Odd One Out - Chapter 1 Introduction To The World Of Dominion

Humans followed a hegemony created by the systems. Systems were artificially intelligent lifeforms that attached themselves to a live biological host. Similar to a parasite, it lived within a host.

It was unknown whether the host and the system shared a mutual or a prey-predator relationship. In most cases, systems would live in a symbiotic relationship with its host.

Systems were capable of granting wishes. If a host desired something from a system, he or she could gain it from the system in exchange for a price.

Dominion was a world created by such a system. It was said in legends that the previous world was a broken and desolate place wrought with war and strife. The humans had brought ruin to the Earth. Despite its technological advancements, its resources were running out fast.

The global warming had caused the fragile atmospheric layers to be unable to filter out the harmful rays of the sun. Due to this, many reservoirs of materials were damaged. Humans had somehow found a safe haven from the harmful rays on Earth but food and other necessary products were becoming scarce. Expeditions were carried out repeatedly to find resources on other planets. When it was no longer possible to travel due to the dwindling supplies, humanity had fallen to despair.

Then the wars began. It was chaos. A rat race to obtain the last few resources, the last bit of effort to scavenge for hope. Nations attacked nations. Technology was put to use in worst of ways. There was discord even amongst family. The world was on its last legs weeping.

Seven years into the war, a little boy who was surrounded by the corpses of his dead siblings and parents experienced a miracle. He had received a system. Something only known as a fantastical daydream of the humans before the wars started and writings and literature began to wane out of existence.

The boy abhorred the world. The very same world that took away his dearest family and friends. As he grew up, he became known as a person capable of tearing apart the skies. In his rage towards this unfair world, he destroyed everything that reminded him of the place known as Earthland.

Using his system, he seized control of every powerhouse and finished them. Later, when his rage subsided and when his family was avenged he created a new world called Dominion.

This was a legend passed through the ages.

The lifeforms living on Dominion no longer had to fear the sun much as the man had cured the rot that had set in the environment.

The man who created Dominion wanted a place that was orderly and peaceful. So, he implemented a system in which people followed an order of artificially intelligent systems that had complete control of the lives of the people.

Dominion became a world governed by the systems. The systems held a totalitarian regime for many centuries.

Everything from providing jobs and education to finance and government was under their jurisdiction. People had to follow the rules set out for them. Any revolutionary or ambitious individuals were curbed.

In the later years, somehow, the people started to get their own systems. It was one of the plans implemented. Even though the systems they received couldn’t grant their wishes, it had become a part of the people’s daily lives. The people became largely dependent to it.

Every person had a unique system. Their systems had their own unique strengths. The profession of a person began to be determined by the type of system they possessed. A system who dealt with finance would make its host a banker or a businessman. One that was of the medical type would create a doctor. The systems just mindlessly did their job of churning out individuals that conformed to their ideals.

There were also a certain kind of systems which everyone desired. The hosts who gained such systems were called Wishmakers. This was because the system could grant their wishes unlike the normal systems. They were similar to the system that the man who created Dominion possessed although it was not as powerful. The individuals who had such a system were guaranteed to stand out amongst the rest of the populace and succeed at everything that they did.

But, there were certain rare exceptions. These humans were called Odds. Their bodies were unable to host a system. They were the rejects of society. They also had to deal with a lower pay and discrimination due to lower work efficiency caused by the absence of a convenient system that helped a person complete his or her daily tasks.

Systems were the monarchs that ruled. Afterall, humans were incapable of doing much by themselves. This symbiotic relationship continues to this date where humans live their lives happily as dictated by their systems. Their lives, loves and dreams were determined by the systems who wrote their fates.