Chapter 1: Arcmania, The City of Academics

Deep inside the dark space. There were many different colored stars glowing in the background. But darkness certainly reigned over all of them.

In the vast universe, there are certain places where parallel worlds connect together. This is known as Parallel Node. Out of the many known and unknown nodes, there was one node, where humanity had established a giant city. This was known as Arcmania, the city of knowledge, the city of dreams, the city of academies and many other names.

The city floated in the vast space. An invisible dome surrounded the city. Around the city, there were at least one hundred portals. They all surrounded the city in all directions, making it look like a hedgehog. All the portals were connected to the city with bridges.

One could not enter the city as one pleased. They must go through the bridges to enter the city. There was no way around beside the bridges. The bridges each had 3 checkposts. These checkposts would confirm one's identity and authentication to enter the city.

One of the portals lighted up and many figures came out of it. Mostly the size of an average human, while some did look too big or too small to be considered human, but all of them seemed to be of humanoid shape. They wore all sorts of dresses, exotic, hideous, open.

Among all these people was a boy, he seemed to be around 14 to 15. He wore an aqua shirt, gray pants and a robe around his body. His face was not handsome, only average looking, but his gray hair matched him perfectly causing his looks to be barely above average.

Before going to the bridge, he stopped just before it and went to the side to marvel at the wonder in front of him. He had never seen such a gigantic structure in his life. He lived in the countryside where even a 5 story building was a rarity. And to suddenly see such a vast city, a giant landmass filled with towering buildings, was no doubt very shocking to him.

He looked at the city, his expression was of pure amazement. But then it slowly distorted to an ugly and regretful expression.

He took out a red rectangle card from his pocket. It looked like a normal card with a little mysterious designed border and only 'Arcmania' written on it.

"Why did grandpa give it to me? He could have given it to others. I don't have any great talent either, it's wasted on me." the boy complained.

He was complaining about his not being talented enough. But that wasn't the main reason his expression turned ugly.

"Argh! I don't wanna study! If I enter now, I will have to study. Study day and night, study and study and study. My life will become hell. I wanna lead a carefree life"

The boy's complaint was not unreasonable. After all, which kid in their right mind would want to study. His grandpa had great hope for him. Before coming his grandpa had told him that he only had one of such cards and with this he could stay as an above average resident of the city. With this card he can get through the city gate without any identity check.

This was good and all, but the fact that he came here to study was already weighing him down.

Just look at this city. One look and anyone could tell this city held a great deal of academies and a vast amount of curriculums.

"I am gonna die soon, no doub-'' before he could finish a voice sounded out from within him.

"Quit whining Nevan"

And suddenly the boy in the middle of his sentence split into two. One black. And one white.

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The black one rushed into the bridge at great speed leaving the words, "You can complain, I am gonna explore the city." He rushed through the crowd, all the while bumping into them. The people could only curse him as he was long gone by the time they could beat him up.

The white one rushed after him, screaming, "Wait, Nevan, don't run, you are disturbing the people." but the boy seemed to be oblivious of the fact that he himself was bumping into others and was screaming too.

The black boy already reached the first check post and showed the guard at duty the card. The guard at first wanted to teach him a lesson for disturbing the passageway, but seeing the card, he let him go through respectfully. The boy disappeared into the bridge. Just a minute later, the white boy came and showed the card to the guard. While the guard was checking the card the white boy shouted at the black boy, "Nevan, don't run!" making the guard's ears ring. He wanted to teach this brat a lesson too, but this kid's card was also of a high-class resident, like the previous boy. He could only swallow his intent and let the white boy pass.

The white boy ran at a rather slow speed. He passed through the 2 other checkposts. There was a huge gate at the end of the bridge. Humans were minuscule in front of this. That black boy was standing just beyond the gate. The boy wore black outfits, along with his dark hair, he gave the impression of a dark-themed shadow, despite having beige skin.

The white boy came up to him. Just like the black boy, his skin wasn't white but beige colored. He didn't cross the bridge, instead he bent down, his hands on his knees, grasping for breath.

The black boy said, "Nevan, your physical abilities are as weak as ever."

"I am good at math" while grasping for breath the white boy countered.

The black boy didn't counter return that. Instead he asked, "What do you think? There's a barrier in between us, the city barrier that protects this city. Does this affect us?"

The white boy's breath calmed down a little and was silent for a moment, "No, doesn't seem like that."

"Thought so." and saying that, the black boy left behind the white boy and rushed into the city. The white boy could only watch helplessly as he still was grasping to calm down his breath.

.....

The sky was a beautiful blue, a bunch of thick clouds leisurely drifted in the vast sky, there was a vast glowing light, presumably the sun which was hidden by some clouds. But there should not be any blue sky above the city nor there should be a sun, since this city was located in the space and there was no star anywhere close to it. Whatever the secret behind was, the blue sky had given the city a beautiful image.

The black boy, Nevan, roamed the roads. Nevan was amazed. There was no vehicles on the road. No matter how big or how small the roads were, there was no trace of vehicles moving. It was only pedestrians walking here and there.

The roads were made of asphalt. Perfectly smooth looking with no defects or aging. It looked as if the roads were only made yesterday. The roads were also very clean. Without any garbage sticking around here and there. It gave the city a very sophisticated feeling.

The roads weren't crowded. Nevan walked quite carefreely. His black eyes, black hair and black dress gave him the elegance of a high class person. Along with his natural cheerful disposition, his appearance and that smile that hung on his face, he looked rather charming.

The part of the city Nevan was in seemed to be dedicated for shops. The shops here were very huge. Each shop had a building dedicated to their products. Each building contained many floors, making it seem they were malls rather than just one shop.

Each side of the road, there were many shops with many sorts of items, creating a dazzling array of wonders. Nevan would look left and right and absorb all the magnificent displays.

Nevan kept walking. He saw many extravagant and high tech equipment that he had only heard of or had never heard of, here. This broadened his horizon greatly.

After walking for a while, Nevan appeared in a road which actually had shops filled with items that are essential for students.

All sorts of stationary, dresses, suits, calculators, machines and many other things that Nevan had no idea what they actually are.

Nevan would occasionally notice some boys and girls in uniform appearing out of a box in the front of the intersection and would see some disappearing from another box at the intersection.

After asking around, he finally realized. These boxes were transition units. They acted like transits. One can enter the transition unit and can choose any transition unit of the same transit section to go to. He would be taken to that transit unit in a matter of moments. And this is also why there were no vehicles on the road. Everyone would use these transit units to go wherever they needed.

Looking at the busy street it seemed this was a great place for students' gathering. While thinking such, Nevan noticed a blonde boy talking to air or maybe to himself.

Normally Nevan would not really care about an insane guy who would talk with himself, but this guy, Nevan felt jealous of him.

There was no doubt, Nevan had an in-born elegance and a shadow of deep pride and excellence. His attitude had made him distinguishable and also made him appear more handsome than he looked.

But,

"This guy is too handsome," Nevan thought, "I can't believe I have lost to some random blonde dude. This is my second time seeing someone more handsome than me." Nevan thought while gritting his teeth in annoyance.

That blonde boy seemed to have noticed a gaze on him so he turned his head back to see that a boy who was wearing a complete black outfit was gritting his teeth while staring at him.

The blonde boy let out a smirk as he thought inwardly, "As expected of my handsomeness, this guy is definitely envious of my looks."

"Well, hello there. I am Chronos. You are jealous of my great looks, aren't you?"

What the actual hell!

This guy actually had the gall to actually directly praise himself. Narcissist! Total narcissist. To actually sing song of one's greatness in front of a total stranger. Nevan was baffled for a moment at this guy's brazen behavior. He met a wondrous and bizarre thing right after entering the city.

But soon his mouth carved up in his signature excited smile,"You are quite daring to actually praise yourself in front of me"

Chronos with a beaming smile replied,"Why should I not? I am not afraid of the truth."

"You look worse than the servant of my house."

"Oh, is that house of yours in your dreamland."

"Nope, it's something you can't imagine with your shitty narcissistic brain."

And before Chronos could reply, Nevan exclaimed 'Fuck!' and ran off to a direction.

"Hey, don't run, it's my time to counter." and so Chronos chased after him.