to the edge of the arena before it suddenly stopped. His dazed state vanished as he got control of his own body again.

He turned around and rushed toward the lady.

Not expecting the opponent could get free from her hypnosis, she was overwhelmed when Yisheng attacked her. Despite her defense, Yisheng could lock her securely while avoding on seeing her eyes. Her arms were folded behind her back, his arm was holding her back to prevent her from trying to meet his eyes.

“Surrender” Yisheng ordered.

“Ok, I surrender”

With that Yisheng’s first round of the tournament concluded.

Xiaohui, as expected got to beat Mr. Metal Skin quickly thanks to Jianwen’s pointers. Mr. Metal Skin couldn’t harden a very large area of skin at one time, so as long as Xiaohui made feints and attack his non-harden skin, then winning was an easy matter.

Going to the top 12, Yisheng got another non-ability user as the opponent. Even so there was nothing to be relief for since the man he should defeat was a 190 cm tall burly guy with a menacing look, like a grizzly bear.

They exchanged blows, at first Yisheng could manage to hold the bear’s attacks but suddenly the bear’s power spiked. His punches got stronger exponentially, his movements got more agile than before.

‘Ah, he awakened his ability’ What a bad luck.

The bear-man eyes were dark red, his expression got much wilder, as if he was in the brink of insanity. Yisheng couldn’t adapt to his moving pattern quickly since he was to busy blocking attacks. Not long after, Yisheng’s focus faltered an the opponent caught the opening. Blows after blows landed on Yisheng until he couldn’t stand on his feet anymore.

His arms and feet were aching in protest, it felt like if he block another hit from the bear maybe they would broke. Yisheng refused to give up, he gritted his teeth, staggered to stand up again.

The bear man made his way to Yisheng, just as he was about to punch him, Yisheng glared. Something inside him bubbling, surging forth.

“I will not lose!” Yisheng roared.

The bear man’s punch was suspended in the air,

Both of them were bewildered with the situation.

Yisheng mustered what’s left of his power in his right fist and send it to his opponent’s way...

——-

Bai Jingyi had a serious head injury so he needed much more time to wake up from his comma. He was a few hours too late, the authorities had took Yisheng to “prevent him from endangering people”. The hospital staffs deny him any further information.

What could possibly happened that make Yisheng became dangerous that he must be detained? Something must have been wrong and he needed to find out. He must rescue him.

An image crossed his mind, of a small box that Yisheng’s grandma ever gave him 3 years ago. She said to only open it when Yisheng was in danger and grandma wasn’t around. It was kept at the base of his desk study in his room.

Soon after he was discharged, Jingyi got home and went straight to look for the box. The said box was still there, he quickly opened the box.

Inside was 2 rows of numbers, an emblem and a corner of burned ID Card with a unique logo but no texts. He realized the numbers were like a coordinate, he tried to enter the coordinate in his communicator and it pointed to the middle of a forest, at the edge of a city, 70 kilometers away from here. He hastily made his way to that coordinate, hoping that someone could save his friend.

After 2 hours of bus ride and an hour of walking deep into the forest, Jingyi frowned clearly disappointed. There was nothing but grass and trees around him. He tried to shout out, knock, turn, pull some tree branches, even knocking the grass but to no avail. But suddenly he heard movements from the bushes. Not long after something pricked his thigh, his vision blurred as he lost consciousness.

—-

Jingyi woke up with his arms and legs chained on the wall, amhe felt cold and bare, like he was only wearing his boxer brief. He could see nothing since he was blindfolded.

“Who are you, what do you want, and how did you get here?” A rough sound of a man came, he seemed to be the guard of this place.

“Name is Bai Jingyi. I came here because I’m looking for help, grandma Yihua sent me here. She gave the coordinate!”

The guard looked at him suspiciously.

“Uncle please? There is the coordinate, an emblem and an ID Card in my jacket’s left pocket. Those are the proof!”

Thought that the brat was lying, the guard went to mess the clothes lump on his table, searching for the said items. His jaw dropped when he saw the familiar emblem.

“The Feng Family emblem! Shit, I gotta tell boss!” He scampered off and left Jingyi confused.

Not long after that the door suddenly banged open, an elderly man with red rimmed eyes approached Jingyi. His wrinkled hands were trembling as he held the emblem and the burnt ID Card.

“What happened to them?” His voice shaking with sorrow.

——