On an artificial island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
The leading members of the government and military authorities met secretly and periodically to change the coordinates of this artificial island. At this place, humanity's last remaining weapon, psykers were being trained.
Vrrrooong.
Han Lee woke up due to the engine. The view outside had changed. All he had seen was endless ocean, but now he could see many gray buildings below.
As he was told, this was an artificially made island.
This island was
"Wake up you brats."
Major Kang shouted. The children woke up while rubbing their eyes.
The first wave of aggression had decreased the world population so the alliance gathered to work together, but even then, they could only manage to find twenty-one psykers. Additionally, amongst this batch, about half were estimated to drop out because they would not be able to withstand the harsh training.
'Damn it, the number of psyker children decreases every year.'
Major Kang chuckled bitterly. The psykers who were of appropriate age had mostly already attended Ark Institution at least once. These children should be of the last few batches of psykers that could be found any time soon. Genius and strong psyker children were generally admitted and discovered at the ages of five or six. In some extreme cases, new-born babies had even been taken away right then and there.
'It's too bad, but we got to do with what we can. Nobody expects great things from any of these newly admitted children anyway.'
Major Kang gazed toward the children.
The predicted wave of aggression would occur in three years. It would take time to help the children grow and train. This last batch of children should be near the last few that would be able to go out and contribute to the war.
The following years, even if there was great potential in the young children brought in, there wouldn't be enough time to train them.
'A prospective kid…'
Major Kang suddenly looked toward Han Lee. The kid was daring.
'But the boy was a mere D rank. It was no different than being at the lowest rank. Would he be able to grow at all?'
The person in charge at Ark was waiting for Major Kang to re-verify everything. As soon as Major Kang completed the transfer process, he once again stepped onto the plane.
A handful of the children burst out in tears seeing an island surrounded by nothing but ocean. They were so far away from their homeland.
"All I need to do is work hard, then my younger siblings can live happily for the rest of their lives."
Han mumbled to himself and suppressed the rising feeling of loneliness in his heart.
To him, dragon invasions and wars all seemed so unrealistic. He would be happy as long as his younger siblings could eat to their heart's content.
They were orphans that had no direct blood relation to him, but they had survived all this time depending on one another like a real family.
All orphaned children joined gangs or syndicates in order to survive. Han was no different than the leader or oldest brother of the group of homeless orphans.
'I'm the oldest brother. I can't cry. I must become stronger.'
Han repeated this over and over while walking forward.
The officials of Ark carefully observed each child one by one like they were studying a specimen, checking over the documented files word by word.
Most children here were oblivious. However, Han calmly observed the adults of this place.
"Come in, rookies. It's time for a complete medical examination."
A researcher clad in a completely white gown spoke. Before the official admittance, they would examine each child's health and psychic abilities and grade them by rank.
Each child came in with this information from their home country, but a majority of these documents had errors and exaggerations. They did everything they could to get their own country's psyker count to increase.
"People are so hopeless that they are sending over Rank Ds now."
"It doesn't matter because anyone's rank can rise through training. According to the rules, all you need are psychic abilities."
Official psyker soldiers were required to be at minimum a B rank. Also, it was limited to only B rank psykers who could display their abilities.
But, one had to be at least an A rank to be able to effectively use their powers during battle.
There had been only one person who had been recognized as an official psyker soldier below B-rank, and it was because he had shown exceptional skill. If one were not recognized as an official psyker soldier, one could not receive special supplies.
"It's extremely rare for a D rank to become recognized."
"It's just rare, that's all."
Han knew that the researchers were talking about him. Han did not add any of his own comments and just quietly complied with the medical examinations that were provided.
'I will not fail. I will endure.'
One by one, the children finished their medical examinations. The examiners lead them to their residence.
The fidgety children, nervous because they didn't know anyone around them, were grouped by their affiliation and ethnicity. The world had banded together to fight against humanity's enemy, but still, even when the enemy had appeared, the ethnicity and nationalities that was rooted deep within their bones remained as walls.
"That guy's black, but he's Japanese. How funny."
The children recruited by the Northeast Asian Alliance consisted of mongoloids. Amongst all of them, there was one black individual.
Mixed-race marriages were common, but at this moment he did not seem to belong anywhere.
"It's not funny."
Han stood up and walked to the alienated boy.
"My name is Han Lee. What's yours?"
"Kuro."
"That means black, right? Is that all to your name?"
"That's what everyone calls me."
Kuro was black, but Japanese. He was also an orphaned child due to the war so the two were able to converse very easily.
The children born after the formation of the Northeast Asian Alliance were fluent in both Korean and Japanese. As for China's language system, many found it difficult and too different, so in the end, Chinese was avoided by many individuals.
"Is Lee your family name and Han your first name?"
"It could be that my first name is [Han Lee], who knows? When I was left in the orphanage, I had a scrap of paper scribbled with this name."
The orphanage Han grew up in had continued to collect debt after debt until they had to file for bankruptcy. Following that day, Han lead a few other orphans and started their life out in the streets.
"Look at the yellow monkey and black boy together."
The children of the European Alliance snickered.
They had spoken in English, but most of the children were able to understand them. Everyone was taught basic conversational English since birth.
"What's it to you?"
A Chinese child stood up and shouted.
He wasn't pleased to see Han and Kuro grouped, hanging out together, but he couldn't stand being looked down upon by the white kids, either.
"I'm different from you failures. I wasn't brought here out of the blue, I've been training to be a psyker since birth."
The racist white child flicked his finger. A shoe zoomed across the air and zipped through the air towards the Chinese child's face.
"Ack!"
The Chinese child was shocked not from the pain, but from the way the other could naturally control his powers. This was proof that the white child had been formally training his powers for a long time now.
"I'm Simon Dell. Remember my name. Kuku."
Even Han was surprised to see psychic powers in action.
Telekinesis was the most basic psyker power. There was currently only a few number of children who had command over their telekinesis powers.