11 April 2050, Somewhere in the Indian Ocean

-Alert! Alert! Please evacuate the facilities immediately

-"What the hell is happening? Wasn’t everything under control?"

-"I don't know Doctor; the experiment was going well but the reagents suddenly began to behave abnormally."

-"Quick! Run! The isolating equipment won't last for long."

-"Too late, we won't be able to get away, this type of explosion will cause a chain reaction to the neighboring laboratories too."

Australia, Perth

A couple was enjoying the calm weather, strolling silently on the beach while holding hands. Everything was normal, a lot of tourists were also enjoying themselves, children were screaming while making splashes in the sea.

When suddenly, the ground started shaking. It was quickly followed by a deafening sound wave. When looking at the horizon, they could see a massive cloud of smoke looking like a mushroom, but they did not have time to enjoy this view as below that mushroom was a giant water wave rushing towards the coast.

12 April 2050, UN Headquarters

-"I told you it was a bad idea to experiment on nuclear fusion, we should have never passed that resolution."

-"Yes! We should have put emphasis on the other green energies instead of nuclear."

Chairperson: "Cough cough! Delegates! Please maintain the decorum."

Immediately, the meeting room became quiet. The hundreds of delegates all solemnly looked at the old man, waiting for him to speak.

Chairperson: "I declare this session open, we are here to discuss the incident that happened yesterday in Laboratory 39. According to the report, an abnormal reaction occurred leading to the leakage of the reactors. All the scientists dispatched there lost their lives and that's without counting the casualties caused by the tsunami."

Chairperson: "We need to give an answer to the people. There is also a report from the rescue team that says that the radiation level is extremely high in the Indian Ocean and that the radiations are still spreading. We are guaranteed to have a large number of refugees from the most affected countries. This is an emergency so please express your thoughts. Since it is an exceptional situation, we will be more lenient about the decorum so please speak freely."

Delegate of France: " Ladies and gentlemen. I think it is clear that we need to proceed with the Protocol 49! The Special Refuges are the only way we can protect ourselves from the radiations. I believe that every country did make their own preparations in case of such disaster."

Delegate of the USA: " I disagree with that, we don't know how far the radiations will spread, we should wait for more information before taking such an important decision. We should instead investigate the causes of this incident!"

Delegate of France: " There is no harm in being cautious...."

.....

After several hours of boring debates, it was finally agreed that Protocol 49 would be followed, every nation will guide their own citizens in the refuges of their country within 1 month. The blue helmets would provide assistance to help in the migration and distribution of resources.

Finally, an old man coughed loudly showing his desired to express himself.

Delegate of China: "Ladies and gentleman, I have a proposition to make... Migrating to the underground refuges is a good idea. However, what will we do while wait for the radiation level to go down? You might not be aware, but my family's company, VALOR is about to release a new VR game System called the Valor Dive. We don't know how long we will have to stay in the refuges. So, my proposition is to mass produce the Valor Dive system, it comes with a special game capsule that fully immerses the player in the game making it extremely realistic."

Delegate of China: "With some funding, I believe we will be able to improve our servers to accommodate for the whole world's population and redesign the capsule to put the bodies in hibernation using cryogenic technologies. We don't know what will be left of the surface when we will finally be able to come out, so we can use this game to not only spend time efficiently but also select our future leaders. We all know that the situation will be different once we come back to the surface, we will need fresh blood to restore humanity's glory. The game is realistic and only the most dedicated and skilled people will be able to succeed in it."

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Delegate of China: "I believe we can add useful contents such as Kingdom Building and crafting in the game. They were one of the planned expansions for the incoming years but with enough help, we will be able to complete the coding in time. My beliefs are that if someone is able to build a solid Kingdom in the conditions of the game, he or she would have no issue doing so again when we move back to the surface! Please have a look at this document, it contains details of the game we were planning on releasing."

Some secretaries quickly moved across the room and delivered few pages thick documents to each delegate and the chairperson. The room was quickly filled with noises of pages being flipped.

After a few minutes, delegate of the USA: " I don't know... We need more time to study this document. How will you ensure fairness in this process? Can this really be done? Using a game to determine the future leaders sounds like an absurd idea. How will it operate if we are all in hibernation? "

Delegate of China: "Why not let every country send a team of programmers to check out the coding? As for the operation, I believe that we can use the recently developed AI to ensure fairness and the correct flow of the game. To be honest, the early game content is already developed and perfected, so we only need to work on later content more specifically the content after level 40. We can also develop a crafting system so that we don't end up with people obsessed with strength. "

-"Mmmmm"

Delegate of Germany: "We don't know what will happen afterward, but we definitely need to remain united to survive this crisis. A competition is appropriate, but we need further details before accepting this proposition."

Delegate of South Korea: "This game occurs in a technology-less environment which is good as we might end up with one when we wake up. But I don't see the need for the magic part."

Delegate of China: "Our game is not only used to select leaders, remember that we will have 3 billion people playing during this period of time. The fantasy part can be used as entertainment for them."

The chairperson nodded and added: " This looks feasible but we need to discuss this in more details in our session tomorrow. And with this, the session is adjourned. Thank you for your presence!"

13 April 2050

After a lot more debates, the proposition of the delegate of China was passed and immediately, a large amount of funding and teams of software engineers and programmers were sent to VALOR. This massive project was given the name "Hope" as it symbolized the hope of the entire planet. Another report also came in with estimation that the entire planet will be covered in radiations above the tolerance level within one month.

A global message was diffused, alerting the world of the events and telling people to stay calm and prepare their belongings for the migration. The message ended with "Unfortunately, due to space limitations, pets will have to be abandoned and only limited amount of belongings will be accepted, we advise you to carry only one luggage of the size that is accepted in low-cost flights."

20 April 2050

After one week of hard work, the game codes for Kingdom Building were finally ready, a large number of modifications was also made to the system and the Beta phase started. The game capsule was fully operational and could put the body in hibernation. A system was also added to supply the necessary nutrients to the player's body when needed.

Martial law was set up in most countries to prevent crime and illegal migrations. While several attempts to calm down the population were made, the tension just kept rising

27 April 2050

Another week went by quickly and the Beta phase came to an end. Many bug fixes and improvements were made and the crafting system was implemented. Naturally, shady businesses such as leaking the content of the game also occurred. Several governments won't easily let go of their rule and will try to obtain a head start and come out as the winner of the game. But to prevent such things from happening, the programmers were divided into several departments and had no idea of what the others were doing. Even the owners, VALOR only had access to limited amount of information. A lot of the work was also done by the Ai, further reducing the transparency.

Migration to refuges also officially begun. The game capsule was already being mass produced and could start operating. People in these capsules were only hibernating and did not have access to the game, but for them, it will seem as if the game started as soon as they entered the capsule. Registrations were also made as several types of capsule were classified into different grades.

This is to distinguish between the population namely Low-class, Middle-class, High-class, VIP. The first 3 types were distributed according to the people's income while VIP capsules were made especially for some world leaders but to ensure fairness, only 3 of these capsules were given per country and could only be used by the young generation. The different capsules were exactly the same in term of functionality, but each class came up with a small bonus and obviously, the better the capsule, the better the bonus was in the game.

2 May 2050

The migration process was 80% completed. Things went pretty smoothly, some attempt at resisting the forceful migration were made, this mainly included old people but the governments simply ignored them and allowed them to stay at their home. The last game fixes were being made and the servers were finally ready to be launched.

The AI fully took control of the server. It took total control of the server and could no longer be interfered with. It was programmed to implement in-game content as the players grow and increase their levels. It was also given full authority on the control of the refuges and will automatically wake up the players when the radiations fall under acceptable norms. The AI was also given the name of Gaia, a Greek name representing the personification of Earth

5 May 2050

The migration process was fully completed, and all refuges were sealed to prevent entry of radiations. Most people were already in the capsule only a select few were sitting in a special room in their respective refuge.

-"Ladies and gentlemen, here we are! After 3 weeks of work, Project Hope is complete. According to my family, VALOR would have taken at least 1 year to fully complete the additional content of the game. This shows how humanity can produce miracles when we unite!"

-"This is the end, I wish you all best of luck, let's meet again in the game or even later when we wake up."

-"Farewell!"

-"Good luck!"

The old man quickly turned off the screen and stood up. Behind him, another elder in military uniform was standing near the door. He quickly opened it and the pair walked out to another private room. In it, were several High-class capsules as well as one VIP capsule. Upon passing the latter, the delegate of China calmly caressed it and said, "Now it's all up to you grandson, may you bring glory to our family."

He then walked to the opened high-class capsule next to the VIP one and laid down in it. The old man let out a wry smile and looked at the man in uniform. " This is goodbye brother, I don't know if we will meet again but I am glad to have met you." Not waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes and activated the capsule isolating him from the rest of the world.

The man in uniform remained expressionless and did not say anything. Instead, he walked out and went to the adjacent control room. Looking at the screen, he let out a sigh and took off his military cap. With trembling hands, he slowly approached the control panel and pressed the only red button.

-"Launching server"

-"Launch successful, all systems operational"

-"Begin Game: New Earth "

While all this was happening, in one of the deepest rooms of a refuge, a youth was lying there in deep slumber. He was 18 years old and was in final year of high school when the disaster occurred. Being an orphan, he should have been allocated a low-class capsule but while studying, he was also a dedicated gamer that spent hours and hours grinding in the most popular MMORPGs of the time and with that he was able to get quite a bit of income.

However, it was not enough to be promoted to obtain a middle-class capsule but coupled with his outstanding academic performance and his situation, the AI predicted that he would have a bright success and he was therefore given a chance to be promoted. For him, the moment he activated the capsule all he experienced was:

-"Connection success, commencing full dive"

-"User identified as Li Wei"

-"Welcome to New Earth"