A few months ago.

On the day the prophet had proclaimed the apocalypse was set to happen, Thea once again found herself in Africa. In an area of sparse clouds and even hotter sun.

Of expansive soft yellow sand always floating on a hot and dry wind. It was the day the system was set to arrive, and yet there were apparently more important challenges than the animals and vegetation turning on humanity. It was other humans turning on them. Trying to take over the world, as humans who got power sometimes were wont to do.

'Ding' People of Earth, do not be scared.

This is the system that unites all the multiverse. I am with you now.

Though the induction has been popularized as some kind of Apocalypse, be more cautious of neighbours suddenly preaching repentance.

There are no gods on Earth yet.

Still, there are always difficulties when inducting new planets to the multiverse. There will be inevitable losses. Though, for an Essence Desert, the first will be the failure of your local energy sources.

Your mineral and electrical energy will be insufficient, and will thus be eroded by the Essence. In light of these difficulties, mineral deposits (materials that can handle the Essence, unlike those already present on the planet) have already been prepared in assorted places on the planet.

The tutorial system will initialize in a little over an hour, and quests will be handed out. Special permanent tutorial dungeons have already appeared. Users are advised to make use of these, and other dungeons, to get Tutorial points.

These points will be useful in the tutorial store, which has been outfitted with a lot of wares from the multiverse proper. (Essence Deserts get discounts, and a lot more variety of wares: skills, manuals, weapons, pills, and so much more).

In one month's time, there will be a summit where those with the greatest influence accrued will be allowed to request for a specific service from the system. As this is an Essence Desert, two services shall be provided.

There will be other low tier dungeons spawned on Earth. These have to be cleared regularly, lest the Essence overflows and the dungeons break.

Traveling/ Wandering/ Instant dungeons will have to be cleared at least twenty four hours after they appear, otherwise monsters will break out without fail. These types of dungeons usually have simple gimmicks. When a traveling dungeon spawns in an area, all awakened individuals will receive a notification.

In three months time, the system expects an organised, functional society. Because the tutorial system is similar to the quest system, which is an exclusive service given to only those worthy, the tutorial system will be deactivated in three months. Good luck, citizens of Earth 3079.

The notification was a little different from the prophet's prediction, but Thea couldn't fault him for that. How was he supposed to read and cram that whole block of text as a child having dreams of the apocalypse almost a hundred or so years before it was stated to arrive?

And the blue screen that appeared out of nowhere with the flowing words.

Now that distracted her. She didn't know what to think when she considered the implications of such a gigantic existence.

Maybe it was apt to say small. Yes, she felt how ants must feel looking at humans and all manner of gigantic creatures walking past their little earthen houses.

There were things in this new multiverse they were joining. Things that she would never get the chance to understand.

Thea found herself feeling…inspired. Yes, that was what she felt like. She felt inspired, philosophical even. The question that had plagued the Earth for years. The question of divinity. Surely something this grand was the proof they needed that the concept of a mighty being creating the world as we know it was not so far fetched. A god, she thought. But more than that. A protector.

There was a sharp pain from her core, albeit it was a bit behind her stomach. And then also in her head.

Thea winced and doubled over in agony.

"You okay, commander," one of the members of her unit called.

She held up a hand to forestall any further questions. She was already getting better.

"Whoa, why is the sand swirling around you like that?" one of the loud mouth members of the squad – whose name she hadn't bothered learning because they were disposable according to the prophet – asked.

She didn't bother answering, but she stopped and looked around a bit. She looked at the floating sand, highlighting her, marking her. She had to admit, it was beautiful. So why was the sand floating around her the way it was? Why, simply because magic. They were in a magical world now.

'Ding' Tutorial system installation complete.

Initializing! Initializing!

Welcome to the multiverse, people of Earth 3079.

There was a subtle shift in the air.

Thea didn't know if everyone could feel it, but all of a sudden she felt like the air was cleaner. Heavier too, but that didn't matter at the moment. It wasn't uncomfortable in the least. She could get used to living like that, she decided.

User identified.

User name: Althea Bennett

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Primary status: Level 1 awakened human.

Class: N/A

Health: 90

Stamina: 110

Stats

Strength: 12

Agility: 13

Coordination: 10

Endurance: 11

Vitality: 9

Wisdom: 5

Intelligence: 7

Paranormal: ???

An above average status for someone pre-integration, like the prophet had said, Thea remembered. Thea had been training her body for many years now, so her more than impressive physical stats were not a stroke of luck.

And that was all. Every thing was quiet for a bit as Thea studied her status. This was the screen that identified her. It showed her growth. It would be the record of the effort she was about to exert. It would be the irrefutable proof of everything she was about to achieve. And she had been promised her achievements would not be small.

But she didn't want to believe in that story so whole heatedly. She would work her ass off to try and achieve what the prophesy said, but she wanted it to feel like power she'd earned. Not some sort of cosmic destiny due to who her relatives were. She wasn't the secret child of any gods as far as she knew.

"Agent Bennett…" a staticky voice came from her pocket. She took the small communication device from her pocket and immediately the communication line cleared up. "Wow, these are as low quality as that prophet guy said. We used very expensive materials too," the voice from the other end complained.

"Get to the point please, sir handler," Thea replied, her tone curt and professional as it usually was.

She knew she had a reputation for being a hard ass. In her defense though, none of these people had been told, for as long as they could remember, that they were the only hope for the planet they were born on.

She heard a kind of muffled snort on the other side. And then unintelligible speech and raucous laughter. Like the man she was talking to had covered the speaker on his device so that he could speak without her hearing.

She decided not to give it too much attention. Yet.

"The anomaly will be on you in a little less than thirty seconds according to the prophet's prediction."

And hadn't the prophet's predictions proved more than impossible to ignore already.

For people at headquarters, it seemed like it was business as usual. These were fanatics. They knew the apocalypse was coming. They believed the prophet was really sent by God.

Thea on the other hand, while she had seen a lot to prove the prophet's words, was not so sure yet.

He had been right about most things so far. He had also been right about technology failing. Luckily enough he had known about the apocalypse beforehand, and some of the places the system was using to cultivate Essence rich minerals. These were not things that could just be teleported in in a few minutes, so they'd been planted by the system hundreds of years back and left to grow.

The prophet had already started harvesting and using these materials years ago. Which was why their organisation was one of few with still serviceable technology. They were not the only ones, and they had not made too many weapons because that was not a priority.

The priority was making sure enough of the population survived the initial change so that they could get a good evaluation.

Well, that was the organisation's overall priority. Hers was to save people.

Even as she waited to fulfill her mission, their little fortresses were probably already opening up and sending drones in forms of buses and weaponized air crafts to start transporting people.

Their organisation was just one of many, but it had most of North America covered, the whole of South America, and the whole of Africa. It was perhaps the single largest faction. Europe was as splintered as it had ever been in its history. Russia was apparently a frozen wasteland no longer, having been leveled during the weeks leading up to the apocalypse.

Most of Europe had been affected by this two weeks long world war. Asia, especially China, had found themselves affected as well. America and Africa had stalled their involvement, knowing just how soon the apocalypse was set to start.

A small dot of pulsing darkness appeared in the air, forcing her out of her thoughts. The portal they had been promised. It grew right there, turning into a cyclic black cloud. When the portal finished growing, it stabilized, the darkness stopped its uncomfortable swirling, a man stepped out.

Brown skinned, a little skinny, bold, beardless. He looked like an especially tanned man of middle-eastern descent. He had a tattoo on his left cheek. It looked like it had been applied to him by force, swollen and red and possibly infected.

He studied the world around him. The sand, the sun, the tense crowd of a special operations squad.

"Americans?" he said in a language that was clearly not any from Earth, yet Thea understood.

She frowned. "Anyone understand what he just said?" she asked proddingly.

"No," someone replied after a poignant pause. "But we're pretty sure it was not a friendly greeting."

"What the hell are you people doing in my kingdom?!" he yelled.

He yelled and went down to his knees and clutched his head. Tears streamed out of his eyes, and he continued to yell. He looked like a disturbed man.

A man yanked from his life on Earth and forced to see things out in the multiverse. Things that had made him feel small like Thea had felt a little while back. But the man had felt small in a more negative way.

"No! I'm supposed to be the pharaoh!" Thea understood the rest of his rant to mean.

He jumped up and immediately the sand responded, although not in the same way it had responded to Thea before.

A sand elementalist, Thea confirmed. Just like the prophet had predicted. He should not have too many spells yet, and most of his stats were in the mental department.

His was a highly specific class though, so the prophet figured it was likely very high rarity. They were supposed to try not to kill him, but if he overwhelmed them, well then they just had to make sure they got him to the prophet somehow. Even his dead body was better than nothing.

Thea had competition in the organization now, however. Competition her grandmother said was stronger than her before the apocalypse two days ago.

She had decided to aim high, and therefore about two hours later, three of her nine squad mates had been drowned in sand, killed. The sandman was more important than them though, so Thea tried to ignore the pang their losses caused. She had managed to finish the objective, and the man was still alive as par the prophet's wishes.

'Ding' New title received.

Giant wrangler: You fought a user twenty levels above your own and triumphed.

Effect: +5 to strength, agility, and vitality.

New title received.

Chosen of Earth: You are chosen to lead the human race through this trying time.

Thea felt her breath catch for a second. She had known, but it was hard to believe something like this. And indeed, she couldn't think of anything she'd done to deserve this kind of title.

The prophet had said the system didn't usually name a chosen this way, but he was sure it was going to choose her the day of the apocalypse. And he did not know why.

Effects: (1) Understand all languages as long as you are on Earth. (2) Access to the planet core (once it is mature enough to visit). (3) Second core skill slot.

'Ding' You have gained a profession slot from having a chosen title.

New tutorial quest received: Please choose a class to start advancing through the system.

Thea was just stupidly looking at her status screen the whole time, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Luckily, the sound of a helicopter's engine soon interrupted her inner dialogue.

When the helicopter landed though, there was already another squad waiting inside, and this one hadn't lost a single member to whatever anomaly they had had to deal with. There was a man sitting there.

Her eyes went to him unbidden.

He also had eyes only for her. One of his eyes had a red dot in the centre of the onyx coloured pupil. And his forearms looked like thin, well built gauntlets, his organic arms a thing of the past. The robot man the prophet had been building in secret smiled at her.

"Hey, chosen," he said with a smirk.

She wondered how far the prophet had gone in his experiments. Was anything about this man human anymore? Was the eye the only prosthetic on his head?

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