James felt chills run down his spine as he thought about the horrors that had taken place over the past two weeks. James now understood that whether it be in business or life, the most terrible ploy was not one committed in the shadows. Even if it is carried out in complete secrecy and without mercy, it was not the worst kind. What one truly found himself helpless against was a scheme conducted shamelessly in the open, without any sort of deception involved. Such a tactic was not used out of benevolence, instead it was confidence. Absolute confidence that the prey would willingly jump into the lion's den, uncaring of the consequences.

Perhaps lulled into complacency in the initial few days, humanity had mistaken the system's role to be one of a fair arbiter. After all, it had healed their wounds and allowed them to be with their families in this new hellscape despite having the power to warp, possibly destroy Earth without much effort. If the system had a regressive mindset, perhaps all of humanity would be enslaved by the so called invaders that were due in a month.

After analysing the system's behaviour so far, James had come to the conclusion that the system cared about humanity as a whole, but didn't give a damn about what individual people thought or how they suffered. Yet, what a tragedy it was. As much as he wanted to, James could no longer entirely fault the system for how the situation had progressed. In this crisis situation, he could choose to go into denial about the situation or accept the facts and decide how to progress further.

For James Quill, rationality trumped emotion. That did not mean he was not angry at the system's machinations, his wrath was real. However, there was no point. This was no longer the Earth he knew, all his previous accomplishments meant nothing in this new stage. He had no power, influence or connections to leverage, nothing to rely upon apart from his own body. How could he rebel against the source of his power?

It was a pity, James had expected his kind to fare better. The system did not bar cooperation between families, theoretically 2 or 3 families could easily group up together and have a much better chance of surviving. Any more than that, and the monsters drawn towards them would be too much.

Everything the system did seemed to have meaning behind it. Even if it did not, James would try to discern the intent behind it regardless. He was no tech-wiz billionaire that got this far through the potency of his intellect, all he had was meticulousness.

The system had used humanity's biggest weakness and weaponised it, there was no way to fight back against it. In the battle of unity, humanity had lost.

"The very trait that defined us, when used against us... is perhaps a battle not worth winning." James softly whispered under his breath.

James pondered on what it meaned to be human. The concept of blood ties was truly a fascinating one, when considered from the perspective of a third party. Some humans were obsessed with climbing the corporate ladder, others thirsted for power in society. Conversely, some were content with simple lives without any great goals, often happier than their counterparts. There were many different paths to self-actualisation in human society, all focused on finding ones own calling in life. It was a persuit centered around the 'self'.

Why then was James willing to suffer personal harm, even risk death if it came to protecting his wife? If a person found himself in a sea of strangers, cooperation with like minded individuals would be the way forward, it was the logical solution. However, when the same person found himself in an unstructured society with the two people he cared most for in the entire world next to him..... they would turn into a fire breathing demon that would do everything in their power to keep their loved ones safe.

People's hearts had turned cold. The kind neighbor next door who'd visit you when you first moved to a new locality, or the one extroverted friend who loved to always engage you in incessant chatter, there was no longer any place for these archetypes in the Multiverse.

There was only one's immediate family that had to be protected and strangers that one had to be vary of. The 'mutation' as James liked to call it, was the final catalyst needed to make humanity snap out of their misplaced delusions. Civilisation had been reset in the blink of an eye, and the ultimatum given to them was survival of the fittest.

Even in modern society, there were many problems that were never resolved. To those filled with anger and resentment towards society, those that had been dealt unjust hands since the beginning, what would their reaction be to this new world?

Freedom was one of the tenets of human civilization, a cause many had fought for and laid their lives down for. Now, it had been granted to humanity in it's most dystopian form: Absolute.

Alas, James was capable of nothing more than speculation. He analysed the situation out of habit, out of helplessness. Let alone the big picture, James couldn't even prevent his own fall into this quagmire of inevitable tragedy.

He would not go out of his way to harm other people, but if someone dared to attack Amelia.... well James didn't want to think about it for now. He had to keep his eyes peeled, it was his turn on the watch while Amelia was sleeping.

The second insidious plot however, was what truly made James blood run cold. The 'choice' the system offered was a fucking scam. He wished he could scream out loud and prevent this massacre from happening, being aware of a tragedy unfolding right in front of his eyes yet unable to do a single thing to prevent it was an awful feeling to live with.

The haves and the have-nots. The currency in this word was power. A group that was physically augmented, and superior to normal humans, but rendered impotent due to a lack of specialized weaponry. While the other group, armed to the teeth in the only weaponry that can effectively damage monsters but inept at using it..... Why could people not see the truth?

The system....did not want to raise fighters. It wanted to raise monsters, people who had no qualms about killing others. It rewarded ruthlessness while the weak found themselves under a constant threat to their lives, forced to desparately level up or die trying.