CHAPTER 1: Unexpected Notifications!

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It was Dec 31st, 2021, and a few minutes before midnight, I was awoken by the loud celebratory noises from my neighbourhood as it was New Year’s Eve.

Everybody was in a great mood to welcome the new year 2022, as the Covid pandemic settled down by the World Health Organization that made the Covid vaccine available to every common person in the last 2 months.

So, even though it was a bit disturbing, I didn't bother them by asking to keep the noise down.

I plugged in a pair of noise-cancelling earphones in my ears and tried to go back to sleep.

Just when I was about to drift into sleep, I heard some noise, but it was neither the sound of music nor the sounds of people partying in the neighbourhood.

It was a rather strange voice since I couldn't tell if it was a male voice or that of a female.

So, I opened my sleepy eyes and found a series of light blue rectangular boxes that contained information that had appeared floating half a meter before my eyes, startling me.

Those reminded me of notifications that could be seen in a phone or PC. But they looked more futuristic like a holograph, which was a 2D version of the hologram.

These notifications were extremely peculiar, and even though they filled a part of my vision, I could see everything clearly as if the notifications were transparent.

In general, upon observing a notification on either a phone, a PC or any other device, we have to read the content to understand it.

But that was where the peculiar aspect of the strange notifications comes into place.

The instant I looked at them, I understood all the content in notifications within a fragment of a second as if all the information within those notifications was transmitted to my mind.

The System is assimilating Earth with the rest of the Vast Universe.

For efficient assimilation, a Trial Program is required so that System could record data from 1111 individuals with the Highest Potential Innate Abilities from the assimilating Planet.

This Trial Program was further divided into 3 Sub-Programs, namely, ALPHA Program, BETA Program, and GAMMA Program.

These 1111 Individuals were further separated into 3 Programs according to their Innate Abilities.

The entire duration of the Trial Program is estimated to be 18 months, and the number of members assigned for each program was different.

Duration for each Sub-Program

ALPHA Program - 11 members – the beginning three months of 18 months.

BETA Program – 111 members – the middle six months of 18 months.

GAMMA Program – 1111 members – Final nine months of 18 months.

Congratulations! You are one of the 11 Chosen individuals among 7.8 billion for the ALPHA Program.

As a Chosen member among 11 individuals of the Alpha Program, you will be one of the first from your Planet to begin the Trial Program.

Once the three months of the ALPHA Program gets completed, BETA Program will begin. The 11 ALPHA members will continue with 100 other members chosen for BETA Program, bringing the individual count to join Beta Program to 111.

After the six months of Beta Program gets completed, the 11 ALPHA members, along with 100 BETA members, will continue with another 1000 members chosen for Gamma Program, which brings the final individual Chosen count to 1111.

When the GAMMA Program ends, it marks the end of the Trial Program, and the assimilation with Earth begins.

Survive, overcome danger, and grow stronger. All the Best.

You will get teleported to the Trial zone in 1 minute; prepare yourself.

Time Left: 60 sec

Once I understood all the information in the strange notifications, I recovered from my daze.

I tried to move away from those notifications but to no avail since they followed me as if they were attached to me.

I tried to touch the notification that began a 60-second countdown, but my hand passed through it, almost like the notification was non-existent.

But when I concentrated on them, I was able to move them to a side of my vision mentally.

My face was filled with disbelief from the unbelievable interaction with notifications.

Even though I didn't believe all the unusual information, the existence of the abnormal notifications caused me to reason with my self to prepare for the scenario where I might really get teleported.

Time Left: 57 sec

With already losing 3 seconds, I didn't dally any longer and rushed towards my wardrobe and donned a Black Track Suit and a pair of running shoes.

It might have broken my personal record in the aspect of a quick change of clothes.

While hurrying, I picked my mini trekking bag that was on the top right corner of my wardrobe, and I turned my attention towards the countdown notification.

Time Left: 32 sec

As I didn’t have a lot of time, I moved as fast as possible and slipped two pairs of clothes, a pair of boxing wraps into my bag and ran towards the kitchen.

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There I grabbed a few high calories packed food items and stuffed them in my bag along with a nearby Kitchen knife.

When I thought I had prepared enough, I once again looked back at the countdown notification.

Time Left: 9 sec

During these last 9 seconds, out of instinct, I tied my hair, which reached the bottom of my nape into a backward bun.

Then a sudden realisation about the information in the notifications hit me because if it was really true, then It might not be possible for me to return to earth for another 18 months.

With me living alone if my parents and siblings don't hear from me for several days they would be worried.

But if that continues for 18 months, they would freak out and might even think I was kidnapped or killed.

So, intending to send a message to them, I rushed towards my bedroom for my phone that was on the bedside table, while carrying the mini trekking bag on my back.

While running towards my bed, I shouted, "Hey Siri, Send a voice message to Kay!".

By the time I reached near it, the iPhone screen had brightened up, and an animated Siri Orb appeared along with a message that showed, "OK, recording...".

I didn't make a normal phone call because it was midnight and it would take a few seconds before my younger triplet brother 'Kay 'could pick up my call.

Once the recording started, I started speaking in a serious tone at the fastest pace I could muster up, "Kay, listen to me carefully, I might not be reachable for the next 18 months for the reason that I couldn't explain right now and tell dad, mom and our sister that I went to some long overseas business tour or something like that or they would be worried sick. Ok, bye!"

After that, I stopped speaking, and in a second, ‌Siri‌ displayed a waveform of the recording on the screen along with options to Send, Cancel, and a play button to play it back to myself.

Just as I tapped the send option on the screen at my fastest speed, I vanished from the spot where I stood as my phone fell back on the top of my bedside table.

In the next moment, I appeared in a dense forest, and with the utmost difficulty, I suppressed my urge to vomit from the teleportation.

I looked around myself, and within my vicinity, I found no living being.

In the first few seconds, I got agitated for getting teleported to an unknown forest terrain in God knows where but as I calmed down, I was actually glad that I prepared myself, instead of ignoring the notifications.

The forest around me was oak-brown and primitive. I was in awe of the size and majesty of the trees around me because the average height of the surrounding trees was at 20 meters and an average width of 4 meters.

After a few seconds of puzzlement that I received from the besieging view around me, I recovered quickly and ran towards an enormous tree that had a tree burrow with a diameter of 1 meter.

I carefully checked if any other creatures were inside the tree burrow and sighed a breath of relief after not finding any signs of beings in the Tree burrow, but got surprised by finding that the space was pretty large for a burrow.

I entered it and stood at the height of 6 feet; I could only touch the top of the burrow space when I stood on my toes, and space was 3 meters wide.

I quickly went outside while crouching and harvested a few nearby bushes and covered the burrow entrance while moving inside.

It was dark since I covered the entrance, but that was not my primary concern.

I sat down and collected my thoughts together about those notifications and summarised it shortly within my mind.

An entity called ‘System’ is assimilating Earth with the rest of the unknown Universe.

For that purpose, the system requires data from individuals with the Highest potential Innate Abilities. I didn't know what those Innate Abilities were.

Even among the 3 Sub-Programs of Trial Program, the ALPHA program was the first to start.

That means only 11 Chosen got teleported into this Trial Zone. Only after three months will another 100 individuals get selected for the BETA Program to enter the Trial zone.

Since I couldn't discover any of the remaining 10 Alpha Chosen near me, they must have gotten teleported randomly within the Trial Zone.

I tried to communicate with this so-called 'System' but only met with awkward silence.

After that, I mumbled to myself, "If I have to survive, only hiding is not good in the overall view since I don’t know how long I had to stay in this place."

So, I decided to find a water source and food alternates, and while I was thinking, something on the top left of my vision caught my attention.

ALPHA Program Day - 1 Time - 00:12:47

It showed the time since I teleported to Trial Zone and found a letter ‘S’ to my vision's top right.

I concentrated on it, and a notification tab appeared abruptly in front of me.

STATUS Name Jay Age 23 Level N/A Race Lesser Human (Male) Strength 12 Life Energy 0/100 Agility 10 Tier N/A Vitality 11 Health 110/110 Endurance 12 Stamina 60/60 Spirit 8 Spirit Energy 40/40 Luck 7 Undistributed Stats 0 INNATE TALENT

LOOT (Grade Unknown) (Locked)