4 A.M. Sentaic Republic.
Xavier was plagued with the feeling of wanting to know more about this world.
In a way, this was his way of expressing his desire to know more as a scientist.
In a way, this was his way of trying to cope with the fact that his life has completely changed.
In a way, he was still skeptical about a completely foreign land.
Xavier was browsing the internet on the futuristic computer that was on the table, researching every detail Vael had talked about. Emilia was in her bed, sleeping soundly, while Aria was seemingly comfortable sleeping like a cat on the sofa.
After Aria went to sleep, Xavier spent 5 hours on the internet researching the details about this planet. About 30 minutes of that time was getting used to the laptop and the interface. The good thing was that the internet worked very similarly to Google.
Using this, Xavier was able to confirm that pretty much everything Vael said was correct. He also tried to search up the mysterious Gods which Vael mentioned but never followed up on. Unfortunately, no such results came up about them.
Xavier didn't dwell on it. What he wanted to find was the name of this infinite source of energy, and how individuals and organizations use it. Xavier found that the claim about the energy source was true. Though, he was unable to find the name of this energy source. Everything about the energy source just fell back to the Dimension of Energy. Xavier wondered if this was the energy source, but it doesn't line up with Vael's description.
The boundless energy source seemed to permeate all of the dimensions going off of Vael's description, while the Dimension of Energy seemed to be just a part of it!
In any case, he was able to confirm that pretty much everything that was on this Earth was the same or very similar to the previous Earth. The biology of humans, laws of physics, chemistry, and so on, all of them were the same. Most of the animals were the same, except for some creatures that were akin to monsters.
There were a few things that were different, however.
This 'Earth' was about as big as the Sun from the previous Earth. Along with that, the population was more than that of the Earth by a hundredfold.
The map looked completely different. This Earth had one supercontinent named with 2 other continents, with there being two polar, icy continents. The supercontinent was named Velmora. The supercontinent had all types of biomes and landscapes.
Meanwhile, there was a continent on the other side of the world named Westoria. Westoria was relatively unknown, even on the internet, and seldom any people travel there. Dravara was the continent closest to Velmora, and it was an extremely mountainous continent. The polar continent in the north was called the Northern Continent and the polar continent in the south was called the Southern Continent. These continents were used for research, and rarely any tourists traveled there. The civilizations on these continents were relatively small.
There were also the five oceans, South Polar, North Polar, Midora, Duskveil, and Aetheris, where many archipelagos lie. Then, in the continent of Velmora, there were four main seas: Silvermere, Emberlyn, Hollowdeep and Duskveil.
The seas and oceans were much deeper than on the previous Earth, containing a lot of dangerous creatures. Some sea routes and ocean routes were forbidden, like the archipelagos of Aetheris. This didn't stop pirates from trying to reach the area to get some loot and get certain artifacts banned by governments, though.
Nonetheless, there were a total of 37 countries on the supercontinent, including the Sentaic Republic and Morpheus. Octavia was also on the map, but most of it bordered the Silvermere sea.
6 countries were in Westoria, while 2 countries were in Dravara. Westoria had a completely different history than both Velmora and Dravara, and it was entirely made up of countries following Mysticism. Thus, it was almost as if it was a separate world from everything else. It was also largely mysterious, despite the technology of this world having the means to access almost anything due to the internet.
On this note, in most countries, there was freedom of expression and free speech. However, there was little freedom of information.
Every country had a religion. The most dominant religion was Dreamscape, having 12 countries to its name. The largest country for this religion was Morpheus, and it was also the largest country on the planet. Then, the second most dominant religion was Energy, which had 10 countries. It was followed by Sentience, which had 9 countries. Then Memory and Time Divergence, which had 8 countries. Possibility had 7 countries, and Mysticism had 6 countries. Each one of these countries had their own militaries and official organizations regarding their religion, using the energy source given from their religion for defensive or offensive means. And each of these countries had their own 'Dominions', which acted similar to a church.
Interestingly, all six dimensions have a major country to its name, and the Sentaic Republic was the major country for Sentience.
As for the languages, there were only 6 official ones. Sentaic, which was for the dimension of Sentience. Dreamurian, which was for Dreamscape. Entheris, which is for Energy. Oneris, which is for Possibility. Nytheric, which is for Time Divergence. Zarethian, which is for Mysticism. There were also many other ancient languages that were not named, and barely even mentioned on the internet.
Also, there was an unofficial religion, called the Dimension of Science and Physics. It claims to be the true first dimension and claims that its God governs space, time, science and physics, and that these facets of reality cannot be explained with the work of humans alone. This was 'discovered' a few thousand years ago. However, this religion does not have a language to its name.
"It seems to be gaining popularity...I wouldn't mind joining that religion. Aside from that, it really is a much bigger and stranger Earth, but fundamentally not much different than home…" Xavier thought while looking at the computer.
In space, the moon was as big as Uranus, and it was populated by human civilization. But due to certain endangered moonwalking species, humans lived underground on the moon, to 'protect' them. The blue sun was many times larger and more massive than the Sun from before, and it was called Siria, though many still call it the Sun. The solar system was also much larger than the previous solar system, and logically the constellations were different with different signs and names. Along with that, Xavier found that the size of the universe was found to be infinite, and there was the existence of 'higher' realms. However, he couldn't find any more information on these realms. He happened to consider all of this to be extremely interesting, but sadly he couldn't find the practicality of this information so far.
Back on Earth, the seasons were the same, and had the same names. Weather and other natural phenomena were the same as well. Strangely, the 24 hour day night cycle was the same as on the previous earth, and there were 365 days in a year. Expectedly, the time zones were drastically different.
Despite this, humanity was a galactic civilization, to the glee of Xavier. Along with this, technology and science that were assumed to be nigh-impossible was abundant on this earth. Things such as artificial super-intelligence, quantum supercomputing, nuclear fusion, faster-than-light travel, wormholes, warp drives and so on.
"Humans really can be amazing!" A small amount of pride set in Xavier's heart.
Despite being a galactic civilization, humans mainly resided on Earth, since space travel was expensive. It was also dangerous, since there were many powerful creatures lurking in space, and even more dangerous creatures lie past the galaxy, where 'guardians' protect humanity from those creatures.
Back on Earth, Xavier researched many transportation systems. He found that the most common way of traveling was "personal trains", which work as an elevator but on a much larger scale. Instead of your usual elevator, which travels to different floors, these personal trains travel to different parts of a city.
High speed trains and flying cars were used for international or inter-country travel. Planes were called "ships" but they were mainly used for space travel, rather than air travel. Ships that were on the water were extremely large, the size of some small cities on the previous Earth, and can even move faster than them. However, these large ships are usually used by military or other organizations to traverse the large and deep oceans.
Interestingly, housing basically everywhere was a lot more affordable than on the previous Earth, not to the surprise of Xavier. Thus, as long as everyone has the corresponding documents and money, they would be able to find an apartment easily. This is also why immigration is so popular in this world, more specifically in the major countries. There was almost no mention of the minor countries and their stances on immigration.
"It makes sense why Vael would think of us as immigrants first. But still…it's hard for me to believe that he would just take us in. Are humans just kinder here? No, I don't believe that…" Xavier thought to himself as he kept researching.
The schooling system was basically the same as on the previous Earth, and so was getting into the workforce. There was no lack of billionaires, and there were even trillionaires, most of whom lived outside of the planet. There was one main currency, called Veylar. It had smaller denominations, like Sylen, which was worth 1/100th of a Veylar, Orin, which was worth 1/10th of a Veylar. Xavier guessed that the Veylar was worth about 10 U.S. dollars.
Xavier tried to learn more about the government, politics and the history of this world and its specific countries, but he got quite bored really quickly and decided that it would be better to ask Vael about matters like those.
"Speaking of Vael, it would be good if I could find an organization that has people that can manipulate an infinite energy source, and the name of the source…" Xavier thought.
As he looked, he wasn't able to find any organization other than official organizations that are able to harbor such people, even on low scales. He even went through 50 pages worth of information, differing his search each time, but still found nothing.
"It's possible that it's classified info to learn about stuff like that. Makes sense, given how dangerous it sounds. But it's still weird…why is something as simple as finding the name of an organization like that so difficult? I mean, I see here that sometimes it can cause some 'accidents' even on large scales, but that doesn't mean it should be censored. Hopefully I'm not in a dystopian universe." Xavier thought in English.
"It also sucks, because if Aria wants to gain more influence, that's probably what she would need. More information about this 'source' and people who use it."
"Well, it wouldn't be bad if we're able to use such a source for our advantage either."
Xavier kept clicking and kept searching. He even went onto the 'dark web', but still wasn't able to find anything.
He then gave up on trying to find an unofficial organization and tried to just search for the name 'infinite energy source'.
Soon enough, his eyes began to droop.
"One more page…I should be able to find the name…" He said, his voice dropping as his mouth began to move more slowly.
Click!
In an instant, his eyes widened as the glow from the computer screen reflected onto his pupils.
"This boundless, omnipresent source of energy lies dormant within every dimension. It is the backbone for all of society. While it is kept secret as to 'protect' the public, it is possible to manipulate it to assist you. While this website isn't able to show you how, it is able to tell you the name so you can look for ways how…"
After almost an hour of searching, he was able to find the name of the source.
He saw the description of it, and it perfectly matched Vael's account.
"The name is Ethereon."
"That's the name! The infinite and boundless energy source! This can be used for our advantage!" Xavier thought in glee.
…
10 PM, in the streets heading to Luna, around the time Xavier finished his research.
Astra Sera was still dirty and her blonde hair was still messy. Her white lab coat had many marks on its back.
She was walking on the highway to the Luna intercity along with a great number of people. Vehicles were zooming past her, and the sounds of conversation filled her head.
Astra had walked for around 30 minutes. Due to how far Luna was, it would take her about another hour of walking to reach it.
Astra Sera did not mind, though. She didn't mind the fact that she was dirty, she didn't mind the fact that no one knew her, she didn't mind the fact that she was hungry and thirsty, she didn't mind the fact that she was tired, she didn't mind the fact that her standing in society was completely overturned in the manner of hours!
In fact, she didn't mind anything that has happened so far. She more than welcomed such changes to her life.
While she was worried for her family and her coworkers, while she hoped and prayed in her heart that they were okay, her curiosity for exploring this new world bubbled inside of her, and the challenge of investigating the supernatural event behind the transportation of Earth excited her greatly!
Astra let out a chuckle as she skipped three times. The people that were walking on the highway along with her glanced at her with strange faces, but continued to do what they were doing.
Astra suddenly stopped walking. She looked down towards her 'watch'.
"My next goal is suitable housing…I wonder where I can find that. I'm going to guess I'll be able to find advertisements for it. Though, one would think that in a country so lenient towards immigrants, there would be a system where it'd be easy for them to get housing…" Astra muttered to herself.
She tapped her 'watch', which was called an immigrant band, and a blue hologram zipped up in front of her.
It showed her portrait and all of her relevant information on it. Astra then tapped the "Check Balance" in the bottom left corner. As soon as she did so, the hologram condensed onto the metal of the band, showing her numbers on the band.
"Current Balance: 500 Veylars"
"I see. That must be the currency. This country is quite generous. I wonder if this amount can get me a half decent apartment." Astra muttered to herself.
"Hmmmm." Astra put her right hand to her chin. After a second of thinking, she began to play with the band by tapping on it, getting used to its functions.
After a few seconds of tinkering with it, she found a map of Luna, and her current location. After tinkering with it some more, she found directions to the Department of Immigration. Unfortunately, they were already closed and would only be open in the morning.
She read the instructions anyway.
"Once you reach the intercity, you will see the Obsidian Obelisk, located near Mirros Park."
"Across from Mirros Park is Elythra Avenue. The third large building on the right is the Department of Immigration."
"Simple instructions. It makes sense. Once I get to the Department, I should be able to buy a house there, or at least find clearer instructions. Mmm, I am a little curious on how this Obelisk looks though…"
Astra giggled as she tapped her band. Subsequently, the hologram disappeared. She continued to walk in the direction of Luna, its buildings becoming larger and more visible.
An hour and a half later, she finally reached the intercity.
She had understood the grandeur of Luna, the tenth biggest city in Morpheus.
It was a metropolis that stood at the crossroads of the seemingly supernatural and science, where towering skyscrapers with holographic advertisements seamlessly blended with floating structures, suspended bridges, and energy-infused streets that pulsed like veins through the city.
The roads beneath Astra's feet were made of a polished crystalline alloy, reflecting the soft glow of the sci-fi skyline. Vehicles of various forms, some hovering above ground, others gliding on rail-guided tracks—moved in perfect synchrony. Above, translucent highways weaved between skyscrapers, their surfaces shifting with projected symbols of the Moon. This guided aerial transit, of which there seemed as if there were hundreds of air vehicles in the sky.
Even though it was almost midnight, the streets and the city were still very busy. Noise from the people, vehicles and the buildings blended in with each other while the neon lights gave the city a futuristic, pink, purplish glow.
Astra looked around her in disbelief. Even though she was closer and closer to fully seeing such a sight coming into the city, standing in the center of such a scene was otherworldly.
Her eyes looked at everything with a childlike innocence. She wanted to explore this world and everything about it, leaving no knowledge untouched. She had never thought that humanity would be able to create such wonders.
For almost 15 minutes, Astra wandered around, enjoying the sight.
It was only then did she see a massive screen pointing towards the Obsidian Obelisk that made her realize that she had to find the Department. She followed the arrow and saw the Obelisk in the distance.
She then quickly walked towards it, hearing murmurs about how it was made to serve the God of Dreams on the way there.
"God of Dreams…?" Astra raised her eyebrow, not looking in the direction of the person who said this. She remembered hearing something similar back when she was at the entrance to Luna.
This piqued Astra's interest!
Regardless, after a few minutes of walking, she finally approached the Obelisk.
Towering above the surrounding structures, it was a massive, jet-black monolith. Strange velvet markings that resembled the moon and stars were etched across its surface, and those markings pulsed in a strange rhythm, shifting like a living script. It was said to be a relic of unknown origin, a remnant from an age before Luna's rise, a source of power for the Demigod of the Dreamscape.
Around it were sculptures of people and people themselves in purple robes holding both of their hands to their chests, seemingly in a praying motion.
Astra looked at the sculptures and people who were surrounding the Obelisk in confusion. Suddenly, she got a realization.
"Wait! This is a religion! This is what the officer mentioned! This monument is for the 'God of Dreams'!" Astra thought to herself.
"That means that it's extremely likely that this world is run by the supernatural. Could it be that one of these Gods made us transport here? Is it possible that I was doing indirect worship to these Gods? How strange! This is what I like! I need to know more about this!" Astra stared at the Obelisk as she arrived at a conclusion that Xavier and the others didn't consider.
After allowing her mind to flash through with countless possibilities, she allowed herself to calm down.
"The internet should be available here. I can always research such things there…I need a house first, though…" Astra sulked as usual.
She followed the instructions she memorized from the band and arrived at Mirros Park, and then Elythra Avenue. As expected, on the right, she saw the Department of Immigration.
There it loomed—a sleek structure of metal and glass with floating geometric extensions that seemed to defy physics!
"It's definitely closed. I wonder where I'm going to sleep. Heh, I haven't had to worry about that back on Earth…." Astra thought as she memorized the pathway to the Department and went to Mirros Park.
It was a large park with a large lake in the center. Trees populated the green biome and there were the occasional wooden benches near the fences of the park. The classic faint purple glow given off by the velvet crescent moon inundated the atmosphere. It was quite a natural sight compared to the rest of the city.
There at the park, she didn't see many people. While it was large, not many people would come here at such a time. In fact, most of the people present here were sleeping, presumably immigrants.
Astra found a suitable bench near the lake and decided to lay her back on the bench.
"Ah~…"
Suddenly, a huge surge of relief went through her entire body.
She hadn't laid down for almost an entire day!
Growl…
However, her stomach was growling. Along with that, her throat was dry.
Upon feeling this, she giggled slightly and looked up at the sky.
"Hehe. This is a lot more exciting than a banquet." She muttered to herself.
The sky was dark, but there were no stars in the night sky. The only thing visible was the velvet moonlight and the rings streaking across the atmosphere.
This was because of the enormous amount of light pollution.
Ting!
A star appeared in Astra's vision.
Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!
Multiple stars began to appear! Along with them, there were also lines connecting the stars!
"Huh?" Astra couldn't help but be confused.
Instantly, the stars began to shine brighter, and began to get more colorful! As it did, it began to spill, like paint coming out from a bucket.
Astra's ear began to ring, and her face was beginning to turn pale!
A wave of anxiety and strange excitement washed through Astra!
"What!? My hallucinations are back?" Astra almost shouted as her eyes widened in surprise. "Or is it-" Astra's thoughts were interrupted before the stars suddenly disappeared. The ringing sounds disappeared, and her face had its normal, dark skinned color.
"…" Astra lay speechless and thoughtless as sweat trickled down her face and down her body. She didn't notice she was sweating.
"What…was…that…" Astra silently muttered to herself in English, as she slowly drifted off to sleep.