"Passengers, please check your belongings once more before disembarking the vehicle." Freddy said in an overly curteous tone, "Next stop, Chichén Itza!"

"Whoa, you really sounded like the voice on the plane." I admired the imitation.

"That's just the pilot, don't mystify it." Issei scoffed, "And uncle's really only good at making lame jokes that only make someone like you laugh."

"Nephew, are you trying to offend me or Lune here?"

"Both, now Eyes in front. Parking this damned thing is the worst part of the entire ride." He replied.

And so, not even a moment later, the airbike's propellers stalled and the flying vehicle slammed down onto the road below with great force. It's exactly because of this hard drop that we've learned to stand up so that our balls wouldn't get crushed. Sadly, we had to learn this the hard way the first time it happened, because Freddy had forgotten to warn us ahead of time. Even still though, just because we have this landing strategy down doesn't at all make it any less painful and scary. The airbike has been around the world as many times as it's rider has, so it's a given that it's pretty banged up.

"Geez, are all airbikes this shoddy to work with?" I asked as I rubbed the sore spot between my legs.

"Well what'd you expect of a first gen airbike?" Freddy shrugged, "Actually, this thing wasn't even store-bought, if I'm gonna be a hundred percent with you. I found it in the junkyard and scrapped it back together with the missing parts I had found."

"This hunk of junk is a rat bike!?" Issei immediately jumped off it, "That's it, I ain't sitting on that damned thing ever again!"

"Then how do you propose we make it to the rest of the World Wonders?" I sighed.

"Simple!" He pointed to the nearby airskate shop, "We go buy ourselves a substitute!"

And by substitute, he of course meant hoverboards. Well, I guess we do have quite a bit more spending money after we sold the extra megavolt batteries I made, but is this really a smart idea? I'll admit I was pretty interested in the concept of even a normal four-wheel skateboard, even more so a zero-wheel one, but neither one of us has ever stood on it in our entire lives. I'll try anything once, I guess, but if it turns out to be slow, boring or even dangerous for that matter, I'll just sit back with Freddy on his airbike while Issei mongos on alone.

"Woohoo!" I shouted as I kept gaining more and more speed, "Never mind! This is the most fun I've had in years!"

"Mistakes were made, mistakes were made, mistakes were made...!" Issei slid closely behind uncontrollably, "How do you stop this thing!?"

"The manual says you just hover your back foot next to the board!" Freddy, who was watching over us on his prized rat airbike, instructed, "So just like the 'push forward' movement used to gain speed, but you don't move your foot!"

"What?! You want me to put my foot off the board!? Are you crazy? I'll die!"

Hm, what an intuitive device. I think I'll add this to my list of things to reinvent when I get back to my world. So if what Freddy said is true, then all I have to do is place my back foot here, and I'll slowly come to a stop. Yeah, I'm losing speed, but it's not as sudden as I had expected. I wonder what kind of mind-boggling tech is used to achieve this level of control... Heh, speaking of control, I wonder how Issei's doing back ther-

"Huh!?" I shouted as the barreling Issei crashed straight into me at full speed.

It seems he couldn't muster up the courage to stop himself in time, so while I had come to a peaceful stop, he was still going top gear. Now, it's one thing for him to practically break our ribs with this maneuver, cause that I can just Heal and we'll be all good. No, the second and more expensive problem is that, because his hoverboard never actually stopped, it flew off into the distance before getting caught on a pebble and madly flipping about before eventually hitting the dirt road and exploding in a spectacular display.

"Ah, the board!" Issei yelled for it, "Dammit! Now what am I gonna ride to the site?"

"Ahem." Freddy smugly cleared his throat as he landed his airbike just as painfully as he always did, "Do I hear regret coming out of my dear nephew's mouth?"

"Sob, uuuu..." Issei cried for his aching scrotum ahead of time, "My boys, they still didn't finish their God-given task yet... They're still so young, and yet..."

"Hey, what's that over there?" I ignored his tears as I pointed to the colorful building a little way's ahead of us, "Some kind of restaurant?"

"Yeah, and good timing too." Freddy rubbed his grumbling belly, "I could do with some authentic Mexican food. You guys ever tried it?"

"Nope." Issei stopped crying and answered back immediately with a straight face.

"How could I?" I cocked my head back as I furrowed my brows.

"Then it's settled!" Freddy clapped his hands excitedly, "You're gonna love it! Of all the foreign cuisine I've had during my travels, Mexican food was one of the best! Come on!"

"Ack, I miss my hoverboard already..." Issei begrudgingly sat behind Freddy, "Ugh, why is this country bumpkin from another world so much better at handling future tech than I am?"

"Maybe cause you were a shut-in NEET your entire life here?" Freddy remarked.

"So were you, asshat!" Issei barked, "Hell, you still refuse to get a job and instead leech off of my parents' money!"

"Haha, yeah!" Freddy hugged him without a shred of guilt, "You and I are alike in that regard!"

"Ugh, can't argue with that..."

You know it's bad when even Issei has to agree. But who cares about that? It's time to eat some Mexican food! Tacos, burritos, nachos paired with the greatest guacamole I've ever tasted, we ordered it all and had ourselves a feast. The food is even quite spicy, but it's the sweet kind of spice that only really serves to force your stomach to make room for more. Pair it with the salads this restaurant gave for free with every dish ordered and by the end of it we felt like we had actually lost calories, believe it or not. Freddy mentioned something about how we'll regret eating this much later, but I honestly don't see myself ever regretting eating these churros!

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

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"Ah, finally, Chichén Itzá." Issei marveled at it as he simultaneously read the wiki page on his phone, "A large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal Classic period."

"Meaning?" I tilted my head.

"Old people build old city, new people invade old city and kill all old people, old city remain for new people to gawk at." Freddy explained it to me like I was five.

"Damn, so the Maya people are basically this world's equivalent of the Raamans, I guess."

"There's like a billion other Raaman-like civilizations if you look at it like that." Issei rolled his Eyes, "But well, I can agree that this giant-ass temple easily reaches Raaman ruins levels of dope."

"Is this another Vast World joke I'm too Earthling to understand?" Freddy chimed in.

"Don't worry about it. Let's just touch this thing so we can go to the next World Wonder." I rushed to get our wishes ASAP.

"Hold on." Issei stopped me, "This is our first time touching a World Wonder in this world, right?"

Hm? What's he yapping on about now?

"Yeah?" I raised an Eyebrow, "What of it?"

"In other words, if we touch it, and no Green light pops up..." He gulped, "Then we can say bye-bye to ever seeing our loved ones again..."

"H-Hey now, the Gods themselves told us this plan will work 100%." I felt a cold sweat as I reassured both him and myself, "Don't go making me anxious for no reason, dude."

"Yeah, but are you really gonna trust those wackos after all they did?" He asked, "What if it's all actually an elaborate trap to kill us for ruining the Universe Cycles natural flow? I wouldn't put it past them, y'know."

"What they did and what they said is of no correlation to each other, Issei." I groaned, "Besides, if they wanted to kill us, they would have done so a long time ago. There's no way any one of us could take on any of the Gods no matter how you look at it."

"You two, stop fighting." Freddy had us both calm down, "Obviously this is a momentous occassion, riddled with nerves, anxiety and worries. But I think we all know that at the end of the day, there's no other way around it but to just try and see what happens."

"Uncle!" Issei fussed, "You've seen what the Gods are like! If they try to kill us...!"

"Then so be it." Freddy accepted the possibility all too quickly, "Lune said it best - There's no getting out of it if they set their sights on our heads."

Grumbling, he finally agreed to going up to the famed temple to touch it with us. Dammit, now that Issei's put that thought in my head, my heart can't stop racing at the thought of this plan not working. I don't remember ever explicitly touching any World Wonders back home, so I won't know if it worked or not even if I do see or feel something. But well, it's the moment of truth, I guess. Just gotta climb up those stairs and...

"Hold it." A person that resembled a guard stopped us, "Not allowed."

"We just wanna go up and..." Freddy tried to explain.

"No, tourists are forbidden from climbing or entering the Temple of Kukulcán." He firmly denied our entry.

"Well, I guess we can touch the outside for it to still count." Issei shrugged, "Is that fine with you, amigo?"

"Hmph, yes. That is okay." He scoffed before turning to police some other group of tourists, "Hey, no entry!"

"Well, I guess there's no use stalling anymore." I gulped before putting my hand out.

"Yeah, here's to my future dream girlfriend." Freddy followed suit and extended his hand.

"So, on the count of three, then?" Issei was the last to reach out, "One, two...!"

"Three!" We shouted in unison as we touched the stoney surface, our hearts stopping once we saw there was no reaction to the touch.

"...Wait!" Issei stopped Freddy and me from rescindedly moving our hands off the temple brick, "Maybe it just takes time! Don't give up so soon!"

"What? Weren't you the one that didn't believe in this plan the most-?" Freddy chuckled.

"I don't care!" He shot back, "I have people who are waiting for me to reunite with them! I can't afford to be skeptical!"

"...Issei's right." I kept applying pressure to the brick, "My wife and kids are waiting for me back home. I'll be damned if I miss out on Cene's childhood as well."

"Cheh, deadbeat." Issei smirked.

"Pervert." I shot back a smug grin, "Eh? T-This light...!? Issei!"

"That's it!" He celebrated, "That's the Green light! But how!?"

"Ah, I see now." Freddy inspected the spot we touched closer, "There's a small layer of moss covering the bricks. That's why it only registered after we moved enough of it away by applying continuous pressure to it."

So Issei was right all along, then... In the end, all we had to do was have some more patience and faith. But this is great, we now know for a fact that the Gods were neither lying nor conspiring to sabotage us. It took over two months, but we finally have the first World Wonder checked off the list! Just 6 more to go and we'll be getting our wishes, meaning Freddy gets his girlfriend, Issei gets his harem, and I get to go home to my beautiful wife and kids! Haha, so this is what a true win tastes like! I almost forgot, given how long it's been!