Recruitment

Daniel had known Tom since his time in Digitech; Tom was a pretty perfect amalgamation of traits he'd need for this. A gaming enthusiast who had an unhealthy obsession with wild camping and his bug out bag.

They had spent many a night discussing their bug out plans for the agreed to be inevitable zombie apocalypse; knowing Tom had a much greater knowledge of anime and light novels too made him the authority on this new world.

Daniel had planned to simply tell Tom and prove the truth with his skills but ended up having theoretical discussions about every aspect as he brought them up one by one.

...….

"Maybe their incessant hunger translates through the merging of the mana and converts all loot drops to reflect this characteristic?"

...….

"No, no, no! What use would a life straw be! This is an alien world ruled by magic, why would germs even exist!"

...….

"Of course you'd need a scientist first! You need to understand how everything works there, you could get Slime rabies!"

...…

"You'd be rebuilding the government, in preparation you'd need to make survival stashes and then as soon as the convergence happened transmit the coordinates repeatedly through that chat function, God I wish chat function was real, and trade! Straight from your inventory in to thin air"

...…

Tom had been enjoying the world building he thought Daniel had done and was happy to spend the night just looking at fantasy through a realistic lens but when the mood shifted and Daniel became serious he'd thought there was something else bothering him.

"So are you planning to start DMing a D&D group or something? You've clearly thought all of this through a lot"

Tonight had already been profitable for Daniel, he basically had a stripped down list of survival equipment he should be transferring over, although most of the items were books. Tom had even considered what would be needed to rebuild society after the convergence and saw the beachhead as more of a potential cash of knowledge for civilisation to rebuild itself from, given their shared feelings on the society they were a part of however Daniel wasn't so sure Tom would feel the same when he found out this was all real.

"I need to just bite the bullet and show him"

After an hour of little things being transferred and Daniel's whole mana pool being exhausted Tom was convinced, he asked even more probing questions than before seemingly able to remember everything and Daniel had the whole adventure so far repeated back to him, by 2am he was a broken man and tired of justifying his actions.

"So what were the new Beachhead functions?"

"What?"

"The new functions you unlocked at level 5? Which panel did they upgrade, or did they unlock something new?"

"Oh right, I guess it did say that, fuck"

"How could you come back without knowing! It could have been like a world bridge or something! Or defences for if the goblins come back!"

"Oh damn, ah it said about my unique skills upgrading too didn't it, I never checked the storage space skill, I just assumed it meant the Dimensional transfer, give me a second"

"…..Hey, you looking at your System screen?"

"Yeah"

"Where is it?"

"?"

"Does my hand go through it, what's this look like?"

As Daniel was trying to focus Tom was waving his hand in front of his face as though the system interface was projected in front of his face rather than in his mind. Blocking him out Daniel read the new storage space description

{Storage Space: LV 1}

[Able to store items within a private pocket dimension tied specifically to the user]

[Anything within the storage space during dimensional transfer will be abandoned in the origin dimension]

[Current space 2m3]

"Oh, ok so it's just a regular space upgrade but a fairly big one, glad I checked though"

"Personal inventory is the most vital skill for the stranded MC, if God really did inspire video game ideas and motivate creators to add such importance to that skill it must mean it's vital to you now. It's crazy how much of our pop culture has been directed especially in preparation for this, and yet he didn't leave a user guide or anything"

"I'm trying not to think too hard about it, it makes me much less confident in "God's plan" when I do"

"Fair enough, so when do I go?"

"You're coming?"

"Of course I am! I thought that's why you were telling me, who else have you picked for the team? I assume Melisa, Josh, oh Maria! We'll need a healer"

"She's a medic not a healer, you said germs weren't a thing and all that anyway, I think it might be expecting a bit much of her"

"We're still human though, I could set a broken bone and know how to remove a bullet but I mean, only in theory. As far as asking too much, there are going to be people we need who won't want to come but this is bigger than that, the stakes are too high"

"Well, whatever we need to do in the future, for now I'd only really thought about you two, oh and Melisa wants her two bartenders"

"God made a mistake, brain dead MC"

"Come on! I just hadn't thought beyond you guys, it hasn't even been a week yet and most of that I was fighting monsters!"

"Slimes"

"Okay look, get some ideas together, don't mention this to anyone other than Melisa and get ready. As it stands it'll take 30 days per person I transfer and that's if I don't have to show off my party trick anymore. I'll be going back in…hang on"

"System, time until I can transfer?"

[1.42 days]

"1.42 days, so about 1pm the day after tomorrow, can you make it?"

"I'll take a sick day, I'm not missing this!"

"So look, in at most a couple of months you're leaving Earth forever, and I don't know when I'll be able to bring over your relatives and other close ones, are you sure you're up for that? You could wait and come over with everyone else at the convergence"

"No, even if this weren't my literal dream and the most exciting thing that's ever happened I'd still come over. I've trained for this and I think you need me, besides that I need to get strong before they get there, otherwise I won't be able to protect them, not to mention I imagine it will make finding a job a whole lot easier if I'm one of the strongest people on the planet. I'm doing this for my brother and sisters as much as for myself. I'll need a safe place to bring my mother back to anyway, she won't be able to level up without help"

"I think there'll be a lot of people in that position, I'll bring maps over and we'll try to figure out around where they'll turn up and make sure it's safe"

"We've got a lot to do in 3 years. I'll make a start tonight, you go get some sleep, see you Friday"

Not knowing what start Tom was planning to make Daniel saw him out and went to bed, he'd lay in tomorrow and spend the day reading, waiting was going to be a pain.