The Preservation

? "Hey, wake up."

I open my eyes. With a blurry vision I try to look around the room I woke up in.

It looks like a hospital room, with a woman standing over me. I try to sit up.

"Urgh-Ow…Damn that Ely."

? "He did go hard on you, sorry about that."

She's the woman that was with him. Now that I take a closer look at her, she gives off a kind aura. I feel safer when I look into her deep blue eyes, her black hair obscuring one of them, eyebrows relaxed, her mouth giving me a warm smile.

? "You okay there?"

"S-sorry for staring… Other than the intense pain I feel in my ribs, no I'm completely fine."

? "Stop complaining like you're some kind of victim, you were about to commit suicide by the time we got there."

*Sigh* It's him again.

Ely "What's up with the sigh, you don't want to see your saviour."

Woman "You can't blame him for disliking you after you barrage him with insults then knock him out."

Ely "Oh give me a break Julie, this moron doesn't need your sympathy."

"Can't you kick him out Julie?"

Julie "I wish I could, but he has more authority…"

Ely "You wish you can? Hey! What do you mean?"

Julie "He can be a bit uncooperative sometimes…"

"Wow! What a terrible senior, I feel sorry that you have to work with such a guy Julie."

Ely "What? You never told me that. And you shut up. Urgh, forget it I didn't come here for that, you woke up so hurry and follow me."

"No."

Ely "Do you want to die?"

"No."

And so, I got up. It was painful but Julie gave me some pain killers.

 I followed Ely out of the room and to the hallway. Walking through here felt very familiar, the sanitised smell, the floors that are cleaner than necessary, the big walls and the plethora of doors that surround me.

After quite a long walk, we reach the end of the hallway, faced by a huge door.

Ely "Straighten up."

With that warning Ely opened the door, I took his advice at face value and fixed up my appearance and posture.

The huge door opened to an equally huge room, whoever designed this room had some interesting tastes with the long simple wooden desk that stretched from one side of the big room the other, a massive clear wall was behind said desk giving you the ability to see the entire city, a lot of artificial plants surrounded this room giving of a dim warm light, with the most abnormal part of the room being the "river" that flowed parallel to the desk separating the room into two parts; from the door to the river this side of the floor was a zen garden with some rocks resembling a walkway, the other side from the river under the desk was simple wood flooring.

However, with all of this happening around the room there was something that instantly caught my attention, the rotating chair turned to face us sitting on that chair was a woman, as she turned around to face me.

"Welcome to my office." she said, with a voice that I can only describe as mesmerising, her tone sounded playful yet her grey eyes told me otherwise she was intently looking over me, as if scanning me for any issues then when she reached my eyes stopped and smiled. That smile felt like an attack towards me, slightly closing her eyes and tilting her head to her right, her silky purple hair slightly covering the scar over her right eye, I couldn't take my eyes of her b—

Ely "Focus!"

Ely slapped the back of my head to get me back to my senses, I'll let that one slide because it was warranted.

"Yeah sorry."

Ely "This is chief Wynter Liselotte."

Wynter "I am the official representative of groups like Ely, Julie and Angelo. Mr Eliana."

Urgh…

Ely "…He apparently calls himself E."

Ely corrected her and seemed to cringe as much as I did at the mention of my name.

Wynter "Is that right? E it is then."

"That would be better, yes."

Ely "Anyways, anything we do was by order from her. That means saving you too."

"Oh really? Thank you then, chief Liselotte."

Wynter "No need for that, we were coming for you either way. It just happened to coincide with your assassination attempt."

"You were coming for me? Can I ask why?"

Wynter "You can, and I will explain it to you."

Ely "At first it was to arrest you but now there has been a change of plans."

"Arrest me? Why?"

Wynter "Now now, no need to jump that far in the story E."

Ely "Well can I leave then? I can't stand his ugly mug."

"Says the guy hiding his face behind a mask."

This guy really doesn't like me huh? It's honestly getting on my nerves a bit how he treats me like this for seemingly no reason. I'll be honest and say that he interests me for some reason, his mannerisms and the way he speaks remind me of someone, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I can't say that I like the fact that he seems familiar to me in some way though. He's just a mystery to me.

Wynter "Stop that you two."

Her voice resonated through the room and Ely instantly ate up his words and stood still waiting for her to finish speaking. I did the same.

Wynter "Ely, there is no need for hostility. You're staying here."

Ely looked defeated but he didn't add a single sentence.

Wynter "As for you E. Do you know what you did yesterday at approximately 11 pm?"

"I just woke up from a nap, then headed to my bed to be ambushed from the window by a man that called himself Yuta. He was wearing a white mask, I can draw a sketch of him if you want."

Ely "I already drew one."

Wynter "We know, that much was obvious at the scene and from Ely's testimony. What I am asking is what happened to you before that?"

What does she mean? Is she speaking about the dream? How would she even know about that?

Wynter "It can be anything, even a simple dream."

"W-what?"

Ely "Just tell us what you saw before you woke up from the nap."

"You mean the dream I had?"

Ely "Do you still believe that it's a dream?"

"I mean, the only other thing it can be is if it's some kind of premonition."

Wynter "Tell us what happened, and we will explain it to you."

"O-okay. Before any of that happened, I was tired so I fell asleep on my couch, after I thought I woke up, I was ambushed by Yuta but I wasn't able to escape him that time and instead was stabbed to death, or so I thought I woke up again and things replayed themselves I noticed and successfully ran away from him for some time but was cornered on the rooftop. And with all the weirdness I was subjected to, I jumped from the rooftop."

Ely "Which is completely psychotic, no sane person would jump from the rooftop like that. You would have been either suicidal, stupid or hopeful that something or someone would help you."

"I'm sane, I think? And I'm not stupid, so I guess I was hopeful that something would happen, I mean It happened to me twice, so I just thought why not a third you know?"

Wynter "Twice? What do you mean?"

"I had a similar experience to that one just in the same evening, but in that one I avoided the entire place so I didn't meet Yuta."

Ely "You did it twice?"

Ely and Wynter exchanged looks, oh no did I say something I shouldn't have?

Wynter "And are you positive that Yuta was responsible for the first one? Actually, can you recount what happened to you the first time?"

"Sure, around five pm I was taking my break like usual on the rooftop. And when I went closer to the rails, I was pushed down, and seemingly fell to my death but then I "woke up" after it, obviously stressed and left work without checking the roof. Later on, I was able to ask Yuta about it and he said something along the lines of "The reason I'm here is because you didn't show up" that confirmed that he was planning to do the same, but I didn't show up like he thought I would."

Wynter "Hmm…"

Leaning her head on her hand Wynter thought for a bit then looked at me again.

Wynter "Well, I'll start with explaining the reason you're here. You, like Ely said, was supposed to be arrested and the reason for that is what you say are dreams. Let's set things straight, they weren't dreams or premonitions, You E have awoken the ability to time travel."

"!...I became a time traveller at this age?"

Wynter "It is possible for someone to discover a trait later in their life. Because of the way they are able to use it, for example when did you experience those phenomena?"

"When I was dying…"

Wynter "Exactly, if your condition to time travel is for you to be at the gates of death then you wouldn't be able to discover it until very later on."

"Wait a second, I might understand how I might have come to use time travel but how did you know I did and that fast too...?"

Wynter "We have our ways. Back to the topic at hand, you know the complicated mess time travel laws are right?"

"Who doesn't when they basically can't use them at all?"

Wynter "Even if it feels that way, you can do it as long as you don't break any laws. I'll give you a brief explanation, in layman's terms you can time travel if you don't mess with the timeline so you might be able to change a small event, however the existence of the butterfly effect really limits what a small change means.

I'll give you an example, let's say a time traveller wakes up late so leaving his house in a hurry he rushes through traffic and stops a car in the middle of the road almost causing an accident but still manages to be late. But he remembers that he's a time traveller and "waking up earlier wouldn't be a big change, would it?" he thinks and acts on it. And just like that he wakes up nice and early and even gets to his job thirty minutes early. This seems like a nice small use of his powers, right? but because he wasn't late, he didn't rush into traffic, and he didn't stop that random car and so not stopping this time the car gets into an actual accident later killing a very important figure that was inside it. It sounds like a hyperbolic scenario, but it was a real problem we had to deal with."

"What you're essentially saying is that the unpredictable chains of cause and consequence makes it impossible to not change the timeline in a considerable way. So, what's my situation?"

Wynter "Glad that you're keeping up. Like Ely said earlier the plan was to arrest you for escaping death, but we realised later that you might have actually fixed it by undoing what Yuta did first. You were not supposed to die today."

I let out the breath I was holding in relief.

"Wait, you caught Yuta too, right? What happened to him?"

Ely "We weren't able to get anything out of him seeing that he himself is a time traveller too."

"He did imply being a bearer while talking to you, so did he disappear or what?"

Ely "I guess you are new to dealing with time travellers. Fine I'll explain it, time travellers don't just disappear and reappear in another reality that wouldn't make sense to the timeline and will create a lot of balancing problems. So, what happens is something akin to possession, the traveller's consciousness will go into himself in the past of a parallel world, and his original body is left there in his original timeline empty. Is it hard for that brain of yours to comprehend?"

"No, I get it, I basically died for real twice. Wait, if my consciousness replaces an older one, where does the other go?"

Wynter "It's gone forever."

"But before I replaced him, the me of this timeline was real and didn't know he was going to be poofed out of existence?"

Wynter "It is a moral dilemma in the preservation, but the fact that it's you replacing yourself makes it more acceptable by the majority, if time travellers were able to possess other people, then that would have been a different story."

I can't process this; it basically means that…

"…Four Es died today..."

Ely "That's inaccurate. Two versions of your consciousness don't exist anymore and there are two empty bodies that look like they were killed back in the other timelines. Remember, you were the one that saw what happened and you're here now or do you regard a body without a consciousness as a person?"

He is saying the truth, my consciousness is here, I didn't die. And I don't know if suddenly not existing can be considered a death.

"I don't really like the idea of it."

Ely "It's not like you can control it. If you're at the verge of dying it will be triggered and you will be given a second chance in a world that closely resembles yours but also different. You should be grateful that you're a time traveller instead of a timeline hopper."

Timeline hoppers are people capable of jumping from timeline to timeline basically the same as time travel just without changing the time, or so I heard.

"They're kinda the same thing, aren't they?"

Ely "They are similar but no. The entire point of time travel is to go back to your past and that's done by going into the past of a timeline very close to the original, time hopping or the majority of it on the other hand pretty much depends on the timeline to be different to their own otherwise it's useless as a trait."

"So does the time hoppers get a pass on the "they can't just teleport" rule that time travellers operate by?"

Ely "Well that's where the similarities actually start."

"Wait, you mean they willingly replace themselves in a parallel world?"

Ely "Yup, that's why it is considered morally wrong by The Preservation, a time hopper can replace a version of themselves that shares nothing with them but appearance and name."

"You wouldn't call twins or people that share a name the same person…"

Wynter "However, there's a number of special time hoppers that are able to swap instead of replacing their counterparts."

"Oh? So, they would swap bodies with their other version instead of deleting them completely? It's better sure but still, I can't imagine what it would feel like to wake up in another world entirely different from your own, and I doubt you would be of any assistance."

Ely "Well we don't know how they would react so before swapping, our designated time hopper would lock himself in a cell and go. After explaining the situation to the new consciousness, we'll assess their danger level and act accordingly."

"By act accordingly you mean, leaving them in the cell or not."

Ely "Or restrain them further. You seem to underestimate how different a parallel version of someone can act."

"Hmm…"

This conversation is heavy with information I don't know if I can keep up anymore but I still have questions like what happens if let's say the special time hopper that can swap with their counterpart dies in the body that he swapped into; does that mean that the other version won't get their body back or go back to their original timeline either? And I forgot about the special cases. No two people have the same trait, even if they are similar, they differ with each person's psyche…

 "Regarding exceptions, aren't they always present when we talk about Time Bearers?"

Wynter "That is correct. The nature of a Time Bearer's psyche and their perception of time is considered the origin of their traits, that explains the significantly larger number of Observers in comparison to other traits because it is the most common perception of time; looking back on your memories and reliving them. But still there are exceptions to exceptions."

"…Huh?"

Wynter "The exceptions you're talking about are just common traits that the preservation doesn't regard as exceptions that's why I used special instead. An actual exception would be one that defies a law, like a time hopper materialising in a new timeline instead of just replacing his counterpart."

"Yeah, I was going to ask what would happen if there wasn't a counterpart to begin with in the parallel timeline?"

Wynter "Usually the time hopper won't be able to jump into a timeline they don't exist in or materialise in a world they have a counterpart in, with the former the time hopper can't be there because they aren't supposed to exist there and with the latter two versions of the same person can't exist together, or so we thought until Ely came."

Ely? Does she mean that he's a time hopper? I know that he was a bearer but that was certainly not time hopping.

"You didn't replace your counterpart? But isn't that going against all the spacetime laws you said?"

Wynter "It does. That's why the timelines had to be rebalanced and with Ely and his counterpart's special situation…"

Ely "My original timeline doesn't exist anymore."

"WHAT?"

An entire timeline disappears just because of a single person? What does Wynter mean by special situation?

Ely with his mask still covering his face, lowered his face… I can sense the pain he felt saying those words.

"What do you mean by special situation Chief Wynter? How can an entire timeline disappear because of a single person, I would think if anything would have happened it would have been Ely or his counterpart that get erased not an entire world."

Wynter "That I cannot tell you."

"Oh, now it gets confidential?"

Ely "Everything else we talked about has mostly been public info, you were just uneducated."

"Hey, I'm no Preservation fan boy, I have better things to do other than scouting your public database. Anyways, did you get to talk with your counterpart? Do you even know who they are?"

Ely "Of course I know who he is. But I'm not really keen on talking to him."

"Why? Do you blame him for what happened?"

Ely "What would be the point in that? Neither of us knew this was going to happen."

"You didn't know?"

Ely "…Just like you, my trigger was death."

Oh…

Ely "I was a part of The Preservation even in my original timeline but a normal agent. I didn't know I was a bearer at the time, how can I? And one day, one of my missions went wrong. If I stayed there, I would have certainly died and if I knew what would happen if I survived, I would have gladly died to save my timeline from erasure."

"I'm sorry…"

Ely "I don't need your sympathy."

He meant that. The last thing he needed was someone he didn't like showing sympathy.

Ely "Well what are you going to do now? You probably have more questions, but this conversation has been going on for too long. It felt like one of those boring info-dumps in sci-fi novels."

"What do you mean by what am I going to do now?"

Wynter "You have a target on your back, and we can use more time travellers in our team if you would agree to join us."

"But I can't control my powers and with the nature of my trait I won't be helping you per-say but another version of The Preservation."

Wynter "With practice time bearers are able to muster their triggers and use their traits whenever and however they want."

I don't want to join the Preservation. It sounds like a risky endeavour that doesn't really benefit me. But on the other hand, I for some reason have people that want me dead so being trained by The Preservation and surrounded by their men would guarantee some degree of safety… What I'm actually concerned about though is what I can offer, I'll probably be useless to them.

"…I'm still not sure about joining."

Ely "Let me explain your situation for you. The people in your pursuit are wreaking havoc on our men and we want to take them down. And you will be bait whether you join or not, you would honestly do a better job not joining."

That is the unfiltered truth. I can't say it's unfair because they gave me a choice to join them and be protected by proxy, it would have benefited them more if they didn't give me any information and just threw me back to live my life normally.

"…"

Wynter "What Ely said is his interpretation of what we are doing to justify you joining, don't worry we aren't offering with just those intentions in mind. Even if you refuse, we'll try our best to keep you safe."

With "we'll try our best" she means "we probably won't get to you in time, but we'll try". Urgh, I hate making long lasting decisions while being conscious of them.

"I will join The Preservation."

Wynter "Good to hear, do you have any questions?"

"I do yeah but it might be a personal one."

Wynter "I meant about the job but sure I'll entertain your question."

Wynter leaned in and squinted her eyes in anticipation.

"It's about the scar on your face, with the technology available to you especially as a part of the preservation you can easily remove it. I'm not saying you look bad, quite the opposite, but most people won't leave scars especially on their faces."

Ely turned to me shaking his head in disapproval, wait is it a sensitive topic?

Wynter stared at me for a bit and smiled, she then started rolling up her sleeves to reveal even more scars. Her forearm was full of them, and probably all of her body was in this state.

Wynter "Removing these scars would be equivalent to me abandoning my past, you should understand not wanting to let go of your past better than anyone E."

"…"

Wynter "Eliana Neverbeen, you seem to dislike that name preferring to be called E instead. If you hate it that much, why didn't you just come up with a new name that you like more no one stopped you or is stopping you from doing so."

"…It's the only thing I remembered about myself."

Wynter "And you didn't want to let go of a past that you didn't even know… Aren't we humans such strange creatures? Logically it would make sense for me to get over my past and maybe get a do over to look like I did before I joined this line of work. But I choose not to because of their significance, plus they're pretty cool. You weren't sly with that underhanded compliment."

Ha, she got me.

The reason why my name is Eliana Neverbeen is because I said it was, nothing else. If I told them I was Mike they would have registered me as that but I remembered it, the only thing that gave me hope that someday I might get my memories back was the name I woke up with. And so, since the day I woke up I was called Eliana.

I came to hate the fact that it's feminine, so I introduce myself as E, but that hate isn't directed at the name itself, I think it's a pretty good one… if I was a woman.

Wynter "Well you can start your preparations to join us, Ely will accompany you."

Ely "Chief…"

Wynter "Fine, Julie will accompany you then."

Meeting Julie outside of Wynter's office she raised her hand to greet me.

Julie "Welcome to the team."

"Was I assigned to yours?"

Julie "Oh no. I was welcoming you to the Preservation, our group is specialised. I doubt you will be assigned to it as soon as you're recruited."

"Okay… So, what are these preparations going to be?"

Julie "I'm going to show you around the place and introduce you to the trainer."

"Sorry for troubling you."

Julie "It's no trouble really. I much rather babysit you for a bit than research our next mission."

Babysit me?

"…"

Julie "Hm? Why do you look angry all of a sudden? Did Ely do something to you?"

I guess she didn't mean it as an insult…

"I don't know why but that guy doesn't seem to like me at all."

Julie "It is odd, he usually acts that way only towards the people we pursue."

"Well, he's been nothing but rude to me since I met him and I think it's rubbing off on me too, he's starting to get on my nerves."

Julie "He's nothing but nice towards me, he said that we were good friends back in his original timeline."

She knows about that?

"That might be it actually. Do you think we were some kind of enemies back in his original?"

Julie "Maybe, can you think of any enemies of your own?"

"Not really. I don't have that many friends to have any enemies."

Julie "That's…sad."

I guess it is…

"Anyway, where are we headed now?"

The building is impressively large from what I'm seeing, we spent close to 10 minutes walking to reach a different looking place. The architecture did not change a bit on the way, the same white hallway with the familiar sanitised smell stretches all over it.

Julie "This is the living quarters, that one number 1807 is where you will be sleeping from now on."

The living quarters although having the same feel of the hallways, the warm light instead of the bright white light makes the difference, the corridor was full of doors that are numbered, they started at 1800 here I'm guessing there are that many rooms elsewhere I still don't know what this building is so I have no idea to how many floors or how big it might be.

The Preservation has a public building but that one is pretty empty. I went there on a school trip once, it felt like a decoy you know? Everything seemed "normal" about it to the point of being boring, something else even my younger self noticed was the small number of people around, there was scarcely anyone around, two secretaries at the front desk and a tour guide were all the people I saw inside.

But this place is weirder and full of people too, it feels to the point and direct. Everyone passing by was walking with purpose, the maze-like hallways lead everywhere and nowhere at once, an intruder will probably enter a thousand rooms before finding their desired destination, I guess that's why I needed to be babysat.

Julie "Do you want to check it out before going to meet your teacher?"

"Nah, I'll do that later."

Julie "Sure, follow me then."

We passed the living quarters into the same hallways again.

Julie "Here we are."

"These hallways are messing with my brain…"

We were walking through the same hallways for half an hour at this point.

Julie "You'll get used to it, in you go now."

Julie opened the door and pushed me inside. I fell then she waved goodbye with a smile and closed the door behind her.

"What was that for?"

As I said that I felt the presence of something huge behind me, as I turned, a man with the build of an elephant looked intensely at me, as if he was a predator assessing his prey. His bald head showed every vein on his head, the glow in his eyes showed that they were AIRIS (Artificially Intelligent Retina Iris Systems) they were white, his left arm was almost all metal from the modifications he's running, now that I look closer his body was probably more metal than flesh neck-down. "What are you doing here?" He said with a rough voice.

I tried to stand up from where I was but was stopped by his right hand. The force he exerted over me stopped any movement I was going to make, making me kneel on the ground.

Huge Man "Who gave you permission to stand?"

What's up with these Preservation people and their strong personalities, it's really exhausting me…

Huge Man "You didn't answer my questions."

"I came here to train, I think."

Huge Man "You want training from me?"

"It wasn't really my choice, they said it was a part of the preparations when I joined The Preservation."

Huge Man "You're in the preservation? You must be one of those book smart people, but they don't usually get physical training."

"I am the furthest thing from book smart. I'm being hunted by some people so chief Wynter gave me the choice to join."

Huge Man "You've been assigned here by chief Wynter? She must see great potential in you."

Wynter probably has a lot of respect from people, and he figured that if she personally assigned me here then I must be special. He doesn't know how wrong he is…

Huge Man "So what's your name young man."

"It's E." I said while trying to stand again but the hand he removed from my head earlier to ponder swiftly came back to hold me down with more force.

"Ow ow ow ow! That's my head man, chill out!"

Huge Man "I still haven't given you permission to stand, don't let Chief's personal assignment get to your ego."

When I mentioned Wynter he became less intimidating for a second but as soon as I wanted to move, he went back to his original state. And what's up with my ego? I didn't think anything of it when Wynter gave me that proposal, I was just trying to stand damn it! Why is he acting like I've committed a felony!?

"OKAY! Okay, what do I have to do to get your permission to stand?"

Huge Man "That's the spirit, now do push ups till you can't feel your arms."

"What?"

Huge Man "PUSHUPS NOW!"

I started doing push ups just as he said. For some reason I feel as though I wouldn't be yelled at next time but something worse.

I can usually do a hundred or so push ups easily, but he didn't give a number but until I can't feel my arms anymore? I'll just do a hundred and some then tell him I'm done.

Huge Man "There you go! Don't stop now, show me what those frail arms are capable of!"

136 137 138 139 140… that should be enough.

As I started stopping, the man who stood there the entire time watching me said "What are you doing? You clearly have at least 100 more in you." And he's serious.

I hesitated, I mean I can still feel my arms, but I just did 140 push ups, I'm tired…

Huge Man "That's it! More!"

… I'm finished. My arms gave out. What's that? 250? I've lost count….

"Haah…huff…is that good enough for you?"

The entire time he was "encouraging" me with threats, as much as I hate exercise, I do work out daily just to maintain a healthy body, with me refusing to alter it and all…

Huge Man "Yes, that's good. Those spaghetti arms do have some power to them I see."

I hate it when people who clearly didn't achieve that physique on their own comment on my body… I mean sure, he probably was that big but not that… solid?

Huge Man "Now we can start."

…Huh?

"What?"

Huge Man "Now that you showed me that you are at least capable of following orders, we can go to the training grounds and actually start training you."

…So, this wasn't a part of it?

Huge Man "Follow my lead rookie."

I guess I have no choice in the matter. He opened the door and led me down the same old you know what…

? "Master Robert Armstrong sir!"

Robert? I guess his parents didn't expect him to be an absolute unit, Armstrong suits him rather well though.

Robert "Markus! Long time no see!"

They yapped about nothing for a long time, talking about how this Markus has been up to with Robert laughing like a maniac at anything minutely humorous and me standing there staring.

"Hey, Mr Rober—"

As I tried to intervene and possibly put an end to this catching up session, I was met with stares from both of them telling me to dig a hole and die.

So I swallowed my words and sat there for longer still.

Man, that conversation was long…we continued down the hall and faced a big, armoured gate that looked almost out of place. Robert reached for the door handle and as soon as he touched it, he was fully scanned from top to bottom and with a *beep* the door started opening.

Gate "Access granted. Robert Armstrong, head of the counter-measure division."

Pretty neat. Robert entered inside so I followed suit and I was scanned too, it didn't feel out of the ordinary they probably use these to get an accurate and comprehensive list of who goes in and out the usual security measures it's just this one is very through with scanning every part of me, wait Robert wasn't scanned for this long it's kinda weirding me out…

Instead of the *beep* that Robert got I was met with an alarm sound and-

Gate "ACCESS DENIED. UNAUTHORISED PERSON."

…? Okay so it also keeps people out that makes sense.

The gate instantly closed after that and the people around me that didn't care about me a second ago started staring at me.

"Great… love all that attention…"

I want to die…

The gate opened again, and Robert greeted me again.

Robert "You weren't registered yet? That's odd. Wynter should've done that already."

Well, it didn't say unregistered, it just denied me access here.

"If you say so. So where do I go to register?"

Robert "You can figure that out on your own, as soon as you're finished come here, we aren't done yet."

And he goes back inside.

*sigh* Great…

Where to go now? I went seeking help from the people around but as soon as I came close to them, they looked at me with disgust and turned away.

It pisses me off…

Why are these people like this? Wynter and Julie are saints in comparison even Robert at least acknowledged my existence.

I went further down the hallway reading any signs I can fin—

"Oh, sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention."

I accidentally bumped into someone.

? "Huh? Oh yeah, I didn't see you either…"

Wait, I know that face.

"Angelo?"

It's the guy that was driving the van earlier.

Angelo "You know me?"

But he doesn't seem to remember me.

"You were in a chase driving a van yesterday, I'm E the guy that was hanging from the van."

Angelo "Oh… you're that guy…"

..? What a ray of sunshine this guy is…

Angelo "Well see ya…"

"Wait a bit, can you tell me where I can register myself here?"

Angelo "You're joining The Preservation? Are you dumb?"

"Well, it's better than a desk job, isn't it?"

Angelo "Quitting a 9 to 5 to join a 24/7 is crazy to me."

"Ha, you have a point, but I don't really have a choice in the matter."

Angelo "Sure you don't. Just go down the hall until you reach the main lobby, it's very clearly the lobby so don't worry about missing it. See ya…"

"Thanks."

Angelo already turned his back to me and continued on his way. He's a character… Well, who isn't in this place?

I do as Angelo instructed and sure enough, I was met with the lobby, and it was "very clearly the lobby" indeed. The theme that Wynter's office displayed is also present here with a big tree in the middle surrounded by running water from all sides, it is fake greenery, but it could have fooled me if not for the blatant light coming from the tree, it was just like the trees around the streets basically street-lamps.

I quickly scanned the room for anything that looked like a hotel reception, and I found it. I walked up to the two people idly standing there.

"Hello, I'm here to register my name with The Preservation."

Reception "Sure. For what purpose?"

"Umm…"

Yeah, for what purpose?

"I'm here for p—"

? "He's here under my authority."

I was cut off by a familiar voice.

Wynter "He'll join under my watch."

"Wynter?"

Wynter "You dropped the chief that fast? Not even Ely calls me by my name."

"O-oh, sorry I slipped."

Wynter "I don't mind. Sorry about sending you straight to Robert, I thought by the time you got to the training section I would have handled your signing, but I encountered a bit of pushback."

"Pushback? I guess it makes sense, someone that just shows up taking a position just like that is probably unfair."

Wynter "No that's not the problem, anyone that has time travelling traits are accepted almost immediately, the pushback was for another issue?"

Another issue? Well, if she's being vague about it, she probably can't tell me why.

"What other issue?"

But it couldn't hurt to ask.

Wynter "Classified."

"I figured."

Wynter looked at me and smiled.

Wynter "A46, get the paperwork ready as fast as possible, in the meantime give him a temporary pass to the training section."

A46… They're androids? I didn't even realise it.

I took the pass from A46, said goodbye to Wynter and left for the training section.

The people around don't seem so disgusted by my presence anymore, someone even waved at me. Is it because of the interaction I had with Wynter there? I mean Robert didn't seem too thrilled to see me until I mentioned her.

She's powerful.

*beep*

Gate "Temporary pass detected. Eliana Neverbeen The Tim—"

The gate started glitching a bit after saying my name for some reason, and I guess I was right about them having me registered already, odd.

Gate "EL-a—T-w—Access granted. E of the counter-measure division."

Huh? It changed? Wynter works fast, not fast enough to rid me of the useless fetch quest though.

The gate door opened, and I went inside.

It's a training section alright, everywhere I looked I found some type of training equipment that I didn't understand and working those machines are jacked people, sweating, grunting, screaming.

I hate this place…

Looking around more I see Robert training some people, they look… like they're having fun…

"Hey, Mr Rob—"

Actually, calling him by his name when it's Robert is a bit weird…

"Mr Armstrong."

Armstrong "Oh! you came at the perfect time. You can start warming up with the other new recruits."

Warming up? They look dead already. And not to mention I still can't feel my hands…

Armstrong "What's the holdup? Go on already. This delay has cost you a hundred more reps."

"A HUNDRED?"

Armstrong "A hundred and ten."

This guy is...! Fine. I jumped to join the others in whatever they were doing.

"By the way how many do we need to do?"

Armstrong "Until I tell you to stop."

I hate this guy so much.

? "You'll get used to it."

"Will I? I mean you don't look like you did."

The recruit that spoke to me was skinnier than I am and looked like a zombie…

Frail Recruit "Hey I know I don't look in shape but I'm doing way better than my first time."

? "Yet you still look like a ghost."

A female recruit commented.

Female Recruit "And you don't look that much better you know?"

"Me? I'm fine, I already did two hundred push ups not long ago, good thing we're not doing any arm workouts for now."

Frail Recruit "You did? Wow, you don't look it. I can only do 30…"

Armstrong "Switch."

As soon as he said that both changed from doing squats to jumping and I followed suit.

"Is it like a routine you guys do?"

Frail Recruit "Yeah, hah… we… huuh… have…"

Female Recruit "There is a daily routine of what we're going to do. Mr Armstrong assigns each group a schedule that they must follow."

"Oh, I see, so I'm with you two, I guess. By the way, you good bro?"

Frail Recruit "Haah… y-yeah… I'm fine…"

"You really don't look like you are…"

Female Recruit "I'm Tania by the way."

Frail Recruit "And… I'm…Hugo…"

"Nice to meet you, I'm E."

Tania "E? That's it?"

Hugo "Yeah… hah… That can't be a name…"

"Well, it's not but that's what I like to be called so…"

Tania "Fair, I won't pry."

Armstrong "Switch."

Tania and Hugo wobbling about switched to a core workout and I followed.

"You've been doing these for a while?"

Tania "Yeah three weeks now."

Hugo "Haaah… Haaah… Huff…"

"Will he really be okay?"

Tania "Don't worry about him. He'll be fine."

"If you say so…"

But his frail body and pale face and fogged up glasses don't inspire confidence in me… he's almost as tall as I am but like 15 kg less which is bad, I'm barely at the recommended weight for my height that can't be healthy.

Tania on the other hand is handling the exercise well, she's been chatting with me with no trouble. Wait, is she taller than me?

And I thought I was above average…

Armstrong "Switch."

Tania and Hugo barely standing switched to cardio and I followed.

Tania "You've been holding up pretty well E, I have to say you've impressed me. Even I had trouble on the first day."

"Really? I just do some occasional workouts from now and then."

Hugo "I… did…hah…Ocasin—huff…worko—haaah…"

"Huh?"

Tania "I think he's trying to say that he did occasional workouts too."

"Didn't know you were his translator."

Tania "When you spend enough time listening to what he's trying to say, you start to understand him."

"I guess so. Wait, he said that he exercised? Obviously not enough then."

Hugo "…"

Tania "You've upset him."

"I did?"

He didn't react at all.

Tania "Look he's sulking."

Is he? I really can't tell.

"Umm, sorry?"

Tania "You don't need to apologise for telling the truth."

Hugo "DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!"

Whoa there. Now he looks angry.

Tania "Haha, I'm joking."

"He really got angry there."

Tania "Yeah, he doesn't like being made fun of for his physical abilities."

Fair. I mean I tolerate it better than him but that doesn't mean I like it.

Armstrong "Stop."

Tania "Already?"

Armstrong "Yes, that will be enough for you and Hugo. You do a hundred and ten more turns around the section."

"You're kidding me…"

Armstrong "A hundred and twenty, you should've learned that complaining will only worsen your situation."

Urgh…

A hundred and twenty turns later I reached where Tania and Hugo were sitting and layed down on my back.

"Huff…Done…"

Hugo "Look who's huffing and puffing now."

"This place is huge. I thought it would have been way easier than that."

Tania "I mean they call it a section for a reason you know."

Hugo "You should be grateful that Mr Armstrong cut today's routine short."

"Can I ask how many there were for today?"

Hugo "30 exercises in total, you were absent for the first seven."

"You did seven before I came?"

Tania "Yeah, what were you doing then?"

"The gate rejected me, so I went to get myself signed in."

Hugo "I guess that explains why you're clueless."

"Hey, I can't be blamed for how little information I got."

Hugo "You could've asked someone."

"I mean I tried, but no one seemed to care."

Tania "Really? They were really helpful to us when we first came."

Hugo "Did you do something?"

"What can I do to get the entire Preservation to hate me?"

Hugo "Yeah it doesn't really make sense to recruit someone that did such a thing."

"Forget that. What's on the agenda for now?"

Hugo "Seeing that we finished the workout early, we have some free time before our classes."

"C-classes?"

Hugo "Yeah, strategies, history, theory, extra."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"But I don't want to…"

Hugo "What do you mean you don't want to?"

"I spent most of my life in classes and now that I'm finally free from their grasp you BRING ME BACK?"

Tania "I feel you…"

Hugo "You're overreacting. Having sufficient knowledge is an essential part of being a good Preservation Agent."

"Do I have to?"

Tania "Believe me if it was possible to skip them, I would have, but they are obligatory."

There is nothing in this world that I hate more than studying in a class… the fact that I wasted most of my life sitting in an uncomfortable chair for hours at a time being bored out of my mind just to get a useless piece of paper. Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of knowledge. I actually like to be educated but, in any way other than university and high school, they are hell.

Hugo "Come on you two, it's not the end of the world, our teachers are the best in the world."

"Was that supposed to make me feel better? They probably have egos bigger than this section being the 'best in the world'."

Hugo "Well…"

"Your hesitation is enough of an answer."

Hugo "*sigh* we still have to be present, you know."

"Fine."

Tania "We're in the same boat E. We have history today."

"The worst one…"

Hugo "What do you mean the worst one, history is one of the most important if not the most important thing to learn. If we don't learn from the past, it will inevitably repeat itself."

"Even if I agree with that, what am I going to learn? I don't think I am one of the people that that past concerns. I am but a random citizen that has no power over anything around him. The ones that need to learn from our ancestors' mistakes aren't me or you, it's the people in power, the same power those who made mistakes had."

Hugo "But we can still learn from it."

"Things that will never benefit me? Yeah."

Hugo "Ignorance isn't cool you know."

"You like history, I don't care about it. Leave me alone man."

Tania "Don't fight now, it's just a class."

Hugo "It's not."

"It is."

Hugo "What do you like then? Maths? No, you want it to "benefit" you. By that logic PE should be your favourite subject."

"Haha, I don't like literature, theory and physical activities."

Hugo "What was your favourite subject in school then?"

"Computer Science."

Hugo "Hypocrite."

"I like what I like and hate what I hate. I can make exceptions."

Hugo "You either like something or hate it, I hate the exercises but love the classes they have us attend here."

Tania "I like the exercise but hate the classes."

"And I hate both. Is that so inconceivable to you?"

Hugo "And you're probably good at both. I hate your type."

"Haha, come on, I worked hard on studying to be good at it, I don't need to like something to try my best in it. It's just a means to an end. And honestly, I thought I wouldn't touch education again after I graduated college, but I guess that didn't work out in the end."

Hugo "Fair argument. Although I don't like your attitude, you seem smart enough to defend your opinions."

Tania "Wow, Hugo praising someone's intelligence? I never thought I would see the day."

"He's praising me?"

Tania "Yeah, throughout all the years that I knew him for, he rarely even mentions another's intelligence."

Hugo "Stop that, I wasn't praising him."

Tania "Suuure. Well let's head out."

Tania and Hugo led me out of the section to where our class was held. They were cool, I didn't have that many pleasant interactions with anyone around here, so they are a welcome change of pace, Tania shares my sense of humour and I like bantering with Hugo.

If I'm staying here awhile having them as friends won't be a bad idea.

We made our way across the halls... again. and reached a classroom.

The layout was one I was familiar with the usual desks cluttered across the room with two whiteboards in the wall. It has been a while since I saw a classroom with them though. Usually, they resort to the normal digital board. But some classes like this one have both, but the chalk ones are completely extinct, one of my private teachers insisted on the green-board, saying something along the lines of "I am not really teaching unless my hands and clothes are covered in chalk" which I never understood, let's completely forget about the complications of having a computer running around chalk, I would think it's a hassle to get dirtied by chalk but to each their own I guess. He was an older guy but not old enough to have been around the time the boards were used, and that's another thing that made him odd. It is a very ancien—

Hugo "E? We haven't started the lesson and you're already daydreaming?"

"O-oh, sorry. I get stuck in my own head sometimes..."

Tania "we have a dreamer on the team now."

"Ha...ha..."

Ugh, I should focus. These little monologues are the only thing that keeps me sane sometimes, but I go on too many tangents to call them "little monologues" anymore...

Anyway, the classroom had both digital and physical boards and all of them were full. I'm pretty sure those are maths symbols, why are there maths symbols in a history class?

? "You came in early today."

I turn around to find a tall man standing behind me.

"Umm... Hello?"

Tall Man "And who are you?"

Tania "That is E, a new recruit."

Tall Man "Oh? Well, hello there E, I hope you enjoy my classes more than Tania"

Tania "It's not your fault professor, I just don't like learning that much. And E might be on my team."

Tall Man "Really?"

"Sorry to disappoint but I do find history quite boring Mr...?"

Tall Man "How rude of me, my name is Alban Barclay. And well, don't hate something you haven't experienced yet."

"Mr Barclay, I didn't mean to offend. But in every history class I attended I found myself bored out of my mind and that turned to hatred later."

Alban "I see, but what I meant was you didn't have a class of mine yet so hold onto those feelings for now. You can tell me how much you hated my lesson later."

"I see what you mean, and I will hold you to that. I will be brutally honest with my opinions."

Alban "I look forward to it."

Hugo "You are talking in a very formal way E, what happened?"

"You think so?"

Tania "Yeah, I noticed that too."

"Nah, I'm talkin' normal. What're you on about?"

Tania "Well you're overdoing it now."

"Haha, sorry I just can't be disrespectful to a professor."

I try to be as respectful as I can with people of a "higher status" than me, even if I don't believe or like it. It always gives me an edge over others.

People with egos no matter how small or big subconsciously favour whoever licks their boot enough.

I don't do that much though; I don't know why but most people will give me the benefit of the doubt, well I might have an idea... Pretty privilege I think it's called, where if you look pretty enough people will treat you better, something that an uglier person can't get away with will be overlooked, things you say will be interpreted in the best way possible and so on...

And with my face being on the softer side, with just a bit of respect and some smiles and gestures, you can get what you want. It sounds bad when I describe it this way but things like these are necessary for survival.

And I don't do it with the intent of manipulation I swear... not with most people at least...

Alban "Oh, it looks like we've been chatting for a while, take your seats we'll start."

Alban went to his desk and waited for us to sit down.

Hugo "what's this lesson's topic professor?"

Alban "Today's subject is chaos points."

"That's history?"

The chaos points are a space-altering phenomenon. If I had to wager a guess to where I would learn about them I'd say physics or something.

Alban "Lessons here are not the same as regular education. We are here to learn yes but for the purpose of aiding the Preservation so all that we teach is interlinked.

We are going to talk about the history of chaos points but not just that I am going to expand upon it and try to explain it in the most consumable way possible. If you are questioning my qualifications, I have a doctorate in both maths and physics."

"You teach history with those degrees?"

Alban "I can guarantee that I know a lot more about quantum physics' origins than a random historian."

"That's true."

Alban "Are you out of questions for now?"

"For now."

Alban "Let us start then."

Alban expanded the screen behind him and put some photos on a cycle, they were pretty random; some destroyed places, an alien looking thing, footage of a plague doctor? What even is the point of this?

Alban "Firstly, what do you know about chaos points?"

What do I know about chaos points?

"If I remember correctly a chaos point is pretty much a glitch in our reality in gaming terms, right?"

Alban "That is not a bad analogy. The official definition of a chaos point is that they are a convergence between two or more timelines in a way that goes against all rules of space time.

They are not subject to human logic or comprehension and they appear to surpass the laws of physics casually bending time and space, their appearance is not restricted to a specific size, place or time. It is very random in nature, popping into existence in places that can span from the size of a random house to the entire universe."

Hugo "Aren't the ones that span universes called calamity points?"

Alban "Yes, I was getting into that. The calamity—"

"Excuse my interruption, but before you go any further than that can you explain to me what convergence between timelines entails? I am a bit lost."

Alban "You are excused, you came here to learn after all. I will give you an example to make it easier to understand. Imagine two worlds, one where dinosaurs did not go extinct and they evolved to be more human-like, and our current timeline as the other. What do you think would happen if a chaos point appears that links, let us say a school in our timeline with an imaginary dinosaur school of the other timeline?"

"Umm… Dinosaurs will appear in the human school?"

Alban "That's right, but not just that. The school, the atmosphere, the weather, even some people change. Everything in the vicinity of a chaos point will be affected by it and what happens then depends on the chaos point and the timeline or timelines it connects to.

I can give you another example, a historic one. In ancient times there was a plethora of people that said they saw UFOs and aliens and some mythical creatures; at the time they were thought of as crazy or that they were lying but now we can explain such paranormal activities with chaos points of much smaller scale."

"Huh, I do get it. But wouldn't this have been a bigger issue for people of old and even now?"

Alban "It wasn't too serious, but it is now. The number of chaos point appearances has been getting higher and higher by the day and their scale is getting bigger as well. A big part of our operations is focused on taking care of their consequences.

And to show you their veracity, I can give you a real example you are probably familiar with; the 2760 virus, its origins were another world, and even with our near perfect medical field, it was so unfamiliar to us that it caused the appropriate chaos you learn about in your textbooks."

"Wait, the 2760 virus was from a chaos point? We didn't learn that in school."

Alban "Because it isn't public information. People were panicked enough as is, let alone we tell them about the infinite possible killer viruses out there."

"That makes sense but I mean no one figured out that the chaos points are this serious of a danger? Like I only heard about them randomly in passing.

The idea I had about them was like I said before, real life glitches, things that aren't supposed to happen and sure I thought they were dangerous because of how the Preservation handles them but I didn't think they can be the origins of something so deadly. It does make sense though, as far as I begrudgingly memorised in school, absolutely nothing worked on the virus until it evolved or devolved to be accustomed to the climate which gave researchers a chance to make a cure after pretty much half of the population was gone."

Alban "Well sure people think of the chaos point as dangerous but they lack the sufficient information to understand how dangerous they are, and that's all we need for the public to know."

"Wild. I'm interested in how many things can be explained with chaos points."

Hugo "Can we go back to the calamity points sir?"

Alban "Of course, a calamity point is basically a big chaos point, universes big."

"And what does that mean for those universes?"

Alban "For a chaos point to appear there needs to be a sort of an exchange between two or more universes, as in one takes a certain amount of matter from the other and vice versa for there to be equilibrium, otherwise…"

Hugo "The universe corrects itself by removing all the excess matter or adding to the insufficient matter…"

Alban "Correct."

"Wait you lost me, what does he mean by excess and insufficient?"

Alban "The universe does not like inconsistencies you see, and the nature of the chaos points are well purely chaotic. I said there is an exchange between universes before but I never said it was a perfect exchange. So, in some cases a chaos point will leave nothing in one of the affected universes. And that nothingness cannot physically exist, so the universe starts collapsing around it."

"Nothing? As in darkness?"

Alban "No, I mean nothing. What do you think a man that does not have eyes sees?"

"Nothing? Like how I close my eyes?"

Alban "Wrong, when you close your eyes, you are still seeing, but a blind man does not have eyes to see with. Tell me, what can you see from your elbow?"

"What? My elbow? I can't see from my elbow… Oh!"

Alban "Exactly, your elbows can't see so you see nothing from them. And that is exactly the same as one who does not possess sight, they are physically unable to see a thing so they see nothing."

"I think I get it; I understand the example you gave me but I'm really struggling to imagine what nothing looks like…"

Alban "And that is just how it is for our brains, we can't come up with anything new like a new colour, and even after witnessing what nothingness looks like I still am unable to fully comprehend it."

Hugo "You saw nothingness before?"

Alban "The phenomenon I described earlier has already happened on a smaller scale. I've been to one of them and all I can say is there was nothing there."

Hugo "Amazing!"

"Wait, you said that nothingness can spell disaster on our universe, if there is a sight of that happening already then…"

Alban "Then were doomed? Not quite, the nothingness I spoke of was small in size, about the length of my index finger, and that was the biggest one sighted on earth. I think we are lucky that our universe takes more than gives."

Tania "*Yawn*"

Tania looked bored to death…

"You really don't like the class huh?"

Tania "And I thought you wouldn't either, but you're as much of a nerd as Hugo is…"

"I swear I hate classes; it's just this is a genuinely interesting topic."

Tania "Sure… hypocrite…"

"What was that?"

Tania "Nothing. Just let me zone out in peace…"

Alban "Tania, you know that you'll be tested on this later right?"

Tania "Yeah, yeah. I'll just get the run down by these nerds later."

Alban "Continuing on…The Preservation's main focus among other things are the chaos points and their subsequent effects.

Neutralising any and all threats no matter how insignificant, the nature of otherworldly things is unpredictable and nothing that comes from them can be treated no matter how closely they resemble things from our own universe likewise, at least not after copious amounts of testing and analysis."

"And I guess that's what we're being trained to do."

Alban "That is true, but you need more time and experience if you want to actually go to a chaos point of even the lowest rankings."

"The chaos points are ranked?"

Hugo "Of course they are, not all chaos points are the same. So, it only makes sense for them to be ranked in a way that shows how dangerous they are."

"And how do they measure such a thing?"

Alban "A plethora of factors affect the ranking of a chaos point, a lot of it depends on the size, the number of universes that make it up and the immediate danger they represent, for example, a chaos point with a single universe that spans a small room will be ranked E automatically but if that room had a killer monster that was let loose, it will be at least B rank."

"Got it, but can you explain to me how you can know how many universes make up a chaos point?"

Alban "Good question. Believe it or not every universe has a code specific to it."

"Oh yeah I heard of that."

The universal Code is a number generated by a quantum computer; I had a class about it back in college but it was too complicated for me…

All I know is that the number is infinite and holds the entire trajectory of the universe from its conception to its end so they take the number before the decimal point convert it to the alphabet and take the first four more if you want more precision, the computer was able to calculate how particles moved and will move and somehow came up with a number…

"Our code is J0718 if I remember correctly."

Hugo "That was totally off. It's W0520, how can you be that wrong."

"What? I thought I might have gotten the numbers wrong but even the letter?"

Alban "I don't think you are wrong E."

Hugo "Did I get it wrong?"

Alban "No. I think that code belonged to E's original universe."

"Oh…right…"

Tania "Wait this isn't your original universe?"

Hugo "What? You're a bearer?"

"Well…"

Alban "He is a time traveller."

Tania "WHAT? You time travelled illegally and still got a job at The Preservations instead of being locked up here?"

"I didn't really do it on purpose, I mean I can't even do it if I tried now."

Hugo "That's a bit disappointing…"

Alban "You can't expect a new recruit to be able to control his abilities out of the bat."

"Can we go back to the point now? I don't really like talking about it, I don't even know how you knew Professor."

Alban "The report on your situation was posted not long ago, and I heard prior to the lesson that you will be a student of mine so of course I took a look.

Anyway, recalculating the universal code in a chaos point reveals a different one. Usually, a universal code is composed of one or two digits in the integer part and an infinite number in the fractional part, but in the case of a chaos point that can change depending on the number of universes; three digits for two universes, five digits for three universes…

We can't tell for sure with four digits but it is safe to assume that if the fourth digit from the right is bigger than two then there are three universes.

We haven't gotten any examples of codes that contain an integer part bigger than 26 that is why we labelled it with the Latin alphabet."

*Ring* The bell signalled the end of the class.

Alban "See? The lesson was not as bad as you anticipated."

"I hope you can always teach us about interesting things."

Alban "And I hope you enjoy them."

We left the classroom Tania racing for first place as if her life depended on it.

"Do we have something else we must do?"

Tania "No, we get the afternoon off on Saturdays."

"Great, what do you plan on doing later?"

Hugo "I'm heading to my room."

Tania "I'm going shopping."

"I might go to my room too."

Hugo "Well see you tomorrow then."

Tania "Wait, we didn't get E's number."

Hugo "True, we're probably gonna be stuck together."

"Good idea."

I took out my phone so I could put down their contact information to be greeted by borderline disgusted faces.

"Huh? What's up?"

Hugo "You still use a phone?"

Tania "Oh my god, I thought no one uses them anymore!"

"Ha, is it so unreasonable that I don't want a ship directly connected to my brain?"

Hugo "Come on, you sound like an extremist."

"I'm not an extremist, I just like an auxiliary device that can do whatever I need locally. I don't want a multi-trillionaire company to have access to the things I do or information I have."

Hugo "I mean that's partially true; every person's data is encrypted and them accessing that data will be a breach of privacy."

"And who encrypted that data? Just a branch of the same company. Besides, what is really stopping them from just selling all of your data? Morals? Laws? Don't expect a company like Kumo to respect the everyday man."

Tania "I didn't take you for an anti-corpo guy, I dig it. But taking a phone out in this day and age will make you look a bit odd to anyone that sees you."

"Just give me your numbers so I can hide this disgusting artefact. For the record I have to personally upgrade this thing, they don't make them anymore and even if they did it wouldn't stand a chance against this little guy."

Hugo "Oooh, so you're a techno freak too. That makes more sense."

"Haha, I'm not a techno freak, I just like to meddle with technology that's all."

Tania "Give me your number and spare me the excuses I'm running late now."

"Fine…"

After exchanging numbers with the two of them we separate and I head back to my room… small correction I spend an hour searching for my room… and I'm currently lost.

"I can't with these hallways man… I didn't think I was this bad at navigat—"

? "Boy."

My body shudders and I freeze in place. Hearing that voice triggered my fight or flight, not a single hair of mine dared to move as if waiting for a command from this voice, I couldn't even blink, doing anything that the voice didn't command meant certain punishment.

I sat there for what felt like days unable to move—

My phone vibrated in my pocket waking me from my stupor, I looked around me but there wasn't a single person in the area… was I imagining things?

I looked at the notification, it is from Tania "Look at what I found!!'' We haven't known each other for more than 4 hours and she's already sending me messages like this? What do I answer with? I'm not good with this sort of thing…

The picture she sent with the message was of clothes so she probably wants my opinion on them, let's go with "They look great." That should be fine…

Anyways, I really need to find some way to get to my room… wait, maybe Tania can help me out.

— "Hey Tania, I'm lost… Do you know a way I can find the living quarters?"

— Tania "Don't tell me you've been lost since we parted ways…"

— "Yeah…"

— Tania "I've been there… I can send you the coordinates to my room, that should help you find yours."

— "Thank you!!"

Tania sent me the coordinates to her room, that will at least get me to the living quarters again and I can manage my way through there.

…This is where the coordinates led me. Tania's room is 1846, so mine should be around here… Yup 1807 here it is, but wait how do I open it? I Didn't get a key…

I'll just touch it and pray it opens on its own.

*click* It actually worked!

VIA "Welcome back, E."

"Oh? They have a VIA here too?"

VIA "I share the same data as your previous residence."

"They went through the trouble to upload you here? That's nice of them."

VIA "Would you like me to start you a coffee?"

"No, I think I'll go to sleep early today."

VIA "Sleeping mode activated."

"Thanks."

The room is pretty big, I did not expect that to be honest. I jumped face down onto the bed, it's comfortable… Taking a look around, I find my setup, some boxes and some luggage. I hope whoever they hired to get my stuff didn't dig through them…

*Sigh* I'm so tired…

I don't think my muscles will recover from the training for weeks, but I'm exhausted mentally too…

I was chased and killed by a random dude twice and the third time I was prepared to do it myself, if the Preservation didn't intervene, I would've repeated it again or maybe that would have been the end…

And now I'm stuck as a Preservation recruit, expected to throw my life away and start anew here.

Well, I didn't really have much of life anyways, the only person that would notice my absence would be Denzel, but I don't think he'll care that much, this won't be the first time I pull a disappearing act on him.

Besides, I got to know more people in a single day here than in my entire working career in the company.

Ely, he left the biggest impression on me, his unwarranted animosity makes me interested in his reasonings and past, which I got a glimpse of from the conversation with Wynter, speaking of whom Wynter left a way nicer impression on me. She acted smart and cunning with that face of hers, she probably acts cold towards others, but I've only seen her act kind and warm towards me.

Julie and Angelo were a part of the team that saved me, I had brief interactions with both but just from that I can gather that while Julie seemed happy and optimistic, Angelo seemed the opposite.

Armstrong and Hugo, I guess I can put them in the teacher's category. With a name like Robert, he wouldn't sound like much but he's an absolute tank pretty much literally, it's scary… And Hugo even if he did sound a bit snobbish with him not using contractions and all but he was good at his job.

Tania and Alban, they look around my age and it seems that we'll be a trio from now on. I hope they won't burden me too much, then again they will be of help to me. Tania will probably be the muscle head and Alban the brains of the group with me being a sort of median between the two, I mean I was on Tania's side when we were training and on Alban's when we— wait… Alban? That's the teacher's name… *sigh* This is what happens if I don't put a name to the face…

I've always been terrible at remembering names. So, to combat this I always try to give people some kind of description in my head just so I can label those characteristics with names, it seems I was too preoccupied with the workout to give Hugo a description let me see…

He was pale, frail, brown hair, blue eyes and a bit shorter than me. Alban had black hair, black eyes and was taller than me. That should be enough…

I wouldn't have had to do this if they left enough of an impression on me but sadly, they didn't…

There are too many things that I don't understand… Why was Yuta hell bent on killing me? Why does this place seem so familiar to me? What was the voice I heard before Tania texted me?

I don't really want to think about stuff too much or I won't sleep…

So, empty your mind E…

And go to sleep…