Despite Astra experiencing second hand embarrassment from the dramatic entrance, most of the people in the auditorium had liked it. They widened their mouths as they took on faces that appeared as if they were interested.
The music dimmed as the lights began to turn back on and the foggy haze began to dissipate. This meant that the 'performance' was over. Subsequently, most of the people in the auditorium clapped.
As the lights were on and there was no fog, the man could've been seen clearly.
He was a middle aged, light skinned man with black hair and black eyes. He had a decently tall build, and was a little chunky. He looked above average.
The man came closer to the edge of the stage as the clapping began to stop.
"Thank you all for being here, construction worker trainees! I'm your supervisor, Julian John. By the grace of God, we are here to…" Julian then began to open up with pleasantries. Of course, Astra was not interested. She didn't even care about the strange name for the man.
She cared more about the technology and the equipment that they had to use!
This could be a clue to learning about the energy source that she needs!
For about 60 minutes, Julian mentioned the amount of training and technical work they would have to do, the safety procedures of said training, the shifts that will be involved, and the randomized pairings of trainees. Julian also mentioned the fact that the training period will last 12 months, and how it will be 'graded'. He also mentioned the pay, which is about 2 Veylars an hour. Once they become actual workers, it will increase to 3 Veylars and 5 Orin. Astra looked quite uninterested while he explained these things that seemed to be very important.
After divulging about those things, Julian finally reached the part where he began to speak about the things Astra cared about—which was the equipment.
Julian began pointing to the screen, his face still staring at the audience. He was revealing the set of equipment needed for the construction job.
It was a bunch of equipment one would expect from a construction job. Things like hammers, nails, drills, and other utilities were shown. They all looked futuristic, which gave them a look that almost looked completely different than they were on the previous Earth. Astra was still able to distinguish the equipment.
She swept her eyes to the words next to the equipment. They were simply labels showing the usage of the equipment. As expected, it was the same as on Earth.
There was also some equipment that seemed like it was out of a science fiction movie. There were things like hovering platforms, transparent shields, and even armor/clothing made from extremely shock resistant nano-bots.
While this was interesting, Astra had already known the science behind all of the equipment. The thing she was looking for hadn't shown itself yet.
After some more minutes of talking, Julian then moved onto the next section, which was the dangerous situations that the trainees would have to encounter. Astra was disappointed. Alas, she had a slightly annoyed look on her face.
Julian continued and began to explain how to deal with certain encounters. He also explained the procedures for the next section, which was the practical section. Astra took in the information anyway, despite being bored.
After a total time of 2 hours and 18 minutes of talking, Julian was finished with his presentation. He then invited everyone to go inside of a large room that was adjacent to the auditorium. This was the room that held the practical section.
As such, everyone stood up and in a semi-orderly fashion, began to go inside of the room. During this process, Astra noticed a few people staring at her. She attempted to ignore their stares and focus her gaze onto the next room.
Inside the room, it was an augmented reality space that accurately simulated the jobs and effects of the work that would be done during construction.
As soon as Astra entered, she felt as if she was on the edge of a cliff that had a bottomless pit beneath her.
Wind that was moving at a decent pace began to flow through the atmosphere, blowing Astra's braided hair.
Astra looked around her and saw that she was near the edge of a windowsill! Below her was what seemed like an endless abyss!
Her feet were on a hovering platform that was rocking beneath her, as if it was about to fall!
Furthermore, there was nobody around her. It was as if all of the people that was present before in the auditorium had disappeared!
She casted her gaze to her surroundings and saw that she saw nothing but a boundless fog that rested below some mountaintops. It looked like something from another planet.
"This must be a part of the simulation…" Astra muttered to herself as if she expected this.
She didn't panic. She simply began to recall what Julian had said and put it into action.
"In moments like these, the best thing to do is to simply regain your footing and go on a more stable platform…" Astra proceeded to move her feet on the edges of the platform while spreading her arms out slightly to balance herself.
This was quite difficult, as the platform was extremely shaky. One needed a very high level of coordination to balance properly.
After she did such a motion, she began to use her left foot to press down slightly to launch herself from the platform onto the windowsill.
As she did this, she felt as if her body got a lot heavier.
"This must be the equipment that we'd have to put on being simulated. Expectedly, it hasn't changed our appearance…it's heavily likely they're doing it so they can test our memory." Astra said as she pulled out what appeared to be nothing from the area around a specific part of her skirt.
This apparent 'nothing' began to manifest into something as a grey button began to appear in Astra's palm.
This was a button that can activate a mini zip-line, allowing her to descend safely down!
She pressed the button, and instantly many lines began to spread out towards the bottom. They were moving at such a speed that it even made Astra shocked.
As such, they initially didn't go where Astra wanted it to go. So, using a great amount of strength, she forcefully cocked the arm that had the button back. By doing a pulling motion in the left direction, she made the lines go in the right direction.
Bang!
A slight crashing sound was made as the lines from before collided with the building that Astra was attempting to climb down from.
Suddenly, the lines began to stiffen and converge into one line. Astra knew that she was able to descend properly. She grabbed onto the line and began to slide down.
"This item can be kinda useful for self defense if I want to escape a situation. I'll keep that in mind for later." Astra then chuckled slightly. "Heh, the way I did this was a bit rough. I wasn't supposed to brute force my way through it. But this is much faster compared to allowing the lines to slowly converge into one and slowly descending."
As Astra descended, she had felt herself getting lighter and lighter until she returned to her previous weight.
In a moment, she saw herself in a blank white room covered with starry patterns. In front of her was Julian, who had a shocked look on his face.
"What's wrong?" Astra asked with a deadpan expression.
"…You finished in 2 minutes?" Julian asked in a low tone, his voice matching the look on his face.
"Yes."
"That's very unusual. Usually it takes about an hour to complete. If it's not a fluke, then you must be a genius at controlling your body…" Julian continued as he tried to rationalize what he just saw.
"…" Astra didn't respond. She simply awaited for instructions.
"Okay. Excellent job. We'll wait on the others before we move onto the next section. That section will be the theory portion."
Astra nodded, sat down, and began to look at the starry patterns in the white room in boredom. Julian didn't experience the same problem, because he has access to the footage of all trainees going through their training.
"This Astra girl actually cleared this in less than 5 minutes! How? This was built in such a way that the average human would have to try at least 20 or 30 tries to just go onto the windowsill!" Julian began to look at Astra, who had a faint smile. She almost gave off a childlike innocence. "To think that I wasn't even watching her when she cleared it so fast…"
"She can't be cheating. It's impossible to cheat here. She must be a genius in the body at least…" Julian sighed.
"I wonder if she's from the military or is a spy…after all, she is an immigrant. No, that's too much of an assumption!
…
Roughly an hour and a half later.
By that time, everyone had already finished the practical section. Some were clearly more tired than others, while some seemed more disinterested. Others were happy and conversing with people who they assumed were going to be their colleagues.
As for Astra, she was silent. She didn't converse with anyone, and nobody tried to converse with her, despite many gazes falling upon her.
Even though the noise that sounded like a large crowd penetrated her ears, she still stared at the strange, starry symbols on the white walls.
"Okay everyone, it's time to commence with our theory. Remember that every time you come here, you will not only be doing your practical tests…" Julian spoke amongst the small crowd, gathering their attention.
"…This will last for the next six hours, and we will have a short 30 minute break every hour and a half." As soon as Julian said this, the white room shifted into a classroom that had advanced technology that appeared to be something out of a science fiction movie.
Everyone promptly took their seats. For the remainder of the time in Astra's shift, Julian explained the theory of construction. This included being able to use certain items and artifacts, being able to traverse buildings, and even being able to call for emergency. Julian also addressed any sort of safety concerns.
Unfortunately, Astra did not find the item she was hoping to find.
…
A week had passed since Xavier, Emilia and Aria began living in Vael's house.
During this time, they had done a variety of things in their day to day life.
They woke up, ate, went on the internet to research about the world or for entertainment, talked to Vael about certain matters, showered, and slept. Occasionally, Vael would teach them how to properly integrate into the religion of Sentience, Emotion and Consciousness. They hadn't left the house during this time.
The trio never really talked to each other much, as they were still not fully accustomed to living together.
However, because a week had passed and they were slowly digesting the situation they were in, they were slowly but surely getting more accustomed to the world they were in.
Though, their previous home was still in their sights.
In the room of the trio, Aria and Emilia were lying on their beds. They were in their pajamas, and they had a holographic helmet on top of their heads.
They were playing a RPG virtual reality game. It was a fantasy, and they had been playing the game for 2 hours.
Meanwhile, Xavier was on the sofa, appearing to look at something on the laptop.
The sun was about to set, giving the room a slightly purple hue, making the room look like it was on an alien planet.
While writing about what he was beginning to know on paper, he continued to research about the world. Despite him considering it quite boring, he wanted to absorb as much information as possible. To his disappointment, most of it was mundane and didn't involve any sort of supernatural involvement. When it did involve the supernatural—or rather Ethereon—the information it gave was rather vague.
For example, Xavier found out the war that Vael had mentioned, which was between the Sentaic Republic and Zephyr. While it did mention that the war was fought using the "boundless and infinite energy source", it did not mention much about this source.
As such, Xavier had completely given up on finding more about Ethereon on the internet. The best way was through Vael, and he had to be a little patient about that.
He had to wait for Vael to hopefully teach them!
Suddenly, he saw Emilia and Aria's helmets disappear simultaneously.
"Bro, that has to be the stupidest sh*t in existence!" Aria almost shouted as she got up with a frustrated expression.
"What…" Xavier creased his eyebrows in confusion as he looked towards Aria.
"You're right, because how could a level 11 Pyro be super effective against an earth type. An earth type! Is this game serious?" Emilia said with a similar tone.
"Oh, they're doing this again…" Xavier fixed his expression and continued to look at the contents on the laptop. He began to browse social media.
"This world sucks! The games suck! I'm never playing this again!" Aria continued to say.
Xavier didn't look at them, as he knew that they both were going to play the game again.
"I see. It seems like the news about the people from our home had completely dissipated. It's only been a week, and I barely see reports…"
"In this world, are such things normal for them to treat it as just a news headline?" Xavier thought wistfully as he continued to look.
On a post that showed the current states of the people from the trio's home going into prisons, there were a few comments below it.
"I wonder if they were sent by God and this is a test…"
"They just appeared out of nowhere! They might be from the Telepor race! Either way, we can't trust them!"
"I bet that pesky continent sent those weird people here as a joke…"
"…" Xavier didn't look at any more comments as he closed his laptop.
"Anything interesting you found?" Emilia asked as she came up to Xavier with a smile.
"Nope. Just some boring history. I did happen to discover some cool new science though," Xavier said as he began to get up.
"That's a little disappointing." Emilia replied.
"Emilia is slowly getting more adjusted to this world it seems. Her mental state seems to be getting better. Same with Aria…" Xavier thought.
A moment later, the trio heard a knock on the door.
"Hey, can I come in?" Vael asked behind the door.
Aria, who was closest to the door, opened it and saw Vael's tall figure walk into the room. She followed behind him as they both went deeper into the room.
"Okay, I have some good news." Vael said with a smile on his face.
"What's the news?" Aria asked as she quickly walked to Xavier's side.
"We're going to be starting training tomorrow. I'll also be teaching you some basic language and mathematical skills, and some other subjects that might be useful."
"…" A silence for 2 seconds ensued as the trio processed the information.
"Yes! Finally!" Xavier celebrated in his head.
Aria and Emilia didn't have much thoughts, but they were both a little scared of what type of training Vael would make them go through.
"The next piece of good news is that I have some soup prepared. It's from some of my plants that I grew. Hehe, don't worry, I already replaced the vegetable that you squashed Emilia." Vael said.
"I see…" Emilia responded softly, as if she was embarrassed.
…
9:30 PM, in Luna.
Astra was walking to Dreamer's Construction Ltd, admiring the skyline and the architecture along the way. She was wearing a purple sweater that was tucked in her black jeans. Her blonde hair was slightly curled and was down to her waist.
While walking, she appreciated the alien vibe that arose from the velvet moon and the large Saturn-like rings streaking the atmosphere.
While walking, she began to think about her experience for the past week.
"What did I accomplish or find out this week…hmmm. Well, I was able to become more than fluent in this Dreamurian language, I should be at the college level by now. Heh, learning many languages back on the previous Earth as a hobby did help me somewhat."
"Aside from that, what else did I do or find out…" Astra thought as she held her finger to her chin.
She had recalled that nothing of note had happened during the week. She would get up, shower, research about the world, talk with her Astraia, eat food that Kayla brought, take a nap and then go to work.
While she was at work, it was mainly 3 hours of practical training and 7 hours of lectures with breaks in between. She had still not seen or used the item that she was looking for, which was the metal cane—the Supporter. The class that Astra and her coworkers were taking hadn't reached that part of the course yet.
Either way, compared to her life on the previous Earth, it was rather boring!
"The only thing that's interesting is the occasional lights that I see when I hallucinate. It seems to be happening a lot more often now that I'm on this Earth." Astra thought to herself as she brought her finger down from her chin.
As Astra continued to walk on the sidewalk, getting closer to the building, she suddenly thought of something. She thought of this because she wanted to see if there was anything that had happened in the past week that had the possibility of being interesting.
In doing so, she had remembered noticing the slight hesitation that Kayla had experienced when she first arrived at the house.
"I wonder why she was so shaky. If you compare it to the rest of her demeanor, her being a little nervous doesn't really add up…" Astra muttered to herself.
"Could she be hiding something? Hmmm. While it's possible, there's no way to actually verify it. Aside from that one time, nothing else seemed off about her…"
"Maybe I could use the fact that she hasn't told me about her job yet as a clue? Well, this is a weak clue since I haven't told her about mine. Plus, she comes in and out of the house at consistent interval."
Astra sighed.
"I need more evidence."
As soon as Astra said this, she noticed something strange.
She was still the same distance away from the building—the Dreamers Construction building—despite walking toward it for a decent amount of time.
Noticing this, she looked around her to verify if something was amiss. Contrary to her expectations, she saw that everything seemed the same. Nothing looked out of the ordinary.
Feeling uneasy, she slowed down her movements slightly as she continued to walk in the direction of the building.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Strangely, Astra heard her footsteps. She was beginning to realize that the noise from the highway was beginning to dissipate.
Immediately, Astra stopped herself.
"What in the world is going on?" Puzzled, Astra again looked around…
Gazing in a particular direction, Astra saw a large, dark, shadowy corridor. It seemed to be expanding, appearing to "engulf" Astra.
"Huh…am I hallucinating again…?" Astra said, however, her thoughts were beginning to slow down as she entered a dreamy state.
Trying her hardest to resist, she moved backwards to prevent the corridor from "swallowing" her.
Sob…sob…sob…
Then, Astra heard the soft cries from what sounded like a teenage girl.
"Wah…wah…"