"The tutorial gates are gates made by gatekeepers," the sergeant said. "Gatekeepers are people chosen by the tower to create tutorial gates and simulations for humanity. This way we can train and be ready for real gates.
"We have some of these gatekeepers with us, and the gates are already prepared for you. This afternoon, like I said earlier, the campaign gate we will enter together will be a real war. We will fight real monsters or a real enemy. And if you die there, you will feel exactly how death feels. I chose to start this afternoon so you would understand how much responsibility you are going to carry very early on. And learn to be a real team.
"I know some of you already fought with each other. But after this afternoon, you will never fight each other again once you see who the real enemy is."
I was so excited to hear this. I had completely forgotten about these gates, and I didn't know the military had gatekeepers. Even if they did, I never thought they would train us using them.
It must be a secret to hide their powers from enemy countries, like our neighbor that we have so many problems with.
A gate campaign would be like a VR game. We were going to kill monsters. If you died, you would just repeat again. Not like real gates where a lot of people actually died. I was so excited for the afternoon.
---
The afternoon. Time: unknown.
It started fun but most of it was hell, and now I can't get the fuck out of this gate until I finish the fucking… Fuck… "FUCK."
I was going crazy. This fucking military training. Those motherfuckers didn't care how they did it, but they wanted to make us super soldiers this way.
---
After more than a year.
Turns out all that training was for this war. I don't even know if my friends are alive. Fuck, I never thought I'd think about sacrificing myself for my country, for people I don't know, but fuck, I have to do this shit or all of them will die.
---
It took some time for the watch system to load, but it did in the end.
After skipping through the tutorial on how to use the system, the form opened for me to fill.
[Type as it's written in your tower system]
[Be careful. Lying when filing this form in any way could lead to federal military crimes]
[Beast type: It is usually the name of your system, example "Beast type system"]
"What are you gonna type for your beast?" Ben asked me.
"I was gonna write Spiderman, but I have to write just Spider so I don't get in trouble. What about you?"
"I will write Vampire, of course. I want to hide it from the others, but I don't want to get in trouble either," Ben said.
"What about you, Tom?" I asked.
"I don't know if I should write Werewolf or just Wolf. What do you think?"
"Just write Wolf. Keep the Werewolf a secret for now. You can use it to your advantage," I said.
"Okay, I will do that."
"Okay, awakeners. Who hasn't filled out his military system yet?" the sergeant asked.
Nobody raised their hands.
The sergeant continued, "Okay, I will call you one by one. You will come here and connect your wireless watch to the device. It will show everyone your beast type and abilities. The device will also tell you which tier your beast is, based on your stats that it will calculate and your abilities. When I call your name, come here and take the seat.
"Okay, the first one is Silas."
The guy with the long blonde hair walked up and sat on the chair. He placed his watch hand on the device. Then the giant screen behind him lit up.
[Level 3]
[Beast: Snake - Hydra - S tier]
[Abilities:]
[Snake arms, level 3]
[Snake Control, level 3]
[Snake vision, level 3]
[Venom attack, level 2]
[Regrowth, level 1]
The class exploded, of course. What a great beast and what strong abilities. I envied him. I needed to level the fuck up.
"Another S tier in our class," the sergeant said, smiling widely. "As expected from the Cobrani family. The Hydra beast is a very strong one. Each time you cut it in half, another one grows. The legend says it is immortal, and it is the only beast that the snake hunter couldn't hunt because it lives in water. Great addition to our group. You can go back to your seat."
Silas was smiling toward the guy he had bitten last night. I looked at the guy, and he was obviously angry. His two friends had gotten low-tier beast powers, so now I wasn't sure if they could beat this Silas guy.
"Okay, next, Benjamin," the sergeant called.
Ben stood up and started walking toward the chair. He got some gazes from the girls. He was handsome, more handsome than I remembered. Maybe because of his vampire powers, but that didn't make sense. He said he was not a real vampire, just vampire-like powers.
He sat down. The doctor took his hand and placed it on the device, surprising not just us but Ben himself. She hadn't done that for any of the other guys or even the girls before, and she was smiling at him while he smiled back happily.
Then the screen lit up.
[Level 3]
[Beast: Vampire - S tier]
Everybody rose from their seats in surprise. This was the first time the doctor looked shocked.
The sergeant wasn't surprised because Ben had obviously told them when he signed up for the military. But he was happy to have another S-tier, of course.
[Abilities:]
[Danger sense: level 1]
[Claws: level 1]
[Blood shot: level 1]
Ben's strength wasn't from abilities but from his body. He had told me he had super strength and speed at night, along with night vision. So he didn't have abilities at first. The first abilities he got were from me and Tom after he drank our blood, and the blood shot came after he leveled up to level 3.
I think Ben's power lies in drinking awakeners' blood and taking abilities from them. That's just my theory for now. I'll tell him about it later.
Ben turned around to look at the screen, very excited. "I got an S tier!" he said happily. Then he shocked all of us by hugging the doctor, and she smiled and hugged him back.
I exchanged looks with Tom. Our jaws dropped.
---
Then the sergeant called Tom.
He didn't get the same treatment from the doctor at all.
[Beast: Wolf family - unknown type - S tier]
The sergeant put his hand over his head. "Another S tier? What's happening here?"
Then the system displayed Tom's abilities, and he came back to us smiling. We high-fived him.
"That doctor is a bitch," he said when he sat down.
---
Then the sergeant called me. I walked to the chair, nervous, and sat down. From up close, the doctor was even more beautiful, and those red lips of hers… I wanted to bite them.
We exchanged looks and I smiled.
Suddenly the doctor screamed when her eyes met mine. She stumbled back and fell to the floor as if she had seen a beast in my eyes.
I got up, surprised. Most of the class stood up too.
The sergeant rushed to her. "What happened? What was that? Are you okay?"
"Sorry," the doctor said. "It is just… when I looked at his eyes, I got scared. I don't know why. I just got scared. I didn't sleep well last night. Sorry."
The sergeant looked at me for a second, then helped the doctor up. "Take a seat. This is the last one. I'll take care of him."
The sergeant turned to me. "Sit." I did. He took my hand and placed it on the device, making sure to look into my eyes the whole time. Then he smiled.
"I see," he said, just loud enough for me to hear. "You have an interesting beast sleeping there. Make sure to avoid showing it to anybody in the future." He slapped me on the shoulder and turned back to look at the screen.
I looked at him for a second, taken aback. Then, seeing the surprised looks on the sergeant and the others, I turned to see the results.
[Beast: Spider, error "can't get the tier"]
"Doctor, did I do something wrong?" the sergeant asked.
The doctor got up from her seat and came over to verify the connection. "Everything is good," she said. "I'll try again."
[Beast: Spider - error "can't get the tier"]
[Abilities:]
[Wall climbing, level 1]
[Spider senses, level 1]
[Rapid recovery, level 1]
"The problem is not in the device, sir," the doctor said.
"Okay, you can go back. We will try again another time," the sergeant said.
But I wasn't paying any attention to him, because my system screen opened in front of me and gave me the answer for why my tier didn't appear.
"What the fuck," I said out loud, shocking everyone.