YOU ARE A CHOSEN

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

The incessant beeping sound rang in his ears and hurt him to the point of waking up.

Gad Pa woke up with a start! He felt alarmed. His senses were sharp, sharper than they usually were.

And something in his senses was telling him he needed to do something urgently.

BEEP!

BEEP!

The beeping continued and he turned to look for the device that was making that sound.

There was none.

No device! No nothing!

He had woken up in a large hall with nothing inside except him.

He could not recall what happened or where he had been last.

"Why am I here? What's this place?" Gad Pa wondered within himself.

The beeping continued and he suddenly realized where it was coming from.

It was coming from within him. To be precise, from his right hand.

He looked at his hand and was shocked. What appeared like a digital clock was imprinted right at the back of his right hand.

"What is this?" he asked out aloud. He stared at his arm.

In panic he looked at his entire body and scrambled to his feet.

Seeing he was okay and could stand up well, he returned his focus on the digitalized hand. Slowly with the left, he touched the surface where the clock ticked and beeped.

This was like activating it.

The beeping suddenly stopped, and with it a sound was heard clearly.

{Upgrade Successful!}

{Congratulations on becoming A Chosen!}

{Get enlightened more and more}

{Prove your Worth to the G7}

Ding!

The sound stopped almost as abruptly as it had come.

Gad Pa was taken aback.

The voice appeared to be in his head, yet at the same time as though it was from the digital clock on his hand, and again as from all around him.

He regained his composure and started processing the pieces of information he heard from the voice.

'Upgrade! What Upgrade?' he wondered, 'am I a machine that gets upgraded?'

"Hey, who are you? What Upgrade are you talking about?" he asked loudly looking around for the speaker.

{Regard me as your conscience, I am born in you upon your upgrading. As regarding your question as to what upgrading am talking about is that you have been upgraded from being a normal weak human being to a Chosen! Congratulations once more!}

The sweet mechanical voice spoke clearly and distinctly in his head.

But Gad Pa was not satisfied. He has upgraded! That sounded both great and scary at the same time.

Did it mean all his weaknesses were now gone? All his imperfections forgotten?

Wait! He recalled something in the statement of the voice.

"You say am now A Chosen? Is that a kind of a race or a rank?" he asked.

{A Chosen is now the one and only race for mortal man. Yes, you are lucky to be a Chosen. You are alive, others who did not upgrade have since been terminated!}

That was scary!

Gad Pa felt his heart skipping a number of beats!

He was lucky to be alive. Any other human being was now a Chosen if he's alive! How many had died? How had they died? How was he chosen?

He had far too many questions and didn't know how to begin asking them to this mysterious voice within him.

His mind suddenly reverted to the thought of his whereabouts and he felt the need to go outside the big empty hall he had woken up to find himself in.

He made some few steps towards what appeared to be a door on the far side of the hall.

Without warning, his knees failed him and he stumbled almost falling head-first.

{Caution}

{Your LifeLine Power is almost empty}

{LLP: 3/10)}.

{Find feeding fast to avoid shutdown}

The voice stated in him.

Panic struck again. Gad Pa felt utter misery.

What was this new system? He would simply shutdown if he didn't receive food! What the heck!

This was bad! He felt bitter because of the thing being called upgrading. He had begun thinking it was a good thing only to realize he had been reduced to something equal to a mere machine.

'Who is this that has stripped humanity of it's dignity?' Gad Pa questioned.

But first he needed food urgently. He didn't know how he would get it but he had to or else he would shutdown completely.

He controlled his breathing and marched outside the hall. He gave a slight push and the door opened outward.

The sun outside was scorching hot. The sky appeared different from what Gad Pa was used to.

"Where am I?" he asked.

The landscape in front of him was nothing like he had seen before.

A few trees here and there, but they were a kind he had never seen before.

The buildings in the vicinity were not of the structure or style that he knew.

The streets appeared deserted. There was no single vehicle around.

No man could be seen in the area.

It was awfully quiet.

He looked up.

The sky appeared lower than where it used to be, and had a purplish color to it.

Gad Pa felt like he had been exiled to another planet.

He started walking around and headed towards one block of houses that looked like a residential one across the street.

He reached the door and saw a switch for the door bell. He rung it.

No response.

He rung again.

Arrrgh!

A strange roar was heard from inside and a shuffling of feet.

Thud!

Thud!

Thunderous footsteps approached the door.

Scared, Gad Pa moved back.

Suddenly the door of the house was kicked open and a well-built man stormed outside, running after Gad Pa.

Gad Pa ran for his dear life, but he felt his chest constraining and he couldn't keep up the speed.

He ducked under a litter bin just as the man threw himself to catch him!

Puh!

The giant of a man fell and hit his huge stomach on the ground.

"Oooh" he groaned.

Gad Pa acted swiftly, he came out of the litter bin and pushed it. The bin came falling onto the man's head, crushing it with ease.

Gad Pa couldn't believe his luck! Just like that and the giant of a man who had been chasing him was dead.

Then he began shaking from the incident. It dawned on him that he had just killed a man! He was merely eighteen years and had already committed a crime of murder.

Gad Pa stepped back, shaking all over his body. He looked around for any witness and decided to run away from the scene of crime as soon as possible.

Ding!

A notification rang in his mind.

{Congratulations on your first kill}

{ Terminated Chosen 1 }

{Eat his Heart to Obtain LLP}

.....

"What!?" Gad Pa was both shocked and angered.

Not only had he been congratulated on killing a human being whose life he considered sacred but he was also being asked to eat the dead man's heart!

"No! Never! Am not going to eat any human flesh, never!" he shouted back.

Ding!

{Caution}

{Your LifeLine Power is almost empty}

{LLP: 1/10)}.

{Find feeding fast to avoid shutdown}

…..

Gad Pa fell on the floor besides the dead man.

"I am going to shutdown! I am dying!" he felt weaker and weaker with every passing second.

He timidly turned his face and looked at the headless corpse besides him.

He closed his eyes.

And moved closer to the corpse.