Wade found himself in a strange room, the walls, floor, and ceiling were all white, each were also perfectly flat, there were no doors or windows, no possible escapes from this strange place. The room was also furnished with a small bed, a desk, a chair, and an empty cabinet, all white as well. There were also two items from the cafe, the chair he was sitting in and a chip rack still fully stocked.
‘What is this place?’ Wade was surprised about everything, he thought he would die and disappear like the others, yet instead he was perfectly fine, not a scratch on him.
A feminine voice suddenly spoke, “ Hi there! I’m currently speaking to Wade Duarte correct?”
“Yes I’m uh… Wade.” He confusingly answered, wondering where this voice was coming from.
“Perfect, I’m your new manager, Jamila. I’ll be helping you to sort through your new life and how to handle all the changes you will have to go through, any questions before I begin?”
“Where am I, and where did everyone else go?” Wade immediately questioned her, starting to search around the room for where the voice was coming from.
“You and everyone else in the world have been transported into your own personal areas, these will slowly grow around you and expand as you survive, anything else?” Jamila answered calmly and quickly, she seemed experienced with these situations.
“Why did you take us?” Wade asked, still searching the room, yet finding nothing.
“That will be answered as soon as you take a seat at the desk, now please sit down, you won’t be able to find anything.”
Wade stared at the desk, but eventually decided to just sit down peacefully. If he fought against whoever this was it would only be more difficult and they already proved that they were the ones in control.
“Thank you, now I will start the presentation, please save all questions for after the presentation has completed.” The room suddenly flashed with color, the objects disappearing. Wade was now seated in space, Earth was below him, dark for some reason.
“As you can see below us, this is what you call Earth. On it are dinosaurs, the first product of the creators’ works. The dinosaurs were interesting at first, but they never developed higher intelligence, so they were scrapped.” An asteroid came in and wiped a majority of the planet’s life out.
“The next product was humans, primitive lifeforms which would eventually grow into mimics of the creators, weaker and without any special powers, yet intelligent, a perfect species to support and entertain the creators.“ Civilizations slowly formed around the world, and in them gods were born.
“The creators took forms of gods, this was to influence the world indirectly. Many of the creators' pantheons fell, but they still enjoyed the world and kept it growing and evolving, though a problem formed.”
Wade was moved closer to the world and taken around it, factories which polluted the skies, chemicals that stained the land, species being hunted to extinction.
“Earth started to die, but the creators refused to act unless it was absolutely necessary, but they never thought that point would come so soon.” The planet now started to decay, humans died out, but the animals and plant life came back quite quickly.
“Instead of having this outcome play out the creators took drastic action, they’ve taken every human and will subject them to a new punishment.”
Monsters started appearing, ones from the past, famous ones from movies, and plenty of monsters Wade had no idea even existed.
“Humans will now be forced to earn every speck they can gather, you and everyone else will have to repeatedly fight, run, and survive against the monsters you have made. Of course everyone below the age of 18 will be exempt from these life or death challenges, instead they will be taught how to work and rebuild the planet by other creations. The option to join these challenges will always be open to them once they come of age though.”
The room transformed back to normal, “ Any questions about our history presentation before I start the next presentation?” Jamila asked politely.
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“No, but I need some time to think, is it okay if we take a short break?” Wade asked, trying his best to understand everything that was just thrusted upon him.
“That is a great suggestion, here!” An alarm clock suddenly appeared on the desk, it said 2:30 A.M. and was set to go off in 30 minutes. “ Once it rings we can start again, see ya.” Jamila stopped talking and left Wade to his devices.
Wade immediately went to the bed and laid down, ‘ Okay let’s run it down. First gods are real, second humanity failed and now I’m going to be hunted by monsters until the day I die, thirdly my little brother and sister will be fine.’ Wade’s siblings were both more than a decade younger than him, they were twins, both having turned 17 just this year. ‘ I’m worried about Mom and Dad though, I think they should both be okay for the first few hunts, but I know they’ll eventually slip up. I've got to find a way to save them before then, but my biggest issue is Olivia. She might not even last a single hunt.’ Wade sat for the rest of the time, trying to make lists of everyone he knew and who he could or should rescue.
The alarm rang at 3:00 sharp, and Wade turned it off before seating once again, “So how was your break? Are you doing better?” Jamila asked in a very relaxed tone.
“Good, how about you, you seem a lot better than before.“ Wade asked back.
Jamila sighed, “Wade I’ve been going through hundreds of people today and you are the first one who asked for a break, the others were either stunned from the new information, just listening in as an act. Anyway we should continue.
A screen suddenly appeared before Wade“ This is the ‘Purchasing Augment Deployment Storage System’ or PADs for short. This beautiful system, which I created, will allow you to purchase tokens, augment or change tokens already in your possession, deploy your tokens, and store the tokens you have yet to use. Of course this system is not usable inside of missions, so be sure to have everything prepared beforehand!”
The system slowly opened up to a shop which was almost completely locked out save for five sections, those being chips, cafe decor, bedside items, weapons, and men’s work clothing.
“As of now everything you’ve brought in has been unlocked in the shop for repurchase, you can unlock more categories by spending points earned inside missions, bringing in enough unique items of that specific category, completing achievements, and plenty of other things. Let me demonstrate.” Another category suddenly opened, it was relaxation clothes, inside were many different types of pajamas, fluffy robes, onesies, ect, but Wade couldn’t buy anything as he had nothing.
The next section opened up, it was a crafting area tokens could be combined to generate new items and areas. From the truly unique to something completely normal. “Let’s have another demonstration!” Two tokens were suddenly generated and automatically combined. It generated an umbrella made out of cotton candy. “As you can see not all combinations will be useful, but don’t let that stop you, experiment with everything and who knows what you will create. “ Jamila told him, “This was my main area of work for the system and you will not believe the things we’ve created.”
The Deployment section opened up and Wade was once again given another token, this was for a small bathroom. A grid popped up showing Wade that he could rearrange the items in the bathroom, and place it along any of the walls if he wanted to. “ If you could, please place down the bathroom, I need to make sure you can properly work this.”
Wade moved around the object, It was a simple but nice control and once he had selected the area it generated. Now where walls used to be, a door opened up to reveal a tiled bathroom. A simple sink, toilet, and shower, were already inside, though nothing else. “Perfect, now you can also deploy simple items like I did with your new alarm clock, these could be either placed right in front of you in case you haven’t picked the spot out, or you can move them in the menu to a proper area.” Jamia once again spawned a new item, a cup of warm cocoa, “ You may also be sponsored with items by anyone not inside tied to the missions, it can go from simple items which will generate at proper areas, to purchasing powers, to joining your world and helping to run it.” Wade sipped on the warm cocoa and it was surprisingly good.
“There are several other systems which will be unlocked in due time, but you already have a new one as a starting gift. The Lotto!” The screen now showed a lotto machine spinning rapidly through many different categories, eventually the lotto slowed ending at a tag labeled, ‘ Memorabilia’ with an item being deposited before him. Now on his desk there was a very thick picture album labeled ‘Christmas Cheer’ It had pictures of every single Christmas he had with his family, from happy pictures of him waiting with his younger siblings for Santa, to wrapping presents, even pictures of Christmases he hadn’t been able to go to with the family opening the gifts he had sent.
Wade had unknowingly started crying at the pictures, they filled him with a mix of emotions from joy at being able to see them, sadness at the thought they might never meet again, to a hardened resolve.
Jamila was silent during this whole time waiting until Wade had gathered himself up again, “ As you can tell that was a memory item, these will have strong ties with the owner and can only be gathered from randomized tokens and the lotto. The lotto can generate almost anything, but I don’t suggest using it. You have a 60 percent chance of failure per spin, the rest are sorted into many different categories and sections.” Jamila stayed quiet for a moment, “This marks the end of all my current presentations, from here you will be transported to the first mission, the first three missions have been pre-selected for everyone. A small hint, try to rescue anyone you can, and blend in.” She finished up Wade was engulfed into another flash of light.