Manual labor

Strong had asked them to do exactly what he had said, as John and his team spent their next hour moving boxes inside the warehouse and sorting them one by one. Unlike the other workers there, who used mostly magical means or mundane vehicles, they were all required to do it manually.

“What’s the point of making us do this so inefficiently?” Yan was the first to complain, but her question was reasonable.

“Probably no reason,” Bass shrugged, “but they would never tell us that anyways, so best to do what we can.”

“Bass is right, at least this isn’t too hard,” John had noticed something strange. Even with his relatively small increases to Strength, these boxes seemed far too easy to move compared to their weight. It was, however, not easy work entirely.

“I-I need some h-help,” Charlotte shouted out in half panic, her voice and knees clearly shaking as a box began slipping from her hands. She was a few aisles ahead of them. John, holding a box of his own, quickly moved ahead and towards her, hoping to reach her in time. Only moments later he saw the box fall from the healer’s hands, with her feet barely moving out of the way in time as she collapsed backwards onto the ground.

“You ok?” he put down the box in his hands and hurried towards her, hoping she wasn’t hurt.

“I’m fine,” she said confidently, in an almost uncharacteristic way. The look on her face was of almost pure anger. Then a moment later, it was gone, hidden behind an unconfident smile. Not knowing what to do, John reached out to help her, “t-thank y-ou…” her stutter suddenly returned. She took his hand and got up, but he could see her knees were shaking.

“I’ll get this, you help her John,” Bass walked up to them, hoisting the box that Charlotte had carried from the ground and carrying it below the one she already carried. A minute later, she continued on her way. Yan did the same, leaving the two of them alone.

"You sure you're alright?" John asked the healer, concerned. He had let go of her hand but she was still clearly shaking.

“I just misjudged my limits… Again,” she mumbled, her tone grim, John only barely made out what she said.

“What limits are you talking about?” he was curious, but a moment later he understood what a bad idea it was to ask.

“That’s none of your business,” her confidence returned but more with certainty than anger.

"I didn't mean to pry, but if you want to tell me at any point, I will listen," John said, as kindly as he could. He picked up his own box a moment later and moved forward. He heard Charlotte mumble something behind him, but what it was he didn't catch.

A while later, once they were finished with that round of sorting, John noticed something. He had gotten a popup.

1 point of Strength gained

Before he could process the exact implication of his stats improving by this but not everything else he had done, Strong called them over.

"I have a proper mission for you guys!" he shouted towards them from near one of the Gateways at the edge of the warehouse. He spoke again only once they reached him a few minutes later, “one of the guys from R&D has a mission for you in the second plane. Something about an infested helium mine. He’ll update you once you get there, if you want to take it I think I can requisition one of the engines we use to give to you guys,” he continued, looking at John seriously the whole time, “if you want to do it, go through the Gateway behind me,” he pointed backwards.

“I’m not sure that’s a great idea… It’d be putting us all at risk, again,” John was hesitant to throw all their lives into risk again. As soon as he expressed his uncertainty a popup appeared in front of him, as if trying to convince him to act.

’I guess this isn’t part of the required training so I get a brand new quest… The rewards are good, at least,’ John thought to himself, still hesitant. He looked at his character sheet for a moment, trying to figure out if it would give him another level.

’It does… Good to know that.’

“It’s your decision. But this is no more dangerous than what you’ve faced already, of that I’m sure,” Strong responded, his tone understanding.

“It’s whatever boss, risking our life is part of the deal in the Abyss,” Bass stated, a smile on here face, “and I think we should do it boss, those reactors can last forever with very little fuel, and we might need to power some of our gear,” Bass turned to the Gamer.

“No arguments from me,” Yan stated.

“I-If you guys want to d-do this... “ Charlotte said, her gaze averted from Strong as much as possible.

“Fine, can’t hurt to see what the mission is, I suppose,” that much John was sure of.

One after the other, they headed through the purple portal that made up the Gateway. John went first, and the moment he stepped in the world broke into darkness again. The last thing he saw was Ember appearing behind them. An eternity later the world reformed around him, somewhere completely different.

A popup was the first thing John saw on the other side of the Gateway.

You have now arrived at a new planet, map generating…
Planet designation by the Council: Mining world of New Lapetus

When he looked around he saw the beauty of the new world he was on. Green skies and blue grass spread out to the horizon. In the distance John could see a mountain carved in shades of white he didn't even know existed. Ivory white crystals shined in the sun, covering the slopes of the mountain like a mirror of strange snow. To the east and west they were flanked by two wide rivers, filled with a red-tinted liquid. Behind them was the Gateway they had come through, which was made out of some blue stone and not marble. Hidden by it was what looked like a forest, but it was impossible to tell through the yellowish thicket of leaves. And above them stood an ever more impressive sight. A small blue sun, surrounded by rings of shining matter and spreading out light up and down in beams that crossed the sky. They were quite clearly nowhere John had seen before.

The world was habitable, that was immediately obvious, as a strange chirping noise could be heard from all around them. Small critters John couldn't recognize scuttered around the open area still around them. But more important was the group of men and women dressed in military garb standing before them, only some twenty meters away, in a hastily organized camp of sorts. It was made in a style John didn't recognize, and mostly out of white and blue metals that seemed far too sleek to be real.

'This is an even more incredible sight than XR2…' John thought, shocked by his own senses.

Slowly, the rest of his team appeared in the Gateway's portal. First Bass and Yan, and following closely were Charlotte and Ember.

"Ember? Why are you here?" John asked, surprised. Her rapid appearances and disappearances were getting frustrating.

"I'm here to help you, and because Ingrid wants to see how we mesh working as a team. That's my purpose in this whole assignment," she said, her tone flat but John could see the honesty in her face.

The rest of the group were either far too engrossed in the surroundings, like Yan and Bass, or too disoriented to say anything. Charlotte was barely able to keep standing as John could visibly see her shaking. She grabbed onto the blue stone of the Gateway, and soon enough the shaking disappeared.

“I-I’ve n-never d-done t-that b-before,” she said, her voice quiet. John wasn’t sure he should help her, but she spoke again before he had to decide. She was looking directly at him, “no need to worry about me, John.”

For a second he wasn’t sure she said anything at all, ’sometimes she seems so different… I wonder why,’ John thought to himself, the others except for Ember clearly not noticing anything she had done. The spy, however, placed a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. She didn’t recoil, but it was clear she was no more comfortable.

"This is awesome!" Bass shouted, her eyes darting across the whole area around them, "oh, guess we have company," she said as soon as she saw the camp near them. A group of four people dressed in green military clothing, which was obviously not from the Council, started heading towards them. Yan was also broken out of her shock. She looked at John for a moment.

"First time I've been here," she said, before turning to the people approaching them.

Ember was the first to speak, "we're from the Council," then she walked up to the group and said something John didn't catch, "we heard you have some trouble with an infestation?" her tone was serious.

A man appeared from behind the group, wearing the same sort of military uniform but with a badge identifying him as a scientist of some sort.

"Yes, your information is correct," he looked over the whole group and then turned to John, "this mountain contains a giant helium deposit which we are responsible for mining. We then transport it back to the main fleet for refuelling. It's also transferred over to the Council's warehouse as part of your cut," he looked at Ember for a moment instead, and his tone turned more serious, "A few days ago, we blew a new shaft to expand the operations of the mine, but the team responsible quickly lost contact with us. It wasn't long before the rest of the mine was filled with those things…

"They're some kind of mutant spider, we've been able to tell that much. Though we're not sure why they appeared where they did."

"So you want us to go in, find their source, and clear them out?" John asked, he had many more questions, but those could wait for now.

"No, we want you to recover a specific piece of tech. We can clear them out on our own, but we need to extract that beforehand," the man responded, his tone made John suspicious.

"What are we talking about exactly?" This was far too important to let go, something here seemed off, like he'd heard this before.

"A Gundam."

"There's an actual Gundam here? We get to see one?" Bass was excited, but how normal her statement seemed was insane.

'A Gundam? Did I hear them both right? There's no way, what the hell does that have to do with the Council or the Abyss, that's an anime!' John's mind tried to process what they had just said, but there was nothing to grasp, it made absolutely no sense.

"What the hell are you talking about? Gundam is an anime. It's not real," he said, completely confused.

"John, it's real," Bass looked at him, smiling at him knowingly.

"Somebody please explain, right now!"

"When the Council first passed through the Gateway into the second plane we found ourselves on another version of earth. It was filled with advanced technology no one had ever seen before. Giant robots, advanced guns and even more advanced space flight and colonies. You might know this world as the universal century version of Gundam. We don't know how it leaked out into the Mundane world, but it did and their history was codified and modified into the multiple anime series-"

"Seeing our own history told in that way was quite entertaining, I assure you…" the scientist laughed.

"Please don’t interrupt me," Ember said flatly then continued, "as I was saying, after the first encounters several skirmishes took place between us and earth forces. No side was obviously superior, our magic matching their tech. But eventually a treaty was established, which is what we have been operating under ever since. The Council would use their magic to explore further into the galaxy, providing the knowledge of it if necessary. And in return the Earth Federation would provide technology, a portion of the resources mined from whatever outposts are established as part of the arrangement, and one Gundam every ten years.”

"I'm surprised you didn't know John, it's one of the documents you had to sign when you became an explorer," Yan said, her tone genuine.

"Well, nobody told me I should expect Gundam to be in the legal documents I went over in a rush!" John was frustrated, with the absurdity of it all but mostly with himself.

'I got too comfortable with thinking I knew everything there was to know about the Council, and the Abyss in general… I won't make that mistake again,' he decided in his mind.

"If the explanations are over, can we get back to the mission at hand?" the scientist asked.

They all waited for a moment, but John did not speak, so Bass spoke instead.