Chapter 1: Return
Lucian leaned against the mottled brick wall of a watch tower, his calm gaze brook no thoughts as he looked down at the rejoicing group of ragged survivors entering the twenty-meter tall, and ten-meter thick tungsten gate of the Crown Stronghold.
How many years has it been?
A normal person would have forgotten to count such an unimportant thing in this monster-filled disaster world, but Lucian could remember every detail, from his arrival to this world ten years ago, and to further back in the past, the past that he could not bear to let go.
Was it worth it?
Lucian's lips curled upwards, the ends of his eyes tilted with a smile, but the bottom of his pupils held no signs of mirth.
A blue screen floats in the void in front of him.
Host: Lucian Crownwald
Race: Evolved Human
Storage Type: Innate Storage
Awakened Power: Mineral Flow
Main Mission Progress: 99.99%
The progress bar of the main mission fluctuated for a second, before reaching 100% the same time the last rescued survivor entered through the gate.
The mechanical voice that he only heard once, before he was transported to this world finally rang again in his ears.
"Bzzt…Bzzt…Congratulations to the host for completing the main mission."
"Returnee System Number 2599 will take ten minutes to calculate the rating of the host."
The air around Lucian trembled with the shift of his emotions. Excitement coursed through his veins as the thumping of his chest drummed into his eardrums. Blue veins bulged at the side of his neck, and his usually calm eyes reddened from anticipation.
Ten minutes usually passed by quickly, but Lucian felt like he waited another year until he heard that mechanical voice again.
"Bzzt…Bzzt…Returnee System Number 2599 has finished the calculations."
"Congratulations to the host for getting an SS-ranking of mission completion."
"Bzzt…Bzzt…Loading mission rewards…Mission rewards has been loaded and placed in the host's storage."
"Bzzt…Bzzt…the mission has been completed and the host will now be transported back to his original world."
"Returnee System Number 2599 hopes the host a smooth journey."
"P.S. An extra reward from Returnee System Number 2599 will be given once the host returns."
Hearing the barrage of mechanical voice notifications in his ears, Lucian raised his head to the sky. His eyes are blood-red, with tears streaming down his cheeks. He let out a thunderous roar filled with the accumulated emotions buried in his heart, ever since the day he found out the truth of his lineage.
It was worth it. Any kind of suffering is worth it as long as he can go back.
He was supposed to be dead, and burned alongside his apartment ten years ago. It was after he found out the truth, the truth that he has been used as a loyal and stupid wolfhound by the family that adopted and raised him, by the family that he treated as precious treasures.
The truth was that the 'adoption' was kidnapping him when he was two years old, and 'raising' him was to create a bomb to be thrown at his original family's door.
Remembering the heart-searing pain at being burned alive, that wasn't even a tenth of the pain he felt after realizing that his hands were stained with the blood of his family, Lucian's roar turned malevolent. His roar startled the survivors down the watch tower, but they did not manage to catch any sight of Lucian as his figure slowly dissipated with a flash of blue circling light.
"Bzzt…Bzzt…The transport is complete."
"Welcome back to Blue Sphere, Host."
After Doomsday Year 10, the biggest stronghold of the East continent, the Crown Stronghold recorded a survivor number of 500,000, with 150,000 rigorously trained evolved humans that serves as the foundation that Lucian built to ensure their continued stand against the monster-infested hell.
Lucian believed in the team that he built. He believes that they will be able to continue protecting the oasis that they all created, with countless blood soaked beneath its foundations.
They are exceptional individuals that were able to voluntarily make him offer his trust, and that is something else after experiencing the miserable betrayal in the past.
Unbeknownst to Lucian, the moment his roar reverberated across the Crown Stronghold, his trusted team busying in the Main Affairs hall, all stiffened on their places before dropping everything off, and hurrying to the source of that heart-shaking voice.
Crown Stronghold's Second-in-command Xavier Black, an evolved human with wind flow powers was the first to arrive at the watch tower closest to the gate. His tall figure draped in an all-black combat uniform glided fast in the air, his trail bringing up a storm of white whistling wind, causing some of the normal survivors down the road to stagger.
The third-in-command, chief of affairs, evolved commander and deputy evolved commander followed just as few seconds behind Xavier, their faces tight with tension as they all landed on the spot Lucian had just been standing on a minute ago.
Feeling the familiar aura still lingering in the surroundings, but not a trace of the person that they trusted with their lives, Xavier and the rest looked at each other and remembered the line that Lucian would always say whenever they are having a get-together after a month or two of completing a dangerous mission outside the walls of their stronghold.
"Once everything is stable here, I have to go back somewhere."
"Don't make a fuss if I disappear one day…just continue surviving…and maybe we'll meet again."
Xavier let out a breathy sigh, his hands clenched and unclenched before calming down the urge to look for their leader.
"What do we do now?" Raya Feng, the third-in-command muttered out the question in the minds of the five of them.
She is a young woman with black hair and black eyes, wearing a white combat uniform with two katana blades sheathed on both sides of her waist.
Xavier glanced around the four of them. Aside from Raya, there is also a thin short-haired young woman, and two tall men, one with a bookish air and one with a surge of murderous aura around his seemingly thin body.
"Remember the leader's words." Xavier calmly muttered after a few seconds of unnerving silence.
"Maybe we'll meet again…"
The other four looked at each other with hesitation, but their eyes slowly burned with determination and hope.
"Yes! We'll just wait for the leader to come back."
"Yeah, leader will surely come back once he misses us!"
"We have to make sure the stronghold is stronger and better, so that leader wouldn't be disappointed in us once he comes back."
Xavier sighed with relief at seeing the renewed fire burning within the hearts of his teammates.
He looked above the blue sky tainted with the filthy gray clouds of the doomsday.
"We'll be waiting for you, Lucian."
Blue Sphere, Year 2315.
In a bustling high-end street of Imperial Apex, one of the three safest and famous district of the Prime Capital City, alongside Highcrest district and Echelon Gardens, a holographic screen covers half of the Val Helix building, the tallest skyscraper in the Apex with 205 floors.
Down the marbled square, a road across the building, a huge crowd has been waiting for the clock to strike at 8:00. The enthusiastic crowd arrived even before 6:00 in the morning, and they have been patiently waiting for almost two hours while occasionally glancing up at the holographic screen.
A month ago, the Val Helix announced on their official site the completion of their autonomous vehicle. It is a self-driving vehicle with a complete child system that is connected to the perfected Helix mother system, an artificial intelligence designed with 3D traffic system and first-rate emergency response.
"Would it really be as awesome as they said on the official site?"
"Of course, even if you don't want to believe it, then just believe in the awesomeness of the Val Helix brand!"
"Since the end of the 22nd century with the complete restoration of the world after the World War IV, the technology that has been stagnant for decades has now been moving with a rocket-like pace."
"Yes! And, our Valoria Empire is even one of the top eight nations in the current Blue Sphere, which means our technology is at the forefront of the century!"
Hushed murmurs accompanied the crowd. But, silence prevailed as soon as the holographic screen flashed.
A slick matte-gray metallic sedan appeared on a downhill slope. The smooth exterior with a V-helix logo at the bumper glinted under the rays of the sun. The swaying branches of the trees on the roadside followed the swift turns of the car, and melodious engine sounds rang in the ears of the spellbound crowd watching the realistic spectacle.
The speed of the car kept going faster and faster, then a fork in the road appeared next to the mountain wall of the downhill slope.
The crowd screamed in fright, some shutting their eyes shut while awaiting the doom of a wrecked car once a collision happens.
The crash they were expecting did not occur, and as soon as they raised their eyes, the matte-gray sedan is safely slowing down as it approaches the accident-prone slope, the view of the screen panned down the front driver's seat, showing the lack of driver while wittily including the napping car passenger at the back.
Screams once again resounded across the square, but are now devoid of fright as the crowd jubilantly jumped from utter excitement. The screen continued to show and explain the mother-child system of the Val Helix Gen1 Autonomous Vehicles (AVs).
The screen changed into a 3D traffic illustration, and fully showed the flexibility of the Gen1 AVs in the middle of the city traffic.
Impressed sighs and exclamations could be heard from time to time, and some of the wealthier individuals in the crowd quickly turned on their holorings, the latest and hottest replacement for mobile phones, and is currently being further enhanced by the three biggest Hologram software giants in the Valoria Empire.
Hundreds of confirmed orders were recorded in the Val Helix site. The executives sitting inside the meeting room at the 200th floor of the building, celebrated with cheers while looking at the screen showing the racking up number of orders for Gen1 AVs.
At the food street adjacent the marbled square in front of the Val Helix building, a black sedan was parked hazardously on the space in front of a quaint cake shop.
"Hurry up and buy what you came here for!" A burly man in black suit, sitting in the driver seat of the sedan, grumbled at the thin young man sitting at the back.
The thin young man has a youthful face with sharp slightly thick eyebrows, tall nose, and bluish gray pupils in hooded eyes. He has thin pinkish lips, and V-shape jawlines. One can say that he is a looker at such a young age.
"What is a man even doing buying such a girly cake?" The burly man continued to mumble irritatingly as he took a look at the young man through the rearview mirror.
Seeing the dazed unclear look in the young man's eyes, the burly man felt his head buzz from anger.
He is part of the respected bodyguard team of the main Valemont family, an influential family ranked just below the six aristocratic families of the Prime capital city.
When had he ever been ignored by those trained mutts from the isolated island?
Before he had the time to hurl out insults that were at the tip of his tongue, the young man at the back seat finally moved.
His clouded pupils sharpened, and his body instantly drew taut with tension at the unfamiliar and familiar surroundings.
Lucian's head felt clogged the moment he took in the scene around him. The familiar burly bodyguard, the black sedan and the cloyingly sweet smell of the cake shop just a few steps away, reminded him of the day he was finally able to leave the isolated island of the Valemont family.
His eyes reddened, and he quickly twisted the flesh on his thigh, but the surroundings did not change, and the pain jolted up his agitated senses.
Lucian's eyes brightened, his blue iris grew frighteningly bright that the grayish hue seems like scattered dissipating clouds around the wide blue sky.
It's really true! He really came back!
He came back at the time where it all started.
A breathy, nervous gasp escaped his throat as Lucian tried to control his speedily beating heart.
He did not ask for much. He just thought that as long as the returnee system can bring him back to take his revenge, then every suffering and bloodshed he experienced in the doomsday world would be worth it, but he did not expect for such a blessing to smile down upon him.
He came back before he had the time to do any damage to his real family.
Lucian looked down at his trembling hands. These hands have not been tainted yet with the blood of his relatives.
His long fingers curled tremblingly as they slowly formed a fist.
A smile, a genuine one filled with warmth grazed his lips at this unexpected, but very welcomed reality.