The sound of steady footsteps echoes about in the dark streets of the night. One thing that hasn’t change even after centuries had passed would be this cycle of day and night.
Luon who walked alone towards the library in the midst of this blanket of darkness recalls each of his roommate’s disposition.
The large and muscular Chinese youth, Bendan Chen. His family originated from the Kien solar system, and they moved to the Nexus system after a particular affair with some rich young master. Tired of the constant schemes and fights they took refuge in the Nexus system.
Although the number of natural resources found in the Nexus solar system was not as plentiful for cultivation, with advancements of technology and body tempering methods, there was still a way for cultivators in the Nexus solar system to compare with those found in the Kien solar system.
Bendan was the 7th generation in his clan born in the Nexus solar system. He wore a dull black and very worn out training outfit with muscles bulging all around, and he was a head taller than Luon.
If one paid a little more attention to his looks, he had a slightly orange hue on his pitch black hair, according to him his mother admired and liked Korean dramas and wanted to make her son’s hair a little more fashionable.
Bendan didn’t like the idea at all and refused her at first only to find out that his mother tried to dye it secretly at night. He had tossed her out of his room and reinforced his defensive systems using ancient qi array methods which were passed down his family for generations.
After he moved to the dorm, he had finally escaped his mother clutches and is completely relieved and satisfied that he no longer had to worry about lack of sleep at night.
Luon remembered his brief conversation between the two of them and found Bendan’s personality to be very straightforward and simple.
Luon also found that Bendan lacked a lot of basic knowledge because all he knew was body-tempering cultivation methods and magical arrays, he was a freak in a way since he couldn’t use his own BMPU and other technical devices that well.
After Bendan there was also the expressionless African archer, Tyron. His family was from one of the more tribal planets found in the Nexus system, they didn’t have any surnames, and they specialize in their mastery with the bow.
He may seem silent most of the time, but this didn’t mean he couldn’t talk, it was just difficult to express himself since of his people ’s teachings were to stay silent as possible to obtain a hunting mindset at all times. This is one of the primary reasons why his people were the scariest group of hunters found in the Nexus solar system.
He just like Bendan had some communication problems as most of the time he would talk using the BMPU voice system. If he didn’t speak using the BMPU, he would only express himself with head shakes. Luckily Luon was able to grasp the meaning of most of the headshakes almost right away since he has some minor knowledge in hand signals and after studying ways people like to express themselves through motion.
And then there was Gizmo, the hyperactive person out of the whole crew. He was a Mexican descendant who specialized in engineering. At first, Luon didn’t like his personality as it was a bit overbearing but after finding out that he loved engineering as well, they hit off well.
Gizmo also had an extensive network of people he knew to get some parts for development purposes using both legal and illegal methods.
This point intrigued Luon since material handling was monitored and managed by the government. The trade of smuggling goods still exists as well as the black market, but Gizmo didn’t go too far in describing it.
After he had finished recalling his newly founded friends, he found himself a bit over a kilometer away from the library.
But all the sudden his body went cold as if it dropped several degrees Celsius. Luon felt something akin to bloodlust, and this alerted his senses.
Luon slowed down his pacing and carefully inspected his surroundings only to find nothing wrong at all.
There were only several street lamps and trees on this pathway. It was deep into the night, and Luon found himself in the middle of the park, a typical scene to ambush people at.
As Luon wiped away his alarmed state – an undetectable yet sweet resounding voice echoed and resonated towards Luon’s ears.
“Oh, although you were only able to sense me for a moment to think you put your guard down so easily. If I were a murderer, you would already be dead.” The voice had said as if the person was right next to Luon.
With a few twists and turns Luon seriously once again inspected his surroundings but still to no avail was able to find traces of the voice.
Luon calmed down a bit seeing how the mysterious figure had yet made a move, unknown to the other’s intention while being wary of his surroundings he bellowed, “Who’s there? Is there something you want from me?”
But there was no vocal response at all from the voice, Luon started to use his wind magic to spread his mana outward to increase his detection range.
This was one of the techniques Luon used to control the situation in the second simulation to analyze the surroundings. The only downside to this ability was it being extraordinarily exhausting, and prolonged use of it drained his mana. Another demerit would be quick enemies who moved too fast are hard to react to.
Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long as a figure approached Luon at rapid speeds offering him a quick and swift strike utilizing as what Luon could detect to be, a sword. Luon reacted quickly a pulled his newly crafted sword from his bag under his coat that he wore.
He swung a parried it right away but found that his strength was slightly weaker than the opponent. Ever since he awoken, he never had the time to temper and trained his body yet. He slightly regretted not tempering his body before school started.
Maybe his newly found friend Bendan can help him with that Luon thought, but since he was in the middle of combat, he refocused his attention to the battle on hand.
After parrying the strike, his opponent took a few steps back, smiled and said “Looks like you can put up a bit of a fight. Come, satisfy my desires.”
Luon took a good long look at his opponent, not in preparation for battle but the admiration of beauty. From the moment he had awoken in this world Luon has yet to find an ugly person. The main factors for this were the genetic readjustment they do in Vortex containers, the nutrients they provide and deep beauty sleep. They said in the old days that people should sleep more often to maintain their beauty and considering this nowadays he found it to be very accurate.
Luon’s opponent had a long, white silky hair with skins as clean and smooth as freshly dispensed yogurt. One thing worth mentioning was that this person reminded Luon of something, but he couldn’t recall anything right away.
Her attire was one suited for the battle which completely outclassed what Luon was wearing. She wore a simple black student military uniform that all students in Nexus University were supposed to wear, but over that was something that surprised Luon the most. NG-Arms, what this lady wore was a military grade Next Generation Mechanized Armaments created by Novera Corporation.
Compared to her all Luon had was a dull black coat he used to wear off the cold and the basic student uniform underneath.
Luon looked at his opponent and asked questioningly, “So why are you attacking me? Aren’t we fellow students?”
The girl looked at Luon awkwardly and said: “Don’t worry about it too much it’s just some nighttime exercise, and it looks like I found the perfect opponent tonight.”
The girl then readied her posture for another skirmish, but before she could attack, Luon said “Well the least you can do is introduce yourself. I’ll go first.”
Luon adjusts his posture for combat, and domineering said, “My name is Luon Fate, an aspiringly new half-human, half-elf engineer, now come let us do battle!”
Luon had always wanted to introduce himself like that after reading and watching many different series do the same.
Amused the girl follows suit and proudly said, “My name is Arisa Nightwalker, Vampire, here I come.”
Luon finally recalled what the figure of this girl reminded him of. When he first arrived in this world, he remembers watching on the display television someone that looked similar to this girl only her face was covered up. Felia Nightwalker, Luon quietly concluded that they might be related and concluded that they have similar fighting abilities.
The combat commenced and as Luon predicted this girl knew how to do long-range energy attacks using the sword.
Luon already knew that his combat abilities were much weaker than Arisa’s in the first trade of blows. He attempted to use his sword techniques to make up for the difference, but Arisa was just as skilled as him making it much harder.
Not only that she had the power of Qi energy and every strike made her attack range longer than the before. During this battle, Luon attempted to do the same with mana but realizes that he has yet to study any combat methods utilizing energy. All he had in his arsenal was sword techniques and basic wind magic. Even his new sword couldn’t help him out as it didn’t taste any blood yet, the perks it had was only useful in group fights.
After over about a hundred clashes Luon combat fitness wasn’t able to keep up with Arisa. With a slash, the completely defenseless Luon received a scar to the face as he backed away from Arisa who felt completely satisfied with the strike.
The two separated in several steps and stared at each other, however, in this situation Luon wasn’t happy at all. He knew he had lost, the strike she threw at him was pulled back a bit in the last second, she could have reaped his life if she wanted to.
After disarming herself, she gazed intently interested at Luon and walked up to him to offer a napkin to wipe the fresh blood off his face.
Luon pushed away her hand and pulled a potion from his intraspatial bag which he stored under his coat. If one saw this from the outer perspective, it seemed like Luon likes to store potions in the inner pockets of his coat like a shady dealer.
Luon after examining the potion effects with his eyes chugged it down, within a few seconds his wound had already regenerated, and he wiped the remnants of blood on the ground.
Looking at the blood with some regrets she then turned to look at Luon straightly. She then smugly said, “Hello, fellow student what a lovely day for some nighttime exercise, am I right? So what are you doing out in the night?”
Luon remembered his objective and said, “I am just like you, out on a night stroll to the library to satisfy my desires.”
Arisa looked at him strangely and misinterpreted the sentence. She silently concluded that his desires were much more profound than hers and looked at him with disgust.
Luon seeing her expression realized the way he phrased was too vague but before he can make excuses, Arisa started to demean him and said, “Hmph, just another barbaric animal out to satisfy your desires.”
Arisa removed her gaze from Luon as she said that and looked around the park as if she could see through trees. She then turned her attention to Luon again and said, “Well then go satisfy your desires. Hopefully, you don’t feel too tired before classes start.”
Arisa suddenly disappeared and faded without a trace – it seemed like a skill of hers. She went away too fast before Luon had the chance to explain himself.
After Arisa had left the vicinity entirely oblivious to Luon’s feelings, Luon now felt too embarrassed to go to the library.
Afterall being misunderstood about going to partake in some night time affairs by an aesthetically appealing female member who gazed at him in disgust might be an attractive offer for some people, but not for Luon.
But the temptation to sit down in a private room on a computer kept him hesitating for a moment.
Ultimately, in the end, he decided to walk back towards the dorm, his goal for this outing was to satisfy his desire and excitement levels to sleep happily.
But after having talked to Arisa just now had caused that feeling to dissipate.
Luon began to walk back taking a different path when along the way he saw a golden hue in the middle of this darkness.
It wasn’t a street light and curious as he was Luon started walking towards the light. Slowly he crept closer, but soon he began to speed up faster and faster as he recognizes what the light was.
This eventful night stroll ended positively as a smile came Luon’s face as he had entered into the light.
Another thing that had never changed, something that he didn’t expect to last for centuries of ever-changing history, the 24/7 convenience store.
After a tiring battle with Arisa and the dissatisfaction of not going to the library. Luon happily ate instant ramen there and thus ending his night stroll.
