Chapter 2 - Trip to the past

26 years ago. The end of the Old World and the beginning of the New World. The documentaries about that infamous day describe it as the beginning of our annihilation.

It was a day like any other, they said, people woke up, got ready for work, school, or whatever people did. The sun was shining brightly on half the globe, the other half still plunged into the darkness of the night. Then suddenly, without any warning, a booming voice resounded in the ears of every human being on Earth.

“HELLO HUMANS! IT’S THE OTHERWORLDS SYSTEM SPEAKING. ARE YOU READY TO FACE MY CHALLENGES? INFINITE POWER AND WEALTH AWAITS THE BRAVE WARRIORS WHO MANAGE TO CONQUER THEM. HOWEVER, FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T, YOU’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO RETURN TO YOUR BELOVED WORLD."

“BUT FEAR NOT! DEATH IS SIMPLY A PART OF LIFE. FOR WHAT WOULD BE LIFE WITHOUT DEATH?"

“NOW, YOU HAVE 240 HOURS TO DECIDE IF YOU WANT TO FACE THESE CHALLENGES OR NOT. IF BY THE ALLOTED TIME THE NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS FAIL TO MEET THE REQUIRED AMOUNT, I’LL RANDOMLY CHOOSE FROM ANY ONE OF YOU. THE COUNTDOWN STARTS…NOW!”

As soon as the voice quieted down, a big ephemeral screen appeared in front of everyone. On it was displayed “240:00:00”. It then began to change.

“239:59:59”, “239:59:58”, “239:59:57” …it was a countdown. For what? Nobody knew. But oh, how they wished they would have known.

As soon as the countdown started, another screen appeared, this one visible only to the person it belonged to. On it were displayed what we now call “capabilities” or “stats”. Innate talents or hard-earned skills. Strength, agility, intelligence, charisma, luck was measured in numbers while skills and talents were scored with letters.

A bodybuilder would for example have Strength: 10 but Agility: 3, while a gymnast Agility: 11 while Strength: 6. The former would have a skill called “Hard muscles” or something, graded B or C if he was good, D, E or F if he wasn’t, while the latter could have one called “Snake flexibility”, graded in the same way as the former. And so on and on.

At the bottom right corner of the virtual screen was a button with on it written in bold letters “VOLUNTEER”. If you clicked on the button, you would open a new screen where you could read “I VOLUNTEER FOR THE NEXT EXPEDITION YES; NO” and underneath it “REQUIRED NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS FOR EXPEDITION I: 1 000 000 000”. As soon as someone clicked on the YES button next to I VOLUNTEER, the required number of volunteers would go down one number.

“What a cool game!” screamed some of the people.

“I wonder who created this system…he must be some kind of genius!” said others.

“I’m too old for these types of things” some complained.

Nobody had taken the so called “Otherworlds System” seriously, taking the situation as a revolutionary creation of some new game company. No one knew who it was, not even the game companies themselves.

Maybe the creators were shy, they thought. Or they didn’t want fame or money, said others. Maybe they simply didn’t exist, and the Otherworlds System is some mysterious new entity, one would occasionally say. They would immediately be condemned and marginalized from the rest of society, treated as parasitic psychopaths. For what does man fear more than the unknown?

One hour before the end of the countdown, the required number of volunteers was down to 0. The volunteers were mostly curious youth and young adults, unable to resist the temptation given by the promise of a new revolutionary game. As soon as the last slot was filled, the booming voice started speaking again.

“I SEE THAT WE HAVE MANAGED TO REACH THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS. GOOD. IN LESS THAN ONE HOUR, INFINITE RICHES AND POWER AWAIT THOSE ABLE ENOUGH TO SURVIVE MY TRIALS. FOR THOSE WHO DON’T, YOU ALREADY KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES. GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL AND MAY THE BEST FIND THEIR WAY HOME AGAIN.”

After that announcement, the entire world lay in wait for what exactly would happen at the end of the countdown.

00:00:09, 00:00:08, 00:00:07, 00:00:06, 00:00:05, 00:00:04, 00:00:03, 00:00:02, 00:00:01, 00:00:00.

Silence.

Nothing seemed to have happened. All eyes remained fixed on the ephemeral screen and the 00:00:00 written in a thick black color. A few minutes passed and the first bored onlookers finally decided to look elsewhere. That’s when the chaos began.

Screams of agony pierced the skies as mothers finally became aware of the disappearance of their children, as family and friends looked around for missing persons and failed to find them. All the volunteers had vanished without a trace, gone to who knows where. It was the first time since the appearance of the Otherworlds System that people finally began to understand the true meaning behind its words. But by then it was too late.

......-._.-._.-......

A few weeks later, the first survivors made their way home again.

Of the 1 billion people who volunteered to take part in the expedition, only 292 came back.

They were known as the first Moons, a title given by the System only to the best challengers. They all came back with haunted eyes, frantically talking about different worlds, different dimensions, stories too surreal to be true. Stories that were anything but untrue.

Decisions were taken, bases were formed, each base under the jurisdiction of a Moon, each containing two laboratories, created to nurture and train children into high talented individuals. Talented enough to face the challenges offered by the Otherworlds System during the expeditions.

After EXPEDITION I soon came EXPEDITION II and EXPEDITION III, each time leaving only a few survivors.

That’s when the New World Organization, the only organization with a base under its jurisdiction, decided to keep the seeds of the most talented challengers, namely the Moons, to produce new promising generations of children. Tools that could enhance their chances at survival.

26 years later, the useless girls of the labs were given the role of birthing machines, constantly injected with the seeds of the few unfortunate Moons who never managed to return from their expedition. Until they were too broken to continue that is. Until the “Fathers” of the labs forced them to volunteer for the next expedition. In other words, a death sentence.

A sentence that my oh so sweet Father gave to me. But I should feel honored, I should be grateful. Let me show you just how grateful I am Father.

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