(Prologue) Saving Lives

POV: Arlo

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The 17th Creator, Nexus, is interfering with the system.

New mission is being artificially created.

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The sense of gravity that I felt when facing Maksim returned. My knees buckled beneath me and I impacted the ground in seconds.

That's right. I won't become one of you.

My family's waiting for me anyway.

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Mission

Difficulty: D

Objective: Save 10 Humans within 6 hours

Rewards: ???

Penalty for Failure: Death

Accept / Decline

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I blinked as the new screen popped up, still vibrantly giving off violet light. The gravity lessened and allowed me to stumble to my feet.

"A-accept."

Immediately, the shaking of the room ceased, and everything became still.

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Mission Accepted

Difficulty: D

Objective: Save 10 Humans within 6 hours

Rewards: ???

Penalty for Faliure: Death

You have obtained the following skills:

Radiation Resistance (F) - Radiation has no effect on you for up to 6 hours

Scanner (E) - Identifies members of yours species in a 10 kilometer radius.

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Time Remaining: 5 hours 59 minutes 52 seconds.

I looked at the words on the screen and watched as the time dropped. I tried to piece together the events that had passed within the last few minutes, but the questions outweighed the answers.

If the Syndicate obtained their power from this, and someone or something controlled it, then who was it that wanted to cull all of mankind. 17th creator? Why are there so many?

I couldn't help but think of the pantheons such as Olympus and Asgard as the idea of polytheism came to mind.

I shook my head and refocused my attention.

If I need to save people then I don't have much time. Even without the 6 hour time limit, people don't have long left with the radiation present.

I looked at the newly made door in the place of where the ladder was and opened it. On the other side of the door was the ladder leading up to the hatch. I quickly climbed up and opened the hatch.

It would have been a friendly sight to see a beautiful sun and songbirds welcoming him into the world, but, instead, he was greeting with a pitch black night and an oppressive air filled with debris particles.

It's cold.

"Scanner"

I had never used this skill before but it felt like I had known how to use it since birth ever since the first mission was completed.

A hologram appeared on my right hand and showed multiple red dots and green dots. There were 8 red dots to my west about 7 kilometers away and scattered green dots.

To my surprise, there was a group of 9 green dots only about 4 kilometers away.

Nice!

Time was of the essence, but I couldn't help but ponder over this new instinctual knowledge I had acquired. There was one more skill that made itself known to him.

Status.

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Arlo

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Species: Homo Sapien

Race: French / German

Class: ??? (Rank ???)

Stats: | Affinity:

Strength: 6 (12) | Common

Agility: 6 (12) | Common

Stamina: 6 (12) | Common

Ability Control: 5 (10) | Common

Pressure: ?? | Horizon

Skills:

Pierce (Rank F)

Proficiency: 3/100

Radiation Resistance (Rank F)

Proficiency: 0/100

Active Effects:

Nexus's interference (Severe) - Boosts strength, agility, stamina, and ability control by 100% at the cost of increased probability for the giver. This effect also blocks other beings from being able to observe you.

Observers:

Nexus

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I was taken aback, specifically by the observer, active effect, and the clause, "at the cost of".

I wasn't sure what probability was, but I knew that this 'Nexus' guy was, in some way, making a sacrifice for me. I really wanted to look deeper into the status window but knew that I needed to begin moving.

I'll return to this later.

After flicking the screen away, I looked forward and broke out into a sprint. The forest's twisted trees seemed to pull me closer to my destination as I moved in the direction of the 9 survivors.

After clearing a kilometer in about 4 minutes, I stopped with my back against a tree.

Was I always this fast?

While taking a moment to catch my breath, I summoned the scanner. The 8 red dots that were previously 8 kilometers away were now less than a kilometer and heading for his position.

My eyes shot open in surprise.

Fuck! How'd they even get here so fast!?

As I was about to run, I noticed a green dot right next to me. I moved his back from the tree and looked straight to see a little boy shaking, standing in the middle of the open.

Panic began to manifest inside me as I mulled over my options. I darted my eyes towards the scanner one more time and saw that the MAW troops were only 300 meters away.

Fuck!

I sprinted towards the boy and picked him up in my arms. There was a spot of undergrowth ahead of me that I was aiming for.

The sound of footsteps approaching caused me to nearly dive into the bushes with the boy.

The boy let out a small yelp but I managed to cover his mouth in time. The boy looked like he wanted to start crying but, miraculously, held back.

"It's okay, buddy. I'm gonna protect you from the bad guys. Just try not to make a sound OK?" I whispered as quietly as possible and managed to put on a soft smile.

The boy hesitated for a moment then nodded. The sound of footsteps approaching grew louder until it felt like the sound was just a few feet away.

"Xi, what the hell is this? I thought you were supposed to be in the top 100 for navigators." a deep voice resounded.

The navigator looked confused and his eye lit up red as he tapped on his wrist, "My scanner's been jammed. I know only MAW troops can do that. Quit fucking with me, Nigel."

I could never get used to the sheer diversity of the MAW troops. The fact that they all spoke the same dialect of English was a miracle in itself, but their variety was no joke. People from all around the world populated the ranks.

Nigel's eyes turned to a crimson red as he stared at Xi, "Do you want to fucking die?"

Xi grimaced, "You think you can take me?"

A red-haired woman with a freckled face stood inbetween them and pushed both of them away, "Would you both knock it off!? If you guys keep this up, I'll be the one taking the next kill."

Xi and Nigel grunted, and, after a short standoff, Xi walked away.

Xi looked up and spoke, "Regardless, I saw a purple icon on the scanner earlier. Have any of you ever even heard of that?"

Nigel snorted, "It's probably a fucking animal. You know they show up as weird colors sometimes."

Xi coughed, "Regardless, the fact that my scanner isn't working now isn't because of some animal."

The red-haired woman sighed and spoke, "Whatever, let's just return to our normal route."

With that, they began to walk away with Nigel in the rear of the formation. I exhaled quietly to relieve the tension in my body. The boy that had been holding back his restlessness moved slightly and caused the bush to shake.

Nigel immediately paused and looked at the bush. I swiftly placed my hand over the boys mouth again and both of us stayed absolutely silent. After putting on a sinister smile, Nigel resumed walking and rejoined the formation.

After a while, I took my hand off the boys mouth and spoke softly, "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine." the boy had little emotion on his face as he said this.

It was a surprise to see the young boy this detached.

I guess the world's been hard on him.

"What's your name?" I asked with a smile.

"Xavier. I-I'm 5, but I can protect myself!"

The world's been really hard on him.

"You're okay, Xavier. I have a secret base underground with some nice cool water."

Xavier's eyes sparkled, "Will there be snacks?"

I felt like I had an obvious 'no' written on my face but put up a smile to hide the fact, "Don't worry, I'll do everything I can to get us some snacks."

Xavier's eyes widened and a smile formed on his face. "Thank you!"

I frowned, "Do you mind if we save some other people first? I don't think it would be nice to hog all the nice things we have for ourselves."

Xavier looked up with wide eyes, "S-save? Like Copper Man and the Revengers?"

My heart smiled at his innocence.

I smiled, "That's right. You'll be a hero."

Xavier's face lit up. "Yes! Lets save peeple!"

The fact that the radiation sickness didn't affect him as much was confusing. Generally, radiation affected you more the younger you are with elders being the most resistant. However, from my observation, it seemed like the older people were the first to succumb to the illness. Is this actually radiation?

I pushed my limited knowledge of medicine to the limits, but couldn't come up with an answer.

Xavier and I continued through the forest safely. Xavier had a hard time keeping up, but we still had about 5 hours left.

There's not a need to push him in his state.

Finally, we were within a hundred feet of the destination. Upon arriving at the 9 green dots, a warehouse came into view. I quickly pulled up my scanner and observed the location of the MAW troops. To my dismay, the scanner seemed to be malfunctioning.

Was this what happened to the MAW soldier?

I momentarily pushed aside the thought.

"Xavier, stay close to me, okay?"

Xavier nodded and held onto Arlo's waist.

POV: Jeremiah

My hands tightened around my revolver as I finished covering the body.

Damnit! John, why couldn't you have lived a little longer!

I bit down on my lips harder than expected as I looked at the corpse of my friend and previous leader of the survivors. The few remaining survivors had unanimously decided that I should lead them from now on, but…

Truthfully, I don't have long left.

I was the oldest one remaining. I was only 19 but after watching 14 members of his group die, it was clear that the radiation was killing the eldest people first. The sound of approaching footsteps distracted me from my thoughts and heightened my senses.

"Everyone, hide!" I yelled.

As I gave the order, a masculine, yet gentle voice was heard.

"I'm one of you." the voice said as a figure raising its arms came into view.

The voice continued, "Listen, I have a fallout shelter near here. I'm trying to gather up survivors. It has running water. We should be able to at least wait this invasion out there."

I nearly dropped my revolver as the words came out of the silhouettes mouth.

He's lying! He has to be! There's no-

Uncontrollably, my eyes began to water.

Please, don't be lying.

POV: Arlo

Light was scarce but I was still able to make out nine silhouettes. A sigh of relief was heard audibly as the words left my lips.

A masculine voice sounded, "I'm sorry. We're just so on edge. I assumed most of the civillians had died from the radiation by now."

I cleared my throat and walked forward. When their images began to become more defined, I noticed that they were all teenagers. Not exactly young, but they looked to be upperclassmen high school age.

I spoke softly, "It's alright. Let's get you guys out of here."

The man cleared his throat and a single tear drop fell from his eye. "T-thank god. Oh my god. Thank you. I really thought we had no chance of living to see another day."

The man's grip on the revolver loosened to the point where I thought he might drop it, but he maintained his grip as he wiped the tears from his face.

"I just wished you were here fast enough to save the others…" the man said with a sad expression.

The others?

My eyes wandered to see a pile of corpses behind them. They all looked to be adults or older. Unconsciously, I breathed in sharply at the horrific sight.

I looked down and spoke with a harshness that I had never used in my life, "There's no use worrying about things we can't change. We've all lost loved ones."

The words shocked me more than anyone. I never thought I'd say something like that.

A woman spoke in a concerned tone next to him, "I-is that man with you?"

I looked at Xavier and nodded with a smile, "That's right. Little Xavier wanted to come and save you guys himself"

The woman's expression darkened and a sense of dread came over her, "N-no the man behind you."

A chill ran up the back of my spine.

The man… behind me?

A deep familiar voice rang out behind Arlo, "Aw am I not invited?"

Nigel!