[ Attention Everyone - This is an administrator announcement, please momentarily stop whatever it is that you are doing and pay full attention to what I have to say- ]
A male voice said over the speaker as Luke and Leo immediately stopped whatever it was that they were doing and turned their focus to what the administrator had to say.
[ I'm glad to announce that the boarding of this Arc Ship is complete and that we are ready to take off.
We are going to ascend at about 100 times the speed of sound and will be completely out of Earth's gravitational influence in roughly five minutes.
It means that these shall be our last five minutes on planet Earth.
Since today is the first day of our journey and the last day of us being earthlings, the alien supervisors have been kind enough to give us all 24 hours of free-time to do as we please before the routine kicks in tomorrow.
They have suggested that everyone play the game 'Terra Nova Online' in this free-time and get accustomed to the deep-dive virtual world as it would be the game that would determine what your future on this ship and on our destination planet Terra Nova looks like!
To start playing please connect the head-gear in your welcome kits to the socket in your rooms and then fasten the gear over your head as described in the instructions booklet before laying down flat on your back and speaking the command work "Let's go online".
That's it from my side-
All the best, all space travellers
May you have a fruitful gaming session ]
Luke and Leo looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders at once as they gave up on trying to figure out what this ship wanted from them.
There had to be a reason behind the social hierarchy, the gaming rules and the announcement saying that the game would decide their future on planet Terra Nova, however, at this point in time the brothers did not have enough information to make sense of anything that was happening.
As they silently moved to plug in the gaming headsets to their sockets, they felt a slight tremor going across the entire ship as it was an indication that the ship had finally taken off.
"Just five minutes, huh?" Luke wondered as it was an awfully short time to completely escape the earth's gravitational influence and become a space wanderer, however, that was the path that the brothers and millions of other earthlings had chosen.
Surprisingly, Luke did not feel emotional about leaving Earth behind forever, but he rather felt excited as he gently placed the gaming gear over his head and laid down flat on his back before glancing over to Leo who had done the same.
"You have got this little brother-" Luke said as he gave Leo an encouraging smile before uttering the magic words "Let's go online" as the gaming system booted up and pulled his consciousness out of his body.
*GAHHH*
Luke muffled a scream as he felt like someone was pouring acid down every single neuron in his brain as the process of logging in hurt like hell.
Surrounding him was a white expanse of nothingness as just looking at the bright whiteness of his surroundings made his headache a lot worse.
[ Welcome human player! I'm Gaia, the gaming master created to look over all the players from Earth!
I'm extremely sorry for the pain and inconvenience you are feeling at the moment, however, it is something all first time gamers feel when the electrical current from the gaming headset sends electrical currents down all their synaptic connections.
Please be assured, this pain is only beneficial for your brain and not counterproductive and you will not experience it upon your second log-in ]
A sweet voice that was a little mechanical and a little feminine said as Luke had to control his urge to shout and curse at her.
As he focused on the direction of the sound he saw a small ball of pink light floating before him as he wondered if this ball was Gaia?
[ Your initial disorientation has not yet faded completely, cannot start the evaluation- ]
Gaia said as Luke frowned at the response.
A few minutes passed and every time he looked at Gaia, her response would remain the same as she said
[ Your initial disorientation has not yet faded completely, cannot start the evaluation- ]
As twenty minutes of agonising nothing passed by.
Little by little, Luke did feel like his head felt lighter and better as finally after a full twenty minutes Gaia said
[ Player has completely recovered from his initial disorientation, commencing the reflex test!
Please catch the random balls falling all around you-
Test starts in 5…4…3…2…1…GO! ]
"What the-" Luke cursed as an almost weightless yellow ball slowly appeared in his field of vision prompting him to catch it.
BALLS CAUGHT - 1
Although he was not the best catcher, he could easily handle this much as one after another colourful balls of all sizes appeared in his field of vision falling at varying speeds as he caught them to the best of his abilities while letting a few that he could not catch fall.
BALLS CAUGHT - 7
.
.
.
.
BALLS CAUGHT - 15
Once he hit the 15 balls mark, the balls being dropped suddenly had varying weights as well as one ball could feel weightless but the other ball could suddenly weigh five kilograms despite looking the same and descending at the same speed as the change in weight completely threw his catching technique off.
BALLS CAUGHT - 20, END OF TEST.
At the end of 60 seconds, he could only catch 20 balls in total as the test ended when he was just starting to get the hang of his new predicament.
[ Reflex Test Score - 70/100, B tier ]
The game master announced as Luke curved his lips downwards as he pushed his eyebrows upwards making the 'Not Bad' expression.
Although 70/100 was not a peak score, he had no one to compare it to and it did not seem all that bad.
In reality it wasn't bad at all as less than a million players aboard this 250 million player arc ship were going to get a score of 70 or above, however, the very brother that Luke was sleeping next to was an incomparable beast in this test having a reflex score of 95, putting him in the S tier.