It was a year after the 'Apotheosis', and the start of the dimensional games. The world adapted to the new normal. The will of the planet, had changed society. Many had adapted to the changed world. The military became a foundation of society, moreso than before as each month a game was held. Most of the time these 'games' were akin to wars than games and each game lasted two weeks. Each time random people were sent to the games. The way it happens usually is done by teleportation. So for example, a random smuck can be teleported mid shit whilst another would be teleported whilst sick. As to why this happens, as according to one comment by the gods in the livestream comment section 'It was funny, Ngl.'.
Many would've laughed at that but it was real and a few incidents have already happened where someone sick got teleported into one of the games. Many condemned the foreign gods because of it but they didn't care. To them this was just entertainment and the whole thing was funny for them. It was tragic but funny in a darkly humorous way.
Due to the games, society changed.
Businessmen hire mercenaries. militaries, independent contractors, etc. just for the resources found in these territories. The whole thing had made the military industrial complex billions alone in the first six months of the game. Even computer companies hired contractors to get the resources found in this areas like components for super conductors, securing them for factories, and many other applications of the captured territories.
As for the normal people, life changed drastically. One day the system appeared.
A day after the first game, people started seeing something in the corner of their eyesight. Hunters saw unusual wildlife appearing in the wilderness. Some were even as big as a fully grown tree. Then half a day later reports of these wildlife attacking people had became viral and a widespread mobilization order came a day later due to an attack on multiple military bases because of this new wildlife. Incidentally on the same day, some people fought back and got 'loot drops', level ups, and in younger people their physical ages changed according to their levels. Many doctors were confused that week. But as time grew they learned more about this system of growth the will of the planet had created. Thus UN resolution 2475 was created. A resolution where orphaned children are allowed to join the military in a young age in order to combat and protect international interests of UN member states in order to replenish global military loses during the games and to retake the territories taken by the other worlders in this game that the foreign gods had started.
World against world.
Species against species.
Nations against Nations.
The main objective is to capture territories or retake them. Whoever gets the most territory gets to have the wish. Any territory captured will be kept by the ones who captured or secured them at the end of the games.
A thing they found was with the system was they could level up with jobs. Due to that many companies started hiring problem creators just to level up with the exp they can gain by solving problems and getting their employees for buffs. Many had jokingly call this 'side quest hell' as their managers had them do what basically is side quests for their jobs. They had learned that they can get more proficient, and more knowledgeable as they work. The more they leveled up the more information they get. For example if someone was in computer engineering and in lvl 25, they could instinctively learn how to code in hander coding languages such as C++. The more they leveled up, the more experience needed to level up. In jobs such as mage, guardian, etc, the can learn spells but they are weak at first. They needed to learn to be proficient to be powerful. The more they actually learn by themselves, they can get more intimately they learn the ins and outs of mana and all the other stuff relating to magic. But a caveat appears, once every 10 levels after lv.20 they can get a promotion but its up to them what type of promotion. For salary man, you can go admin apprentice, accounting, etc. Its similar to how you can climb career ladders.
Due to that more people begin to use more and more gaming lingo. This new world was strange but to many it was a welcome one compared to the corporate hell that was before where someone can just lie on their application and get hired despite others being qualified because they lied expertly. If they lied they can be accused of fraud, and be sent to prison. Now some go for schools of magic as many wanted to experience childhood fantasies, some economics, industries, etc. The hunt for jobs became easier as everyone could check your stat page and check job and level to see if they are good enough to be hire and they'd hire you on the spot because the stats can't lie. But due to that people with higher levels became more sought after and more and more grinded 'side quests' for their dream jobs. Many civilians treated their jobs as games because of it but they couldn't complain as they could see their growth, brag about it, and be proud of how far they'd come.
The economic side however profited the most. The weapons industries became more highly sought after, budgets increased, new lands fought and won, new resources, etc. It was like a renaissance for the economists, and the industrial complex. Another boon of the event of the games and system, a majority of logistics became obsolete overnight. Once everyone found out that there was a shop where someone could sell their wares and not get scammed as the system checks the specs and aspects of what you sold, the shop became flooded as food, materials, items, etc became traded and once they were traded they were sent to someone's inventory immediately. Although vehicles aren't able to be sent this way so logistics were still needed somewhat. But it also caused a majority of logistics companies to go bankrupt in months. A lot of people became jobless but were thankfully able to find work elsewhere or were left homeless and jobless because they couldn't think of any other job. The market thankfully stabilized after 9 months but the damages was done. The remaining logistics companies only profited thanks to people who couldn't adapt, people who think the system is the devil's work, heavy machinery, or the government who only used it to leave papertrails for the law.
Although that was offset by the appearance of dungeons which gave resources, loot drops, and exp. Many flocked to do so just to live out their fantasies as explorers. The loop of dungeon clearing was;
Kill monsters
Get loot
get exp
get monster cores (Aka concentrated mana that could be converted into enchantments, energy sources, etc)
mine resources
do raid bosses
repeat.
Although the fatalities were as high as 35% in the entire industry but it was well worth it. New resources, new items that could be used to heal, create components, weapons, etc. These dungeons quickly became a precious resource as corporations would rent out these dungeons from the government who held federal authority over the dungeons for their precious resources. Those who lost their jobs or couldn't find jobs went to the private sector and became contractors which were basically modern mercenaries only that they are legal and paid more with many benefits. They scout, secure, and gather resources from the dungeons which was dangerous. Due to that, benefits such as PTO, free insurance, government tax discounts (only 1.2% off, what a bunch of bullshit), housing, increased vacation times, higher pension rates, and life insurance incase you die and your family or next of kin gets money be you a part or full timer. The benefits only happened because a riot happened in geneva and nearly torched the city due to angry contractors wanting proper compensation. It was a no brainer considering a city was nearly torched due to one riot.
Another new thing would be phantasmal pets or gacha pets as many liked to call them due to the fact these pets can be tamed either by hatching and nursing a baby monster from birth or by the gacha hell the will of the planet created. The planet took one good look at humanity and thought they couldn't be trusted with these beast without checks and balances so the planet hit it where it hurt.
The wallet.
The pets were useful in ways such as guarding, crafting, and many other applications such as healing. They could just breed them but it would be far more dangerous if they capture wild monsters and tame them. By comparison the price of the gacha's were far more reasonable. You could get a 1* -> 5* pet if you got lucky. Each roll would cost $100 universally. Compared to the cost of hiring contractors worth millions and losing them whilst trying to tame a monster, this by comparison was far more cheaper. Although the gacha was downright predatory.
68% for 1*->2*
20% for 3*
11.99996% for 4*
0.00004% for 5*
To add insult to injury, there was no pity. It was pure luck or by the divine will of the RNG gods that you could get the high tier pets with powerful stats and abilities. Its either your a whale, or you got lucky. It didn't help that once someone posted a video on youtube about the pet gacha and how most of the pets looked cute, it was an instant hit. Many animal lovers and even hobbyists began to sink money for the gacha because the pets looked cute or they wanted to experience their childhood fantasies of befriending dragons, mythical beasts, etc. The pets although they looked cute, can transform into larger forms if their owner wills it. So it wasn't a surprise that headlines began appearing about people riding unicorns or other phantasmal beasts to work or for shits and giggles. It became all the more popular with the limited time banners as on can get a specified phantasmal beast for higher rates.
*cough* 3.1% rate for 5* and 16% for 4* *cough*
Truly, everyone was whaling because of how the pets are powerful, compact, and most importantly, cute they were.
It didn't take long for someone trying to breed them but each attempt needed $4000 just for the roll for breeding as a pop up appeared everytime someone attempted to breed. If it wasn't paid, the pets won't breed with each other. And it wasn't even guaranteed. It was a 50/50 chance. The planet was predatory and acted like a true capitalist.
These pets also have benefits that people wanted.
They could help in their daily workload. A common 1* fire chick could help in wielding, cooking, glass blowing, metallurgy, etc. The lowest of pets could help immensely in work. Even a 1* fairy could cast healing buffs and were particularly common enough to be used in hospitals due to the fact they can lower recovery times. Thus it wasn't a surprise than 3/5th's of the population had them since they were particularly handy. It didn't help that to the eyes of the law, they were pets and thus couldn't be paid a salary so many owners just roll them just to make their jobs easier.
You call it laziness but to many its efficiency.
Not a week after the gacha pulls became common place, people started doing what's essentially pokemon battles, Larping as trainers and post it to the wider internet. The videos went viral and many at the bare minimum had tens of thousands of views whilst the highest had 60 million views in just a month.
But the government didn't like that.
It wasn't very cash money of them.
The politicians, and many animal rights orgs had lobbied for regulations and one particular group of madlads had made a petition to legalized pet battles and institutionalize leagues (a not so hidden agenda of making pokemon battles and pokemon leagues just to larp and make childhood dreams come true). It wasn't a surprise that 10 million people signed the petition. A few thousand people had rallied to the senate just for this and had strong armed the senators and law makers for this to happen.
Due to that leagues were born. Each time a league game happens, the contestants need to have 12 badges. 6 from cities and 6 from big towns. Each town or city had their own arena to battle and earn a badge. There hasn't any champions yet as the first league games happen 4 months from now.
On another note, according to an announcement the will of the world had announced during the start of the games they could let the 10 benevolent animals rampage and kill 1/3rd of the human population in order to basically save the world from the game these foreigner gods made but many had refused when put into a vote. It didn't help that many of the elites saw the benefits of playing these god's games, and basically thought 'We could profit off this!' and with a landslide the vote was a overwhelming majority No. They took a look at the resources found in their captured territories and thought it would be far more beneficial for humanity to gain territory and fight for it rather than letting 1/3rd of the population die.
On a happier note, the gods that humanity believed in were real and had sided with humanity as they didn't like the intruders. The gods unfortunately are unable to intervene lest they experience getting killed and made an example of just like what happened to the zoroastrian god Angra Mainyu who didn't like the fact that these foreigners dare to play gods with humanity. We were their subjects according to Angra Mainyu and they had say what we could do but when he said that, he got smited and stripped of his divinity like he was a mere child that got admin privileges and got punished by the owner for abusing admin privileges. Unfortunately due to that incident they were forced to take a support role and can give blessings on someone.
On a funny note, the devil and the leader of heaven had began a blessing war with each other out of spite and as a dick measuring contest to see/show that heaven or hell was better. The other gods did the same when they noticed both the devil and the leader of heaven had given people blessings to entice more people to pray to them. As it turns out, gods or pantheons become stronger based on the number of their followers and devotees. Ishtar, and Ereshkigal, the twin goddesses had beef with each other and as a way of settling it with each other had challenged each other to see which of their chosen would be more popular or powerful. The two went on a spree of blessing random yet talented people to see if their chosen will become more famous and well known than the other. Due to this both goddesses became stronger as many people began worshipping them due to their chosen. But the most powerful chosen of the gods were the ones either chosen by vishnu, brahma, shiva, indra, the jade emperor, the buddah's, and sun wukong. Most of which are 18 out of 20 of the top 20 most powerful people. The other two being the chosen of both the devil and Michael which are placed in 6th and 4th place.
Still those were heavily outclassed by the chosen of the planet. They weren't included as they were on another league. The 14 heroes. Each being heroes chosen by the weapons reinforced by the will of the planet. Each weapon had the ability to adapt depending on the materials given to them, have unparalleled growth potential, allied buffs, and a whole lot more things that would outclass a lot of the minor deities.
the following where by continent/power they work for:
America: Heroes of the shield and gun
Britain: Sword and Bow
China: Ofuda/charms, and Gauntlets
India: Spear
Australia: Dagger
South africa: Club
Germany: Armor
Japan: Fan
Brazil: Axe
Russia: Claw
Egypt: Jewelry
The weapons have abilities based on their gimmicks. For example the shield has defensive whilst the bow has long range abilities that are hard to replicate with magic. As to why these weapons and countries, it was speculated that it was given due to the most famous and well known weapons that these countries use or based on the local mythos of the region. But that is just speculation. Not much is known but what is known, these heroes were powerful and each could level or lay waste to a country if they so chose it. The videos from the games featuring the heroes against the heroes of other worlds were mind blowing. The shield was capable of tanking and protecting from an attack that cut through tanks, and entire blocks of buildings. The bow is a capable archer that they were speculated to be able to kill an entire nation's command control with relative ease. It was already shown that in one of the games, the bow was able to take out half of the enemy command with ease. The other heroes were still classified as they were basically treated as deterrents and weapons. Although a month earlier the shield had reportedly gone missing. It is still unknown where he is. Still, things were looking up for humanity as they had managed to take some territory and secure them. Although unfortunately papua new guinea was lost and became enemy territory. Still, after months of hellish fighting they had retaken most of the island nation. It was estimated that they would secure papua new guinea away from the foreigners by march 2027 which was a month from now.
Dog -> Rabbit -> Monkey
"
His allies tried to counter attack but one nearly killed the mage of the party when the mage tried to cast an offensive spell. An arrow whizzed past bye his head, nearly skewering him. He cursed under his breath as he noticed his mana bar going dangerously low. Still, he continued despite the risk. He drawn out the enemy fire by pulling one of his emergency grenades in his pockets and lobbing them at the dangerous statues. He cursed under his breath as he really didn't want to use a grenade inside a dungeon corridor. It had a high chance of hitting him too. There were reasons why grenades and heavy ordinance was frowned upon to use in dungeons as more often than not, it killed their user.
"Let me in!" He shouted to his comrades, making one of them squeak as the barrier maiden noticed the grenade he lobbed at the statues. She quickly dispelled the barrier, and let him get in before reactivating it.
*Boom!* A loud boom echoed through and just in time fragments of rocks pelted the barrier right after it went up. A plume of dust was created by the explosion creating an opening for them to attack. The mage of the group quickly enchanted a spell, and from her staff a volatile orb of fire was created. The barrier quickly went down in order to use the opportunity. She quickly swung the staff and the spell was thrown similar to that of rock sling. When the spell managed get past the barrier radius, the barrier maiden quickly reactivated the barrier. The spell whizzed by the smoke, and not even a few seconds later a explosion rocked the corridor and a flash fire happened. Thankfully they were protected by the barrier. If not, they could be roasted humans.
"Oh thank god." The party tank said as they had barely survived the surprise attack. If not, their heads would've been meat skewers by now.
"Thanks broski." Said the man with the gas mask who was the party rogue. He quickly padded himself down to check if he was hit but thankfully there were no injuries. He sighed in relief.
"T-thanks William, if it weren't for you we would've been dead by now." The party mage had said as she blushed from being saved again by their designated marksman. The swordsman of the party thanked the marksman with a sigh and a couple of packs of twix bars. The marksman smirked at the twix.
"Thanks for the twix."
"I know your mudus operandi, you'd ask me for sweets later. You know, im surprised you haven't contracted diabetes." The swordsman said sarcastically.
"My secret is eating healthy and properly exercise." He snorted at that.
"Yeah right. You blow a lot of money just for sweets."
"I do not!"
"Uh-uh!"
"Nu-uh!" The two bickered which amused the rogue and the barrier maiden.
"Well, we better head back. We just encounter guardian archers. If we head inside we might get attacked by guardian knights. Thats too high leveled for us right now. As it stands we are currently level 35. Those archers are 37." The rogue said but quickly checked his notifications.
+79,835 Exp!
Lv Up!
Lv 39!
"Plus we barely survived that. We had no hope against guardian knights. We better just grab the cores and loot drops." The rogue said catching the two bickering party member's attention.
"Oh yeah. Dibs on the arrows! God i hope there's elemental arrows." William said as his eyes narrowed with greed.
"Yeah yeah." The rogue said as he decided to check his map and put markers on them and sent the file using private messaging to their contract employers.
[Map received. Go up, we will send a higher leveled party to continue.]
[Ok! ;>]
The party quickly grabbed the loot and quickly went up the dungeon.
It took an hour to get back to the surface but it was worth it since they weren't in danger anymore. They checked their bank accounts and saw the money had already been wired to their bank accounts.
"So Jake, what are you going to do after you get enough money to retire?" Asked he barrier Maiden to the rogue.
"Well, i'm going to search for my brother. He went missing a month ago my brother went missing and i'd like to find where he went." He yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"Oh man, that was tiring..." He muttered as he check the time and saw it was 2;57 PM.
"Jeez we've been scouting for 9 hours. From 6 AM to 2 PM nearing 3 PM." He yawned again and decide to take a rest and waved.
"Bye, im tired. See you tomorrow Emily."
"Oh.. Okay." Emily said disappointingly. She frown and sighed to herself.
"See you tomorrow then jake...." He waved casually and went to his housing, utterly beat from today's events.
When he arrives at his housing, he was greeted with his 4 year old niece.
"Uncle!" His niece said as she ran up and hugged him.
"Hey Cassie. How's your day?"
"Its fine but its sooo boring. Did papa call you yet?" She asked but he could only grimace. He could not tell her. He didn't want to hurt his niece so he just took a deep breath and lied to her.
"No. But he will soon." When she heard that she could only slump in disappointment. He wanted to hug her right there and whisper sweet nothings but didn't. If he did, if she learned that her father disappeared then she would be heart broken. He did not want to torment the child so he patted her in the head comfortingly.
"He'll return someday." He whisepered.
"Yeah papa will return. He loves me. He wouldn't abandon me." She said making Jake's heart ache.
"Yeah he will..." He mentally sighed and hugged his niece comfortingly until he fall asleep.