Where the fuck am I, Jack thought as he looked upon four other people who looked about as clueless as him. The strange corridor had the same layout and seating as a commercial airplane, but something was off. There was a strange device on the walls with a robotic message on its screen."Come look at this", Jack signaled to the four strangers as he read the message on the strange device. The device had light blue characters clashing against a dark grey background. Straight out of a web novel
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Congratulations!
Congrats, Newcomers, on being selected to bond with Voider-00! They have selected you five specifically to be their new crew.
Upon acceptance: You five and Voider-00 will enter a soul binding contract, forbidding you from betraying each other. Your bonds will deepen and you will all be automatically assigned classes to best fit your arrangement to be the crew. Under contract, you will all have a connection deeper than anything you have ever known, and will be able to communicate through what you would call "Telepathy", even with Voider-00.
Upon refusal: Instant, excruciating soul death.
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Jack and the others wanted no more of that pain, but they hesitated when it mentioned their souls."Sounds weird, but it's not like we seem to have much of a choice.", A young man who Jack thought to be several years younger than him spoke. He continued saying,"My name is Xanthian by the way, aside from these circumstances it's nice to meet you all." He was agreeable at least, Jack internally rejoiced at that fact."Yeah, it seems like we have no choi-", They all knew what the other young man was going to say but it was cut short by an eardrum busting "BEEP!" from the strange contract giving thermostat.
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ACCEPT IN 30 SECONDS OR YOU WILL HAVE AUTOMATICALLY REFUSED. 29...28...27.....
Accept:Y/N
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Jack selected Y without a second thought, he still had a life to live after all. In that moment, a sensation touched those five souls and forever changed their lives.
If that was a drug, I'd be a junkie, Someone, Jim thought. They all had a bond they'd never felt before, and even with their thoughts interconnected and souls linked they had some talking to do after that thought. Another thought came flooding into Jack's head, Jim's head, Xanthian's, everyone's. First time?, Asked a strange, robotic feminine voice who they all seemed to know. The plane, Voider-00.
"Pickled popth tart cakes!", said the youngest among them, Mathew. He was a decent looking fellow with short brown hair and green eyes, the whole time he had kept an elated, yet frightened look on his ghostily pale face. They all laughed inwardly and outwardly at his creative immaturity. After that the group calmed down. They were assigned a main class and sub class as promised. The system appeared in front of them instead of on the terminal this time. Jack expected this much but was still shocked by the strange holographic squares that floated in front of his eyes. David, who had not spoken yet, instead grimacing like he had been constipated for eons spoke in a deep, raspy voice like he'd smoked since the big bang,"I'm a mechanic, what about ya'll?" Damn, that's a thick accent, thought Jim. They were all from different parts of the country, Jack had expected this. Xanthian seemed to have no accent, but Jim was northwestern and David was southern. Mathew also barely had an accent, from what Jack had heard. Jack obviously knew that he was from California.
David and Jim were arguing with Xanthian attempting and failing to mediate. Jack just tuned them out and began observing the strange terminal. The message had changed. It read:
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Tutorial Trial 1/1
Perform repairs & upgrades on Voider-00 and kill a wyvern.
Time limit: 1:00:59...58...57
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Fail penalty: ?????? Quest
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What are all your classes?, Jack was beginning to operate the telepathy ability with proficiency. All four of his fellow voiders responded. Mathew, Xanthian, Jim, and David, were Druid, Enchanter, Swashbuckler, and Mechanic respectively. They all also had subclasses, Mathew's being builder, Xanthian's being support mage, Jim's Gunner, and David's being Smith, Jack heard David mention something about the system describing the Smith class as being both gunsmith and blacksmith combined. Jack informed them all that his main class was Pilot, he also told them that his sub class so happened to be commander. The entire group agreed that this put him in the leadership position for the crew.
The group got to work on the repairs. Mathew pointed out that both of the wings were damaged. He spoke of his active skill and how he could use the sunflower that sat on a table at the end of the corridor to hold the wings together. Something of mutations and vines. Jack was half listening to the chaos around him, he was mainly focused on his Statistics and Skills, mainly his Pilot class's [Passive]:
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Name: Jack Raffle
Age: 29
Class: Pilot, Commander
Pilot Skills:
[Passive skill] Seemless Aerial Control
You are capable of flying any Aerial vehicle by via mind control whilst fueling it with your own mana. Aircraft flown by you can seamlessly go in directions that would be impossible if you weren't in the cockpit. You may customize any Aircraft that you have a deep connection to. the deeper that bond, the faster and cheaper those customizations come! +100000 mana capacity while in the cockpit of Voider-00.
[Active skill] Deployable Landing Space
You can deploy a temporary runway to land any Aircraft you happen to need to land in an open field! Land must be relatively flat, requirements for deployment become less specific as you level this skill. Base cost: 10000 mana
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Jack had a brilliant idea, I can use that passive to allow the vines out. Jack reached deep down into himself, all the way down into his soul to find his connection to Voider-00. He felt an invisible yet tangible string linking him to to the magic Aircraft, which he used to modify a part of the corridor, he pictured two elliptical doors on both sides of the corridor, he pictured them appearing on both sides of Mathew. Jack heard metal bending and popping as Mathew looked at the areas where the doors were forming. When the doors had finished forming, Mathew released many small pollen-like particles onto the sunflower. In an instant, the sunflower grew to be an enormous vine, or more accurately a lot of vines. Vines spread through the entire corridor, the walls, the floor, and the roof were covered in vines. They were light green with a little flower poking out about every five feet. This sight amazed Jack and creeped him out at the same time. He looked out onto both wings and sure enough, they were held together as well as they could be. Now for the upgrades, Jack sighed.
Jack spoke with David about the upgrades that needed to be done. He used their bond, courtesy of the system, to show him the options.
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Voider-00 [Upgrades]
Large turret 0/1
Living space improvements 0/1
Smithy 0/2
Garden 0/2
Mana Capacity +1000 0/100
Flight speed +70 mph 0/10
Upgrade pts:2
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Jim and Mathew had been talking and Xanthian was fiddling with his interface. They decided that since the upgrades would affect everyone, they should call a vote. There were two upgrade points available, and they agreed that they may need the turret ID there are monsters back home, they voted on the other upgrade points use. Mathew voted on the garden, David and Jack on the Smithy, and Xanthian and Jim voted on living space. Garden lost, so Mathew was the tiebreaker. He voted on living space. Jack and David sat down on the bed couch as Jack figured out the mind control. After just a little Druid vomit and an eternity of mindless small talk, Jack sent Voider-00 through a strange green portal in the void.
They were in a vast field that none of them knew. The entire group decide to step out for a little, but it was bone chillingly cold. They all sat down on the new couches in the new living space. Jim stood up,"Hey Mathew?", he asked."Yeah?", Mathew responded."Ya think you can use this new kitchen to make us some of those Pickled popth tart cakes?", Jim joked and Mathew's face turned beet red. The group laughed and collapsed from exhaustion shortly after. It had been a long time in the void. They were eager to explore the apocalypse in their Magic Airplane, after a good ten hour nap.