The First Awakening
( June 15 , 2110 )
All players will now be logged out of the tutorial forever, however we hope to see you all again in Sigma!
Following this system message, every single player was thrown out of Omega, logged out of the game permanently.
While most people did not get any additional system notifications after this, Max got one last notification from the Omega A.I
System Notification: Detected that the player has 3 Bluespot flowers ( divine ) , 3 Redspot flowers ( divine ) , 1 foie gras ( divine ) as his bounded items.
Do you wish to bring these items at a degradation to Sigma?
Bluespot flowers ( Divine ) —----> Bluespot flowers ( Dark Gold )
Redspot flowers ( Divine ) —------> Redspot flowers ( Dark gold )
Foie gras ( Divine ) —------> Foie Gras ( Epic )
YES
NO
(YOU HAVE 48 SECONDS TO CHOOSE, THE DEFAULT CHOICE IS SET TO ' NO ' )
Max frowned when he saw the degradation, the way he remembered his brother's equipment to be degraded, it had gone from divine grade to the legendary grade which was a heavy degradation however still very unique and valuable.
Dark gold and epic grade on the other hand would be worth a few thousand gold coins at best, but there was no-way that Max would be able to earn the full price of his fees using just these items.
The item grades in Sigma were the same as in Omega.
For items/ equipment/ spells they ranged from
Common
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Dark Gold
Epic
Fragmented legendary
Legendary
Semi divine
Divine
Apart from these grades, there were some other ratings such as unique or lost, however, they were usually somewhere between dark gold and legendary in terms of actual value.
There was also a rumoured ' Ancient ' grade however Max had never seen or even heard of a weapon with the Ancient grading so he had no idea where it ranked on this scale.
For potions/ runic spells the grading was a little different ranging from
Trash
Low level
Mid-level
High level
Perfected level
Max level
According to Max 's previous life experience, even high-level potions were extremely valuable on the universal market as potions were a commodity in Sigma which was always in a shortage.
Whether it was due to the industrialists deliberately keeping the supply less than the demand to use ' hunger marketing ' and gain maximum profits, or some other reason, the fact of the matter remained that potions were always in a shortage.
One of the most sought-after professions due to this very reason was the alchemist, as having one in your organization could virtually guarantee an endless amount of income flow.
Max was disappointed, however looking at the ticking timer he still clicked 'Yes' as he believed in the notion of something was still better than nothing at all.
System notification: 7 items have been placed in your personal inventory.
Error
Error
Error
Error
The subject is not amongst the awakened, and has no inventory.
Error
Error
Error
.
.
The time for the first awakening is upon humanity, all players must be logged out.
Error ( undisturbed rewards )
Diverging to the universal queen for solution.
5…4…3…2…1
Personal inventory created , situation resolved.
Items deposited
Bluespot flower × 3000 ( Dark gold )
Redspot flower × 3000 ( Dark gold )
Foie Gras × 1000 ( Epic ) ( Perishable*)
Logging player out.
Max was logged out of Omega as he stared at the blank darkness of his VR pod wondering if the last system notification was an error or did he really just gain 1000 times the units of his ordered items?
Max walked out of his pod and wanted to check his inventory, but before he could do so a primal voice boomed across planet Earth, it was a voice that Max recognised all too well from his past life, the voice of the universal queen!
" Humans of planet earth, congratulations for graduating from the status of a primitive planet, to becoming one worthy of joining the wider cosmos.
I am called the universal AI, or the universal queen. I am a sentient being that controls the law and order of the universe and maintains universal peace.
All of you will now be given a glowing arm tattoo on your right arm which will become your new identity.
You are all humans from planet #H2047, and until you get a class and an evaluation after reaching tier1 this will be your only identity in the cosmos.
I have already painlessly integrated with every sentient life form on this planet and after conferring with your local planet AI ' Gaia', I have decided that you can use the phrase ' Show System Screen ' to display your status bar and the phrase ' Log Into Sigma ' to log into the universal game.
Please remember these code words as they will be unique to your planet only.
From here on out, every human born on this planet would be integrated into me at the age of 16.
Here is the status of your planet for your reference :
Planet code - #H2047
Current affiliation - None
Current chosen leader - Shakuni Won Knight ( a.k.a Rudra Rajput )
Current population - 16.1 billion
Cultivators - 76 million
Today on the 71st day of the 104th universal year, I extend my heartiest welcome to you all into the universal stage ' Sigma ' "
That was the universal AI, the queen speaking. In Max's whole adult life it was the only time he had heard the queen speak directly.
Well technically the second time as he heard this same speech in his past life too.
H2047, meaning human planet number 2047 was the identity given to the earth.
The idea that the humans had that they were the only sentient beings in the universe seemed laughable now. There were 2047 planets that inhabited humans in the cosmos and many many more that had not even integrated with the queen yet.
A glowing tattoo appeared on Max's right arm and it formed an intricate runic pattern that looked like a beautiful Samoan tattoo from a third person's point of view.
It was the mark of the universal queen, and having it imprinted on one's body gave one the access to their personal inventory and Sigma.
Max took a deep breath and said ' Show System Screen '.
A blue display opened in front of his eyes that read :
—-----
Name - Unnamed
Identity - Human from planet #H2047
Class - none
Abilities - Ball crushing ( expert )
Wealth- none
Inventory- Bluespot flower × 3000 ( Dark Gold ) , Redspot flower × 3000 ( Dark Gold ) , Foie Gras × 1000 ( Epic )
—------
Max chuckled seeing the system screen. Seemed like there was a glitch which awarded him X1000 the amount of items he had actually bought.
This was very good news for Max as now he had hopes of raising the amount of gold required for his tuition at the University.
Walking towards the window Max took a peek outside his house.
Max could see the day sky ripping to pieces as the fabric of the cosmos around earth changed.
The bright morning sky that had zero stars visible apart from the sun, was now covered in a myriad of breath-taking cosmic sights as for the first time mankind was actually integrated into the milky way galaxy, with countless stars and nebulae finally lighting up the day sky.
With the barrier that kept mana away from the solar system ripping off, it took mana 17.5 minutes to start flooding into planet Earth as the dreaded calamities started to occur.
The sudden exposure to cosmic radiation and the unfiltered flow of mana made planet earth unstable as every species on earth not attuned to the flow of mana found their skins tingling and burning as they howled in pain.
Max too felt like his body was on fire, in his past life Max felt the pain to be excruciating and he had doubts that he would die, however after having the wolves tear him apart limb for limb this pain felt tame to him.
The purpose of the tutorial game ' Omega ' was to attune humans to this very flow of mana, as the players who had already become attuned to wielding mana through Omega could survive the first awakening without any problems.
Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Lesser intelligent species like animals going wild, were common sights worldwide as every 1 minute a new tremor shook the building Max lived in.
The Apocalypse was here, and while humans were preparing for it for the last 12 months, unfortunately, today was the day 60℅ of the human population was going to be wiped out of existence alongside countless plants and animals.
Just like the last time around, after 20 minutes the pain faded, and Max started to feel more comfortable.
He saw 20 huge battleships descending on the planet, each one having a size as big as Tokyo. Spanning for many many kilometres.
They were the various factions who had come to lay a claim to planet Earth. However, little did they expect that a newbie planet like the earth had one maestro guarding it by the name of Rudra Rajput.
The last time around, Max was scared for Rudra's life in this battle, however, this time around he knew that his brother was untouchable by such weaklings and that Earth would be fine.
When he thought about the feats of strength performed by his brother over the years, a chill went down his spine to think about the ramifications of his death.
Simply put, without him earth was doomed.
Today was undoubtedly a dark day for humanity, as if Max 's memory served him right the 16.1 billion inhabitants of Earth would be cut down to just 6.4 billion today as earth would lose nearly 60% of all population.
Today was also the day when his brother would lose his sister in law Naomi who must have died by now with the influx of mana at the hospital.
Last time around Max rushed to join Sigma leaving Rudra alone to deal with the aftermath of his wife's death, however this time around Max would not do it.
Waiting patiently for the fight against aliens to end, Max waited for Rudra's return so that he could be by his side in this difficult hour.