Star Space
After reaching home, James went to his room while his mother began preparing for dinner. But contrary to being happy for her son being graduated she was having a sad look in her eyes which went unnoticed by James. James was in a different mood, he was looking forward to going to the Star Space, for the last two years he has fantasized a lot about what he will do after going there.
A new chapter in his life was going to start.
After spending the whole time in his room studying about some important things James was called out by his mother for the dinner. His father was also there at the dining table today coincidently, because every day he has to work till the late night before returning homes, looks like he today took holiday. This made James happy since this family was similar to his previous life family. If not for them he might have felt very sad for losing his previous family.
When the dinner was started James was having his dinner happily but he didn't notice the odd atmosphere between his parents. After a few more minutes finding it too silent James looked up from his plate and met with the odd eyes of his parents.
He looked at them with a confused expression, "Mom, Dad? what happened to you?"
His mom gestured towards his father who took a deep sigh before looking towards James, "Son, looks like you are very excited about going to the Star Space."
"Yes! It has been my dream to do so.",
"You know there are many dangers there right? If you ask us we don't want you to risk your life going there but we will not stop you from making your decisions, from now on you will have to decide your own path. Both of us have gone to that place but were not even successful to complete half of the novice test. You know why?",
"Umm....maybe because it was too difficult?",
"Hahahaha, there is one thing you don't know, during that time among all the races in the novice test your mother was among the top 10 for six continuous levels.", speaking of this his father looked at his mother with a proud expression and they both held hands.
"Even I was saved and sheltered by her. We together built a small team of 160 people. The shelter was enough to easily pass through the novice test. But it fell in the 16th level due to some reasons.", speaking of this there was a sadness visible in his father's tone along with anger.
Hearing this story James was quite surprised, if what his father said was true then his mother must a great survival expert but she had hidden this identity from her deeply, he didn't know why.
"What was that reason, dad?", James asked seriously, any danger to make such a strong shelter to fall must be known to him.
"Sorry son, If we tell you about that it might bring harm to you. The only thing we can warn you about is beware of everything and everyone in that place. There neither the other races nor the disaster is the true test. Everything else you will have to find out yourself.", after speaking his father didn't tell him anything more. All of his questions were either ignored or answered superficially.
After having breakfast he went to his room after spending some quality time with his family. Even though they knew he was going to be selected no one knew when, they might disappear while taking a bath or while sleeping in the bed. This might create a difficult situation for those who are unprepared. After a long period of time, humans have still not been able to find any way of this problem, so they can do only one thing, remain prepared all the time. Even when sleeping wears the ID watch and necessary clothes.
James did the same though this felt a bit uncomfortable he was used to sleeping in more difficult situations.
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At night half past 3:00,
Small thin white bubble's poured down from the sky, due to their transparency no one noticed these bubbles, slowly the bubbles flew in the air in different directions entering some buildings directly through the walls and windows. Around the world, such almost invisible bubbles came near the students and people between the age of 18-20 which counted in billions, and slowly wrapped around them, as soon as the person was wrapped in the bubble they lost consciousness automatically, and then the bubble disappeared along with those people. In an instant, more than 30 billion humans disappeared.
Soon after few people noticed this and the news of the new batch's entrance in the Star Space was spread. Everyone was looking forward to what this young generation will bring the humanity.
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In a completely dark place, James was woken up by a noise in his mind,
[Welcome to the Star Space.
The Game panel is being initiated.
The Novice package is distributed.
Please open the game storage to find the package.
A time period of 168 hours will be provided to all the novice players for basic development.
During the novice period, no living thing from this world will attack the player until provoked.]
A list of notifications popped out in front of James's sleepy eyes. When the notification was over there was a small dropdown arrow in the upper right corner of his vision. James has read about this thing a lot of time in the books but feeling it personally was still amazing.
After calming down from his initial surprise he was able to notice his surrounding. But when he observed it he was shocked and dreaded at the same time.