Angela was tired of only seeing the city remotely. Alex has being going to the city for four days now, and she was tired of not experiencing it herself. On the first two days it was exciting to see those people even if only remotely. But after the initial excitement died down, it felt like they were prisoners looking at the world outside through a window. She started campaigning for them to take a trip there, Paul was reluctant because they still couldn't speak the language beyond basic phrases, but that would be true for several weeks even with the teaching program which was extremely good. In order to side step the issue Angela pointed out that Alex only talked to people when he wanted it, so they wouldn't need to either, especially with Alex acting as a guide.

She had been so bored that she had the computer create a map of the city from what they were seeing through the watch. She used that to create a virtual 3D representation of the city she could navigate in while learning the language. It took her two days to convince Alice and after that Paul was easy, now they just had to approach Alex.

She decided to do it during breakfast, Alex still complained the bland tasting food, but she quite liked it, she didn't know what he was used to eating but the food created by the machine have been passable, and it didn't hurt that he chose different breakfast every day so that they wouldn't get fed up with one type of food. It didn't matter if he said that the imitation food didn't get anywhere near the originals in his world, to her it was better than station food.

"We're going with you today" Angela decided to simply be blunt, she didn't want to ask permission and didn't want to give him the opportunity to say no.

"What?" he asked confused, then it looks like it downed on him "to the city? I thought we agreed that you would go only after learning to speak the language"

He was right that they had agreed to it, but it was getting in stuffy the shuttle, she didn't know if being cooked up in the shuttle was better or worse before knowing that there were people out there she could interact with. She almost felt like a thirsty man in a desert falling short just before arriving at an oasis, it was depressing.

"Yeah, well, we decided that since there don't seem to be a need to talk to people while there we could just walk around the city" Angela explained "We already know some key words and phrases, and f the need arises you help out". She had decided not to frame is as a request so that he didn't think he could weasel his way out"

"Well, all I was going to do was check out two more locations today, the city is too big to see in just a few trips. We also need to figure out what we'll do to intregrate in there, we'll basically need money for anything we migh want" he said with a sour face. Angela could see where this was going

"Isn't that the same everywhere?" Alicia asked

"Well, my people also use money for most types of transactions, but there are some things which are free and that includes education. These people don't even believe in having everyone knowing how to read and write" he explained. Its obvious that for some reason that fact really sours his mood. Although she accepts that its sad, but for him it looks like its more than that.

"Ok" Angela said, trying to divert the conversation from the doom and gloom and back to what mattered right now "Are we in agreement?"

"You all agreed to this?" Alex asked looking at them one by one.

She didn't want him to try and convince Paul back because it was already a hassle to get him to agree so she answered for everyone "Yes, we have already discussed this and are in agreement"

"Ok" he said simply

"Ok?" Angela askes "Just Ok?"

"I don't see the harm in it, everything has been going fine till now" he said

That was easier than she thought. They were settled, they would all go later and do a little sightseeing in an real alien city that resembled some fantasy settings.

 Later they all had an early lunch before going, Alex explained that he was seeing the various businesses in the city to checkout.

The trip to the city took them longer than when Alex was alone, and when they had the gate in sight, they noticed that the line to get in wasn't that big, and it made them a little happier, especially after walking for so long. 

At the gate, the guards stopped them and after a back an forth with Alex, they had to lift their tops as well. They still couldn't understand the reason for it, but complied all the same. The way some of the guards were looking at her and Alicia sent a chill through her spine, but luckily they kept to themselves. It was obvious that they were a little wary of Alex and Paul even with the fact tht the guards had swords and Alex and Paul didn't.

Although Alex is cartoonishly big, Paul was not slouch either, he was just over 1.9 meter in heigh and kept himself fit. Its just that stadning next to Alex he looked small.

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Some of the guards kept looking at both Paul and Alicia, it was probably becasue of their skin tone.

When they entered the city proper, they slowed down to take everything in.

Lookint at the people with her own eyes, she confirmed something she saw through the screen. It was hard to define the ethnicity of the people here, most looked like mixtures of different races, the skin tone ranged from darker, a lighter. Aside from them no one was completely black or white. Its strange, but it explained why the guards simply looked at Paul and Alicia but hadn't stopped them, they simply look like paler versions of some of their people.

They decided to go to the places Alex had planned to go to, they would need to be careful to not show their complete lack of knowledge about the world. The first place Alex wanted to go was a bakery, they went there and the smell coming from there was amazing, it seems they didn't sell only bread, but also cakes and even more amazingly chocolate. Angela already decided that their first stop when they get some money would be back here.

Their next stop was a small arena, the stands were pratically empty but there were some people fighting.

"What are we doing here?" Angela asked

"To watch the match" Alex answered "it looks like you only need to pay an entrance fee at night, during the days its free"

"Why would it be free?"

"The man at the door said professional fighters only show up at night, only amateurs or training fights happen during the day, in fact anyone can enter the ring and fight, if you win you get a chance to compete later." Alex explained

"You aren't pretending to fight are you?" Angela asked "because that would be cheating"

"No, I am not pretending to fight, it would draw too much attention" he said, and she liked hearing that, it showed some type of moral integrity, but then he continued "But just to be clear. I consider it an unfair advantage that other contestants don't have a way to reproducing my strength, and the only reason it's not on the rules is because they don't consider it possible"

"What does that mean?" Alicia asked, clearly not understanding what he just said

"If it wasn't for that, I consider any advantage you can exploit that doesn't break either implicit or explicit rules fair game" he answered. Ok, she takes back what she had thought before.

"Like what?" Paul asked

"The idea of a fair fight is idiotic. The only way you can be sure a fight was fair is if it ended in a tie" he answered

"Explain" Paul prompted

"Look at those two in the arena" he said pointing to the two man fighting "one of them is a small skinny guy while the other is probably twice his weight, that in Itself is unfair"

"Yeah, the big guy is stronger so he has an unfair advantage" Alicia said

"Not necessarily, he hasn't been able to land a blow to the other one, and has only been taking it. So, the skinny guy is maybe more experienced and is dominating the fight, so, he is probably the one who had the unfair advantage"

"What advantage?" Alicia asked

"Experience, it's ridiculous to put someone with little experience against someone with a lot more." He said "there are a lot of variables that can affect the outcome of a battle, like, one guy had a stomach ache, or just received bad news and is distracted,, so, the idea of a truly fair fight in all levels is ridiculous, not even fighting a copy of yourself is completely fair, because just your different positioning could give one of them an advantage because of lighting, or the crowd"

"But those are too many variables to consider" Paul said

"Exactly my point, so, I only consider unfair advantage if it breaks the rules" he Explained

"You said that there is no rule against superhumans" Alicia said

"Contests usually have implicit rules, for instance, in a game, people usually don't explicitly say that its only for humans but its implicit, so someone putting an animal would be breaking the rules even if they are not written down"

Angela thought back to their conversation about his experiment, he had said then that he made sure to follow the letter of the law, and this conversation shed some light on what he considers acceptable.

"So, what you are saying is we should just try to exploit as much as we can" Angela summarized, she didn't share his opinion, not in the least, but she wanted to clarify if she understood him correctly.

"No, that's not what I am saying" he denied what she said, even if she was just summarizing what she understood "I am saying that I personally don't believe that everything is black and white. " she wanted to reply when he cut her off "But, before you say anything, I don't believe that everything is gray either. Different people view things in different ways. You should only just go as far as your conscience allows you"

At least he hadn't expected them to share the same opinion as him, but she found it sad that he had this view of the world.

"That has the risk of being used a justification for increasingly bad decisions. I believe people aren't born evil, but if they continually try to rationalize their bad decision, over time they might become evil"

"I agree with you on that" he said, which surprised her "But, I've never been in a situation where there was only bad decisions. So, I don't know if it always holds true"

After the match ended with the skinny guy winning the fight, they decided to walk around the city, they went through a lot of side streets and alleys just trying to imagine what the rest of the world would be like and trying to come up with ideas for what to do, and trying to appreciate the city. Being here, for her at least felt like a lifeline.

They had stopped somewhere to talk while throwing ideas on their next steps based on what they'd seen.

They saw someone approaching them, and when Angela got a good look, she realized that it was the woman who had tried to talk to Alex in the weapons shop.

Angela was suddenly very alert and realized that the sun was about to set. They were in the middle of long and narrow Alley. It was probably only wide enough for at most three people to pass side by side.

 The woman raised her hand up in the air, implying that she wasn't here to attack them. She said something and Alex translated "She says that this is a bad part of town to be at night, we should go back to the main street". Angela was still suspicious of her, its like she was staking them, and she still had her sword with her.

 Angela was standing next to Alex when she saw him tense. Following his gaze she sees five men blocking the exit to the alley from the side which they came from. They all had their weapons drawn, four had swords and one had a really big ass sledgehammer.

Angela already thinks this is the work of the woman, but when she eyes the woman she sees her tense but looking past them. Again she follows her gaze and sees another five men blocking the other exit with their swords drawn.

 This was already turning into a horror scene.