Blake’s stomach felt as if it were trying to escape his body as he plummeted toward the ground. His adrenaline spiked, and the world seemed to slow around him. He knew that the fall would not kill him, but if the portal was not there, it would hurt.
Immensely.
As he fell, he realized how brash he was to test out this particular spatial disturbance. If he was wrong, it would likely leave him injured for weeks. To make matters worse, it was possible that he was not crazy, but the portal had just not appeared yet.
What the hell was I thinking? I should’ve just biked to the portal in Pinetop!
Before he could further berate himself, he felt a familiar pulling on his limbs. His feet and then legs were suddenly yanked downward and pulled the rest of his body along with. Rather than frighten him, the sensation was a comfort. He knew the feeling well.
Thank God!
After his entire body finally sank into the invisible portal, his vision and hearing disappeared. He was surrounded by a void. Inside the emptiness, time seemed to stretch on for hours. However, from vast experience and testing, Blake knew the transition happened almost instantaneously.
Suddenly, a circle of bright light manifested beneath him. He accelerated toward the opening until his entire body transitioned through. The leaf covered ground approached at great speed, and he braced his legs for the landing.
“Oof!”
Unfortunately, his weak body was not up to the task. His joints gave way, and he landed hard on his side. Luckily, he landed on soil rather than tree roots or a rock. It also helped that gravity was slightly lower on this planet than his own.
At least I didn't vomit this time.
Almost everyone became nauseated on their first trip through a portal. He himself had not grown used to the sensation until he completed almost a dozen combat scenarios.
Blake groaned quietly as he rose to a sitting position, and then turned to check on his companions. Once again, he was reminded that he was alone. With a shake of his head, he observed his environment.
It was nighttime on the goblin planet, and he was surrounded by thick trees. Through the light of their two moons, he could barely see ten feet ahead of him. Blake held his breath and strained his ears for the sound of crunching needles and branches. The thick humidity made his skin sticky, a stark contrast to the arid region he just left. After a long period of tense anticipation, he let out a sigh of relief.
For the moment, he was safe.
He swiped the wet dirt off his face and brushed the pine needles out of his hair with his fingers. His eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and he searched the nearby ground for his bat. Once his hand felt the polished wooden weapon, he grasped it tightly in his hand and cradled it close.
Well, the good news is I’m not crazy. The bad news is the world is going to end and everyone’s going to die. Now, how the hell did I get sent back in time?
Being in a scenario without any backup was an unusual feeling, and he shifted uneasily. Blake refocused and replayed his memories as he simultaneously searched the forest around him for enemies. He remembered the powerful aliens that invaded through a new portal and began to systematically destroy faction after faction. They were an intelligent race of aliens called the Koza who volunteered for the invasion’s directive.
The faction Blake had been a member of for over five years was one of the larger organizations on the planet and had taken great pains to prepare itself against a possible attack from other factions. It had a huge research and development department with numerous pre-invasion physicists who began to develop some type of weapon. Blake did not know the specifics of their project, as it was classified. However, they had claimed that it was ready for the battle, and they only needed the leader to remain stationary long enough for it to impact him.
Unfortunately, the enemy commander was far stronger than they imagined. Every one of their ambushes failed as he toyed with them. When Blake realized they were doomed to failure, he did the only thing he could think of. Despite his friend Montgomery's objections, he used his ultimate ability, Titanform, and held tightly on to his enemy. Once the weapon activated, he expected to die.
Which is why he was so surprised that, instead, he traveled back in time. Blake paused his search, the forest silent around him.
At least, I think I traveled back in time. Can I somehow stop it ALL from happening?
He paused in his musings to adjust his trajectory. He wanted to take advantage of a copse of trees for cover.
In six months, everyone on the planet would receive their nanomachines and be forced to join the collective. He shook his head, there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop that. Tens of thousands of portals to other worlds would become visible and people would begin to enter them.
Almost all of them would die.
That’s something I can fix.
While he could not save everyone, he could at least provide the world necessary information which the Architect withheld. Forearmed with knowledge of how to navigate the ‘combat scenarios’, as the AI called them, far more would survive.
Hopefully enough to fight off the next stage.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
A few days after Invasion day, monsters began to portal into the world. Nowhere was safe, and swarms of enemies swept over humanity.
Blake shook his head.
The saddest part of it all, however, was how the majority of humanity eventually died. Not from monsters, not from the system, but from starvation. On Invasion day, all electricity and electrical devices ceased working. That included lightning. Blake had not seen a thunderstorm since he was a kid.
The lack of refrigeration led to massive food spoilage. But, that was not the only factor in humanity’s demise. Every modern vehicle used electricity. Even old automobiles used a spark to light the fumes of gasoline in the carburetor. Without a method of transporting food from farms to grocery stores, the cities starved.
Eight billion people on Earth relied on supply chains to exist. Unfortunately, the vast majority would starve to death or be killed for the contents of their pantry long before alternative means could be created.
That’s something else I can’t stop.
A wave of anger washed over him as he crossed a small stream. Any warning he could provide would be ignored. Even if he showcased magic to the world, the authorities would assume it was a trick. That, of course, assumed the government did not capture him for study. While the nanomachines of the Collective would make him strong, he would not yet be strong enough to fight off machine guns and tanks.
So, I can’t stop the invasion or the collapse of society. I suppose that leaves only one option. I need to get strong enough and create a faction large enough to defeat the Koza that finished the job the Architect started.
Blake suddenly felt overwhelmed.
There was an immense amount of work to be done, and even with his six-month head start, there was not nearly enough time to prepare. It did not help that he was a poor high schooler whom no one would believe. His brother’s reaction proved that already.
It doesn’t matter, I’ll figure out a way. But first I have to finish this.
He was comforted in the fact that his first step was to defeat the ‘combat scenario’ he had entered. Once he did, he would join the Collective and the portal back to Earth would reopen. Thankfully, he got lucky with the environment he ended up in. Not only would the night hide his movement, but the trees would aid him as well.
The portal at Show Low’s airport always led to the goblin’s planet. However, he knew that the entire goblin world was not an evergreen forest like the one he currently stalked through. It contained grasslands, mountains, caves, deserts, and glaciers similar to Earth. Every time you entered that particular portal, it spat you out in a random location somewhere on their world.
The size of the scenario varied, depending on the environment and the tier, but it was always cordoned off by an invisible sphere. If you ever left the combat area, you received a warning. Ten seconds later, the nanomachines inside you caused pain, which quickly escalated to agony. Finally, if you stayed outside the bounds for too long, you died.
The barrier was like a macabre invisible fence, with nanomachines as the shock collar. Montgomery had called it, ‘The Leash’.
It unnerved Blake to be on another planet without his nanomachines. He was not yet part of the Collective, so he had no idea how difficult the scenario would be, or even what it entailed. Normally, within the void, he was informed of the difficulty and was given an objective to complete. Once he completed the assignment, he would be rewarded and the portal back to Earth would be reopened.
Without the augmented reality display in his vision that the nanomachines provided, he was blind to the risk. Without his group mates, he had no backup. The only reason he entered the portal in the first place was because he knew it was possible to survive and join the collective before Invasion day.
Well, that and to prove I’m not insane.
Blake continued to quietly stalk through the dark woods with his baseball bat in hand. In order to remain undetected, he was forced to move very slowly as he carefully placed his feet to avoid snapped branches and crunching leaves. The snail-like pace was monotonous, but he had long ago become used to the rhythm of it.
This was not the first time he attempted to complete a scenario by stealth. It was, unfortunately, the first time he tackled one without the aid of nano or his friends.
If those idiots can do it, I can too.
Rajesh, his former group mate, had mocked the ‘Scion of Humanity’ titleholders ruthlessly. They garnered no respect from him or his friends. Despite the massive benefit the title gave, the holders themselves held very little combat skill and died easily. Blake and his friends, by contrast, were forced to hone their skills and survived through pure grit.
In his original timeline, he did not begin to gain power until long after his family died. When the monsters were let loose upon the world, he fought with rage. Rage at the Architect, and rage at his fellow humans, who were shown to be just as monstrous as the creatures the AI released upon Earth. When he finally fought back, he did not have a plan or a calculated path to power. He purchased a class when he gained enough nano and was forced to overcome his poor affinity with chi.
It was not until later, when he learned more regarding the system, that he came to regret his decisions. Of course, all expenditures of nano were permanent and could not be altered. It was too late to fix his mistakes.
Until now.
Blake wolfishly grinned as he imagined the possibilities. This time, he would avoid the pitfalls and correct his previous missteps. He would not fall into the traps that everyone else did.
How many times had Montgomery and I had this exact conversation on where we went wrong?
Suddenly, he heard a grunt in the distance, and he ducked behind a large tree trunk. As he strained his ears, he made out an answering response before complete silence returned to the forest.
There’s at least two goblins ahead. Should I try and get closer or hope they come my way?
With his weak body, Blake needed to attack from ambush. He would not risk dying from overconfidence. While goblins were, on average, weaker than humans, they would be enhanced by nanomachines, while he had none.
Blake waited patiently for ten minutes at his current location behind a tree, and carefully studied the terrain before he decided to risk an approach. Once decided, he knelt onto the soil below and slowly crept forward, pausing every few feet to ensure he remained hidden. Faintly, he heard a mutter and then a snort.
Another fifteen minutes passed before the goblins came into view. As he neared, a familiar putrid smell overwhelmed his senses. Stale sweat and a nearby latrine wafted his direction. Three small forms sat around an extinguished fire, while five more lay on the bare ground, asleep.
Too many.
He felt he could eliminate the three guards with just a bit of difficulty. Unfortunately, during that scuffle, the camp would wake and swarm him. He needed to assassinate them while they slept. Of course, with the way the guards faced, that was not an option. It would be impossible to sneak up and slit their fellow’s throats while remaining undetected.
I could really use Rajesh and his aether spells right now. Looks like I get to wait and hope something changes.
Blake rocked back and tried to get comfortable while he waited for an opportunity. As they were not the most intelligent creatures, he knew it was only a matter of time before they presented an opening. He just needed to be patient enough to exploit it.