Chapter 4: Complete

Damn, what is wrong with that guy from earlier though? Here I thought people were supposed to be reasonable. For actions like that, I know you can get in bad trouble and put into a cage.

“Excuse me sir. Excuse me sir Hey, excuse me sir.”

Oh! Someone is talking to me. I look down at a scruffy middle-aged man over encumbered by his luggage. Aren’t you panting a little too hard now?

“My apologies, the lift is all yours.” This whole getting lost in my thoughts is distracting me from the world around. I take a deep breath and concentrate on remaining in the present.

Time to leave now. I make my way towards the line under a “Checking Out” sign at the receptionist desk. There were three groups in front but the service was quick and before I knew it, it is my turn.

A stunning, young redhead smiles at me. Damn, this woman is gorgeous. Almost got me speaking a different language, literally. Patience Ray, you need to be patient.

“Is everything alright?” she awkwardly asked me.

“Yes of course,” I replied and handed her the suite card. She accepts it then scans the card and places it somewhere under the receptionist desk hidden from view.

“Would you like your receipt for the bill?” she said as she slowly raised her eyes at me.

Bill? Bill? Ahh, that’s right. My eyes raise up and I lean close to her past my edge of the receptionist desk. I notice the suspicion on her face and body language.

I silently whisper to her, “Do I have to pay?” Because the heaven knows this young man right here forgot his account card which has access to his funds.

She laughs then recollects herself shortly. “No, I was talking about the receipt for your stay. We try our best to accommodate our friends at Vital Industries. In fact, usually you would have to wait for departure but as an esteemed guest of ours, allow us to escort you back to the city.” Thank god for my employer and their generous policies.

As if a twin arrived, another pretty young redhead tapped my shoulder to lead me towards my transport. I walked for several minutes carrying all this luggage in discomfort while she would make small talk about the history of the hotel or occasional activities tourist would do.

“You have a lot of stories don’t you?” I asked her. She does, half of the details slip past my head.

“Yes I do,” she responded and glanced at me to confirm the question came out of my mouth. “I’m surprised you were listening.”

“Your voice covers my pain”, I said.

Then she looked at me in contempt and stopped to ask,”Need any he—”

“No! What’s your name?”

She laughs and points to your chest. At least I got her to laugh. Wow, I failed to notice her work attire struggling to contain her curves. Then I see the tag on her chest.

“Pepe.”

“Penelope!” She bursted into a hysterical laughter. I mean, it was only two syllables gone. Regardless, she continued to talk except even more enthusiastically than before. Her smile beaming radiantly as she transitioned from details about the hotel to herself. It was a nice sight to see.

Still, I only grasped about a quarter of all the words she spoke understandably but gave the illusion of someone listening intently. I continued to take occasional glances at her and nod or agree with topics I knew about. It was a technique I subsciously inherited from the past Ray. Strong habits truly die hard as he communicated with people from a passive stance his whole life I realize.

Before I knew it, we got to a large flat strip of land where my escort was.

“Ahh, I can’t believe you butchered my name will you. Well, your transport is over th— Wait! Penelope Stricken. My contact is on the Rhea Resort employee list.”

As I walked past her, I gave her an OK and continued straight towards the transport. Can’t help it, the massive dark green object in front gave me a shock. Especially when I got close to it and felt a force not towards me but the ground and the transport hovered. Such a sleek design without wings yet the object can still fly.

I understood what it was from Ray’s memories but seeing is believing. This world scarce of mana continues to amaze me.

Stuck in my own thoughts, the transport door slides open. A man in a sleek red outfit unique to Rhea Resort employees welcomes me aboard.

“Hey Mr. Junior, had a fun vacation?” What a booming voice.

“Yes I did. It was lovely.”

“Hey, umm, I was supposed to be expecting two. Where is your wife?”

My wife? We were supposed to come here together but she told Ray she had issues to deal with at home. How unfortunate. The transport became silent as its engines roared for take off. Funny because the engine was not even that loud to begin with.

“She was busy. Anyway, do you own this ship?”

“Oh no! Something of this quality by Vital Industries! Even for a transport, to be equipped with top of the line armor that can last against the worst anti-air weaponry. This has got to be over 600,000 UP. This was a gift from your company that I enjoy very much.” He seems he enjoys his job a lot.

UP? Universal Pound. This world’s currency. So that is what it stands for.

“Mr. Junior, sit tight, watched the view, and I will have you back at the city in a jiffy.”

I followed the pilot’s advice and admired the scenery below.. There are trees surrounding Rhea Resort but the size of those in the wilderness are massive in comparison.

“Green green green,” I could not help but exclaim.

“Yeah! And even more green beyond the horizon because the trees get bigger too. Luckily, we don’t need to expand there. Yet.” Wow, feels great knowing there is green all around me.

After a couple of minutes hearing the Pilot ramble about the expected increase in this planet’s population to 100 million people following the next couple of months, we arrive. Finally.

It never occurred to me the size of a city full of people. Remembering the pilot’s comment on the population, I lifted both of my hands and began counting. Ok, 100 million is in fact 9 numbers.

“Hey,” I prepared to ask the pilot in order to confirm my calculations. “How many zeros are in 100 million?”

“Ugh, 8” he answered.

Damn! And this city’s population is looming close to 4 million people but it can sustain three times more than that.

“I got a lot to learn when I get back home.” The pilot did not comment this time. Good.

Then the transport doors slid open. I got up from my seat and jumped out the transport.

“Hey Mr. Junior, wer—”

“Thank You,” I replied with a big smile, waving the pilot goodbye and manually closed the transport doors.

The transport took off heading in the direction we just came from. I look around from the top of the building and observe the structures created by man. My eyes stray towards a large tower in the center of the city roughly a mile high. As you rise in the tower, the building itself becomes thinner due to structural constraints.

I cannot continue to allow myself to be shocked at everything I see along Ray’s past but that building is huge. I doubt you need measurements to know something is huge however, it really adds to the imagination.

And I recognize the building I am standing on top of too. Vital Industry’s secondary building in the City of Wenyuela where the logistics for the multiple factories and employee parking is handled. I make my way down a set of stairs to the first floor where my car is located.

I searched around my luggage and take out a bunch of keys. One in particular which is connected to the car, I separate from the rest and toggled the key.

Beep Beep.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Oh! I toggled the key again.

Beep Beep.

And again.

Beep Beep.

And a couple more times after that until I found the source of the noise. A grayish car that similar to blocks on wheels. Then I look around and can’t help but admire the sleek design and uniqueness of everything else. I toggle my key again to confirm if the car is mine.

Unfortunately, it is.

I took a deep breath, unlocked the door, stepped inside the driver’s seat, set my luggage in the passenger seat, and close the door.

“Ok Ray, just the experience of traveling in a new world has overwhelmed me. Quite frankly, I want to go home wherever that is so help a partner out with some knowledge. Especially about cars.”

Through Ray’s memories, I begin to analyze the different components and their corresponding functions. Before I knew it, I inserted the key into the ignition switch, twisted it.

The engine of the car sounded off a high-pitch whine before it transitioned to a continuous low hum. I could hear the electronics inside being activated but only disabled the radio. Turns out this car is really silent due to the electrical components inside.

“Great, I don’t need the noise anyway.” I shift the car’s gear into reverse then place my toe gently on the pedal while looking towards the rear of the car and pressed down on the pedal lightly.

The car moves back. I shift to drive and pressed on the pedal lightly again while looking forward.

The car moves forward. I repeated that a couple of times until I felt comfortable enough to steer out of my parking spot. The familiarity that Ray has with this world’s technology has been of great use to me. Now, I just need to follow the same route he takes home multiple times a week after starting this job a year ago.

Sounds good.

I look behind me and reverse the car out of the parking spot and continued maneuvering slowly until I left the secondary building. As I drove onward, I followed the route indicated for exiting the area. All the surrounding buildings are owned by Vital Industries and important stuff is happening in every one. That is why this whole area is fortified by minimum defense systems as a precaution apparently. I also notice very few drivers other than myself taking the exit route.

“Honk!”

Something behind me went off but I intuitively understood the need to increase my speed. I thought I was going a little to slow for myself as my thoughts were straying.

Before I knew it, I get to the exit gate and stop behind three other cars and wait.

I knew the drivers in front of me were preparing identification for the guards at the gate. As they did, I begun searching through my luggage for a card representing my identification. While rummaging through my stuff, I remember it was in my wallet and took it out.

Found it. An identification card aka my ‘ID’ from Vital Industries with my name, employee number, and a picture of me sporting a frown on it.

“Honk!”

Oops. I drive up to the exit gate and stop at the guardsmen.

“ID sir.” The guardsmen, a fairly large brown-skinned male spoke in a low pitch voice. Really, that voice of his was so unnaturally deep I felt goosebumps.

Regardless, I handed him my ID and proceeded to watch this man fairly closely. I heard a short burst of sounds behind him after he moved his wrist over my card. Guess I am in the clear as he returned my card.

We met eyes for a moment as I stared at him and he back at me.

“Honk!”

Wow wow wow! This guy is annoying. I cannot believe he made me lose the staredown I started. Wait, I should be thanking him because that type of behavior is uncivilized.

Well, I begin driver forward and later fuse into city traffic. On my way towards the outskirts, I seen people walking in and out of buildings on the path beside the street, the occasional ship passing by above, and the cars in front of me being directed by traffic at each intersection. Strangely, I followed the traffic too, but then made a right turn, left turn, kept straight, another right turn towards the outskirts of the city.

It was weird like I knew where to go. In fact, I knew to keep straight until I reached a town called Glenns View. Then make the first left turn after entering Glenns View.

I did and ended up on the street my home occupies. I drove for a short moment and get to a cul-de-sac of five homes. Mine was the third home and was in the middle. I imagined a pentagon and thought of my home as the top point of the pentagon as I pulled up into my driveway. Gave me a chuckle.

Compared to when I entered my vehicle as ‘me’ for the first time, everything I did seemed like I have been doing it my whole life. Getting out of the car, taking my luggage out then unlocking the car, separating my house key from the rest on the chain while walking to the front then opening the door.

It was strange as if I really knew like how I know plenty of other things. How Rhea is the 47th planet to be discovered by the GSC or the Galactic Space Command. How the humans originated from Earth and the first space colony inhabited was Mars even though the planet’s atmosphere was dead.

I also knew that Rhea would not have been discovered in the year 2317 based on the earthen calendar if it was not for a mad-scientist, Bundi Thovenkov, who created the Thovenkov drive after stealing the research of numerous other scientist. Even those whose theories did not qualify as real, comprehensive theories were stolen.

Thovenkov compiled the research and created a device in 2256 that can fold space so an object can be brought from one point to another or something like that. Well, the device has been improved but is only used by ships to travel over large distances. It kicked off the new frontier which was space travel but only few organizations could afford ships at the time.

Oh yeah, it is currently September 22, 2556 and my birth was twenty years ago on August 22 at noon time. Damn I am such a young man, practically the same age I died at in the other world… Hehe.

Another thing I know is I where my bedroom is too. I forgot my luggage but walked up stairs and straight into my room, strip my clothes down, and took another shower.

During the shower, I felt my whole body ache thanks to the alcohol. Although, two specific places gave me severe discomfort.  My left cheek and close to where my liver is on the right side of my body. In fact, I knew the liver was a weak spot of humans based on past experiences but I did not know the source of the pain after impact was the liver.

Damn, why did that guy attack at me though? I recognized he was a room next to me because a while after I locked the suite, he came out. What did I do? Or what did the past me do?

Ahh… I think I knocked in the shower and he knocked back afterwards but is that enough to warrant an attack? Nope but what’s done is in the past.

Even with a quarter of the day left, I feel so tired and drain. I am going to take a nap then.

So I put on some underwear and rest my non-sculpted body on my bed. Haha!

What was supposed to be a nap turned into a healthy night’s sleep. I arose at the beginning of midnight because I wasted a whole quarter of a day.

It was worth it. The world seemed different. I felt different.

This body still took a while to adjust too but it is my body. And my mind felt unusually sharp as if I hinged on the edge of great clarity.

I guess it takes time to truly fuse in mind, body, and soul but it is done and a new life awaits ahead of me.

Goodbye déjà vu.

“Goodbye Rajz… Hello Ray Junior!”