Varian gaped at this unexpected and utterly ridiculous turn of events.
"You… are the ghost ship that unleashed aura?" He struggled to form a coherent sentence.
Because the one in front of him was reportedly something that kicked off the most catastrophic event in human history.
Blink.
99% of humans, nearly 9.9 Billion died.
The devices of that time recorded the event and, even after 500 years, they were carefully stored.
Varian, too, watched a few videos.
It was a normal day for everyone.
Twenty-first century, as they called in old human calendar, was an era of rapid and disruptive growth.
Humanity at that time was preparing to colonize mars. Many intellectuals were also discussing the ways in which humanity could end and the preventive measures.
Climate change, nuclear winter, asteroids, pandemic… everything they could think of, they worked on.
But the near extinction came from something no one expected.
That day, Sun split in two. All communication devices were shut off.
Internet, an embryo version of today's meta net, was shut down. Satellites stopped functioning.
Chaos erupted in 30 seconds. But the real tribulation was yet to come.
Soon, everyone heard a 'Pop' sound and something erupted into existence.
It filled the air, the water, the land, and even… them.
Humans immediately collapsed as they spasmed on the ground. That something was wrecking havoc in their body.
They couldn't adjust to this new substance and in a few seconds, they stopped moving altogether.
It was called 'Aura spike'—a sudden and significant increase in aura concentration. It was like how a sudden dip in oxygen concentration would suffocate and even kill.
So when Aura concentration went from zero to a high level, most humans could not adjust and died.
It was similar to the discomfort felt by Varian when he was first teleported to the Lost Dungeon.
But he was already accustomed to Earth's aura and took only some time to adjust.
However, humans back then were never exposed to aura. It was their end.
Following that, the surviving humans awakened. It was straight out of an apocalyptic novel. Then, the struggle for survival and power kicked off.
After ten nuclear wars and three peace agreements, Human Alliance was formed.
It took 300 years for humans to revert to pre-blink population. Then, dungeons appeared and humans swiftly colonized the planets.
The rest was history.
But even then, the videos of blink were used in all horror movies.
It was a nightmare to those survivors. Even the next generation lived with a fear of another blink.
But to Varian, it was only a distant past. So, even though he was furious at the perpetrator, he didn't lose his mind in rage.
The white ghost shook its head. "I didn't release the star blaster bomb. It was the harmony ship. The Abyssal was losing to my late owner and when he was about to die, he made the suicide move."
Varian put out his hand. "Wait, harmony ship? Star blaster bomb? What the hell actually happened?"
The white ghost stared at him for a moment and replied in its cute voice similar to a baby's.
"500 years ago, there was a war in the Centurai star zone. My late owner's host civilization was at war with Abyssals and Zions."
Varian signalled for it to continue.
Star zone must be the astronomical region involving many star systems. Perhaps thousands of them.
Abyssals and Zions seemed to be allies.
"We were winning the war. The Abyssal fighters knew they would die, but they wanted to accumulate enough merits. So they launched suicide attacks." The white ghost slumped its shoulders.
"My late owner was a noble of the civilization. He was chased by the Abyssals. We ran all the way to your star system and managed to throw off most of the chasers." It paused and its face contorted.
"Except one. My late owner and he fought, and the Abyssal was about to die. But…"
Varian sighed.
"At the last moment, he used the star destroyer bomb, killing himself, my owner. I was the only one able to escape."
Feeling the sweat rolling down his neck to his back, Varian took a deep breath.
"That bomb seemed to destroy an aura restriction mechanism. Then, aura erupted and you know what happened."
Varian couldn't calm down anymore.
"So Abyssals are so strong?" That was his primary concern.
If Abyssals were so strong, then humanity stood no chance from the beginning.
"They were. Not now." The ghost's reply rekindled his hope.
"Of course, even weakened, they're still stronger than you." And it crushed his hope again.
Varian shook his head and decided to deal with it later. Now, there was something important and urgency.
"Since you're an advanced space ship, you must be capable of taking care of the weak abyssals that are coming, right?"
"...." The ghost AI went silent.
"Hey, answer me." Varian was anxious.
"I lost most of my facilities during the battle. Now I'm only a shell of my former self." It said in a dramatic pose.
"...so you're useless?" Varian had the urge to yell.
The cute ghost stared at him with puppy eyes.
Varian stared back, wanting to smash it to the ground.
After what seemed like an eternity, it nodded.
"I can take you out of this place."
Varian almost tumbled. 'Awesome. This couldn't get worse.'
"Can I trust you that can you take me back to earth safely?" Somehow, Varian was growing more and more suspicious of its promise.
"...." The ghost paused for a moment, it seemed to be calculating the possibility of error.
"Even though my space sub-systems are damaged, I can do it."
"There is no 99.99% success probability with a failure rate of only 0.001% right?" Varian's voice trembled.
He still remembered the descent of Abyssals on his first adventure.
The chance of that happening was incredibly low, but… some XXX
System: [Host, can you please stop cursing this system? The vulgar language is too much.]
"Eh, no. I can guarantee a safe return."
Varian finally put down the heavy burden in his heart. He didn't want to stay here for a hundred years.
Now the only issue was the Abyssals.
"I know you said they are weak. But just give me their level. I want an estimate." Varian asked.
If they were lightning awakeners, he could beat down peak Level 4. If it was a non-lightning awakener, he could fight high Level 4.
But weak abyssal meant someone below Level 4.
'Tsk. A cake walk.' Varian thought without realizing their metrics for 'weak' were different.
"There is a clone coming to us, you see. It's very weak. Only Level 6."
Varian's smile froze.