It appeared to be in the Arctic. It was on one iceberg where one could see a boy laying on his back. He was sleeping without care of the cold conditions. His breathing was ragged and he appeared to sleep peacfully.
This was odd for he appeared disheveled. It was like he had been burnt all over his body. His face appeared to have black stains. There was a backpack next to him. Also a bike few meters away from him.
On the bike lay a monkey. It kept eating food from the backpack though sparingly. It had been a week already after the completion of the mission but there was no change in Marx's condition.
The only proof that he was healing was the blisters disappearing. Marx was no longer concious. Even if he was hit with a jolt of electricty he would probably feel nothing. It seemed there was a limit to to what extent the system could heal injuries fast.
Probably, it was going to take a whole month before Marx could get up completely. How ever Jerry was going to survive was going to be a testimony.
***
It had been one week since she had started her training. She was on the top floor. She was sitting on one of the several benches in the gym.
She was wearing a white sleeveless blouse that did a poor job in hiding her growing bossom. She wore black short and white socks with a pair black rubber shoes. Her features were prime and according to the Empire rules, she was fit for marriage.
A white towel hang on her neck. She had just finished her designated workouts. Several beads of sweat had formed on her forehead which she wiped with the towel. Her hair which she had tied behind in a ponytail opened up falling on her face.
She brushed it backwards and shook her head staring at the ceiling. The problem with being female was that there were only two of them during this session. There were around ten guys and were all doing their set workouts.
Those who had looked down on her realized that her stats were higher than theirs. Even Raven had changed his view of her the first day. He had reaized that his stats were just a few points higher.
Since he saw her the first time, he had been irritated for a while but when he saw her face, he somehow felt like he did not want to let her go. Even when he saw her throwing a tantrum, he found it cute.
He had been observing her well and he kept falling for her with each passing moment he saw her work out. She looked exactly like the girl in his dreams. He felt deep down that he could not let go.
Even when he saw her wipe the beads of sweat, he felt his heart flutter. How could he have guessed that all the regulations he had set for himself not to chase after girls had been lifted after he saw her.
He was wearing the same as her. Not that he chose this outfit but it was provided by the faction. He had been standing across the other side of the training room. He was 5'9. He felt angry when he saw the other guys throwing glances at her.
He felt if he had the power, he would block their eyes and stop them from giving her those lustful gazes. On his right hand, there was a transparent bottle with water and on his neck was a towel same as her's.
He marched towards her and went to sit next to her. Even he handed her the bottle of water but she refused it. He realized his mistake and opened it for her. He then handed it to her and she gave him a glance and took it.
She took a few gulps and returned it to him. He watched as she raised her head and drank it. He watched as her throat contracted and expanded as she swallowed. He couldn't help but swallow too.
The drop of water that fell from her chin made it irresistible for him. He could almost not hold himself back from raising his hand to wipe it. He watched as the drop fell down and hit the ground. He was in trance he did not even realize when she was handing him back the bottle.
She nudged him and got back from his stupor and took it putting it on the ground. This was just but the first training session. It was the early morning session. There was another evening session.
She stood up and went towards the direction of the bathroom. She did not glance at him again and picked her backpack which had been on the side of the bench. After around thirty minutes, she came out changed.
She was now wearing a black dress and a different pair of slides. As she walked out, she found Raven standing on the door. One could not mistake it. Raven was from a rich family.
He was wearing a black suit from a famous designer company. One could have mistaken him for a CEO of a company but his age did not allow him to be one. She did not want to get entangled with anyone during her stay here and she wanted to avoid him.
But she just let him do as he pleased and let him walk by her side. They were starting their next session in few minutes from now. The faction somehow operated like a school.
Even as they walked side by side, they shared no words. This seemed to affect Raven deep down. He had tried to strike up a conversation with her but her replies made it difficult to continue.
It was like each hit a roadblock the next instant. As one of the handsome guys in the Faction, he did not expect it that she would not accept his advances. But her beauty seemed to shun him off.
They finally reached the class and both separated at the door. It was common for most girls to sit in the front but Mia liked it backbench. But because of a certain someone, she took the front seats. The guy could not take the front seats and went backmost.
She finally breathed out and using a book to blow some air to herself. With such a handsome guy walking next to her, she was subject to all eyes. She wanted to wear a mask but it was against the rules.
She did not like attention and wanted to stay low profile. Thus she had been praying that the sweat that had been forming on her armpits would not fall for she had just taken a shower.
She leaned on the back of the chair. It was illegal to use phones or any unauthorized gadgets in the classroom. She just removed the book titled EARTH and started seeing the pictures it had them on.
Then she came across an interesting line. This book skipped no details about Earth. The main reason was because they thought that this book would never get read by someone.
In this page, it had photos of the old world order. It also explained that the planet Earth had its name changed. It current name was WOOD. The name itself was laughable. Couldn't those old foggies who named the planets come up with better names?
Wood was the planet in which all the wood for making furniture and paper came from. This was the reason no one knew about the existence of Earth because they knew it by another name.
Also, saying that there was a planet called Earth was a joke. Who did not know that earth was the ground? She fell into deep thoughts. Just why would they change the name of the planet?
Could it be there was a hidden reason? Was it that they just went to this planet just to get some wood? That was being shallow minded. Also, it was known that only three super spaceships made their way to the planet twice each year.
Could it be only wood they got from there? Thinking to this point, she wanted to know more about this planet. She started from the first page again and started reading seriously. She did not get the chance to read more as the tutor came in.
One could wonder what they were taught here but it was not only knowledge about stars. These topics were major; basic mechanics. Being taught about battle strategies, being taught about all weapons in existence and basic ways of using them.
In short, it was like factions were junior millitary schools. Any basics required to join the military were taught in factions. It took less than a year to join a millitary school. To join a decent military school one needed after joining the factions, to spend an extra year garnering experience.
After the one year, on could get accepted to the decent millitary schools if their stats hit above 5. This was everyone's goal but out of 100, only ten at most could manage to reach their stats to above 5. This was the most frustrating part. Some never raised their stats past 3.
The teacher came in to teach of basic battle strategies. These srategies would become a childs play if they were presented to military schools but for factions, they were perfect for introducing these teens into the world of war.
What shocked Mia was the fact that the topic was about conquering of planets. It was to touch on factors considered time taken and others. She realized that these were the same things she had been reading in the library few weeks ago.
She had come to realize that a teacher would teach a topic only once and it was upto them to continue learning about it on their own free time. If that was the case, then all those books her aunt made her read were the ones they were going to cover during this one year.
This could only mean that she had a head start others did not. She could only thank her aunt silently for thinking this far ahead for her. She smiled and continued reading about planet Wood. She closed the book once and for the first time, she saw the word wood scribbled down the word Earth on the cover.