In the vast expanse of the Sagus Galaxy, there are countless wonders.
Among these wonders is the Orion Star System. Orion is a twin star system with 2 suns, Helion and Hydrium.
Every so often, you could see a spacecraft entering or leaving the system. Inside these shuttles were merchants, tourists coming to admire its wonders, space explorers, and Orion's human residents. Most of these travelers were human, though you wouldn't miss an alien race among them.
Incoming spacecraft would enter a certain planet—planet Trigon—for inspection, before going into either planet Terra or Zoola.
The tourists, mostly alien races, would enter planet Zoola. However, on occasion, a massive space shuttle bearing Terra Energy's insignia would enter Zoola. Located inside were space explorers, and inside its compartments were creatures and vegetation of all kinds, unearthed from distant galaxies.
The remaining spaceships entered Terra.
Terra is the only naturally habitable planet of the Orion Star System, unlike Zoola which was set up to accommodate Terra's unintelligent organisms during its earlier expansion.
On Terra, only cities with towering structures and aerocruisers hovering its clean, purified, cloudless atmosphere filled the surface.
---
In one of Terra's cities—Nexus City, a tiny speck was plummeting. Falling in this unnaturally safe world.
The algorithms hadn't predicted this fall. The fools had manually disabled the security protocols. But who would blame them? He had allowed it after all. He was the prime fool.
The miniature wore a black robe with golden illustrations. On the chest, there was a crest—a golden lion holding a rondure—House Valerius' emblem.
The figure was strikingly beautiful. He had a fairly chiseled face with azure eyes that could drown anybody looking into them. His silvery-blue hair flowed steadily with the wind.
Within the shadowy robe, he had a well-sculpted and fairly lean and feminine yet slightly manly, muscular physique, always hidden by the slack robes he wore. No one noticed. He didn't care.
He was a human—Kai Valerius, the noble heir of House Valerius—Orion's powerhouse.
He had already calculated the time to his fall.
Given the distance, it would take 80 seconds before he died.
"80 seconds," he muttered.
The wind sliced against his skin. His eyes were blurry and teary.
He could see the aerocruisers, blurred, gradually shrinking with the increased distance between himself and the impalpable hoverlane network.
Kai had fallen from an aerocruiser. His 'friends' were jokingly jostling his head near the aerocruiser's door after deactivating the car's security protocols. The fools had slipped up and let him fall.
He was actually enjoying himself, though—they weren't aware of this discrepancy. Then, he fell.
---
70 seconds.
His calm eyes wandered to the tall structure slightly beyond the hoverlane network. It was the tallest structure in Nexus City—Terra Energy's headquarters.
Terra Energy is the foremost corporate in the galaxy. It supplies not only energy across the galaxy, but also nearly every merchandise and service.
It's the mother company to Terra Virtual Worlds—the galaxy's entertainment hub.
Everywhere else, Kai could unconsciously see Terra Energy's logo—on buildings, commodities, and even the aerocruisers hovering above him.
On Terra, every single possession had the logo—a perfect silver scale set within a dark blue circle.
---
60 seconds.
His azure eyes then drifted to the slightly shorter Valerius Spire beside it. At the very top was an emblem much similar to the one on his chest. It was his family's household.
The Valerius Family.
In the vast expanse of Terra's interconnected megacities and orbital colonies, their name whispered fear into every council chamber, corporate vault, and military command post.
They were not kings.
Kings could be dethroned.
They were architects of systems, of laws, of futures.
Their reach extended beyond nations, beyond planets.
Every power grid, every data stream, every orbital defense satellite bore the silent seal of House Valerius.
No votes passed without their approval.
No weapon fired without their code.
No secret stayed hidden from their archives.
On Terra, there was law.
Above law, there was the government.
And above the government—there was House Valerius.
House Valerius is the name behind Terra Energy.
Kai is its sole heir.
He once had a sister—2 years older—but she had mysteriously disappeared when Kai was only 4 years old, the only unsolved mystery in this world clarified by algorithms.
---
50 seconds.
Kai could feel the wind scraping against his skin. Harder. Gravity was slowly welcoming Kai into its maws. The air resistance was intense.
Kai's eyes were blurry. He could hardly see anything.
A glowing coppery-green panel-like interface materialized before him.
Kai attributed this strange occurrence to fear. He didn't look. Fear couldn't save him from his death. He was going to die, and now his brain was lying to him—but he knew better.
Time was now moving faster. Death wanted him fast.
---
40 seconds.
Regrets gripped Kai's heart.
But this wouldn't keep him alive, Kai knew.
He felt regrets.
Regrets for playing weak-minded.
From a young age, Kai had always been intelligent. He always saw through the pretense—the mask people wore when they were before members of the Valerius family.
The forced smiles servants wore.
The straightened backs of the guards.
Kai then decided he was going to wear his own mask—a mask of a brilliantly pathetic noble heir, a weak-minded brat that didn't know what power his family had.
People bought it.
Although adults were always careful around him, they whispered in secret behind his back. Children, on the other hand—his classmates—were naïve and never hid.
They always treated him like the weak-minded 'fool' he was. Even when they grew up, they continued. He let them, so they did not stop.
And now he was paying the price—falling.
---
30 seconds.
He was paying the price.
The price for boredom.
In Terra, entertainment is cheap.
Simply by purchasing an economical pod could one enter Terra Virtual World. In this mystical world, nearly anything could be simulated.
Although capability is limited with the pod's category, for a Valerius, anything could be lived.
At 5 years, Kai had immersed himself in this world. He had experienced it to his heart's content.
Galactic wars, space racing, universal conquest, family dramas, operas—he had experienced it all.
Soon enough, Kai became bored.
He then created the weak-minded noble heir persona, which he was now paying for.
He had let them drag him, and he honestly enjoyed it. With the mask, he could see their true selves—after all, what could a wimp who never complained do?
---
20 seconds.
Kai was already assured of his death. He didn't complain.
Wasn't this the thrill he always wanted?
Something real?
And now the thrill he desired was going to kill him.
His father—Zane Valerius—had tried to make him resilient when he became aware of his son's weak-minded character.
He first talked to him like any father would.
Soon enough, he came to learn that his son didn't even listen. Then it came to his attention that his son was being mistreated. He let them.
Maybe his son would get tough and realize the power his family had.
Kai was pathetically stubborn, though not in a good way.
He couldn't have another child. The Valerius family rules clearly stated that there should only be 2 Valerius members per generation.
Kai's sister had mysteriously disappeared, and even Zane—the family head—couldn't solve this mysterious disappearance. The algorithms that make every decision in Orion had failed too.
In a stress-free world, Zane—the most powerful being in the galaxy—was stressed.
Kai knew that he was irreplaceable as the heir, so he continued to indulge in his pleasantries. After all, he would one day stand at the top of this world.
But now Kai was falling to his death. Who could he blame?
The panel just laid in front of him, unwavering.
It was falling with him. Still, Kai didn't look. There appeared to be words written on it, but Kai's eyes were teary and his sight blurry.
He couldn't see and did not care about its content.
It was probably his brain's mocking words. It was all a lie fabricated by his brain due to fear.
---
10 seconds.
The ground was slowly approaching.
Kai could feel the cold pavement behind him. In 10 seconds, the people below would see his body—mangled and sprawled on the ground.
He wouldn't survive.
In Terra, accidents were so rare they never happened.
Who would have thought the first incident of this golden era was this Utopia's prince?
Kai had finally made up his mind. He decided to look.
He forcefully opened his eyes as much as he could. He looked—looked at his brain's final lie to him as he approached the ground at terrific speed.
Written in stylish font in front of him were words—written in Terranome—mockingly:
[Congratulations, troublesome human]
[Your endeavors have finally paid off]
[In this safe world, you have managed to fall to your death]
[You have awakened the Genesis System]