Weapons and Friends

The door closed behind them, leaving the two inside a large room filled from top to bottom with weapons, many resembling tools he was familiar with, given upgrades for the war against City G.

"We already provided a short list of weapons you can choose from. Pick what fits you best." Clara stood next to three weapons, all hidden inside floating glass boxes. 

Jacob slowly approached the line of boxes, walking past a hundred different others, the sight of it reminded him of some rpg games he used to play before this. The first box held a longsword.

"That there is an electro sword, basically imagine a weapon that deals electric damage. But in real life." Clara explained quickly, not even looking at the weapon, instead still focused on typing on her phone.

'Who is she even texting? A boyfriend?' Jacob turned away, wanting to see the other 2. The next box held a sickle, floating inside with a bright glow to it.

"The flash sickle, just a sickle that can blind your enemy for a few moments." She explained, leaving Jacob to see what the last box held.

The box was longer than the other two, and inside it was a scythe. It looked like a normal farming scythe Jacob had used countless times when he worked outside the city before. But it felt oddly different.

"The molten scythe. It's actually a prototype weapon and rather heavy, mainly because of the fact it's made to penetrate and melt armor using heat, no matter how many times you use it, it will always remain sharp." Clara stood next to Jacob, also fascinated by the scythe.

She turned to him, "So what will it be?". All the weapons were interesting to Jacob, but his choice was clear. He had already used scythes hundreds of times, and was able to handle one just fine when farming, unlike the other two.

"The scythe looks the easiest." Clara moved closer to the box, waving her hand above it. The box slowly opened, like an unwrapped gift, waiting for someone to take it.

Clara moved away, gesturing for him to grab the weapon already.

'Shouldn't be too bad right?' His hands gripped the scythe, almost immediately his hands felt like they were burning, causing it to drop to the floor. 

The blade of the scythe began glowing red, but didn't seem to get hotter.

"What the heck was that!?" Clara chuckled for a moment after hearing his question.

"I forgot to mention, due to it being a prototype, the creator did not really think of hand protection. That and the melting ability is unpredictable and not that useful." She took out a handkerchief from her pocket, grabbing the scythe and handed it to Jacob.

"You'll get used to the heat, just keep holding it"

Even though the fire burned his hands, Jacob tried his best to keep holding onto it. Slowly it began to feel warm, until he no longer felt any pain. 

A loud ping came from Clara's phone, grabbing her attention. She looked up to Jacob after a few seconds, "Looks like your assigned teammates have arrived. Let's go." 

—---

The two stopped in front of a door, having walked through a dozen hallways and spending nearly an hour in walking, leaving Jacob tired.

The door opened, revealing a small room with a table and chairs in the middle. On two of the seats though were Jacob's new teammates. A young woman and slightly older man.

"Ah that's the glitch people talked so much about!" A woman hopped off her seat with a smile. Jacob quickly noticed that her clothes looked familiar.

"I'm Ella, the best protector from City P!" She shook Jacob's hand before he could even reach out to greet her.

"That over there is Zeph, i don't know much about him though apart from apparently coming from City B." She glanced back, with an unnerved face. 

Jacob could recall that City P's soldiers were common outside his home city, becoming accustomed to seeing them daily when he was farming, protecting the farmers from attacks and even giving their lives as long as they survived. 

For City B though, he never got much information on them apart from using blades heavily. Just looking at Zeph and his emotionless face made Jacob uneasy.

"Apologies for my blank gaze, I just don't prefer to show much expression." He stood up, revealing a long blade tucked beneath a black robe. Jacob noticed a few scars on his face, but he stopped himself from asking about it out of fear.

Clara walked near the wall and cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention.

"After the sudden appearance of these glitches, along with information of them having unique abilities and features unlike ours," She eyed Jacob for a moment. "They wish to see if these glitches may also have benefits for combat. And Jacob here is one of the only available glitches as we're experimenting on the rest." 

She took out a square device and handed it to Jacob. The device had a green screen on it, a medical tracker meant to show injuries on the wearer. He quickly wore it on his arm, and it glowed to life, showing the status of his body.

[DEVICE ONLINE]]

"It's standard for all guards, but for you it's also for research purposes. It'll show up on your system as well." She stepped back and crossed her arms, almost forgetting something.

"Oh right, research. Well since you were acquainted with your team, it's now time to bring you to the research lab." With a smirk, she walked to the door and impatiently waited for the rest to follow. 

"Where is this lab?" 

"Just a few floors up, it's to see how this thing that lives in your system operates. If it even shows up that is." 

Ella and Zeph walked behind, with drastically different expressions on their faces.

"This is very interesting, not only do i see what these glitches are, but this is the first time i was stationed in City H!" 

"You never went here?" Jacob asked, seeing it as impossible with the heavy amount of City H members that go here.

"Heh, well…." She clasped her hands together in embarrassment, "I just came out of the academy you see." Snapping her fingers, a screen appeared, revealing her rank.

"Grade 8, luckily i was top of my class and got promoted in the military academy, so you got nothing to worry about!" She proudly explained.

Jacob recalled his level, grade 9. In this place, such a rank is equivalent to being a common and replaceable worker in society. 

The lowest grade one could have was grade 10 while the highest was grade 1, those powerful enough though will be given special titles, mostly just the leaders of cities but rarely, common workers can get one. Such titles grant infinite possibilities and excellent treatment.