My name is alex , i am a resident of the middle area inside of Nexus , and tomorrow is my 18 birthday which means i am finally allowed to enter babylon as a climber and not a resident. Babylon is composed of a 100 known floor , and according of what they teach us at school babylon is not a tower , the floors are wrapped within space so there is no notion of up or down. Anyway like a said earlier i live in the middle area which cover the entirety of the 51 to 54 floor , my mother was a ranker who stopped climbing at 75 floor , meaning that we are quite rich , in Babylon and inside Nexus in general the living conditions of the citizens depend of their rank ,the higher the rank the more privileges you and your direct family receive which bring us to structure of the residential area in the 51 floor that is divided into 3 areas : area A [ accessible to rankers who reached the 70 floor or higher , it population doesn't exceed 10,000 people], area B [ accessible to climbers who reached the 40 floor or higher but failed to go further than the 69 floor , it population doesn't exceed 500,000 people ] , and area C [ accessible to climbers who reached the 21 floor or higher but failed to go further than the 39 floor , it have a population of 3 billion people ] . As for the 52 and 53 floor, also called the workshop area is were all the factories , workshops , research facilities ... under the supervision of moonlight industries operate .And finally the 54 floor or the commercial area where climbers and residents of the 51 buy their suppliers and other things they may need .And of course there are other places and rules but i will explain those later.
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"Come on Alex wake up is already past noon, if you don't get up in 15 minutes you can kiss breakfast goodbye ". Laura voice could be heard from outside .
"Geez mom can't you go easy on me , today is my birthday ," said Alex
"What are you talking about a always go easy on you , anyway Martha and Luck will be here soon so you should be ready by the time your friends drop by, " said laura still shouting in the kitchen .
"Damn it , stop using your enhanced voice i am already up , you know that the neighbors will start complaining again ? so what do we have for breakfast i am starving ." Alex replied looking annoyed walking down the stairs .
"It been 20 minutes since the first time i called you so you can enjoy your cereales and there some leftover orange juice in the refrigerator ....."
RING ! RING ! RING !
Laura looked at the back of her right hand , where a screen of 28 cm in length , and 21 cm in width appeared showing the image of two teenager and a adult standing by the door and said : " It seems that Kelvin also decided to visit us today , you can have your meal i will open the door "
"It been a while Laura "said the first person to go through the door .He was a tall weak looking man with long ears and blonde hair and wearing a long lab coat with the crest of the moonlight industries ,at first glance you wouldn't guess that he was a ranker and Laura former teammate.The boy and girl then follow suit giving their greeting.
"Thanks you for having us Miss Laura, then if you will excuse me."
"I missed you auntie !!!",stated Martha while hugging Laura .Then she proceed scanning the room looking for Alex ,when their eyes met she started blushing and looked away . Martha is a human girl who have a crush on Alex since middle school ,but since he was only hanging out with Luck ,she tied befriending him , but what she didn't know that both Luck and Alex knew about her feelings and intentions and decided to let it go since she was so innocent and respected her boundary .
Meanwhile, Luck moved across the lobby towards the kitchen and started some small talk with Alex.
"Here want some cereal,it your favorite isn't it ?¨ Alex slimed while pushing the bowl towards Luck.
"I respectfully decline , i am trying to keep a well balanced diet , and just for your information breakfast is a meal that should be taken in the morning. " replied Luck pushing the bowl back.
"Well just for YOUR information time is irrelevant here , and the reason you were bullied in school and don't have any friends, is your way of speaking and that you think that your smarter and better that anyone!"
"At least there is a reason to why i didn't forme any friendship along the years , then what about you ? what your excuse ? "
"You ...."
"You know what just drop the act we already know this isn't about my personality you're just still upset about what we talked about last time ".Said Luck looking rather annoyed
"We're not going through this conversation again , my mom already agreed to me becoming a climber , and the only other person who have authority over me is my father and i don't recall you being him because he is dead ". Alex look at Luck with a complicated face , sighed and continued to speak " Look ,i am sorry i didn't mean it , it just that you my best friend ,and you know how strong i am,you're the only on except mom and uncle Kelvin who know about my power , so i thought that you are going to understand where i am coming from and support me ."
"Technically i don't know how strong you are , the only time i witnessed you fighting an adult was during a mock battle when you were sent flying by miss Laura into the neighbours building destroying the entirety of the 2nd floor , it anything i can vouch for is that you're quite durable. "Luck seeing the conversation taking a different course , tried to lighten up the mood and continued to speak . " Listen i promise that i will not bring this on again, but you need to listen to me just this once ."
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"OK i understand , but i will not change my mind ." Said Alex while heading to the living room .
Luke hesitated before sitting on the sofa and started to speak "You know that once you start climbing you renounce your citizenship , and you can't go back to the 51 floor unless you pass the test on the 20th floor ,let alone area A ...."
"You are just stating facts , and i am already aware that if i don't pass the test on the 20th floor i will get kicked out of Nexus and not just area A "
"If you're aware of that then why risked it ? you know that through history each time Babylon open it doors ,up to 10 % habitants of area A participate and only 4% make it back to area A as rankers , and only 1% become high ranker .So i am going to ask you again ,why risk your life ? The only thing that i can think of ,is obtaining eternal life by moving to Paradise ,but i known that you won't throw all the privileges we have just for that ;you're a half-human you would normally live up to 400 years ,but since we are of the few lucky on the 51 floor our lifespin doubled so you can last for 700 to 800 years."
"You wouldn't understand ,i mean you're a 3rd generation , and although being a hybrid you have the strength of a normal person ,your father raised you to be the head of a company , i grow up hearing stories about mom adventures ; and i know it not a game , i can die any moment and maybe i wouldn't make it back here , and like it or not even if this place have everything a person can dream of it still just a giant prison and i prefer dying doing something i like rather than being stuck here for the rest of my life "
Luck grandfather was a beastmen , a killer while to be precise , after failing to reach Paradise ,he decided to settle down in area A where he met Luck grandmother , and unlike luck who didn't manage to inherit any of his parents powers , his mother possessed an incredible physical strength but decided against entering Babylon , and raised her children to do the same . Luck have a straightforward personality ,which caused him a lot of problems at school, and unlike him Alex got along with everyone but decided to spent his time with him , Luck always wandered the reason behind it , and whenever asked Alex his was given the same answer "...Why i hung out with you ?... I dunno , i guess you different than the other kids maybe there is something special about you , you know just like Martha we friends because she is like an open book and fun to mess around with her ..." , but he always knew that even if there friendship is real , they live in a different world and today he knew why, and decided to accept the reality of the situation . And that the first time he heard about Alex leaving he wanted to say that he will follow him and that they will do it together , but he neither had the courage or the power to back his claims.
"I wish .... "
"So what are you guys talking about ? " said Martha while jumping next to Luck
"Just the usual , Luck being a nerd and stuff " replied Alex while looking at Luck signaling him to keep quiet about their conversation .
"So what were you saying Luck? "
"Martha did you see where my mom went ?I don't see uncle Kelvin either ."
Martha realising that Alex trying to change the subject didn't pushed it any longer and answered " I think that mister Kelvin said that he has something to talk about in private with auntie so after i grabbed auntie coat from her room i left ,i believe they went out together."
"Maybe they are planning a surprise for your birthday or that mister Kelvin after all this years muster up the courage to ask miss Laura out. "Luck smirked while looking at Alex , it was sorta like a payback for what he did earlier since they both knew that Kelvin rarely show at Laura residence , and most of the time he show up it because he is low on Alex blood supplies that he was using to research his power .Martha was the only one oblivious to that fact and kept digging deeper in her fantasies "No wonder he was looking at auntie with such passionate eyes durant our conversation , it a shame i mean he is tall and blonde if only he didn't look like he is about to die any moment he would be quite handsome , not as handsome as you you know. "said Martha while glancing at Alex
"You realise that he is messing ..."Alex stopped for a moment while looking at Martha pure and innocent eyes and the other hand Luck who couldn't content his laughter anymore headed towards the stairs before continuing to speak " you know what i am going upstairs to change and after am done we are going to the 54 floor ."
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"I missed you auntie"
"I missed you too , you should drop by more often." said Laura while hugging Martha back.
"I wish i could move here and ...."
Kelvin watched the two speak for a couple of minutes , he was here today for an important business ,and he didn't believe he was wasting time waiting for that little girl to go inside to her friends, but ironically something about the look that child give him from time to time made him uncomfortable , her eyes were full of pity and confusion , it was a situation he didn't encounter even as a ranker ,and when he couldn't take it any longer he snapped
"Hey brat , beat it adults are trying to have a conversation here "
"Ah man, you personality is as nasty as ever . Martha i am sorry about that could you bring my blue coat it, in my room "Laura checked if Martha has gone upstairs before speaking "So what so important to talk about that you couldn't send a text? "
"Knowing you i believe you haven't told Alex the truth yet , he is a smart kid so i am sure he will understand "
"I just didn't want to ...."
"As i told you he is a smart kid so he will figure it out eventually , and it better to tell him now rather than him resent you for lying about it later ."said Kelvin while putting his hand on her shoulder ,he knew that after losing her husband and her other teammates on the 75 floor , that baby was the only reason for her to live.Martha then came back, handed over the coat and left in hurry .
"So where are we going Kev ?"
"Going out was your idea, just make sure we have time to drop by the 53 floor, i need to grab something from the lab.So anyway when are you going to tell him ? "said Kelvin while going into Delta ,a floating airship a size of a car made by moonlight industries, equipped with a mineral called Schwerelosigkeit,but most people called it Schwere , which create a zone of zero gravity around the airship making it a flying mechanism .
"I will tell him tonight that i am not his real mother, and that we found him on the 75 floor ".