Arriving back in his room, Mike flopped onto his bed.
"Well… time to run away again," he muttered as he closed his eyes. A second later, his Origin System activated and pulled him back into the Origin World.
Moments later, he fell asleep—and his consciousness arrived back in the Desert, standing in front of the fallen duke's ruins.
"Never thought coming back here would feel… comforting," Mike mumbled as he stood up, brushing the black sand off himself. "Now, let's see if this is a legacy ruin, which was in the past a big city. There's most likely a chance there might be a big city or at least a hub around here."
He climbed the nearest broken building, reached the top, and looked around.
"There is… something," he muttered.
Far to the north, something not black in this black desert stood out in the distance.
"I hope it's something and not another damn ruin," Mike mumbled as he climbed down.
"At least I bought this," he said as he pulled out a small cube-shaped item. He tossed it onto the ground, and it unfolded, expanding until it became a sleek black hover bike.
"Oh, I love this world… especially the tech," Mike mumbled, grinning as he saw the sleek black bike. It was a hover bike he'd seen on the way back home from the auction, and he instantly bought it.
Wrommmm—wrommmm.
"This was a good idea. Adding sound effects to this thing gives it the perfect feel," he said as he mounted it and leaned forward.
He shot off toward the far north at top speed.
The M75 hover bike—now worth over 30 million credits—was expensive, but completely worth it. It could travel across any terrain… even float in low-gravity zones and glide through space.
Mike kept riding for almost an hour. The black desert stretched endlessly behind him, but the thing he saw earlier was getting closer and clearer.
"…A wall?" Mike narrowed his eyes.
It wasn't a ruin.
It wasn't broken.
It wasn't covered in black sand.
It was a giant metallic wall—straight, smooth, and glowing faint blue in some parts.
"A city barrier," Mike said, surprised. "So there is a place out here."
He slowed down the hover bike and stopped about a hundred meters away from the huge wall. As he stepped off the bike, sand crunched under his boots.
Up close, the wall looked even more advanced.
It had clean plating, unknown symbols, and long energy lines running through it.
"Definitely technology… not magic," Mike said. "This might be a surviving city from the old era."
"Or the off chance I am in a part of the Origin World that believes technology is King, which is another problem for me who is Magic guy. I hope they just don't vaporize me with thier blaster or somthing equaly terrifying." Mike mumbled pocketing the Bike.
He approached the wall and just as he touched it.
A deep mechanical voice echoed.
[ UNIDENTIFIED LIFEFORM DETECTED. ]
Mike jumped a little.
"…Who said that?"
A floating blue orb appeared in front of him, scanning him up and down.
[ ANALYZING… ANALYSIS COMPLETE. ]
[ A Mana Awakened Terran Life form ]
Mike gulped.
This was new.
The orb floated closer, glowing brighter.
[ STATE PURPOSE OF APPROACH. ]
Mike crossed his arms.
"I'm just exploring. I saw this wall and came to check it out. Not planning to attack or anything."
The orb paused.
[ VERIFYING STATEMENT… VERIFIED. ]
A loud metallic clank echoed from the wall.
A doorway slowly began to open, splitting the massive metal plates apart.
Mike's eyes widened.
"Wait… you're actually letting me in?"
The orb floated to the gate.
[ FOLLOW ME. CITY ADMINISTRATION REQUESTS YOUR PRESENCE. ]
Mike blinked.
"…Why?"
[ UNKNOWN. ]
"Okay, mister blue glowing speed-ball—I am not going inside," Mike said. "Going inside is like the dumb MC move—who went anywhere without thinking? Nah, I'm not that dumb."
[ We assure you there is no life threat for you. ]
"Yeah? Coming from a super-powered floating orb? How am I supposed to believe that?" Mike asked as he slowly backed away, looking for something—anything—else to do.
[ Because if we intended to kill you, you would already be dead. ]
There was a sound—loud, metallic, and heavy. Several enormous rotary cannons slid out from the wall, along with alien-looking blaster-transformation-type weapons all pointing directly at him.
Mike gulped.
"Fine—I'm coming in."
[ Please do not misunderstand. We were simply demonstrating that we had the capability to kill you, but chose not to. We require you for a task only a mana-awakened human can solve. ]
[ Our world—Consyal-4—once possessed Mana. But a plague, or rather a curse, spread across the population. It rendered all humans unable to harness it any longer. ]
[ And to break this curse, we now need a mana-awakened human who can use Mana and magic. ]
"That would mean… me?" Mike pointed at himself.
[ Yes. Precisely. We were sheltering all humans, at least the ones we could find, while searching for a way to cure this curse. But combining magic with technology proved extremely difficult. ]
[ But now, finally, there is someone who can help us. ]
[ Now please… we are ready. Follow me. ]
The orb drifted forward, its blue glow pulsing like a heartbeat.
Mike exhaled and nodded, walking after it.
"Well… at least it still won't be an instant, permanent death," he mumbled. "Hopefully."
He didn't trust this floating orb, or the city behind the wall—who knew what was inside? But he followed anyway.
Sometimes, curiosity beat common sense.
The orb guided Mike through the opening in the massive wall.
Inside…
it wasn't what he expected.
Not at all.
Instead of a high-tech utopia or a ruined wasteland, the interior opened into a vast, sealed city—quiet, clean, almost eerily peaceful. Buildings glowed with soft blue lines, drones floated silently, and people walked in neat, organized paths.
Humans.
Actual humans.
But something was off.
Each one wore a strange full-body suit—sleek, reinforced, and glowing faint white around the edges. Some humans chatted calmly near glass-like structures. Others tended to machines. It looked almost… normal.
Mike blinked.
"…Okay, that's not creepy at all."
As he walked deeper, he whispered to the orb:
"Why the suits? Are they fashion statements or something?"
The orb rotated toward him.
[ Negative. The suits are mandatory. ]