A weak residue of radiation from a supernova explosion thousands of light-years away in the constellation Leon reached the Mundo Planet exactly twenty years ago, causing changes to everything within. To describe it, experts eventually coined the term "Spark."
Human sovereigns were relegated to the weakest race for five years after the Spark exploded, but they survived.
Fortunately, monsters, insects, and even plants that had the chance to evolve in the five years following the Spark's impact on the world lacked the intelligence to dethrone the human as the Mundo's monarch. For the time being, they are simply following their natural instincts to hunt and eat in order to survive and evolve. They were labeled "Deviants" for these reasons.
However, that state changes after a theory were voted on and passed in relation to what happened this year. The Spark had been told enough to enhance the Deviants, or more specifically, everything in the world.
Then the "Story" unfolds, which is the territory of spiritual beings or "Ghosts," also known as the spirits of the dead, a village-like place with its own boundary that appeared five years after the world's changes making the humans' territories began to shift again, reducing to one-tenth of the world. The adage "There's no smoke without fire." became popular among experts at the time, and it was chosen as the basic aesthetic that everyone in this new era should adhere to if they want to survive.
There are, however, opportunities where there are risks. The Stories began to appear all over the world around the same time. The item "Curio," which evolved from a standard item after acquiring enough Sparks, has been discovered. They can be used as a weapon against Deviants, to help humans clear Stories to gain experience, or to consume them to awaken the collected Sparks within the bodies of the surviving humans, allowing them to fight back and grow into "Super Humans" that later became "High Humans" after ten years.
"After another five years of fighting back, we were able to reclaim parts of the small to medium cities and another five years, these cities were rebuilt as "Shelter," where we now all dwell," said a woman in a warm, comforting voice before closing the book in her hand.
A woman dressed in a silvery long-sleeved blouse, scaly black pants, and white glossy rubber shoes stands in front of her class, reading the history of New Mankind to first-year high school students aged eleven to fourteen years old. She was in her forties, but she appeared to be in her early twenties as a High Human.
"Based on their findings, evidence that previously made no sense was solved solely by this theory," she continued. "Our world, Mundo, has faced this test of extinction seven times in the past, and we have just survived the ten years of the "Eight Test of Extinction" and entered a new era, called the "Fire Era," the beginning of a new opportunity to sail to the sea of stars; they say that this is our new hope, elevating our civilization into the stars. That's the reason why our date restarted again and now with the date of June 1, 10 FE."
Then one hand was raised to draw the attention of the teacher, who responded with the signal "Go on."
It is a young lady who raised her hand, rose from her seat, and inquired. "I'm just curious ma'am about this 'the sea of stars' thing; given that there are still Deviants and Stories that harm humanity, why do those experts seem to be so focused on how to sail in this sea of stars rather than focusing on the threat and eliminating it?"
The teacher smiled and motioned for the student to take a seat. "That's a great question, Ms. Rodriguez!" she exclaims as she circles the room slowly. "Because you all are minors," she explained, "we're giving you all goals so that if you get stuck on what you want to do after graduation, you can try aiming for the sea of stars instead." She then returned to the front of the class, smiling, and asked, "What do you think?"
She added when she noticed that the students were still staring at her. "Finally, to give you all the opportunities to demonstrate your abilities because, who knows, one of you might be able to lead humanity to that goal; of course, we don't force you to be one, but this history subject is necessary for all of you to understand how much mankind paid to get to this current state: from five years of apocalypse to five years of fighting back, another five years of reclaiming cities and finally, another five years for building Shelters all over the world..."
She moved her gaze around the room gently. "We, Pioneers, your seniors, but I now, an Ex-Pioneer, can now say that we've given you all enough time and strong support to lean on and take a confident step forward to construct your own destiny," she said, smiling warmly at the children. "Okay?~"
The majority of the students exclaimed, "Oohhh!!!," while others remained calm outside but with a fire raging within their hearts.
She claps her hands after giving them enough time to express their delight. "Okay, okay! Silence! For three months, we will focus on history; after that, we will have an exam; those who pass will proceed to take another exam to test your Affinity, which will serve as your foundation to take one major subject according to the school's judgment and two sub-major subjects that you deemed fit for yourself, with the help of your teacher, who is, of course, me," she continued. "Those chosen courses, as well as necessary subjects from the previous era, will be studied for two years," the teacher exclaimed, explaining the operation of their first high school.
"But, ma'am!" exclaimed a young man with freckles on his cheeks and glasses, tentatively raising his hand. "What about those who did not pass the exam or do not have an Affinity?"
The teacher was taken aback by the question, and her smile faded before she closed her eyes and sighed. The other students' confusion was followed by silence, forcing them to recall something that caused them to have pale faces and sweat profusely.
Her eyes opened for a few seconds before she looked over to the last seat on the right side, near the window. She shook her head and smiled again, this time bitterly. "Relax! You have two years to pass the exam! And remember, you don't have the strict requirements for being one, to be like him. So don't think too much."
She claps her hands and tries to distract their thoughts before cheering everyone up. "Okay, again! There have been cases of late bloomers all over the world, and the most recent information about being late is one and a half years. This is because the accumulated Sparks within the bodies aren't given enough stimulation to become active from their dormant state. But don't worry; if you don't awaken spontaneously after your twelfth birthday, the school will try to give you these stimulations later."
As the lesson progressed, the child who had been stared at by the teacher slumped on his desk, resting blissfully as if he were in a bygone period.
His name is ('Sai,driks') Cydrix Jaina, and he is the only fourteen-year-old first-year student. Not just in the class, not just in the school, but all over the world.
Sparkology experts consider him to be a celebrity. After all, the Sparks can be detected by the Spark Scanner in everything, from babies to the elderly, as well in Deviants, Curios, and Stories, as well in soil, water, and air. As a result, the world is said to be reawakening to become a cultivation world.
The widely held belief regarding the Spark was that the world entraps the said external radiation and uses it as a supplement to elevate the world from a living to a conscious state rather than causing destruction within.
No one could prove that the world now has a true consciousness capable of thinking for itself. However, it was enough to breed troublesome lunatics who worshiped a Goddess to have new 'hope,' as they put it.
It's fine to create a new religion to have hope for the future, but the first generation of believers crossed the line and became cults, crazy mad scientists, and terrorists instead.
This gave the governments' higher echelons a headache because, in addition to creating Shelters, combating Deviants, and clearing Stories over ten years from 6 ETEE to 5 FE, these lunatics were added for having fun wreaking havoc all over the world. So every government in the world formed its own team of military warriors known as "Inspectors" to pursue these lunatics and prevent the birth of an S Level Terrorist.
The administration isn't a jerk for dismissing the Goddess Mundo theory. Stories did, after all, appear in front of their eyes. Everything can be accepted on a partial basis in this new era because the soul exists. They do, however, require proof of the world's will to fully believe it.
The religion was now accepted after a major purge of lunatics, but the government and the general public were still keeping an eye on it.
Since it has been established that Sparks can be found in everything in Mundo. Before the major purging, Cydrix forced himself to tell the authorities a lie within the truth about himself to be protected from the hunts of the lunatics of the Terra Church.
In exchange for living openly in the Shelter, he gave them information about the Earth and permission to study his body. Including Shyrveen Monteverde's transmigration by Cydrix Jaina as a previous life, the experts concluded that his soul was mysteriously 'adopted' in their world Mundo.
Because he had a "previous existence," his body may be forced to refuse to recognize Sparks as an illegal immigrant. And, because they didn't think it was enough explanation and it's vague, he offered them with a sarcastic explanation: "I truly don't know! Do I appear to be a Supreme Being who knows everything there is to know about the universe? Or maybe, I'm your God Mundo? How sad!~ I wish I was though~."
His identity was kept secret as a single reincarnated person, for the government's knowledge, with a handful of information about the Stories, proven fact that half of the Stories are a combination of their own and Earths, with an SSS Level Protocol that required at least ten Shelter Leaders or Shelter President Level personnel to access.
The government is relieved to learn that those unknown S Level Stories, which are similar to reclaiming large cities after they have been cleared, were appeared for a reason.
But it wasn't enough this time, as some are skeptical or blaming Cydrix for causing the Stories to be different because of his existence, causing Cydrix to finally snap at them "Bitch, Please! Did I blow up the star that causes the Sparks to be born here!? If it weren't for the fact that those lunatics will point 'your' scanner indiscriminately to strangers just to find their so-called shit 'Saint,' which in reality is a fucking sacrifice just to contact their Goddess Mundo, not even knowing if the fucking God knows whether it will work or not! I won't be here telling a single word about my reincarnation, the fuck!?"
Shyrveen transmigrated to Cydrix's dying eight-year-old body during Deviant's assault on their fleeing group six years ago from the city to the shoreline through the small forest.
Everyone knows Deviants can detect the density of Sparks in the air, so Death would have already been called if the people began to congregate. Even knowing this, they felt compelled to act because they can fight back and have a chance of survival rather than being alone.
Rather than staying put and becoming sitting ducks, the gang fights back while fleeing. The majority of the children and elderly who had yet to awaken to become Super Humans in order to protect themselves were gradually but steadily left behind, allowing others to flee.
Then the Sparks within Cydrix's body vanish after Shyrveen transmigrates, perplexing the Deviants who went straight to him as their appetizers. However, although their new bodies are now instinctively seeking more Sparks to evolve, they chose to leave him as their last meal instead.
At the same time, Cydrix awoke, moaning in a low, pained voice that drew the Deviants' attention but did not change anything.
Thanks to a series of luck and coincidences, Shyrveen eventually incorporated his soul's memories into Cydrix's brain, prompting resonance to integrate Cydrix's memories into Shyrveen's soul, resulting in complete unification of Shyrveen's soul and Cydrix's body as one entity.
Knowing that he's in a bad spot right now according to the memories, but seeing himself receive a system cheat has given him hope to survive.
[Ding! Main System 0 is starting up!]