Eventually the bus came to the boy's neighborhood, and he departed without saying anymore goodbyes. He only had one friend in the school. He struggled to carry his heavy bag with him as he walked down the concrete path towards home. The boy watched his neighbors and fellow teens carry out many activities within the light shower of snow.
It was peaceful at the moment, and the boy appreciated that fact. Especially with the situation regarding gates and the evolved. That also reminded him that his birthday was fast approaching. Once he turned 17, his parents promised to take him for the gene test. If he could get an ability like Jesse Summer's...
The boy now stood before his home just as his daydreaming ended. He placed his phone back in his jacket pocket and appreciated the freshly mowed lawn. Looks like his father was getting active again. The boy opened the fence gate and strolled towards the porch where an individual was sitting in a rocking chair.
It was a woman of older age than him. She was of average height with a simple getup like an average urban mom, black hair rolled in a bun held by a simple hair clip. She was sipping a drink from a tall glass and had a hardcover novel resting on her lap. A smile was on her face as she watched the boy walk up.
"How was school?"
"Boring."
The boy said nothing more and entered the suburban house without looking twice at his mother. She wasn't offended, though, and simply grinned as she continued reading her novel. Once inside, the boy didn't stop until he reached his room and locked the door. His room was of a decent size, with a nice number of commodities to entertain him. He dropped his bag next to the growing pile of neatly collected comic books.
He then fell onto his bed and sank into the sheets with an exasperated sigh. After fishing out his phone from his pocket, he started up his game, [keep it going]. He waited for some time as the opening animation started and ended before he began playing.
[Keep it going] was a gacha game that was developed by Japanese developers who received funding from the UGS. It was a large-scale project, and it didn't take long for its popularity to rise quick. They initially released it to East Asia and was a tremendous success before being released globally.
The point of the game was to raise one's agency rank by recruiting heroes and conquering gates. Heroes had rankings stretching from the common E to the legendary X. The more gates one conquered, the higher the rewards they received and the larger their agency would grow. To recruit heroes, it required one to play a gacha system with certain rates.
It was fun considering that it even had voice casting from the actual heroes themselves. There was even a league for professional players similar to a chess championship.
The boy was a rank 49, with an agency of over 170 professional heroes. Among these, he had only 7 S ranks, with all of them being from the continent of Europe in the country of Latomia. He had spent a fair bit of his allowance to expand his agency's overall rating rather than individual talents.
After playing for the better part of his afternoon, he went into his emails to check if his classmate had sent his answers for the homework yet. He scrolled aggressively without finding the desired email. Now he felt bitter and went onto social media to attempt hurrying up the classmate.
However, while checking his messages, he saw a chat window open, which he hadn't responded to. It was from an unknown number and simply had two texts.
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[The gates shall open for all those desperate to meet the lord. Join us and have your fill of the grail's drink, humanity.]
[Will you accept? Y\N]
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The boy frowned at the weird words. He read it repeatedly to determine which bloke could have sent him such nonsense. Nobody came to mind other than Kevin from the other class. That guy loved sending strange messages.
The boy then had an idea, and a smile appeared on his face. He thought about it and typed a single letter.
[Y]
Almost as quickly as his message was sent, a string of messages was returned by the number. It was a long text on something about the lord's banquet. After scrolling through them without reading, he came onto the last text, which had a link to a website.
The boy tapped on it and the phone browser opened to reveal a dark screen with a bunch of blank spaces. They were asking for him to fill them with his personal information, and the boy frowned. With less determination, he entered his information, and it looked like this.
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Name: Oliver Smith
Age: 16
Country of origin: Australia
Gender: Male
(Pseudonym): Brigand
********************
So far, it was simple, and the boy got past the first screen. Then a new site opened with this one only having a single blank. It was regarding [Ability]. Oliver was now immediately curious and tapped on a box that displayed an extensive menu of supposed abilities. He enjoyed himself immensely as he read abilities he was familiar with and awed. After scrolling for a while, though, he found the ability he admired most.
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Ability: *Ultra-human*
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He smiled to himself as he ran the word through his mind again. It was the ability globally recognized as the peak of human capability. The ability of the no.1 global hero {Peak} otherwise known as Jesse Summers.
Once it was done, the website suddenly closed itself and the messages app opened itself. It opened the recently closed chat with the unknown number to reveal a new text.
[Congratulation's human. The Lord thanks you for your participation. Prepare for the days to come as your race will be put to the test and you shall be the one to lead them. With sincere regards- The administrator.]
Oliver simply shrugged at the text. He expected some sort of download to start, but it was simply a survey. Thinking no further, he tossed his phone onto his pillow as he went for dinner. He could also hear the revving of his dad's car enter the garage.
However, as soon as the boy left the room, a new app introduced itself to his phone. It had a long list of commands and after a few moments; it began a download.
*********************
Assimilation: [0.001% complete]
Project: new humanity has begun
*******************
Oliver entered the dining room to find his mother finishing up with setting the table. She was listening to some music through her headphones and hadn't noticed when Oliver stood behind her. Oliver tapped her on the shoulder, startling her and prompting her to take off her headphones.
"Hey there champ, dinner's ready, so help me get the cups from the shelf over there, please."
"Actually, mom, there was something I wanted to talk to you and dad about. Can you listen to me during dinner?"
"Sure, but get those cups first."
Oliver fetched the cups as the sound of the front door opening could be heard. There was a bit of heavy breathing before a tall man entered the room.
He had bright blue eyes, and a head covered in short black curly hair. His characteristic smile was dazzling as he hugged his wife and greeted his son.
"Hey there Champ! You helped cook dinner?"
"Not a chance, but never mind that. How was work, dad?"
"There's a new gate over at the bridge and they had us stay overtime to keep things in order. Took over seven hours, but at least I'm here."
"Yea... at least you're here."
Oliver smiled as he hugged his father tightly and gripped the cape hanging from his shoulders. His father was a hero in service to the government of Australia. He was Oliver's role model, and losing him would make life tasteless.