As he was walking, Han was thinking about the meeting he had with Becky. Being told about the discovery of magic and thoughts related to the weaponry was interesting for him. "I wonder if Helania came up with these ideas?" Han thought to himself, enjoying the discoveries and how things were playing out.
"The mana in this world isn't particularly dense, which explains why there are only stories about mythological creatures or cryptids, so it was definitely a good idea to increase the amount of mana to allow people to experience magic-related events. Now the question is when my creations developed this technique and if it's related to the modified humans." He tilted his head and pondered, but didn't want to spoil anything. "I'm sure that there are plenty of clues about what's the cause of this apocalypse without me asking for hints."
Following the line on the ground, Han felt he should go meet with the others. Looking up at one of the many screens, on the walls, that gave general information the time displayed let him know that his team should be inside the gym.
Heading to one of the nearby stairwells, Han quickly led to the level where the training facilities were located.
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Tapping on the panel to open up the doors, Han was greeted with the sight of his team hard at work training.
"Where did you go?" Jennifer asked when he entered the gym. She was wiping the sweat from her face, likely just finishing a set. The bench had a decent amount of sweat on it, which Jennifer began wiping up with the used towel. Grabbing some disinfectant, she sprayed down the bench and disinfected it.
Turning to look at Han, Ruby asked, "Did the Captain have anything important to talk to you about?" Ruby was currently spotting Ivy, whose face was a little red from the exertion.
Shrugging his shoulders, Han said, "The Captain wants us to go on a little field trip and do some testing."
A smacking noise was heard, followed by a beep and slowing of motor noises. Han looked to see Harmony gripping the sidebars of the treadmill, trying to catch her breath. Her long blonde hair sticking to her neck and face from the sweat.
"What did you say?" Harmony asked in a ragged voice.
Han felt himself grinning at seeing her response to his words. "Yeah. We get to see topside."
A rhythmic thudding noise was heard and Grace's voice chiming in, "It'll be nice to get some fresh air, instead of this processed stuff." Grace was lightly jogging on the treadmill next to Harmony. Even though she didn't react as strongly as Harmony did, her eyes had an excited look to them.
"Oh! You guys are going outside?" An unfamiliar voice interrupted.
A red-haired woman towards them from where she and several others were working out.
Han looked at this woman and thought she belonged in a corporate office, the way she walked in a trained manner and spoke in a precise manner. He looked at her and the others in her group, sizing them up and thinking whether they were from the original group already inside of the base. It wasn't unusual to run into people never seen before due to how large this facility was. And having multiple groups using the gym at the same time was pretty average.
The woman paused and placed her hand on her chest. "I'm sorry for interrupting and not introducing myself. My name is Amanda, and my group, fairly recently, entered this facility after trying to escape the modified humans."
Han smiled and said, "My name is Han. Since you've been topside recently, I'm glad to know that there are still people alive up there. My group was lucky to not encounter any modified humans, though we did run into bandits, I guess you could call them that."
"We've run into a couple of those types, too," A woman from Amanda's group voiced. She and the other members of Amanda's group headed over to where they were talking, curious about what was happening. "The name's Jackie. You've met Amanda, and the others are Lacy, Lulu, Jae-Hwa, and Hina."
Han nodded his head at Hina, who he had trained with a couple of times in the past.
Likely sensing Han's confusion, Hina said, "My family is connected with Jae-Hwa's, so I've been sticking with them and helping them out."
"Yeah. Hina has been a lot of help, not to say that Jackie and her friends weren't." Jae-Hwa quickly said, her cheeks getting red.
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"Don't worry about it. I would think that what we did wasn't too unusual. Us girls have to stick together and help one another, right?" Jackie said to Jae-Hwa. Turning to Han, Jackie clarified, "While we were trying to find someplace safe, we noticed Jae-Hwa in the middle of the desert near the highway." She nudged Jae-Hwa with her elbow. "This girl had run into problems and didn't even know that the world had ended. Lulu spotted her, and we decided to bring her along with us."
"Jackie, stop teasing me," Jae-Hwa complained in good humor.
"Wow! That sounds really intense!" Ruby yelled, amazed by Jackie's story.
"We had a similar thing happen to us. Ruby and I were hiding in a van when Han and his group found us in the parking lot of the mall." Ivy explained. The two girls feeling close to Jae-Hwa who was in a similar position of getting rescued by someone else.
Jackie looked at Han and nodded her head approvingly. Behind her, the girl named Lulu whispered to the one called Lacy. Lacy nodded her head at what Lulu said, both of them smiling.
"It's good to know that others are looking out for the welfare of others, even in these troubled times," Lacy said.
The one called Amanda asked, "So what will you guys be doing on the surface?" Reminding Han of her original question.
He tilted his head and looked towards the ceiling, debating whether he could share the information. After thinking about various things, Han decided that what he had learned wasn't something that was explicitly private and could be shared with others. "We're to test out the new features that have developed for our weapons, the ones that appear magical in their actions. With new information discovered, the Captain believes that the new methods can be utilized outside of the games."
"What?" Grace asked, looking confused as everyone else when he mentioned what they were requested to do.
Though he was unsure about whether he should announce what the simulation rooms and arena were doing, Han scratched his left cheek. "So... It appears like magic is a thing and not just what we read about in fantasy books." Holding his hand up to stop everyone from talking all at once, Han continued, "Introduction to the new techniques I weapons unleash seems like too much of a coincidence, so the Captain has a theory that Star and Moon understood what could happen in the world and set things into motion. One of these things is the ability to wield magic. The reason why we're able to do this inside of the simulation rooms and arena is due to the massive amount of mana already inside. I am guessing that all Star and Moon facilities are pumping out this stuff, we'll call mana, out into the world."
Han stuck both fingers into his ears, so help against the loud exclamation made by everyone. Leaning away from everyone, he waited until everyone calmed down.
"Yes. This is pretty big news for me to suddenly drop on top of all of you, but this new method may help us against the modified humans." Han nodded his head when everyone stopped talking.
His mother was the first to step in and ask, "Han, how are we supposed to use magic?"
Everyone nodded at his mom's question and turned to look at Han, waiting for his explanation.
"At this moment, we don't and just do what we did inside of the arena. The Captain just wants to see whether we're able to perform the same as we do in the arena. There is a method, but the Captain is likely going to announce that to everyone after she has a talk with the leaders in the facility." Han said.
He looked at the new group and was curious as to what Jackie and group thought about this new information. They looked just as surprised as everyone else.
"Does that mean we can use the same techniques you guys use?" The one named Lulu asked excitedly.
When Han was going to answer, Jackie added in, "We've also been using the simulation rooms to train ourselves."
After hearing Jackie's words, Han nodded his head. "That's good to know. You guys should then have your own basic equipment issued out to you. Did you guys get any gems?" He was initially going to tell them they couldn't, but after learning that they had been training it meant that they might have the chance.