Unnamed

The next few tests were filled with painful tests on their bodies. Blood was taken, as well as bone marrow. More needles had been poked into their bodies than then could even count. But that was not the worst part. The worst part was that they were given brain surgery without any antiseptics.They reason they were told for this is that the drugs would effect their migration into the other world. The reason for the surgery was simple. They had been given a chip in their brain that would give them access to the system the company had created.

This chip was the Highlight of what the company had produced. It was created by a large group of alchemists working together. These alchemists were the most respected job in the entire company. They were able to mix together technology and magic flawlessly.

because of these alchemists the world they were about to enter hand undergone drastic changes in the last two hundred years. Much like earth. As technology advanced on earth it likewise advanced in the other world, unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your view point the two worlds had developed in vastly different directions.

All of this is off topic though. The key point is that these alchemists had created a system that allowed the nonnative citizens of that world to have access to a portion of the magic and system that all of the citizens of that world had access to. This had put the company at the forefront of all of the organizations that had access to the other world.

Before this, the company had not been nearly as tyrannical, unfortunately humanity was filled with greed. A portion of the alchemists had betrayed the corporation and defected to other countries who had bribed them. They brought with them a lot of research that had been done, allowing those countries and companies to have access to the system as well.

This betrayal had brought about much stricter policies from the company, and had eventually given birth to the current state of affairs. This did not mean that the company did not value its employees. It valued them a lot, however they were forced to use both the carrot and the stick after that incident.

Once the chip had been implanted into the brains of the teenagers they felt a new presence in their minds. This presence was not only flow of mana. but the integration of the system into their beings. The system had been upgrades since its foundation, and this led to the creation of cheat like abilities. Abilities that only non native personnel had access to.

Izzy stared mindlessly in space as he could feel the codes generated by the chip effecting his body and mind. Because of his background as an avid virtual gamer and a programmer himself Izzy was extremely sensitive to the changes in codes. As the codes entered his mind he could "see" them activating hidden Gene's in his DNA. These activations were of recessive Gene's that could be considered waste to modern day science.

But in the other world these Gene's were not waste. They were the basis of a person's growth. They would determine how they would grow in the other world, the limits that they would face, and even the class and race that they would become.

But Izzy was not afraid of this. He was one of the few in his class that had excelled in not only coding, but creation. He had worked in a collaboration with other students to make a similar chip, a chip that contained an artificial intelligence that he had created.

This artificial intelligence had been given the nickname "Lacey" after the most attractive girl in their school. It's soul purpose was to hack into the programming of Virtual reality games, and give them an edge over other players. In short it was an advanced, undetectable cheating device.

As the codes entered his mind Lacey had been activated by the intruding codes. It did not block the intrusion, rather it guided them in a way as to maximize his potential. The Artificial Intelligence saw the path the codes wanted them to take, and forcefully altered them so that they could optimize the growth depending on what its host desired.

A screen appeared in Izzy's mind. The screen was a blank slate. A slate that he had seen many times in front of him in games. A menu appeared in front of him, the words that were presented to him were from Lacey.

<Character creation started>

<Please select the areas you would like to specialize in>

Lacey was not designed to give the player a choice on classes or abilities. It was simply designed to optimize the player. This involved picking the stats, race, abilities and classes for the host, creating the most powerful entity that it could, with the resources provided. All of this would be done using the guidelines provided by the host.

Izzy paused for a moment. This would be different than the online games he had played in the past. This would not be a virtual character, where in game strength was all that matters. If he was not powerful enough to survive that was it. He would die. If this was the case how should he proceed?

He did not consider for long, before making his choice. "Max out growth, focusing on magic power and then versatility."

With his selection, he could feel intense pain radiating through his body and mind. The codes that had invaded his DNA began to rewrite his existence, making it into something that would be suitable for the world in which he would be employed in.

He could only let out a scream as the pain in his body rose without limit. He could feel his very body defying itself, growing in ways that it should never have been able to.

Soon the pain reached a level that he could not even put on a scale. His entire body seemd to be tearing apart. His muscles, blood, organs, and the rest of his body seemed to fight against himself. A war that could only end in mutual destruction.

Beside him the others were likewise going through an intense process. Their bodies began to morph, shifting from their normal human appearance. A loud roar could be heard from the teens, as magical energy formed a large vortex around them.

The three lieutenants looked without expression. They had witnessed many such transformations, and had even been through their own. Finally the lion man spoke. "This group seems to be rather disappointing. There is not even a single sign of turbulence in the ma--"

As he spoke the vortex above one of the four teens began to change. The elemental energy seemed to flash with a thunderous might. Lightning flowed through the in small sparks. The vortex was generated around one of the girls, Alexis.

Two of the other three had also been developing their own turbulence in the magic around them, but none of it was as flashy as the lightning. The lieutenants knew that this did not truly reflect the power of the teens, but it was often those with the biggest turbulence that had the most power.

They could only shake their heads as they looked at the last of the teens. Izzy did not seem to cause any any turbulence, and his vortex seemed rather small in comparison to the others. The only think of not was that his vortex was spinning in the opposite direction from the others.

They had never seen such a phenomenon, but based on the size of his vortex this boy would only end up as the weakest of the bunch. He would be lucky if his partner did not end up abandoning him. This caused the lieutenants to sigh, the worst possible result was a small vortex with no phenomena. The path for this boy would be limited. Perhaps he could only survive as a grunt from here on.

Still 3 recruits who had produced phenomena, one of which had created a large phenomena. This recruitment could be considered rather successful.

The chairman looked at the scene with a much more experienced eye. He had never seen the anti vortex before, but with his sensitive perception he could feel that it absorbed the mana around it, forcing the other vortex's to focus on a single aspect if they were to grow. The vortex that had been impacted the most was that which belonged to Alexis, as her vortex was forced to focus purely on the lightning element.

It was true that she would be unparalleled in this aspect, but her future would be limited to this one path only. It could be considered both a blessing and a curse.

John had a similiar reaction, but his vortex had managed to latch onto a form of internal magic. This seemed to be extremely beneficial for him, but again would limit his choices in the future.

Celine had perhaps the most interesting phenomena of the three, her vortex contained the aspect of sound. With her past as an idol, this would create a unique existence, and he rather looked forward to her future growth.

Of course the most interesting was Izzy. The anti vortex he possessed seemed to absorb the magic around it. The energies seemed to disappear as soon as they touched the vortex, as if it was a black hole sucking in everything around it. His eyes opened wide in astonishment as he could see the boys form starting to take shape underneath the anti vortex.