Frank got off the ground and stood gazing around. The artificial intelligence voice code named Zu Shi had explained quite a lot to him and he slowly began understanding things as they were. He was now in a new era!
"Wait! Where is Noel?" He remembered that the two of them were standing on a very high mountain just before a mysterious flock of bats swept down on them and he had been instructed to hit the ground to save the world from the Dark Lord. But afterwards he had woken up alone. And he had acquired a system – The Merit Order of N.U.R.O! But where was his mate Noel?
He looked around with the hope of seeing her! His heart began pummelling against his chest with every passing second when he didn't find her.
"Zu Shi! Where can I find Noel?" he turned to the personal digital assistant.
[Request to Launch Mission 1, please Confirm!]
"Mission 1? What is that?" Frank asked.
[Noel has been sent to an undisclosed location due to her role in your ultimate goal. You need to be fit enough to find her. You must find her soon for her integration to be a success!]
The PDA answered him. Frank quickly processed this piece of information in light of What he already knew. Noel was her mate with whom they are to save the world from the Dark Lord. She has a medallion with which, when joined with his wristwatch they activated the new era. Then the first attack of the Dark Lord had come and he was required to save the people using his powers supposedly from the wristwatch! In the process he receives a system from the New Universal Reign Order which has been identified as the new government in place!
But in the entire process Noel, his mate, goes missing. He is told that she has been taken to a secluded place due to the nature of her role! The system has told him that he needs to find her.
"So is this mission 1 to find Noel?"
[Not correct. Your mission is to make yourself strong enough to find her. Please confirm to activate Mission one!]
"Damn You!" Frank cursed inwardly. "Confirm!" he said out loud.
Instantly there was a new system notification.
[Host] : Frank Delap AGE: 22 Years
[Species] : Human
[Citizen No.] : 302710000
[EV. Level] : Primary 1 evolver
[Authority Level] : None
[Attributes] : Physical points, 3, Intelligence points 4, Spiritual points 5, Total Attributes 11]
[Mission no. 1: Status – Active]
[Mission] : Increase your General Attributes to Average, 15
[Task] : Kill any 4 Primary 1 Evolver Monsters ( 1 for each lacking attribute)
[Duration] : 7 Days
Frank rescanned the notification displayed in his mind. He could clearly tell that just as the Merit Order placed him at only 11 points of total attributes he was sorely lacking. An average man had 15 points total attributes. For him to find his mate he had to improve his overall status. What is this? He thought. Kill four monsters! Where in the first place was he to fund them? What if they were dangerous and he got killed? Nevertheless!
"For the same of Noel I can do anything!" he resolved.
"Zu Shi! Where do I begin?" he asked. He recalled that Zu Shi was also his guide on his path of scaling the Merit Order of N.U.R.O. So he would ask anything provided he doesn't reply the 'insufficient authority' remark.
[You can use the map function on your wristwatch or your computer to get acquainted with the monster hideouts within your cluster. All information about beast levels will be provided.] The AI responded.
Frank tapped his watch and a screen popped up in front of him with many options. He chose on "Navigate" option.
[Find Your Location]
[Safe Zones]
[Unsafe Zones]
[Visit A Location]
He looked at the four drop down options that appeared thereafter and he realized he even didn't know where he was. He tapped on the 'Find your Location' function.
The screen immediately turned into a map with a compass direction rotating on the top left corner. A yellow dot moved at the centre of the rotating map as it zoomed in to a location.
"You are here; sand harvesting plains. This is a moderate unsafe zone. Beware of sandworms in the marshy areas and sand snakes in the thickets around. There are also sand scorpions and spiders under the dry sands. Would you like to find a way out of the sand harvesting plains?"
Frank was taken aback since he had not known that his wristwatch also contained a voice function. The voice appeared similar to that of his personal digital assistant Zu Shi but it clearly came from the watch not his head as Zu Shi did.
He, however, did not dwell a lot on this surprise. His ears pricked when he heard that he was in a moderate unsafe zone! He had just heard about the monsters in the area. How big were they? Are they like normal snakes and spiders and scorpions? He wished he wouldn't find out.
He immediately stepped away from the marshy waters he had found himself lying in when he woke up. There could be sandworms in there!
"Display way out of here!" he spoke into the wristwatch.
A screen appeared with a blue dotted path drawn accompanied by the AI voice again.
"Walk 100 metres ahead and turn to your left. Proceed into the forest following the path to an open field 600 metres out. With enough credit points you can summon falcon8 to take you to your residence 2kilometres away to the east."
Frank was perturbed! Seemingly he still had a lot to learn about the new era. He didn't know he needed to have credit points to hire a falcon8! What was that? He didn't know but he guessed it was some kind of a vehicle.
"Zu Shi! How many credit points do I have?"
He asked and suddenly felt something crawling behind him. It produced a certain licking sound as if somebody was gluttonously sucking some ice cream. He turned just in the nick of time to see a worm the size of his arm crawling faster towards him. At the same time he heard Zu Shi's answer.
[You have 0 credit points!]
"Fuck, how do I kill this thing? I have no weapons!"