After looking around blankly for a while his two best friends looked to him for anything Hal finally shrugged.
"We just need to explore. There is no telling what is out there, so we have to be careful. But we can't start planning till we have some idea of what this higher plane really is."
With some kind of direction Nitesh was already starting to calm down.
"That is a good idea. Come on."
Meiyu dragged Nitesh over to Hal's side and then face outward.
"Hey! Hey! Everyone! I found him! This is our Lord! His name is Hal!"
After shouting a bit Meiyu turned to Hal and winked at him.
The pressure just soared to the highest point in Hal's young life. He hadn't wanted this and didn't want to be put on the spot now. But Meiyu had set him up and he couldn't betray her.
"Hello everyone. Yes, my name is Hal, and the system has designated me as a Lord. Welcome everyone."
At this point Hal stopped. Out of words he didn't know what else to say. But everyone had quieted down and were now looking at him.
'Can't I be done, now?'
Sure he could just walk away at this point, but Hal decided he had to treat these people with respect.
"Listen, I am not the best person for this job. Honestly, I didn't want to be a Lord. But, I don't see any way of backing out now. So, I want to just ask for your help. I will come around and talk to each family one by one. Let me know what you need. I don't have anything, but with what the system will allow, I will work to provide everything."
His little speech was greeted with more whispers and derision than Hal had been hoping for, but this was nothing new to him. He had always been the people pleaser type and knew that that part of himself would come out now, too.
Suddenly someone spoke up from the crowd.
"What is this rock and what are these tokens?"
Walking over to the person who had been speaking Hal saw a rock about eighteen inches high and eight inches wide and deep. Focusing on it Hal was greeted with a pop up.
[Awakening Stone.]
And then looking at the token that were placed on the top of the stone Hal saw another group of prompts. Each one said the same thing.
[Troop Privilege (Special)
A Lord can call forth a single troop with this token. The troop type will be their designated troop type according to their talent.
If the Lord doesn't have any talent, this token can be used to forge a connection to the God of Death. Once a successful connection has been made the user will receive one skeleton warrior.]
No additional information was given for the awakening stone, but the tokens looked really interesting to Hal. Obviously, the troop token was special because it offered the ability to forge a connection to the God of Death.
But what worried Hal was that he hadn't received anything like a talent from the system.
'Do I not have talent?'
Talking to himself, but he received a response from the system anyways.
[That is correct, you have no talent. Sorry, kid. That is just the way of it.]
'No, problem. I never expected to have any talent in the first place. Thanks, system!'
Hal said in his mind, but then thought better of answer.
'Actually, I can't keep calling you "System", do you have a name?'
[Ha, ha! You finally want a proper introduction?]
'Yes, please!'
[I am specifically known as matrix A'B43!Gamma7787Florenz, but you can just call me Flo if you want.]
'Hey, Flo, it is nice to meet you. I am so glad that you decided to talk to me again.'
Hal said genuinely glad to have the AI back, it would have been a psychological burden for him if she had not decided to talk again. Unconsciously he had begun to think of her as female. He wasn't sure if this fit or not, but he would go with it till the AI told him otherwise or things became weird again.
[Alright, listen, you need to get back to your Lording. When you are done talking to everyone let's talk again. I will show you a trick for making sure your connection to the God of Death goes through smoothly.]
'Really? Thanks so much!'
Thanking Flo and having been dismissed by her for now Hal decided to try to figure out what the awakening stone did.
Reaching out he touched the stone.
And absolutely nothing happened.
"Boss, was something supposed to happen when you touched that rock?"
This came from an uncle who had sidled up to Hal as he had been staring off into space. Hal was appreciative of the narration, but being called 'Boss' was too much. He still felt like a normal person, not even close to being as accomplished as any of these people had been back on the blue planet.
"You can just call me Hal, no honorifics, I am just a normal person same as you!"
Hal said back immediately.
"Sure, whatever you say, ... Hal ..."
And the man casually reached out his hand and touched the rock as if it was just another thing to do in this world with absolutely no significance.
Interestingly enough when this uncle touched the rock it lit up and shining too bright to look directly at another system prompt came up in front of Hal.
[Servant Henry has awakened a talent:
Strength]
'God of Death! That scared the life out of me! ... But, I should have realized. Flo already told me I have no talent.'
Hal had to take a step back as Henry jumped for joy rising a fist up to the sky and calling out to everyone his talent.
"Wahoo! I just gained a talent, Strength! Wow, this is like one of those transmigration light novels! Everyone try it! Just touch the stone, you will find out your talent."
Backing up even more Hal made room for everyone to come up and touch the stone.
Eventually Meiyu had to step up and push her way through the throng of people.
"Hey! Everyone listen up! I said listen!"
When everyone stopped pushing and shoving she went on.
"Now, there is no hurry. Everyone is going to get their turn. Single file, line up. I said line up in single file!!"
It took some energy, but Meiyu finally had everyone obeying her and in no time everyone one had a chance to touch the stone and see what their talent was.
Looking on from the side Hal could only watch in amazement as Meiyu took care of the crowd. He had no idea how she could do something like that. Quickly he was realizing that he was going to have to keep Meiyu close. Not because that was what he wanted anyways, but because she was turning out to be invaluable.
"That's it. It turns out that everyone below 18 years of age has no talent. But I think this might be a restriction of the system and not because they actually don't have any talent. Besides the kids there was only one other person who did not have a talent and ..."
Meiyu came back and reported what she had learned from everyone who had awoken a talent. Only part way through Hal interrupted her.
"Me?"
Startled she looked at him, and then hurried to correct what she had been going to say.
"You? ... No! I mean the only other person who doesn't have a talent is James and he is over ninety. Practically at death's door."
"Oh."
Confused for a second, Hal had to process the fact that he was the only one who didn't have a talent or a good reason to not have a talent.
"Wait, you don't have a talent?"
She asked surprised.
"Yes, well, no. Actually, the truth is that I don't have a talent, but I can get one by being a Lord."
There was an awkward pause after Hal explained and then Meiyu just went on.
"Oh, that is good then. Lucky you and lucky everyone here!"
She beamed at him as if there was nothing wrong with having a talentless Lord.
Swallowing hard Hal decided to leave it.
"Alright, will you talk to Nitesh make sure he is still good with exploring around a bit?"
Wanting to get the interaction done with he asked her for what he felt like was a favor, but she responded as if it was a command.
"Yes, I will get right on that."
"Oh, it wasn't a command or anything. I just thought that... Uhmm, I am going to go around and talk to everyone. ... Thanks!"
Striding away without looking back he went about the business he felt was most important right now. He didn't want to look weak in front of her, but knew that he was failing terrifically.
Slowly he went around and talked with everyone. It was easier than he thought to do this, because everyone began to group up. As he went around to talk with everyone he found that the people who had become his servants were not random.
There were two basic categories either Blue planet people or the instantiated souls. The instantiated soul people were easy to pick out because their names appear over their heads, much like non player characters in games. It was rather awkward and led to them being left out of the Blue planet people's conversations. It didn't help that the ratio of adults to children in the instantiated group was so low. Further, there were only two adult males and both of them were over sixty.
If fact of the fifty adults ten of them were older people in that over sixty age group. Six of them were in the instantiated group and four in the Blue planet group.
Of the Blue planet humans he found that they were all people that had some sort of connection to him. For instance he had volunteered at an old folks home when he was still in high school. Three little old grannies in their eighties and James in his nineties were from that old folks home.
Then there were two girls he had dated while in college, they somehow made it into Harumi's group.
Nitesh had three guys friends from his high school and it turns out that all of Meiyu's family followed her here. Her mother, father, older sister, and younger brother.
Coincidentally that was also the six male members of his group. Hal didn't get a chance to talk with any of them because Nitesh took them all with him to explore around the area.
Then there were seven divorced women who had been divorced or who had divorced after Hal had known them. If the situation hadn't been awkward or filled with amazement at having awakened a talent Hal would not have known what to say to these women and their kids.
Fortunately they fit right in with Meiyu's family.
Last but not least there were three other women that were pretty much loners. They didn't fit in with the families and they didn't fit in well with Harumi and her friends. Sam, Daisy, and Gloria, were people that Hal had studied with, sat next to in some class, or had been worked with in a previous job. They weren't the social butterfly type that would automatically make friends.
However, in the midst of talking to them Harumi and company arrived and swiftly brought them into the fold. Harumi was not going to allow any unaffiliated females to roam around. It was very clear that she was already really worried about Meiyu.
Fortunately for Meiyu, Harumi couldn't force Meiyu into her crowd being protected by her boyfriend and family. It allowed Meiyu to act with a little more freedom.
The number one requested item was food. Everyone wanted food. After that it was video games. All the younger kids who didn't understand the situation had already nagged and nagged him to get them some screens that they could play their favorite games on and talk with their friends through.
It was one of the hardest things Hal had ever done to have to stand firm in the face of these kids constant anxiety from being socially deprived now that they couldn't play their favorite games, post, or chat. Fortunately the kids from the instantiated group had no idea what these games were that the Blue planet kids were craving and just thought they wanted to play ball or hopscotch.
So when the vast majority of the kids started to play 'old fashioned' games the Blue planet kids tried to play and were beaten at everything. Which of course caused a whole other problem.
Frazzled and confused, Hal came away as the sun was going down to talk to Nitesh. It had been a long day and he had not been able to make heads or tails of any of his conversations with any of them.
Only one fortunate thing happened. At Meiyu's insistence the Blue planet people and the instance people combined. This resulted in three main groups. First was the family group who naturally became commanded by the 10 old people over sixty. It was the seven women surprisingly took control with one of the instantiated sixty year old women who lead out organizing everyone to do the necessary tasks any group in this world would have to do to survive.
This only made sense to Hal and he got out of her way. Of course he was only to glad to have her handle all the kids. Jane and her "Cronies" as she called them had those kids either off and playing or for the older ones carrying and fetching for them soon after Hal walked away.
The second group of young women was nominally lead by Harumi. All the other girls didn't seem to want the attention. The six young women from the instantiated group awkwardly offered themselves as concubines as soon as Hal started talking to them. Fortunately Harumi stepped in for Hal immediately and began 'educating' them in the ways of modern society.
Personally it made Hal feel really weird, because he knew if they young women wanted to become his concubines then what about all the other Lord's? He could just imagine what was happening all over the higher plane right now. There was going to be a lot of young Lords of either sex going out of their minds in various ways with the amount of sex being offered.
Hal was out of his mind for sure. Not with thoughts of having so much fun with these girls, but with thoughts of how to get out of this situation. He had gone from wanting to be a servant, to thinking he could drift his way through as a Lord, to now realizing that being a Lord had a lot of commitment involved.
Servants had a 30% survival rate! There were 125 human souls in his charge if only 30% of them survived he would only have less than forty left. And so many of these people were just kids. Perhaps that was why the instantiated people were so interested in having kids. The system had programmed them to know what it took to survive.
[Are you ready to form a connection with the God of Death, yet? How much more time are you going to waste!]
Flo said impatiently.