A New Life

In a low-level, civilized world, an elderly man sits alone at the dining table in a desolate mansion. His hand trembles as he brings the spoon to his mouth, causing him to drop it onto the floor. As usual, the handmaid comes over to assist him. It was becoming difficult for him to breathe as he stared at his quivering hand. He grabbed his housemaid by the shoulders and tremblingly said,

"It's time."

With those last words, his eyes grew gray, and his hand slid off the housemaid's shoulder. As the double door creaks open, many of his family members arrive to celebrate his one hundred and twentieth birthday. As people stream in, they yell "Surprise!" through the open door. A child, being the first to run in, calls out to his grandfather .

"Grandpa! Grandpa, I have your favorite food! It's a Kiwi look!"

The child sees his slumped body.

"Mama, what's wrong with grandpa?"

In a matter of seconds, his mother breaks down in tears upon seeing her father's lifeless body in the chair.

Confused, the child moves closer to his grandfather, shaking him by the arm.

"Grandpa, it's not time for bedtime."

The gray eyes stare at him.

"Mama, what's wrong with grandpa?"

Rushing over, his mother gives him a hard hug while sobbing. The other family members immediately realized the same thing, becoming saddened by it. They all cried out in differing ways, while the servants stayed silent. The servants didn't budge a single bit when one of the family members grabbed a hold of them to call for help. When the time came, the handmaiden gave out a direct order to all his servants, just as the elderly man had planned. 

He knew today was the day he would die, hoping that no one would miss his disappearance, but who knew that they would come on his birthday, which he himself had forgotten. Days later, as his body was being dressed by the servants, they tried to calm the family members down as the funeral was prepared.

The family in all black stood outside in a glorious garden that they'd never seen or stepped foot in. The garden was filled with all types of flowers that no one has ever seen in their world. This all suggested something, but nonetheless, they never caught on and only focused on his death.

While waiting there, they grieved in their own way; some cried into each other's shoulders, some by themselves, while others remained still, gazing at the mansion's door, still not believing that he was gone. The kids did not know for themselves what had happened to their favorite grandfather, except for the Kiwi kid.

The door finally opens as four servants carry a wooden casket. Stepping down a few steps of stairs, multiple other servants create a path through the family, leaving room for the pallbearer to carry the casket. Continuing down the path, they enter the forest as confusion rises among the family. Telling them to follow, they end up on a dirt path up in the mountains that the old man had made long ago. Moving along the trail, a few other servants had already made arrangements for his burial.

The family members gathered around the grave as the servants lowered the casket gradually. They mourn him again as a thunderstorm approaches, crackling. Each person gives a brief but sweet speech about their experiences with him, whether they were his servant, mother, grandmother, or a longtime friend who's treated as family. Listening carefully to each of their stories, it was clear he was an amazing person loved by all.

After finishing their speeches, they all departed one by one, with some staying longer than others.

When no one is left, the thunderstorm finally reaches his grave. Despite the torrential rain, when thunder hits the trees, it causes enormous fires. Once more, thunder cracks above his grave, and the surrounding trees. In the flashes of flickering lightning, lumps of dirt can be seen separating from the ground as a single hand appears, gripping the muddy surface.

Rising from the ground, it strikes again, revealing the silhouette of a person. As frustration takes over, he lies on the muddy ground, breathing heavily and yelling despite his lack of oxygen.

"Fuck! Why did a thunderstorm have to come on this very day?!"

When nearby lightning strikes, he rushes for cover, being forced to stand up and move quickly while slipping a few times on the muddy ground. Running to the nearest tree that he knew would be fine, he leans against the tree and reaches his arm into the hollow, pulling out a metal case that is the length of his arm. As he places it down, the security lock is facing him, and he looks down at his filthy fingers.

Wiping his hand off his black clothes, he pushes his thumb onto the flat, rectangular surface of the case. which emits a green light and appears under his thumb, indicating that the case is open. Flipping it open, inside was a full set of a red uniform, a pistol, and a compass.

The compass was taken out and twisted before he put on the uniform. As someone's face appeared and a woman's happy voice came out of it, the size of the compass increased.

"You've finally contacted me, Celosia!"

Chloe, one of his friends, was taken aback by his contact.

"Bring the ship over here immediately! A forest is on fire! I'm located at [coordinates]."

"I'll be there in five minutes."

He removed the black gown and grabbed the uniform to change into during those five minutes. It was simple to change into as his body physically remembered the many times the uniform had been put on. The last of it was the pistol, which was placed in the built-in holster of the uniform.

As a result of the frequent lightning strikes, one of them eventually struck the tree he was standing beneath, splitting it open and creating a crack. It was emitting a fire that was unusually hot, forcing him to move away from it, but it was too late; the fire spread quickly amongst the now fallen trees surrounding him.

Right on time, something in the stormy sky above him changed. The dark clouds had begun to separate at one point in the sky, allowing the light they had been blocking to shine on him. Finally, the spaceship appeared and hovered over him. All the rain and fire appeared to be alive and running away when the spaceship descended above him. Around the ship, they vanished without a trace, and once more, the sky grew dark, illuminating nothing but the ship's tiny blinking lights.

Under the spaceship, he is surrounded by a beam of light. Emitting a high-pitched sound, the beam of light vanishes with him as the spaceship begins to ascend higher off the ground and into the sky, piercing through the dark clouds. Raising its front vertically towards the clear sky, the ship's engines could be clearly heard revving behind it, their high-pitched noise growing as the throttle charged to full capacity and prepared to pierce the atmosphere. When the sounds of its engines stopped, there was no longer any engine revving, no thunder, and no rain. It vanished as it flew swiftly out into space.

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In the blink of an eye, it appears above the planet. Chloe, the person in charge of operating the ship, maneuvers it into orbit from inside the ship's front, where you can see everything outside.

[Planet: Fequral] [Orbiting in progress...] [................]

"Focus...Focus..."

[Orbiting successful] [All passengers are free to move from their seats.]

"Finally! I've been sitting for hours!"

Stretching her body out from the long ride, it seemed like she was tipping over as something popped off.

"Hm?"

As she brought her arms down, an arm of hers up to the elbow fell off.

"Oops, it looks like my stitches become loose. I'll have to fix it later."

When she got out of her seat and grabbed her arm, it was clear that she was neither alive nor dead. Like the Krakenstein monster created by the mad scientist, Chloe was also brought to life. Patches of skin of various colors and sizes covered her body, with her face untouched by stitches from the neck down.

Chloe calls out to Celosia in a cheerful and playful tone.

"Here I come!"

It didn't take long for her to take off and move through the corridor; in a matter of seconds, she arrived at the cargo bay, where Celosia had been teleported.

"Yoohoo! Are you there?"

Turning on the cargo lights, Chloe finds herself walking around, peeking in the corners a few times. Eventually, She finds Celosia in a not-so-good position. Peeking around a dark corner, two legs could be seen sticking out of a cargo box.

"Celosia, are you dead?"

Taking in the silence, she slowly approaches him, hoping what she said as a joke wasn't true.

As she came closer, a pistol was pointed right at her head. 

Chloe, being the self-defense artist that she is, tries to remove the pistol from her hand but fails miserably as she gets knocked by the head with a butt of it. Getting out of the box, he once again tried to knock her out, but she blocked it and backed away.

"Stay away. I'm just telling you this. Even if I have only one arm, I can beat you endlessly with this other arm of mine. I call it."

Chloe strikes a new pose, this time pointing her detached arm at her as if it were a sword.

"Death by Extended Sword Pointblank!"

The two of them stand their ground as Chloe raises her fists and assumes a fighting stance while Celosia pulls out a pistol. She realizes her mistake and calls out to him before he pulls the trigger.

Silence

All of a sudden, they burst into laughter.

"Hahaha. As usual, your ship looks like a goddamn dumpster."

"Wha-?! I've been watching over this ship day and night, and do you even remember me?"

"I don't know anybody as ugly as you."

"Wha-?!"

She completely dropped her guard upon hearing those rude words.

"I feel highly offended by that. All I did was cut my hair off and change my figure a little."

He moves closer, holstering his weapon.

"I'm kidding, Chloe. How could I forget someone who I saved from that crackhead in the experimentation facility?"

"You finally remembered!"

She rushes towards Celosia, dropping her detached arm and giving him a warm hug.

"I'm so glad to see you! It's been a month since I've seen you!"

"Haha, yeah, sorry about that; the movement of time is different down there… I know you miss me, but could you stop hugging me? Dying from a hug once from you is enough for me."

She releases her grip on him.

"Sorry, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. It looks like you still haven't lost your strength yet."

With the release of his body, his ribs were crushed very badly.

Depending on what it was, the quick restoration process was awful. While resisting the urge to scream, he could feel his ribs (living tissue) returning to their original position. The bones would prod at his internal organs when they moved, and the skin that went in would be pushed back, causing the most agonizing pain he could endure. There is even the possibility of his organs hanging out of his body while the body tissue is being restored. He was fortunate that she released him.

There were times when restoring the tissue would only lead to death, forcing him to reform his body into a new one, whether it was a female or male. 

In reality, the restoration happened in just three seconds.

"Now what did I miss? "Is everyone doing well?"

"Is that really the first thing on your mind?"

"Wanting to know what others are doing is normal. After all, I've been gone for a while."

Chloe sighs, turns around, and picks up her arm.

"Well, you shouldn't. Take care of yourself before worrying about others. Living in such a low-civilized world must've left you starving. Now follow me. Having a conversation in the cargo bay isn't really comfy."

"It's actually not too bad. I somehow became filthy rich."

While we were talking and walking in the corridor, it appeared that the ship had not been swept or cleaned in weeks. Passing through the other corridors, it seemed like a mess, as raw foods were on the ground, and there was even a spider setting up its web in the corner.

"Are you sure you've been taking care of the ship? It looks rusty and dirty, and..."

On a different path, a rat was squeaking in the middle of the corridor.

"Is that a rat? A rat on a spaceship?"

"Given the ship's massive size, I can't keep it in top condition on my own. Fixing the crucial components—particularly the core and engines that prevent the ship from drifting into space—is already challenging enough."

"Just hire some people to do the work for you."

"I don't have the money. Pirates have been "requesting" tolls for passing through their territory. Those cretins should have been sent to fight the primordials. But anyhow, we're here."

The temperature of the air suddenly dropped as he entered Chloe's room. It felt really lonesome in here, as there wasn't much of anything inside that would catch a person's attention. The only things in her room were a pillow on her metal bed and a few boxes near the bed.

"Wow, your room is so... spacious."

"Remember when I emphasize the word "request"? They took everything from me! I had to save money and sell things on the ship. There weren't even any good workshops to go to in the boonies. All they had to sell were materials like metal."

While she was complaining about the stressful daily things she'd been experiencing, Celosia immediately noticed the window that was next to her blocky bed. Looking through the window, he could see the planet he had resided on.

"Was this where I've been living my life this whole time?"

"Yeah, it's such a great view, isn't it?"

It may not look as amazing to others, but being able to see the world unaffected by war or technological advancement and just letting nature take its course is amazing.

"The way the ecosystem changes in seconds is gorgeous."