He walked calmly, hidden among the cybernetic crowd. He covered his face as much as he could, watching every being that passed nearby with careful attention. He analyzed the route while sensing the energy, whose faint pulses reached him from afar.
'I've been here for quite a while... I'm surprised they haven't noticed there's a human among them.'
Even if that were true, there were many Aberrations with humanoid appearances around him. That was probably why his presence didn't stand out as much.
Some of the humanoid beings walking nearby had blue skin, others red or purple. The strangest ones were those with green skin and black cybernetic eyes, with gears spinning inside them. Most of them were creatures far removed from anything one would normally expect.
Some looked like terrifying giant insects, others like gelatinous masses crawling along the ground. There were creatures over three meters tall, while others were as small as a young Ryutanin—like Poki. There were also androids with additional limbs entering the massive buildings.
On one side of the population, the streets remained packed with futuristic vehicles. Above, in the sky, ships arrived from beyond the planet like falling stars, transforming into spacecraft as they descended. Each vessel resembled a massive industrial installation.
Most of the ships were made entirely of metal, with cables and antennas protruding from their hulls. Others looked more "primitive," resembling floating factories of lava and iron, spewing smoke from large pipes along their surfaces.
Nova took a moment to process everything. He was in a different dimension, after all. Whatever happened here would be difficult to deal with. First of all, what kind of culture did this world even have? Most of them looked like alien cyborgs. Perhaps the ships belonged to creatures without chrome in their bodies—outsiders to this planet's culture.
'All of this completely clashes with the desert I was in before,' he looked down at the ground, which looked just as technological as everything around him. 'Even this. Why does the ground have to be like this?'
The only way to know would be to ask the architect who designed it.
Because he was staring at the ground like an idiot, he didn't notice someone approaching him. That being stumbled into him, brushing against his shoulder.
The boy immediately lifted his gaze. All this time he had tried not to bump into anyone by accident, but he had gotten distracted—and this was the result.
For a second, he saw her face and managed to distinguish her from the others.
She was a humanoid-looking creature wearing a large black hooded cloak. The cloak was decorated with geometric lines, like metallic slits, and was so long it nearly dragged along the ground.
Her skin was pale white with purplish tones—small, subtle scars adorned it, as if she were a warrior from ancient times, marked by battle. She had long, snow-white hair, with a thin strand falling in front of her right eye. Her eyes were hypnotizing: though human in appearance, both glowed with a faint, inhuman blue light.
To Nova, she seemed strange, yet extremely beautiful—though he barely managed to see her face.
His voice caught in his throat upon seeing her, because somehow, he felt a sense of familiarity.
In the brief instant their gazes met, the girl also seemed to feel something similar, but she immediately looked back to the path ahead and murmured something in another language. Her voice sounded synthesized—robotic, yet surprisingly melodic—with a soft tone carrying a sharp edge.
After that, she quickly walked away, disappearing into the crowd.
Nova stood there staring into nothingness, silent. His expression reflected curiosity and confusion.
'She… looked human…'
Perhaps that was the strange familiarity he felt when he saw her.
Without realizing it, he followed her through the crowd, but couldn't find her—she had already vanished.
'How strange,' he thought, stopping in the middle of the street. 'Are there more Aberrations like her?'
He had encountered many Aberrations with humanoid appearances before, but none so close to being human. That mysterious girl, despite her skin tone, was surprisingly similar to a human from Terra.
He clenched his fist, exasperated. He felt like he had lost the chance to learn more about this world—and to find a way out. It took him some time to calm down.
'I guess that doesn't matter anymore. I came here to return home, not to meet humanity's enemy.'
Remembering the reason he had entered the city in the first place, he returned to the sidewalk. He looked one last time at the spot where he had met the girl, then continued on his journey.
***
After a few hours, he ate a Sweet Flake as he approached a long, dark alley.
Although he didn't encounter anyone resembling the girl again, he kept scanning his surroundings as if expecting someone similar to appear. Deep down, he wanted to confirm whether there were more Aberrations that resembled humans. When nothing appeared after all that time, he eventually stopped expecting anything.
Being alone for the past few days had affected him. In his life on Terra, he had never truly been alone. Simply not hearing his own language spoken by anyone else, or the familiar sounds of the city, made him feel even more isolated. Even so, as always, he ignored those emotions, crushing them beneath his Serenity.
He continued down the alley, following the trail of energy left behind by its faint pulses in the air.
'Now that I think about it, this city is far too massive. I couldn't see the end of the walls on the horizon. That means it'll probably take me much longer to reach my destination.'
He frowned, estimating how long it would take him to reach the end of the path.
It had taken him over a month to leave the desert. Although he never discovered what that strange black stone on the horizon was hiding, he did find traces of an ancient civilization deep below. If something similar happened here, it would be extremely dangerous.
'If that happens, my food won't last. I could try stealing something…'
When he entered the city, he hadn't seen any shops or markets selling food or supplies. Instead, he saw only cyberpunk buildings, cyberpunk people, doing cyberpunk things. If this was that kind of world, there had to be some sort of black market filled with all kinds of things.
'If I find a hidden market, I could steal something.'
That was the plan—but then another thought crossed Nova's mind. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked down coldly.
'Steal…' he thought. 'Since when has thinking about something illegal in my world become so normal?'
He considered the possibility as if it were nothing serious, but once he became aware of his own thoughts, he stopped to reflect.