A couple of hours later...

Ava's Mansion 12:37 am

An autoEV stopped in front of the mansion. The doors opened in unison to reveal three teenagers packed to the brim with travel gear. From an outsider's perspective, it looked like they were going on a vacation.

They had headed straight here after taking a stop at Ava's apartment for her own packing.

"Why did it took you so long just to get the extra stuff? I thought we were in a hurry."

"Noah, I am not going to give excuses for my wrongs. But before pointing fingers, remember that ladies have their own needs."

"Guys"

"Does that include your makeup kit and all your other fancy toys. And don't you dare try to deny it, I saw you giggling while packing those away."

"Guys!"

"What do you mean by that? Just because we were in a bit of a hurry, you thought I would leave them behind."

"Of course, That's what it means to be in a hurry. You leave less important stuff behind."

"GUYS!! Can You For A Moment Calm Down and stop bickering like kids."

'Why am I doing all this? There is no reason for me to be here. I should have just refused back then even if they would have stopped talking with me for a while.' Shaun thought while looking at them both glaring at each other.

Eventually, they calmed down with both of them realizing they were wasting away precious time arguing with each other.

The trio started moving towards the mansion carrying all their luggage with them.

Moving ahead of the boys, Ava unlocked the mansion's main gate and entered with both of them following after her.

Walking on the stone path, Ava introduced the building to both of them seeing their curious looks.

"This is my parent's holiday mansion. We lived here when I was young but after they got busy managing the company they hardly ever got the time to visit home. So, at the start of my high school, I decided to move out to my apartment."

"WOW, I knew you were rich, Evergrad Foundation being world-famous and all but seeing this brings it to a whole new level." Noah said in awe seeing the massive mansion in its entirety for the first time. It was a high-class modern mansion with 2 Floors, a pool and a garden included. The whole thing just screamed luxury.

The most surprising thing was its location. It was near downtown. Moreover, we were in the district capital. The real estate prices had a tendency to start ballooning the closer we move to downtown.

He couldn't even imagine the cost of buying such a mansion in the middle of the city. It must have cost stupid amounts of money. He was looking all around before suddenly freezing all of a sudden.

He fixed his expression quickly seeing Ava shooting him a smug look.

The trio headed into the mansion and dumped the luggage on the couches. Settling down, they relaxed for a moment.

"Anyone else coming?" Shaun asked.

"Everyone we contacted was either too busy, out of town, or couldn't be bothered to join us. Regardless, we have informed them to bunker down for today. We have already done our part. Now it's up to them to follow our advice." Ava said while rummaging through her stuff in search of her phone.

"What about your parents, Ava? Have you informed them to at least stay at home for today?" Noah asked seeing Ava fiddling with the phone.

"Yeah, I did that hours ago. Though I doubt they would listen to me and take a leave from the company. What about you two, you both have guardians, right?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Same here on my end. I doubt she would take a leave from her nurse duties." Noah responded.

"Mine's not answering. I have messaged just in case. Though I think he doesn't need any help. Guy makes a living through survival shows. There is nothing new we can provide that he doesn't know already." Shaun said staring at both of them.

Without looking up from her phone, Ava asked.

"What?"

"Now what?" Shaun questioned seeing both of them busy with their phones.

"We wait." Putting his phone down, Noah answered instead of Ava.

"Till when?"

"Until we are sure" Saying this, he sprawled on the couch and became busy with his phone again.

Shaun couldn't be bothered to care seeing that they both didn't care. So same as the other two, he took out his phone to watch some content to relax. He deserved some rest after all.

...

1:31 pm

Looking at the time, Shaun asked the two lazy bums watching the cinema on the home theater.

"Remind me again, why are we doing this?"

Both shared a glance urging the other to speak up.

Noah eventually conceded under the stony glare of Ava and had to answer.

"We couldn't quite get into agreement on whose plan was the best, so we both decided to take a step back and agreed on a common plan, which is to prepare for the worst-case scenario for the possibility of losing contact with society at large. Though there aren't any obvious signs yet which would give us confirmation such as power cuts or internet shutdown."

"Are you satisfied now? Cuz I don't see any telltale signs and you would think the world would end with a bang." Shaun was tired of this whole charade and wanted to go back and enjoy the weekend.

"Just a few more hours, we won't disturb you again. We just want to make sure."

"I'm not so sure about this. I have already wasted my morning and by the looks of it, you lot are going to hold onto me the entire day." Shaun caught onto their scheme and was getting ready to ditch them and called for a ride back to his apartment.

"Hey, hey, wait a bit, we can discu-" Noah stood up to persuade Shaun but was interrupted by a blue screen appearing in his vision.

[Initializing...

Procedures check...

Systems check...

Beginning Integration in ... T-60 seconds

Standby for Teleport

59..58..57..]

They were broken out of stupor by the countdown flashing before their eyes. It took them a few seconds to skim through the contents of the message. The trio eyed each other and nodded with serious faces.

"GO!" Noah yelled and hell broke loose in the room with each of them rushing for their stuff. Items flew across the room as each of the trio hung their own backpacks and tightened the straps.

Within 30 seconds, they were standing as ready as possible in the center of the living room.

"All set" Noah said holding onto the straps.

"I took as much as possible. All the other stuff was either too big or too heavy." Shaun being the most athletic of the trio had more stuff on him.

"Everyone, be careful. When we move to the other side, try to find each other first." Ava said with a worried look.

"Just in case, hold onto each other. We may be transported together." Noah reached out with his hands while giving the idea.

Everyone got closer and hold their hands. As soon as they did so, new details popped up on every screen.

[Local signatures detected nearby...

Checking willing participants...Found

Teleport reconfiguration

...

Mass Teleport in T-13 seconds]

"It's confirmed. We're going in together." Ava tightened her grip which they reciprocated.

8..

"This is literally out of the world." Noah said slightly anxious.

5..

"See you on the other side."

3..

"Here it comes!"

2..1..0

Their figures of the trio were covered in blinding light as the timer reached zero and within a second they disappeared along with their baggage.

The whole Earth became much quieter all of a sudden.

...

In between two valleys rested a medieval town surrounded by forests on all sides.

A river passed through the middle of the village dividing into two parts, filled with aquatic life of both mundane and mystical variety.

The river meandered throughout the entire forest bringing vitality to the landscape.

The town was bordered by a fortified wall of wood and stone. Watchtowers were placed at regular intervals along the wall with archers on the lookout. Smoke was billowing out of various lodges while carriages led by all kinds of beasts moved through the town transporting various goods.

The whole scene looked straight out of fantasy.

Today was a bit special for the residents. The whole town was gathered near the town center. The main junction of the town was kept empty while the residents kept watching as if waiting for something.

Indistinct chatter rang out as the whole plaza was suddenly engulfed with light. The light died down in a moment with thousands of people now occupying the empty plaza.

Among those thousands of people, there was a very peculiar group of three standing in a circle holding hands with each other. They were each loaded with baggage.

The trio being Noah, Ava and Shaun.

Looking at their new surroundings, their eyes widened. Their bodies went taut due to being put in an unfamiliar environment with strangers everywhere.

Noah being the tallest of the trio stood up on his toes to catch a glimpse of the town. Seeing the medieval buildings, his brain short-circuited for a moment and he said to Ava half dazed.

"You were right."

"About what?" Ava couldn't see a thing from her height.

"About the whole medieval thing."

"Really?" Shaun interjected while still being confused by the entire event.

Suddenly, Noah jerked back to stand normally and said with a grim look.

"I just had a stupid thought."

"What now?" Ava was irritated at his lax attitude.

"We just got Isekai'd" Noah deadpanned.