October 2019:
Hikers in the Andean Mountain range find a disturbing phenomenon. It seems to be a portal into another world, displaying a frozen picture of an endless landscape of a deep and dense jungle.
Multiple sightings of other, by the general population called, shards are reported all over the world in the following days.
These "shards" seem to be a breakpoint in space and time, connecting our world with a multitude of others. Each shard seems to show a two-dimensional view into other worlds. They appear to be paper-thin but are at the same time harder than any material known to mankind.
It seems that every shard shows different places, all frozen in time, from a bustling city street to volcanoes and endless plains with gigantic creatures roaming them. The governments all over the world begin to collaborate, cataloguing all known shards and ranking them based on size and apparent difficulty.
Certain private groups begin to search for small shards, hiding them from the governments and under the hope of selling materials from these other planets to rich private collectors.
November 15th, 2019:
Earthquakes all over the planet cause massive tsunamis and storms, which ravage the coastal regions of every nation, destroying most of the Pacific region, all of northern and southern America, western and northern Africa and India.
The total death toll is estimated to range in the billions.
November 30th, 2019:
Japan sinks into the sea, only 15% of the inhabitants manage to evacuate. The only thing remaining is the top of Mt. Fuji.
December 2019:
Another wave of earthquakes causes further massive damage to the remaining countries. The president of the U.S.A declares martial law, which most of the remaining nations follow. Populations all over the world are getting evacuated into inland territories.
Scientists seem to believe that our world is slowly but surely growing, as if the earth's core and crust was somehow growing in mass, which in turn leads to the rearrangement of the tectonic plates.
New islands begin to emerge in the Pacific, Doggerland emerges from the waters for the first time after 9000 years. The North Sea is now classified as an inland sea. All over the Earth, new landmasses begin to emerge, while new mountain ranges seem to be created overnight.
January 2020:
The emergence of shards begins to pick up, with new ones forming faster and faster all over the world and old ones not disappearing.
Military forces all over the world are hard pressed to uphold any kind of containment around the known shards.
February 2020:
A new virus seems to have emerged form one of the oldest Shards in Europe, infecting over 1 billion people in 15 days, and spreading all over the globe.
The virus seems to attack the immune system of the victim, while at the same time mutating the genetic information of cells. Symptoms are: heavy vomiting, diarrhoea, high fever, muscle pain, lung collapse, heart stutters, spontaneous bone fractures, hypothermia.
Early predictions are that whatever this virus is, it seems to possess some kind of hive-mind like mentality. People of the age over 50 die within days, while young children and adults seem to survive, while still suffering from the symptoms.
February 28th 2020:
The Earth's magnetic field begins to change, and all electronic devices cease to function.
Booting [ARGUS]
Booting Initialisation Protocol v.3597.565
Hello, [Planetinhabitant-Earth-Bipedal-Human]!
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Your planet [Earth-ThirdPlanet-SolarsystemNr.XTL5784] has been sadly discovered by an entity called [The-Crawling-Chaos], this extradimensional being seeks to consume, corrupt or subjugate all lifeforms in our dimension. It has already consumed 0.00000158% of our dimension, and to protect us, 5 of the most advanced civilisations have sacrificed themselves to create me, an Autonomous Overseeing Interactive Interface. You may call me [Argus]!
I apologize for the rough last few months and all the lost lifes, but I had to act fast to combat the appearance of further developing [Shards/(Invasionpoints)]. If I had been even one [1] minute later, then they would have activated and you would have most likely been overrun in the first few hours, rendering your whole civilisation ripe for the taking!
Your planet [Earth] is in an unique position right now. You might not have known, but most, if not all, surrounding solarsystems have already been consumed or subjugated by [The-Crawling-Chaos] in an earlier growth stage, leaving your planet as the sole remaining uncorrupted system in the whole starcluster!
We, the [Dimensional-Peace-Force], would like to use your planet as a staging ground for the liberation of this before mentioned starcluster. The main problem was, that your planet is severely lacking in a specific resource, which is needed to sustain such a large scale operation, you may or may not call this specific resource [Mana].
I had to merge your planet, [Earth], with several other planets that were going to be consumed by [The-Crawling-Chaos] to raise your ranking from F-rank to E-rank. The also lead to an increase of your planets overall mass by around 859.65487521%.
I apologize again for the lost lives during the transitioning, and grant all [Planetinhabitant-Earth-Bipedal-Human] two [2] additional randomly generated [Talents] at the beginning of their innitialization at the age of fourteen [14], from now into perpetuity! Rejoice! This does not happen regularly, and if other species would learn of this fact, then I would have to face several small scale rebellions in other systems!
Sadly, even with these additional [Talents], a defense against hostile [Shard] incursions will most likely be impossible at your races current stat average of 8.
I urgently recommend to avoid any national, geographical and historical landmarks or points of interest, for they will undergo dangerous changes during the next one and a half [1 1/2] month. Remaining there will most likely lead to your inevitable death.
Warning: [Shards] will begin to open in around fifteen [15] [Earth] days. [Shards] are not only Invasionpoints, but also so called [Manadrains], which will slowly suck the energy from your planet.
Beware: [Shards] can be closed upon activation, which I highly recommend you to do, for each [Shard] will begin to grow in strength and size with each following week after its activation. I recommend you to at least close eleven [11] out of fifteen [15] [Shards] that are currently existing on your planet in the next two [2] years.
Closing procedures are simple: 1. Eliminate all targets surrounding the [Shard] 2. Walk up to the [Shard] 3. Touch the [Shard] 4. After the window opened, choose the [Close] option. I will do the rest for you.
Additionally, I have given you access to so called [Paths], there are a multitude of [Paths], some are stronger and some are weaker, but each will enhance and alter you recieved daily missions, achievements as well as physiological and psychological evolutions and enhancements. You may follow a multitude of [Paths] at the same time, but you will only be able to choose new ones every ten [10] levels.
Beware: Some [Paths] may look weak at first, but may give some special rewards and [Talents] at the end!
Even further than that, I have begun to awaken your genetic potential. You may have forgotten it, but you did infact rule over your planet with strength of weapons, as well as intelligence after all! You may find, that some of you have inherited specific [Talents] and [Constitutions] from your genetic ancestors or heritage. Many have already succumbed to the changes that were introduced by the Virus that was used to kickstart those changes. Believe me when I say that you will thank me at the end.
This is all for now, your planet [Earth-ThirdPlanet-SolarsystemNr.XTL5784] has now been officially renamed to [Earth-Inclusionpoint-0254].
Every inhabitant of your planet, at or above the age of fourteen [14] or higher, will now be innitiated into a rudimentary version of the system, please hold still.
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[Messaging], [Group], [Menu], [Constitution] and rudimentary [Talents] are now available!