âGrandpa, when are you going to finally write a book about water or the ocean. I mean look at it! The ocean is beautiful donât you think?
âWeâve been coming out here once a month since I was little, and I think thatâs more than enough time to get inspired by it all.â
I watched as my Grandpa furrowed his brows as he always he did when he was thinking hard about what to say. This isnât the first time Iâve asked him this question so I knew he was trying to come up with a different answer than last time.
âWell Freddy, Iâve written plenty of books with a heavy water presence in them right? Youâve read all of them so you should know what Iâm talking about. One of them from a few years ago had a whole empire based around water and what not!â
âYou know what I mean Grandpa. A strong character with crazy water based abilities. Like Poseidon or something!â
âPoseidon ehhâ¦fine fine, alright I promise to write something. No complaints about whatever it is okay?â
I thought about itâ¦no complaints is big a ask here. He could just throw something on paper after a year or two of writing and call it a book. Especially since he doesnât publish anymore.
Ah I got it.
âNo complaints, but we are in April now, so 75k words by Christmas and it has to be something that you would be semi proud of to publish!â
Grandpaâs face dropped right then and there and his brows furrowed once more.
âIâm going to tell your father your bullying an old man.â
âDad would probably congratulate me if he heard I got you to write another book.â
âDammit your right, what an ungrateful welp he turned out to be eh.â
âYour only saying that because he didnât want to come fishing this time around.â
âBah! Fine but I will only guarantee 60K words by Christmas and thatâs all your getting brat.â
I grinned widely.
âDeal!â
I was about to head below deck to grab another bottle of water when my Grandpa grabbed me.
âFreddyâ¦â
I heard the seriousness of his voice and turned towards him only to see he wasnât looking at me. His mouth was hung wide open and his head was tilted back while his finger shakingly pointed upwards.
I followed his gaze and my mouth quickly did the same as his.
In the skyâ¦no above the sky maybe? I donât know. But way up there was a chain link. A few chain links in fact, and they were so big that they appeared to dwarf then entire planet in size.
My hands quickly found their way to my eyes as I rubbed them multiple times and even pinched myself to make sure I wasnât dreaming.
âFreddy did I finally kick the bucket or are you seeing this too?â
My eyes didnât leave the sky as I responded.
âGrandpa I told you to stop talking like that, youâre not kicking the bucket anytime soonâ¦but for whatever itâs worth⦠Iâm seeing it too.â
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
âDammit so I still have to write your book. Anyway go call the house. See if anyone else is seeing this too.â
I quickly went to grab the satellite phone we kept on the boat and tried to dial the house only to be met with no signal.
âGrandpa thereâs no signal on the phone.â
âNo signalâ¦we need to head back to shore now. Pack up the rods and make sure everything is put away. Iâm going full power.â
Grandpa got up from his spot and headed to the shipâs console. The engine was off and we were kinda of just floating here for a bit as we talked and fished. Something we always did.
I immediately went to grab the rods before a loud noise sounded in the area. It sounded like an alarm of some kind.
The only problem with that was we were nowhere near land, we shouldnât be able to hear anything of the sort all the way out here.
âGran..â
Error Detectedâ¦
Finding Errorâ¦
Error Found: Planet ENWPI70059 known by local life as Earth is being integrated 7.5 Million Years Earlyâ¦
Reason: World Subjugation Protocol (Pre-Int) has been triggered.
Initializingâ¦
Jbnikjfdvbâ¦
I398045305â¦
Systemâ¦liveâ¦
World: Locally Known as Earth
Primary Race: Humans
World Grade: [D]
Status: World Subjugation (Pre-Int)
Forcefully integrating system into worldâ¦
Forcefully integrating system into humansâ¦
Activating Phase One of the World Subjugation Protocol: Knowledge.
Time until Phase Two: 1-5 Earthly Days.
A whole bunch of words I somewhat seemed to recognize flashed across my face for a moment. I didnât recognize them because I experienced this before or had some crazy future divination ability, but because this is start of almost every LitRPG apocalypse book in existence.
My Grandpa literally got rich and famous for publishing books like thisâ¦
No way this is happening in real lifeâ¦
Before I could settle further into my thoughts, more words quickly flashed across my screen.
Alert
Your world is now the Target of a World Subjugation. Due to your stats as a pre-integrated World, the System is forcefully integrating this World and your species which will thus give you the opportunity to stave off subjugation if you wish to do.
Do the abrupt subjugation, the World will split and fracture as it grows due to the influx of Mana.
Be Wary.
Your subjugators may deploy means of hastened subjugation of your World.
Be Wary.
One orb filled with Life Essenceâ¦errâ¦locally known as Experience Points (XP) will be given to all denizens of this World. Consume to reach Level 1.
Further instructions will be provided at that time.
There are five Phases in a Pre-Int Subjugation
Phase One â Knowledge
Phase Two â Integration
Phase Three â Grade Lift
Phase Four â Survival
Phase Five - Test
Time until Phase Five â 100 Earthly Years.
The Alert as it labeled itself as, flashed off of my screen, and now the only noise in the area was the peaceful swooshing of the waves and the engine of the boat that finally whirred to life.
Then out of nowhere a small yellow glowing orb about double the size of a marble simply popped up in front of me.
It floated there for a moment before slowly starting to fall and I practically instinctively held my hand out and it landed with a plop.
Guess thatâs the XP orb.
I held it in my hand, and it was slightly warm to the touch. I could almost feel some sort of energy moving within it.
Turning to look at my Grandpa and was getting ready to ask him what to do, only to be shocked when I saw him about to put the XP orb in his mouth.
âGrandpa what are you doing?! That could be some sort of poison!â
âNo time like the present Freddy! Youâve read enough of my books to know this is exactly the kind of thing I dreamt about! Since I was your age in fact! If this makes me kick the bucket once and for all then so be it, but Iâm not gonna die before I risk it for the biscuit!
âAnd I know you feel the same so stop being a such worry wart and eat yours too.â
I looked at him blankly for a moment and sighed.
He indeed wasnât wrong and he knew me all too well. I wasnât feeling worried about all of this, instead I was getting excited.
I loved everything there was to love about LitRPGs and system apocalypse booksâ¦so of course I was feeling excited, but I also knew that Grandpa would never encourage me to do something if he truly believed my life was in danger.
So I refocused my gaze back on the glowing orb in my hand and swallowed it.
Ding!
[Level +1]