When I came to my senses, I found myself in a pure white space, surrounded by a crowd of other people. Among them, I saw famous athletes I’d seen on TV, soldiers in full combat gear, and regular people just like me. Everyone appeared to be just as confused and disoriented as I was, and hints of panic began to appear.
Before things could progress any further however, the bizarre figure that appeared as a mirage of every color once again showed itself in front of us and began to speak.
“Welcome! You have been selected to represent your world in the Realm Wars. As I previously stated, there will be 100,000 other worlds you shall be competing with this time. But fear not! There does not need to be only one winner. In fact, all worlds can potentially be the winner! All participants will be transported to the realm of Bellona in random locations. The win condition is very simple; simply descend to the 9th layer of Bellona and reach the keystone. Your world shall then be allowed to ascend to the Divine Plane and enjoy eternal glory! There is no limit to how many can reach the keystone, and cooperation with other worlds is allowed.”
Huh? Isn’t this not too bad then? I was worried when I heard it was called the Realm Wars, but looks like we might not even have to fight and can go for the Diplomacy Victory screen. But...an entity that casually mentions obliterating a world if you lose...somehow I felt that there was no way they would be that benevolent.
“Each of you shall be provided an artificial intelligence that shall serve as your guide during your journey through Bellona. It has a variety of helpful functions that I will leave you to explore on your own later. The guide has been customized to closely resemble the technology of your world, so you should find it very easy and familiar to utilize. In addition, in order to keep things interesting, every participant will be given the chance to randomly select a special ability to aid them on their journey.”
Damn, even random space aliens are scamming people with gacha pulls nowadays huh? I already can feel in my bones I’m gonna get some absolute bottom of the barrel crap when I pull.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“More details regarding the specifics of this Realm War shall be provided by your guide once you reach Bellona. Now, before we proceed to the ability selection, are there any further questions?”
It seems like this particular space alien is rather benevolent; usually when these types of situations happen in the novels and movies, they instantly vaporize anyone daring to say or ask something.
As expected, an explosion of questions and threats erupted, ranging from saying that they were going to call their lawyer to if there was a bathroom nearby. The figure calmly smiled and when it opened its mouth, hundreds of voices spilled out simultaneously, answering every question at once. Oddly enough, just like when it had first appeared on Earth, I was able to perceive all of the answers it gave (it told the bathroom guy there wasn’t one). One of the questions I heard in particular, however, piqued my interest.
“Why was our world chosen for these Realm Wars? What is the point of all this?”
“Every epoch, the Realm Wars are held as a form of entertainment for the various gods and entities inhabiting the Higher Planes. They enjoy spectating and betting on various outcomes, and even use it to resolve disputes among themselves using different worlds as proxies. This is the first time however, that world ascension as well as ability selection have been offered. The last Realm Wars was a complete one-sided slaughter and many gods were displeased. Thus, the scope as well as stakes have been raised this time, which is why your world was included this time. Simply, you are here to make up the numbers. “
What, we were cannon fodder this whole time? No, but surely if we just cooperate with the other races and work together we can make it out....right?
Finally, I asked the question that had been burning inside the whole time and asked,” Why me? Why was I selected? I don’t have a single outstanding quality about me. There must be some sort of mistake.”
“As I previously said, 1000 humans were selected as your world was of the lowest tier. Your race is of such a low existence level that there is virtually no difference between any of you. The selector thus chose any human that had the greatest attribute of anything, not just physical.”
Hm, maybe I had some amazing abilities I hadn’t been aware of? My mom had always told me I was special after all, hehe. Perhaps I’m just the greatest?
“So what attribute was I selected for?”
“You? You were the most stubborn human being.”