A Long Dream

'ARRGH!!'

A visceral scream tears through the air as a flash of blinding light shatters the fabric of space, destroying everything in its path until it all fades to black.

Alex sits up, panting hard, still reeling from the shock and fear that gripped him when he regained consciousness.

He observes the surroundings, seeing the familiar cupboard and old ceiling fan that blow away the fog of the nightmare as it does more often lately. Slowly he realizes the intensity of the fading dream in the wee hours, his pulse still racing as he reaches for the ring hanging from his necklace.

'Phew', he sighs and gets up to begin his day. Flashes of the man's screams in the explosion haunt his ears still. With an iron will, he clears the voice, sets the thoughts aside, and stares at himself in the bathroom mirror.

An average symmetrical face stares right back at him with healthy light brown skin and deep-set black eyes that resemble the darkest obsidian that look so unfathomable. With all traces of tenderness gone from them, as he just turned 20, he remembers the words of his mother on her deathbed. He reignites his will to succeed and summons his system's Status page.

[Name: Alex Regio]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 0 (0%)]

[Grade:??]

[Stat points: ??]

[??]

[??]

[??]

[??]

[??]

[??]

[??]

[??]

[??].....

[Force: 0]

 "Close"

Seeing the same 'crippled' status page he steeled his resolve to grow stronger or die trying.

*****************************************************************

In a highly advanced interstellar society where humanity thrives in strength and wisdom after several apocalyptic events, the Human Development Alliance had provided a Personal System known as the 'Consciousness Genetic Module' available to every human recognized by the alliance at birth allowing the system to grow together with them and develop into a unique ability for the individual to awaken allowing mankind to usher in the era of superhumans.

"Thank you for your patronage," Alex said as he handed the customer the package with a blank look in his eyes coated with a calm smile, a fake one. 

"Hey!" Yuna said nudging Alex with her elbow 

"You look so pale, are you alright?"

"Don't Yuna."

"Don't what?" she asked smirking.

"Stop trying to cheer me up," Alex said as he sat back down behind the counter at the traditional gaming store where he worked scrolling through the gaming forum for any updates.

So what are you doing tonight? Yuna asked but Alex ignored her and continued scrolling through the augmented-reality gaming forum seeing the liveliness on the platforms over the release of the world's first alternate-reality game 'Realms Online'.

Realms online. An innovation from the HDA's Joint Committee on Superhuman Affairs is an alternate reality game that carries the potential to raise human powers beyond the glass ceiling produced by several leading researchers from various fields including the mysterious gene cultivators. It eliminates the high-risk journey into alternate dimensions to harness force by allowing direct connection to the dimension and playing to get stronger.

"Sounds fishy to me," Alex said 

"I think it's worth a shot," Boss Smith said walking out of the storage area.

"The difficulty of cultivating force in the stable dimension, especially with our cultivating techniques is just too high."

"Mmmn, I've been training for a whole year but I still can't get out one unit of Force yet," Yuna said in agreement.

"At least even though we beginners are going to be too weak, our abilities are pre-simulated for our use once our System fully activates when we turn 20 we will be able to use our strength better and grow stronger faster" Yuna commented her eyes glowing with excitement

"So on that note, I got two transmitters for the game for both of you." Boss Smith said handing Alex and Yuna one circular container from within his pockets

Alex and Yuna were stunned, knowing that almost all the centres for distribution were out of stock. Even the Teardrop City Administration department had an online waitlist where you fill out the form and it may take up to 8 days till the transmitter module gets to you depending on your social welfare package. Some black market sources even allowed one to get same-hour delivery for the gadget but the costs alone were outrageous 

Opening them they discovered it was a coin-styled transmitter to be attached to your temples linking with your CGM via aura resonance. Where once linked the transmitter cannot be linked to another person nor can you link to another making it so that everyone can only have one profile on the game server.

"Wahh!!, boss you are the best. I was scared by the unholy numbers on the waitlists for our city. That number still haunts me. I can't believe we have so many people in this small city that stuff is in such high demand on the black market. I even heard some huge crime families have tried to hack the production records and steal the blueprints." Yuan said squealing in excitement.

"Thank you, Boss,"

 'Though I'm not sure it makes much difference for me'. Alex said thanking the burly middle-aged man who shyly scratched his head as Alex bowed to him in gratitude.

"It's nothing, it's nothing. Just make sure to keep them safe alright, I wouldn't want to hear you guys got mugged for the transmitters"

"You know what, on second thought you could just link them up in the staff lounge right now?! There are barely any customers here anyway." Boss Smith said shooing them both from the counter towards the lounge door.

"We could get mugged?!" Yuna said with a perverted look of excitement on her face.

"Of course not just be a good girl and stay away from trouble" Boss Smith said sternly. 

"Alright Boss," she said entering the room with Alex a few steps behind her. 

They entered a well-furnished room with a massive staff fridge and two doors leading towards the locker rooms and the managers' office. Crashing into the well-designed couch Yuna placed the two coins on her palm admiring them 

"So pretty" she said to Alex showing him the engravings on the device 

Alex sat opposite her as he also took out his gadgets slowly examining the cold metal coins that looked hand-crafted with extremely delicate care. They seemed as fancy as a luxury item. Taking them to the light he tried to read the engravings on the metal, but the characters seemed like total rubbish and as he stared longer at it, it seemed to draw him in.

Snapping out of the daze he looked toward Yuna only to see she had already placed the transmitters on her temples, and was performing her simple breathing technique beginning the linking process already. 

"These are not simple hexes engraved here," Alex said sceptically looking at the object in his palm.

Without further hesitation, he placed them one on each side of his skull and began his breathing technique awarded to him in high school as the very best within his age group, a breathing technique of which he still even after 2 plus years of daily diligent practice he was still unable to gather even one unit of Force to break through into the Grade 1 Mortal Master realm.

As he continued to circulate the technique the transmitters began to vibrate gently. Suddenly the system display popped up with a blue notification screen.

 [Consciousness Gene Module update detected]

 [Update Module?]

 [Yes] [No]

"Yes," Alex commanded

 [Updating....1%.....5%....15%]

 [30%...50%....80%]

As the progress bar moved on, Alex did not notice a pair of spectral eyes watching him from the corner of the room.

 [90%...95%....99%...100%]

 [Installing the new update..]

 [Installation complete!!]

 [Logging into the server..]

 [Login Failed..... Error..... Server Offline]

 [Server Launch Time: 16:48:56]

Alex stopped the technique and opened his eyes. Squinting his eyes as they adjusted to the light he heard a ghostly voice whisper in his ears. 

"Soon"

Sitting up Alex felt strange. Looking around he found that Yuna had left the lounge already placing his palm on his temple to take off the transmitters only to discover they were gone, vanished from him

"What the Fuck!!"