After the device showed that there was indeed black matter in Nevs body, everyone was quiet for a few moments. The moments felt more like centuries due to the awkwardness of the situation. The main goal of governmental agents is to try to get as many people who have absorbed black matter into the army so when they quite straightly disrespected Nev a few times it wasn't looking good. Especially if what Nev said was true that he unknowingly absorbed dark matter, then he was an actual serious talent.

After a few seconds the agents dismissed themselves while saying words like 'thank you', 'sir', and 'please'. Nev had never heard those words towards him in his life instead he was the one saying them. So when he finally got a bit of respect he was smiling widely.

'So that's what it feels like...'

***

Not even a few hours later and someone else came into his hospital room.

He was also wearing a black suit with a governmental badge but this time Nev felt that he was a bit higher in position than the previous ones. Sitting down, the man in black started speaking

"Hello Nevil. We, the government, apologize for the misunderstanding earlier, I hope you will understand my coworkers mistakes and forgive them. Anyways lets don't beat around the bush. Please consider joining the army. Not only will you get a good 20 thousand~ loys per month but you will also be you will also be heavily respected. You will get your own room, food and you won't have to worry about paying any bills. I will be on my way back to the baracks, if you have any concerns or are ready to make a decision, call this number"

Hearing 20 thousand loys made Nev almost drool as he had never heard about that much money before. But before he could say anything the governmental agent handed Nev a business card while leaving the room. The card had a number and name on it aswell as a barack picture in the background. There was a location written on the bottom left which was probably the location of the recruitment center.

'Mr. Avil... So that's his name'

Nev put down the card and thought to himself

He had two obvious choices

He either had to become a soldier or become a thief. Considering what Avil said to him, he was leaning towards the army part. Free food and shelter along with a good monthly payment sounded way better than running around shops or homes stealing money. Nev thought about it again and again but the thief part only started becoming worse and worse.

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'So I guess its decided'

As decided that he would join the army as soon as he recovered.

***

It took a few days to fully recover. Turns out black matter gets rid of most of the impurities in ones body including fat, cancer and some other constrictions in the circulatory system. Most people absorb black matter bit by bit so they don't have to go to the hospital but for Nev who absorbed quite a bit suddenly, it took a toll on his body.

After sadly paying 3 thousand loys for his medical bills, Nev checked out of the hospital. Coming outside he smelled the fresh, highly polluted air.

'Ahhh... Just like before'

Looking around he noticed alot of plastic muddy houses. Seeing them, he realised what he was losing.... which wasn't much. He just hoped the baracks wouldn't be like these houses.

Pulling out his very old goto helper, he first called Avil and told him about his decision. Avil sounded happy to say the least, Some might say that he was excited but Nev wouldn't go as far as to say that.

After his conversation with Anvil, Nev located where the baracks are and started hurrying there. It was quite late at night so he had to rush in order to get to the baracks before midnight. On the way to there he got alot of strange looks from the women. Not knowing what it meant, he minded his own buisness and decided to not think about it too much.

Finally reaching the baracks, he was greated by a large iron door with 2 towers right beside it. Going up to the gate he saw two guards both wearing the standard green army clothes, the ones with two pockets with badges displaying achievements. They had prop guns on their chests which seemed to exist for the sole purpose of intimidating people as these people were mot the actual guards of the place. Civilian soldiers didnt have dark matter so they mostly were in charge of being assistants and doing basic work instead of actually fighting in the war.

The guards saluted him before one went into the baracks, only to come back a bit later with a male person on his side. The man spoke:

"Greetings, Sir Nevil. My name is Terh. I will be your temporary guide to quickly get you associated with this place. This orientation will only take a few minutes so I hope you won't mind."

Nev only nodded, signaling for the man to continue to speaking. Terh gestured to him to follow him. They started to walk through a large hallway that had dim lights with black walls. Javed-1 was a cold planet so these walls attracted sunlight which helped to keep the place warm. Nev barely had time to think this before Terh started speaking again.

"I have come here on behalf of Mr Avil. As you may know soldiers have to go through a process of training before being able to successfully gather and enhance both dark and light matter. In these baracks we perform that training, and you sir are a soldier which will go through this training."

Saying this Terh showed him a large open hall with white walls, bright bulbs and a coating to prevent damage to the overall room. Terh continued.

"You will have food, shelter and security for a while before you will have to participate in wars. After performing two rounds in wars, you will be able to pick your profession within the army. Basically you can either be a guard in one of the baracks or facilities of the army or you can become a regular soldier that participates in war"

Nev thought about the options. Being a soldier allowed a person to get more dark matter and to evolve themselves at the cost of being in alot of risk whereas being a guard was less dangerous but the rewards were also low.

But for now he wasn't anywhere close to getting to choose between those options so he put those thoughts away. As if Terh was secretly a mind reader, he started speaking as soon as Nev finished his thoughts

"Anyways there's a long time before you have to decide between those options so let's focus on more recent topics. The room to your right is the sleeping quarters and the room to your left is the cafeteria. There are indeed assigned beds, you can check your bed by seeing the nameplate on the beds front. That's about it for your orientation, I'll see you tomorrow for more debriefing"

Seeing that it was almost midnight, Nev decided to head to bed. He had no idea what tomorrow had to offer for him.

But tomorrow actually led to him changing his life...