GOOOOOOOONG

The sound of a gong made Aya bolt upright in her bed. Or at least, she tried to sit up. Instead, her jerking caused her to slip over the edge of her bed. She landed face down on the ground, her blankets wrapped around her like a boa constrictor. ‘Ugh…’ she groaned. Blearily, she opened her eyes to try and see what the infernal sound was. ‘If this is the upgrade from my neighbour’s trumpet, I’m going to slowly…’.

GOOOOOOOONG

The plotting of the slow and painful death of her neighbour was interrupted by yet another loud gong, the sound seeming to echo in her brain. ‘GAAH! What the fuck?’ Aya wrestled with her blanked turned snake so that she could give her piece of mind to her neighbour. ‘I swear to God, he does this on purpose. He knows I work 12-hour shift every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the hospital! Monday is the single day in the week where I can sleep in.’ Before she got the chance to realize she was walking to her front door naked to complain, an extremely loud Ding interrupted her. And with the sound, reality as she knew it was shattered.

Ding!

Greetings, sentient being of planet AY051. We are delighted to tell you we have finally, after 1.159.326.780 years, rediscovered your planet and re-established your Milky Way’s connection to the System. Rejoice! You are no longer alone and you can finally do something useful with your existence!

Fireworks went off in Aya’s mind, leaving her more bewildered than she already was. Planet AY051? System? What the hell was going on? And does... whatever or whoever that is, need to be so mean? What made it even more bewildering was that she didn’t just read the words in the blue box in front of her eyes, she could also hear them in her mind and even felt it resonate in her very bones. But the mysterious voice thing was not done yet.

However, the reintegration will not come without a price. As we speak, the planet known to you as Pluto is being dismantled for its cosmic energy. We doubt you are going to miss it. Furthermore, we estimate that the mortality rate will be approximately 40%. Do not fear. Even in death, you can be useful by being fuel for this change.

To those surviving the System Initialisation, struggle! Struggle, become stronger and once again take your rightful place in the galactic world! After all, Might makes Right.

With those last omnious words, the blue box vanished from Aya’s view. But before she could do as much as blink, let alone scowl at the message, her vision went black and it felt like she was falling.