Chapter 15: Participants and Gifts.

Shin stares at the pamphlet in his hands and then slowly entered the hospital room.

In the bed lies his wife, Kate. She had taken shots to several major internal organs when a drug bust went wrong and is now in a coma surviving only on life support. She was a cop and was everything to him. He would gladly die if it would save her.

[Shin]: Kate…I will definitely save you, even if I have to fight an entire country…Even if I have to work with that god forsaken company.

He looks at her with a strong face, then opens the pamphlet. To beat someone, one must first know about your enemy. One of his dad’s teachings.

-Antagonist Online, the death defying game! Beta tester wanted…”

Welcome to the pamphlet, you have been selected as a candidate for beta testing Antagonist online. Upon accessing the game, one can use mythical and fantastic powers of myth and lore. Want to control fire, water, earth, or air? Want to be able to bend the very nature against its will? Entering this game will allow you to fully unlock your hidden potential. Shin read the first page of the pamphlet stunned. If what it said was true, he and Kate can both get stronger. In full hopefulness he continues reading but at the same time wary of why the government wanted him to do this.

The pamphlet ends there with a few well done screen shots and a date and number.

“Beta tester meeting on the 3^rd! Mandatory to all who joined the program.”

That was in 4 days. Shin takes a look at his wife and steeled his resolve.

[Shin]: Kate, my dear, I will save you no matter what…

Shin Wu looked out the window. The government will pay for this. For killing his father, for harming his wife, he was out for blood. But those who rush due to anger will lose in the end, another teaching from his father.

______

On the way back, Shin was attacked by a man in a suit. He had the feeling of a bodyguard for a government official. Shin with his training easily manage to avoid the initial attack. As a chef, he always kept his trusty filleting knife with him (Chefs don’t do this normally). Trained by his father Wu in the art of fighting, Shin trained in how to use a knife after he recovered from the explosion with the intent on revenge. He knew that the man in the suit was actually trying to kill him, persuasion was not going to work so Shin skillfully as if he was dancing cut the man’s tendons in his arm and legs as they clashed. The man in the suit just fell to his knees as he could no longer stand, his arms limp at his sides. Shin just slowly walked away from him while juggling his knife in one hand. The man in the suit whispered something to the mic on his suit.

[Man in a suit]: He passed sir, with flying colors too.

The man smiled, looking at Shin slowly walking into the night.

4 Days later, Shin arrived at the designated location. It was a tall commercial building with a large sign reading `Institute of Medical Research`. He walked in and was greeted by the receptionist at the door.

[Receptionist]: You must be Mr. Wu, please follow me to the meeting room.

Shin followed the reception and entered a meeting room. Inside were 11 people. From the looks of it there were people from all over the world with all kinds of work background. The only common thing shared between them, was all of them seemed like they could fight. They all stared at Shin as he walked in, evaluating his strength. Many of them simply scoffed and went back to chatting among themselves.

Shin took one of the seats and sat down. 5 minutes later, the boy that Shin met at the hospital walked in.

[Man in grey suit]: Ladies and gentleman, calm down please. This informative meeting shall start now.

He said with his trademarked grin.

[Man in grey suit]: Now that I have your attention, let me say a few things before we start. Some of you may have noticed, but there is only twelve people here. This is because we only needed twelve skilled people to test this game out. The others whom we have asked didn’t make it so your twelve are the selected few.

After the attack, Shin guessed the man in the suit was just a test.

[Man in grey suit]: Now you might be wondering why we would test you guys if you’re only going to be beta testers for a game. Well let me explain, this game allows you to gain certain bonuses based on your actual physical and mental abilities due to these Nano-bots we inject into participants. We have to be sure this doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. They allows them to be able to fully control the energy within their bodies and access their power. Also as qualifying beta testers, we present to you a small present.

The boy pressed his tablet and a monitor appears in front of the room. On it was a box of what looked like liquid mercury.

[Man in grey suit]: This, is living metal. Since inside the game, everyone will start out with only a small dagger, all the weapons you used will be made by yourselves. We will not allow people to bring weapons from the outside. As beta testers, this living metal which is made of the seven metals of the moons, will be a gift from the gods to say the less. You are allowed to use this metal to create a weapon of your choosing and use it for the rest of the time you will be playing with no expiration date. You can either shape it yourselves or have of our designers to make it for you base on your whims.

The boy pressed his tablet again and a man walked in. He had a strange reddish hair color and wore a black punk outfit.

[Man in grey suit]: This is our chief designer, Jones.

[Jones]: Nice to meet y’all.

Jones said with a grin.

[Jones]: Well then, shall we head to the workshop?

He led us next door into a room.

[Jones]: Now let me demonstrate what energy manipulation can really do.