Seoul, Korea2055 - 6:36 AM

  "Dad, Dad! How much longer until we get there?" Oliver asked.

  The boy had already finished watg yet another series about survival in the ju was one of the few things that kept him eained in the car.

  "A few more minutes, we're almost there." His father answered.

  Oliver's entire family was from the outskirts of Seoul, but his father had moved to the Uates to work in a big tepany. Oliver was born in the US, and because of this, his parents thought that a on name would make it easier for the boy to adapt to the new try.

  Despite this, no one could believe his name was Oliver when they saw the young, clearly Asian kid. His thin bck hair and slender face made him stand out among the other boys at his school.

  Finally, he was "home" to visit his grandparents. After a long trip, it was only a few minutes until he met the rest of his family. The car was clogged with so much stuff. The young Uber driver didn't imagine his first drive would be with aire family: Oliver's parents and dozens of suitcases.

  "Dad. Dad, what's that in the sky?" Oliver spoke with uainty in his voice.

  The boy's endless curiosity led his father to take a deep breath and sider an ao his challenging questions.

  The driver, distracted, gnced up and suddenly hit the brakes, causing the whole family to lurch forward.

  "I don't think we will know what that is, kid." The driver spoke with a trembling voice.

  After rec from the sharp break, Oliver massaged his forehead, which had hit the seat before him, while his father looked out the window.

  Even though it was m, the sky was crimsohe car's octs trembled, shocked by what they saw.

  "W-what's happening?" The driver asked, but no one khe answer.

  Other cars on the avenue began to brake while others tried to reverse and move away from the city.

  "I thiter turn back; something is wrong." Oliver’s father spoke, but uain.

  The rest of the sentence was never pronounced. Small fmes and a loud noise emerged from the red sky. From there, a titanic triangur ship emerged.

  The hearts of everyone in the car were beating so loud it seemed audible. Oliver's mother was the first to snap out of the stupor.

  "Go—go! Let's get out of here now!" Oliver’s mother screamed, trying to wake the driver.

  But he never had time to react.

  A tiny beam of light was directed to the ground from the enormous ship h over Seoul.

  Three seds ter.

  Boom

  The first of several bombings shook the earth until there was no city left.

  --

  --

  Somewhere in Europe.

  "Mr. President, we o move faster. We are among the first to arrive, but other leaders are anxious to start the meeting early." The diplomat expined.

  He khat hastening a meeting after the i in Seoul would most likely jeopardize world peace. However, getting so many leaders in the same room was already a miracle. He didn't know the diplomatic effort it had taken, but at least it hadn't started a third world war yet.

  "Fuck. Do you have anything to help me with this hangover? My head is killihe President whispered while holding his head as if it would explode at any moment.

  Smith was in his final year as president, longing to finish and enjoy a lengthy and peaceful retirement. It wasn't the first time he'd woken up in the middle of the night to handle a diplomatic matter, but waking up after drinking heavily the night before was taking a toll on his sanity.

  "Yes, we do, sir." The diplomat answered, knowing what to do . It wasn’t the first time he had to help Smith recover from something like this; still, he was gd it wasn't something worse than booze.

  Smith turned on the small TV in the presidential limousine while taking a pill for his hangover.

  "Urgent News: Seoul was bombarded four ho. No try roup has cimed responsibility yet. Some images are arriving as we speak. We urge the survivors who captured any footage to share it with the world."

  "Alexander, we keep the images from going public? At least for now." Smith asked while looking at his other assistant.

  The young major had risen quickly through the ranks i years, being one of Smith's right-hand men. Even so, he was stunned by all the events of the st few hours. Yet he tried to appear calm while only superficially. His square fad dark blond hair were well-maintained, as expected of someone in the army.

  "Mr. President, we tain them for the few hours. But with the rescue of survivors, someone will likely release the images or post them online."

  After a quiet ride, the three approached a military base. It seemed tiny pared to the gigantic mountains around them, which helped hide its location in the Swiss Alps. It was one of the few zones not disclosed by the UN, making it a safe pce to discuss diplomatic matters away from public view.

  After a standard security check, the limousine was guided to the official garage. With a slight jolt, the flan to desd. After a few more mihe presidential car was ten floors below the surfa the most secure bunker in Europe.

  A pce even the presidential security detail was unaware of. The three were ready for the day's most harrowing moment: fag the other leaders to find out who had ravaged Seoul.

  After passing several more security points, the group arrived at a dark hall. Like the General Assembly, each leader sat fag the stage, the only part of the room illumihe hall felt extremely cold, yet Smith's hands were sweaty.

  A stist in a standard white b coat leaned against the wall in the ter of the room.

  The stist tugged his b coat and briefly looked at his watch. "e ilemen. Take a seat; we should start shortly."

  The president raised an eyebrow at the stist's calm demeanor while in this situation.

  "And who might you be?" Smith asked.

  "You may call me-” The stist paused briefly as if his mind had gone elsewhere. “Dr. Gordon.”

  Smith tried to remember anything about a ‘Dr. Gordon’, but simply couldn't find it in his memory. At the same time, he felt something was amiss; Gordon didn’t look like a simple stist. Sure, he had a b coat on, but it was too for someone w daily. Furthermore, beh his coat was a fialian-cut outfit that a stist would hardly bother to wear.

  “I will lead today's meeting.” Dr. Gordon pleted the sentence before further questions were asked.

  Although the major tried to appear calm, beh his skin, his entire body was at the peak of stress; this was the st straw. Seeing a mere stist address them with "you" without the proper respect.

  "Well, Dr. Gordon or whoever you are. What makes you think you have the power to lead now? You should defer to better men."

  Though his voice carried a deep rage, the tone never altered, making Alexander's words even more vicious.

  The simple stist took a deep breath and looked at the major, who was much taller. But before his first word, his eyes began to glow with a purple hue. Seeing those eyes made the three of them feel a primal and untrolble fear. But as quickly as the eyes turned purple, they returo hazel, and the three calmed down. Smith sed the rest of the room with his gaze, notig that other leaders had simir reas. He felt this wasn't the first time this had happened.

  "I suggest Mr. Alexaake his seat and uand that you have no power within this room, whether your rank is major, president, dictator, ious leader. The and is mine, and I expect everyone's respect." Gordon spoke calmly, but his voice was cold and rigid.

  The three men uood that though they were powerful forces in their try, somehow, seeing Dr. Gordon made them feel small and insignifit. Something deeper was before them, something their intuitions screamed that it was dangerous.

  Smith became president due to his iation skills and diplomatic ability. Despite being a corrupt drunkard, there wasn't a single pint against his petence. He grasped how the game yed in the room.

  "My apologies, Dr. Gordon. We'll take our seats, but if there's an opportunity iure, I'd like to discuss other matters with you." Smith spoke.

  The doctor nodded and allowed the group to move to their seats. After sitting and taking a deep breath, Smith surveyed the hall. No try was missing; he wasn't just talking about the UN members. Every try was represented, even sious leaders and industry maghe hall was filled with the world's greatest powers.

  After a few more mihe doctor approached the hall's ter, drawing everyone's attention. The silence alpable in the room; in addition to the plete destru of one of the rgest cities on the phere was now a new actor in the bance of power. A stist that no one knew but eared to have unknown trol over them.

  "Ahem. Wele, dies alemen. Tonight, we have everyone we call leaders of the world. Rulers, religious figures, or businesspeople. Among you is every existing caste."

  Gordon approached the pulpit ahe microphone in front of him. "First, let me introduce myself sinone of you know me and may doubt if I'm the best person for this position.”

  With a quick pull, the stist removed the microphone from its pd began carrying it in his hands.

  "o meet you all; my name is Dr. Gordon, and I am your creator. Not just from a political, mythologic, ious interpretation, I’m straight up the creator of the human race."

  After a deafening silence, a single hand was raised in the hall.

  "What do you mean by creator?"

  "I built life oh for the researd development of human beings. In a way, I am the God you so often invoke." Gordon expined why they were there. "I’ve brought all of you today to start the Grand Game!"

  “Bullshit.”

  The sound echoed alone in the hall, even though maybe the iion was to say something quietly. Everyone had heard and started looking for whoever had spoken.

  “If anyone has a question, speak now. I don’t wish to waste my time.” Gordon pursed his eyes, trying tnize who eaking.

  At first gnce, he looked like an Asian man, already old but who wasn't old in this room. His appearance seemed South Asian, pulling from memory. Possibly, he was the leader, eared to be from Laos, or at least that's what Gordon could recall.

  Without waiting for him to be reized, the leader stood up and spoke even louder tordon.

  “I’m calling BULLSHIT. You must be crazy, an unknown stist taking advantage of the whole Seul wild attack to try and push some absurd lies. Soldiers, arrest him; I won’t tolerate him any longer.”

  The leader was short and had deep-set eyes behind his gsses. However, he behaved wildly to force a false respect of his fellow ‘world leaders.’

  Like many others, he had ae of soldiers apanying him.

  Smith looked back to see who eaking. At the same time, two soldiers started to move through the rows of the hall towards the doctor. Alexander g the president to uand what to do, but Smith preferred to gather more information. He nodded for Alexander not to move and tio pay close attention to the se.

  “Soldiers, I will offer you a sed ce; withdraw now. As for your leader, there won’t be a sed ce. Well, I wished to avoid this nuisance.”

  Gordon raised his right hand and did a quiap. It was a simple gesture, but two purple lightning were sent from his fiips. A sed ter, the sound of a thunderous explosion startled the hall.

  The two soldiers froze mid-walk while everyourned around to see what had exploded.

  The dictator’s head was scattered in thousands of pieces in the row where he had been sitting. His peers were in shock from the bloodbath they had received. The body that had been standing just moments before was now lifeless on the ground, spilling blood.

  “To the two soldiers, take the body and dispose of it.” The doctor cpped his hand to get their attention but made a few more people in the room fear more explosions.

  “Let's tinue. I hope there won’t be any more interruptions uhere are questions.”

  Gordon waited for some kind of firmation.

  “Am I clear?”

  The hall, which had been tense due to Seoul’s bombing, khat before them was a more immediate danger. Silence lingered until Gordon uood that this was a firmation to tinue.

  “Great. I’ll offer you a summarized version to keep everyone up. Four ho, there was a bombing in Seoul. However, it was not carried out by any of you. No try or terrorist cell was responsible. In fact, it would have been impossible to achieve what was dooday with your current teology.”

  The statement poio two possibilities for everyone in the hall: either it was an unnatural event, or some agent not among the world leaders was ag against them. Smith felt a chill with both possibilities but o firm.

  Smith raised his hand and asked, "What do you mean by teology? How could the bombing not have been done by someone in this room?”

  “Quite simple, Mr. Smith. It wasn’t a human who attacked you.”

  Silence remained in the air. The possibility of a non-human invasion had been suggested by some military officials, but until today, even the world’s most powerful govers had no way to firm suformation. But now “God,” or someone posing as him, stood before them, firming their worst fears.

  “Around 20 years ago, South Korean stists achieved nuclear fusion. Something that is very on today and has brought many bes to all of you. However, when this discovery was made, your entire race reached the level necessary to access the Grand Game.”

  Gordoed the pulpit and walked down the tral aisle, passing through each row.

  “You see, my mission is to evolve you. To take you to the highest level of civilization. However, my siblings and I believe the best way to prove evolution among races is by testing them against each other.”

  The stist paced bad forth in the aisle, looking at every person in the hall.

  “Therefore, when you were accepted by the Grand Game, a signal was sent to all races that you were participating and could be attacked. There was a failure on my part in not preparing you enough to survive the attacks. Usually, I have protected and guided your ra the most critical moments. Unfortunately, I didn’t imagihere were races so close to this p, which resulted in this initial attack.”

  “Now, other ships are approag your p, and this will be only the first of many attacks. But iurn, with each defense or attack you carry out, I will offer your race a small evolution. For surviving Seoul’s bombing, I will offer you the tool you need mht now: Z-Crystals.”

  The stist pulled a scarlet red crystal from his pocket. The crystal floated a few timeters from his fingers.

  Everyone in the room felt an energy floating in the air until a pop-up appeared in everyone's vision.

  | Wele to the Grand Game!

  --

  --

  Ba Seoul

  “Damn it! We need more people here. Another one has arrived!”

  Ihe makeshift hospital, doctors and nurses rushed in every dire. The number of injured kept increasing. A city of over nine million people had been reduced to rubble, yet thousands were still trapped uhe debris.

  Among them was Oliver. However, it was uaiher he was alive.

  “What the hell happeo him? His entire left side is destroyed. We don't have enough equipment to keep him alive.”

  One of the doctors was nervous as he observed the boy hanging on by a thread.

  “We should put him in hibernation and maybe try the VAT.”

  “Damn it, it's still experimental; we shouldn't be using it on a child.”

  “Do you have a better option? Hurry up! More people are ing.”

  The doctor pondered for a moment; the procedure was risky and ued. But the child wouldn’t survive in his current state.

  “Okay, okay. Take him to the VAT.”

  The team quickly pced a mask over Oliver’s face. He tried to stay scious, but the gasses gradually put him to sleep until it was too heavy to stay awake. As soon as the boy fell asleep, the team ed his wounds.

  Two nurses pew eleic pads to monitor the boy’s dition. Then, he ositioned in a transparent chamber.

  Within seds, a viscous green liquid began to submerge the boy until seeing him was no longer possible.

  GCLopes