One year ago.

Hello, your world is under attack from the Horde.
Will you fight to defend it?	Yes	No	More information

Without hesitation, Henry touched the “Yes” on the blue translucent text bubble that had popped up in his vision. His hand passed through the box without resistance. Thankfully, he was still lying in bed, and not even Jess was around to see him waving his hand in front of him like a lunatic.

“What the fuck?!" He heard a neighbor exclaim, which unleashed a commotion as multiple residents went to their balconies to check in with others. Ironically, ever since California issued Covid-19 Shelter-in-place orders several months ago, the residents had more interactions with each other through the central courtyard.

Henry tuned out the neighbors. His experiences in reading System Apocalypse type of fiction helped him to remain calm. He also cut off all thoughts of Jess before they had the chance to spiral out of control. “Yes,” he said firmly, satisfied as the screen changed.

The defense of humanity is fraught with risks. Individuals can still contribute as civilian support.
Do you still wish to accept the role of Defender?	Yes	No	More information

He sat up in bed with determination. He had waited for this kind of decisive moment all his life. Even though he’s had what most would describe as a good life, he always felt that it lacked something. He wasn’t unhappy but languished in ennui, waiting for opportunities for adventure that never came. “Yes,” he repeated.

Time remaining until the initial wave:

23:59:47

“Hello Henry, I am your personal assistant. I will guide you in becoming a Defender of Earth. Should I continue or do you have questions I may answer?" The voice sounded like a cross between Google’s assistant, Siri, and Alexa. It also spoke directly in his ears, which caused him a little disorientation since his brain could not pinpoint the source.

Henry had so many questions that he did not know where to start, especially since he previously skipped both attempts at learning more. He blamed it on the habit of clicking on “yes” whenever he encountered an end-user license agreement at the start of video games. Besides, all gamers know that hands-on tutorials are the best way to learn.

For now, he decided to treat it as an audiobook while he got ready for the day. “Continue,” he said, and walked to the kitchen to make his morning coffee.

“The Overseer program monitoring Earth recently detected incoming Horde activity. It has alerted Alliance forces in the vicinity and triggered the Defender protocol to prepare intelligent life on Earth as the first line of defense." Henry smirked as somehow the personal assistant successfully conveyed all the proper nouns vocally.

It continued, its voice clear even as Henry ground his coffee beans, “To minimize the impact on civilians, the Overseer will isolate the invaders in containment fields. As a Defender, you are called to engage and defeat the Horde before the containment runs out.”

“Wait! Is the invasion coming in 24 hours or is the containment running out in 24 hours?" He blurted out before realizing the irrelevance of the question. The fact that they warned of an alien invasion in units of hours already made everything urgent. He almost felt bad for taking the time to make coffee. Maybe if the assault was coming in minutes, he would skip morning coffee. Maybe.

The personal assistant did not seem perturbed at the interruption. “The Overseer will delay the horde for 24 hours to allow Defenders to prepare. Depending on various factors, the containment field may last hours or even days.”

Henry detected a slight pause in the disembodied voice as it allowed him to question it further. As an introvert, he usually felt uneasy talking to strangers, many times stumbling over words in his haste to get it over with as fast as possible. But it felt natural conversing with this voice. He didn’t like the uncertain nature of the containment field but thought that he should let her cover the important topics first, in the interest of time.

He also decided to call it “her” due to her feminine voice. Henry didn’t think alien artificial intelligences were picky about gender pronouns. “Thanks. Please continue.”

“To help you get ready for the upcoming fight, you will be able to access the Market at System Interfaces like the containment field. The Market will allow you to trade your credits for items that can assist you in battle. As one of the first to rise to the challenge, the Overseer awarded you five additional credits, bringing your total to ten.”

Henry raised an eyebrow. “Wait. Where are these credits? And how do I get more?”

“Points are virtually credited to you and are not convertible to or from any other form of currency. Nor are they transferable to or from any other individual or organization. The Overseer awards Defenders for defending against the Horde. Primarily, this entails killing invaders and clearing containment units. But it may also involve any actions that demonstrate to the Overseer you are a Defender worth investing in.”

“Huh. And by jumping at the opportunity to become a Defender, I got more credits than everybody else?”

“Yes.”

“Right. What do you mean by ‘among the first’?" It seemed to Henry that ‘among the first’ probably included people with a death wish or those that had no idea what they were doing. He doubted many wished for the call to purpose as he did. Then again, this probably does not preclude him from those first two categories. The Venn diagram of these three types of people may just overlap as one big circle.

“The Overseer determined the threshold. I am not privy to the factors it considered nor the actual cut-off.”

“So, is there still a bonus for signing up now?”

“I am not privy to that information,” the personal assistant responded. “But likely not.”

“Hold on a second,” Henry said as he went to the sofa, where he had left his phone last night. He scrolled through the dozens of notifications he had received in the past few minutes. Practically all of them were regarding the Overseer’s message, along with the usual spam. I guess nothing is for certain besides death, taxes, and spam.

He took a deep breath and made the conscious choice to ignore all the texts for now. He did the same again as he switched to the Discord app. Ignoring the existing messages as he went to the private server with all his geek friends, he typed, “Act quick. More rewards”.

The coffee maker made that steamy sigh that it always did at the end of brewing, so he walked back to the kitchen. On the way there, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something important. He shrugged. Everything seems important with a doomsday clock counting down. Or maybe nothing seems important with a doomsday clock counting down.

His hands shook while he poured, spilling some on his left foot. The searing liquid felt like both a small and big problem at the same time. Small, because he can easily wipe it off without permanent consequence. Big, because his tolerance bucket had filled, and any nuisance became too outsized to handle.

He took a deep breath and focused on the mundane task of making oatmeal. “Ack! Sorry for the interruption, um, Voice. Uh, do you have a name? What do I call you?”

“You can give me a name,” she replied, unperturbed.

“Okay. I’ll call you Pai. It stands for Personal Artificial Intelligence,” he said. Henry pronounced it similar to “pie” and the mathematical number “pi”. It seemed fitting to him. A wholesome and analytical assistant. A kind lady nice enough not to nag him about the coffee footprints he just tracked all over the kitchen. Nothing like the snarky constructs that dystopian stories like to use.

He briefly wondered if he could keep her as a therapist after Earth countered the alien invasion. She didn’t say anything, which he took as acceptance. “Please continue with the tutorial while I make breakfast."

“While the Containment Field allows the Defender to access the Market, its main purpose is to constrain Horde units and minimize disruption to society. Ideally, a Defender or team of Defenders would be able to neutralize the enemy before a containment breach. Failing that, the time also allows local military or militia forces to gather and intervene.”

“You know, that’s something I’ve been meaning to ask,” Henry said with scrunched brows. “Why can’t the military take care of it with their tanks and bombs?" He pursed his lips. “Why ask regular people? I don’t even have a gun!”

“Containment fields take a lot of energy to create and maintain, increasing exponentially with size. And it drains energy each time someone enters the containment field. Allowing large or fast objects to enter the containment field will probably destroy the containment,” Pai responded.

Henry sat down at the kitchen table as she continued, “The Defender Protocol seeks to surgically repel the invaders with small, technologically advanced fire teams instead of relying on large-scale weapons that will undoubtedly cause unintended casualties and environmental destruction. After all, if losses and environmental destruction did not matter, the Alliance could have employed planet-destroying weapons in the first place instead of installing an Overseer program."

If the coffee hadn't already woken Henry up in multiple manners, that statement would have done it.

“Um, that sounds like a great decision,” Henry said. All worship the Overseer. With hot coffee and oatmeal in him, he deemed himself ready to ask the questions he had deliberately put off. “How many monsters are usually in a containment field? And what kind of monsters are there?”

“For the initial wave, the Overseer will attempt to only portal in two to three monsters at a time.”

“But no guarantee.”

“No, it is a complex process and sometimes more than one monster slips through,” Pai confirmed. “Please remember that Defenders are not slaves to the system. You have the right of refusal for any containment clearing missions.”

Henry nodded. “So the carrot more than the stick.”

“As for the kind of monster, they are most similar to velociraptors, with–”

“What?! I’m fighting fucking dinosaurs?!” Henry exclaimed, partially chewed oatmeal mush dribbling down his chin. Whatever happened to goblins as the easy first encounter?

“Yes, but the real kind, not the big ones shown in the Jurassic Park book and movies.”

“R-right. I kn-kn-knew that." It did not make things better. The warmth in his stomach had fled and his hands started shaking again. He placed the spoon down with a loud clunk and wiped his chin, which had also started quivering.

Henry closed his eyes and took some deep breaths. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. He recited the litany from Dune, letting the fear pass through him. He memorized it to impress his friends, but he found that repeating it in moments of stress calmed his nerves.

“Alright, enough with the background information. I’ve never hunted before and 24 hours is not a lot of time to prepare.”

Just then, his phone vibrated and startled him. He sighed. He knew exactly who would call him and, even after letting it ring a couple of times, had no idea how to handle the conversation.

He confirmed his suspicions with a glance at the caller ID and sighed again. He briefly considered letting it go to voicemail. But he knew, as sure as the sun would rise tomorrow (or more sure, considering recent events), that they’d keep calling till he picked up.

“Hi, Ma.”

“Did you get that message? That text box?” she asked in Chinese.

“Yes, Ma.”

“Don’t answer it. You don’t know who it’s from. You don’t know who the XXX are." She used a word Henry had not heard before.

“Wait, was it in Chinese?” Henry asked.

“Of course. What did you think?”

Apparently, that was a stupid question. “Yes, of course.”

“Listen, just say no. That’s what I did. And I told your dad to say no and that’s what he did. And we called Auntie–”

“Um, listen Ma, I’m kind of busy. Can we talk later?”

The silence on the line sent a shiver down his spine before his mom broke it with a loud exclamation, “Ah-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya. No no no. How can you say yes? Ah no no no. Talk to your Ba." Henry hears the phone change hands. “Talk to your son. Ah-ya-ya-ya. Tell him not to do anything stupid.”

He sighed. He felt ambivalent about his Ma like he always does. On the one hand, he loved her fiercely, as she does him. On the other, no one in the world annoys him as she does.

“Um, hi Ba.”

“Listen. Stay safe, ok? And call your mom back later, alright?”

“Okay, Ba. Bye." Having suffered his first defeat of the day, Henry softly held the power button on the phone. Like alien invasions, some battles are best fought after 24 hours of preparation.

As the screen faded to black, he saw what he had previously typed. And the important thought that had been just at the tip of his tongue unfolded, “Act quick. More rewards.”