A security checkpoints before the two of them, Jack turns towards Tom who is driving and actively smoking something that probably shouldn’t be around anything official yet does in this slow queue while a helicopter buzzes overhead as the two wait for the slow queue to progress.

“What are we doing here?”

“We gotta head overseas,” Tom says.

“We do?”

“Yep I got a jet lined up to take us to Japan.”

“Japan?”

“Yeah, I have another hook up that’ll take us anywhere from there.”

“What about here?”

“What about it? They’ve all gone either up north or down south but they’re all overrun, no where to go. You saw how empty it was out there.”

“It wasn’t that empty…”

“Bro.”

“Fine, what else did I miss?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“I guess I’ll catch up quickly if I miss something important, how’d you go in the game?”

“Well… given that I can’t handle more than about 8 hours at a time… I think pretty decent. I’ve covered about 120 chemicals, pretty wild stuff.”

“120, that’s a lot… I wonder if Lunamarie will be able to help you with that.”

“Who?”

“Oh, just my alchemist–

Jack cuts his words off abruptly yet Tom seems to have picked up on it as he has a smirk.

“You have followers? Did you meet some players or hire npc?”

“Hire?,” Jack asks with a question.

“Yeah, you can hire adventurers at the adventurers guild… You didn’t? You managed to contract someone on the outside?”

Jack’s mind recalls a contract he signed and awkwardly smiles, “Sort of. She’ll probably surprise you, do they know when the regions will be unlocked?”

“Well they reckon it’ll be soon because of the stuff going on around the world, the company running the game will allow free travel soon.”

“Free travel? Soon?,” Jack raises an eyebrow as he truly didn’t hear anything about this.

“Yes, we’ll be able to travel to any region but we only get one token.”

“Ah that’s useful but can we get another one?”

“Nope, they said it’s limited to one per access method,” Tom says with a puff of smoke, the car is nearing the security gate and it seems liike he’s nearing the end.

“Will you travel somewhere?”

“I have a few ideas but we can also save it, I could always visit you bro.”

“Haha, maybe… it’d be boring as there’s nothing around me except boring plains.”

“Ah damn, well I’ll stick to where I am, these thick jungles are primes for all sorts of herbs and mushrooms.”

Jack smiles, “Yeah, you get that expertise up cause who knows how valuable that’ll be in the future.”

Tom looks at Jack with a questioning gaze but before anything else can happen the car in front moves up, Tom is forced to move the car up interrupting the dialogue with a tap on the window.

He exhales a blow of smoke and lets down the tiny slit of a window on the barely legal sports car, “Airports closed,” the soldier holding a gun says.

“I got a flight to catch, hurry up.”

“What flight?”

“Fuckin’ I dunno, the one going to japan in an hour.”

“Public or private?”

“Private.”

“Name?”

“Marquinesse.”

“Repeat that sir.”

“Marquinesse.”

“Marquieenesse?”

“no, Marquinesse.”

“Hold a moment,” the soldier says while turning around and walking away. He returns a moment later, “Ok, go through. Bay 26. You got 45 minutes.”

“Aight. Take it easy bro,” Tom revs the car as the gate opens up and spins the tires as he goes through the checkpoint and enters the airport grounds.

Jack looks with furrowed brows and an annoyed expression on his face as he looks at Tom, “Did you need to do that?”

“Bro, that cunt is just low level private security that doesn’t even have airport work clearance, he can’t do shit.”

“There’s still other security here.”

“Good I want their attention, 45 minutes is bullshit,” Tom says as drives along the service roads towards several dozen smaller hangars, there’s quite a lot of traffic on the road and in the sky as planes and helicopters fly in and out constantly. It’s as though an exodus is happening but given how the city looked prior to coming here that’s a fair move, it should return soon enough but the government will delay and deny payments as long as they can effectively making it look like a ragged war-zone for the next couple of years as they work out how best to get funds to their governmental friends in businesses.

The lowered sports car draws some attention but it’s quiet as it pulls into a hangar and stops by a small jet, Jack frowns trying to recalls if he has ever seen this plane before but comes up blank.

“Well bro, you can get onboard if you want but I have to stay out here and wait for some deliveries.”

“On-board? Is there anyone on there now?” Jack says while looking up at the very expensive small yet long jet.

“Yeah, the hangar wouldn’t be open otherwise. I haven’t even seen the inside since it was acquired so why don’t you head in? It should have a few computers for you to catch up on things.”

“What about a phone?”

Tom scratches his neck, “Yeah that thing, there’s one on there but your phone was lost in the rubble.”

“Again? I only lost my phone the other day.”

“Yup. Those guncunts didn’t let me grab anything.”

“Fucking cunts, can’t really help that then. I should be able to access my messages online but last time I tried the contacts the numbers didn’t transfer over. I gotta find out what my sister’s up to.”

A middle-aged asian man walks up to the window and taps it drawing their attention, “Private hanger, get out.”

“Shut up Claurice,” Tom responds quickly while flapping down the window hole.

“Oh it’s you, I didn’t think you’d be coming as you were stuck babysitting. Does the boss know you’re here?”

“Why do you think I’m here? I’m meant to supervise the first load in transport towards D1. Boss said.”

“Ah, good then you can take over waiting down here I need to do pre-flight checks, we only have an hour before our departure window opens.”

“Knew that cunt was lying at the gate, alright take my mate up with you.”

“Mate?,” Claurice ducks down and looks through the window hole towards Jack, Jack waves in response causing the middle-aged man to frown heavily.

“Just show him around, get him whatever he wants then he’ll be able to figure it out. He aint an idiot… mostly.”

Jack lets out a smirk, “Coming from you…,” he mutters.

“I’ll do this if you put in a good word to the boss, I want to be transferred to the online division.”

“You in the online division?”

“Yeah, I’ve started a long quest line that’ll unlock an advanced class.”

“Wow advanced, then you’ll be ahead of nearly everyone.”

Jack raises an eyebrow, “Is an advanced class rare?,” while thinking back to his own job skill stele’s that allow creation of quite a large number of advanced units.

“Pretty rare, lots of people first time around decided to take up the best sounding class but they quickly found out they couldn’t progress beyond beginner stage. So the hunt was on to find classes that were beyond beginner and some people found classes that could advance in tier. I myself got stuck in a class that can only advance to regular status,” Tom says while pulling out a smoke and lighting it.

“Ah never heard of that, I’ve just been doing my own thing but I’m sure there will be ways to advance later on. The game just hasn’t unlocked yet, we can’t even leave our base regions.”

“True, well Claurice head up and show my mate Jack what to do.”

“Alright remember your promise.”

“Of course. See you in there bro.”

Claurice motions for Jack to follow him, Tom reaches over and opens up the passenger door.

“I’ll be up once the cargo is here,” Tom says while blowing smoke out the window.

Jack exits the lowered sports car and instantly needs to stretch his back, the car is not designed for people his height, while he looks over the white and grey plane that is before him. It doesn’t seem like it’s designed for many people but it’s still big with over 20 windows along the length of the body and 3 large engines on the rear of the body. Two large hatches are open while a stairway is lowered on the other side where Claurice is standing looking at him with impatience.

Jack spends a moment more stretching his back and lightly jogs over to the stairway, “Sorry my back hurts.”

“Well I’m not massaging it for you so I don’t care, we need to move it. I have 30 minutes to complete 3 hours of work.”

“Oh shit, alright. Show me around, I just need to check out a computer and phone. Maybe some food and drinks.”

“Fine, I’ll turn on the electronics for you.”

Claurice walks up the steps and enters the plane, Jack follows after him into the tight corridor where Claurice opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of soft drink and passes it to him.

Jack takes the warm bottle and holds it as Claurice opens more cupboards and pulls out some food leaving it on the table before turning around and opening up a control panel high up on the opposite wall and flicking a switch.

“Alright, there’s a computer in the rear. I have given you food and turned on the electronics. Just don’t use a hairdryer or something before we’re in the air.”

“I’ll try not to…,” Jack says while looking into the rear of the plane with seats everywhere, “is there anyone else coming?”

“No, so go nuts, now if you need anything else just yell as the door is open,” Clauriice says whiile squeezing past Jack opening a sliding door which reveals the cockpit where many flashing lights are distracting.

Jack grabs the food and looks around the plane, it seems luxurious yet cheap as all the seats are made to be as cheap as possible and plain, there’s no character beyond sterile as he walks past the couches and arrives beside some tables that have televisions beside them yet no computer. Jack walks through the door into the dining room where there’s some fruit basket setup yet nothing he needs. He walks through another door and arrives at the conference room where there’s a computer uncomfortably setup looking out at the seating.

“Well there’s the phone… I don’t think I’ll be using this for very long….” Jack sits down and settles into using the computer as he logs into his main profile on social media and checks his messages.

“18 messages? Let’s see… 10 messages from the same person? ‘Hello Sir, I am an esteemed elder in the enlightened sect…’ blah, it’s just shit. 3 of these messages are from people asking questions about what I posted while… only 3 messages from people I care about. Great.”

Jack spends the next few minutes responding to these people online, letting them know that he’s alive and answering their questions if he can help them as he’s not totally an asshole… If the regions are going to be unlocked then people will want to find out where he lives and the people around him might begin to ask more questions which isn’t a favourable situation at the moment. His village is still far too weak, right now the region is still dominated by the four system cities and there’s no way to change that as they’re just too strong with a mystical backing that should be from the game but now… who knows.

Jack’s thoughts wander for a moment thinking about the village, it should have changed into a town by now as the population and experience has reached the requirement yet it hasn’t shifted which could be related to the mutation that happened during the city creation. There’s so many questions yet the people that have answers don’t seem forthcoming, Xueli is still recovering her mind while White…

Jack smirks and brings himself out of his mind, “White?”

‘Yes Master.’

“Oh you responded?”

‘You have caught me between two cycles, I am able to respond to you for now.’

“Cycles?”

‘It’s best to experience it but just assume it’s related to time passing. Your internal space is still within the moulding stage while the tree is in a delicate state.’

“Tree?”

‘Seedling is what you could call it, it’s trying to fight against the soiled heaven’s devouring dirt.’

“Umm…”

‘That is what Master called the black dirt within your internal space. You have an anomalous chance with this, originally this should have formed your core allowing you to consume vast quantities of medicines but due to Master having an internal space prior to learning Master’s cultivation technique it was able to form a clump of soiled heaven’s devouring dirt.’

“So I would have had dirt inside of me?”

‘You have dirt inside of you now.’

“Uh alright. So what does that mean to me?”

‘Do you remember that power you could feel enhancing your own? The one that enabled you to use the spirit form? That came from your existing space now that it has been changed into a sub-realm, you’ll have access to even more power like that.’

“Great, doesn’t seem that useful though as I’m getting strong myself and I want to focus on upgrading the village defenses as the borders will open up soon.”

White snorts, ‘Sure.’

Jack waits a moment for a follow up but no more conversation is coming from the voice inside his head, so he logs into the portal for his phone and spots a dozen messages from his sister. He quickly scrolls through them as they details some of the things they’ve been through, from a bombing into a hostage situation into closed railway requiring driving through impossible terrain. They don’t seem to be giving up and when he opens up one of the pictures he recognises a familiar figure, Jack quickly calls his sister.

*RING RING* *We’re sorry the number you are trying to reach is unavailable, please try again later.*

Jack slams the phone down and types out a message, ‘Good job, keep it up and I’ll see you soon. I’m on my way.’

Jack looks through his contacts and spots the name that he’s after, Katya.

*RING RING* *CLICK*

“uhh Hello?”

“Katya?”

“Who?,” the hostile yet tone comes across the phone.

“Jack, you remember me?”

“Oh Jack,” the voice changes to become much softer, “how can I forget you.”

“Well I wanted to ask, was that your friend Anya with my sister?”

“Oh yeah, I heard some news about the western front wanting to abduct or kill some foreigners to make an example of them but they blabbed their plan everywhere before so everyone was ready. I’ve lost contact with them yesterday but they should be fine, Anya has made the trip three times.”

“Thanks for looking out for them.”

“It wasn’t for you specifically… I just didn’t want those western front people to cause problems for you when you arrive.”

“You think I’m going there?”

“You aren’t?”

“It doesn’t matter where I go these days, I’m usually in the game world. What about you?”

“Same here, it’d be nice to relive our days playing killing spaced floor.”

“We never played that.”

“Does it matter?”

“Alright well I’ll be in touch, I don’t have much time here right now as I’m sure you heard about my country.”

“Sort of, I saw the pictures yet it just looked fake.”

“It seemed like it but… yeah, it wasn’t fun. I’ll talk to you later, thanks for looking out for my sister. I’ll repay you however I can.”

“No problem…,” Katya ends the call in a soft laugh that gets cut off.

Jack lets out a sigh, “White?”

‘Master.’

“Can I enter the game world?”

‘You can try.’

“How?”

‘Just pretend you’re placing the crystal on your forehead.’

Jack frowns and places his two fingers between his eyebrows waiting for something to happen. Nothing does though.

“Are you joking?”

‘No, you just didn’t do the motion. Lay down and close your eyes as you place it between your eyebrows.’

Jack internally rolls his eyes and lays down, feeling like an idiot he shuts his eyes and does exaggerated motions placing the crystal on his forehead.

His fingers touch between his brows when a screen pops up, ‘Unable to access.’

Jack’s heart begins to wildly beat, “White? What is this?”

‘Oh Master, you cannot seem to access the game space.’

“Why? What can I do about it?”

‘It’s only temporary so nothing to worry about.’

“How do you know?”

‘I would never lead Master astray, in fact the down time will allow Master to adjust to his own new powers. I suggest inspecting your internal space.’

Jack sits up and concentrates, he sends his awareness through the thread of consciousness and into his internal space where he’s almost immediately stunned as clouds line the entire perimeter each one crackling with countless lightning bolts lighting up the distant space hiding the distant star glow that was always present. He passes through the clouds and looks at the block of land that was always present and spots a shocking sight.

It has become incredibly large over several hundred kilometres in each direction but not becoming too thick, a large yet sparsely leaf covered tree stands in the middle.

Jack extends his consciousness into his internal space and arrives on the surface near the tree that’s actually towering over everything, a young woman appears nearby looking much different to anyone he has seen before but the rainbow iris give it away who it is.

“Master, just speak normally.”

“Oh, I was wondering about that. It seems we can talk normally…”

“Master… do you really not know the extent of your powers here?”

“Not really but tell me what’s going on?”

“We are coming up to the third cycle, the tree will undergo a death and regrowth period.”

“Death?”

“Yes, this process should take over 1 million years, increasing each time yet I have sped it up.”

“Oh that’s helpful but what is it?”

“Master, it’s the World Tree…”

“Cool, I heard Arwen mention that, is this the same thing?”

“No, he would he speaking of the elves tree of life. This will… become similar eventually but it’s still in the beginning stage.”

“How long will it take to reach that stage?”

“Too long to calculate, beyond your current life span unless you wish to bond your spirit with the tree now. It would enhance your physique incredibly and let you live forever.”

“No thanks, so what does it do?”

“Well let’s just watch.”

White turns to face the tree, Jack does the same as they watch the gigantic tree that looms over them from the distance its sparse leaf coverage gives iti a sickly look as the branches seemingly shrivel up before their very eyes, Jack is impressed by this yet doesn’t remember due to time dilation he’s witnessing something that’d take millions of years in real time.

The leaves are long gone when the limbs begin to crack, the trunk begins to becomes brittle and it falls over on the ground.

Jack nurses his head as a pain comes over it as the tree hit the ground, like a giant weight hit his brain and soul itself but it doesn’t last long as the tree trunk disappears and every single limb is absorbed into the black dirt and the whole space becomes as if nothing ever existed.

“This is the moment,” White says while pointing towards the space where the tree was standing. Jack watches it unsure what to expect, a little tree sprout appears from the ground that gets engulfed by the black soil.

It appears again, it doesn’t let the black soil slow it down as it continues to poke through the dirt that engulfs it. This happens several times before the sapling is able to stand against the soil without being engulfed.

The little sapling begins to grow and shrink, it sometimes wilts while other times it thrives without end. Jack watches the whole process in real time mesmerised unable to notice the movements of anyone else. The tree grows slowly and steadily into a majestic tree filled with countless lush looking leaves.

“It has begun another cycle but it’s still too immature so it’ll take awhile longer, that’s unfortunate.”

“Is there any way to hurry it up?”

“Nope, now we need to train your powers,” White says while looking at Jack.

“What powers?”

“Lightning.”

“I never learnt anything about it.”

“You did, you can recall the scenes with the lightning coming down and learning the manual…”

Jack is stunned for a moment as he recalls those dreams he had, those vivid and incredibly lucid dreams that felt real… much different to the various visions that he has had.

“Just try it out,” White says with a smile.

Jack frowns and recalls the first pose of the lightning art, a small zap in his palm causes pain distracting him and breaking the move yet it’s enough to confirm her words.

“Does this work outside of here?”

White smiles, “Of course… everywhere. It’s yours now.”

“Cool, so what about skyfall?” Jack says not noticing her carefully selected words.

“Of course.”