{Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean…}
{5hrs before the briefing}
The flight wasn't long but due to the early departure time most of the passengers were still drowsy. The plane was blanketed in a comfortable silence for which Lukas was grateful, he closed his eyes in preparation for a long day, the image of a do-not-smoke sign burned in his mind as he focused on it to not let distracting thoughts enter his mind, although it didn't actually work all that well.
'There were no signs of conflicts among the European nations, nothing special or of significance happened...'
To Lukas, who has worked for almost 4 years in Bureau 11, it was easy to guess the most probable cause of a black mission, a nuclear threat, or on an off chance a bio-weapon capable of causing devastation on a similar if not a larger scale.
'Calm down, no need to go straight for the worst-case scenarios...'
Lukas thought in his heart before he cursed a little, he opened his eyes and saw that the seatbelt sign was off. He clicked off the safety device and stood up, being on the aisle seat made it much easier for him to stand up and walk toward the restroom. His movement caught the attention of the flight attendants, a brief look and a raised eyebrow spoke the unasked question, which he answered with a slight head tilt.
~Splash~ ~Splash~
Two splashes of water and Lukas felt the cold water on his skin, the jarring difference of temperature from the water helped him focus his mind. Lukas looked at his visage in the mirror, his brows were a little furrowed from the involuntary reflex from the cold water but they stayed that way because of his current circumstances.
'Status' Lukas thought, a jarring blue window appeared in front of him, Lukas has always known he was special, aside from the fact that he could see everyone's name floating above their head in orange text, his unnatural ability to learn and absorb knowledge was also the gift of this blue screen thingy, Lukas just called it a system.
...
[Status]
[Name: Lukas Baker]
[Title: N/A]
[Race: Human{F}]
[Level: 1 (0/100)]
[Age: 24/149]
[Class: N/A]
[Profession: N/A]
[HP: 340/340]
[MP: N/A]
[Stamina: 210/210]
[Stats]
[Str: 24]
[Agi: 31]
[End: 21]
[Vit: 13]
[Wis: 43]
[Int: 153]
[Per: 11]
[Free points: 0]
[Gold Coins: 405]
[Skills]
[Class Skills: N/A]
[Race Skills: {Identify (Common)}]
[General Skills: {Unarmed Fighting(Common) - Lv 8}, {Light Firearms Proficiency(Common) - Lv 8}, Sneaking(Common) - Lv 8}, {Hacking(Common)- Lv 7}, {Heavy Firearms Proficiency(Common) - Lv 4}, {Seduction(Common) - Lv 4}, {Sniper Proficiency(Common) - Lv 3}, {English(Common) - Lv 6}, {German(Common) - Lv 6}, {Mandarin (Common) - Lv 6}, {Spanish (Common) - Lv 6}, {French(Common) - Lv 6}, {Arabic(Common) - Lv 6}, {Portuguese (Common) - Lv 4}...]
[Bloodline Skills: {Map (Epic)}, {Danger Sense(Epic)}]
...
Why Lukas named his possible hallucinations as a system, because it was famous in the light novel scene, it was a fan-favorite subgenre of a fantasy-type novel In the early 2020s. Although the screen looked impressive, filled with various numbers and anecdotes, the only way it probably helped him was by quantifying information and possibly helping in learning skills faster and possibly easily break through certain thresholds.
Lukas's gaze was fixed on the 405 Gold coins, this was his greatest secret, his greatest strength as well as his greatest fear, he has only used these coins to buy two skills, and just these two skills had ensured that he could come back from any mission unharmed, additionally, the rest of the skills scared him a little. He neither had any fantasies of being a hero nor being labeled a villain. The dozens of psychology books he read while trying to figure out what was wrong with his brain had kept him somewhat sane throughout his life. Although many of the theories have been disproved by the active use of Map and Danger Sense, Lukas didn't want to mess too much around with this system or whatever it was, the [Race: Human{F}] being a constant reminder that he could fuck things up.
So apart from possibly being an aberration, Lukas felt like he had done okay with his life, sort of, while in his younger days, he had been a downer like most kids at St. Mary's. After the awakening of this system, or bloodline, or whatever this was, it gave him the courage to face the empty name that he always dreaded.
He dabbed his handkerchief on his face to dry the remaining droplets as he exited the bathroom, a little calmer than he had before, he flashed his patented pretty boy smile to the air hostess as he once again settled down, in his opinion the flattered expression on her face was an indication that he could at least get a good place to relax if the briefing turns out to worse than he anticipated.
'Maybe Sam's right, I am a little narcissistic...'
-----------------------
{Bureau 11, London HQ, Briefing room 1…}
{5hrs later...}
Daniel stood before the screen, the lights were dim as everyone's attention was focused on the screen that was set on a pure white background for the moment. Normally him being the head of a government enabled him certain privileges, such as not having to give a fucking presentation, but knowing the contents of the presentation it was best for this to be handled delicately.
Daniel looked at the 10 agents assembled here today, all of them had at least a level 4 security clearance in addition to several other parameters that they had to pass to be present here, while the parameters were not humane, currently, he didn't have a counter either according to the advising committee. Thankfully the Tchsaka Clan dropped this bomb only on the major powers governing the world and not in front of the whole UN, otherwise, who knows what the state of the world would be by now.
He nodded and the white screen was replaced by date and time, {9:22 AM, 21/02/2027}.
"On 21st of Dec, 2027, we finally succeeded in finding proof of life outside Earth-" Daniel began, he could see almost all of the agents had some sort of reaction but they stayed quiet, "- or rather, they found us..."
~Squeak~
Many chairs slid somewhat as everyone looked a little disturbed by that thought, the simple sentence indicated many scenarios which did not look favorable to Humans. Lukas suppressed the urge to voice anything out loud but his brain was already going through various scenarios and drawing conclusions based on what the Prime Minister spoke.
'They found us... a severe gap in technological advancement?'
"The following video is taken during a high-level meeting between the Prime minister, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the Chief of the General Staff," Daniel spoke as the white screen changed into a video taken from a camera, the view was high angled and looked like the footage was from a security camera.
Now there were several things that Lukas noticed, the several bullet holes in the wall behind 'the thing', the fact that all the members of the defense committee were holed a little farther away with military personnel holding 'the thing' at gunpoint, and of course 'the thing', itself. A floating giant eye, which was covered in green-skinned eyelid? Several tentacle-like appendixes dangled beneath it as it apparently floated in the air.
This time the room wasn't as quiet as before as several people exclaimed and jumped from their chairs, as the room descended into controlled chaos, Lukas continued analyzing all titbits he can extract from the video.
'Several Military personnels were already in the room, bullet holes behind "the thing" indicated they already tried the SA85 and it proved ineffective but did the bullets faze through its body?'
The video was currently paused and the agents quickly calmed down, Daniel cleared his throat slightly before he spoke, "The file in front of you contains all the information that we were able to obtain that day, I'll play the video now."
Lukas picked up the file in front of him, while the first thing of note was the mechanical sound of the voice of 'the thing', or rather a stargazer as it introduced its species in a moment. In the file, the conversation was recorded in addition to the clues that could be unearthed from its casual comments.
'''Stargazer: Humans, now that you all have calmed down we can start, perfect, as your world will finally be within reach of the center of the multiverse in another 6 days, Earth will integrate with the vast multiverse, along with all the species in the GD-8223458 galaxy. Everyone on Earth will be part of this Integration event, We, the Stargazers are a part of the system that governs the vast multiverse, and the GD-8223458 galaxy will be integrated, and since Earth still hasn't achieved necessary requirements to be given an elevated status, only the basic store would be available to Humanity.'''
"'Prime Minister: What are the requirements?'''
The floating eye ignored the question as it continued on with its explanation.
'''Stargazer: The Integration will start in exactly 7 days from my arrival in front of all of you and simultaneously several major powers of the world, a warning one minute before Integration commences will be projected to all the citizens of Earth. As many worlds were destroyed in the chaos created by the integration announcement and many talents were lost, this new method was accepted by the system. This contains everything you are allowed to know at the moment, Best of Luck, Humans...'''
~Clang~
A white USB drive appeared out of nowhere and dropped on the table in the video as the figure of the eye disappeared. The video paused as silence descended on the meeting room.
"All the information that we got from the drive is present in that file, and also your next mission." Daniel continued, "All agents will be recalled in the upcoming week and the military will be put on standby for instructions..."
A part of Lukas's mind was on Daniel's words while the rest of his attention was focused on the words on the file.
'''Planet ZXIDC-521323541, Also known as Earth.
Civilization Level: 0(Potential Level 1)
Planet Core status: D-Grade, #####.
Core activation Status: Active in 3 Days.
Core Type: Mana.
Store access: Restricted to Level 0.
Dominant Civilization : Humans (######)
Integration Deadline: 7 days
...
...
...'''
While there was a lot of information still in the file, Lukas's attention was focused on the three continuous rows of data, the Planet Core status, the Core activation Status, and the Core Type.
'Mana... could this be the MP that was always N/A in my status tab?'