First Contact

Inside the portal, there were thousands of human pods. The two mischiefs were guided towards the furthest possible pod.

The two entered their pods, without any obstruction as if they had some kind of agreement. They had changed into different beings, the moment they entered the portal.

After everyone had entered their pods, the guards started the initiation. Momentarily everything went silent.

After a few seconds, Titan could feel he was in some different kind of world. He hadn't even closed his eyes, and the surroundings before him had changed into nothing but a white plane.

Unknowingly he could feel energy coursing through his body.

'This must be the nutritional liquid they were talking about. Let's see if this can influence the body through Skynet for it to grow to the virtual level.'

Before he could try anything, a set of words appeared in front of him.

[Would you like to see the introduction of the Universal Skynet?]

'Ah, this is new. Let's check.'

"Yes, Please." He said.

[Confirming affirmation.]

"Okay."

The words just disappeared, and nothing else happened. He waited for a while, and just as he was about to question something. A soothing voice of a female could be heard.

"Universal Skynet. It's a being made by the power of higher beings, and is eternal. It is used for the peaceful sharing of resources among all low-level beings." It said.

"Having it's own consciousness, the Universal Skynet is impartial towards any being, even to it's creators buried within it."

"The liquid like substance provided through the dimensional barriers is the blood of Universal Skynet and represents the powers of users, inside or outside Universal Skynet."

"The special privileges provided for meritorious services, are not limited to the user but the entire race of the user."

"The basic introductions is over, commencing initiation sequence. Let's meet again Mr. Titan."

A portal opened up in front of him.

Hearing all this, Titan was flabbergasted.

'What the heck, is this true?'

"If it is, then either the perception of humanity is completely wrong or the higher ups are hiding a lot of things."

"The second one seems less likely as Deryl would know about it, if that were to be the case. But, he also might be hiding it from me. No worries, at least now I know a few things. Let's go then."

His expression returned back to his smiling face, and he rushed into the portal. He knew that this introduction thing was not a common occurrence. It was rare, too rare as he'd never heard of it ever before. It might just be him, that had this introduction.

Although it was just a short introduction, it gave too much information. Enough to baffle any civilization, unaware about the beginning of Universal Network.

Just as he entered the portal, he could see rows of all sorts of weapons lying before him.

"Heh, now this is what I was looking for."

[Please choose the weapon which you would like to use for the initiation.]

"Well, let me see. I am proficient in almost everything here. What should I choose though?"

"Those cosmic weapons look cool and dazzling, but these ancient weapons are the real gems."

"I'll use the long range ones, later. Just a sword or saber would do for now."

He looked at the rows of swords, sabers and halberds.

"These are best available choices. Oh, what's that?"

In the row of swords, there was a sword in the middle. It's handle had two hooked blades, instead of safety guards. It looked weird, compared to other swords, but had a beauty in itself.

It was a multi-hunter sword.

"This is nice." He walked towards it and touched it. Holding the handle, he picked it up from the shelf.

The handle and blades were pure black in color, outshining even the white surroundings he was in. It also had the carving of a dragon on it. The carving, the metallic lustre, and the cold feeling that one could feel while holding it, made Titan even more attracted towards it.

"The hooks look pretty good." He lifted it into air, and made a slash.

"Ah, and is easy to control. I'll take this one."

[Weapon selected]

[Commencing initiation]

[Mission #1 : Survive 108 hours.]

Titan looked at the 'timer' that appeared above him.

[108:00:000]

"Let's see if all your work was worth it, Father."

A crazy smile came onto his face, and he gave a look to the blade in his hand. Bending his torso, a little to the front. He took a curved stance, ready to pounce.

[107:99:999]

The timer started, and hundreds of monster like beings started appearing all around him. They seemed quite skinny, but they didn't appear weak. Some of them looked like wolves, while others looked like zombies. Some of the zombies had long arms, and some looked like they were toxin spitter zombies.

Just as they appeared, they jumped towards Titan as if wanting to eat him alive. The spitter zombies spat, a green corrosive liquid from their mouths towards him. Wolves rushed in with their fangs and teeth.

"Well, this is too much for the start… even for me."

Speaking that, he jumped high up in the air about 2 metres, and then a white ray flashed in the horde of monsters around him. It separated their bodies in different portions.

Severed body parts fell on the ground. The torn stomachs spat out intestines and livers, pouring all the insides.

Greenish yellow liquid, gushed out of the bodies of the fallen monsters, swarming a small pile. Having jumped just above the pile, Titan fell the into the pile, slipped on and fell head first into the greenish yellow liquid and the pile of body parts.

The area in the radius of three metres, was almost swept away by the sword in his hands.

He raised his head, and looked towards the incoming monsters. His expression had already turned into frown, the moment he had jumped and now it was even worse.

"Fuck! This is going to be even more troublesome than I thought."

"This body is too strong."

And the monsters came at him without any regard for life or death, while he laid in the pile, he had created.

Meanwhile in an area filled with dark clouds, Deryl could be seen with a saber in hands.

He was holding onto the saber, with all his might, and was grumbling something.

"I will not be defeated by Titan. I will kill you fucking bitches."

Around him were thousands of monsters of the same kind, as the monsters around Titan.

He welcomed the slashes of monsters with the saber guard, and slashed with extreme perfection, killing tens of monsters with just one slash.

The monsters kept up coming trying to grind him to the ground, but he was the one grinding their waves.

While fighting, images and voices flashed inside his mind.

"Deryl, faster! faster! You have to deal with these puny fighters."

A young man, kept yelling at a seven year old child, while the child fought with the tens of combat bots by himself.

A scene that would be amazing, even if performed by adults was being done by the child with ease.

The images started fading and new ones appeared.

"I am not your enemy my son, but we have to do this. We have no choice, the common people don't know, but we know the drastic events that may happen if we don't do good."

"My child, I am sorry."

It was the same man, but seemed a bit older while the child in front of him, had become a twelve year old boy.

"It's not your fault father. It's me that can't be up to the expectations of humanity."

Then, the child walked away with tears in his eyes .

Deryl continued fighting with all sorts of thoughts in his mind.

"I will prove to everyone. I am the greatest, I will prove."

Thirty hours later.

Outside the initiation chambers, Night Thunder could be seen standing, with a guard beside him.

"The reports?" He questioned the guard.

"Everything is going as expected sir. No neural failures and all of them are doing good. Commoners have started coming out of their initiation and are being sent to the Auditorium." The guard replied in a respectful manner.

"Hmm. And what about those two, what's up with them."

"They are doing great sir, their healths are still above half line.."

"Keep watching the health statistics of those too, nothing must happen to them during my term here." He spoke to the guard.

"Yes, sir." The guard moved away from and stood by the side, while looking at a digital pannel in front of him.

Night Thunder looked towards the chambers.

"The only chance to fight without the fear of death. I just wish I did better here."