Introductions

"Indeed, I'm Johnathan Jarvis. Pleased to meet you." Jonathan extended his hand and Herbert clasped it tightly. Both of them shook vigorously, before Johnathan let go. Herbert had wanted to ask about the strange device too, but it was probably for the best if he did not say anything.

"Come on. It's already night time. You need to be sufficiently rested for the trip tomorrow." Jonathan walked to the end of the hallway on the floor they were on, before turning left. Herbert walked alongside him, following his fast pace.

While both of them walked in the hallways, they passed a few people. Some of them were like Jonathan, while the others had visible changes that appeared in their body. They all took a look at the collar on Herbert's neck, and moved away quickly as soon as they did.

"Why do they look like they're seeing a monster when they see me?" Herbert could not understand the thought processes of these people.

"Words goes around quick, and you're not exactly giving off a great first impression when you have one of these sticking around on your neck." Jonathan tapped against the device on Herbert's neck.

"Meh. At least I don't have to get probed by you guys for 7 days." Herbert could not really care about their opinions. He was a simple man that worked before, and he was still a simple man.

Jonathan stopped in front of a door. The door was a metal one, with the engraving, "Normal Residence 104". There was a piece of paper pasted onto the door, with three names written on it.

"Come on, write your name on this piece of paper." Jonathan handed Herbert a pen. Herbert bent his body awkwardly to write his name, but his handwriting was still messy at the end.

"Were you a doctor in the past? Your handwriting is so bad!" Johnathan joked.

"Anyway, there are three other people living in this room. The bed at the left upper corner is yours. Everything you need is on it. Also, there's a locker you can store your things at. I will wait for you outside to lead you to your orientation later." After saying this, Johnathan leaned his body against the wall, taking out a book from seemingly nowhere, and started reading it.

Herbert turned the doorknob and entered the room. There was one girl and two other guys who were staring at him creepily, as he entered. He was in a room with beds at four corners, along with a passage in the middle that appeared to lead further into the residence.

They were dressed in a red uniform that had many patterns on it. Their whole body was slightly glowing, but Herbert thought that it could be caused by the lights in the room being reflected.

"Do all of you greet other people by staring at them?" Herbert felt disturbed by their gazes. He quickly moved to his bed, and sat down on it. It was a mattress that was supported by an wooden frame. The mattress was very sturdy, unlike his own one.

"Oh! You're..." All of them seemed to have broken out of a trance, as they heard Herbert's voice. Their bodies stopped glowing, as they turned to face Herbert.

"Damn it man! You could have chosen a better time! I was about to successfully refine the Grand energy!" One the boys lashed out at Herbert, raising his fist, but his hand started to tremble, unable to land a blow on Herbert. He was a fairly large Chinese teenager, who was built like a rhino.

"That's enough, Titan. He doesn't pose a threat to us with that controller on. You can't bully a defenceless man." The Caucasian girl had stretched her hand out. Herbert knew that she was doing something to the boy named Titan, who clearly wanted to attack him.

Herbert sighed. These kids right here looked younger than him, around 10-15 years old. However, he was the one getting bullied by one of them, and had even needed to be saved by another child.

"Okay, Alicia, that's enough. No need to get preachy with me. Still, can we really sleep well with this anomaly? I mean, who knows what he will do to us once we're asleep?" Titan started shooting his mouth off.

He looked menacingly at Herbert, as he went back to his bed. Meanwhile, the other thin boy had went back to doing what they were doing before, emitting a slightly golden glow.

"Look, I don't want to get into trouble. I just want to go shower and go for my orientation. Now, can anyone tell me where is the bathroom?" Herbert looked at the girl, as she seemed to be the most reasonable person to talk to.

"Oh. Just move forward from here, then turn left and use the first door you see. Anyway, I'm Alicia. Over there is Lin Qi, one of my friends from the international school. The boy earlier is Titan. What's your name?" Alicia looked curiously at Herbert.

"My name's Herbert. Thanks for the save just now." Herbert thanked her for helping him with Titan, before gathering the clothes and towel that were on the bed and heading off to the shower room.

The shower room's door looked exactly like all the other doors Herbert had seen in this place, excluding the giant wall door. As he opened it, he saw a few metal racks that had some soap bottles on it.

"Damn. Luckily the aliens had collaborated with the humans to at least make modern conveniences available." If it had been some futuristic alien technology, Herbert would probably make no heads or tails of it.

Herbert removed his Western suit and placed it on a rack. They looked like rags, especially after it had been cut by the glass shards, and was stained with sweat and dirt. He turned on the shower and was instantly hit with a warm blast of water.

As he squeezed out some soap, he started scrubbing all over his body, freshening his body up. Herbert felt like he was given a new lease of life. As he continued to scrub, he felt that there was something hard on his shoulder.

"What's this?" Herbert could see a faint imprint on his skin. It vaguely resembled... the Illuminati symbol that he had seen on the Internet. It was shining with the golden glow that he had seen before.

It then slowly melted away, as if it had never existed in the first place. Herbert was slightly shocked, but then he had been experiencing many fantastical things just a few days before, so he ignored it as just something out of the ordinary.