Metadome Battalion

Although he was surprised upon seeing the IDLE Database appearing on his phone, it didn't persist in his mind after Aldrin considered the mysterious happenings that surrounded the program.

It was also automatically installed on his PC and to his surprise, it wasn't eating any computer processes from it. No threads or cores were being used.

He actually tried opening one of his heavy graphic games earlier to test if his PC would experience lagging. However, contrary to his expectation, it was smoothly opened as if his PC and all its processes were idle all the time.

Despite how realistically beautiful the game interface of the IDLE Database-Idle Adventure Mode was, it was like a ghost software that also had an invisible storage location.

In any case, to abate his curiosity, Aldrin opened the application of the IDLE Database while walking towards the nearby convenience store to get his food.

"Can I run the Idle Adventure Mode here?"

That's the first idea that entered his mind as he waited for the opening screen of the application to fade out. As he expected, it was similar to what was being shown on his PC.

His screen only showed a black background with a little text on the lower right that says 'Loading…'.

Around 10 seconds later, Aldrin was once again faced with the same interface he was seeing in his PC.

The spiral in the middle of the screen that was sending his Dimensional Clone down the Lower Dimension wasn't glowing. That's because he already depleted the available runs for today.

On the lower left side, there's the current status of the Lower Dimension as well as the total statistics of the Idle Adventure Mode.

[Current Lower Dimension Information

-Small Insect Colony#111222 : 5% Conquest progress]

[Creatures killed : 94]

[IDLE Points gained : 470]

[IDLE Points spent : 110]

[IDLE Points converted : 360]

[IDLE Points stored : 0]

[Conquered Dimension: 0]

"I had already converted more than 300 IDLE Points into Dimensional Energy to nourish my body. But that was still not enough for me to experience the Awakening." Aldrin muttered to himself as he stared at the IDLE Database statistics.

During the third, fourth and fifth run. He got an increasing amount of IDLE Points gained and that's because of how the Dimensional Clone was also getting enhanced alongside him whenever he would be basked by Dimensional Energy.

Nonetheless, the insects it could kill were still only the Worker Ants who, more often than not, were ambushed and killed without any chance to fight back. And whenever it would manage to fight back, the Dimensional Clone would receive an injury in different degrees.

That just showed that despite being strengthened by Dimensional Energy, the Dimensional Clone was still ultimately weaker than a mere Worker Ant in head-to-head combat.

He was aware that Idle Adventure Mode was just one of the mysterious program's features.

However, there's no sign anywhere in the interface about the other 'Modes' if there were any so he just took it as something he had yet to unlock. Just like the four locked tabs inside the Idle Adventure Mode.

"If only Awakening was as easy as having a near-death experience. However, what happened to Renissa was probably one of the rare occurrences. It's not like she's the only one who experienced a near-death experience. Surely, someone somewhere out in this wide Universe had also experienced near-death but only received injuries and not a lucky occurrence like that."

At this point, Aldrin had already arrived in front of the convenience store.

Putting his phone back in his pocket, he entered it and immediately went to the boxed meals section.

"Welcome—Oh! Aldrin, it's been a while since your last visit. How is it? Did you run out of supplies?" The store clerk that was manning the register recognized him and immediately opened a conversation.

"I did. But I feel like eating rice today. I'm getting sick of cup noodles." Aldrin replied without looking back at the clerk.

This was his former workplace and the clerk was his coworker before. Even after a year that he left, she's still working here.

After picking three boxed meals in preparation for the next day where he believed he wouldn't be able to get a wink of sleep, he went to the beverage section and grabbed a 2-liter bottle of soda.

"These are a lot for one person. Are you having guests?" The store clerk with an above-average look and always had a kind smile on her face which was common courtesy for someone working in this industry continued conversing with him when he put down what he picked at the counter.

"No. That's all for me. It's rare for me to eat this kind of food these days so I am going to splurge on it today." Aldrin answered with a smile on his face while taking out his card containing his meager savings to pay for it. "Anyway, why are you still working here, Nica? I thought you're going to try the place I recommended."

Although the girl was only above average, he believed that she would be able to pass Bert's criteria considering he had already gone to that guy's restaurant many times before. Since he had a nice working relationship with the girl, he also mentioned her to that businessman friend of his.

"I can't leave this district yet. I will try once I finish sorting out my problem at home. I'm sorry." Nica's expression darkened as she replied apologetically after bringing back the boxed meals she heated to the counter and began packing what he bought. "Anyway, that will be 150 Federation credits."

"I see. Good luck then."

Aldrin swiped his card to pay for it and grabbed what he bought.

He didn't think too much about the girl's problem which elicited that kind of expression from her. In the first place, she's only a former co-worker and he's not that close to her. Saying more than he needed to would just creep that girl out.

After a few more exchanges with the girl, Aldrin left the convenience store and began walking back to his apartment.

When he was only a few steps before the entrance of his Apartment Building, a loud sound of a blaring siren suddenly filled the whole place.

No. The whole city.

Following that, the sky above Aldrin suddenly became covered by a semi-transparent blue barrier that encompassed the whole city.

And along with that, a holographic screen appeared just below the ceiling of that blue barrier which showed a female reporter announcing something.

"A Dimensional Rift has been detected 10 kilometers northwest of Lonewind City. The Lonewind City Hall has declared a Level 1 Alert urging the citizens to remain in their house to protect themselves and wait for further announcement. The Refiner's Association and the City Guards has mobilized a Metadome Battalion consisting of at least five Refiners to deal with the Rift."

After hearing that announcement Aldrin turned his head towards the center of the city.

Whoooosh! Whoooosh!

And a few moments later, he saw a group of flying mechanical constructs; the Metadome Battalion that the reporter mentioned to be sent to deal with the Dimensional Rift.

His apartment was located at the northwest so… he could firmly see those gigantic war weapons piloted by soldiers and Refiners.

Although they're all going to fight those ferocious and mysterious monsters and creatures being spewed out from a Rift, Aldrin or even most of the citizens wasn't feeling any threat in their lives.

At this point in time, a Metadome Battalion was enough to safeguard the whole city whenever a Rift would appear.

"Will I also be able to ride my own Metadome?"

He couldn't be a soldier that was trained to pilot one… But with IDLE Database, he could be a Refiner!

Once the Metadome Battalion passed above his head and continued flying outside the blue barrier protecting the city to go to the location of the Rift, Aldrin went back to his apartment and hurriedly returned to his room.

Even though there's still a few hours before midnight, he was already eager to go back and play the mysterious IDLE Database.