Chapter 1 : Not Available

“Hah. What happened to me?”

A man woke up on a hard mattress. The only thing surrounding him was a narrow cell with a dim light.

The man was puzzled. He couldn’t remember the last incident that had happened to him to be in this condition. His head hurt so badly when he tried to remember what had happened before.

“Hah! Where am I?! What kind of place is this?!” the man shouted frantically.

The room was enclosed by a hard wall, and before him was only a gate made of iron with no opening to see the situation outside.

He was really confused by his own condition. Then, the man also felt that something was wrong with himself. And it was true, he had lost his arm.

He screamed his lungs out, thinking that he could still feel the pain from his missing arm. Then, he realized something. He didn’t feel anything, not even the slightest pain. It was just a numb feeling because of having lost one of his arms.

On his right arm, there was a round circle like it was designed to put something in it. The man did not know what had happened to him to have to go through something terrible like this.

Beside the gate, a screen in front of him lit up. Then, there were lots of roars of cheers from people he couldn’t see. It filled the cell that his ears started to ring painfully a bit. 

The monitor screen then displayed an inscription.

[Prisoner #404, Spike Bretman has been awakened. Commence Guillotine Protocol]

“Who is speaking there?!” the man shouted to the front of the screen. He was starting to remember his name a bit. He was Spike Bretman.

The room he was in started to vibrate, moving like an elevator. There was also the sound of teeth grinding against each other. Because he was still in a panic state, Spike didn’t know what to do.

I have to get out of here!

Spike’s instinct told him something terrible than just having to lose one arm was going to happen to him. He started trying to do something to get out of this place.

When he wanted to beat on the gate made of iron with his right arm, he forgot that his arm had been cut.

Spike became bewildered. He screamed harshly and kicked the door hard.

“Quickly, get me out of here! You bastard!”

Spike looked back at the screen beside the gate. He felt it might be the only way for him to communicate with someone out there.

“Hey, you! Who exactly are you?! What do you want from me?!” Spike shouted so loudly. He was a bit of out of breath because his stamina had run out after hitting the iron gate.

“Welcome Prisoner #404. You may be confused about what’s going on, but don’t worry. You’ll find out soon…” said a voice from the screen. The distorted voice confused Spike whether it was a man or a woman.

“Who are you?! What do you want from me?!” Spike replied still in a panic.

“Instead of asking something useless like that, it’s better for you to ask yourself. Can you survive a little longer?” 

The gate finally opened, and the light from the lamps in front of the gate blinded Spike’s eyes.

The cheers of the people grew louder. Spike had no other choice but to walk out of the iron gate. Seeing a vast expanse of field, with tall and thick walls all around, it was impossible to escape from that place.

Spike was in the middle of the field now. No, rather than a field, it was more like a gladiatorial arena in the Middle Ages. The spectator looked at him standing in the middle of the arena with great enthusiasm. They even eagerly stood up. That was when Spike realized something. They wore the same clothes as him. Orange clothes.

“Finally come to the arena in the east corner, a skilled fighter from the Underground Gangster. He is known as a ruthless and cruel gangster without mercy. He never lost any fight. Here it is, Spike the Iron Fist!” 

The commentator’s voices added to the excitement in the arena. The spectator started clapping their hands enthusiastically while cheering for Spike who looked at his surroundings in bewilderment.

Spike’s instinct told him that this was a really bad situation. He could guess that he would be forced to fight to death in this arena. He didn’t know with whom, but the thing that worried him the most was his right arm. Spike was confident that he could fight, but not with his missing right arm. He would probably die fighting whoever was here.

“And in the west corner. A monster who has no other desire but to destroy all its enemies. Here it is, Gorlock!”

In front of Spike, a gigantic monster with a body similar to an orc in a fantasy story stomped its feet closer to him. Its own height was 3 times greater than Spike’s height. In its right hand, it carried a large club that could take someone’s life in one hit. Interestingly, the monster’s right eye was not the inborn eye, but a prosthetic eye similar to robots.

“Because the two fighters are already in the arena, let’s get started right away. The Execution!”

The monster immediately came running towards Spike. It tried to slash the man with its stone club.

Spike was so afraid of losing his own life. Yet, there was nothing he could do besides jump and run to avoid the monster’s pursuit. Spike racked his brain out.

Damn it! How could I possibly defeat the monster in my current situation? Is there no other way for me to escape from this place?

Spike looked around and saw that there was one wall in worse condition than the other walls. If he could lure the monster there and make it hit the wall, maybe he could escape easily.

“Come here, you ugly monster!” Spike shouted, luring the monster towards him.

He ran as fast as he could towards the wall he had been aiming for. Spike’s plan to lure the monster worked well. He just had to wait for the right moment to dodge Gorlock’s attack.

“Gotcha!” 

Gorlock’s hit missed, and it hit the wall behind Spike instead. 

Surprisingly, the wall wasn’t destroyed. In fact, Gorlock that was hit by an electric attack was stunned in its place, unable to move at all.

Seeing this opportunity, Spike tried to kick Gorlock from behind.

“Take this!”

He jumped up, kicking the body of Gorlock in its blind spot.

Unfortunately, Spike’s plan failed miserably. His body bounced back violently because his legs weren’t strong enough to kick Gorlock’s hard body. Then, he fell to the ground.

Gorlock who was initially stunned in its place

began to be able to control its body again. It felt irritated because it had been tricked by Spike. It ran and planned to hit the tiny body of the human using its stone club.

Meanwhile, Spike was really cornered right now. He tried to get up with all his might and find a way to kill the monster.

Then, a Box with a question mark logo suddenly appeared from the ground. It was as if someone had sent it into the arena. 

Out of curiosity and not having any more choices he could do, Spike immediately ran towards the box to open it.

It was unexpected. The contents of the box was an iron arm that was the same size as Spike’s arm.

Without further ado, he took the iron arm and put it in his right arm.

And suddenly, something written appeared in Spike’s eyes

[Gear Received]

[Name : Cybernetic Nano-Tech Arm]

[Power : This gear is able to increase 100 x the power of the user’s original strength. This gear will also be upgraded automatically if the user experiences an increase in strength]

Gorlock was getting closer. Spike started to feel confident now. He didn’t run away from the monster and tried to deal with it with his new weapon.

As the monster approached, Spike threw a punch with his iron arm.

Unexpectedly, Gorlock, with a size of 5 meters, fell down in one punch.

The spectators started cheering so excitedly.

Spike won the duel with a lot of questions filling his head…

[ Gorlock has been defeated. 500 credit has been transferred to the Prisoner #404 account ]