Interstellar Era

Interstellar Era, October 11th, 1128

The atmosphere is quite tense inside the bullet train. Black clouds rose high as the back of the train carriage was engulfed in flames. There were no casualties at all, the losses might also be small. However, the atmosphere that remained was eerier than one could imagine. A group of people stood together in the corner of another carriage. Stay away from someone as the center of the disaster. It was a man who admitted that the explosion this time was his doing. While showing off the large number of bombs tightly pressed against his body, the man also said that he was doing all this for everyone's sake. There will come a time when people will understand the meaning behind his actions.

The man stood upright in the middle of the train carriage adjacent to the burning carriage. His hands were shaking as he reached for the bomb trigger device that was no bigger than an ancient cell phone. At that time, a woman was standing right in front of him with her neck held tight, crying in fear when she was taken as a hostage.

The man shouted, "I knew you were here! Get out, or I will kill this woman! You Recorders claim that you are the protectors of the universe! If you are that great, then save this woman's life too! Exchange this woman's life for your lives!" he was chattering about the same thing for over half an hour, but still no response from the person he was referring to.

Time doesn't want to wait anymore. The man gritted his teeth as a group of armed men entered and surrounded him. They don't move haphazardly, so orderly and organized, making the terrorist even more displeased and frantic.

Armed men had surrounded him, he couldn't help but show his fangs too. The necks of the hostages he gripped tighter, and the control of the trigger bomb he held aloft, showing clearly that the lives of everyone in this train were in his hands. His breath was ragged as his vision blurred. Adrenaline ignited rapidly, activating every cell in his body to an inexplicable degree. He shouted, "AU-364!!" It was something that an ordinary person would not understand, but might hold a certain meaning to a certain group of people.

That day, the incident was resolved with the terrorist's death by a sniper from across the site. He was shot right in the forehead. His eyes widened at the end of his life, his mouth agape, as if at the last second, he met the grim reaper. Or maybe, at that last second, he was shown his summary of his life so far, and it must have been about something unpleasant. Blood gushed like a broken faucet. The woman he had taken as a hostage instantly lost her strength and fell down. In her entire life, this was the single most memorable incident and left a bitter taste on the tip of the tongue.

With a thud, the woman's body fell forward, while the lifeless body of the terrorist's corpse had been lying behind her a little longer.

The uniformed men rushed into formation, performing certain communication codes before allowing one of them to approach the bomber's corpse, while another comrade tried to pull the body of the hostage who had lost consciousness.

But fatefully, in two seconds that felt like a lifetime, the buzzing sound was deafening, long beeps filled everyone's ears while in another two seconds that felt like forever, another violent explosion occurred.

Half the body of the commercial bullet train exploded, leaving only the head intact. Other smoke rose high, engulfing the surrounding sky until it darkened, displacing the Sun from its throne. A shrill scream could be heard from all around.

More than half of the bullet train passengers were found dead under various conditions. The smell of burnt meat wafts through. People with weak stomachs around the station immediately vomited their breakfast. The bomb disposal team outside, who had witnessed half their squad getting into the train carriage with 100% assurance that the bomb would not be activated due to a system glitch they had created, would not have thought that an error of this magnitude would occur.

The bomb... has been triggered from another unknown place.

Data sources indicate that the bomb had been triggered via the same remote trigger that was held by the terrorist bomber.

Which after checking again, the remote trigger shows no signs of activation.

Passengers departing from their homes excitedly starting the day, excited to go to work, to go to school, or even to visit relatives elsewhere, would not have thought that they would end here.

Death comes without a word, and leaves without a talk.

A total of 6 passengers who survived the explosion were found under the debris of the seats. Some of them remain with serious burns and fractures. Some only suffered scratches, but their souls were really shaken. They are 4 middle-aged women with a man in his mid-40s, and a teenage boy in his mid-20s.

The six people were immediately rushed to the nearest hospital to ensure their safety, before going through a series of interrogations regarding the fateful incident.

"Okay, look here." A doctor performed an ophthalmoscope using a penlight on the last patient brought by the police today. This young man was very calm throughout the examination process. He looked confused several times, but still managed to answer all psychological tests well. To confirm the situation once again, the doctor on duty conducted a re-examination. As before, the results showed that this young man was completely healthy physically and mentally.

"Okay, the examination is over. You are very calm and healthy. You are amazing." The doctor gave some sincere compliments from his heart. Then gently apply a wound ointment to the small scratch on the young man's cheek.

The patient this time was a young man with a general appearance that didn't have any particular impression. It's a common face type that you'll find everywhere, and it's pretty easy to forget about. The eyes are monolid with pointed ends, the eyebrows are thin and the nose is small, with normal-sized lips. His face is slightly round and his chin is oval. His skin was wheat in color, and his clothes were simple, the kinds of clothes you'd find anywhere. The only thing that stands out about this young man is his height, which is estimated to be over 190cm.

The doctor patted him on the shoulder and turned for a moment to tidy up his medical kit. The table on the side nightstand was quite messy, so he lingered on it for a while. When the doctor had finished, he turned his head to the side and was so surprised,

"Eh, where did he go..."

—Finding that the patient had disappeared without a trace.

-0-

Interstellar Era, October 11, 1128

13:22:54-11:10:1128

A series of time coordinates were printed clearly in front of him in the form of a hologram, exactly like a quest message in the virtual reality game he often played. The beeping tone rang several times, and the machine's characteristic female voice sounded as if it were speaking straight into his head.

[Initializing... Identity confirmed.

Time Guardians Bureau, Timekeepers Division, SkyDome 014 Karsa, Captain team Alpha-07, Yohan Elsher. Welcome back to your time coordinates. Please enter your ID after the following sound...]

BIIP

Yohan immediately held his ringing ear. Even though he had gone through the same process dozen times, he could never get used to it. The sound that seemed to be created directly inside his head was actually capable of terrorizing him to a certain degree. This young man sighed and immediately showed the fingerprints on his thumb right before his own eyes. His gray eyes instantly turned turquoise and some strange programming language flashed across his vision, initializing for less than 5 seconds before his identity was confirmed.

[Welcome back to the Interstellar Aishraya subchannel, Captain Elsher.]

Yohan ignored the voice for the umpteenth time. He went behind the hospital building and got into the bushes kicking madly, before his foot kicked something hard and made him swear. "Fuck."

The thing he kicked earlier was translucent until it finally beeped softly and revealed its form in a brief glitch like a broken film. It was a time capsule with one person's incapacity. The entire body was shiny white and its cubicle door opened immediately revealing the inside that looked like the interior of a mini-submarine. Before entering, Yohan touched his earlobe, and rubbed a black earring which instantly turned bright red. His team's communication channels came alive in unison with the same welcoming engine sound.

[You have joined Team Alpha-007's private communication channel]

["Captain, everyone is in front of our respective capsules."]

"Okay, get into it."

["Roger!"]

Yohan brushed his hair back and entered the capsule booth. The same voice once again filled his head. Yohan made a series of adjustments after confirming that he had entered the correct time coordinates. Throughout the adjustment, his gray eyes continued to glow turquoise. Several times a dialog box appeared in his view, and Yohan several times had to confirm, before finally time travel began.

It still felt strange no matter how many times he experienced it. It felt like his body had fallen from an extreme height, like his entire body was being forcibly pulled by voracious gravity. This feeling is not much different from the feeling when riding a high-speed elevator. Nausea immediately hit, but Yohan didn't even have the strength to open his mouth at all. Within a minute, he was tormented by a series of processes that he should have become accustomed to.

Interstellar Era, March 6, 1143

16:15:32-06:03:1143

[Congratulations, your team has successfully completed one class B mission. The final score is 17 Stars Class 1.]

Now, the time coordinates displayed in his eyes were different time coordinates from before. A shrill beep filled his mind, until he groaned loudly and his whole body was soaked in sweat.

The hatches opened on both sides, and now what was visible was the interior of an office with various kinds of people hanging around a machine powered by a supercomputer.

Yohan made his first move to get out of the capsule, and immediately faltered. The people guarding the surroundings quickly grabbed and supported him. A stretcher was carried and Yohan was laid on it. On the other hand, another 4 hatches opened and several people rushed out of them. The four of them violently vomited their guts before collapsing together. Only Yohan was able to maintain his consciousness until he was brought to the infirmary.

This is their routine agenda every time they come home from time travel.

Years of physical and mental training can at least keep them from dying as soon as they arrive.

Yohan was laid on a single nursing bed. The face of a normal youth with the appearance of an average wheat-skinned man instantly changed to that of a pale young man with an attractive appearance when the doctor who was treating him touched the back of his ear. When that was done, Yohan seemed to have been stung, a shock like electricity gnawing from his neck to his entire face, before his original appearance slowly returned and the irritating sensation disappeared.

This face was the face of someone who could not be forgotten for a lifetime even if they had only met him once. His eyes are almond-shaped with double eyelids, his nose is high and curved. His slender eyebrows were shaped like swords. His lips are slightly thick with a natural color like beetroot. Above his left lip, there is a reddish mole that is quite eye-catching.

Yohan's clothes were opened by the rough-looking male doctor. He checked a lot of things before deciding to take out the syringe. Yohan groaned when he saw that, starting to struggle a little to show how much he didn't like injections.

Doctor Ringgo got angry and patted his head. "You're a Captain who went through life and death situations more than a thousand times, but is still afraid of needles?! Raise your hand or I'll inject you in the ass!"

"Damn old geezer..." Yohan gave up and gave his hand. In an instant, another terrifying feeling assaulted him. It only lasted for a split second as stability fluid was injected before it expired and a giant needle was ejected.

There was a knock on the infirmary door, and someone entered without waiting for an answer. It was Director Ahn. The person in charge of the Timekeepers Division's Time Guardians Bureau on the field section. A 43-year-old woman who has a hobby of wearing a doctor's coat wherever she goes and tormenting handsome young men under her leadership. The woman laughed evilly when she saw Yohan's pitiful condition.

"Captain Elsher, since you still seem to be doing well, let's do some data matching as early as possible so you guys can take your leave soon."

Director Ahn took a chair and sat beside Yohan's bedside.

Yohan was still in poor condition and couldn't speak much, so he just said the point. "Everything is recorded according to written history. Except for the fact that the last bomb was triggered not from the hands of the perpetrator, but from somewhere else. Surprisingly, the system clearly found that the trigger signal came from the device the perpetrator was carrying. So I don't think this was human error, but rather system bugs."

Director Ahn nodded. Later, the mission report will be received in the form of a document compiled by each member of the team, and they are given a certain amount of time to work on it. The second stage in submitting the report is to provide a file copy of the recorded incident which was recorded directly by their eyes. These files are not visuals like video recordings but are specific codes that the supercomputer needs to crack. But if needed, which is very rare, sometimes the team still has to go into the Investigations lab and do a memory scan to get the desired data through their memory directly. In this process, the data obtained will be available in the form of a visualization. The process is extremely painful and somewhat inhumane, so its use is always minimized.

"Oh, and he also said something like AU-364."

Director Ahn was silent for a while. "Okay. I'll be waiting for your report. " and she hurried away from it, as if she was pressed for time.