1 The Infinite Fortress Prometheus
"Ding!"
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A loud sound from the depth of his soul echoed in his mind, awaken him from that endless darkness.
He slowly opens the eye. What greets him is a vast space that looks like in a sci-fi movie. A 30 meter huge and vast area surrounded by a white wall made from unknown material, a holographic projection, and several huge monitors that hanging on the wall shows an image of a starry sky and vast spaces.
Xiao Ran's eyes showed a confused and blank look.
And he was sure that anyone who woke up and found out they're not on their bed would also think like this: "This… Where is this? How can I be here?"
Xiao Ran didn't need to wait until his head became clear, for he heard a voice on his ears that could even reach the depths of his soul.
.
"Ding!"
"Welcome to Space Fortress Prometheus"
"Your serial number is 678."
"The region that you've assigned in is Real World, where you can only execute a mission in Real World Mecha Mission."
"In 30 minutes, you will enter a Mission World to carry out your first mission. This mission level is Beginner Level, and there will be no veteran pilots involved."
"You have 30 minutes to familiarize yourself with this fortress."
"Your current attribute is:
Hit 2 (2) affects your ability in shooting ability and accuracy.
Skill 1 (1) affects your ability in fighting ability and strength.
Reflex 6 (6) affects your ability in reaction speed and sensitivity.
Spirit 8 (8) affects your ability in Skill consumption and perception.
Physique 3 (3) affects your ability in inner body quality and endurance.
(The figures in the brackets represent the standard values, and the values outside the brackets represent the current body values)
Skill: None.
Comprehensive Evaluation: No rating."
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After being dazed for a few moments, he opened both eyes wide, and his mouth into a big "O" shape, add in the fact that he was barefooted and wearing blue colored Doraemon pajamas, his current looks are quite hard to describe.
A few minutes later, Xiao Ran remembered the 30 minutes deadline. He slapped himself, the crisp sound, and the burning pain on his face made him realized that all of this was not a dream but an undeniable fact.
"What the hell? Is this God's domain?" Xiao Ran looked upwards and shouted while feeling dumbfounded.
The cold and emotionless voice echoed on Xiao Ran's ear: "This is the Real World Section of the Prometheus Fortress. It's located at the center of the universe and acts as a junction point for other worlds aside from your original world, the one who made this of the universe is the Lord God, and I am the Master System that manages everything here."
Xiao Ran didn't think that the voice will reply to his question, but considering the voice's answer, everything that happened today is by no means a dream, but the cruel reality. Even those who never felt fear would feel some from this. To pull you out from another dimension and bring to this place, only a God or a super-advanced alien civilization could do that, anyway no matter who it is; he has no means to resist nor offend them.
Stretch your heart, according to their very heartbeat, and there are indeed some unknown panic and fear.
By feeling his pulse, you could see some panic and fear for the unknown, but there was also some trace of excitement that can be detected from it, "How did I come here" Xiao Ran asked
"There's a program circulating in every galaxy of the universe. It is the key to Prometheus Fortress. Once a person downloaded and opened it on their terminals, they will be summoned to this place."
"Program? Terminal?" Xiao Ran's face suddenly became a bit strange. He remembered that due to the habit of playing games before he sleeps, last night, he downloaded a game without any description to his mobile phone, the game only shows the pictures of robot wars, Gundams, Zakus, and Sebastian's Gaus mech.
As Xiao Ran was an avid fan of these things since childhood, he immediately downloaded the game as soon as he saw it. More importantly, he remembered that the game's size was a conspicuous 0. Checking it by opening the game made him see a non-stop rotation which forced Xiao Ran asleep, after waking up, he was already on this place.
Xiao Ran smiled to himself. There's no one to blame for him being on this place other than he and his hand, due to not having anything to do at night, playing games became his habit before sleeping.
He was feeling a bit uncomfortable, mainly because of a certain empty feeling in his heart, but seeing that he only has 15 minutes left, Xiao Ran forced his mind to clear up and asked: "Are there other people on this fortress? Why am I the only one here right now?"
"The Prometheus Fortress convenes everyone who downloaded the keys from every part of the galaxy in every universe when you finish the beginner task, and you'll be able to go to the other areas of the realm and talk to the other participants."
His delicate eyebrows frowned. This time he noted some important words – everywhere in the universe, that is to say, there are other people on Prometheus, or you could say a LOT of people, but they didn't come from the same galaxy nor planet as him. Xiao Ran didn't know how aliens look like, or if they couldn't be known as a "person" but he assumed that there wouldn't be a significant difference from the "humans" of Earth right?
"However, in the place of Jianghu, there are strong and weak people" Xiao Ran suddenly remembered this phrase from a game and the truth lies on it, seeing his attributes in front of him, he asked "How good are my attributes in this place? I mean, as a new guy?"
"You belong to the real world of science and technology, your planet's technology and body development are far behind compared to other planets that can receive the key program, so having low quality and unskilled attributes is pretty normal for you."
Xiao Ran felt drenched in cold sweat, the cold and emotionless voice answers his questions as if they're irrelevant, but it explained the details of his current situation.
"What are the other people's basic attributes? Are there no other people from Earth?" Xiao Ran asked again: "You mentioned a mecha task before, is the pilot attribute related to this? What about this Real World, is there another area beside this one?"
"In the Prometheus fortress, the average attributes of a Real-World newcomer are between 15-20, but you can't rule out the emergence of high profile newbies, and most people will have one or two skills open to them." The mechanical voice seemed to be void of emotions. Still, at this time, it seemed to be puzzled: "Logically speaking, people like you should be unable to get the key and be summoned to this place, the probability of someone on the same situation being here on Prometheus Fortress is close to zero."
Out of six billion people, it had to be him. Xiao Ran almost collapsed when faced with these words.
"The pilot is who controls the mecha, and your attributes reflect your skills, with higher attributes you can pilot a stronger mech, and even when you're not piloting one they can also make you stronger. You can get combat points from completing tasks and use them to your attributes, you can also exercise on your own to improve your attributes, at the same time you could also use the combat points to buy items or skills, and for the maintenance of your equipment as well."
Pilots, mechas, combat points, attributes, equipment, these words were firmly engraved on Xiao Ran's mind, for they are related to his life and death. Especially the pilot and mecha, these two words made Xiao Ran feel a lot of excitement due to it being similar to animes and games. Being able to pilot mecha is a man's romance, and for this reason, he could face the danger that would come to his head-on.
"The Prometheus fortress is divided into the Real World, Super World, and Fantasy World. Each world has a limited contact time with the mission worlds, and the tasks they need to perform are different, the same with the rewards that you will receive for each mission."
With their ongoing conversation, Xiao Ran realized something about this world. The entirety of Prometheus seems to be a place dominated by Mechas, and they're needed to finish the assigned tasks on each mission world, and the more powerful you become, the more stuff you could gain.
Xiao Ran somehow still felt a bit lucky and thinking: 'The Real World, Super World, and Fantasy World should be corresponding to the robots of each mission world, the real mecha series, the super mecha series, and the fantasy mecha series. Although I don't know anything about the super mecha systems, I'm still fortunate that I'm in the most secure and stable area, so I won't just die from mechas of the Super World without even knowing what I'm facing.'
"Can I still return to my original world?" Xiao Ran asked the most pressing issue.
"Your current authority doesn't allow you this knowledge. Your current authority is Private Soldier."
Xiao Ran frowned: "And the method to rank up?"
"By completing the tasks that were given by the Lord God and obtaining the needed war points to enhance your authority rank."
Although he didn't get the desired answer, the mechanical voice didn't deny the possibility of him going back to Earth. It seemed as if the people back home appeared on Xiao Ran's heart, giving him hope. He took a deep breath and asked indifferently: "I want to know the mission information."
"The task you're going to perform is a group beginner mission. The task is not selectable. The info about this task will be display in front of you."
The holographic display in front of Xiao Ran suddenly changed. After looking at the data displayed, his heart suddenly jumped, and his breathing became faster. With a trembling voice, he asked: "You just said that I'm probably the only man from Earth, is there anyone who will know the situation of the mission world beforehand?"
"What you've just said is impossible. Whenever a task is complete, you will return to this fortress. And without any special items, the Lord God will automatically clear all of the memory you've gained from that world aside from the most basic ones. Only when you return to that same world will the memories return."
Xiao Ran's eyes became bright: "What about the memories you've obtained outside the mission period?"
The mechanical voice replied: "Those memories will not be clear during the task."
"Hahaha…." Xiao Ran couldn't stop laughing to the point tears started to form in his eyes: "Although I don't know where exactly is this, or even if the other people from outside of the universe is super strong, here I have all the advantage that I could get."
At this moment, the picture on his virtual display is of an anime from Earth that has action figures, movies, and games of it. Although only a film was showing, and there's no explanation about it at all, he recognized it at first sight, because it is the most famous mecha series from Earth, the Gundam.
It displays the beginner mission world, and the picture shows Earth and the vast surrounding hourglass-shaped satellite colonies on it.
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Beginner World, Gundam Seed, will start in…..5…..4….3….2….1….Begin!
