2 weeks before reaching earth.

Captain's quarter, Spaceship.

"That asshole!?" Alex slammed his fist on the table in frustration. "Can you believe that? Those assholes were planning to kill my man even before we could start our mission."

Sitting in front of him was a teenager with an asymmetrical haircut that covered her left eye. Alex's indignation didn't affect her at all. She took a mana candy out of the bowl and popped it in her mouth.

"What are you doing?" Alex yelled at her.

"Huh?" The girl looked as if she had never expected such a question. She showed Alex the wrapper with an innocent face, "I ate candy. Can't I do that?"

The veins on his forehead almost popped, he clenched his fist, and... Alex sighed and released his taunted nerve, "Come on, Lyla. Can't you see the situation? Aren't you mad?"

"Being angry, huh? Why am I supposed to? It's not my problem." Alex was surprised by Lyla's nonchalant words.

"Nothing to do with you? "Alex mumbled, his surprise soon turned into anger. He said, "You're the team's vice-captain, and you're saying it has nothing to do with you?"

"I'm the team's vice-captain. The team is made up of Levi, Elijah, you and me. I have nothing to do with any of the other four." There was no hesitation in her face, "If they survive, I'll be happy to cooperate. If not, then..."

"But Aiden has the same level 5 battle rating as you do." Alex tried to reason her.

"But he's just a mage of level 2."

"Levi is level 2 as well."

"[Mana Cost Reduction] is an innate skill of Levi. It can reduce the cost of mana to a fourth. His 97 mana can be rated as a 388 mana unit."

"Hey, come on, Lyla. That is not what I am talking about. He's the best close combat fighter ever. You, too, have a hard time fighting him."

"Only if I don't use innate skills." Lyla never tried to hide her frustration. "Even when you don't have an innate skill, those mana beasts won't go easy on you."

Alex was not able to refute to this point, nor was Lyla intended to let him do so. "What's your point? The federation has already approved this, and it is a Desert Base 3 experiment. Even if we're on the planet Will, there's very little you could do about it."

Those words are nothing but the truth. Even if Alex didn't want to protest, he couldn't stop it. "But what Elijah is doing is inhumane."

Lyla shook her head, "If you ask me, it's a good thing. With her Grade A innate skill [Clairvoyance], she's going to be a better teammate than Aiden. It could increase our chances of survival. Rather than Aiden, I think she should have high-grade mana stones."

Alex's frown grew deeper with each of her words. He was trying to say something, but...

"You can't save yourself, why do you worry about others? "That one sentence poured on him a bucket of cold water. "We're here because we're all expendable."

"You, the perfect geniuses who passed his prime. Me..." She paused for a moment to sigh before adding, "The dirty spot on one of Planet Will's greatest mage families."And there followed an awkward silence.

After some time, she asked, "How many days do you have?"

"I might live beyond the task time." There was a sad smile on his face.

"What about your recovery rate?"

"I can't recover at all. I am on potions and shots."

Lyla broke into laughter, "Look at you, A mana rejected is worried about a mana poisoned patient."

"No, he is not poisoned yet. We can still stop…"

"Stop it." Lyla screamed as she stood, "Do whatever you want. I'm not going to help you." And she left without a look. Leaving Alex behind even more puzzled.

************

"Old man, don't stop right now. Complete the story." Aiden, 6, nudged the old man who was drowsy in the middle of the story.

"Huh!" The old man opened his eyes. It took him quite a few moments before he could understand what was going on. Looking at Little Aiden, he showed his yellow teeth and patted his head.

"Oh, come on," Aiden grunted as he pushed the old hand from the top of his head, "come on, tell me. What happened? Did people know that Harry saved them? He was the hero, he killed Voldemort, and he saved the world.

The old man could not help but smile again. Looking at Aiden, he remembered his days back on earth. His first grandson wanted to hear the old fairy tale, so he read it to him. And now…

The old man sighed hard, remembering the death of his grandchild, who died in the first year when it all started. What did they call it? Mana63. It was the year of the year 2163. It was the beginning of the Pandemic Mana, the beginning of the Mana Apo…

"Come on, don't fall asleep again," the child pleaded, "you didn't even say a word this time."

"Oh, yes." He patted the child again, even though the child frowned, "Aiden, what's a hero?"

"A hero?"  Little Aiden was serious about that. He wanted to give the correct answer, "The hero is the one who gets the rewards."

"But Harry didn't get the reward."

"Didn't he?" He couldn't believe the old man. He said, "but he saved the world."

"Yes, he saved the world, but even so he didn't expect anything back. And that's why he was called a hero."

"But …" Aiden wanted to say something when the older girl ran in.

"Aiden, let's go. You're accepted. You can go there now." Aiden was shocked for a moment but soon ran away in excitement.

"Arya? What happened?" The old man was confused. So Arya explained to him that Aiden had been chosen as a stronghold recruit. He's going to have a chance to go back to the earth.

After carefully explaining all this to the old man, she left the house. Looking at their excitement, the old man could not help but sigh.

'How can it be a good thing to go back to that hellhole?' The more the old man thought, the more scared he was.

Humans turned into stones or disintegrated into ashes by breathing. The chicken turned into firebirds, the cat-sized rats eating a human in a matter of seconds, the pet dogs becoming more ferocious than the tigers. It's been a nightmare.

**************

'Why did I have such a dream?' Aiden did not know why he remembered that day. It was the day he sold his life. Thinking back, that made him feel sad. It's always been a good day.

He sat back up after taking a deep breath.  His body was sore here and there, but it wasn't that bad. The first thing he did was to check his body. He had a cut mark on his abdomen, as well as on his chest.

The thought made him frightened. When he checked, his worst nightmare proved to be true. He can no longer cultivate. 'Is that how I've survived?'

Aiden wasn't sure of that. But when he moved his hand, he could still feel the beating heart in his chest and the scar that covered it. 'Didn't that spear has pierced my heart?

Aiden was sure that he took the spear in his heart to activate his [Skill Mine] so that his hand could reach within 1 meter of his body.

'I succeeded.' There was an empty smile on his face, 'ESS? Are you in there? Or I've already died.'

[The host is alive.]

'How many days do I have to live? If I remember correctly, it should be around 80 or 90 days.' He had to take into account the time he was asleep. 'These wounds could not be healed in one day.'

[87 years 9 months and 18 days.]

Hearing the notification, Aiden frowned, "Are you kidding again? Have you turned off the emotionless mode?"

[The ESS is running in motionless mode.]

'I am healed right now?' Aiden couldn't believe that.

[The host has been cured.]

After coming to this world, he was happy far too many times, only to have his hopes shattered most devastatingly. First, he needed to confirm everything. 'Show me the status.'

[[NAME: Aiden Law

Age:16

Rank: First officer

Team:  EP00 (Previously UG93)

Condition: Perfect

Element: Wind[locked], Water[??]

Level: 1

Grade: none

Strength: 32

Agility: 47

Endurance: 54

Dexterity: 38

Intelligence: 67

Health: 189/189

Mana: 5/5

Battle rating: Level 6

Innate skill: [Light Foot] [Skill Mine] [Zone]

Passive skill: [Mana Acceleration(??)] (Locked)

Skill: [Reduce Drag] [Air Punch] [Air spike] [Wind Skin] [Wind Burst] [Wind Scythe] [Wind Gale]

]

'My stats have increased? 'Aiden never expected this to happen. To begin with, he had never expected to live, yet he had survived. It's like a fortune out of his misfortune.

[Stats of the host haven't increased. Due to mana poisoning and injury, the host was unable to use his full strength.]

'Now that I was thinking about it, something like that had been reported before.' Looking at his status, he couldn't understand a lot of things. 'Huh! Right now, I'm the first officer. When did that happen?'

[After the death of Team Leader Alex, Vice-Captain Liya was promoted to Captain, First Officer Elijah to Vice-Captain and the host…]

Aiden could no longer hear it. He couldn't breathe just as that name hit his ear. It took a few moments before he could recover. His eyes were clear, there was no pain or sorrow. There was no hint of anger or hatred either.

'I'll take back everything that's been taken from me, and I'll pay back what I owe to them.' he clenched his fist tighter, 'This is a precious second life of mine. If someone is trying to mess with my life again...' Aiden took a deep breath before he calmed down and asked,' ESS, where am I?'

[Identifying…

Unable to identify...

Recording new location…]

"If you want to know, you should come out first." The hoarse voice sounded from the outside, as someone cast a shadow at the mouth of the dark place where he was staying.

Aiden jumped quickly to his feet. There was nothing to cover his chest, only a ragged pant in his waist. Aiden was unable to find any weapons or the dog tag. There was nothing inside the place, to be precise.

Aiden stepped out with caution and was mesmerized. "Is this the earth?" That was all he could have said.

There was a peal of laughter coming from his side, but it sounded more like two stones grinding against each other.

'What is this?' The man who spoke to him was anything but human. It was shaped like a human, and it even had the bones of a human being, but that was all. There was no skin, no muscle, no flesh.

Thick vines grew inside and outside the skeleton, giving it the feeling that it was a human plant. To his surprise, thick green grasses grew above his skull.

"I am Adi," said the thing, but Aiden could pay little attention to it. If there's anything like paradise here, it's supposed to be the one. And there was a giant tree at the centre of all this.