Your performance up until now has been judged, and your role for the 8th floor has been assigned.
You have been assigned as Assistant Professor to Professor Elian.
And that's it. The notification disappears, and there is no more information. No goddamn map, no more details or anything. The only thing that changes is my clothes, which go from a comfy white shirt and sweatpants to a black suit with a black shirt, jacket, and pants, paired with a light blue tie.
Before I start complaining, I decide to take a quick look around. Everyone else is wearing different clothes as well and seems to be taking a mont to reread the ssage, scan the area, and simply get used to the feel of the new uniform.
“Assistant professor as well?” Sophie asks, coming to a stop by my side.
She’s wearing the sa style of black clothes, with a pale blue sweater instead of a tie. Understanding her logic, I look around, and it seems like only the two of us are wearing this particular combination of colors.
As we start sharing information, it becos more obvious.
Sophie and I as assistant professors.
Tess and Maya are due to serve as guards for so of the more important noble students visiting the academy, and have therefore been dressed in a simpler set of clothes than Sophie and I. Their attire is similar in style, though it’s less luxurious overall, and gray seems to be the prevailing color.
The twins, Izzy, Min-Jae, and Lily, all as Academy students, each dressed in white jackets and pants with a black shirt or sweater underneath. In a grand insult to all sensibility, to the point that it’s more like a colossal slap to the face, Biscuit doesn’t get his own set of clothes. The best doggo of the 7th, no, the 8th floor, doesn’t get a cute suit or a tie.
And I ask myself: What the hell kind of setting is this?
After an hour of planning, we finally leave the room, bringing all of our stuff with us, yes, even the thermonuclear warheads. There’s probably a joke to be made about bringing weapons to school, but I'm already too exhausted just thinking about this setting.
As we exit the room, the space opens up into a huge, beautiful garden. There are fruit trees, beautiful flowers, and a number of fountains that I am sure took more ti to create than so skyscrapers on earth. The artwork and the inscriptions that guide the water flow are simply dizzying.
All around us are small groups of students, all wearing the sa clothes as the students in group 4. Most of them are humans, but I do see so thylarin, as well as a few representatives of whatever race Beatrice and her father, the Archon, used to be, pink hair, pink skin, white freckles, and eyes containing an odd mix of greens and blues.
Upon seeing them, we also notice a significant difference to the previous floors: No one has that text above their head indicating their level or class.
We’ve decided to let go of our constant wide range scans, which almost everyone in our group has so version of. There would seem to be a high possibility that, much like our experience on the 2nd floor, sothing like that could be taken as an insult in a "civilized" nation. So everyone sticks to surface observations.
As we look around, I try to compare it to the 2nd floor, Lissandra's Eladore. The level seems sowhat similar in terms of inscriptions, but back when we were still on the 2nd floor, none of us got the chance to visit any of the capitals for a better comparison. Still, currently, I go with the idea that they are sowhat similar, especially after recalling the current Floor quest. Just how can sothing as ridiculous as a Ruler Candidate need protection, much less exist?
Slowly, everyone separates and heads off in their own directions, keeping an eye on the countdown tir to et again at the scheduled ti later. There is no connection between us currently, as in an advanced area, it should be easily detectable by soone and could raise questions. It is a weird feeling after months of being so used to it.
I look down at the two huge boxes containing the gift from my sister and so of my other stuff, and I sigh, what now?
Then a voice calls from behind , “Assistant Professor Gwyn, may I ask you where you have been all this ti?”
I turn around and imdiately know I will hate this guy.
He is slightly taller than I, with hair an even more vibrant shade of blonde than Tess’s, while also managing to be longer than her current style. His eyes are violet, and a golden circle shines around his pupils, a clear sign of Mana Wavelength Iris, the sa trait I possess.
The man is wearing a suit in a style not dissimilar to mine. Unlike my all black attire with a pale blue tie, he has gray pants and a vest, and there is a round golden pin on his jacket.
“This is your first day, and yet you’ve already managed to be late by slacking sowhere in the gardens. And may I ask you what all this garbage is?”
After gesturing at my stuff, he continues to let out a stream of very interesting and sotis indirectly insulting words, and I take notice of the way he does so just loud enough to keep his voice from carrying too far, and only after making sure no one happens to be around to see or hear him. There is even a weak barrier that’s currently flickering around us.
He lowers his voice further as a group of students passes by, and he greets them with a brilliant smile. A few girls in the group blush and start giggling, and a boy bows slightly, looking at him with clear admiration.
That smile remains only until they are gone, then he turns to , “Do you not know how to talk?”
I simply shake my head and reply. “I apologize, I got lost.”
He shakes his head in turn and snaps his fingers, creating a fluctuation of very low frequency mana that quickly spreads throughout the area. And just a few seconds later, a man appears, bowing and barely lifting his head from the ground.
The man is clearly a servant and asks politely, “What can I help you with, Professor Elian?”
“Pick up all this stuff and bring it into Assistant Professor Gwyn's office. And you,” he says, turning back to , “I will see you later.”
With that, he leaves.
I allow myself to observe the servants that appear next to the first one as they efficiently collect my baggage to bring to the office I apparently have.
And I ask myself again: What the hell is going on with this setting?
POV Earth
A man in an airtight suit enters the glass room. At the center of which sits a sterilized stainless steel table holding the corpse of an animal. An unusually large brown wolf.
"So, what do you have so far?" the man asks.
The other two n in the room stop what they're doing and look up. Next to them is another table cluttered with various tools: broken scalpels, saws, knives, and an electric cutting saw.
"Yeah, we broke almost every saw, knife, and tool we had. The skin is far more durable than it has any right to be, and the bones are incredible. The muscle tissue is much denser than anything I’ve ever seen, and the organs are like nothing I’ve seen before," one of them says.
"Do you have the results from the scans we did earlier?"
"Not yet. But I have to ask, sir, how the hell did soone manage to kill this thing?"
"That? They poisoned the corpse of an elk and left it nearby for the wolf to eat. Apparently, they used enough poison to kill an elephant, maybe more, and it still took hours. But never mind that. We have another one slated for you tomorrow."
"Oh? What is it this ti?"
"One of those huge ants that have started spreading across Africa."
"Well, I won’t complain, sir, but I’ll need a bigger budget, better equipnt, and more staff."
"You’ll get whatever you need. Don’t worry about the budget."
POV Earth
“Have you seen? Out of nowhere, the Moonster started curling up and twitching like it was dying.”
“I don't think there’s anyone who hasn't seen it; there are live-stream telescopes focused on that spider 24/7. Didn't it have those spasms for days?”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Yup, poor little girl.”
“Hehe, sure, so what did you want to say? What conspiracy are they passing around this ti?”
“Nothing! I got a notification just a few hours ago, and it seems like she’s okay now and has started wrapping herself in so sort of web.”
“She?”
“Well, Luna, now the Moonster, everyone calls her a 'she'.”
“Damn it, man. By the way, have you seen all those crazy AI CG videos? People flying around, shooting flas from their hands, and throwing lightning and stuff?”
“Yeah, but they keep taking them down. And aren't these guys saying everything in the videos is real?”
“They are. And so of the clips are wild.”
“…Man, I just wanted to watch cat videos.”
“Sa. Now I’m out here questioning reality because so guy lit up like a lightbulb and started floating up into the sky.”
“And no one’s talking about it on the news.”
“Of course not. They’re still busy covering that senator that got caught cheating on his wife and that huge sinkhole that opened up in Texas.”
“Priorities, man.”
POV Earth
A group of boys sits around a table in a friend's house. The mood is light as they get caught up in all their joking around, just a bunch of friends with a common sense of humor and interests.
One of them coughs and straightens, taking on a more serious tone. The others follow suit, putting on their most serious faces.
“My fellow n of developed taste, it is my pleasure to say that we have co one step closer to one of the ultimate goals of the human race,” he says with complete sincerity.
One of the boys almost breaks, his eyebrow twitching, as he nearly bursts into laughter, but he holds it back, and the other boy continues.
“After decades of hardship and a life void of all aning, we are now one step closer to that ultimate goal.”
He pauses dramatically, and the silence stretches on far too long, and breaking that silence, he speaks in a deep voice with fanatical light shining in his eyes.
"Catgirls. Yes, my friends, you heard that right. It might not just be a distant dream, not sothing for our descendants to experience, but sothing we might live to see ourselves."
Soone lets out a laugh but quickly falls silent as the others look at him. The first boy takes his tablet from the table and unlocks it to open a URL he has saved. That done, a video starts playing.
A young woman in the video smiles brightly, recording herself in selfie style as she walks through the city. The architecture around her is vastly different from anything on Earth and looks far too realistic to be cheap CGI."
She says, “So, this is my favourite floor so far for sure! Virelia is so beautiful, and look!” She turns the cara, and a tall woman passes by, several heads taller than the girl recording, with black hair, matching cat ears, and a long tail.
The tall woman with cat ears even stops and looks at the girl. “What are you holding, human?” she asks, voice full of curiosity.
The human woman smiles brightly and stretches her arm farther so they both fit into the fra. “It's a smartphone! Smile for my friend; I want to show them everything I’ve been recording!"
The tall woman with cat ears just shrugs and smiles in an easygoing manner.
"F-Fangs, even!" one of the boys blurts out, unable to hold it in.
The video ends, and another begins to play, all of the boys watching as the one holding the tablet grins widely.
POV Earth, Rafael Vaughn, aka Channeler
It has already been two days since I returned to Earth, and since then, I’ve kept the armor Nathaniel gave . Part of wants to worry about the guns being carried by the soldiers around us, but at the sa ti, I also know the armor is capable of resisting them. Even so, I expect much more hidden weaponry.
So far, I have no reason to act with aggression, so I continue to follow their protocols.
When my group of 10 returned, there were already soldiers waiting, connected to a higher-ranking soldier who flew here by helicopter and arrived at our location in no less than thirty minutes. We found ourselves in a small field on the outskirts of a small city where we were recording scenes for a TV series, most of us were extras or lesser-known actors or caran, and the like.
Of course, they tried to lowball us, imdiately hoping to bring us under their control, and I am sure they put a lot of work into creating protocols for that purpose. Honestly, it would have been strange if, after encountering those who returned before us, they hadn’t thought to search for places where large groups of people disappeared and wait for them to show up.
To make sure soone higher up talks to us, I shared so information. I gave them one of the USB drives we brought. It contains a number of videos we collected back in the tutorial, including footage of the destruction that took place during the tournant, recordings from the different floors, and ssages from people confirming their support. Nathaniel’s ssage in particular should carry the most weight.
The recordings of his performance include him lting the city and wiping out thousands of attendees, surviving a floating island falling on his head, and his movents that ti his hair turned white, in particular the way he maneuvered at speeds the caras could barely follow, not to ntion the way he faced down all those powerful monsters. I even asked an attendee who used to be a professional editor to put together a proper cut for us.
After that cos the video Izzy recorded. I still rember being there when she did.
In it, Nathaniel turns to the cara and says, “What? You want a ssage from for the people from Earth?”
“Yes! For the soldiers, maybe even the president!” Izzy's young voice says from behind the cara in her hands.
Nathaniel shrugs and looks right at the cara, “Channeler, the dude in the fancy armor with a uselessly handso face, is with , he represents and, to a lesser extent, my sister.”
“That's all?” Izzy asks in surprise.
“What else is there to say? Assuming they aren't all dumb fucks, they’ll understand the implications.”
“Oh, that's true, you an bombing them and stuff,” she calls happily.
“Why would I cause myself trouble by hurting innocent people? I’ll just find whoever gave the order and kill that guy. I don't think anyone can stop , even if it does turn out to be the president or sothing.”
The way he said it wasn't even ant as a threat, and he likely didn't even realize it. But these words, in the video that Izzy recorded from her height and spoken in his calm voice, bear more than a terrifying implication.
“That seems smart!” Izzy says with her youthful voice, her agreent adding to the aning.
So I remain confident and wait, refusing every offer they throw our way. I ignore emotional blackmail, hints that we could be heroes to our country, our responsibility, and everything that cos with it.
Then, just a bit later, a new helicopter appears; all black and very quiet. It looks almost like sothing from a sci-fi movie. A man in uniform steps out and heads toward us with confident strides, and after exchanging a few words with the leader of the group of soldiers, he moves closer.
He shows no worry, and his face remains calm.
“It is a pleasure to et you. My na is Jonathan Kane, US Army Colonel, and I have been authorized to enter negotiations. I have carefully reviewed the videos and read the files you shared with us, and the soldiers stationed here have shared your requirents with .”
He speaks smoothly, and unlike almost every soldier here, he doesn't seem to be nervous, either he hides it well, or he has an overwhelming confidence that we won’t be starting anything too erratic.
"As a show of our goodwill in these negotiations, we’re willing to share information about the locations of the individuals you ntioned. I want to make it completely clear, and I want to strongly emphasize this, that we will not use them in any way to influence, pressure, or manipulate the situation."
“Sir, how…” the soldier next to him calls, but the colonel simply lifts his hand, and the soldier falls silent.
“Sergeant, please don't interrupt the negotiations. Am I speaking with Mr. Rafael Vaughn?”
“Yes, it's nice to et you, Colonel Jonathan Kane,” I say, “so what are the terms on your side?”
"I would prefer for it to be our side, at least for now. As you surely realize, the following years will be anything but simple. For now, we honestly can’t say and have yet to decide how we will be dealing with this situation. We’re creating new protocols as we go. So far, we’ve been resorting to the tactic of throwing money at returnees like you, or offering them sothing of similar value."
“I can imagine that works pretty well.”
“Most of the ti.”
“What happens when it doesn't work?”
“I'm sorry, I cannot share that information with a civilian.”
“I understand. I will take your show of goodwill and would like to contact all the people on my list to inform them of their family’s status and ensure that they remain safe. After that, we are willing to negotiate.”
The colonel smiles, “Negotiate is quite an amusing word. The current situation is that you will get almost anything you ask for, to be honest.”
"Very well. The first na on the list is Thalia Gwyn. You've seen the files on Nathaniel Gwyn and Victoria Gwyn, and I want to confirm that she is safe. Her son also told to ask you to send her, and I quote him: 'Send my mom at least 50 million dollars to her account or sothing, and tell her not to buy stocks or any bullshit like that. Oh, and make sure she doesn't get taxed on it or anything like that. She should spend it quickly before the economy goes to shit. Maybe she could build a bunker. Min-Jae, how much do you think a really kickass bunker would cost? Actually, scratch that. Channeler, tell them to make it at least 100 mil and help her get a bunker sowhere on an island with nice weather'."
I stop myself and look at the colonel.
“I… I am already acquainted with Miss Thalia Gwyn,” he says.
“Good, then there’s a cat called Grumpy; it’s very important-”
I continue to give them our people's nas and even share estimated locations. I recite all of it from mory, and the Colonel listens patiently the whole ti, while a man next to him writes everything down. It's all going very smoothly, and they seem quite reasonable at the mont, which is more or less in line with what I expected. The desperation will co later, when the stronger ones start to appear.
POV ???
"We’ve succeeded in learning more about the planet we’ve been paired with, my Lord. It appears that the earliest attendees are already beginning to return, and the awakening process is underway. I will share more detailed information with you later. As you ordered, we’ve also been trying to determine how such a young planet could have been paired with us, despite being in its non-attack phase. So far, we haven’t found an explanation. As far as we know, such a Pairing should not be possible. I’ve consulted our historians, and the idea of a planet without an Absolute being selected is beyond the pale. It almost seems to go against the very design of the system. More interestingly, we’ve confird that one of the Ruler of Envy's vessels has been stationed on the moon orbiting the planet."
"Does that an it’s under his protection?"
"We cannot say for certain yet, but the vessel placed there is Champion grade on its own."
"Interesting. First, the Ruler of Greed interferes with Pairings, and now the Ruler of Envy is showing interest in a newly added planet. There are even rumors that the Ruler of Pride has erged from his seclusion and begun to interfere. This is deeply concerning. Go to the Palace. Tell them to uncover as much as possible, even if it ans calling in our favors."
"I will see to it imdiately, my Lord."
User Comments
0 comments from readers