"That is all you need to know about the bloodlines." Hayatobi said, his voice carrying a note of finality. He folded his arms, waiting for the information to sink in.
However, as he scanned the room, he saw hesitation. Hands were half-raised, and whispers circulated about the two missing classes on the list. The sheer lack of common sense made a vein throb on his forehead. He moved his gaze on the confused faces before him and yelled, his patience snapping like a dry twig:
"Do you dumbbells expect me to explain Archer and Alchemist Bloodlines to you?!! Are you that stupid?!!!"
The roar echoed off the walls of the Grand Classroom, making the students flinch in their seats. The answer was obvious—Archers shot arrows, and Alchemists made potions. It was universal knowledge, yet they wanted to be spoon-fed.
Terrified of angering their instructor further, the class scrambled to respond.
"No! Yes!! You can continue!!" The students yelled back in shock, stumbling over their words in a desperate attempt to appease him.
Hayatobi huffed, smoothing out his robes.
"About Levels! Listen up!!" He yelled, commanding the room once more.
___
[Earth.]
While the students were busy in Galaxy Fall, learning the mechanics of a new reality, the old reality was crumbling. The chaos on Earth was multiplying by the second, a nightmare from which there was no waking up.
[Human Safe Haven — North American Command Center.]
The air in the office was thick with the smell of stale coffee, antiseptic, and dread. Papers were strewn everywhere, maps of a dying world pinned to the walls.
"What do you say?!!" A lady yelled with a frown, hitting her bandaged palm on the office table.
Bam!
Due to the force, the injury opened up, and fresh blood soaked the bandage, blooming like a red flower on the white gauze. But she wasn't even bothered by it. The physical pain was nothing compared to the reports in front of her.
"Commander Reed! You're the last and highest commanding officer under the US flag, please calm down!" The deputy standing before her yelled in shock, taken aback by the commander's outburst. She had never seen her lose composure like this, not even when the capital fell.
"What did you say?!!" She looked up at her, her green eyes fixed filled with rage and a desperate sorrow.
"How can I calm down when we are losing more lives to those monsters!! Even the military are now having a hard time!" She added, her voice cracking under the strain.
The deputy sighed, adjusting her stance. She was trying to be the voice of reason in a situation that defied logic.
"True... Since when that Dark vortex opened in the sky, the monsters seem to get stronger... It's even hard to find a Lv1 monsters nowadays. From Lv10 above." The deputy said, arranging her reading glasses with trembling fingers. The escalation was terrifying; the enemy was evolving faster than humanity could adapt.
"Commander, I think we should withdraw all our forces... We already have two hundred thousand plus people on the base, sending our fighters will only lead to their deaths." She added in a low voice, afraid of the implication of her own words.
Reed stared at her, the blood from her hand dripping onto the tactical map.
"So you want us to abandon all our citizens?" Reed asked with a raised eyebrow, her tone dangerous.
"No... But we can't keep sending without knowing the situation out there. Even if they moved with video recording, we only sit back and watch the monsters devour them. What I am saying is... We should stop sending them on rescues missions, and start sending them into Galaxy Fall." She explained.
It was a cold calculation: Earth was a lost cause. The game—Galaxy Fall—was the ark.
"What?" Reed turned her gaze to the small red gemstone sitting on the table. It pulsed with a faint, otherworldly rhythm.
"She gave us this gem." She took the gemstone, observing it with a deeper frown. It was beautiful, yet it felt heavy, like a judge's gavel.
"With this, we come to know anyone older than 29, and younger than 16 can't enter Galaxy Fall! If we do, we will appear in an unknown space... Those who don't have children will never set foot in there."
She looked up at the lady before her, her expression haunted.
"I am 35, without kids... So I can't enter Galaxy Fall, or get stronger... But some of us humans are in there, and I am sure with time they'll return to protect our world! But before that, we must keep rescuing our citizens."
She leaned forward, her voice softening, pleading for the deputy to understand the human cost of her proposed strategy.
"Think about it Mika, some of these soldiers are worried sick about their families who are still in the cities. They'll do anything to see them again, even rushing into hell... Can you denial them this right even knowing they will die?" She asked, placing the gemstone back on the table with a heavy clack.
"...?!!"
Mika blinked, speechless by the question. She stared at Commander Reed for some seconds, finally understanding the burdens on the commander's shoulders. After narrowly surviving the explosion that took out the previous command, Reed didn't want power; she just wanted to keep saving people.
"Commander." She whispered in a low voice, staring at her feet in shame.
"Yes. I know it's dangerous, but If we can save anymore. It's worth it." Reed said, clenching the table with her uninjured hand to steady herself.
"But Commander--" Mika tried to interject, fearing for the soldiers' lives.
"--I know. They are my soldiers too, I also don't want to keep sending them to their deaths. This isn't the right way to die, watching yourself get eaten by monster part by part."
She stood upright, wincing slightly, and walked towards the reinforced window. She stared at the citizens and soldiers gathered all over the compound below. Their faces were filled with worries, fear, and disbelief. Thousands of displaced souls, huddled in tents and makeshift shelters. Each one of them was now her responsibility.
She took a deep breath, preparing herself for the worst.
"What about the other countries? Any News?" She asked, keeping her back to Mika.
"Well." Mika looked up at her, hesitating.
"Africa is gone. The whole 54 recognized countries have been completely wiped out. We don't know if there are any survivors." She reported, opening the document in her hand, though she knew the grim statistics by heart.
Reed spun around.
"What? Africa have more than 1.2 billion people! So many people, dead?" Reed muttered in horror, her face paled. An entire continent, silenced in days. The scale of the genocide was incomprehensible.
"What about the other continents?" She asked, dreading the answer.
"Oh, the other continents suffered great losses, most of the planets have been wiped out... If we're calculating the casualties on earth." She swallowed hard, her throat dry.
"60% of Earth population have been wiped out. And 20% must be in Galaxy Fall, and the remaining 20% are left on earth. Of course, this conclusion isn't accurate." She said, looking up from the document, her eyes wet.
"The death rate must be higher or lower than this."
Reed slowly nodded her head. Her fists clenched tightly until her knuckles turned white, the pain in her hand forgotten amidst the pain in her heart.
"What is happening...? Why did all this happen, why?"