Chapter 2: Chapter 0.1
It was a day like any other. The sun that occupied most of the sky had finally left, relieving the world of its sweltering heat. The three moons were just making their presences known, all in different shapes and sizes.
Doctor Yang pushed open the door to the last medical ward on his list. He strode in, a clipboard in hand. Behind him were a few nurses rolling in a tray filled with top-grade nutrient supplements for the one hundred and twenty odd comatose soldiers. As per usual, they went from soldier to soldier, injecting them with the supplement while Doctor Yang took notes on what was happening to the soldiers for the day.
There was a touch of normality to this routine despite the chaos that had ensued only eighty days ago when the soldiers had first fallen into a deep, deep sleep. The doctors had tried everything they could, even yanking out the cords of one soldier's capsule in their desperation.
The soldier died.
The image of his shaking body as the line on his heart rate monitor went flat was seared into the backs of everybody's eyelids, nobody present able to forget the horrid scene. Or so Doctor Yang had heard.
So far, he hadn't seen any gory, bloody scenes while monitoring these patients. Suffice to say, there was nothing out of the ordinary with how today was going either.
Doctor Yang jotted down his last notes for the 124th soldier, the same thing he had written for the past eighty days. Vaguely, he heard a whirring sound in the normally silent ward. He dismissed it as just the wheels of another cart rolling against the squeaky clean floor.
But he did not keep that impression for long. Another similar sound echoed throughout the room. Doctor Yang looked up this time, scanning the room before his gaze froze in a specific spot.
A capsule's lid was open. The soldier inside was sitting up, looking around the room in obvious confusion.
Before Doctor Yang could exclaim in surprise, another whirring sound came from next to him. Doctor Yang whipped his head towards the soldier he was currently next to. That soldier was also sitting up in his capsule. Then another whirring sound rang through the ward. And another one. And even more.
A few seconds later, the noises came to a stop, and Doctor Yang surveyed the room with astonishment. Twelve capsules were open...
Twelve capsules were open!
The soldiers were all looking around, some even got out of their capsules. Meanwhile, Doctor Yang stared. He couldn't believe it. The soldiers that had been trapped in the simulation for over two months had woken up!
...
Ling Xia(1) walked out the door after finishing his physical examination to see eleven other soldiers sitting on the ground in a circle sharing their experiences in the system. His eyes went around the circle. There was only one empty spot, probably reserved for him. He plopped down in it and listened intently to the stories of his friends.
The person next to him, Ji Kongying, was exclaiming something with great passion at the moment.
"I mean, who could have guessed that the system that was supposed to be training us for becoming a soldier of fleet zero would be hacked! They were meant to protect us from things like that! We trusted them, and look what happened! We were trapped in there for so long!
"Maybe for them, it was eighty days, but for us, it was eighty lifetimes! Eighty lifetimes of being forced to follow a script, and any action that didn't follow the character traits of the host meant being punished or even killed! I never want to go back there again, and if the higher-ups want me to, I think I'll just resign from the military altogether."
Ling Xia frowned. He had predicted that some people would think like that. It was exactly why he wanted to choose the people he knew were going to go back into the system to rescue the others.
Once again, his gaze travelled around the circle. Conflict was displayed on many people's faces. It turned out there were a lot of people that didn't agree with Ji Kongying. A small sigh of relief escaped him, heard by none but himself.
"So now that Ji Kongying has spoken, let's move on. Ling Xia's the only person who hasn't shared, so does everybody agree that he should go next?" Su Hua looked around the room, waiting for an answer. A few people nodded, but most kept eerily silent.
Ling Xia chuckled. He admired this part of Su Hua. She was always so calm in situations like these. It was like nothing fazed her, but Ling Xia knew that wasn't true. The last time somebody had threatened her boyfriend, she unleashed her fury on her, teaching her a lesson nobody would forget.
He cleared his throat. "I travelled through eighty worlds, I don't know if it was the same for everybody, but I assume so. I will also assume that we all had similar experiences in each world. The part of my story that differs from all of yours is that when I finished the eightieth world, I was able to gain access to the main computer. I was able to bring you eleven out with me, but unfortunately not everybody else."
Finally, everybody's curiosity was sated as to why they were free from the system. Before anybody could react, however, the doors of the room swung open loudly.
Everybody's gazes shot to them. They watched as the marshal strode into the room. His confidence seemed to calm everybody in the room, and at the same time, getting them feeling jittery.
Ling Xia was subject to the same feeling, but he quickly disregarded the awe bubbling inside of him and came to a stunning realization. The fact that the highest existence in the military was here meant that the situation was much worse than initially anticipated.
The hacking of the testing system must have been done by an extremely powerful and hostile force. That force might have already harmed more people after Ling Xia and the rest of the trainees got trapped too. Why hadn't he already heard anything about this?
The marshal looked to his left at his assistant, to indicate that he should start speaking. The assistant cleared his throat. "Hello, trainees. You are twelve of one hundred trainees that got out of the simulation. Before I start briefing you on what happened while you were gone, would any of you like to leave this room? I am only giving you this option because we do not want any of you to waver when given future instructions. If you think you cannot be at your best behavior because of what happened in the simulation, I advise that you leave, but be aware that leaving would mean you leave the entire training program. You will go back to being part of your previous fleet. Please raise your hand if you want to leave."
Ji Kongying's hand shot up. Everybody was expecting this. The assistant waited for a few more seconds. Just as she opened her mouth, another boy hesitantly raised his hand. Everyone looked at him, but he refused to meet anybody's eyes. "Okay, Mr. Ji and Mr. Yan may leave."
The two left, one with his head held high, one bowing his head. Nobody would be able to guess that the person who seemed to find his feet very interesting at the moment was one of the most confident people in their group only eighty days ago.
"Let's begin the debriefing." The marshal's emotionless voice seemed to break everybody out of their surprise. "Since you ten have decided to stay, we expect the utmost dedication towards the upcoming mission. All of you have stayed in the system for so long, so you will be going through training for three days. The training will start tomorrow at 7 o'clock.
"There is a lot that happened in the time since you were trapped in the simulation. We have found the culprit that hacked into the system, contacted them, and tried to negotiate a peace treaty, but they have refused to cooperate. They have instead trapped more people in the system than your group and informed us that if they do not get out of the system in one hundred days' time, they will die. Here is a list of all those that were trapped."
While the marshal talked, his assistant handed out papers. Ling Xia took it but only stared it, too surprised to read the contents.
Paper. She had handed out papers when she could have just sent the information through the galaxy's expansive network. That meant that the enemy had already breached the network. His eyebrows knitted in worry, but his surprise had yet to stop.
He snapped out of his stupor, finally beginning to read the list. The crease between his eyebrows only got deeper. He didn't recognize a huge portion of these names. The database he had used to choose which people could be pulled out of the system hadn't contained these names.
"Mr. Ling," the marshal called out.
Ling Xia's head shot up. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but he snapped it shut upon realizing that his role as a soldier had been resumed, and as such, he should act like one. No questions asked, only orders carried out.
"Since you have managed to leave the system and bring the others with you, you will also be charged with the task of bringing the rest of the people out. We hope this will be done before the training starts tomorrow, but the maximum amount of time that can be taken is twenty days, otherwise, the people who are trapped will die."
The marshal then went on to declare that the enemy would be referred to as 'Axians', and that there would be a war in the near future if the Axians decided to do any more damage. "If anything that seems out of sorts is noticed, it should be reported immediately. Everybody can take the rest of the day to rest and prepare for tomorrow, except for you, Mr. Ling. You all are dismissed."
The marshal turned around to leave, but Ling Xia spoke before he could do so. "Marshal Han, I regret to inform you, but I am unable to bring anybody else out of the system right now."
The marshal stopped in his tracks, swiveling around. He motioned for the other to continue offhandedly. Ling Xia nodded. "Because I left the simulation, the system is either assuming I am dead or I escaped, so all my data will be deleted from the system."
Ling Xia only knew this because he was able get some information from system when he was in the database. "In addition to this, the people who have a military rank that is higher than lieutenant are not in the group of people I was able to pull out of the system previously."
"And twenty days will not be enough time for you to be able to pull people out of the system again?" the marshal inquired.
"Yes, but I do have an idea that could work to pull everybody out, including the people that I was previously not able to. However, it will require us to go back into the system. And I'll need a team to help me put it all together."
Of course, after eighty lifetimes to practice using technology, Ling Xia didn't actually need a team. He was just saying that to put the military at ease about him. Ling Xia was already suspicious in the eyes of the military, being the only person who was able to leave the system on his own and asking to go back into the system.
In their mind, they probably wanted to mitigate any risk that he was actually on the Axian's side. It would give them some peace of mind if they could assign some people to 'help' him. They needed people to monitor him and this was the perfect opportunity, so why would they pass it up?
As expected, the marshal agreed to his suggestion and asked how long it would take, and how many Ling Xia could make, to which Ling Xia replied, "There will be enough for every trainee, and it should take five days at the latest."
"Then we'll extend the training to five days. Mr. Ling, you will still be participating in the training. Afterwards, we'll have everybody here go back into the system and bring the others with them." The marshal turned and left the room, leaving a guide to lead the trainees to their room.
Ling Xia obediently followed him. He was assigned into a room with three others, so they surveyed the room together.
Two bunk beds were in one area, and there were a few desks with terminals on them on the other side of the room. A closet was next to the door, fully displaying the clothes he and his three roommates would be wearing for the next few weeks.
Ling Xia looked at his bed, which on any other day he would find uninteresting, but today he found it looked very comfortable and appealing. He suddenly realized how sleepy he felt. Although his body was never moving while in the simulation, his mind was always at work.
However, sadly, he had to first take a shower. Two months without a shower, and he probably smelled like a trash can. He grabbed the pajamas already laid out on his bed and went to take a shower.
The community showers were already filled to the brim with people, so he went to brush his teeth first. He searched, and as expected, the pocket of his pajama pants had a toothbrush clipped onto it. He plucked it off and ripped off the packaging, suddenly tempted to just go to bed. This seemed like an awful lot of work just for sleeping.
Dirtying a freshly-made bed would make him feel guilty though. He pasted on some toothpaste and brushed his teeth. He made quick work of it, washing his face afterward. As he wiped the water off his face, his gaze travelled to the mirror in front of him, the face in front of him striking him as unfamiliar.
It was the same single eyelids, thin lips, small nose, dark eyes, white skin, and black hair that he was born with staring back at him, but it had been so long since he had seen it. It had been so long since he had looked like his 27-year-old self.
Sure, his body hadn't aged much in this time, but dozens of lifetimes worth of memories and events had jumped onto the ride. Could he truly be considered the same age anymore?
It perplexed him. But for now, he would be reconciled with the fact that he could move his own body again.
He went to take a shower, realizing that they had started to empty out. Fresh and clean, he headed back to his bed, collapsing onto it in pure bliss. And as soon as he closed his eyes, his mind seemed to be whisked away into his dreams.
Notes:
1: Chinese names are ordered differently from English names. The last name comes first, and the first name comes second, and this is the order I will be using. Instead of taking as last name and first name take it as family name and given name respectively. In addition, calling somebody by their full name is normal in China.
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