When they arrived at the train station, Voye and Clyde said their goodbyes.
Voye boarded the packed train and traveled to his city station.
Voye grimaced as he considered what had happened and mumbled to himself, "It feels like I am the only one who does not know what is happening. They all looked at me with this worry in their eyes from time to time."
'Maybe I will neved know,' he closed his eyes, clasping the handle more firmly.
He sighed silently, listening to the passengers in the train, unwilling to think about it any longer.
The train arrived at his city station an hour later.
Voye stepped off the train and left. The sun was so bright it nearly blinded him.
Voye yawned and wondered: 'How does Clyde still look so energetic? I am feeling so tired from travelling.'
Shaking his head, he moved on to the closest bus stop.
'I still need an hour or more to reach back at my university... sigh...'
...
Voye was playing some games on his panel while he waited for the bus. But soon he became bored and chose to surf the internet.
Voye usually avoided the global web because it was more expensive to access the local one.
But thanks to his knowledge, Voye was able to save the access points from the cities he visited, giving him access to the internet in those places.
'Hahah, power of knowledge.' Voye browsed Space Star City's internet.
Because he was getting ready to see his old friends, he was not able to browse much earlier, but now that he had plenty of free time, he carefully looked over what was going on in the other city.
'Am I able to browse their hidden web?' After some thought, Voye chose to give it a shot.
Voye typically use a hack to gain access to the hidden web and the Knight's web, but the web's extremely strict security prevented him from staying there for very long.
'Knights... guardian of the people. Protector of mankind. I wonder if their web differs from this city's Knights.'
Rather than venturing into the hidden web, he attempted to enter the Knight's web.
For Voye, it was more fun because it was more difficult.
Just as Voye was about to break through, the bus pulled up. He needed to multitask so that, when paying the bus fare, he did not unintentionally leak his information.
'Maybe I was too arrogant... I shouldn't have done that.' Voye sat down and stared blankly at his panel.
Even though he was able to hack in, it was still too dangerous!
Voye dismissed that feeling and looked around the web with curiosity.
When he happened upon a Knights chat forum, he noticed that the subject matter concerned the Astral world.
Naturally, this piqued his interest.
Though his knowledge of the Astral World was limited, it was still slightly greater than that of average civilians.
It would be odd if he had no knowledge of the Astal world, given that he had previously been involved in and survived attacks by the monsters of the Astral.
'The security system seems more lax than the ones in this city. Or maybe because I'm too far, and they are trying to track me down?'
Voye did not give tracking much thought because he had modified his panel to withstand hacking, so he could fend off small-scale attacks while diverting more sophisticated ones to his previous panel, which merely held out-of-date data.
Voye became increasingly confused as the conversation went on with each message.
[ Unknown A: Well I guess is a blessing in disguise, those newly awakened ppl didn't have any technology to contact to the world net. Otherwise our reputation will be gone! ]
[ Unknown B: Yeah, so we don't need risk our lives to explore that new crack. ]
[ Unknown C: What are you guys taking about? ]
'That's what I'm wondering too.' It relieved Voye that he was not the only one confused.
[ Unknown A: Ah you are new right? You don't know of the incident. In summary, a knight's negligence caused the collapse of an unnamed town a few years ago. But surprisingly those who awakened was rather powerful, so the higher ups used some excuses to get them to explore the Astral World on our behalf. ]
[ Unknown C: Is it alright to just mention in here? ]
[ Unknown B: well this is more like an open secret. besides, if others that isn't a Knight knows, what can they do about it? ]
[ Unknown C: I feel kinda bad for these innocents people though... ]
[ Unknown A: You are free to volunteer to go explore the Astral World with them if you feel oh so bad newbie. ]
[ Unknown C: What's this town name called? ]
[ Unknown B: ehh I forgot. I only remembered there was a group of kids that proved to be annoying when we wanted to capture the awakened ones, they called themselves Zombies. Gosh they kept repeating it till I still remember them ]
Voye's eyes were wide open, and he continued to read their conversations while breathing heavily.
[ Unknown A: Yeah so we used the excuses that those people are traitors to mankind. That seemed to hit their sore spots. hahah I bet they think those with powers are heroes and they are trying to protect the hero of their town. ]
[ Unknown B: Even if they are annoying, I admired their spirits. ]
Buzz
Voye snapped out of his daze and quickly left the web. When his presence was detected, he hastily erased his evidence and vanished.
He almost massed up, but his experiences saved him; otherwise, he would not have been able to escape in his current state of mind.
Voye shut his panel and gazed out the window.
As soon as the group was mentioned, it was obvious to him which town they were discussing.
That was the day he felt like his view of the world had altered.
"You guys... don't trust me?" A close friend of theirs had tears in his eyes, staring at them, "When have I ever lied?"
With a trembling body, Voye inhaled deeply.
He had always avoided looking back at his past because he believed that recalling how his friends had lied to him while wearing that expression would infuriate him.
But after reading those messages, he was a little perplexed.
Should he be feeling angry or guilty?
If those messages are true, what could he even do?
Voye felt as though a heavy fog had enveloped the past.
He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. A queasy sensation, as though he were being choked, filled his chest.
'What should I be feeling now?'