Silence, which claimed an abundance of time.

Thick air, the atmosphere weighed heavily.

No one dared to speak a word, as most already feared it had something to do with death.

Silence,

It was interrupted, however, by none other than Kaiden. With slowly parting lips and still lowered head, he said with a moderately loud voice,

"I have a gliobastloma."

Questioning faces appeared, not surprisingly. Who hears such a word in everyday life? After a short pause by Kaiden and a tense mood from the others, he continued.

"This gliobastloma is a kind of tumor that acts very aggressively."

With another pause and sympathetic to pitying looks averted from Kaiden, he continued again.

"Because it affects my brain so aggressively, I only have about 1 year to live, if I'm lucky."

Silence,

Kaiden, finding it difficult to open up to strangers, surprisingly tried to lighten the mood by smiling and jokingly said,

"Well, you guys shouldn't feel guilty; at least I still have 1 year."

Finally, Kaiden added that he was sorry for imposing such a story on them. The atmosphere remained heavy and uncomfortable.

Especially Zack could no longer look directly at the previously viewed arrogant snob and had to find an object for distraction.

Not because he felt sorry for him, even though he did, but rather out of embarrassment for making such accusations against him. Although these accusations were still there, as Kaiden's behavior did not really excuse it from his perspective, he had to accept that Kaiden was not just a simple rich kid but someone who had experienced something painful, something unimaginable.

Elly's gaze, in the meantime, spoke a thousand words. She constantly heard how much Zack disliked Kaiden, and now seeing him full of embarrassment, she couldn't help but continue to stare at him.

Ren and Mark, meanwhile, looked at Kaiden with some pity but were almost back to normal since they didn't have much to do with Kaiden.

Mary, on the other hand, even if she occasionally looked pitying, mostly maintained her icy and enchantingly neutral face.

Another short silence ensued.

Kaiden just wanted this depressing atmosphere to stop. Almost angrily, he wondered why they were looking at him strangely. Kaiden's thoughts became more and more tangled and confused until he suddenly vomited out of nowhere.

Why, he wondered?

The answer to his question was quickly provided.

Is that why I've been thinking strangely lately?

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Especially now?

With a foul and sour smell in the air, the other 5 heard successive retches from one direction, namely from Kaiden.

Hands on his shoulders and back, lightly patting him, but not too hard, rather empathetically and gently. Those were Mary's hands, which surprised Kaiden a bit. Was she not as cold-hearted as he thought? Or was she just trying to achieve something that would be good for her?

Another voice, coming from Ren, conveyed a question.

"Did you all receive the message?"

Kaiden's nauseous and disgusted gaze turned into curiosity and confusion.

'What does he mean?'

He thought about what they meant, and as the others answered yes to the question, Mark said they all should probably go.

"Where are we going?" Kaiden asked.

To Room 11, replied Elly.

If you're still not feeling better, you should probably stay here.

Kaiden then said that he was feeling better and could go with them.

Although the atmosphere was somewhat heavier, it had fortunately lightened somewhat.

"Well, let's go, guys," Mark said enthusiastically and loudly, patting Kaiden on the back again.

Again, Kaiden smelled Mary's exotic fruit scent.

How soothing, he thought.

Wait, what was he thinking exactly?

'No, quickly, away with that thought!'

'I can't focus on such trivial thoughts right now. She's still an ice-cold killer.'

With a dark look, he watched her go.

'She could kill me anytime.'

With determined thoughts from Kaiden, he also slowly stood up with supporting hands and followed the others, who went through the metal-like door. Only now did Kaiden realize how incredibly different everything was.

He thought that inside the building would be relatively similar to Earth, but on Praeter, even the interior seemed different. Not surprising after Kaiden thought about it; after all, transporting through the huge portal isn't so simple.

Objects would have to be brought on ships and then carried on foot. For the effort, it's not worth it when there are other new materials and resources that are sometimes even better, more robust, and easier to process. While these were just Kaiden's pure speculations, they seemed quite plausible.

Walls looked similar to those of regular buildings, yet somehow different. Was it the hardness or the roughness? It was somehow too smooth. Kaiden felt all sorts of different objects as curiosity sparked a fire within him. After all, they had arrived.

A calm voice, familiar to Kaiden's ears, heard the 6 entering the room.

"Oh, come on in."

The sarcasm in his tone couldn't be ignored.

The somewhat quieter voice changed to be a bit louder but still acceptable in tone.

"Do you even know what time it is?"

Mark replied to the tall man with crossed arms in the middle of the room,

"It's 7:17 PM."

"7:17 PM, I see,"

the man's tone seemed more annoyed. He politely asked if he had forgotten something. Mark remained silent for a moment. What could he have forgotten? What exactly?

Laughter was heard in the silence.

Ren cleared his throat briefly and whispered a specific word to Mark.

While Ren continued to clear his throat, Mark waited for a moment and then said,

"Excuse me, sir."

"Much better," said the now somewhat calmer voice.

"But why are you late?"

As a feminine voice filled the room, Kaiden thought that someone sitting in the rows had spoken, but the acoustics came from his vicinity, to be precise, just half a meter away from him.

It was Mary. She said that they all helped someone who wasn't feeling well and had to vomit.

Normally not a profound reason for 6 people to be late, normally it would be understandable if one, including the affected person who vomited, was late.

However, the man, whom Kaiden couldn't see due to the people standing in front of him, let the words pass.

'Why?'

Kaiden wondered once again.

But he didn't care as long as he didn't have any further troubles.

As they continued to walk and tried to sit in one of the front rows, the man in the middle of the room, standing towards the podium, said that his name was Professor William. With the now opened view, Kaiden finally saw the person named Professor William. It was the one who had his crystals.

When their eyes met, the professor started to smirk slightly.

"Oh, I see," he murmured to himself.

He seemed to gaze into the distance as he announced,

"Show attendance list."

Yet a haze clouded the scene. It was merely his self-generated hologram, visible only to himself.

Saying softly to himself, he said, "I knew this face looked familiar."

Kaiden Lain, he said with a growing smirk, louder in his thoughts,

"96%, this will be fun."