"So, Psy-Kinesis, what is it? Are we talking mind control or moving shit with your mind?" For as big of a dickhead as my Brother was, he knew better than to stab me where it hurt and completely avoided making fun of my low Talent Potential, instead opting to question my Talent itself.
"Well, my running theory is more on the mind control side since if it was moving objects or affecting reality with my mind, it would be Telekinesis instead. Still, I cannot verify since I don't know how to activate my Talent."
"Why do I feel that your Talent befits you better than it should…" Brenden's voice was laced with sarcasm as he teased me.
"Coming from you, that doesn't really say much, Little Brother. You, the one who always boasts about being a "Physical specimen," have a talent that basically makes you superhuman."
My verbal jab was responded to with one from my Brother, and we started bantering for no apparent reason other than to vent our frustration toward each other.
"Talent aside, this System is different from what I was hoping for. When I noticed the display panel appear, I immediately tried everything I could think of, using my knowledge of stories with similar setups. Still, no matter what I did, I couldn't get anything out of Arkadia."
With a shrug of my shoulders, the conversation continued for well over an hour as we went back and forth, trying to figure out how to force Arkadia into giving us descriptions of our Talents without anything to show.
"Well, when in doubt, head to Re***t," Eventually giving up, I settled on doing the only logical thing I could think of and immediately typed r/arkadia on the popular site, knowing damn well the cesspool I was about to dive head first into.
"What…the…fuck, TAYLOR, THERE'S A STORE!" Alongside my venture, Brenden had begun his digital search for answers, too, only to blurt out the first thing he found like a fool.
"Read further, idiot; we can't access it, nor any of the features of Arkadia yet." I spat, wishing I was near my Brother so that I could smack him upside the head.
Waiting two seconds for some type of response from Brenden, I blinked twice, only to realize that he wasn't even paying attention to what I had said.
'Regardless, it seems we have to use specific verbal commands to get a reaction out of our new system, or at least that's what it says online.' Scoffing and figuring Brenden was trying to figure things out like I was, I went ahead and tried the first of many commands I found online.
'Arkadia, show me the Alpha Shop,'
[The User cannot currently access Arkadia's premium functions due to the lack of ambient Alpha Particles on Planet Earth.]
[Only the primary function, Status, is available for use.]
[The User will have access to Arkadia's premium functions once Earth's Alpha Particle Saturation has reached 100%.]
'Hm…well, that's disheartening; regardless, there's a follow-up command to use.' I thought while ignoring the annoying complaints coming through my headset.
'Arkadia, show me the current Alpha Particle Saturation Progress.'
[Earth Particle Saturation Progress: Alpha 5%]
"Yo, BRENDEN! Wake up. Would you use that rock between your shoulders for something other than headbutting opponents? Read further ahead; we can't access any of the System functions until Earth's particle saturation reaches 100%." Snapping my fingers repeatedly, eventually, I heard some shuffling on the other end of the call, followed by a smashing sound that I didn't doubt was him throwing his keyboard across the room in anger.
"What kind of shitty System did we get? Aren't we supposed to become OP as hell, fight monsters, run dungeons, or some shit?" Like me, Brenden was an avid anime fan, albeit a closeted one who doesn't speak about anything nerdy in public.
He'd always been like that, which is what made it even funnier when he was open about his hobby. There was something odd about a muscular fighter-type guy loving anime and LOTR, but that was how my Brother was.;
"This isn't a game, Brenden; it's reality, not some fantasy world. You can't expect free handouts, and I have a feeling that the moment the particle saturation hits 100%, life will change drastically." Ignoring the hissy fit, I could hear occurring at Brenden's house, I attempted to appease him.
"We still don't know how to earn XP, rank up, or have even a single clue on how to use our talents. All we have right now are theories, theories that we can't even provide proof for."
"Sure, our generation has grown up on fantasy stories detailing this exact style of scenario, yet we have no facts, no evidence to back anything up…and to make matters worse, I have a bad feeling in my gut, a sense of foreboding if you will, little brother…shit is about to go south, and it will happen suddenly, without any warning."
"So? With millions of Weebs, do you really believe there won't be more than a few who know what they're doing? If the world changes, so be it, Taylor; we will meet it head-on." Brenden's breath was slightly ragged, an indication he had really gone all out with his tantrum, making me smile.
"Yeah…" was all I could say in response…
Looking back now, I can't help but think about how right I was, even if my thoughts were only passing ideas. If everything I've read and watched was an indicator, nothing good ever comes from the sudden introduction of something like Mana. If these "Particles" were anything like that, it could potentially spell disaster.
Ninety-five days, a little over three months, that was how long it took for the Particle progression to reach 100%, and by the time it did, civilization had already been thrown into a blender.
It didn't even take that long for things to get nasty, as only a couple of days after the descent of Arkadia, multiple posts had begun flooding social media. Their topic was unified, and all it stated was a straightforward phrase.
"Killing earns XP."
---
Killing earns XP, or KEXP flooded every form of social media known to man. News media, ytubers, streamers, hell, even the old man down the street who sat on his front porch all day long, everyone was talking about it.
The scary thing was, for as broad of a word as it was, Killing was precisely the way to earn XP; it didn't matter what it was, from the smallest of ants to elephants or worse yet, other humans, so long as you landed the final blow, it would net you a minute or more amount of XP in the form of a Percentage.
I say more, but back then, the most XP someone could earn actually came from killing large creatures such as elephants or whales, but even so, you could only gain 0.1% from those kills; it only went down from there as the smaller your kill was, the more drastic the drop off in XP gain.
For example, let's say you squished an ant; all it would earn you is 0.0001% Xp; if you committed Ant Genocide, you'd be lucky to get 0.1%; the sheer volume of minor bugs you'd have to massacre was off the charts.
Practically overnight, chaos erupted as humans all over Earth threw caution to the wind and began giving into their primal urges. It suddenly became dangerous to leave your house, and the already prevalent news clips of shootings spiked drastically.
Eventually, the World Governments stepped in, and nearly all of them declared martial Law. In the United States, the sight of military vehicles stationed everywhere quickly became the norm.
In a country where there are more guns per capita than people, it was bound to end up a shit show; even so, it was the presence of armed soldiers all around the place which worked in favor of the typical person.
What once was thought to be a dreaded thing and sign of worry swiftly became somewhat of a comforting aspect of life.
It took nearly a month, but eventually, things calmed down enough to where life regained a semblance of normalacy. However, please don't mistake this lull in things as returning to how it should be.
By no means did this newfound normalcy mean things reverted to how they were before the Descent of Arkadia.
Sure, hundreds of thousands of new criminals were rounded up, but that didn't revoke the fear which had settled into the masses' hearts.