Astra had no emotion on her face, as if she was expecting such a scene.
"It disappeared, just like when I was looking at the sky…" She muttered to herself.
"So it seems like I keep seeing things that don't exist! But does this still mean anything now that I'm here? My hallucinations still seem to tell a story."
"I hallucinated before the shift of Polaris and before the event of that 'hand'. Aside from this, I kept having these strange sights of random white lights in my room."
"I believe that there is an external source powering the hallucinations. If there is a story to tell due to them, then it's likely that the hallucinations are some sort of 'message'…but what message could it be? Could it be related to the black dolls, the river, or those strange words telling me not to look at the night sky? And who would be responsible for it? It could be the cosmic event that sent us here. I mean, the 'hand' was pointing at me…" After some thinking, Astra quickly dispelled this thought.
"No. The words "do not look at the night sky" did not appear while I looked at the hand. It's clearly referring to something different, and I cannot figure out what that is right now. Sigh, this might mean that I might have that message appear again."
"On another note, if I consider the theory that everyone but me doesn't remember how we got here, it's likely that the heavens have taken a special liking to me, like they want me to figure something out. And this is the message they are trying to tell me through the hallucinations. It's similar to what I thought of on the previous Earth."
"But am I getting too ahead of myself? I'm not that important…Besides, I need rigorous evidence. Though, I don't see any problem with my reasoning." Astra sighed and began to look at her phone.
It took her no time to realize that the way how the user interface and operating system works was the same as the previous Earth.
Additionally, she noticed that the phone could have projected holographically onto any surface or even on air, so she decided to do that to browse the internet.
She quietly began to look up many facts about this world as she stared at the holographic projection.
She was able to confirm her thoughts about religions. She was able to find the different dimensions, the history of the world, its geography, the planet they were on, and many other facts. She didn't have much of a reaction to it, aside from being happy that the world she was currently in expanded beyond the current planet and into the galaxy and beyond. It was because she had already expected such things just based on what she has seen so far.
For example, the size and population of the planet. She instantly realized that this planet was much larger than Earth's based off of Loken saying that Luna had 250 million people.
"It's still a little hard to think about, though. Luna is almost as big as the United States, and it's not even the capital city…" Astra gave off a nervous chuckle.
Either way, most importantly, she had already known that there had to be an external source powering everything.
Thus, she had confirmed her thoughts about the energy source. She had known she was completely right about all of it, even when she was on the previous Earth. This made her even happier than when she saw how humanity was a galactic civilization. As such, she kicked her feet slightly.
"This world is no different from our world. The only thing that's different is the presence of this infinite energy source that permeates the natural and the supernatural. It likely is the reason for everything here. There's no way that the architecture, infrastructure and technology here can be accomplished using normal, natural energy sources."
"Knowing this, things become somewhat clearer. Everything that seemed 'supernatural' on the previous Earth was due to this one! That's still to be figured out, if there is a message…"
"Anywho, that means my hallucinations, the strange message, the fact that I turned pale, the screams, and the shift of Polaris was because this energy was leaking from this reality to mine! And the event that caused us to transport to another reality was because of a result of this leakage?" Astra began to think of another theory as she confirmed her previous one.
"No, it's the other way around. The leakage was a result of something that was to come! It was almost like it was foreshadowing to me what was going on! This could very well be the 'message'! Hm. No, that doesn't sound right. The hallucinations keep appearing, even after I came here. Unless there's another event coming up. Well, this is assuming it even tells a message, which is an assumption on its own."
"Either way, I know one thing for certain. Everything that happened on the previous Earth happened because that 'hand' was going to transport us! But why?"
Astra then thought back on the hologram, and her previous assumptions.
"Could this really be a giant test…but I feel like my previous assumption isn't really correct, given the results of what has happened in the past few hours. I really don't have enough information."
"And, I wonder…Is it possible that I am also a part of that leakage in some way? I mean, my body is different from your average human. It's also the reason why I had a sense of 'aura' to me in high school. I didn't really like it though."
Astra then shook her head furiously out of exasperation. She stopped and then collected herself.
"There's still so much to figure out. At least this proves one of my previous assumptions to be correct!"
Astra then explored the internet to find things that were directly related to this energy source. During this, she spent quite a bit of time researching construction. She found an item that could be of interest.
It looked like a long metal cane with little streaks of light. Apparently, it utilizes nano bots to duplicate itself to create certain support structures for many buildings in Luna. It can hover in mid air, change its size, and can support holding up things many times its own weight. It was very dense and very heavy, weighing more than two fully grown men. As such, it took multiple people or assistance by a robot to carry it.
She looked at the name of this item, and it was called the "Supporter". It was commonly found inside of many buildings.
"What a fascinating name. And, the properties of this thing seem a little magical, even for this world. Not only that, it's almost everywhere in residential areas. It's perfect…" Astra muttered to herself in glee.
After satisfying her curiosity for a moment, she tried to look for more things related to this energy source and its applications outside of transportation, construction, logistics and other more natural means.
However, she quickly realized that there were certain things about it, and this world, that were confidential.
For instance, if she were to search up any strong unofficial organizations that have abilities aside from the military, police, or dominions, she would get no relevant results. Furthermore, the results that came from this were usually about weapons and armor, seldom mentioning anyone that can 'naturally' bring out power from this source.
At the same time, as a scientist, she knew that the dimensions had to have an energy source that came from somewhere, and it couldn't just be waved away by calling it "infinite". While it was implied that the dimensions were the energy source through the wording of various sites, it still wouldn't justify how higher beings like Gods—who supposedly transcend the dimensions—were able to create them in the first place. She deduced that there had to be a medium.
Following this line of reasoning, Astra came up with another theory.
"This medium has to be something that permeates the dimensions, allowing it to do what they do. If the Gods use this medium for the dimensions, then it's possible for humans to also use this medium for certain abilities outside of natural means. So, why aren't more people using it? Even if the governments were trying to cover it up, if a lot of people utilize it there's not much they can do."
"Knowing what I know now, it's easy to figure out why. This energy source, or rather this medium, is extremely hard to use! And of course, misusing such a power has latent dangers! If that's the case, then there must be some great benefit to using it in the first place. That great benefit must be great power. Is it possible for one to become a demigod just by using this medium? That could be the reason as to why the demigods were able to show up so suddenly and take humanity from the Chaotic to the Transitional Eon. If this is the case, then there is the potential that one using this source can become very dangerous. In fact, there might be people like that lurking in the shadows…"
"Sigh. Sadly, this means I can't even research or study effectively about this energy source. And since I have no education background in this world, it's extremely hard for me to get into schools that could get me a job that could help me study the source. For now, the closest thing to studying this source of energy is finding certain items that are closely connected with it, like the Supporter."
After trying and failing to find more about the energy source, Astra realized that in order for her to get more information, she would have to explore 'underground'. The internet wasn't providing her with the information that she wanted, and she knew that this was because the government didn't want the people to know about an energy source that can potentially create terrifying destroyers.
This is also the reason why there seems to be no mention of any particular calamity or disaster caused by any one person, or even organization that has used this energy source.
To Astra, this made everything feel very dystopian.
Despite the governments claiming to be free, many of them still had strict control over information. She didn't know how the countries on Westoria act, as no information is given about them for some strange reason.
In any case, this dystopian feeling made Astra realize that she couldn't fully trust what goes on in politics or even history. It's best to find other methods other than the state-controlled internet to gain information. And to do this, she would have to become stronger.
"If I have the means to know more, I will know more…"
"The first order of business is to find the name of the energy source, and how to use it."
However, Astra still decided to study the history of the countries and the world based on what she found on the internet. It's possible that it could be useful. There's a chance that even some, or even most of it could be true.
The first thing she decided to do was research about the most recent conflict between major countries.
She had found that the war was between countries called the Sentaic Republic and the Zephyr Order. The Sentaic Republic worships the 2nd Dimension, Sentience, while the Zephyr Order worships the 5th dimension, Memory and Time Divergence. The Zephyr Order borders the western sea Duskveil, and also borders Morpheus.
She found out that during the war which lasted 6 years, hundreds of millions of immigrants fled to Morpheus, with almost half of them coming to Luna.
The Zephyr Order happened to win the war with a Pyrrhic victory. It was a disaster for the Sentaic Republic, who lost to a minor country of the fifth dimension.
"Why did they go to war in the first place…the dimensions are interconnected. Shouldn't they be fighting the so-called mysterious Gods?" Astra thought in her head.
She searched up the reason why and found that it was because an organization called the Chronomancers were accused of staging a terrorist attack in the Sentaic Republic. Despite Zephyr denying accountability, the Sentaic 'Ruling Body of Intelligence' still decided to declare war on Zephyr due to the remains of the attack being from the fifth dimension. It didn't help that the Chronomancers were a subdivision of the larger organization called the Keepers of Memories—the main body for the Dominion of the fifth dimension.
As such, the war started. And after six years, Zephyr won dozens of billions of Veylars in compensation and a few hundred miles of territory, but lost one tenth of their population.
The reason why they won is because of Morpheus.
Astra had later found out that the Orpheus bloodline, which was one of the three great royal bloodlines of the Republic, helped supply Zephyr with people and weapons.
This made Zephyr allow Morpheus to take a good portion of its population.
"So that's why the Highest Order led by the Orpheus bloodline passed that act…"
"This sounds like it was staged. The reason Sentaia gives as to why it attacked is shaky. Both countries should know that they have capabilities of finding residual pieces of energy tracing back to the perpetrator. If that's the case, then why would Zephyr willingly attack a much larger country when they could've easily been figured out? I would assume that a secret organization who had Memory and Time Divergence capabilities staged it, but…"
"If I were an organization trying to stage something, it would involve multiple countries. Maybe it's building toward something greater? But nothing of that scale happened since…"
"Then, if you consider the news breaking regarding countries around the world trying to find 'unidentified humans', many secret organizations and cults would probably ramp up their activity. Maybe they were waiting for such a moment? But how would they know something of this scale would happen?"
"There's also the possibility of this being enticed by Morpheus, or rather, the Orpheus family. They did it because they had the foresight to see the advantages it'll give to the Republic of Morpheus? It makes sense, as Morpheus is the only one that won out of this, gaining population and productivity and allowing itself to be called the 'Land of the Immigrants' colloquially. If they wanted to stage it, I don't doubt they could've used their Dominion to lease some strong Time Divergence users, or even some people from the Keepers of Memories…"
"It seems like Sentaia has adopted a similar strategy to Morpheus currently. Expectedly, its neighboring country, Octavia, doesn't really like it that much. I guess they should try to be better for their citizens?"
"In any case, why are the major countries so fond of immigrants? I mean, they are large countries…you already have enough people!"
She searched up why the larger countries like Sentaia and Morpheus liked immigrants while smaller countries like Vytheris didn't.
The answer she found was because the smaller countries usually migrate to the larger ones, decreasing the productivity of the minor ones and increasing the productivity of the larger ones. The minor countries have all tried their hardest to stop emigration from their country, and tried to encourage immigration to their country. It didn't work, as the major countries were usually more economically powerful and thus had better opportunities.
There was not much the minor countries could have done. So, the minor countries, in a way, are considered 'poor countries', despite some of them being better off than others.
The downside is that the people inside of the minor countries suffer terrible conditions, forcing them into many degenerate places. Some have to resort to gangs for money, some are forced to live in the slums and pray for the Gods to bless them as their government treats them like a problem to fix. Some even have fates that are worse than death.
And when they try to leave, they risk facing imprisonment or even death due to the brutality of the immigration officers. Little to no justice is present for them or given to them, and many people in those societies don't seem to care enough.
Some were even hostile to them, thinking that they were the reason that caused the country to fall.
In these countries, the attempted emigrants who try to leave but get caught rot in prison. They were called 'undesirables', and ironically the reason why is because not even their own country wanted them.
The governments are usually apathetic towards this, and some even encourage it.
This was all to 'deter' people from leaving the country, keeping them in the same place to improve the 'economy' of the country that had never helped them.
This was the reality of the poor in many minor countries.
"…" Astra didn't have much of a reaction, except feeling great amounts of gratitude for being lucky to land in the country of Morpheus.
And at the same time, she felt worried about the possibility that her mom and/or Aria was transported to one of the minor countries, or even worse, Vytheris.
"I wonder if when I get powerful enough, I'd be able to change such a system. Heh, a scientist dabbling in politics. Where have you seen that before…" Astra thought sarcastically.
She sighed and decided that she had done enough researching.
"I'll try to get more information tomorrow. My shift is about to start in a few hours—that's if I take a nap now!" She told herself as she got up and paced around her room. She had only taken 2 or so hours to research everything, so she had a little less than 7 hours left until her 8 PM shift.
"I also don't think I'd be able to get a lot of true or relevant information from the internet. It's very possible that most, if not the entire story of that war could've been fabricated. If I was in Octavia or Vytheris, I could've had a view that showed me how terrible immigrants were."
"But even then, the conditions between both countries tell me enough of the story. I'd much rather be here than in Vytheris, even if they have their 'point of view'."
"Either way, I have to find other means other than the internet. On that note, I have to be careful…"
Astra stopped pacing around the room and looked around and saw a suitcase on the floor, and a suitcase on the bed.
"I need to clean up and set everything up how I like it…" Astra sulked. "And to be honest, things do seem to be going a little too well…everything was provided for me. Even if there were reasons for it, I'm still skeptical…" Astra thought as her mind suddenly thought back to Loken.
"Hm. Thinking about it, he did say his last name was Westorian."
Suddenly, Astra's eyes began to widen!
She had discovered something that she completely missed!
"Westoria is a distant, hidden continent that contains many mysteries…why would he suddenly mention that his last name was Westorian despite the fact that I most likely wouldn't know much about the continent? He even bowed in the Westorian style. I heavily doubt that him doing that was a part of protocol…"
She had come to only one conclusion.
Loken was trying to impress her!
Astra laughed.
"This world and its humans really aren't that much different!"
Growl…
Astra's stomach began to rumble greatly.
"Now that I think about it, the only food I had was cookies. Sigh." Astra thought as she rubbed her stomach.
"I need to get something to eat before I go to my job. But before that…"
"I need to nap first." After saying this, Astra quickly set up the built-in holographic AI assistant in her phone to set an alarm.