'So Mana is probably MP, so hopefully, all the locked shit on my status and some of the skills in the gold shop should open...'
For over the past 6 years, ever since the day he was able to access this system, the MP stat had been bugging him, even though the empty title, class, and profession were a mystery too, but MP seemed like a stat that seemed too important not to have.
'So in three days, Earth's mana core would be active, does that mean my MP stat would fill up too?'
Lukas flipped the file to the next page, this one contained all the information about the upcoming changes to the world after the integration.
'''Recommended World Maturity Age: 15yrs
Integration World Entry limit: 15yrs
World Development type: Invasion...
...'''
'Invasion...? This does not sound good at all.'
After going through the next few pages Lukas pieced together the general idea of what was about to happen. In approximately 7 days, everyone will be who is above the age of 18 will be teleported into a Tutorial world. The tutorial is supposed to take anywhere from 30-90 days depending on various factors, during the tutorial all the people below the age of 18 would in the meantime have their own tutorial which will not be combat focused. The thing which was not clear was what would happen to Earth afterward, the only thing mentioned in the file was that Earth would be protected from the multiverse by the system for the next 100 years.
The only noise present in the room was of the 10 agents turning the pages one after another, considering that possibly apocalypse was upon them, the group of 10 took the news relatively calmly. Daniel waited for a couple of more minutes and when the last of them had gone through the brief he spoke, "So as you can see, there are a lot of uncertainties here, we don't know what we are dealing with so caution needs to be advised, there is even a possibility that nothing will happen and we can't be sure until the promised 1-minute deadline, so this is all a precautionary response."
Daniel pointed at the screen and a bullet point presentation surfaced, "There are several important points that some of the experts have already drawn from the info we have available..."
"Firstly, Mana, a common word popular in the fantasy genre of literature, Mana is supposed to be the basic resource used to perform magic, or several other supernatural feats. Now you can imagine various challenges for governing a country where every one of its citizens has the potential for supernatural feats. The only viable plan we could come up with is to hold the most power in our hands to both have strong offensive and defensive options. Maybe in the future, if whatever this Integration event is, it happens, then the disputes between countries would also be solved by newfound 'magical' strength." Daniel waved his hands at the magical part, to Lucas it was easy to see that the man had been under a lot of stress, he wasn't ready to deal with whatever was coming.
"Secondly, Population, the UK is a small collection of nations with a far smaller population than perhaps say, China, India, and Russia. So if this 'Integration' event really happens, then a new problem arises on how not to be drowned out in front of a vastly superior number of probable superpowered citizens of a larger country."
"Thirdly, the Integration itself, almost all of the population of Earth would be transported to an unknown location to participate in an unknown test/game. There is no guarantee of anything on what would happen in the Integration world and how many citizens of Earth would even survive, at least hopefully the children would be spared, so the extinction of Humanity is not at stake, or at least we hope so."
"And the last point, the world development type - Invasion, after Humanity passes the trials set in the Tutorial world, the word that defines our future is Invasion, so the main objective of your next mission is to get as strong as possible in this Tutorial, which could help shoulder the burden of whatever is to come."
Daniel waited for any input, after a slight pause as he was about to continue to the next part of the briefing, Lukas spoke up, "Prisoners..."
There was a brief moment of pause that followed Lukas's statement so he elaborated, "What is the government planning to do with most of the people sentenced to prison, let me borrow the word used by the Prime Minister that optimally describes the situation, if the world is going to flip on its head and any average bloke could start blowing fireballs out of their mouth... then what about the criminals, the serial killers, kidnappers, and other violent offenders. If Mana is going to be a thing and most of them would not be monitored by us for 30-90 days, then what about them?"
"I...I..." Daniel spoke a few words but then he stuttered and thought about it, it seems he was too caught up in the events and the possibilities and the threat to their power that maybe they forgot about this integral fact. But now even if he thinks about it, there is no possible way to handle this situation, if you don't do anything about them, then the prisoners would undoubtedly go free, even if they were extremely cautious, some of the more violent or daring ones would escape and then wreak havoc on the newly forming society, which could snowball into disastrous results.
'But how to deal with them, surely we don't kill them that too extreme but then...'
Daniel descended into his thoughts for a moment, his forehead creased with worry lines as he thought about the ramifications of every step. Alex, another one of his agents suggested, "Terminate anyone serving for some time of violent crime whose jail time is greater than 5 yrs?"
Daniel shook his head, "There are still 6 days left to decide on this matter, there is no need to hurry, we are not even sure that this thing is even happening, now onto your mission. There is one hint that someone managed to extract from the Stargazer that appeared in front of the French President. After the Integration since Earth would be hidden from the rest of the multiverse, many gates to the extraterritorial pocket worlds would be open around the world, these would serve as gateways to resources that would help Earth's technology development on the right path toward the Multiverse."
"In addition, the Planet on which the Tutorial would start would remain as a hub connecting Earth to the Multiverse, and its ownership could be claimed, how to do so, that is your secondary objective." Daniel paused, he looked at everyone for a moment and let his words ring in everyone's heart before he carefully said, "The Allied forces are once again active, while on paper you need to help all the nations involved, but out there, with the communication gap, it is every man for himself, there is no knowing how the rest of the world would come out after this incident..."
"In the end, this is a massive undertaking, so if there are any requests you guys have before the mission, HQ will take care of that, now if there are no questions, you guys are dismissed and you can spend the rest of your time with your families." Daniel finished his speech as the lights came on he took a sigh and sat down on his seat as Richard sat up and looked at the agents.
"Report back here by 6 o'clock on the 27th..."
One by one everyone started filing out of the briefing room, knowing that the real briefing would take place on the 27th and the magnitude of problems ahead, everyone quickly started clocking out of the HQ, only Lukas, Daniel, and Richard remained in the briefing room.
Richard knew why Lukas was not in a hurry but it was an awkward situation to bring up so he didn't bite.
"I'll need an unserialized Glock 19, Gen 5, and 4 mags..." Lukas spoke after a while he was already calculating his next steps.
Daniel gave him a weird look but Richard seemed to understand what he meant after he tried to gather any cues from Lukas's face.
"You are finally going to meet them?" Richard asked.
"No... Just her..."
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{131 Southern Street, Chiswick, London}
{4:13 PM, 25/02/2027}
The Suburbs of London, well not much of suburbs anymore but not entirely downtown either, although some houses have been converted into large shopping complexes most of the streets managed to preserve their original architecture. Lukas looked at the brown house with mixed emotions, he knew his situation growing up wasn't ideal but being an 'Orphan' technically made things easier for him in some aspects. Yeah, his younger years sucked, and growing up he had to deal with all sorts of problems in the orphanage. But being independent allowed him to be an agent.
Yes, being an agent is probably not the most glorious job and not at all like something depicted in movies, but he got to see the world, and his weird abilities allowed him to come back from almost any situation alive. When you know where everyone hostile to you is, sneaking past the gaps becomes a little easier. Before he could further descend into his thoughts a red Ford sedan stopped in front of the house.
Haley Baker, born to Samantha and Alex Baker on 26th July 2010, took more after her mom than her dad, her blond hair was a sharp contrast to Lukas's darker shade while her face had softer features. Accompanying her was a tall brunette, as they quickly hopped out of the car and into the house, Lukas hesitated for a moment before stepping out of his car.
A brisk walk of mere 15 steps felt a little overwhelming but before he knew it he was already in front of the red door with an electronic doorbell. He couldn't hear any distinguishable sound upon pressing the button but the screen lit up with a confused-looking Haley gazing up at him.
"Uh hello, is this the residence of Alex Baker?" he pulled off his sunglasses to look at the screen.
"Yes, may I know who this is, or what is this regarding?" she spoke as she turned away to shout something at someone behind her.
"Yes, I'm Lukas Baker, I guess I would be ur distant cousin, our families have been a little estranged so I was hoping to find ur family to discuss something important... do you mind if I talk to you... uh sorry, this is all a bit sudden, here this is a picture of your dad and mine when they were in high school..." Lukas unlocked his phone and tried to show the photo to the security system when the door opened and an excited-looking Haley appeared.
"Lemme see lemme see, Dad and Mom never let me look at their High school photos..." As Haley stared at the photo trying to squint out all the details, her friend also appeared in the doorway staring at him.
"Well, you do look like Uncle Alex, you shouldn't wear sunglasses though, your ey- oomph..." Haley elbowed her friend from completing that sentence but Lukas could obviously guess what she was about to say.
"Well, Mom and Dad are not home right now, why don't you come on in, they should be back in an hour or two." Haley invited Lukas in, and after it took a brief moment for Lukas to jog back to his car to take out a secure small briefcase, the trio then shifted location to a cozy living room under the intense whispering of the two girls.
"So Coffee or Tea, I guess I have some coke in the fridge too..." Haley half-asked half muttered as her friend rolled her eyes before looking at Lukas with a curious gaze.
"So what do you do, I mean that's a nice car and you are still so young..." Haley rolled her eyes at Olivia's half-assed attempts to flirt as she left the room toward what Lukas assumed was the Kitchen.
"Well, I work for the government in the cyber security division," Lukas answered as he politely smiled.
"What's that like, you mean like fighting hackers and viruses and stuff?" Olivia asked as Haley returned with a can of coke which she placed in front of him.
"Never mind her, how come you found us so suddenly, did something happen, and what's up with the briefcase." Haley fired off a lot of questions as soon as she sat down.
"Well," he glanced at Olivia and hesitated, he did have a plan but Olivia here was making it harder for him to do anything about it, he can't really say the truth and risk exposing the news, and besides that, there was another complicated factor known as nervousness that held him back from spinning a whole new story.
"It's alright she's like family, you don't need to worry," Haley misread his hesitation which made things even more complicated for him, so he decided to go with half-truths.
He turned placed the briefcase around and opened it to let her see, it would have been amusing to see Olivia's face go from excited to slack in a moment but his sister almost backed into her chair with confusion and fear.
'Okay, so showing a gun to teenagers was a bad idea.'
"Calm down, Calm down..." Lukas raised his hands and tried to calm the two teenagers down but the front door banged open and a hurried clicking of heels quickly stole the show.
'Goddamit... not now'
Lukas cursed as he stared at the green letters floating on top of his mother's head.
[Smantha Baker]
"Lukas..."
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AN: So a little drama, sprinkled with some information and the introduction of 3 new characters to the Novel, almost all of the Bakers would be involved in the plot in the future so I was just hoping to introduce them and among other things, see ya in the next update... we'll soon play with mana and the tutorial world should start in the chapter following the next update...