Willing to Answer a few Questions

On board, the ship, Lin witnessed everything and was beyond confused. He had no idea what was going on from start to finish. All he could conclude was that the group he had found himself among were not to be taken lightly.

Space distorted as Jaga and the rest disappeared into the gateway. The guards lay petrified on the platform before the gateway as though they had just met Medusa herself.

A burly man with a shield hung across his back led the way to the army division headquarters as the others followed close behind. The headquarters looked like a small city built on a lake.

It had enormous turrets surrounding it, with many soldiers taking off in spacecraft or on flying beasts.

Due to the absence of many drylands, every dry ground in the territory was artificial. The burly man was dark and had a calm temperament. He had dark brown cropped hair and brown eyes.

As he walked, the shield disappeared from his back and turned into a tattoo on the side of his head. That was his bond weapon. Bond weapons are condensed by one after reaching rank five and connected to one's elemental essence.

Elemental essence is the base of one's abilities and powers. A broken bond weapon could heavily damage your elemental essence and weaken you considerably. Worst case scenario, you will be left with a damaged foundation, or you could even die in some cases. These weapons, however, respawn after a period.

Lin was on the ship with Xelen, who was piloting it to a place he had no idea off. They flew to a large mass of water in the middle of nowhere and hovered there. Lin looked out curiously but found nothing except the mass of water surrounding them. With a perplexing look, he turned to Xelen, "Uhm, miss…"

"Xelen", she cut him off with a look of disapproval. She didn't like being called Miss. "Right, Xelen. What is this place? I don't see anything out here except water. You are not planning on drowning me, are you?" he questioned with a shrug.

She scoffed at him and answered, "There are much better ways to kill than drown you. I find the idea of drowning someone stupid." She looked out as if expecting something but not happened for a while. Lin was even more confused by her reaction, "So what are we doing here then?", he could not help but ask.

"You will know soon enough", she answered and said nothing more. Lin shrugged and sat cross-legged in the chamber. As his thoughts were about wandering off, he heard a loud beep which caused him to jump to his feet, almost crashing into the chamber walls.

"What is that beeping sound?" he whispered. He soon noticed the water below them bubbling as it began to split in half. Right below them, an enormous gap slowly opened up. It was so huge fifty Zygoptera combined could easily slip through.

Xelen slowly dropped into the gap and landed softly on a pad as the gap slowly closed shut once again. Looking around, Lin realised they were in an underground hangar.

He hadn't been in one before and had only seen such things in documentaries back home. He, however, wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be when he saw one. "Maybe it is because I am a prisoner", he thought.

"You guys aren't going to leave me cooped in here, are you?" Lin questioned.

"Of cause not. This ship will be undergoing repairs. Here, take this". The chamber doors slid open; she threw a yellow hoodie to Lin. "You already gave me clothes, so what's this for now?" he looked blankly at her. "That is to hide your aura so no one notices you are not from around here, so unless you want a crowd following you everywhere, you should put it on".

She walked to him and slammed a bracelet on his wrist. "Ouch, that was uncalled for", Lin protested. "That's to keep you in check. Any funny business and your head roll", she said, walking out of the ship.

Lin took a look at the bracelet with a frown. "I need to get out of here but with those guys closely monitoring me, it might be impossible. I wonder if the system can scan and deal with this bracelet." He thought.

"System, scan bracelet". Much to his dismay, there was no response nor a single sound. "System, scan bracelet", he repeated, thinking the system probably didn't hear him. This time, however, there was a response but not one he expected which disappointed him greatly.

<Notice>

<Error>

<Cannot provide information on the object. Connect to a Scopenet to access 'The Nucleus' and update the system database>

He hadn't noticed the last message, but after paying close attention, his eyes brightened as he thought, "Doesn't that mean I don't even need to buy a Scopenet? This system is not so useless after all. But where do I get a Scopenet? Maybe I could borrow some from Xelen?"

Lin slipped into the hoodie and raced after her. He caught up with her as she walked away from someone she seemed to have been talking to. The hangar contained spacecraft of different kinds and sizes, most of which were undergoing servicing.

The man Xelen spoke to gave a signal, and many people came flocking towards Zygoptera. Lin realised more people were rushing to work on it than the others, which surprised him. "Just who are these GHOST guys?" he wondered.

He strode behind her and peeped over her shoulder with a grin, "Hey, uhm miss…" he swallowed his words as murderous eyes glared at him, causing him to step back. He scratched his head and smiled wryly, "Sorry, Xelen, do you mind telling me a little about this place? You don't want me doing something I'm not supposed to do, do you? Or, you could lend me a Scopenet to do my research?"

"I see no reason why I should give you a Scopenet", she said straightforwardly, seeming to have figured that was what he wanted. "But", she continued, "I might be willing to answer a question or two from you". Lin was disappointed he couldn't get a Scopenet, but he thought it was not so bad if he could get more information from her.

"Tell me more about the layers", he asked after contemplating for a moment.

"Oh…" she was taken aback by his question. She didn't think that was the first question he would ask. She imagined anyone in his position would enquire about their predicament. "Aren't you curious about where you are being taken?" she sized him up, thinking he was putting up an act.

He looked at her solemnly and answered, "Does that matter? I mean, there isn't anything I could do even if I got that information. Besides, we would get there eventually, wouldn't we?".

She said nothing in response to what he said but instead; went ahead to answer his question, "So far, we know of only two layers. Aquasphere and Terasphere. Aquasphere has territories with more water than land; most infrastructures here are either beneath or above the water, with the largest suspending city being the Floating Frost" She paused and looked in Lin's direction. With a sigh, she said, "I know you are trying to find your way out of here, but even I don't have the slightest clue. Maybe the captain might have an information or two." Lin nodded and followed.