Landing

The ride on the ship was absurdly boring. The only form of entertainment to be found was the language manual; it was most likely on purpose to force you to learn the language.

I found myself being compelled to ditch my understanding of language. All the English in the world wouldn't help me with Universal Diction, so I cast it aside. It was extremely hard to do; I was essentially ditching part of myself, but I managed.

This didn't mean I had forgotten English, no. That was impossible. I just made myself use the Universal Diction

It was similar to English in the sense that it followed letters, having a set amount of letters and numbers, but the resemblance ended there. It was also similar to Chinese, with each letter having meanings, but it was only a singular sound.

I nearly broke my brain comprehending it, but in the 4-day journey, I managed to learn 'Hello, how are you? Me, I'm doing good.' I could also say my name and age, but that was it.

It was a start, but nowhere near good enough for me to get around the universe.

When the ship landed, we were herded out like sheep, and guided to the Office of Identities.

It was there that I was going to be given my ID, so I had to be sure to make no mistakes. Most likely done to make the reader laugh, Alexander makes a mistake setting up his ID, leading to him being referred to wrongly for an entire year. Eventually, it was sorted, but it was only when he had a grasp on the language, nearing fluent. He had almost forgotten about it by then, but he happily fixed it.

The building was futuristic. It had that element of sci-fi to it, but it also seemed like a regular building, that while distinct from Earthly architecture, could fit in there. It was made from some form of brick, presumably much tougher than Earthen ones, and the paste between was black, and from my position, seemed rubbery. The walls were white, and the windows were thick, nothing special about them. It was glass.

Inside the building looked much like a bank, there was a counter that was made from the same material as the walls, with glass-like panels connecting to the ceiling. I assumed that they were resistant to even energy lasers.

From the entrance, you could see the vault, which confused me. I knew that there was a virtual storage, so the vault was a decoy, but it could have been a little bit better hidden. It was as if they were taunting newcomers into committing crimes, although I wasn't sure why. What would you even find of value in an Identity office?

Unluckily, I wasn't first in the line, so I had to stand in the queue for almost 2 hours. Once I got to the front, I was handed a bracelet.

The man at the counter said to me, "Sync with the bracelet and then fill out the form." before turning away from me and dealing with the next person.

I walked away from him, moving to sit on a bench nearby. People sat on all other benches, so I was forced to sit next to a fat man and an elderly man. Not that I was insulting them, no, I was pitying them.

From what I had read, I knew they had the least chance to make it in the universe. Unless the fat man lost most of his weight, he would be killed at the first sign of danger. The elderly man would be stuck as an elderly man, his body would collapse under the pressure of an Element Crystal, and there was no point trying to create a business.

Whatever you thought of had already been thought of. Even if you came up with something original, there was still the matter of money.

It was highly unlikely that any of these people survived more than their first year here, and since the book had never mentioned the first leavers other than the fact that they left, I was left to assume the worst.

I took a look at the bracelet, a sleek, stretchy band of black and white material, in alternating shapes and sizes. Different swirls adorned the bracelet, making it seem similar to galaxies when seen from afar.

Placing it on my right wrist, an important distinction, I felt a piercing pain come from my wrist.

Looking down, I saw blood trickle from the bracelet, not concentrated in one spot, but all over my arm. The band had a blade dug into my muscles from every side. As if trying to torture me, the blade that cut me began to spin whilst shrinking.

"ARGH!"

Every second of the process was agony, but it was a necessary step. I held my hand above my head with my other, trying to forget the pain.

'I can't see it, I can't feel it. It's all mental, buddy. COME ON, IT'S STEP ONE! DON'T CHICKEN OUT NOW! YOU'LL NEVER GET ANYWHERE OTHERWISE!' I psyched myself up, for if I gave up now, I wouldn't have the balls to proceed with my plan.

This pain would be nothing to what I would soon be feeling, so I pushed through. However, just as I started to get the hang of it, a searing pain came from within my body, all over, and I felt my heart thump twice before stopping, then starting, over and over, as my body morphed itself.

THUMP- THUMP!

I felt my awareness fade several times, and I was blinking in and out of consciousness.

When I awoke for the last time, I brought my hand back down. The mangled flesh one would expect to see was gone, but the traces remained. The bracelet must have been imbued with some kind of healing factor. It had disappeared, now a part of my wrist itself. I didn't know how, but I knew from the book that even if my arm was cut off, as long as it was restored at some point, the bracelet would still exist in my arm.

The pain in my body must have been my body's physiology modifying itself with the help of the bracelet. This was done due to the deviations between each planet and the universal time, and other such differences.

That was not what mattered, however. I had failed. I couldn't stay awake for the whole process. If that kept up, I would die when I awakened an element. That wouldn't do. If my goal was to take Alexander's place in the story, hence becoming the strongest in the world, I needed to be able to take the pain. Sheer willpower could only drag me so far.

Moving back to the bracelet, I tapped my arm where the bloody marks were, and a screen appeared in my vision. This was the most useful thing that would come my way —not even the cheats I would claim were as important as this. It didn't matter that the model was an old one; I could simply buy the upgrade parts, and then affix them to my arm. It was only a little more pain. 

The file the man wanted me to fill in was on the screen in my eye, so I moved my hand into the air where the page was. The screen magically moved away from me, making it seem as though it was now behind my hand, floating in midair. I, using the language book, scribed my name, age, sex, and other details into the page. I left the address blank, for I was homeless, but it didn't matter. If I bought a house, it would update.

Once I finished with the file, I went back to the counter, being the first to do so. Other people had had the bracelet for hours now, yet I had still finished first. It seemed that they had a hard time adapting; it was most likely the pain that kept them from moving any further.

The man told me to swipe the screen towards him, and I followed his instructions. The page flew towards him, disappearing from my sight.

"That's it. I've got it. You can go now. Welcome to Averia." He said in a bored, monotone voice.

I moved out of the way, heading to the door, and took one, final look at the room. As I had suspected, the people who had come with me had all collapsed from the pain. The old man I sat next to had gone stiff, and he seemed to not be breathing.

'Rest, old soul. Drift in the Oblivion, and let the Still console you.' I thought. I bore no grudge to the man, so I gave him my regards in the way those in the story did. I felt it appropriate for the moment.

I left the Office and headed from the port. The ship had docked at the Spatial Port, a massive, complex structure that controlled who entered and who left the planet. The workers had been so kind as to guide us to our destination —the exit— with signs, so I followed. The port was built of black and grey materials, all metal, and there were several places with exposed wiring. The trusses that built each structure housed thick cables and built each layer of the station. Somehow, the spaceships floated, unmoving, without being tied to the platform.

The signposts took me to a large room where I could look down at the planet below. The planet was oddly similar to Earth, but it was at least 20x the size, which made it bigger than Jupiter. There were differences, of course, mainly in the landscape. There were several supercontinents spread over the planet, all of which seemed more grey than green.

'The cities, I suppose.' Aver was well known not only as the Capital Planet but also as the biggest trading hub the humans had. This led to abnormal levels of developed land, which forced it to rely on imports for food. The planet relied on external factors, and it wouldn't survive a week without trade. A bad development method, especially for the Capital, but it was an unfortunate mistake made by one of the dumber Emperors, apparently. 

The oceans were orangey-blue, and the atmosphere was too. It had to do with particulates in the air, that much even I knew from school, but any more than that confused me.

In the distance, I could see the Capital City, Aver.

Focusing my attention back to the room I was in, I saw several exits, all with signposts. Using the language manual, and about half an hour, I managed to decipher them. Heading towards the one labeled 'Aver', I felt for the money that I had.

'Still there.' I sighed in relief. Had the money been gone, I most likely would have had a mental breakdown.

I arrived in front of the door to Aver and was stopped by two guards. They spoke in Universal Diction, and since I couldn't understand them, I showed them my ID. 

It had its date of creation on it, so I pointed to the 15-digit number, the Universal Epoch. A fancy way of saying the date, set against the recorded beginning, based on time in the center of the universe.

11 of those digits were occupied by the year, and there were 2 for day and 2 for month. There were 99 days a month, and 99 months a year. It was confusing to wrap my head around, but I didn't need to. My bracelet told me the date and time. Speaking of, the time was 4 digits, 99 hours, and 99 minutes.

I also pointed to my throat, trying to imply that I couldn't yet speak the language. They swiftly understood, letting me pass for free. Usually, one was made to pay a toll, but I was from a newly discovered planet, so my first time was free.

I strolled down the corridor and reached the end in about 10 minutes. It was long, and at the end sat another room containing a spaceship. My ride down to the planet.

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A/N - The body morph will be discussed in a later chapter, but if you wish to guess what happened, you're free to try. You may be able to get it using the info just above this note, but I doubt that. Anyone who does is a genius!

- forener