Dawn of a New World

The next day, chaos reigned all over the world. It was the emergence of a new and different world

People weren't sure what was real and what wasn't. Many portals were found all over the world. Those are probably the dungeon gates that that hologram talked about, Adam thought.

Adam and his family didn't leave home after coming back, as anarchists broke, stole and murdered. They did whatever they wanted as the government was unsure about how the world should operate. A lot of people thought that the end of the world was approaching and that the red sky was an omen. In a way, it was just that.

On the internet, we learned that all major governments had held a long meeting to determine their priorities , a couple of hours after the "god" hologram gave his message.

That hologram never came back. Although the "wristband" associated with the System answered many questions. Such as where the closest dungeon gate was, how stat points and skills worked. It also talked about what the ### signs on the status window were.

It had been less than 24hours since the hologram gave its last message. And from that moment on, Adam's father was nowhere to be found. It looked like he went out while Lea went to look for Mika and Mina, he still hadn't returned. Nobody minded really, except Adam's mother.

The four of them learned many things and wrote all the information as notes:

A)Dungeons: The closest dungeon gate was only 100meters away from their home, the closest one after that one was 500meters away. The System didn't give an answer as to how many dungeon gates there were on earth but it did say that as one dungeon is cleared, another gate will appear somewhere. Clearing a gate doesn't make the cleared gate disappear. If gate A is cleared, a gate B will be created somewhere in the world, but gate A doesn't disappear. Instead, the gate would lead to another Dungeon of higher difficulty. These gates are supposed to be training and they only exist for us to get stronger during the next six months before what the System called "The Second Phase". All the System said about this "Second Phase" was that it would be different but that those who relentlessly tried to get stronger during the First Phase would be okay.

B)Stat points: Each stat point covers a physical ability.The more points you have in strength, the more power your muscles can exert. Meaning augmenting your strength will one day help you lift a boulder, a car or a plane. Everything depends on how high you drive your strength stat. But one needs to keep in mind that there are 4 fundamental stats and that each of these stats is not enough on its own. Synergy between all of them is necessary. Strength is brute force. Meanwhile, agility has to do with mobility, flexibility but also with speed when dodging or sprinting. High agility would give you fantastic sprinting speed, amazing reflexes and great stability that comes into play when fighting. The third stat was Senses. Increasing the Senses stat would help you discover enemies more easily and can heighten your senses. If high enough, the Senses stat will give birth to a new stat called "MagicAffinity". MagicAffinity was the stat that dictated whether one could use magic or not and what types of magic that person could learn. Finally, the fourth stat Vigor & Endurance was pretty straightforward. The higher it is the higher your HP and Endurance were. Endurance goes down the more you move or use skills. Endurance regeneration was natural. HP goes down when injured or poisoned. After being injured or poisoned, HP will keep draining slowly until the wound or poison has been taken care of. The System recommends the use of Health Potions that can be sold in the Store that comes with the System. Additionally, unused stat points are points that one is free to affect to the stat of his choosing. They are mainly obtained when leveling up. Stats can also be increased by training your body and senses.

C)The store. A function of the System. Gold is used to buy things from the store. The store sells items such as potions, armor and weapons but also miscellaneous objects such as torches or bandages. The Store also sells Skills but these are extremely expensive apparently. All of this was answered by the system as they could not verify it. a condition had to be fulfilled before having access to the store. And that was entering at least one dungeon. Meaning that, during and after your first dungeon you will be able to use the store but not before that. The next logical question is how does one get gold then. According to the System, there were three ways of winning gold. The first one was killing monsters inside of dungeons. Each monster, according to his ranking would give a certain amount of gold. The stronger the monster, the more gold one can win. The second way of winning gold was clearing the dungeon. When the condition to clear the dungeon is fulfilled, the people who cleared will obtain many different rewards that usually constitute a non-negligible amount of gold and some items. Also, the way you clear a dungeon has a big influence on the rewards. If 50people enter a dungeon versus if 3 people did of course the reward for these two teams would not be the same. The combined rewards given to the 50 people would be inferior to the combined rewards given to the team of 3. The last way to win gold is to steal it. The same way monsters drop gold, humans would too. But you are stealing the gold. Meaning only a person who already has gold, can drop gold.

D) Skills. There is no sure way to develop a skill. Every skill is different and the conditions to develop or gain that skill are also different. But repeated actions can help create a skill. Additionally, skills usually utilize endurance. A very small number of skills utilize endurance and vigor. Skills can be upgraded using items or simply by using them a lot.

E) The ### signs were information not yet available.

This was all they knew and it definitely was not enough to put them at ease.

"Mom, do you think we're going to die?" Mina asked, looking at the ground.

"Of course not, I and your big brother will protect you" she answered while stroking her daughter's hair.

Mika who was on the internet looking for news or information called all of them"Hey look." He pointed to Adam's phone that Adam lent him,"It's Breaking News, the prime minister is about to talk, it's probably important."

Everyone stood behind Mika while he held the phone.

The prime minister gave a speech about the current situation and the agreement that he and the other world representatives had come to. After sharing general knowledge about the System that Adam's family pretty much figured out on their own. He talked about how the government had decided to handle the dungeon gates. Firstly, prisoners who have to spend their whole life in prison will be obligated to enter these dungeons, same for death row convicts. The prime minister said that they were to be sacrificed for the greater good and to be remembered in history. Secondly, a prize equivalent to 10Million dollars will be given to those who clear the first 50 dungeons excluding those by criminals or convicts.

This clearly was an attempt to push people into this dangerous journey. But no amount of money would be enough for me to risk my life or my family's life, Adan thought.

But that's when the prime minister said: "Now, I will leave the microphone to the courageous man who decided to be the first in the world to take on the challenge of the dungeons. He should be an example to all of us in both nobility and strength of character. The first man who decided to get on the journey to saving the world...."

And that's when he came out. He stood there, shaking the prime minister's hand, smiling, looking at the camera with those same eyes that Adam hated seeing every day. The person who brought nothing but misery to his family, was smiling.

His father had decided to take on the challenge of the dungeons? That's impossible! How can a coward? What is his goal? Adam thought.

He looked at his mother and siblings. They were all surprised and deep in thought.

"Thank you sir, your compliments are more than I deserve. Yes, as the prime minister said, I shall take on this challenge for all of you. For my country, for the world, and for humanity!" Cheering could be heard after Adam's father said that, but his son felt sick listening to him.

"Not only do I plan on going into a dungeon gate, but I plan on doing it today, in less than 4hours." The cheering stopped, everyone was surprised at the amount of courage and guts this man displayed. Only some, at the other side of the screen, knew that this was all a facade.

"The prime minister advised me not to go into the dungeon alone. I decided to listen to him as my pride hasn't to this day become arrogance. I can't go with prisoners or murderers as I would be too distracted by having behind my back that I wouldn't be able to focus on the monsters in front of me. But I can't bring innocent random people in with me either. Therefore, my family and I have decided that we will go together."

"WHAT?" screamed Mika."What is he talking about? Did any of you talk to him?" Everyone shook their head.

Adam laughed "That's probably how he plans on back pedaling. He will say that we, his family, convinced him not to go. When the date we had agreed on arrived we all got scared and he couldn't leave us alone. He really wanted to do this but...too bad his family got in the way. People will think that he was a noble man who wanted to sacrifice himself for humanity but couldn't."It was a nice bit of publicity for him, Adam had to admit.

But, Lea, Adam's mother still looked tense.

"Indeed, a special force from the military is now on their way to pick them up. I will meet them directly in front of the dungeon gate that me and the Prime Minister chose as the perfect first Dungeon gate for humanity to clear. Please cheer my family and I on while we risk our lives to protect yours."

Just as they heard that, the door from their house was destroyed and a dozen men in military uniforms came in and took them out of the house. No matter how much they resisted, they couldn't fight so many specially trained men. They were taken by force. Even the young Mina and Mika.

They were placed in an armored bus. Each member of the family had one soldier on his right and one soldier on his left. There was no way to escape. The man that looked like their captain said: "Listen I know you are women and children, but you did a promise to your country, a promise to all of humanity and a promise to the world.No matter how scary it seems, you have to choice but to keep going."

Adam was angrier than he ever was in his life "What? You coward! Sending children and women. That man lied, he might be my father but we have nothing to do with him."

The captain answered"That doesn't matter you 3 children are under 18years old. As children, your father has the right to choose what is right for you. You have no choice in the matter. Even your mother's opinion is secondary to that of your father! Plus you all received this device, didn't you? Well, we're all Lv1 Humans now. There is no difference between a child or an adult."

The three children looked at their mother. She was looking at the ground, she couldn't find words to describe what she was feeling as her children were threatened. Hate, Treason, Sadness, Powerlessness.

The captain continued"As for you ma'am,"Adam's mother looked up"While your promise to the country is still binding, you can try to revoke it."He paused.

"But will you leave your children alone so you can save yourself?" The captain knew exactly what he was doing.

Lea looked down again, before muttering "Of course not, I will die protecting them."

The four of them looked at the ground, tearing up. Preparing mentally for the worst. Although Adam could only think of one thing, and that was punching his father.

The captain added"Good. Anyways isn't it a good deal for you anyways? As your father gave the idea of the price money for clearing gates, you will receive 100million dollars for clearing the first gate in the whole world. You won't ever have to think about money again. You're pretty lucky if you think about it."

Lea, Adam, Mina and Mika could only despair.

The bus took them outside the city and into a rural area. They passed by multiple fields and small houses. After two hours on the road, they arrived at the site.

It was the first time they went out since the appearance of gates so they had never seen one.

The gate chosen was located just outside a forest, near a military base.

The gate was some sort of portal that emitted blue light. One couldn't guess what was on the other side. Its dimensions were 2meters in height and 3meters in width.

Adam's father was there, with a smug smile on his face, putting on a bulletproof vest. He was as fat as Adam remembered him, his belly full of beer. He had two guns attached to his waist, a shotgun over his shoulder and carried a bag full of weapons and explosives. More than 200 cameras were on the site from various news channels coming from all over the world. When he saw them he dropped his bag and weapons and came to hug each one of them. They were paralyzed. They didn't know how to react. Until he hugged Adam, pulled him closer and said "Listen you little shit, you usually always mess up my plans but today you're going to shut up and do as I say. Do you understand?"