Following Carson's instructions, Ethan followed behind Carson's car and drove through the bridge. After passing through some checkpoints on the bridge, they finally passed through the main gate of the wall. Upon entering, Maya was stunned by the atmosphere. It was not like an apocalypse at all. People were walking about as if nothing was wrong. Families, children, elderly, everyone was enjoying. Smiling and laying, as if the world was perfectly ok. It was almost as if the word was completely different on this side of the wall.
However, Maya found it odd, that there were no cars other than Carson and their own to be seen anywhere. Everyone was either walking, or using bicycles.
Just then, a shadow zoomed above their heads and disappeared within moments. Looking up, Maya saw a track, similar to those used for trains.
The two cars soon entered an entrance that led to an underground parking lot. Following Carson's car, navigating through the maze of steel and glass, the arrived 2 floors underground, where Carson parked his car, and asked them to park their car next to his own.
Getting out of the SUV, Ethan heard Carson's voice.
"Follow me. I will speak as we make our way to Colossus, it is the nearest base, and also our main base."
"Alright"
"Okay. It appears that you are a level 3, am I correct?"
"Yes" Ethan nodded.
"And you intend on joining Merlin's Sanctum right?"
"Yes"
"Good. By the rules, you can allow up to 2 family members to enter the sanctum. But it appears you have only one for now. Is there someone else?"
Ethan's eyes suddenly reddened slightly, before regaining their cold gaze once again as he cleared his throat and said, "No."
"… Alright. You guys need to get your cards now. Once we reach the colossus, you will each get one."
"Card? Like the one you have?" asked Maya.
"Yes. These cards are incredibly unique. They are all designed and made by Merlin, and his crafting puppets. Each of the card will uniquely identify your mana, and can only be used by you. We have a central AI in the colossus which manages everything, but no one actually knows where it is. But what I know is that once you fuse your mana into your card, the AI will assign the card to your mana signature, and when you need to access you money, or identification, you just have to inject some mana into the card, and it will display the needful."
"Money?"
"Yes. General Merlin created his own currency to be used within Staten Island, and it is a virtual currency used through the AI. Anyway, we have arrived."
As he said this, a large building came into view. People continuously flooding in and out of the gate like a colony of ants, and no cars to be seen anywhere.
Upon entering, they were greeted by the refreshing cool breeze of an AC, however, there were none to be found.
Unlike his previous life, where mana stones were almost as expensive as the life of a Tier 3, Merlin had actually found a Mana stone vein. One of the two available within the borders of USA. This would effectively give him an unlimited supply of mana stones. Mana stones were useless to most people, however, in his previous life, Merchants found Earth's mana stones quite unique, and so agreed to buy them for a number of things like weapons. Therefore, almost all the mana stones from Earth had been sold off-world, creating an incredible shortage. However, to him, Each mana stone could be used to make simple puppets, and the larger, mana crystals could be used for more advanced puppets. He used a mana crystal with the radius of his waist, to create the central AI.
One of the simpler puppets was a temperature regulation system he installed in all the bases, to prevent overheating, or freezing of normal humans and important materials.
"Haha, are you shocked? This is also something General Merlin created. It is basically an AC, but doesn't use electricity. In fact, nothing within Staten Island used electricity."
Both Ethan and Maya were stunned. How long had it been since the power to the cities were shut down, and they were surviving using solar powered gadgets.
But before they could enjoy this wonderful feeling any further, a lady come onto their view.
"How may I help you?"
"New member. This one is joining the sanctum, and the is his family"
"Alright… Documents"
Without saying a word, Carson handed a file with two sheets of paper in it to the receptionist.
After a while, the entire desk began trembling slightly and making noises similar to an ink-jet printer. The only difference being that it was printing using mana, onto a mana stone sliced into uniform cards.
After about 10 minutes, a card fell into the lady's hand, and after another 10 minutes, another card fell into her hands.
She then handed the two crystal clear cards to Ethan and Maya expressionlessly, and said, "Inject some mana into it and wait for 15 seconds until it glows bright golden. That indicated the process is complete"
Receiving the cards, both injected some mana into and waited. Soon, a brilliant golden splendour shone form each of the cards, before everything returned to normal, with no visible change to the cards.
The two siblings glanced at each other in clear puzzlement and the lack of an effect.
"Ahem," interjected Carson, "Inject some mana again to see your details"
Injecting some mana into the cards, details came up on them.
=========
#49985
Name: Ethan Morgan
Race: Human
Rank: Captain
Tier: 0
Level: 3
Money: $5
=========
=========
#50002
Name: Maya Morgan
Race: Human
Rank: Citizen
Tier: 0
Level: 0
Money: $5
=========
Seeing the levels were correct, and the race was human, Carson let out a sigh of relief before holding up his card to his cheek and saying, "Stand down. They are clear"
Ethan suddenly shot him a glance, and stared at Carson with unfriendly eyes.
"Hehe, you can't expect us to allow anyone to walk into our base without screening now do you? Normally, everyone has to go through around a 20 minutes of screening, searching, and interrogation before they are allowed in. However, since you were a level 3, we had to give you some special treatment and decided to allow you to head directly into the closest base and check your card there. Since it was only 2, it is still fine, but we can't do this to everyone we take in. We need to keep intervals between people entering, to allow the basses to produce enough cards."
Suddenly, understanding dawned on Ethan as he nodded and relaxed.
"So, what is with my rank, and the card?"
"Since you are a level 3, you have been given the rank of captain, which makes you one rank below me in rank, and slightly stronger than me in power. Don't worry, once you prove yourself in battle, you will be promoted to Major, or even Lieutenant Colonel if you are lucky. A captain can lead between 5 and 10 soldiers, of level 2 or below. As for the card, there are an enormous number of functions you do not know. Many of which even I don't know, even though I have been here for over a month. One of the functions is to be a short distance communicator within Staten Island. You should spend some of your free time to explore, and get used to it."
"Oh! So it is a mana smartphone?"
"In a sense, yes. But don't waste too much time here. You each have 5 dollars, which will allow you to buy 1 meal for each of you. Each member of the sanctum gets a free place to stay. Your family can live with you, or you can rent out another place for them. But it will cost at least $20 per week. I'd suggest going to rest and eat for some time, before reporting at the assembly hall. Once you report there, you will be given a task, and will be given money in exchange. Check your card for directions. Don't forget to exchange numbers and save them into your cards. You can call each other using it. I need to go now. Ask her for anything else."
Carson said as he pointed at the receptionist before running out of the building, rushing back to the parking, to drive back to the gate as soon as possible.