This world turned to ruins in the year 2054 when Prime Earth was attacked by an alien indigenous from the planet called Gormock. Outerwordly portals expanded in the skies as gigantic beast creatures with horns flew down, pouring chaos onto Prime Earth to take it over. They called themselves Gormockers and they were too powerful for ordinary earthly weapons.
Technova, the capital nation of Prime Earth was the origin of this attack and the nation was almost destroyed if not for the genius of one man named Severan Thorne. He was a mad scientist who was castigated by the government because he had foreseen the invasion and claimed he had found a way to give humans powers so they could defend Earth. Everyone thought he was mad back then, but now that the invasion had happened, Severan was hired by the government and ordered to give humans these powers so they could save Technova and Prime Earth.
Severan, with the help of his assistants, Kirk Randi and Ragner Halsten was able to grant people powers (Alien Hunters), and Prime Earth was saved, for the time being. But as the Gormockers continued to attack, more alien hunters were needed and so the astral node was created to easily grant people powers according to which mythical creature is in the node.
The mermaid node gave water powers, the fairy node gave magic powers, the basilisk node gave earth powers, the banshee node gave sound powers, the thunderbird node gave lightning powers, the ice bear node gave ice powers and the demon-hawk node gave wind powers.
Because of how important these powers were to the nation, the astral nodes were very expensive and so they separated the poor from the rich, forcing the poor into ground zero, a dry wasteland by the ends of the nation and the rich stayed in the imperial grounds, the states and cities in the nation with more resources and technology. Only the rich could afford nodes and hunt gormockers and because of that, only the rich could make so much money.
'But now I have my chance!' Kai thought to himself. 'I can become an alien hunter, venture into portals, kill gormockers, and make millions of nanobucks. I just need to pass the S.T.A.R.L.I.T.E academy.'
It was almost 6 am and Kai had barely slept. After spending hours cleaning Astrid's rotting skin, he had to do the chores Master Sven had ordered. He had not completed them before the master returned and because of that, he was punished with the whip by Master Sven. Kai spent the entire night thinking about how he would return here when he had made his millions and have his revenge on his master for being so cruel to him.
As soon as the time teller hit 6 am, Kai heard Master Sven call out his name. "Kai! Come here you wretched scum!"
Kai got down from his bed reluctantly. He pushed his astral node into his bag and zipped it up, before taking one look at Astrid and walking out of the room with the bag over his shoulders.
"Kai!" Master Sven yelled. "Where's that stupid child?" Kai suddenly appeared in the room, surprising Master Sven. "Why did you waste my time, slave?"
Kai didn't reply.
"Are you deaf? I'm talking to you!" He saw the bag Kai was carrying. "And why are you carrying that bag? Are you thinking of escaping?"
Kai still didn't say anything.
Immediately there was a loud bang on the front door. Master Sven went quiet as he looked at the door and then at Kai. "Stay here, slave pig!" he ordered. "I'll see who it is."
He opened the door grumpily. Standing in front of him was a tall muscular man, with a chiseled brawny look. The man had thick blonde hair and a no-nonsense square face with a mustache. He was wearing a blue and black army uniform that had the logo of S.T.A.R.S boldly by the side. He looked down at Master Sven with a serious face.
"My name is Colonel Skai Skarade. Is this the residing home of Kai Halsten?" the man demanded.
"Y— yes," Master Sven stammered. "He is my slave. How can I help you?"
"Get him here at once, his application for the S.T.A.R.L.I.T.E academy has been approved, train leaves at once."
"What? That slave trash is not going anywhere! I own him and he is not allowed to leave!" Master Sven replied with authority.
"The government owns him now buddy, make way!" Colonel Skai ordered. "Come on, Kai Halsten."
Kai slowly walked out of the building, his head down as he tried to avoid eye contact with his master, Sven. "You piece of shit!" Master Sven yelled. "I'm going to kill your sister, you bastard."
"His sister is going to the paramedics for extensive care in our top hospitals," Colonel Skai replied.
"What?" Master Sven frowned, feeling defeated. "Why are you doing this for these worthless slaves?"
"It's not my call old man," Colonel Skai replied. "All family members of our recruits get free health insurance. Now let's go, boy."
Kai followed Colonel Skai out of the premises and into a super-chopper as paramedics stormed into Master Sven's house to take his sister to a hospital. Things were going as he planned so far. Astrid will be healed and he is never going to see Master Sven or be a slave ever in his life again. A new journey starts now.
"This is gonna be a long ride to the transport train," Colonel Skai said to him. "Is there anything you want, kid?"
At that moment, Kai remembered his daily mission that he had failed to do yesterday. A reminder immediately appeared in front of him. The same mission again today.
-|DAILY MISSION: EAT 5KG OF MEAT|-
Kai turned to the colonel. "Can I have some meat?" he asked. "5 kilograms to be specific?"
Colonel Skai raised a brow, looking surprised and confused.
ᓀᓂ
After Kai had finished eating the 5 kilograms of meat, his stomach was very full for the first time in his entire life of being a slave. He started to feel himself get stronger like strength was being regenerated and transferred all over his body.
Then, a new message appeared.
-|DAILY MISSION COMPLETE. YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED 5 EXP POINTS|-
-|TOTAL EXP POINTS: 5/100|-
'So all I have to do is just adhere to the system and complete daily missions,' Kai thought. 'That's fairly easy.'
-|NEW DAILY MISSION: AVOID CONSUMPTION OF WATER FOR 24 HRS|-
-|REWARD: 10EXP|-
'24 hours!' Kai thought. 'I understand this node, lesser and lesser every second. First, it overfeeds me and now it wants me to stay dehydrated.'
"Alright kid, look alive!" Colonel Skai yelled. "We're here! Get down! Get down!"
Kai hopped out of the super-chopper and followed the colonel to a train station. "Get inside the warp train," Colonel Skai commanded.