Welcome to the Academy

Noah felt nausea overcoming him as his sense of space collapsed.

He fainted.

The strange man was also inside of the space distortion and tightly grabbed Noah.

"Well, can't have you be blown off into chaotic space, can I?" He chuckled.

The fabric of dimension twisting and turning gave the place a sense of motion and only after a few hours did the chaos calm down.

The distorted space mellowed out and a normal landscape took its place.

The strange man and the collapsed Noah were in the middle of a well-trimmed and expansive garden.

The man threw Noah to the floor and fidgeted with a tool on his wrist.

It had the shape of a wristwatch but a holographic screen appeared when the man touched it. He then pressed on a few buttons and a holographic rendition of a face appeared.

It was a stern and serious-looking woman, and she said, "Enforcer, did your trip go successfully?"

The man put his arm on his chest, and replied, "Judge, I have successfully retrieved the system-owner Noah from the Grade-9 world Earth to the Grade-1 world, The Multiversal Council."

"Report successful. You can log off." The woman nodded.

The man pressed on a holographic button and the call ended.

"We gotta wake you up." The man knocked on Noah's head.

There was no response.

He then took his arms and commented, "Such weak arm strength! Is this the musculature of a person from a backwater world?"

He was clenching Noah's biceps and ridiculing him.

The latter's eyelashes then twitched and he finally woke up.

'Why is there a giant here?' The first thing Noah saw as he opened his eyes, was the tall man squatting next to him, and then, he felt the painful sensation of his arms being clenched.

Noah's first impulse was to escape the man's clutches but even as he tried to with all of his strength, he couldn't even move...

"What do they feed you down there?" The man laughed.

Only then, did Noah notice he wasn't in the alley anymore and in fact, in a gigantic and lush garden.

The years of indifference and poker faces weren't for nothing, as he nonetheless maintained a neutral expression, even in the face of uncertainty.

"Where are we?" Noah asked the man.

The man replied, "Outskirts of the Standard Academy."

...

'That helps.'

The very strange man finally let go of him and Noah stood up and looked around. There was only trimmed grass as far as he could see.

"Let's get you to campus, shall we?" The man then started running.

...

He was very fast, and even though Noah ran every day, there was no way he could catch up to that monstrous speed, so he stayed in his place.

Only after a few minutes of just standing there, did the man come back.

"I forgot your running is the equivalent of our crawling..."

The man then hinted at his back.

Noah was confused and clueless.

"Do I need to say it? Grab my back tightly." The man sighed.

'Being piggybacked at my age....' Noah thought, all the while keeping his poker face.

He ultimately obliged and as he was in that very shameful position, the man started running.

They(he) was going at such a fast speed that Noah's medium-length hair flew from the wind resistance.

After the huge clearing of grass, there was a dense forest.

The man skilfully evaded all vegetation and trees and after it got stale, they were back at another clearing.

This time, there were many buildings, and a lot of people were walking around.

As he saw these people, Noah's first thought was, 'These people are really tall..'

He thought the man carrying him was already quite tall, but he was in the shorter end compared to them.

The buildings were white and glossy and covered with black panes of glass.

Noah thought they looked very futuristic.

'When is the dream ending, though?' Noah felt like this dream was going on for a bit too long, and the sensations were also very vivid.

The man carrying him slowed down his speed as they halted in front of a rectangular building.

When he stopped, the white gates of the building turned into a mirror, and text displayed itself on the face of the man.

After a second or so, a thumbs-up appeared and the gates opened, revealing an elevator-like interior.

When they entered, the man put him down and said, "You're going to be meeting the dean of the Academy. Be polite."

He pressed on some buttons and...

Nothing happened.

Noah thought he would feel some movement, but after a dozen seconds or so, the elevator opened.

'For me to not even feel it moving, this has to be very advanced...'

Beyond the door was a spacious office with a brown color scheme.

There were shelves of books coating the walls, and a large desk was in the center of the office.

The windows in the back were floor-to-ceiling and illuminated the entire office in 'sunlight'.

On a chair beside the desk, a very tall woman was sat.

She had light-blonde hair and a very fair complexion, and her pupils were light-colored and he could almost see the blood vessels in her eyes.

The woman stood up and lightly bowed, "Welcome, enforcer."

The man next to him deeply bowed, "I appreciate your welcome, Madam."

The woman's attention then turned to him and she asked, "You should be Noah Horan?"

Noah nodded.

"Welcome to the Standard Academy."