[Host, are you sure this is the right undertaking?]

"System, I am not expecting you to be omniscient. That is why I have done all of this. At least, I managed to gather some ID cards from the executives. I just don't know whether they are alive or not." Greid replied to the question in a flat tone.

After getting his search done from the Workers Dormitory, Greid explored the area around it. After half a day, he found an executive ID card, the map for the Planet Power Plant as well as the master key that was left out and fortunately still functioning.

Now, all Greid had to do was to go to the Control Center where most of the vital devices that managed the whole power plant were located. From his exploration, he found that the outer area and the inner area were separated by a thick metal alloy door which required an ID from an executive to open.

[Are you sure? Your body is barely stabilizing from the sudden shock experience you had. It is recommended that you take a break.]

"That is the issue here, System. I cannot really take a break here as I did back at my home. Until we confirm the safety of our resting location, it is better to keep going like this." Greid rejected the suggestion since he did not even know how to ward off the potential threat in this world.

[Stubborn fool. Whatever, I am only an assistant so your decision and actions are something I have to follow through. The area separating door is opening! Beware!]

 

With the warning from the system, Greid focused all his attention on the door, with his energy utilization Detection focused entirely beyond the door. Fortunately, he found nothing out of the ordinary like abnormal movement from other creatures.

Greid then walked in and when he stepped on the clean floor, the area separating door automatically closed. He already expected this so he was not surprised. But it was surprising to see that the mechanism of the devices was still working perfectly.

"From this entrance, I can go to the Mess Hall, Surveillance Room, Power Wire Station, Power Generator, Executives Office and Power Plant Defense Unit Management. Well, I am going to the Mess Hall first. I need to find more food since I already ate the snack four hours ago and my mineral water bottle is almost gone."

 

Walking to the Mess Hall, Greid perceived that the inner area was surprisingly clean. There was not even a stain in this place. Intrigued, Greid pursed his lips and continued his step. He periodically used Matter Detection after accumulating some imaginery energy by using Origin Conduit. This was done so that his proficiency in the Imaginery Energy Refining Art increase steadily. As for using Psyche Detection? Greid would not use it casually from the momen where he felt weakened due to using his Willpower.

 

When he arrived, he found the situation similar. Clean room, tidy tables, well-arranged chairs, maintained decorations are even visible. Clearly, something or someone came to this place often.

'Can not even shout for fear of the threat jumping at me all together.' Greid complained inwardly while holding the Gunsword on his right hand.

[This is good. That means someone lives in the inner area. Oh, you intentionally slow your movement speed. I understand, you see the monitoring devices and the clean facility so there is definitely someone and perchance they are monitoring us from Surveillance Room...]

"Not bad. At least you know a bit of my motive of doing things. But you also have to take into account that the threats we potentially have to face are probably sentient and learned. I don't even dare to shout if you still don't notice." Greid could only be cautious.

"About the Grand Main Quest, is it my general direction for this world or my entire journey as a Wayfarer?" Greid asked softly. He knew that he could do it with his mind but a bit of verbal communication was necessary, at least for himself.

[Replying to host, Grand Main Quest is the broad stroke the Supreme Will has designed for each Wayfarer. As for the endpoint of this quest, it is (redacted). Hmm, this information is still not permitted to be known to you yet. I am as annoyed as you are, Host]

"Just like in games, a quest is generated so that I know where to go, my objective as well as reaching the Ultimate Destination..." Greid thought that the quest was a standard scheme that was used to make the individual involved to move toward a certain direction.

[Some of the restriction has been lifted due to Host's thought. The host perceived and concluded the Parallel World Grand Main Quest's end objective to be 'Ultimate Destination']

['Ultimate Destination' is the host's sanctity belief in his core that (redacted)...]

"!"

Greid looked at the sudden popped notification from the system. He was surprised that just his thought process and the way he perceived things were responded to. Furthermore, the system or something that the system had stored became accessible due to his train of thought.

The core that the system mentioned referred to the core of an individual. With Psyche and Understanding branch of energy attribute, Greid should be able to gain some periphery look at what his core looked like.

Then Greid abruptly stopped. It was because he perceived something he had never seen before just around the corner before he turned. From the structure that he got from Matter Detection, it looked like a mobile sentry platform. In other words, a mobile turret that can do a routine patrol around the inner area.

'Is this one of the reasons why the inner area is safe?' Greid could feel several imaginary energy stored within the turret. Most of them were stored in the battery while the rest were distributed among its structure as well as the ammunition it had carried. Worse, it also had some basic presence detection.

'Matter Detection, Origin Detection, Motion Sensor, Thermal Detection, and some simple command.' Greid then used both Matter Detection and Origin Conduit to analyze the mobile turret in its entirety. Not only that but he also found out that the turret was kind of dangerous even to the current him who could utilize three energy attributes.

'Even it has the mixture of Origin and Matter energy attribute! This weapon is clearly for the disintegration of any kind of threat.' Greid had some sweat due to that realization. He still had the mentality of someone who had never been to a battle in any shape kind or form.

 

-

 

While Greid was stuck in the junction, someone in the Surveillance Room had seen him walking around the inner area. Actually, the person already knew Greid ever since he stepped inside Planet Power Plant No.9 but the person just observed Greid from the monitoring device.

The person then realized that Greid also knew about someone's presence and it was inevitable. Then the person entered some command to the control panel that connected to the mobile turret around Greid to be temporarily off.

 

-

 

"Huh!?" Greid saw that the energy that supplied the turret was disconnected from the part that made the turret functional. He thought for a while and realized that whoever was inside the inner area meant no harm. Otherwise, he would have been swarmed by the mobile turrets.

"Well. I can finally have some talk with other people, not just you System." Greid heaved a sigh of relief. If the one who inhabited the inner area were hostile, Greid would have to fight even if he did not have the experience.

[The turrets...they are not letting out any noise. Even the noise that comes out is small.]

"Hm. You're right. Slowing down my footstep definitely is a good move on my part." Greid had his emotion stabilized so that he could think clearly. Even with all of this happening, Greid was steady in his gait.

"Out from the Mess Hall. The Surveillance Room is just at the corner of the hallway." Greid walked out of the previous room after finding out that there was nothing left in that place. Of course that made sense since there was someone living in the inner area.

Only after some time did Greid arrive at the door to the Surveillance Room. It was a reinforced door with mixed metal alloy, imbued with Origin energy attribute. Looking at the door, Greid was amazed by the capability of this world's civilization.

"That person better give me some of the food. I am hungry." Greid complained a bit but it was actually much worse since he could constantly feel the piercing pain in his stomach. His body was absorbing imaginary energy but his realm of strength was low so consumption of food and water was still a thing.

Then the door opened horizontally and almost without noise whatsoever. From behind the door, a figure wearing a white coat was standing. Greid found that the face of the figure definitely belonged to the old man.

"Looking at you this up close, I am sure that you are not from here." the old man whose appearance was a total mess said while giving Greid a judging look.

"If I am really from here, I would not wander around aimlessly. Who are you?" Greid had some ideas but the old man could prove his idea wrong so he asked.

"Someone who the government, as well as the World Federation, protect at the cost of the civilian lives across the world, someone who mainly researches Origin Energy. You can call me Hedrik." the old man turned around and walked into the Surveillance Room.

Seeing that, Greid followed right behind. The door then closed right after he entered the room. Inside, Greid could see the projection of monitoring devices across the entire power plant. There were also mobile turrets patrolling the designated area as well as the remnants of something unknown in some of the footage.

 

[Host has found an influential figure in this world, Hedrik Yeager. The Parallel World Grand Main Quest has revealed its first milestone task!]

[You have to get more information to progress the task. Inquire Hedrik about the condition of the world]

'Right, the Grand Main Quest. For this world, this is the first step just like a player in the beginner village.' Greid inwardly felt trepidation but his decision would not change.

"Excuse me. I just arrive here and suddenly saw the world change like this, what exactly is going on?" Greid asked a question and carefully chose his word so that there could be multiple interpretations of it. Of course, he did not lie about the statement since that was considered the truth.

"Hmm, straightforward. I don't dislike it. First, look at the monitor around the corner of the room there..." Hedrik pointed to a monitor at the farthest of the room. Greid then glanced and realized that the monitor around that corner was actually consisted of the video recording from the monitoring devices as well as some important information stored by Hedrik.

Greid walked and found that there were so many video records. He took a chair which was really comfortable and could even move around the entire room if he wished. He sat and inserted some video record storage which was a thin transparent crystal to the projected monitor.

Then the projected monitor changed and showed the content of the records...

 

-

 

Record 1

This storage device was storing the record in the regional news channel but Greid soon found that there were uncomfortable titles in the news.

-Our Astronomy experts just reported an anomaly around one lightyear away from our world. The orbital ring which is also equipped with Stellar Detection Station also reports the anomaly at the same location-

-The Planet Power Plants are in full operation in preparation to investigate the anomaly-

-The anomaly headed towards our planet. World Federation has issued the first stage alert!-

-The Artificial Orbital Ring has transformed into Planetary Armament Mode. Martial Laws issued-

 

Then Greid saw something bizarre in the next video record. From the recording angle, it had been taken from the ground as it raised its device up to the sky.

There was some strange silhouette in the sky. When he looked closer, it turned out to be the orbital ring the news had told. After that, something large and wide appeared behind the orbital ring. A gigantic something overshadowed even the orbital ring...

"What is that?" Greid at least found one clue. Then he kept watching as the thing then radiated multiple colors before the sudden announcement of a drastic increase in Origin Energy.

'I see. On this planet, people have found the imaginary energy Origin branch. No wonder so many things are powered by Origin attribute branch, they developed their civilization based on this.'

Then the gigantic thing was doing something while the orbital ring had put up a barrier that protect the planet. The video caught the noise of what Greid could consider as explosions, heard throughout the video record.

Only after Greid almost got to the exciting part did the video suddenly stop. Greid frowned and then checked the content only to find that was the entire thing.

"That's it? Where's the rest?" Greid complained. The most important part of this world's development and it was cut off just like that?

"At that time, the signals for the global network has been severed and this was the record of someone else's livestream. After that, creatures that are not from this planet appeared. We call them Infiltrators and most of the casualties came from them. Most of the metropolis erected their Aegis Barrier, including the Planet Power Plants. But even then, Infiltrators come and target civilians the most." Hedrik sighed, recalling the information as well as his own experience facing the event.

 

"It turned out that the Infiltrators are specifically aimed at the source of our power, numbers. This caused several people to not dare to form a large group or crowd for fear of being pounced on by them. There are several ideas the World Federation has received but only a few can be implemented. I am in charge of Cybernetic and Utilization to counter the Infiltrators." Hedrik looked Greid right in the eyes, standing and looking down at him.

Greid frowned. He received so much information at once and needed to digest it first. Anomaly, Infiltrators, World Federation...

[Host has learned the background of the event 'Cosmic Encounter' from Hedrik Yeager and the historical traces from the available devices.]

[Reward issued: One Strength Enhancement Chocolate Bar]

He could not check the system reward at the moment so he saved it for later.

 

"What should we do? What can be done to end this mess?" Greid wanted to say "What can humanity do?" but refrained. This was also his current emotion so still no lies. He knew that the old man was judging his every action, gesture, and other but at least he did not lie about it.

 

"Gather more information about our foe. The second is to produce robots that can fight on our behalf. For some reason, the Orbital Ring has been holding on the Spaceship near our planet but that cannot be maintained if one of the Planet Power Plant is turned off from either accident, assault, sabotage and malfunction." Hedrik concisely explained to Greid.

"Okay. That is the World Federation plan. But how can I help?" Greid then thought that his next tasks in this world would be heavily related to World Federation as well as the Unidentified Civilization.

"I have already sent Shena to clean up the area around the Planet Power Plant but some of the Infiltrators managed to pass through due to their quantity. I see that you hold a weapon so I want to ask you to at least take care of the Infiltrators." Hedrik opened his mouth and stated his condition.

 

'Should I be happy or sad? I am a civilian just like you. But it is true that I need to fight sooner or later. How can I do it if I have no experience?' Greid inwardly felt nervous.

[Host, the next task of the Parallel World Grand Main Quest has been issued to you]

[Parallel World Grand Main Quest- Cosmic Encounter

After finding out about the situation, you are going to find out some traces of the reason why the Wayfarer concept from the Supreme Will come to be from this event. Beware, your action will have an impact on the foreseeable future and the corresponding reward will change accordingly.

Find out about the two sides' backgrounds and decide what you will do.

Reward:???]

[Host has successfully passed the first Grand Quest. Daily Task has been available to complete!]

[Daily Task: Infiltrator

Eliminate the Infiltrator that is on hiding in the Planet Power Plant No.9 0/1

Reward: One Imaginary Energy Pill (Mint flavor)]

"!" Greid was numb when he saw the window notification. It turned out that he could not evade this no matter what. The reward was quite good for the current him but the issue was he had to face the surviving Infiltrator.

'What to do? I lack experience so it will definitely finish me off!' Greid gulped, barely containing his nervousness. But he could not back off and regret his decision.

 

With a sigh, Greid said "I will do it. Just need a lot of time to prepare my heart."

"It is fine as long as the Infiltrator is dead. It is quite cunning, evading all the mobile turret detection. I can see it but I am afraid it has some sort of detection interference to mess with the turret detection mechanism. It is hiding in the location where the mobile turret cannot reach so go there." Hedrik pointed to a certain location.