Chapter 4 - Stones in the Way - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG

"Time passes like a runaway avalanche, always descending," Frank muses while indulging himself in a cube-made breakfast. "No day, no night to give us our bearings." Life aboard the aerolito continued on an unusual path throughout the eternal night, made possible only by ingenuity and a touch of Gate magic.

The day had just begun, and three figures prepared to put into practice a night of imported memories, memories of a lifetime of training as if they had been experienced in a dream. But it wasn't just the memories—the bodies of this peculiar group of adventurers were visibly healthy, perhaps from being brushed against a vein of Gate's strange energies, no one knew for sure. Liora, Frank, and Petra were ready to learn. All dressed in cube-made light-colored cloaks, the trio freed a space inside the carriage, preparing for the training.

"We have to direct our training," Liora began, "Because as we go further, the more we come into contact with Gate’s environment, the more likely we’ll be altered by it, and quickly.”

"But how does it work, Liora?" Frank asked, "I don’t feel any different, apart from this sense of physical well-being that I can't remember having felt since I was 18.”

"At first, your body is now adapting and using spatial distortions," Liora explained. "If you push your muscles, they'll develop as they used to, but in an ever-increasing number of places simultaneously. It's as if you're reflexively learning to use more than three spatial dimensions. In the same way, if you do aerobic training, you’ll realize there’s no limit to improvement. The same will happen as you train impact on bones with the falls we do in martial arts. But that’s not all. Think of this same equivalent for your potential mental capacity in every sense, such as social intelligence and mental integrity. Your biological bodies adapt, and even after being away from Gate, it will keep generating its distortions once the process has started."

"Liora, does this work for our biological bodies and for yours too? Because I understand that you have a mechanical body, am I right?" Frank continued with his warm-up. Petra listened, her mind a bit detached from the conversation, focused on trying to figure out if there was something different about herself.

"In my case, the process is more controlled because my body was designed for this. In practice, it doesn’t make much difference in the speed of learning. The improvements we can train, with time, are a well-known process. For example, if you want to train to get stronger, you'll do muscle-building activities as usual, but now you'll realize the gains are exponential and unlimited. I can do any physical movement to trigger the dimensional replications for strength. In short, while you guys have to work out your bodies, I could do gentle and graceful movements, and at the end of the day, we would all have the same effect. What we don't understand is that, for some Gate-specific reason, this type of development is strongly linked to rationality. We call it essence, which makes possible the modifications and improvements resulting from the activities that a rational being chooses to do with its time. It's not impossible to improve non-rational things. Still, it's a quite different process and much slower since essence is what sticks all those spatial replications together, so we say that non-rational things don't end up having essence." Liora responded, turning towards Silas, who was in a corner, organizing parts of the carriage into makeshift tables with one eye on what was happening with the group.

"That's a different way to define work with technology. It takes time, and without essence," Silas replied, dividing his attention between a device that emitted a glow and seemed to be very hot. "By the way, be careful with what I'm doing here now. This is an energy cell I'm preparing to connect to a prototype. It could blow us all up if I’m not careful."

"Right. I was thinking about preparing the two aerolitos with no carriages outside as a training area for us, as long as we get a configuration that is safe enough because of the wind. According to my calculations, we’ll have 3 to 4 meters of secure height above the aerolitos..." Liora calculated. "For today, we'll start here inside."

"Okay, I’m done with my warm-up. It gives us a height of 10 to 13 feet, so it's a no-go for the big one. Silas could join us inside today!" Petra interrupted while finishing a series of stretches. Silas just nodded and smiled, wholly absorbed in his technology workbench. Petra turns to Liora and asks, "Where do we start?”

"I was thinking," Liora said, "that maybe we’re not going to be starting from scratch. Let’s see how we are now. Petra, try lifting that crate over there. There’s almost a ton inside." She pointed at a pile of debris with vehicle carcasses.

Petra looked at Liora incredulously, “You must be joking.” She tried to lift the crate, or at least push it, but it didn’t move at all. "Okay, you were just joking."

“My God!” Frank interrupted out of the blue, lifting an even bigger crate with ease. "Look at this. It feels like foam.” The edge of the crate shattered under the force of Frank’s tiny hands, grasping something much larger, and the debris inside threatened to fall on him.

“Watch out, Frank!” Liora yelled without much time to react. The crate broke, and several pieces of scrap metal, some pointy, rained down on Frank. But he easily dodged all of them.

Then he asked, “Liora, why is everything falling in slow motion?”

"I noticed that too," Liora confirmed, "We're the ones moving faster. Are you alright?" She continued speaking to a no-problem Frank. "It seems like I'm even faster than I expected. Let’s test it, Frank. Try hitting me, but control your strength."

With that, they exchanged blows at an incredible speed. Liora seemed to be even faster than Frank. “That's crazy!” Frank exclaimed, "Is this because of the martial arts upload from yesterday?"

“That's not the only thing, Frank,” Liora continued, “It’s our bodies adapting to Gate. We need to channel this with training. Do you get it? The more we train, the better we'll become. There are no limits now.”

"What about me?" Petra asked, attempting to follow the two without much success. “I’m still the same. What a pain!” she grumbled. With that, Silas wisely put himself between his workbench and the energized troupe, which had already destroyed one crate and spread scrap metal across the entire carriage.

"Well, sometimes it takes longer," Liora observed, thinking about what to do. “Or maybe we still haven’t figured out exactly what’s changed in you, Petra. We’ll try to train all together, but Frank, be careful with your strength!"

The three of them started performing a variety of martial arts exercises. Petra realized that Frank was holding back too much when training with her, and she said, "Frank, you’re taking it easy. I need you to crank it up a notch. Otherwise, I'm not going to progress and catch up with you. Let’s go, you lazy bum! Get with it!”

"Okay, Petra,” Frank said, smiling. "We'll crank it up then!” He got ready to execute a quick takedown, a bit stronger. The move came out perfectly, as Petra barely saw Frank performing it.

CRACK! “Ouch, my foot!" A stunned Frank went to the floor, his foot now apparently broken. Petra hadn’t moved an inch. She quickly realized this wouldn't be normal.

"What... Are you alright, Frank?" Petra had mixed feelings, "I’m starting to like this again." she said, relieved and holding a smile.

"Wow, you’re tough, huh, Petra!” Frank exclaimed on the floor, still excited, fueled by adrenaline. "But it's hurting. Did I break it?” He looked at his foot, still moving.

"Let me see your foot,” Liora said, approaching Frank and Petra. She put her hand behind Frank's foot, and a light emanated from her eyes. “It's not broken, but it should be sore. Your body distributed the impact damage and assimilated it faster than normal. It’ll be painful, but I think we can continue. However, be careful, and we'll follow the training protocols from the memories you downloaded yesterday."

The three spent hours having fun with their new capabilities. But after a long time, they remembered they were hungry and gathered around an ebex feast prepared by Silas and his cube. The conversation, after a day of exercises, was very animated.

“Silas,” Liora asked her friend. “Aren’t you going to train with us?"

"Thanks for the invite," Silas said. "Reminds me of my childhood. They used to teach us ebex-training back then. But someone has to clean up the place. And I'm working on some rudimentary weapons in case we have problems when we arrive. I've adapted the daggers from Rocatrista because those were schrogae-sized. Although, now it seems like Frank could play with those without having any size issues. Anyway, I've also added a few gadgets to them. Now, you guys can even chat with those daggers if you get lonely."

Liora laughed at Silas while she took the knives for herself, but then something suddenly occurred to her. "Silas, do you remember your childhood?" she asked, impressed.

"Yeah, in my village," Silas replied. "Many years ago, when I was a kid. Why?"

"It's kind of rare among ebex, isn’t it?" Liora asked casually. "But let’s talk later if you prefer." She seemed to be discovering something new about her old friend.

"Oh, man, almost forgot." Silas laughed as well. "We can talk about it, no problem. It's quite peculiar for the ebex.”

Several curious eyes turned toward Silas. Seemingly, even Liora had no information about this peculiar detail.

"Well…” Silas continued. “People tend to be afraid of ebex because of it. Our culture has a very unique habit." He leaned back in his chair and paused before continuing. "Let's see how I'm going to explain this. I never remember having talked about it before because nobody's crazy enough to ask this to an ebex directly."

Liora suddenly looked pale, the best pale she could. Silas saw her embarrassment and gave a kind chuckle. "Don't worry," he said. "I was just joking with you guys." He continued. “The ebex have always been biologically immortal. It happened long before Gate. The same happens with a few creatures from our homeland on the inhabited planets of my galaxy, the Opoje galaxy cluster, which in ebex language means a kind of river. In our culture, we developed a very different perspective on the cycles of life and death. See, when we get old and decide that life has been good enough for us, we can choose to forget everything and live a new life in the same body. But by doing this, we became different individuals. And for that, we have a way to wipe our minds almost permanently. So, the ebex lives many lives in the same body. Or, you can say, what defines the identity of an ebex is the moment they live and their relationship with others, not their physical body alone."

"But, big guy," Petra interrupted the silence, "I'm still trying to picture this. Why would anyone want to reset their own mind?"

"Ha, ha!" Silas continued, "Eternity is a very long time, and in our culture, we don’t see this forgetting as a point of ending. It’s a fresh start. Also, because ebex children are scarce due to our metabolism, we have very few children, and many non-ebex think we might not even be able to reproduce. But that’s nonsense. There's very little public information about us. It’s all out of fear and taboo."

“Big guy…" Petra teased, "I’m not afraid of you. I'm sorry. Now, with my invulnerability superpowers, nothing can stop me. Come on, you can come at me! " She started swaying a little in place, always happy.

“So, Petra," Silas continued, with a mischievous laugh, "The only thing missing was my mentioning that this ability to reset minds—as you called it, and which every ebex has— can be done with anyone or anything that has memories, almost instantly. It doesn’t just work on ebex, and there’s nothing in this world that can prevent or reverse this process.”

Now, the two humans suddenly understand what’s going on. They joined the group of pale beings, standing quietly.

"Ha, ha, ha, but don't worry," Silas said, his tone playful. "I’d never done that to anyone, in fact, even to myself." He continued. “But a few of my ancestors, without knowing other cultures, almost unintentionally, used this ability, and in Gate, as with every ability, it’s become even more potent somehow. Now it seems to work even through audio-visual calls." Silas concluded. Then he turned to Liora's copy in his communicator, “Hey, Enhanced Version Liora! Can you hear me? Could you grab a picture of them for me? The fear on their faces is going to be legendary. I’d never erase a moment as priceless as this one from someone's memory.”

“But, yeah, those humans do deserve it! They're playing heroes while I work all day." Silas punchlined.

Liora, the original, responded instantly. “But how did you even call it 'enhanced version'? I was playing with them too!" She laughed as well, "Seriously, though, the ebex sometimes face prejudice because of this, even though no one has been reset in thousands of years. Now, let's take care of this feast!"

Frank just laughed, remaining quiet. His mind began to drift into another daydream. Dinner went by animatedly. Finally, they exchanged ideas on what they should do during the trip.

“Oh, yes, before we forget,” Silas remembered after the meal, “When we encounter other people in the villages, we’ll use codenames to avoid them identifying us as coming from Metropolis or revealing information about Seneca. There are a lot of problems and conflicts on the edge of civilization."

"Codenames?" Petra asked. “Like in movies?” She was now considerably more animated about their environment. "What kind of names should we choose?”

"Well," Silas said, "I am Silas Archon, and she's Liora Stardust. We even have a formal record with those names in Paradiso."

Frank, his mind still wandering, said. "I’ll think about it until we get to the village. We’ve got more than a month left, right? I was about to ask. How do you count days here since there is no Sun?”

"Well, the days here were always artificial. By the time of the Old Metropolis, the big moon was hot as a star and warmed the land it passed over. It did this only near the Gate Equator. And it took a long time to make a full rotation. But in larger cities, where it's necessary, we've built towers of light and heat and controlled the cycles with those towers so that the vegetation we're able to grow adapts to this rhythm. For example, the official day in Gate is slightly longer than 20 hours on Earth." Liora replied.

“I’ve decided!” Petra exclaimed suddenly, interrupting Liora. "I thought about something like 'Goddess of Metal,' but that might be a bit off-theme with the other names. So, I want you to call me ‘Warden’. That way, my enemies will try to take me out first!"

Silas chuckled. "Ha, ha, ha! It’s a good name. I just hope that our opponents understand us next time. But, okay, then you'll be Petra 'Warden,' " He then looked silently at Frank.

“What? I was still thinking about growing vegetables here. It's my turn?” Frank attempted to avoid this. “Okay, let’s see. Today, I broke things. Boards, crates..."

“Your foot,” Petra interrupted, her voice soft,

"Never mind,” Frank laughed at himself, “Back then, I’d break things, and everyone would get mad, but today I’m a pro, and everyone is happy. So, it will be ‘Firebreaker.’”

“Frank ‘Firebreaker.’ It has a good rhythm, at least,” Petra said. “Now we need to come up with a name for our group!”

Liora observed, "Well, we don't need one. We only need to be able to reference each other in a potentially hostile situation."

“Don’t spoil the fun, ‘Star,’ ” Petra replied immediately. "Since we’re chasing the memories of our friends from Earth, we'll call our group: 'The Unforgettables'. That way, it’s also a reminder to the big guy not to wake up in a bad mood one day and reset us all. "

Everyone laughed, especially Silas, realizing that they were all becoming comfortable together. Liora, laughing, added, “Yeah, yeah. The name makes sense. We almost left Ramirez hanging in Rocatrista— it would have been truly unforgettable for him."

They all slept through an animated night of light conversations and easy thoughts, which was a temporary escape from the less pleasant situation they found themselves in. Their laughter and voices cut through the eternal night of Gate, muffled by the windshield of the aerolito composition. A weak light emanated from the window of the carriage. Outside, only a snow-covered land was discernible against an almost dark sky. It was cut by a sea of hills well below the path where the aerolitos traveled. The horizon, stretching as far as the eye could see, was dimly lit by the reddish glow of the few surviving stars in the sky of Gate. On that night, there was no one to hear the unusual little party, yet after the supersonic echoes tore through the atmosphere for brief moments, absolute silence returned.

The days were passing faster and faster. They were happy to accept what fate, or their subconscious, had reserved for them as superpowers and were focused on training to make those powers even stronger. Only Silas remained reserved about the training. He'd retreat into his virtual world, but he spent much of those first days repairing the two outside aerolitos so they could use it as an open training arena. Silas even used some scraps to assemble something that looked like a flying motorcycle and reactivated a couple of aerial drones. He managed to activate everything quickly, in only a few days—all using the discarded material he found in the carriage. Silas also spread cameras along the exterior of the train so that the interior was now equipped with large screens displaying the outer environment, making them effectively like big windows for the crew. He even created an ingenious setup to block all internal lights from the outside view. He did all of this so quickly, along with another even more extensive project that consumed most of his time.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

After a little over 20 days since leaving Rocatrista, the aerolito began to slow down smoothly. Silas went to investigate what was happening. Upon discovering the reason, he called everyone to talk through the communicator.

"So, it doesn't seem you guys noticed, but we're slowing down,” Silas began, noting his companions were completely drenched in sweat, except for Liora, of course. "I'm going to warn you ahead of time. Nothing seems to be wrong. "

Liora was so absorbed in her training that she hadn't even noticed anything. “I didn't expect that. It’s not possible. Have we already reached a place?”

“Calm down, calm down,” Silas continued. "It seems there's an empty aerolito composition returning to Rocatrista, and it will pass beneath ours. However, to avoid problems, the compositions get slower in the process. It takes a long time to change speed, which helps avoid any disruptions.”

"Ah, yes. I almost forgot," Liora chimed in. So, let’s get back to training. Maybe we’ll go inside here for a while. The external environment is nice, but any abrupt changes could be dangerous, despite the security fences we installed. You never know…”

"That's also why… " Silas said, sounding oddly excited. "But I wanted to let you guys know that I finally finished my prototype. I even had time to produce a final, functional model! By the time we get to our destination, I will make at least one for each of us!”

Everyone was intrigued, anxious to see what Silas had spent so long working on. He got up and went to grab something from his workbench, then started to explain enthusiastically, "Look at this! This is a modified Flexoclava.” He pulled out a metal club with an incorporated ring on the end of the handle.

“This might look like an ancient club, but in fact, it is a high-tech instrument. It’s almost unbreakable, and the handle is gradually flexible. You can use it like a traditional club, holding the handle like this.” Silas demonstrated. He swung the club as anyone would.

“But we can also use the flexible section like this." Silas showed that the flexible edge allowed for a wider arc from whoever was holding the club. This way, the opposite end had more power to deliver an incredibly swift swing. When the end didn't hit anything, it could preserve the momentum, alternating circular movements left and right.

“Whoa. It looks brutal, but I'm getting a feeling there’s more to this. You made the train, the motorbike, the drones, and everything else in a few days. This one took twenty? ” Petra said, clearly impressed.

"Exactly," Silas confirmed, "And there's an energy cell inside each one. You activate it by holding the Flexoclava right here. Nothing happens until you hit something— Watch!”

He activated his Flexoclava, grasping a place that made it buzz, and took a swing, aiming at an empty box. With a bang, the crate was pulverized, reduced to splinters, like a piñata!

Silas, in a relatively gentle way, turned off the weapon as everyone noticed that his physical build didn't have that much impact force to do that with the box.

Liora put her hand on her face as if trying to adjust glasses that weren’t there. She rolled her eyes as if annoyed by the demonstration. “That almost seems effective. But I don’t think I'm going to get used to that ebex design. It’s all so primitive!” She whispered to her copy, and in response, her copy just posted some laughing and blinking emojis on the display.

Frank and Petra stood and started cheering, carrying Silas in their arms. They were utterly captivated by the demonstration of his work. He had managed to achieve incredible technological feats in just a few days. That club was impressive in its simplicity. They were getting into a state of frenzy with those creations.

For the rest of the day, they decided to celebrate Silas with a cube-made barbecue. Then Frank started testing Silas’ prototype—an ebex-sized "Flexoclava" prototype that was almost 8 feet long! And then Petra took the finished human-sized one, planning to start her training with this new tool.

Liora leaned back into a chair after others´ exceptionally long meals with animated conversation. She said in a soft voice. "We'll be slowing down this train for two or three hours more. Soon, we should see those other empty aerolitos coming from the front; they’re on their way now. They had tiny lights that could be seen on the front screen any time soon. It will be very subtle since there is no windshield on then.”

Everyone turned their eyes towards the front monitor to see them, except for Petra, who had been overeating. She had crossed her arms above her head and was looking at the ceiling through the other screen."

After a while, watching the sky, Petra said. “Oh! Looks like it’s going to rain!”

Most of the group did not pay much attention to her comment. Liora’s copy voiced a question from a terminal in a very unusual turn. Her usual self seemed to be the one who talked.

"What did you say, Petra?” asked Liora's copy in a metallic voice from the terminal.

"When?" Petra asked. “I mean... Can you talk now?” she added, still digesting the banquet.

"About the rain?” continued the copy while the original Liora sat up in a jump, realizing what was going on.

"Yeah, it looks like it’s going to rain,” Petra said, unaware and pointing to the ceiling. “I saw lightning in the sky a while ago, way off in the distance…"

Silas immediately jumped out of his seat. "I'm going to see what's on the recording here," he said, rushing toward the terminal. "There is no rain in Gate."

Liora headed toward the door that led to the open training arena, saying, “Check what you find, Silas. I’m going to check out what’s outside.” She flung the door open and left for the outside of the aerolito.

Silas managed to isolate a flash of blue light from the ceiling camera and sent the coordinates to Liora. He couldn't zoom in on the recording, which looked like an unclear, bluish dot of light.

After a brief moment of tension, Liora came rushing back to the carriage. Her voice was high-pitched and distraught. “I don't know what it is, but it's not good. There are thousands of things flying on the horizon following the empty aerolito that is coming toward us. Also, next to the path where we are right now, there are some destroyed aerolitos far below, scattered on the ground. Most of them still have their cargo remains attached, lying there inside small impact craters in the middle of the snow.

Silas tried to be clear as he called for everyone to get organized. “Alright. Everyone, let´s go to the first car since it is closer to the windshield and has a better chance not to fall with turbulence. We're going to grab what we can since we still have some time. Then, we'll shut off all the lights and wait to see what this is all about. Petra and Frank keep the clubs, and Liora keeps the daggers. Let’s go!”

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Name: Silas "Archon" Cade Species: Ebex XP: 8 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Resistance (ebex) Magnitude 1 Super-Technique Magnitude 1 Unknowledge (ebex) Magnitude 1 Superior Technology: Architect Magnitude 2 Natural Combined Armor (ebex) - Know it all (party) - Skills Traditional Dancing (Dex) +2 Mathematics (Int) +4 Computer Engineering (Tech) +4 Kung fu (Res) +4 (fixed - know it all) Essence: Reality +4 Days: 9140 Equipment Superior safety clothes (AC 3) (to Frank) Silas´ Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produces 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) Other 3 credits on Paradiso account Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube) Flight surveillance drones (2x, normal tech) Airbike, speed +4 (boosted), flight (normal tech)

Name: Liora “Stardust” Gorgath Species: Oioioi XP: 7 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Dexterity Magnitude 3 Shardify (oioioi) Magnitude 1 Superior Technology Network (oioioi) - Structural (oioioi) - Know it all (party) - Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Dex) +4 (refocus) Informatics (Wis) +3 Streetwise (Cha) +4 Kung fu (Res) +4 (fixed - know it all) Essence: Reality +4 Days: 8585 Equipment 2x Tech-modified schrogae throwing knives (d6), melee, Hit: Dex, low-range comlink, locator Other Secure private network nano-connector Mk1: enables connection with Mag1 safety 2 credits on Paradiso account Survival kit (fuel cube, shelter cube)

Name: Petra "Warden" Somerson Species: Human XP: 6 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 2 Super-Resistance Magnitude 2 Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Res) +4 (refocus) Shooting (Dex) +4 Military Discipline (Mor) +4 Tang Soo Do (Str) +4 (fixed - know it all) Essence: Reality +4 Days: 5254 Equipment Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn Other Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube)

Name: Frank "Firebreaker" Summers Species: Human XP: 6 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Strength Magnitude 2 Super-Dexterity Magnitude 1 Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Dex) +4 (refocus) Bar Politics (Int) +4 Power Drinking (Res) +4 Drunken Fighting (Str) +4 (fixed - know it all) Essence: Reality +4 Days: 4974 Equipment (temporary) Silas´ Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produces 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) Other Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube)

Superior Technology projects People on development Silas 2 research/day People on prototyping Silas 3 research/day People on production Silas, Liora (1 copy) 4 research/day Blueprints Flexoclava Foundation melee weapon + 1x internal energy generator 20 / 20 Research Prototype Silas´ Flexoclava Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produces 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) 20 / 20 Research Production Flexoclava (complete: 1x) Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn 20 / 25 Research