January 19th, 2012
The greatest young minds of their generation were about to shoulder a heavy burden.
Secluded deep inside a secret facility, housed under a private research company, these individuals worked on countless cutting edge technologies.
But this afternoon, a gust of wind kicked up inside one of the data collection rooms, giving way to a hazy blue dot floating in the center beside a computer. This blue dot grew in size, forming a thick oval the size of a door. And not long after, a strange humanoid shape began to materialize from within. The many analysts, researchers, and armed guards stood slack-jawed at the towering creature that appeared.
The being stood well over 8 feet tall, with muscles that rippled at every movement and expression. The general outline of its head resembled an alligator, while the finer details were obscured into a blur. The creature surveyed the room with disdain and stepped forward.
'Tsk, another human planet…'
"It is a pleasure to meet you," he began. "Earth has been selected to join the System. I am only here to inform you of this opportunity, and provide you with the basic information given to all new participating planets."
His eyes scanned several individuals near the back of the room. One guard, in particular, snaked his hand down to the handgun on his hip.
"My name is Tal," the creature spat.
"We will be allies in the future, trading information and assisting each other"-he locked eyes with the guard- "besides, you are all very weak right now."
The guard froze on the spot.
Tal moved on and threw down a thick stack of incoherent writings on a nearby desk. He reached into the space beside himself and brought out a thin rod - not unlike a pencil - covered in runes.
"This tool is the only way to access the information on these pages. You will notice that most details cannot be spoken or rewritten in any capacity. Your task, as the most intelligent group on your planet, is to find an effective way of relaying this information to the rest of your species."
During Tal's brief pause, a thin man stepped forward.
"Why is there only one tool?" he asked. "And why place such a severe restriction if we're supposed to be working together? "
Tal spared the man a glance before replying.
"It is the System's doing, not mine. And the reason I'm only giving out one tool is to discourage any fools from attempting to disassemble and study our technology."
Tal held up the tool. "You break this before learning all of the information and you will have doomed your planet."
'Yours, and many others…'
Lost in thought, Tal rolled the tool around in his hand, his gaze empty.
The thin man felt uneasy at the vacant look, and his nerves pushed him closer to the exit door. He didn't like how forced the situation sounded. He had always lived his life freely, enjoying the freedoms his superior intellect brought him. He'd be damned if an alien tried to tell him what to do. His bravado soared back up and Tal, who snapped back to reality, felt a headache approaching.
"What if we don't want to be a part of this 'System'?"
Tal looked hard at the man, his grip extending around a sword in his belt.
He shortened the distance between them and gave a menacing grin.
"If you lot are not willing, then I will simply kill everyone here, and wait for the System to direct me to the next smartest group of humans on this planet."
Tal stretched his legs a bit. "This is a very important task. You could consider it the first unofficial Challenge from the System. I will inevitably find a group who will shoulder this burden, no matter how many humans I have to sift through."
The once alluring exit door didn't seem so appealing now. Everyone felt rooted in place, and a few blamed the thin man for sparking tension.
"But of course, you will receive benefits as well for doing this." Tal reduced his bloodlust. "You have roughly ten years until the System officially arrives. Many of your questions will be answered by the pages. And no one else will have the same depth of knowledge. Coupled with your intelligence, it should provide a significant advantage."
Tal stuck out his palm and reformed the blue portal.
"I've done my part, I wish you all the best!" Tal chuckled and walked through the portal. No one dared to follow him in, and the portal collapsed soon after.
A promising young researcher was the first to step forward. Alecia had nothing but excitement from start to finish. Every word Tal said struck a chord in her heart. His rich deep voice and awkward pronunciation called to her.
This was her chance to make a mark on the world. To lead and set an example, to go down in history as an influential figure. She was the first to pick up the tool, and she set to work; while everyone else stood motionless with apprehension.
Threads of a concept circulated in her mind. Several prototypes were already strewn about the facility. It would take a while to release anything, but the idea was sound.
Alecia picked up the wireframe of a headset, tracing the design with her fingers.
'It's perfect. Who would ever suspect such a thing to have this kind of purpose?' Alecia thought. She spoke her mind to the crowd around her. The logistics department corroborated the concept; the QA team expressed interest in testing, and the analysts hesitantly drew up a development timeline.
Everything was set in place. It was time to get to work.
***
January 5th, 2022
A meager crowd found themselves inside Fukutsu stadium. This venue in Japan housed many international competitions, and today marked the final match of a Swordsmanship tournament. Less than a third of the seats were filled, and many spectators present wore designer clothing and lavish jewelry. These people were "astute" business individuals, who took advantage of his–
"Hey."
–ability, to make millions off of his matches. This shit pissed him off so much, maybe–
"Hey!"
Richter sighed and tore his gaze away from the stands. The referee's stature sunk a little after making eye contact.
He lowered his voice, "Sorry Rich, haha…" The man laughed nervously.
"Just needed you to get your head in the game. We all know you're gonna crush this fella. Try making it a real struggle this time, the C.A.C. is already suspicious of us."
Richter tuned out the entirety of his pleas.
"Shut it Jim." Richter drew his sword and stepped forward.
His opponent's defeated visage stared back at him. A lacking opponent who had no right to make it to the finals. A solid representation of how corrupt everything had become in the last few years.
Jim gave the signal, and the match began.
Richter's every action made the opponent flinch. The man disgracefully shuffled towards the edge of the ring, his sword drawn across his body to guard. Richter casually walked forward and slammed his weapon into the opponent's kneecaps.
The whole charade enraged him. To be asked to act, to insult his passion (obsession), was not the kind of image he wanted to display to his disciples.
Meanwhile, Jim paled at the man who was screaming in agony, and he shivered at the one who acted indifferent to his cries for help. He knew of the hushed rumors surrounding the top swordsman. Every interaction with Richter only reinforced his belief in them. But could he really get away with mur–
"Hurry up and announce the results." Richter snapped him back to his senses.
"O-oh, right." Jim cleared his throat and finished the proceedings.
***
Richter jogged home to his dojo. A winding sidewalk extended 20 feet to the doorway, where two small flower beds housed dormant bamboo stalks on either side. The grass beside the path was an ugly yellow. The small toy windmills plastered on the edges of the roof had no wind to drive them. They only serving to taunt Richter with the number of disciples he had lost. This day sucked.
He slid open the door and walked over to his trophy room. A handful of diligent youths saw his demeanor and went back to training. Richter angrily threw the trophy into a pile and slammed the door shut. The dojo had several private rooms down a hall on the right, and the rest of the space was a large square, meant for practice.
The oldest youth among them caught Richter's attention and stepped forward.
"Sensei! I would like to reattempt the next stage of my Sense training!" Ren said and bowed to Richter.
"Of course, call over the others. I won't be participating since I'm in a bad mood." Richter felt a little better after seeing the efforts of his disciples. Four others surrounded Ren, one for each side, to box him in. Ren put on the blindfold, and the four youths took on serious expressions.
"Start!" Richter called out.
The youth to Ren's north projected as much killing intent as he could muster.
Ren called out soon after, "North!"
Richter smiled and responded, "Correct, Next!"
The cycle repeated many times. Ren performed flawlessly. He had moved on to the next stage. While the others couldn't feel it, Richter sensed the change in Ren's aura. The light wisp from before became a steady stream. Richter felt ecstatic.
Unfortunately, though, there was one disciple who wasn't feeling as celebratory. Cain's face leaked a barely concealed fury, his face was bright red and he clenched his fists till the knuckles turned white.
'Oh boy…' Richter thought.
"This is a complete scam!" Cain yelled. "Wasting so much of our time on this dumbass 'sense' nonsense, acting like we're gonna develop eyes in the back of our head. Ren didn't accomplish anything. He just got lucky!"
Cain took a few breaths to settle himself. Richter's intense gaze made him whip his head to the side.
Richter sighed and shook his head, disappointed.
"How can you look us in the ey–"
"That's enough," Richter growled.
Cain's nerves went on high alert. The world around him melted, his fellow disciples thrown to the back of his mind. He saw Richter approaching with his sword drawn. Richter had finally gone off the deep end, he was going to slice him. This was it, the end of his short life. Closer and closer and closer, Richter brought his blade up and sent it crashing down. Closer and closer and closer…
!
Cain woke up from his stupor, drenched in sweat. Meanwhile, Richter hadn't moved an inch from the wall he leaned on.
He took a deep breath, "Cain, you are no longer my disciple. Please turn in your uniform, and your blade." Richter stepped forward to collect the items.
Cain kept his eyes glued to the floor. His voice had weakened considerably.
"Are you really so against the idea of using a game to train?" he whispered.
The crux of Richter's problems had reared its head again. The one-of-a-kind VR fantasy game "Mirage". A super realistic video game experience that was released a couple of years ago. Mirage took the world by storm, as the rapidly growing number one form of entertainment. His disciples petitioned strongly for Richter to add the game as part of their training. It could provide opportunities to grow closer and compete. But Richter simply shot it down every time.
As the swordsmanship industry shrunk, and many pros left in favor of a new career in Mirage, Richter was left behind. His once prosperous dojo containing 42 disciples, had shrunk down to less than half that. It hurt. But Richter remained unmoving in his beliefs.
"No matter how realistic a game may look, it is still incomparable to real life. Muscle memory is vital. How can you grow by only training your brain?" Richter preached.
Cain's shoulders sagged. Richter wasn't even willing to try it. His friends had left for the same reason.
He closed the door behind him and walked down the winding path. He would miss this place, just a little.
Richter turned his attention back to the four that remained. The sun was already setting.
"Let's wrap up for the night, be safe on the way home," Richter muttered. He walked down the hall to a bedroom and flopped onto the mattress. He drifted off to sleep, his sword sheathed beneath his pillows.
Meanwhile, across the world, big changes were occurring. Strange structures were formed out of the ground; caves and forests were loud with the shrieks of unfamiliar creatures. And countless eyes, from planets all over the universe, tuned in to Earth. As the fledgling planet took its first steps into the domain of the System.