LETHAL EXTRACTION

The metallic taste of copper flooded Vance's mouth as his skull collided with the wet concrete. Heavy rain poured from the pitch black sky in relentless sheets. It stung his swollen eyes and washed away the thick, warm blood pooling beneath his chin. The city of Veridian did not care about a nobody dying in its gutters. The towering skyscrapers above glowed with bright neon light, completely indifferent to the cruel violence happening in the shadows below.

A massive, heavy boot slammed into his ribs. The sickening crack of bone breaking echoed off the narrow, garbage filled brick walls of the dark alley.

"Is that all you got, you pathetic punching bag?" a grating, cruel voice mocked through the loud downpour.

Three syndicate enforcers loomed over him like gargoyles carved from stone. The leader, a massive brute named Jaxson, wiped the freezing rain from his bald head and grinned. He drew a heavy, solid steel pipe from his soaked leather jacket. The rusted metal glinted under the flickering, dying light of a broken streetlamp at the far end of the alley.

Vance tried to suck in a breath, but agony flared in his chest like a sudden, violent wildfire. His right lung was punctured. Every desperate gasp for air tasted exactly like drowning. He had spent two miserable years taking brutal beatings in the illegal underground fighting rings just to pay off a syndicate debt he never even asked for. His father had borrowed money from the wrong people, vanished into the night, and left Vance to pay the ultimate price. Tonight, the syndicate bosses decided a dead man was much cheaper to manage than a broken, exhausted fighter.

"Finish him," Jaxson ordered, his voice devoid of any human empathy. "The boss wants the body dumped by the shipping docks before sunrise. Make it messy. I want the other fighters to see what happens when they stop being useful."

The heavy steel pipe swung downward, aimed directly at Vance's fractured skull.

Vance stared up at the descending weapon. He felt a profound, crushing sense of injustice weighing him down. He had never been given a fair chance at life. He had lived his entire existence in the mud, surviving on literal scraps, bleeding every single night for the entertainment of rich sociopaths. Was this really how his miserable story ended? A nameless, forgotten corpse rotting in the polluted harbor?

He wanted to scream at the dark sky. He wanted to tear these men apart with his bare hands. He wanted to rip down the glowing towers of Veridian City and watch the elite burn in their luxurious penthouse suites. But his body was completely broken. His vision began to darken rapidly at the edges. The cold, final embrace of death crept up his numb limbs.

Then, reality shattered. Time stopped entirely.

The heavy rain froze in midair, suspended perfectly like millions of tiny glass beads. The murderous, ugly grin on Jaxson's face locked firmly in place. The descending steel pipe halted exactly one inch from Vance's forehead. Total, absolute silence fell over the dark alleyway. The distant roar of the city faded into nothing.

A glowing blue interface materialized directly above Vance's face. The light was harsh and artificial, illuminating the frozen raindrops all around him. A cold, mechanical voice echoed perfectly inside his skull.

[Host Vital Signs Critical. Complete Organ Failure Imminent.]

[System Initialized. Lethal Damage Detected. Activating Emergency Extraction Protocol.]

Vance could not speak. His vocal cords were paralyzed by the frozen flow of time. But his fading consciousness flared with desperate, burning hope. He did not know what this floating screen was. He did not care if it was a final hallucination brought on by severe blood loss. If this was a chance to live, he would take it. He projected his fierce, unyielding will to survive directly into the bright blue light.

[Protocol Accepted. Commencing Cellular Regeneration.]

A sudden surge of terrifying, electrical energy flooded Vance's broken veins. It felt exactly like swallowing a live lightning bolt. The shattered bones in his chest snapped back into their proper places with loud pops. Torn, bleeding muscles knitted together in mere seconds. His punctured lung sealed itself tight, drawing in a massive, greedy gulp of crisp, cold air. The suffocating agony vanished completely, replaced by an explosive, intoxicating power he had never felt before in his entire life.

The mechanical voice spoke again, devoid of emotion but full of incredible promise.

[Scanning Immediate Vicinity. Identifying Hostile Targets.]

​[Extracting Target: Low Tier Brawler. Extracting Attribute: Raw Strength. Extracting Skill: Street Brawling.]

​Time resumed.

​The steel pipe was inches from his face. Vance moved.

​His hand shot upward, catching the solid steel pipe with his bare palm. The impact sent a shockwave through the wet air, but Vance did not even flinch.

​The leader's eyes widened in sheer panic. He tried to pull the weapon back, but Vance’s grip was like an iron vice.

​With a fluid motion, Vance ripped the pipe from the enforcer's hands and drove his fist straight up into the man's jaw. The unnatural strength from the System fueled the strike. The enforcer lifted off his feet and slammed backward into the brick wall, slumping instantly to the ground.

​The other two thugs stared in absolute shock. The broken punching bag had just launched their boss ten feet through the air.

​Vance slowly rose to his feet. The cold rain cascaded off his shoulders. The blue screen flickered in his peripheral vision, displaying his newly acquired stats.

​[Host Status: Optimal. Combat Parameters Upgraded.]

​He spat a glob of blood onto the wet pavement and locked his cold gaze on the remaining two men.

​"My turn."