*Splash*

Cory gasped for air as the water trickled into his lungs. Sitting up as fast as he could, he saw the man from yesterday. The man looked like he was ready for war. He wore a balaclava with a helmet and blacked out goggles to cover his face. You couldn't even tell the color of his skin with his uniform. Yet Cory could only focus on coughing out the water he inhaled.

"Oh, by the way, I am Echo 1. On the field, you'll be Echo 2. Then this uniform will be yours. Plus some night vision goggles to help you see in the night. Then I've added an infrared laser to your rifle. There is a button to turn it on. You wouldn't want others with the same tech seeing it until you're ready to shoot."

"Did you teleport me yesterday? I have only ever heard of this tech being used in the front lines."

"Ah, yes it was. It gives you an idea of who you are messing with. From now on, you will teleport to the site of our targets. Sometimes you may even see me and Echo 3 and 4 accompanying you."

Echo 1 slammed a particular device into Cory's neck before he could react. At a moment's notice, it became a collar around his neck.

"We will track you through this. For now, we will give you some freedom. You can think of this as a reward for killing your target so fast."

"this is out of the blue."

"The last thing you should have certainty in is certainty itself. Think about chaos theory, or the butterfly effect."

Cory couldn't help but cringe at such an unnecessarily long answer. He rolled his eyes as hard as he could to forget what he said, even shaking his head as well.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Whatever! Alright, how do I get back here?"

"Come back to the room that you appeared in. Curfew is at 10 pm. Plus a card in your pocket has 150 dollars as pay for your fine job. At most, you can bring books back. The library in front of the door has the approved set of books you can bring with you."

*Pang!*

"Woah!"

Before Cory could say anything, he fell onto a chair, almost falling forward because his legs were up yet from being in a bed.

"At least I didn't teleport with some military gear in my hands."

Cory looked at his empty hands, noticing that his gear wasn't there anymore. Then his thoughts reminded him of the card. It was a black card with a note, telling him the code to the card.

"Well, I may as well eat something."

He finally took notice of the room that had black walls and a little desk with a computer on it. It looked to be a spot for people to access the internet.

"What a weird room."

*Click*

The door in front of him unlocked as Cory stood up and walked towards it. The door directly leads outside into a little alleyway.

"this building in front of me should be the library. I should visit it later. Especially considering my public education came to a screeching halt. Ooooh, a restaurant is right across the street. Lunar Launch, I've heard it was a good one, but I never had the chance to try it out."

Cory walked out from the Alley way and into the street, waiting for an opportunity to walk across the street. He seized an opportunity to cross and entered the restaurant, happily waiting his turn in line. The restaurant was of a retro booth design.

"Gollee, this is such an old look, but it's nicely done. Oh, I've never been here before, so I'll just have a cheeseburger."

Cory reached the front of the line before he could take in the restaurant's view and found an empty booth.

*AAAH*

Cory Screemed silly from the sudden appearance of an older man sitting beside him. Cory gave an ignorant and disappointed look.

"Good thing I've already activated the sound barrier, quite a dandy feature for such a retro restaurant. How are you Mr. Silent?"

'Great, I can't seem to get a single normal hour of life.'