Bell sat at her desk, tapping away at a holographic screen hovering just over the desk.
She had managed to get all of the basics set up; such as how far the holographic screen should be from her, its luminosity, the color scheme, and a few other options.
Now, it read:
[Please provide identification.]
Bell looked around the room for a short bit for her wallet, quickly finding it and pulling out a small card. On it was an image of Bell's face, as well as some basic descriptive data, as well as the identification card number.
Bell tapped the card onto the cuff bracelet, and it hummed for a moment before the screen shifted. It now read:
[Name: Bellona Finley
Age: 16
Height: 160cm
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Red]
Bell examined the other information present and tapped a small box in the bottom right corner indicating "correct."
The screen shifted once again:
[Pathfinder software update found! Restart to apply updates.]
At the bottom, there was a small box that read "Restart," of which Bell tapped. Afterward, the screen vanished, and Bell felt something akin to a needle draw blood underneath the bracelet.
"Hey!" Bell exclaimed in shock and pain.
The pain dulled as quickly as it had appeared, but left Bell quite startled.
'What the hell?' Bell thought, examining the bracelet.
A pane of glass appeared to float in the air in front of Bell, it read:
[Update successful! Artificial Intelligence Model Aoi has been implemented.]
The glass pane then shattered without sound, the glass shards hovered in place before vanishing, revealing another glass pane.
[What is it you require, Bellona Finley?
You may speak to answer prompts.]
"I was just setting the bracelet up; I don't need anything right now."
The glass pane shattered into several pieces before vanishing and revealing another pane.
[Okay! I will be here whenever you need me.]
The glass pane then shattered noiselessly once more, with no more windows appearing for Bell to interact with.
With a sigh, Bell leaned backward, 'How weird...'
Bell then leaned forward again and picked up her book to continue reading.
Time would pass, and Bell wouldn't notice how breakfast had long passed while she read her book. In the book, the main party got defeated by the dark lord in a dark plot twist cliffhanger!
Luckily, Bell had the second book in the series, and began reading that as she continued to wait.
Over the course of the next hour, Bell noticed that gravity seemed slightly strange, her balance felt just a bit off. Not enough for Bell to not walk or anything, but off just enough to notice.
Bell looked out of her window to see that the giant bullet train was currently climbing up some sort of invisible rail at a nearly forty-five-degree angle. Bell felt a slight amount of fear at the sight, but that fear soon calmed down and was replaced with a strange curiosity.
'Does the train use the same technology as the flying cities?' Bell wondered.
On the way across the ocean, there were several giant railways with varying levels of height. The train often swapped between one another in a move to avoid truly terrifying creatures hiding within the rippling waves.
However, there was no such rail to the Heart, and seeing as how it flew, Bell assumed that the bullet train was borrowing or mimicking the technology that the flying cities used.
Bell then shook her head, clearing her mind of the turbulent thoughts, and simply resumed reading her book. As she read, more time would pass, and they entered the Heart. The moment that they entered the iris of the giant mechanical eye in the sky, the speakers came to life.
Instead of the conductors voice, however, there was a new one.
[Welcome, students and staff of the Terrarium! If you don't know what is going on, then please contact your local Teacher or staff member! We will be seeing you soon!]
Bell immediately headed for the door, unwilling to see the view through her window. She swiftly ascended the ladder hatch after running up the stairs at the end of her hallway.
She opened the hatch and saw the boy with the sniper resting on a nearby sandbag.
"Morning, Bell." He said plainly.
"Morning." She replied.
To this day, she was yet to learn his name, and it was far to embarrassing to learn it now.
'I'm just going to learn it through other methods...' Bell swore to herself.
She fully ascended through the hatch and had a full view of the Heart.
And it was simply breathtaking.