Chapter 24 - Dreaded Fortune, Irrational and Devoid, Flowing Alway: Part 2 - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG

  Silas watched the lights on the skyline long enough for Frank and Liora to become lost in their own thoughts. Then he spoke again: "The process of controlling people in the Far East involves preventing any knowledge or technology from being taught or commercialized. Before the cataclysm, almost all production was concentrated in the Eastern capitals. In the first years, with everything destroyed, there was a reconstruction effort, whose initial plan was to quickly re-establish production in the centers and then distribute the resources. However, the strategic and political direction of the New Metropolis changed radically as society began to fragment, creating a constant crisis. As soon as it was possible to restructure the productive system, they decided not to distribute any of the resources. Instead, the decision was to rebuild a contingency first and for the New Metropolis only. Like a domino effect, the Eastern capitals also began to replicate this type of policy so that the small villages far from the capitals also ran out of options while the capitals gathered resources. In Gate, it's insane to try to survive without resources, as you can imagine. Everyone in my village practically only did physical training, and even then, they used primitive and limited techniques, far inferior to what you three train nowadays. On the rare occasions when someone among us proved strong enough, that one was hired to move to some distant place or even invited on a suicide mission to prevent us from getting stronger—something I think was my sister's fate."

  "I'm sorry about your sister, Silas, but are you sure we shouldn't be trying to do something right now?" Frank commented.

  "No, Frank. My uncle and I used the resources my sister sent to the village to escape, but for ebex, trips outside the region are completely forbidden, as is having bank accounts. We can't have technological credit devices or even use money without permission from the local authorities. Because we used the money on our own in the parallel market, we will have to be careful when returning to the East. My uncle asked me to stay away because he knows that if we're caught, and if anyone from our village is still alive, upon discovering that we fled to Metropolis, they would probably hunt and freeze not only us but all the survivors as a means of coercion—something that commonly happens where I come from." Silas lamented.

  "You would be hunted just for returning? There's border control? There are no rights for people? How does this work?" Frank asked.

  "It's not possible to register any ebex as citizens in the Eastern cities, much less those who came from nomadic villages. Control works through rewards; they pay mercenaries and militiamen to keep track of the enslaved people and enforce these laws against anyone who tries to escape. There would be a reward if any of them suspected my origin; in fact, there's no need to prove anything. The mercenaries use cameras and sensors that record their actions, and they're rewarded after a local police delegate evaluates the material. The militiamen don't need to use cameras and receive a salary, military training, and some combat equipment; they can do whatever they want, but they're paid additionally to perform actions previously agreed upon between the local government and the militia leaders. But whatever the case, when they capture a fugitive, there's no trial with the right to a defense, as would be minimally expected in a civilization, because only those considered citizens have that kind of right. The most incredible thing is that Metropolis subsidizes these rewards for mercenaries, and Biggus's government considers this as an investment in security. Anyway, in my case, I had a temporary registration in Metropolis without it stating anywhere that I was born in the East; I was registered as if I were a reborn ebex who had forgotten the past, and this registration would expire after my course ended. If I graduated as an engineer, I would be obliged to stay in Metropolis and thus have a permanent record; this was my uncle's original plan to keep me safe. I ended up leaving the city on my own before I was expelled when the deadline ended because my course was compromised, along with the cancellation of the Seneca Project. Currently, my situation is peculiar because, in addition to the new registration in the City of the Dead, I also have a permanent registration in Paradiso. In that city, they only check fundamental information and register anyone who appears there in person," Silas said in a neutral tone but with almost dried tears falling down his tired face from revisiting his path until now.

  "That's unacceptable, Silas. We should be trying to solve your problem before Seneca's. How is it possible that nobody has done anything!" Frank rebelled, now understanding more about what was happening. He continued, "But why didn't you say this before, Silas?"

  Silas replies while shaking his head. "Well... According to the extermination mages' doctrine, in the Opoje galaxy, the Fthaones are considered superior to the Ebex, and this was used as an ideological justification to separate us from society. Regarding your question about nobody having done anything, the reaction was quite similar to other cases against atrocities of this kind. When this information about subsidizing mercenaries in the East leaked in Metropolis, the Fthaones mobilized against it. They created an association called Flama, which, in addition to positioning itself against the Ebex ostracism in the Far East, raised funds to mobilize people to go to my region to help. Their ultimate goal was to unfreeze all the unconvicted prisoners, which many analysts believed would lead to a revolution across the region. But I never got to know anyone from this organization because, long before I was born, in the first years of Biggus in power, Flama was annihilated; all its members in the field were killed in such a way that they could not be revived. Metropolis publicized that the barbarian tribes of the East never accepted external help and killed everyone who tried to approach—a great and cruel joke. Eastern nomad villages barely had resources to survive, much less access to magics or powers that could prevent someone from being revived. Even in the regional capitals, they freeze people instead of killing to prevent someone from being revived, as it was cheaper than extermination magic and avoided power conflicts with Metropolis. That excuse of barbarian tribes exterminating the Flama members was widely proven false by the Suma and was evidently taken in Metropolis media as just another political controversy between the City of the Spirits and the New Metropolis. What actually happened was that they sent some extermination guildmembers, and probably some Alphas, to do the dirty work along with the local militias to cover up their actions."

  "So we can't do anything about this situation? If organizing a revolt would be unfeasible, why don't we just secretly remove people from there?" Frank rebelled.

  "We're doing something, Frank," Liora interrupted.

  "Frank, unlike the tyrants of our past civilizations, Biggus has been more successful in hiding his intentions and capabilities, and attempts at direct confrontation against him have so far failed. However, something that happened in Seneca bothered him deeply, and I think discovering that will be more effective than attempting any other action. Despite having interesting new resources now, we'll have to choose only one thing to do because a trip to the Far East would take a very long time," Silas said again in his serene voice.

  "But it revolts me to know that a lot of innocent people in your region are being hunted." Frank worried.

  "I think about that all the time, Frank, and also about the people in your world who are being systematically exterminated to hide something. It's not just a question of who was or wasn't innocent. Is this the time to judge who we're trying to help?" Silas questioned.

  Frank looked at Silas and shook his head in agreement. After a while, he said, "I understand your logic, Silas, and it also seems to me that your uncle's long silence convinced you that, for now, it's better to stay away. I either agree that it's not the time to judge whether the people on Earth were good, but we can't waste time; it would be great if Petra's magic worked." Frank turned his eyes to observe Petra and Amanda, far away in the ravine, talking while the portal closing was already advancing to its final stages.

  Liora interrupted: "I don't completely agree with the idea of helping random people we did not know, especially in our situation. But I agree that Seneca is the priority now."

  Before Frank could reply, Petra's portal stopped gushing metal and suddenly became a tangle of mana threads again. This brought silence back to the severely altered region. Then, after a few seconds, the remains of the portal disintegrated into a shower of illuminated mana threads that fell slowly like snowflakes, exhausting before reaching the ground.

  The group gathered in the ravine with shared relief, putting aside the discussions on the mountaintop to make way for urgent matters. Petra was exhausted, but she said excitedly: "Wonderful, team! I managed to fix this mess; now I'm ready to try again!"

  Amanda, who had been talking to Petra and convincing her that she should continue her studies, was clearly satisfied. She said in a measured tone: "That's the spirit, Petra, but you need a well-rested night's sleep. Tomorrow, we'll go to one of my universes to try again, and don't forget to relax tonight and not think about too many things."

  "Good, Petra, let's all go to the ship to hit some pillows!" Frank said, lightheartedly masking the mountain troubles and looking at the colorful and quieter scene around him. "You will definitely leave your mark on Gate. What are we going to call this place? Petra's Heat Cliffs?"

  "We'll call it Here Lies Frank′s Valley: The One Who Didn't Know When to Shut Up!" Petra replied.

  After a brief exchange of warm greetings, the animated group returned to the ship through Petra's portal and slept a peaceful night, already prepared for another day of potential surprises.

  After many hours of sleep, Petra woke up near lunchtime. She followed Amanda's recommendations to try to rest as much as possible and keep her mind clear. When she left her room, she did her stretches and went straight to the coffee room to have a light snack and prepare for the day. Frank and Amanda also entered the room together, talking animatedly about magic, and found Petra already awake, finishing her meal.

  "Good morning, Petra! Is everything okay for your new attempt? I'm always eager to see my students' universes!" Amanda said.

  "Yes, I did everything exactly as suggested; I'll just finish this snack here, and in 15 minutes, we will be good to go! Let's notify the others!" Petra said, already sending a telepathic message for everyone to meet on the bridge.

  Frank made coffee and offered it to Amanda, reviewing the exact instructions for the assistants with her since he would be beside Petra as before.

  When the three opened the bridge door, they found Silas and Liora inside, already prepared to leave. Without generating distractions, since it was important for Petra to be totally focused, they departed silently into a portal that Amanda opened to her particular dimension. She warned: "My dimension is a bit boring; the air is a little thin but sufficiently adequate for humans, and gravity is much lower. It's a planet about half the size of Earth, floating in the middle of nothing."

  The group entered the portal and noticed some luminous points coming from Amanda's technology devices that had been left there, already with heavy dust on top. Otherwise, a completely dark gray plain without stars could be perceived. There are active network connectors in this universe to the City of the Spirits, which excites Silas upon realizing the potential of a particular universe of that type.

  Without further ado, Petra reviewed the steps with Amanda and began to perform her magic again. Time passed with much less stress until the moment when the mana thread portal formed, but this time, the threads were all white and light blue. Just before the portal opened, Petra felt a chill, and immediately afterward, the threads broke but without exploding. This time, a light gust of cold air came out of Petra's portal for a few moments while Frank was already prepared to jump to the side. But the wind gradually lost intensity while the portal remained open, making a sound similar to a deflating balloon.

  Frank looked at Petra almost disappointedly, shrugging his shoulders. He said, "This time, instead of dragons, we have a deflating balloon." Petra just rolled her eyes and ignored him.

  Silas and Liora, using the sensors, announced: "Team! Our sensors are getting a visual return from inside the new universe. There's a distant ultraviolet light source; it looks like a giant granite plane on the ground. The air is breathable but has too much oxygen, so things could catch fire more easily inside. And gravity is higher than on Earth. The temperature varies a bit but is always above the water's freezing point. It seems to be a relatively safe place to enter."

  With great excitement, Petra entered the gigantic portal, followed by Amanda and Frank, and then the others followed with the sensors. Petra and Frank felt fine inside, but everyone else had great difficulty moving around because of the gravity, though nothing extreme enough to injure them.

  After some time analyzing the data from the various sensors, Silas said, visibly animated: "This reminds me of my ebex resistance training; it's difficult to walk in here, but I have good news: we're relatively near one of this universe's edges. It's an ellipsoid cut by a stone plane whose major diameter is about 40 light-years and whose minor diameter is about 25. The closer to its centers, the greater the gravity. Therefore, if we move toward the edges, we'll eventually reach a gravity more similar to Gate's. And the air in here is abundant but quite concentrated near the ground; mixing with the air from Amanda's universe ended up creating an air bubble similar to Gate's near the portal."

  Amanda cast some magic that made her sweat quite a bit due to the high mana consumption and commented: "I've just activated an enchantment to identify magic effects with my senses. This is an excellent universe! The edges of your universe, Petra, are what we call ejectors; when something approaches one of the edges with considerable force, it's ejected out of this universe and will appear near the last open connection point—that is, the location where you performed your Va magic. So, in the future, I ask that you cast that magic again in Gate to prevent anything from falling into my universe unintentionally."

  "Ah, yes, I'm sorry about that. If I understand correctly, anything that breaks one of the edges in here will end up in your particular universe," Petra replied, still marveling at the purple luminosity throughout the environment. "I'll make another portal from Gate tomorrow, Amanda!"

  "No, no! Don't rush! You can do that in a few years, Petra, when you find a suitable place, maybe even inside another of your universes. I was just saying this to avoid any accidents in case something falls into my universe unintentionally," Amanda warned, her voice full of experience. "By the way, can I stay with you on the ship for a few days? I intend to relocate three of my Vo portals in the world of the living before returning to my city."

  "Of course, Amanda! You can stay as long as you want. If you need any help with transportation, you can let us know; if we can, we'll help!" Liora replied promptly.

  "Thank you, Liora, but it won't be necessary. I'll enter through my Vo portals. I intend to relocate them, and I will do everything directly from the destination. I don't want to interrupt your objectives, which are quite urgent. What I need is access to the City of the Dead's internet while I'm on the ship because I'll be back with my teachings tomorrow," Amanda explained, still observing with her active magic if there was anything else in Petra's new universe that was different from usual.

  "You can use it as much as you want, Amanda; the network's security level is quite high already," Silas interrupted.

  "Amanda, you'll always be welcome on our ship!" Frank said. "I'd actually be delighted to have a magic teacher with us."

  Amanda thanked them with a strange Suma smile and warned: "I also found your ship quite interesting. I'm grateful, but I intend to return to the World of the Dead soon and stay there for a good while. However, get my contact information with Petra, and I can give you some extra tutoring remote sessions if you need them."

  "Certainly, I'll do that, Amanda. Thank you!" Frank replied politely.

  Meanwhile, Petra took one of her stones and handed it to Frank, asking him to run closer to one of the edges where the gravity was lower. Amanda also enchanted him with her flight magic so he could move more quickly.

  Without delay, Frank took the stone and set off at an incredible speed toward one of the edges, saying, "Wow, I've never felt so fast; I'm going to take advantage of this to test this ground!" He then took leaps forward that functioned like explosions, lifting parts of the ground in a cadence of colossal explosions.

  "He's fast, but he won't go far; he's much slower than the speed of light. Gravity is now at 1.620 G, and if he continues his little jumps at maximum speed, he should reach a gravity of 1.618 G," Liora informed. She added, "Even so, it will be far enough from our current entry point."

  "This place is quite interesting; I think I'll assemble a simple structure that is more solid than the ground to serve as support when I have time," Silas said, already thinking about what to do. It would be another idea to set up a technology lab here; that way, if something happens to the ship, we'll have a nice contingency.

  The group was thrilled with the various possibilities of Petra's new universe. After the long hours needed for the portal to close, everyone returned to the ship in the middle of the night. Frank, this time, returned particularly tired but quite excited about the day's exercise.

  Three days passed on the ship with Amanda working on her classes almost non-stop, sporadically appearing in the café and on the bridge to stretch her tiny legs and grumble about how they ached in the world of the living after spending the whole day floating, giving classes. Despite the woes of a physical body, she still hadn't decided when she would return to her city, and then the day arrived when Frank was to return to Rocatrista. This time, he asked everyone to accompany him on the bridge since it wasn't known what could happen, and if necessary, someone could wake him up and interrupt the magic in an emergency.

  At the time Frank scheduled, Amanda was the only one in her room because she was in the middle of a class, but she asked to be called in case of emergencies. She calmed Frank, saying that the communication magic was relatively safe, and warned that few magics could be performed remotely. She suggested that if something strange was detected, all they needed to do was interrupt the Lo magic by waking him up with a slap, and Frank would be safe on the ship.

  Frank spent an anxious morning not knowing what had happened with Ramirez. At the scheduled time, everyone waited in their places on the bridge. Finally, Frank said, "Okay, team, it's time to return to Rocatrista. Let's resolve this once and for all!" as he cast his magic once again, prepared to return to his captive spot at Tommy's Bar, but this time at an unusual hour.