Civilization System

The first law of biology is that; all living things stem from parents.

From dinosaurs to bacteria, they all had an originating source. Although the few novel he read in the wuxia genre claimed that objects could produce life

When one grows up without any parents for whatever reason the general expectation is often "They must have had it hard. Do they wake up crying at night missing parents you never knew?"

That's an exaggeration, most of the time thinking about them is often fantasizing about what they look like if they're out there, and the chances of them coming back for you.

At least, that was how it was for him…

When he pictured his parents he always imagined them as one of two things: an archeology couple who lost their child while traveling and have been looking for him since. Or just a plain high school couple(lol).

What he never expected was for his father to be this… this…

"Who are you, again?"

"I'm your father. And since I'm the chief, you're a prince by birthright. "

"Alright." was his only response. Those things could wait until later. For now he had to as the important questions.

"What am I doing here, then" and how did I get here too, is what he added quietly.

"Well, you're the last to come so I have to explain this all over again… Ugwulangu, is dying.

As it's one and only chief, need all of you, my children to peacefully send it off. Does that make sense? No? Okay then…" he paused catching his breath before beginning a monologue.

'All five of them were his kids? Amadi was pleasantly surprised! He looked at the middle aged man 'So it turned out he was actually a sharpshooter!' The five kids wasn't the problem. The problem was that all five of them were all within the same age group

"It's not a secret that Africa is blessed-"

"Wait, wait. We're in Africa? Where?" why didn't he notice this before? Maybe Amadi just assumed it was another world, isn't that the first thought one has when they appear in a separate place from where they were?

The others just watched from the side unconcerned.

"Yes, we're in Africa. You didn't get transported into another world, why is everyone asking me that? We just used a ritual to summon the five of you." The man said exasperatedly as if it was the most easily understandable thing in the world.

So does that mean there's been magic in Africa this whole time? Can it be used to make money, just like in the local movies?

And I also noticed the other five have a change in expression. They seemed to be fidgeting with embarrassment; they also thought it was another world…

The tribal chief took the moment to continue "As I was previously stating; it's not a secret that Africa is blessed with a formidable amount of natural resources and wildlife, "it's because we haven't experienced much development," they said. But what most don't know is that Africa is actually in possession of a second, more hidden name

"The continent of origin"

"Because it's where humans first originated from?"' Amadi asked

"That's it. Don't interrupt me again."

"Sorry" Amadi replied

"This continent has more history than you can imagine, and more than the information that has been fed to you through a tube.

There have been empires that spanned multiple countries, home to ancient sorcerers able to fly in the skies with their own powers, battling humongous beasts that you can only see in your nightmares all sustained by the secret that lies in the land beneath us."

Woah.' His words were magnetic, attracting listeners with every syllable. Causing one to paint a vivid painting of what life must have been like back then.

Then his next words shattered that painting

"…But, those days are behind us"

SHATTER

'There goes that…'

"Through the natural flow of time and tide the Origin Energy used to power out Juju has been fading over time, seemingly being drained away. It caused the fall of one empire after another, until all that was left were separate settlements, the results of erratic mass migrations."

'That's so sad… what am I saying' Amadi had to stop himself, because it seemed like he was falling into the pull of a story.

He looked over at the others and noticed they didn't seem to be affected too much; maybe because they've already heard it before?

"In the end…the only remaining areas in Africa with Origin energy can be counted with one's hands… But that's enough about the past.

What we really need to be worried about is our future" he said taking on an uplifting tone.

"The last areas with Origin energy have all had several conferences in the past to try and stop the steady decline. They came up with a simple theory; what if we isolate ourselves from the rest of the world.

We each locked out once great cities, and now towns using some of our precious origin energy in the process. Needless to say, it didn't work. We only have enough Origin Energy in this town to last this generation, the next generation will only bear the disadvantages of our decisions.

So my late grandfather decided to dispel our Isolation Juju over the entire forest area. But he didn't stop at that, he sent me and my brother out to learn the ways of the new world.

Before he died he gave instructions for this project. It's a project where the young and promising youths whose ancestry can still be traced are called over to transform this town into something else.

They are all gathered together at once and made to compete, each of them putting their ideals to the test on what it takes to make Ugwulangu great again. It is not a battle of swords or wealth. It is a battle of ingenuity and creativity.

You will all have five years and I will be giving out many tasks in that time. your role is not only to reconnect the lost city to the rest of Nigeria or the rest of the world. No, you need to make sure that its place is irredeemable.

It may seem like a daunting task, but I assure you, the ritual we performed did not choose any of you without reason. Each one of you is ahead of your peers in a particular aspect. And I fear the changes that may come to this land in the coming years-" he was talking about

"Yeah, yeah, what do we win?" I asked the man who was now talking as if we were all going to follow his decisions.

It's not that I didn't appreciate his sentiments; no actually I didn't appreciate his sentiments. If there was no gain for me I wouldn't do it, I would just be going back to my empty house…sniff, come to think of it who was going to borrow me the money I needed to fly out of this literal jungle? My friends were in prison.

"If you want to go I won't stop any of you" he said nonchalantly shrugging his broad shoulders.

"…But you'll never be able to do 'this'" all of a sudden he was no longer sitting on his throne, he was floating in the air slowly, before rising gradually until he was more than five feet above the elevated platform where they were.

'This has to be on the top five strangest things that have happened today'

"The one who completes the most tasks wins. And the one who wins, wins it all."

"But if you participate, you can become a warrior. Consider it a consolation prize."

I began to seriously think it over. If I took part in a five year competition... I could consider it as fine spent on gaining power.' he firmly decided

"I can see that all of you are learned, I need not remind any of you the value of land, especially land that has been the site of Origin Energy. It won't lose out to rainforests in terms of fertility so its worth has many different areas of value." he spoke finally ending the chat.

...

At that moment the only girl among the others came up from the crowd and said, "We're all already competing, leaving your decision. Do you want to join the competition?"

'Do I want to join?' honestly speaking the display from earlier had calmed his thoughts down a bit and made him realize he may not be all-superior. Truthfully speaking, compared to the confidence they all displayed, he wasn't confident.

He only knew a couple of tricks for deceiving somebody across a computer screen. How could he beat these people?

It was at that moment he heard a crisp metallic sound in his head.

Following that a translucent blue screen appeared in his sights. It read [Welcome host to the civilization System ver.1.4.9] then it showed a loading animation at the beginning phases of the loading sequence

A system? And it happened to fit his specific themes. Praise Master Jesus!

"Yes, I will definitely compete" he said barely suppressing his smile.

"Good" she left as quickly as she came.

Then he heard some more words

[Loading…]

[Loading….this might take a while. It is advisable to perform other actions until then.]

"That's good. Tomorrow all of you will pick your retainers from the inhabitants in this town. Agu, show him around. We'll meet again for the " The king said, seeing that everyone was on board was relieved and asked the person with a circle under his eyes to show me around

"Yes, Igwe." He said reverently. Then to me he turned and said "Let's go"

He looked at the system screen and noticed that it still hadn't moved from it's original point.

'It's not going to sleep like this, right?'