The staircase wasn't crowded, so it felt quite spacious. Aries quickly started climbing, with Victor following behind.

"Aries, wait for me!"

Victor said, his voice sounding tired. Aries stopped on the second-floor landing and turned to look at him.

"This is your floor."

"Already?"

Victor seemed surprised. A sign on the door on the second floor read: [Floor 2: Shine System]

"Which floor are you on?"

Aries looked at her paper.

"Floor 4."

"Then I'll head in first. You go on ahead."

"Okay... see you later."

Victor nodded with a smile. He handed his paper to the guard standing at the door, who checked it and then opened the door for Victor to enter.

Aries turned and continued up the stairs.

'See you later'? For some reason, Aries felt a bit regretful saying that. They've only met once, so meeting again would depend a lot on fate.

'Whatever.' Aries reached the fourth floor. She gave her paper to the guard for inspection.

"Go in."

"Thank you."

Aries nodded in thanks and reached for the doorknob. She shivered. Why did she feel a chill down her spine...? She pursed her lips slightly, then turned the knob and opened the door.

Stepping inside, Aries was surprised to see about a dozen pairs of eyes staring at her, with threatening and cold expressions. 'So many people...? But what's with this welcoming attitude...?', Aries gave a forced smile, frowning uncomfortably.

Those belonging to the Darkness System were known for being ruthless and cold. It depended on the person, but that was the case for the majority. Some were that way due to family blood; others due to lineage, more precisely related to... Demon lineage.

But mostly it was due to family inheritance.

Aries walked past them. She heard whispering and murmuring. It was annoying, but she had to endure it. Aries stood quietly in a corner by the window, hoping to attract less attention.

Looking around, there were quite a few people, but not too many. There were many rooms here, marked with numbers. Aries looked out the large window and saw the guard shooting at people outside the gate.

'Probably because they're infected...', Aries thought. Surviving a monster bite was lucky, but the monsters' teeth could transmit toxins and parasites, so some people would change after a period of time. Sooner it's 5 hours, later it's 2 days.

Aries knew that because Victor had told her on the way back to the base. He knew a lot of things she didn't...

"You crazy bitch!"

Aries was startled and turned around. Two girls were cursing and fighting. Everyone else just watched and stood by, a few people came forward and tried to stop them, but it was insignificant.

'I knew it...', Aries thought. With the typical personalities of some people in the Darkness system, internal conflicts were bound to happen.

The elevator doors opened, and two guards came over to stop the two girls and led them out the stairwell despite their curses and threats.

From the elevator stepped a man... no, he looked too young to be called a man, he had a short, curved horn on his dark purple hair, and his blue eyes exuded coldness. He wore fairly simple clothes, a black hoodie and sweatpants.

With horns, wings, and a tail, anyone could guess that he was of Demon lineage.

His eyes scanned each person, his hands lazily in his pockets.

"If anyone wants to be 'embraced' by the monsters, then keep fighting and showing attitude."

"In this situation, we should be united, but if even one person harms or risks harming the entire group, we will not spare that person."

"Any objections, raise your hand."

The entire floor fell silent, no one dared to say a word. Aries quietly glanced around, some people looked scared, some people secretly annoyed...

After a moment, he cleared his throat.

"I am Clause, the Head of the Darkness System."

"I will only say this once and briefly, and with the minimum courtesy of the listener to the speaker, you are smart enough to understand."

'This person is difficult to deal with...? But he looks younger than I thought, probably under 30...', Aries looked closely, 'Under 30 and the Head of the System, he must be very talented and strong...'.

Clause continued.

"First, you have passed the first round of screening, meaning you are of sufficient age and ability level. Those who are old or young and have not reached level 2 or higher will be sent to the eighth floor to be cared for and assigned different suitable tasks."

"Second, tomorrow there will be a second round of screening, which is a skill test. The time will be announced separately for each floor."

"And finally, cheating, falsifying results, or causing others to be affected will be put on the base's patrol team to go outside to investigate and report the results and situation back to the base."

Everyone listened and looked at each other, whispering and murmuring. What did Aries do? Nothing. She just stood in the corner and listened.

Not that she heard much...

"So, at this current moment, who has not reached level 2?"

Clause's question caught everyone's attention. Everyone looked at each other, then around to see if anyone raised their hand.

"Anyone who lies will be put on the patrol team like those two girls just now."

Aries saw a young man gleefully about to raise his hand, then quickly lowered it out of fear. It took a lot of guts to raise your hand.

After a while, no one raised their hand. Those who intended to raise their hand to be sent to the eighth floor quietly turned away.

"So there's no one, right?"

Clause looked at the digital clock on the wall.

"Almost 8 PM, listen up, there are 60 rooms on each floor, all of them are offices but have been cleaned."

"Each room can accommodate at least 2-3 people, if there are no more rooms, sleep in the hallway here, but it will be cold."

Clause finished and returned to the elevator with the two guards following behind. As soon as the elevator doors closed, everyone started looking at each other. Aries felt the air suddenly turn cold...

"This room is mine!"

"Get out of here, it's my room!"

"I touched it first!"

'Here we go again...', Aries helplessly watched everyone around her fight for rooms. She dodged them and went to look for a room too. Luckily, there was a room at the end of the corner that no one paid attention to.

Aries quickly went to it and went inside. She hurriedly closed and locked the door. Immediately, knocking on the door rang out along with shouts and threats.

"Open the door, you little brat!"

"I found this room first!"

"Are you planning to monopolize this room?! Do you believe I'll report you?!"

Aries said nothing and just looked at the pitiful door being mercilessly pounded on. Luckily it was a metal door, or else it would be destroyed immediately.

'You guys could just ask nicely...', Aries sighed softly, ignoring the people outside banging on the door and threatening...

After a while, when she didn't hear any more noise, Aries felt a little relieved. These people were scary. Sorry, door.

Aries looked around the room, there were two beds and a small table with three lunch boxes and three bottles of refreshment drinks on it. Without thinking much, she sat down and quickly ate a lunch box and drank a bottle of refreshment drink.

She had to run all day because of the monsters chasing her, so she was very tired and hungry. After eating, Aries sighed in satisfaction. She looked at the two lunch boxes and two bottles of refreshment drinks still on the table.

What should she do with them now? She unconsciously looked towards the door. There were two options, one was to open it and leave them outside, for whoever was hungry to eat; two was to ignore it. Of course, there was no avoiding the possibility of being ambushed.

After hesitating for a moment, she decided to gently and slowly go to the door. Turning the lock as quietly and silently as possible, she also prepared for the possibility of being ambushed, so she held the doorknob tightly.

Aries opened the door slightly and looked around. It was too quiet. Suddenly she saw a white-haired girl curled up in the corner. Aries quietly placed the lunch box and bottle of refreshment drink outside and quickly closed and locked the door silently.

She sighed in relief. She should still be careful, she shouldn't trust people carelessly. Now there was only one box left, she'd save it for tomorrow. Aries took off her shoes and climbed into bed. Because she was tired, she fell asleep very quickly, the whole room gradually fell into silence and only Aries' soft breathing could be heard...