The world was thrown into chaos when the first interstellar travel was invented. People of all walks of life rejoiced. No longer were they constrained by the small, cramped, and limited space that is Earth.

 

This was a new era. Dreams and innovation were hand in hand in advancing technology throughout the land. People started to have thoughts of conquering new worlds with limitless resources. They first started with the solar system, then the neighboring worlds and systems. That wasn’t enough. People’s greed led them to conquer the whole milky way galaxy.

 

Everything was going well until they discovered a little planet where intelligent life was observed. Humanity was once again in chaos. They found alien life. No longer were they alone in the universe.

 

Scientists, researchers, cryptographers, and linguists all came together to translate the language of the alien race. They called themselves the Baras. A group of intelligent species that had fish-like heads and had four hairy arms like gorillas.

 

Fast forward a few years and peace talks became hostile. The people on Earth and the entire galaxy didn’t hear again from the governments and settlements that adventured outside the Milky Way. There was only radio silence.

 

When people couldn’t take it anymore and their curiosity got the better of them, they decided to journey out. But before they could get out, the government came back into the galaxy. They didn’t explain what was going on or where they had gone all this time.

 

The different governments that journeyed outside decided to group up into one single entity, the Central Defending Alliance. The CDA kept a tight mouth pertaining to all information outside the galaxy. They enforced a strict rule of a no-exit policy. They chased people from the outskirts of the galaxy and made them settle nearer Earth.

 

Humanity was once again forced back into the Solar system and a few neighboring systems.

 

“Teacher, why didn’t the people from Earth fight back? Are they cowards?”

 

“What happened with the Baras?”

 

“Why are the CDA preventing us from going out?”

 

A cacophony of noises in the form of questions barraged the narrating teacher. He wore a typical sports shirt and pants and a belly that stretched the shirt. He had a receding hairline and a small pair of eyes.

 

“Quiet, quiet. I’m not done telling the story.”

 

Humanity was once again back to square one. They were once again alone in a small piece of the universe. Some tried to rebel, but the CDA were too powerful. If there was one thing positive that came out of this was the discovery of Desire.

 

Desire was the power that the CDA used to crush the rebellion. They came back with all these information and mysteries that allowed normal people to have power for themselves. Of course, not all of them could activate their Desire.

 

With the information that the CDA brought was like a catalyst that brought a new boom in humanity. Dungeons, forests, tombs, and other mysterious things came bursting out of the ground.

 

The Earth that was discovered and studied for millennia once again became mysterious. There was a sudden shift in power. Those who got their Desire earlier became hegemonies who controlled the world. Those old fashioned corporations became obsolete and were replaced.

 

Those who are powerless become useless. Those who are powerful become the owners of the world.

 

“Remember this information now that you guys will finally step foot into the real world. Once you unlock your Desire, the world will be yours.”

 

The whole classroom became quiet. In the eyes of the students gleamed with dreams and aspirations. Some even had their jaws in the ground looking up and daydreaming. There was one student who looked disinterested. This guy was fat. No, this guy was humongous.

 

Even as a 17 year old, his neck already had several folds leading up to his chin. He had a short black hair and a sharp eye that was covered by his chubby cheeks. He just chomped down on some chips while listening to the lecture.

 

“Hear that fatty? You’ll be useless in the real world. You’ll finally get off that high horse of yours. Wait, you can’t go on a horse or you’ll flatten it! hahahahahaha”

 

Hugh just ignore his seat mate. He had always been the butt of the joke. The class clown, except they weren’t laughing at his jokes, but at him. It didn’t help that he was at the top of his class, that only drew the irk of his classmates more.

 

He had no interest in this subject because there was no chance in him unlocking his Desire. That was only for the rich and those who had the right connections. His only hope was to get good enough grades to be accepted at a top university to at least learn something like material creation or any other support type job.

 

He was a poor kid and if he didn’t get good grades, then he will probably die in the streets. The thought of that made Hugh speed up his intake of chips until he couldn’t feel any more food in the plastic. He had to take out another bag of ships to calm himself down.

 

“Okay! That’s enough lecturing. You’ll finally unlock your Desire later today. Line up!”

 

The students all lined up in a neat and tidy line. Some students calmed their nervousness by breathing hard and stopping their twitching. Some jumped in excitement and had a wide grin as they closed their fists. Usually, these were the rick kids who all had a guarantee in unlocking their Desire.

 

Even though Hugh wasn’t the tallest of the students in the class, he was at the very last. The other students didn’t want a fat, huge wall blocking them when they lined up. He didn’t care, he wasn’t going to unlock his Desire anyway.

 

The teacher led them out of the classroom and into a high tech room with a glass chamber in the middle. At the side were presumably the control centers which had numbers and charts displayed on it. The teacher nodded to a person sitting in a chair in the control center and he gestured for the smallest person in the line to go first.

 

The smallest student who had a bowl cut and glasses stepped up into the chamber while shivering. He was clearly afraid and he couldn’t stop his feet from fidgeting.

 

“Close it.”

 

The chamber closed which made the student flinch. After that, the chamber started to be filled with some kind of gray gas that fogged up the whole thing. The teacher only looked at the control center and discussed the numbers with the technician.

 

After a few minutes, the glass started to clear up and the student was clearly seen. Apart from the messy hair, nothing changed on the student.

 

“Hmm...... normal potential. About class D. You pass. Take this tablet. You’ll feel the difference tomorrow.”

 

The teacher took out a pill from an unlabeled, black, locked case inside the room. He held out his hand for the student to reach it without moving his body. He let the student run up to him and immediately swallow the pill.

 

Numerous students went into the chamber and all were engulfed with the gray gas. Most of them only had a rating of D class to C class. No one had failed in receiving the pill yet. 

 

It was now the turn of Hugh’s biggest bully, Aric. This guy had a silver spoon throughout his life. He had never seen this guy work a day of his life. He always had lackeys to do the work for him and his grades were mediocre at best. The school didn’t dare to lecture him since his family had a big influence in the city.

 

Aric strode with confidence and bravado into the chamber. The teacher didn’t dare slack off on this one. He manually adjusted the dials on the screen to have the most accurate measurements possible. After a few minutes engulfed in the smoke, Aric got out of the chamber.

 

“A class potential. As expected of Aric! Congratulations!”

 

The teacher endlessly praised Aric. A little more and Hugh was sure that the teacher would lick Aric’s feet. Aric only had a condescending smile as if everything was fated to have this result. He once again proved that he was superior to everybody. 

 

He looked at Hugh and sneered. The stare only lasted for a second and he immediately ignored Hugh, as if Hugh wasn’t worth his time.

 

It was now Hugh’s turn. He stepped forth onto the chamber and found that he was too thick. Everybody laughed, including the technician and the teacher. The laughter continued for a whole minute until the teacher used all his force and bumped Hugh inside.

 

Everyone was silent now. There were condescending smile from all of them. Some of the students who scored a D-class rating rejoiced since they knew Hugh would have a lower score than them.

 

Hugh just closed his eyes and waited for the fog. It started to envelop him and he felt like he was walking on the clouds. It penetrated every part of his body and cycled through it.

 

After a few minutes, the chamber opened and out came Hugh. The teacher looked at the screen and smiled.

 

“F-class rating!”