Sitting at his desk doing his best to be a good office worker, Hal was struck speechless when a cerulean box popped up in front of his computer screen.
'What's this? Is my computer acting up?'
Calmly Hal paused, read the prompt more carefully.
[Your planet has been chosen! A higher plane will be seeded with the remains of your planet after it is destroyed. As you meet the minimum standard of health you can choose between becoming a Lord or a servant. Choose wisely!]
As he read the words on the screen a sickening feeling of dread started in his belly and moved slowly upward putting pressure on his heart. Hal wasn't the most athletic of individuals and now regretted all the snacks he had been eating lately.
Moving his head to look over to his friend's cube his dread increase as the cerulean text box followed his line of sight. Transparent it block most of his view, only allowing a few details come through from behind. People all over the office were freaking out either becoming hysterical or going catatonic as they just stared at their screens.
[You have 30 seconds to choose: Lord or servant. If a selection is not made your choice will be made for you.]
[Survivability:
Lord: .01%
Servant: 30%]
[26 secs]
Below the selection screen a timer was counting down in place.
Sweat popped out on Hal forehead.
'The obvious choice seemed to be Lord at first, but now that I can see that only one in ten thousand lords survive, ... . I just don't know ...'
[19 secs]
'What do I do? ...'
[12 secs]
'Calm down, if you want to survive you have to choose servant. You have to!'
Talking to himself inside his head Hal finally took a sigh of relief. He wasn't so self consumed that he had to become a Lord. It wasn't necessary. Survival came first.
Just as he was about to commit a hand landed on his shoulder.
"Hal, ...., HAL, ... HAL!"
Startled he looked around a saw his co-worker from across the aisle.
"What are you going to choose?!"
She was looking to him for support, several of their male co-workers had made their choice and had already come to her cube. Skin shinny with perspiration two of them had already reached out and were grasping her body.
Harumi was one of those girls who liked to wear clothes that were in style and expensive. Today she was wearing a low cut top with a lacey knit jacket and a skirt that showed most of her legs.
With pleading eyes she implored him to help her out.
Turning while looking behind him he could see the desperate situation that she was in and knew that he had to do something right then.
Confused he didn't know why his up to this point normal friends were approaching Harumi like this, but he could easily see that she didn't like it.
And then he really lost his composure when his long time friend Gan Meiyu reached over from his blind side.
"Hey! Don't you dare get him involved in your games!"
Meiyu grabbed his left hand and pulled it towards herself.
Emotions immediately clouded Hal's mind.
'What? Meiyu's first thought was to save me? Why isn't she running to her boy friend's cube on her other side?'
There were also noises from the surounding boys angry that Harumi was trying to get away from them.
"Hey, that loser? Come spend some time with a real man."
"I thought you liked me?"
and
"Spend the apocalypse with me. I promise to bring you joy every single day!"
All Hal could think was that these guys were crazy all fighting over Harumi when there were dozens of other girls all around them.
[8 secs]
Several cubes down a boy entered a girl's cube as she began to scream.
In all the commotion Hal forgot to make his selection.
[2 secs]
'Oh, well, this is all too confusing anyway. The default selection is probably servant, I don't have to worry. I am going to be glad to be just a servant!'
[User selection unmade.]
[Calculating... 4%]
[A selection will be made for you.]
[Calculation complete.]
All around them people were going out of their minds. The smell of feces and urine was heavy in the air as the building started to shake. Loud explosions came from outside silencing all the various sounds from within.
It was as if the people were giving respect to the planet as it died. Really the system had only frozen them in preparation from their eminent transfer to the higher plane.
Eyes locked with Harumi, but mind poised and listening for anything Meiyu might say, Hal felt the world drop out from under his feet as he was projected into an alternate dimension.
Slowly the word around him began to population each object being drawn and then filled in, before finally taking on a three dimensional presence and finally a sense of life.
[Congratulations! You have been transmigrated to a higher plane as a Lord!]
'What!?'
Hal having already been confused, was even more confused.
'Why am I a Lord? I wanted to be a servant. And isn't the default choice servant. Why did I become a lord instead?"
[A higher plane has been seeded with your planet's materials. The local cosmos has also been seeded with your main star, planets, and objects. This is a temporary designation supported by a generous benefactor whose offer of 10 sextillion gigahertz of energy will sustain this plane for 1 year.]
[The new Lord's Novice Protection will last 10 days.]
[This plane's benefactor will host several Novice Lord Events. Please stay tuned.]
And then the helpful cerulean text screen stopped popping notices and Hal heaved a sigh of relief.
'At least I can relax and take my time to grow all by myself. I don't think I will compete for any rewards or titles. Just a modest growth to stay alive, that will be good enough for me. And if I die, who cares, anyways.'
Thinking weird thoughts Hal looked around, finding himself in a clearing with high mountains rising up above trees all around him.
'Sigh, this is so beautiful. This higher plane really is kind of nice!'
Taking a deep breath Hal smiled a little bit turning so he could get a full 360 degree view. A small stream emptied into a little lake in the distance. He could see the light glinting off of the water through the trees. Directly opposite of the lake the woods became darker even a few paces beneath the canopy.
Still there was nothing scary or large coming his way so he thought he would take a stroll closer to the lake to see more of the environment.
Unconsciously he had ignored the fact that his clothes had changed. But now as he moved it became apparent immediately. All he had on was a runic. No pants, no shoes, nothing else. It was actually a bit too windy all of a sudden.
Embarrassed, it was this moment that the system began transmigrating people into existence all around him.
Crying and screams broke the serene atmosphere from a moment ago.
[Your servants have been transmigrated or instantiated.]
[Summary:
Transmigrated Souls: 28
Dependents:14
Instantiated Souls: 22
Dependents: 61]
'Ah, thanks?'
Was all Hal could say. It felt like the system was out to get him.
[Your welcome. A grateful Lord is rare!]
Suddenly the system said something that scared Hal almost to death.
'That is just too creepy. The system has an AI?'
[I guess, this Lord really isn't that grateful after all? Maybe I should let my automatic sub routines handle this one.]
Speaking out loud Hal was quick to reply back.
"No, wait! I didn't mean it like that! I mean, I just wasn't expecting an AI to reply back..."
Silence greeted Hal's words leaving him in suspense.
[Well, I will give you another chance. But don't speak to me out loud again and please pay attention to your servants. They need your help and support!]
Hal had already started trying to figure out what to do with all these people. The AI didn't need to prompt him, but instead of giving a smart response he just said in his mind.
'Thanks for the pointer about not talking out loud and I will support them of course I will. You got it!'
The last Hal said with some pep in his tone, but really he was overwhelmed.
"Hal! Hal! Over here!"
Suddenly a voice that he knew brought his attention to his right. There was Harumi standing before him with a bright smile.
"I knew it! I am so glad you got me away from those disgusting boys!"
Harumi said.
But Hal was anything but excited to see her.
'This is going to be trouble, for sure.'
She couldn't help herself, even in a tunic ending in a much more conservative mid thigh and no cleavage at all Harumi was still breathtakingly beautiful. But Hal was not taken in my her looks. He had sat directly opposite of her for two years at Anderson INC. He knew all the boys she had dated and how she had lead them all on as if it was some kind of game. The cubes had been made of sound suppressing material, but with only three sides of the cube enclosed the fourth side let all the sound transmit directly across to Hal.
So all the discussions about boys with her two best friends had all come through loud and clear.
Of course he wasn't above appreciating the care she took of herself. She worked out, had hobbies, and ate only the best of food. Over the two years she had also gone out of her way to tease him, asking him is her outfit looked good or if he liked her tan.
On more than one occasion he had fought back by making sure she knew he wasn't interested in being her boy friend. Hal had no interest in dealing with her drama.
'I am not interested in dealing with your drama!'
But Hal only said this in his mind. His mother had drilled into him that he would always treat women with respect.
Thinking about his mother, he wondered where she was. He had moved out of his father's house ten years ago, going to college and then working had taken up so much time that he didn't often check in with his parents.
Perhaps they are both Lords or maybe they decided to be servants. I don't know.
Just then Hal's train of thought was interrupted by two screams as both of Harumi's friends found her in the mix of humanity that was Hal's servants and their dependents.
Harumi turned away so that the three of them could start chatting with each other.
Relieved Hal moved in the opposite direction trying to get away from them as much as possible. But again his attention was pulled away.
"Hal!"
This time the voice he heard was extremely familiar.
"Meiyu?"
Meiyu walked up to Hal with Nitesh dragging behind.
"Nitesh? How are you guys!"
This was the best of all possible outcomes. His two best friends in the whole world.
Hal had met Nitesh in college when they had been group together for a project. Since then they had both graduated together and it had been Nitesh who had suggested Anderson INC. So they had been working together in-depth for two years now as a result. Meiyu had met Nitesh in college and they had been together as boy friend and girl friend ever since.
It was crazy that they had all made it to this other world together now.
"We are doing fine."
Nitesh answered his tone of voice and facial expression shouted stress. Hal realized that Meiyu was the one holding Nitesh's hand. Comforting her boyfriend she turned to Hal.
"What are we going to do?"
Her first question brought a lot of psychological pressure to Hal. He wasn't cut out for the pressure of leadership and wished that Meiyu was holding his hand and comforting him right now.