Li sat blankly in front of the worksheet. The lines, and words, slowly morphing. At first, he thought he was fatigued but upon closer examination, they were in fact moving! After around 5 minutes, the page had been fully re-arranged, like that of the news forums online.
"Pandemic within the Orca system contained: Pylon B isolated; A Tier medics arrive today!
Mysterious infestation revives on the Dark Borough: B+ tier found dead along with comrades; expedition crew delayed!
KZ-9 Aristocrats flee as war continues; S + Guardians have been facing continuous setbacks, lower Guardian squads trapped in stalemate!
B+ Expedition force returns from the "Dread Stronghold"; Half of the original crew survived!
S+ Investigator finds traces of the UO AGI within the Host System, COG takes immediate system action!
…"
Then, a mysterious red scribble appeared on top of everything, THE COG WILL BE EXTERMINATED. Li blinked, and the paper was back to normal. It was as if someone was manipulating the real world, from the other universe. The thought alone scared Li but only then did he realize the immensity of the universe and the troubles that were being tackled everyday by the Covenant.
"Li! Come for dinner!"
Shoving his chair, he got up, and left to eat, too scared to have noticed the glint of the scope, outside his window.
After an uneventful dinner, Li washed up and got back to studying, trying to hide his fear from his parents. At 1 AM, he finally called it off and tried to sleep. In the darkness of his room, he looked out at the skyline. At this time, there were actually quite a few people who were up. He imagined what different lives could be behind each facade, his childish curiosity taking hold of him.
Finally, he gave in to the fatigue and closed his eyes. If there really was someone controlling this world, there was practically nothing he could do about it. There wasn't any point worrying over such a thing.
Almost as soon as he had closed his eyes, he reopened them, peering at the white ceiling of what the hospital room he had awoken in earlier while on the subway, only now, his body had evidently healed. He could move with little aching and was wide awake. Swinging his wrapped up leg over the bed, he hauled himself out.
"Easy there, you just recovered. Don't strain yourself too much. I heard you met my teacher, Master Eisenhardt, out there!"
A smaller feline-like creature peered up at him.
"Oh… Master Eisenhardt. Yeah. I-I remember him."
"Don't stress yourself. I'm going to leave you alone now. Actually, you have two visitors coming."
It was Aoki and a large, muscular man of Asian descent.
Walking into the room, they took a seat around Li, who had sat on his bed.
The larger man started speaking; Li noticed that a large chain was wrapped around the man's shoulder.
"Li. I am Regional Overseer Zhang. It's nice to meet you. I'm here today, with commander Aoki because of the events of last night.
Let's get it out of the way, you did amazing, far better than we had imagined any C- ranking to perform. Now, with all that is going on in the universe, which is always a lot, the command center has ordered your squad to participate in the expeditions in the dark borough.
You've been treated by one of the A tier medical squads and by tomorrow, you should be back in action.
The dark borough is what is really concerning us right now. It is the region of mostly desolation nearest to the Orca system. Just two days ago, on the main planet of this system, Atramenth, an infestation of a relatively undocumented species has just reappeared. We spent almost 3 months fighting the last one, and two S tier Guardians were killed in the process.
We're hoping to stop the spread early this time as we have their behavioral patterns researched, enough that as long as you follow protocol, you will be safe. In a few, you will be descending back to the Orange Flatlands.
I've gotten word that the village chief has a few words for you. Afterwards, you will take a transfer vessel with the rest of your team to the Central Terminal and from there, you will head on to the Dark Borough. Basic adaptive training will begin once you board the second vessel. Affirmative?"
"Yes sir!"
"Then I'm off. Also, you've been promoted to C+. Your Guardian career is looking bright, we wish you the best of luck going forwards."
Li mustered up a smile, but deep down, cursed Aoki, who he realized hadn't followed Overseer Zhang. The guy must've some idea as to what was going on, yet he was allowing him to be thrown into the hands of some fucking planetwide infestation.
"Aoki! You know what's going on, do you? You've got to tell me. I can't keep living like this, and what's up now? I'm being fed to some fucking dark borough! What is this?"
Aoki sat calmly, taking the blame knowingly before sighing.
"Li… I understand it's frustrating-"
"Shit, I don't give if you understand it's frustrating because you haven't felt this way and now you're allowing that Zhang fucker to send me to where again, the dark borough?"
"Li. With time, the memories will come back. Not many people will believe what you say. Even if you got the system general in on this, it would only be another strain on the resources. Please, just don't. Take this mission, and we'll see what goes on from here."
Li used up a large amount of his willpower to refrain from cursing. It wasn't fair, but this was his dual reality.
Shaking his head, Li got up:
"Take me back to the Flatlands, I'm ready now."
Aoki shrugged and led him out the hospital room, into the main section of the space station. Contrary to his expectations, this was a majority human station, with only a few otherworlders here and there.
"Do you want something from the food court first?"
"No."
Aoki and Li headed to the hangars. A small worm-like creature came up to them.
"Aoki! Li! How are you two? Back to the Flatlands right?"
"Yup, take us down to the orange sunset, Garmon."
"You bet."