Two months after the eventful conversation between Reid, Urias, and Royce, the two young men—who had both recently turned 17—were preparing for their 0th Limit Breaks in earnest. After all, Limit Breaks were dangerous, and it wasn't unheard of for people to not come back. In fact, it was a common occurrence for people to never return, leaving their loved ones devastated.
Three men were walking down a long stretch of grey cobblestone, which was placed in a neat pattern on the solid ground, moving at a slow pace.
The man standing in the middle had slicked-back, raven-black hair with grey streaks running across various strands, obviously signifying his older age.
The other two men walked side by side at the same pace as the older man. One had neat, wheat-blonde hair, and the other also had raven-black hair, except there was no grey to be seen.
They were Royce, Reid, and Urias. As the three walked by the estate toward an unknown destination, they passed a decorated arch full of plants. Reid said a few words to two clean stones protruding from the ground before continuing on his way.
The three of them were silent during the entire walk. After all, both Reid and Urias were about to challenge their 0th Limit Break. As they finally arrived at their destination, a huge stone arch that seemed to be made of limestone towered above them. This was no small feat, considering Urias was 6'5". Unlike the vibrant arch that stood above the graves of Sasha and Orin Ivers, this stone arch was not heavily decorated; it was an Eclipse Point.
An Eclipse Point is where one is supposed to go when they want to travel to Limitless—the other world where Limit Breaks take place, along with various other things currently unknown to humans.
Both Reid and Urias took a step forward and turned to face Royce. They bowed and said in a monotone voice, "Thank you."
Royce showed no reaction, as if he had seen it hundreds of times before. He gestured for the two to rise and emotionlessly said, "Neither of you even think of coming back as a corpse."
As Reid and Urias raised their heads slowly to face Royce again, they laughed. Soon, Royce joined in. Perhaps it was because they might not return, but Reid really wanted to create one last happy memory for Royce to remember them by if they didn't make it back.
Royce then turned around and started to head back into the estate, but before he did, he said in a loud voice, "Take this seriously."
Even though Royce wouldn't be able to see it, the two young men nodded in sync. They both knew how dangerous Limitless was. They turned to face the tall stone arch, looked at each other one last time, and nodded. Reid reached out a clenched fist toward Urias, and Urias did the same, bumping their knuckles together. They took another step forward, and then they were gone.
Reid suddenly heard the sharp crack of a whip. Moments later, he experienced excruciating pain running across his spleen. Letting out a scream, he jolted awake. He looked forward and saw a man fully suited up in shiny silver armour. The armour was so masterfully crafted that each plate fit perfectly onto the man's body, looking as if it were welded directly onto his skin.
The armoured man's raspy voice rang out in the unfamiliar, cold, and dark expanse where Reid found himself lying face down on the dirty, foul-smelling ground.
"You wretched thing, damn you, impure!"
Upon hearing those words, Reid thought to himself, 'what's happening?'.
He was confused because one second he was walking through the Eclipse Point ready to undergo his 0th Limit Break, and the next moment he was being whipped by what looked like a guard.
In the next instant, a strange metallic voice, indistinguishable between male and female, said:
[ Welcome to Floor 0, aspirant ]
The strange voice continued:
[ Your objective is 'escape' ]
Only after the voice subsided did Reid realise what it was—it was the voice of the System controlling Limitless.
Reid had gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he forgot the guard was still there, and still had his whip.
The guard screamed when he noticed that Reid was not paying attention to his punishment, "You filthy impure, pay attention!".
He whipped Reid once again, this time harder. Reid let out another agonizing scream and simply took it, completely unable to fight back. This treatment repeated for several hours until Reid finally saw a little bit of light escaping the small cracks in the wooden door in front of him. The armoured man suddenly ceased his onslaught. The man gave Reid one last nasty look before spitting on him and leaving through the wooden door.
When the man left, Reid let a sigh escape his dry lips. He fell back to the ground and was knocked out cold. What seemed like a few minutes to Reid was actually 12 hours. The same man in armour entered the dark room again, and there was no light to save him now.The same treatment as the previous night followed this night, and the next, and the next, and the next, until a week had passed. Reid looked more like a skeleton than a human, and a strange foam leaked from his mouth.
For the first time in a week, Reid received some food. What sat in front of him was a plate that looked like it had been turned brown by the sheer amount of dirt on it, but that wasn't the important part. There was a small amount of food sitting there—a strange white mush. It didn't look like mashed potatoes, so Reid was confused and didn't know what it was. Nonetheless, he ate it, and he deeply enjoyed it. He had been given enough water to keep himself alive but had never received food, so even this mush felt like a godsend. As well as this, for the first time since the start of the Limit Break, Reid was awake at a time when he wasn't being whipped.
Reid had lost all sense of time over the past week; he only knew it had been a week because of the occasional light that escaped the wooden door. Since he didn't know when the next torture session would be, he hurriedly looked around his cell. It was quite dark, so his vision was limited, but he still noticed the rusted bars. They looked so fragile that a fly accidentally bumping into them could knock them down.
He tried to move over to the bars to perhaps break them down, but he was so weak he could only move at a snail's pace. When he finally reached them, he punched them. The bars fell apart quite easily, just as Reid thought they would, but the bars breaking made such a loud noise he immediately heard heavy footsteps coming his way. The door swung open. It wasn't the usual man who tortured Reid; it was a different man wearing copper armour instead of silver.
He looked at Reid and shouted in a menacing voice, "You damn impure, if you even try to escape, we'll kill you!" He then slammed the door behind him, leaving Reid alone once again.
Reid tried to feel around his surroundings. His hand brushed against the rough ground, and a cut appeared on the surface of his skin after getting caught on a rigid stone protruding from the floor. He continued trying to find something that might help him escape when his fingers brushed against a small metal rod the size of a toothpick. It must have fallen off the rusting bars during his earlier punch. He gently picked it up, careful not to be too rough, because if it was anything like the bars, it would disintegrate into nothing. He placed it right in front of his eyes—since he could barely move his neck at the moment—and thought to himself, 'This might be useful'.