Riko was running through a winter forest under a light snowfall.

She stopped at the edge of the cliff. Below lay a small rocky beach covered with snow and ice, with further being only an endless ocean.

She looked around frantically searching for something, but before she could make another step, out of nowhere a rope appeared and wrapped around her legs. Without giving her any time to react, something pulled on the rope, making her tumble towards the ground.

A middle-aged woman emerged from behind.

The rope unwrapped from Riko’s legs and returned to the woman’s hands. It was then that she spoke very dreadful sounding words. “Five-hundred push-ups.”

Riko’s expression turned into one of horror. Without a word, she did as she was told, but before she could do a single one, the woman used her leg to push her back to the ground. “Try harder.”

---

 

Riko slowly opened her eyes, only to shut them down again because of the bright light.

“They brought you here unconscious.” Sitting on the bed on the opposite side of the room was a young red-haired girl. In her hand is a knife and with it, she is carefully carving out a piece of wood into a small doll.

“…”

“You tried to escape again, didn’t you? ”

“…”

“I told you that it’s not possible. Even if you reached the edge of the island, what would you do there? Freeze in the ocean’s cold waters?”

“…”

“You won’t get anywhere by mindlessly rushing into action. If you keep being this stubborn, you will just make it harder for yourself. Well, you’ll give up eventually, they always do.”

“Who does?”

“You think that you’re the first one who doesn’t want to be here. Plenty of people are here against their will, and some of them express it by trying to escape. Unsuccessfully, I might add. They start defiant only to turn in a matter of weeks or months into obedient puppies that follow every command without a question.”

“Have you tried to escape?”

The girl’s hand slipped, and her knife decapitated the doll’s head, subsequently it fell to the ground where it rolled for a few seconds before stopping.

“…”

“…”

“…”

The girl jumped off her bed. “I need to get a new piece of wood. You better get into shape soon, I doubt they will let you skip training this time.” She followed to slowly walk out of the room.

Riko tried to sit up only to collapse back onto the bed. “I am beat.”

---

 

“It’s just that I am really worried about her... She was also held there against her will, I just want to make sure she is fine. But I don’t know where she went. Did something happen to her?”

I found one of the knights whom I remembered from the raid on the cultist base. He might know where my cat girl went.

“I don’t think that I am supposed to talk about stuff like that…” Cute puppy eyes activated! “… Well, from what I heard…” He looked around before continuing in a hushed voice. “Apparently she was sent to the Right Hand.”

Huh, what is that supposed to mean? Wait, haven’t I heard that before? Think. Think. Oh, right, wasn’t that a group of islands not too far away from here? I am pretty sure I saw it on my map.

“But don’t tell anyone that you have heard it from me. I don’t want to get into trouble.”

“Sure, you can count on me.” I gave him a thumbs up and a reassuring smile.

---

 

I was lying in my bed with Adeline sitting next to me in her wheelchair.

“You are going to sleep earlier than usual.”

“I want to wake up earlier, so I can spend more time with Emily. She always wakes up very early.”

“I see, you two get along well.”

“I guess.”

“Good night, Crystal.”

“Good night.” Adeline slowly leaves and I am left alone.

“…”

“…”

“It’s time.”

I teleported out of my bed, and now I stand in front of my map. I could have just walked over to it, but I teleported anyway because I can.

There, I am carefully considering all available options, mapping the relevant terrain, calculating the most optimal route, planning for all possible scenarios…! All to solve the question of how to get there.

“I figured it out. I can just fly straight until see big island, easy enough.”

It should be big enough for me not to miss it. Hopefully… That would be so embarrassing if I got lost in the middle of the ocean, just like a fish!

But why is she on such a remote island, and why was that knight acting so weird about it? Ah, well, whatever… I will figure it out when I get there.

I put on my stealth cape and some random assassin looking outfit. Should I put on that ring as well? I probably should, considering that my hair is more eye-catching than I would like. It has a limited effect on people that know me, but that is perfect for this situation. My cat girl will remember me because we already met, and everyone else along the way won’t. Isn’t that perfect?

I flew out of the window and landed on the roof. It is already getting dark. “I didn’t think about that, how will I see it during the night? I need a plan B fast! Before it gets dark.”

This only goes to show that nobody is perfect, not even me. As unbelievable as it may sound, it’s the truth. But what now? I even made a big sacrifice and went to bed early, but it didn’t help, it’s getting dark already. I need to think of something. Think. Think.

Horizon will just make it too challenging to find, I won’t see it from down here until I get close.

Wait, down here? Using the gravity skill, I made myself fly up. I can see the mansion below me getting smaller, soon I can see the whole city. That’s right! If I get high enough, I should be able to see it!

I accelerated further and watched as the ground grew distant. I pierced through the clouds and continued on. As the surrounding world became more distant, a thin layer of ice started to slowly form all over my clothes.

I can clearly see the curvature of the planet from up here. It looks gorgeous. That makes me wonder if I could visit the moon next time.

Below I can see the ocean and numerous islands. It looks exactly like on the map, that means that it should be there! I pointed at what looked to be my destination. Found it.

I increased my weight with gravity skill and watched as I am speeding towards the ground. I aimed towards the island and kept increasing my weight, a hundred times the gravity, a thousand times, ten thousand!

My vision warped and surroundings illuminated with a red light. All sound turned into loud noise and the world seemed to disappear.

I don’t see anything, slow down, slow down! For a moment I didn’t feel anything, my vision flashed, and before I knew it, I stood firmly on the ground. So fast! Compared to flying up, it took no time at all. All the sound slowly quieted down, and I could finally look around.

“But what’s up with all this fog? I didn’t see any from up there.” I am surrounded by a pure white fog, I literally can’t see anything around me, but after a few seconds, most of it disappears. Wait, why are my clothes steaming? There’s a lot of steam coming out from my clothes, and the metal buttons on them are glowing red. That doesn’t look normal.

One of the trees next to me has a single dried-up leaf hanging from it. I picked it up and held it against one of the buttons. The moment it touched the button, the leaf went instantly up in flames. In a panic, I threw it away and jumped back. “I almost got burnt.” I instinctively checked my arm to make sure that it’s fine.

“…”

“Wait…” I looked down on my clothes. “Right… I forgot… My defensive skills are better than I thought… But still, what a jump-scare that was.”

“…”

Now that I look at it, there’s a large circular area around me with melted snow. It’s just gone. “I should probably cool down first.”

After my clothing stopped steaming, I made my way around the island. At first, I wasn’t able to find anything, so I started to run to cover greater distance. But the only thing I saw was a snow-covered wasteland with a leafless tree here and there.

It’s already dark, how will I find anything now? And I doubt that going high up will solve this one. This is not the Earth, where cities are visible from space during the night. In this world, people use the night to sleep.

“If only there was some kind of hack that would allow me to quickly find nearby population centers, you know, like a map. Map? Why didn’t I think of that!”

Well, whatever, I will bite the bullet and teleport back to look at it. A second later, I stood in front of the map. Teleportation took way more mana than I expected considering the distance, but with my mana pool, it doesn’t really matter. I took out a flashlight from my inventory and illuminated it.

There was a large drawing of a castle, almost as big as the island itself and some stuff on the nearby islands but... “That doesn’t help at all! Where is it exactly? I haven’t seen anything like that. Well, that was useless… now what?”

She is supposed to be on that island, but how will I find her? Or how will I find anything for that matter, do I just walk around and hope for the best? There has to be a better way!

“If I can’t find them, why don’t I just let them find me?” I returned to the island. “This is my last attempt, if this won’t work, I will just bail out for today.”

If I create enough of a ruckus, someone will very likely arrive to check it out. I can then follow them back and remove all of this guesswork. I have to say, I am full of great ideas today.

This is a great opportunity to go wild. I didn’t really test my powers that well, so I might as well do it now.

“Let’s go for it, I know exactly what to try.” After I flew up in the air, I used my gravity skill and applied it to everything in my line of sight.

At first, not much happened, a few of the branches on trees tore themselves off and fell to the ground.

I can’t really see much. Is it working? “Dammit moon! Shine harder!” I increased the power.

Trees started to crumble to pieces and collapse straight to the ground. The snow seemed to flatten and turn into an ice.

Let’s test its limit! Full power!

A loud rumbling echoed from every direction. The ground buckled, and the earth started to shake. Giant sinkholes started to appear all over the place and land was split apart by ravines.

“…”

I stopped and took a look at the destroyed landscape. “This sure should catch someone’s attention. Not only that, they should get here quickly so that I don’t have to wait too long.”

Exactly as I predicted, it didn’t take long before people started showing up. Yep, they are indeed here but…

“Why are they crawling up out of the ground?” I mean, fair enough, they had to get here somehow. But I have to say, that’s not exactly the direction where I expected them to come from. In fact, if I had to rank it, it would be the second to last on my expectations.

More and more people keep crawling out from the cracks. Those that are already outside keep running around or helping others out.

Well, that’s certainly weird. I scratch my head as I can’t quite figure out what is happening.

“…”

But they sure keep coming… There’s like a hundred of them already, is that not enough? Did I expose a spawner or something?

I watched without uttering a word as more and more people kept coming out. Eventually, they started setting up things like tents and artificial lights all around the place. Now, with the surroundings illuminated, I can finally get a better look at them.

I have seen those uniforms before, there were a few people back home wearing very similar ones. They are most likely from one of the Orders. Secret Order, most likely, considering that they are all so shady looking.

“Let’s think about it logically, a bunch of military guys keep coming from underground by hundreds… Wait a minute, they were all underground… don’t tell me… did I just wreck some secret underground military base?”

“…”

“Whoopsie.”