C1: Only the big is worth it!

(District of Genshi, the Dorms of the Void Hunters Academy)

A black beetle scurried across the spotless floor with its unstable limbs.

[Level 1 – Common Black Beetle]

The tag above its head read this.

A young boy, white hair with bangs dropping over his head and of average height was staring at the beetle scurrying along the floor, ignoring the more interesting view before him. His sky blue eyes were set on the beetle, and his target was confirmed.

There was a small knife in his hand, which he used to sharpen his pencil. Nevertheless, the beetle was small enough to be killed by it.

'XP points scurrying across the floor… I need every experience I can have to train myself. Not to mention, this tiny helpless bug here will by first ever kill.' The boy, who had never even thought to harm even a bug in his life before, thought inwardly.

"You are mine," he swung his knife at the beetle and –

*Flick!*

The lights of the apartment were abruptly turned on.

"Argh! My eyes!" he screamed as he stuck the knife on the floor, instead of the black beetle.

[Personal Quest Failed: You have lost 10 XP points!]

"Huh! Nooo –"

"Idiot!" A girl cried out, standing in the doorway. "What are you doing here while everyone else is on the rooftop?"

The boy sighed after seeing the familiar face of Karen by the door. She had barged into the apartment like she owned the place, like always.

"Karen… you just wasted 10 of my XP points," Alan Grey sighed, sitting up on the floor. The instant light had blundered his vision. He was crawling across the floor, chasing the bug for quite some time now.

"Mhmm… and may I ask what that quest was, Al?"

"No."

Karen, the glamorous girl with black hair long to reach her breasts, silvery eyes, and a sexy look on her face came to Alan and helped him up. Then, she saw that even the windows were all closed.

"The shutters too... seriously Al?" Karen sighed.

"What – I just don't want to see what I see every day on TV!"

"Shutters. Open." Right after she spoke, the AI system of the house identified and did exactly as she ordered.

[Opening the shutters now, Miss Karen]

Alan wasn't too surprised to see that the AI also had Karen's voice approved by its security system. Even though it wasn't her apartment, she came here just as often to hang out with him. She was his best friend after all.

The window of the highest floor opened wide. It was actually a two-way glass with high-tech shutters that closed and opened to their voices. The shutters opened and a clear view of the battle outside could be seen by both of them.

"Ughhh…" Alan groaned as he saw all the shooting and the blood. Karen sat beside him on the floor and said: "We don't hunt little things like beetles. We hunt the big ones. Only the big one is worth it."

The girl gestured at the battle with her eyes as the boy stared at her with pleading eyes.

The beetle peacefully crawled under the couch.

There was a battle between humans and Aliens outside, and the students and the teachers of the Void Hunters Academy of Genshi were all listening to the battle report while having a live view from the top of the roof of the school buildings and their dorm buildings.

The Academy was built at the highest point of Genshi and on top of it, the floor where Alan lived was the highest in the dorm building.

"Wohooo!" Karen cheered as a laser beam shot across the skies and sliced the arm of the Alien.

*RWARGHHHHH!*

The ginormous alien's scream echoed through Genshi, shaking every building of Genshi as it did. Alan couldn't bear seeing this view. The alien's arm spewed with blood as it fell and the creature screamed for mercy from the soldiers surrounding it.

Just imagine… killing such a creature while recording the video live and making millions out of streaming this. It was sad, the things that had happened to this Human Society.

Karen looked at her best friend's depressed face. She clung an arm over Alan's shoulder and pulled him closer to her. "You have to bear it as I did," she muttered, giving him a bottle of soda. "Latest version… Whizzpopp! BFG edition."

Alan smiled and took the bottle from her hand. "Pop my whizzle."

"Pop my whizzle," Karen smirked and clanged the two bottles of Whizzpopps together and gulped the soda down.

A thin blue spark soared down from the violet night skies of Genshi as the battle was nearing its climax. The alien beast was getting out of hand, and four other arms had appeared from its back, ripping out from its spine.

Karen instantly noticed the blue spark shooting towards the alien.

"Your dad's new spear, huh?" Karen asked the boy with a smirk.

Alan shook his head and gulped the soda down. He was glad that his friend was there... But -- his Dad. He shouldn't have used the spear in this little fight.

*SLEEEECK!*

The blue spark shot into the beast's eye and exploded with a huge blue bang, shattering its head into tiny pieces.

A wave of cheers was heard from the whole Academy of Void Hunters, and all across the district of Genshi as the ginormous beast fell to its doom.

...

Humans have been like this since the systems were introduced to the world, along with the space dust called 'Solaria,' in the year 2010.

Solaria is a cloud of celestial dust that covered the whole space and turned it into an uncrossable field, forcing humans to find other ways of space travel. And it did not just occur in this Galaxy, but in every other Galaxy also.

However, extraordinary things started to happen thereafter.

After the space dust covered the planets, a sentient system called "Core" was introduced to all sentient beings. This game-like system introduced them to all new ways of survival.

Furthermore, scientific breakdowns led to the Portal theory, in which most sentient beings perfected all around the universe.

But – with the systems that had been given to them, survival became critical.

For some, it was a hustle, but for Humans – it was Life.