It was afternoon and Damon was currently in the midst of exercising. Initially, the young master had intended to stop his vlog once the doctors pronounced him healthy, though due to the large viewer request, he had kept it going.

Unsurprisingly, the viewership had dropped drastically from his former peak, yet there was still a large following who would either use this time to just chat with him, or follow Damon in his steady routine he used to stay fit.

The young master had just finished the stream and was now on his break, seated on one of his sit-up benches with his face towel wrapped around his neck, sipping from his canteen. His eyes were glued to the television as he watched a replay of the interview he had given the night before.

He was noting down the flaws in his acting, when Damon's brain suddenly spiked like he had a sharp headache, which made him grip his forehead. Unbeknownst to him, every able man and woman on the planet at that moment was doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

"Fledgling species of this planet… Humans, you appear to call yourself? Interesting. My name is Ambrose Bloodwarren, and I'm a Lord of a species similar to creatures you call 'Vampires'. Right now, I'm parked outside your planet's atmosphere and have connected to your minds to send you all a collective message." Ambrose began with a cold tone, embodying a powerful supreme being looking down on a sub-par subspecies.

Damon was shocked by what he was hearing in his head, his expression freezing. Others had similar or worse reactions.

"I will be coming down to your planet to slaughter every one of you, then I shall harvest your organs for my own blood farm. Those with special traits will either be kept as mindless thralls - no better than zombies - or as blood pigs, fed and harvested of their essence every so often." Ambrose continued nonchalantly.

Damon's heart chilled from that threat, and he felt a sense of crisis. It was one thing to read about these things in fiction or watch dramatic invasion movies, and another to actually experience it in real life.

Mostly because precisely in that same fiction, the ability of the foes was insurmountable and unsurpassable, leaving one to feel despair. And unlike those corny fictions, there was no 'human element' in the sense that humanity would win at the end through valor, luck or wits.

In reality, it would be an utter wipe out.

"However, I feel magnanimous today, so I shall spare you this fate if you provide me with one thing!" Ambrose paused dramatically, his tone elegant.

At this point, the collective breath of almost every human was held as they tentatively waited for the demands of their now seeming suzerain.

"Smile!" Ambrose suddenly proclaimed with an amused tone.

'Huh?' Was the single collective thought of every human.

"Hahaha, did you really think your species is worth such effort? No. I'm here on a mission from the Intergalactic Union of All Species to explore this fringe area of the universe and bring any new species discovered into our fold." Ambrose laughed with a mocking tone.

"Right, play the automated message now. I've had my fun." Ambrose commanded boredly.

Soon, Damon and the rest of humanity were left to stand in place in a daze as they waited for the automated message to play, lost in various thoughts. Soon, a monotonous AI-like voice began speaking.

"Data has been collected remotely about your species' history, culture and beliefs in order to better tailor this message for you. Message calibrated and will be played."

"Greetings, members of the Human species. My name is Kiisuo Vritu, and I'm what you people would call an Elf, born on the Planet Gaio in a galaxy far, far away from yours."

"My designation is one of the 10 Councilors of the Intergalactic Union of All Species, or IUAS for short. The union is similar in nature to what your planet has created in the form of the 'United Nations' in that we gather all sentient species in our universe and grant them sovereignty, legal rights and access to the Universe Network."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You must have a lot of questions, and they will be answered in due time. What you must know now, though, is that this is not a hostile takeover. You are not obliged to join the Intergalactic Union at all."

"Choosing not to join will not deprive you of 'sovereignty' in any sense of the word, as another entity would take on the task of protecting your rights. Who that entity is and what they want, you will also find out later."

"Right now, all I can tell you is that joining the IUAS will yield various benefits, most of them in the form of technological advances as well as goods for trade. It has been detected that your species is not even at the Level 1 Civilization, but around Level 0.75."

"Things plaguing your brightest minds like infinite energy and stellar travel are basic information taught to mere adolescents in our societies. By joining us, we will share all this basic information, which will allow you to speed up the growth of your civilization drastically."

"For now, this is all I'm allowed to say without crossing the line into 'persuasion'. What happens next is something that the IUAS provides all new civilizations on first contact, the free random awakening. 100 people from your population will be chosen at random and beamed to the ship that has discovered you, where they will undergo a special process that will decide the value of your civilization to both the universe and our organization."

"The selection has already been made, so please try not to panic if you find someone near you suddenly disappear from where they were a moment ago."

Right after hearing this, Damon felt his body become light in a way he could not easily fathom, disappearing from his gym room and appearing in the floor of a large chamber.

He noticed that the chamber was made of a white alloy that had blue lights coursing through it like veins, completely nailing the extraterrestrial science fiction vibes.

Damon also noticed that he was beamed here along with a slew of other people of different species, builds and sexes who were also captivated by the surrounding sights.

Damon then felt a strange chill like someone had breathed cold air on his neck, his hand moving to slap the nape of his neck instantly. He was startled to see that everyone else did the same thing, then noticed that right in front of them, on a lifted stage, a strange, pale man was watching them with blood-red eyes.

All eyes landed on him, and the chill on the back of their necks descended to their spines. It was a strange and extremely discomfiting feeling for everyone arrayed there.

"Well, you guys are boring. You humans seem to have some idea about my existence? You're not even reacting much to my Dark Intent. Tsk, tsk." Ambrose chided with a look of surprise.

It was fine if one or two of the fellows here had presented him their lackluster reactions, for then it would mean they were special. But for all of them to only feel a chill on their backs when they should be clawing at the ground, foaming at the mouth due to fear and lost in terrifying hallucinations, he was a bit speechless.

"Whatever. I'm Ambrose Bloodwarren, and for the duration of your species' initiation, I shall act as your Overseer. Basically, I can do whatever I want." The vampire introduced himself with a wide grin that showed off his four fangs that were as sharp as army knives.

"You lot have been chosen for various reasons. First is to ensure fairness. Second is to obtain a sampling of your species' average talent. Third is to give your species a bunch of temporary leaders to handle the rest as a proxy for us."

Ambrose waved his fingers, each one adorned with a nail that was at least five inches long. "So, without further ado, I'll explain a bit of what's going on."

"Our universe is one that is still developing to this day. It is continuously expanding, swallowing the void and turning it into space. The energy from its expansion creates planets, which in turn create life."

"Before what we civilized species now call the 'Great Advent', many top species have existed in their various corners of the universe. Wars had been a constant, with battles for resources, rights, or valor being the norm."

"This continued until our universe encountered something while it was constantly expanding, a realm of pure Chaos. It is filled with Substances, Energies and Laws that it craves for its own evolution."

"However, the universe is an entity which cannot enter the realm physically to obtain anything. As such, it gave birth to a sentient consciousness that directly communicated with the upper echelon of the top species and made an exchange."

"It offered to provide all those who agreed with a way to obtain more power and grow themselves through special means, in exchange for the sentient species to act as its spelunkers, delving into the Chaos Realm - as we call it - to retrieve the things it requires."

"In lieu of this, the universe's consciousness helped the top species' most brilliant minds to create an Augmented Reality simulation of a gigantic world called Essence where all sentient species that agree to its terms are able to grow their power by slaughtering virtual beings replicated from the Chaos Realm."

Ambrose smiled thinly at this point. "After all, if the Chaos Realm would be so easy to exploit, the universe would have simply tossed us in without the need to empower us."