Varian clutched his forehead on the way back to the academy. He wished he didn't come here at all.
'Is everything fake?' Varian gazed down from his hover car as it dashed down the airway.
"Your memory is not altered." The doctor's voice continued to ring in his head.
"Boom!" Varian punched the interior of the vehicle.
It shook for a while, leaving a small impression.
Varian came back to his senses and cursed himself.
'There's no way everything I saw could be false. Sia… must exist.' Varian glanced at the setting sun as the hover car crossed the ocean.
He recalled the scene where she extended her hand to him. He didn't know why, but he could feel the kindness and acceptance from her. He wasn't… lonely.
"I can't be too emotional." Varian shook his head.
'There are only two possibilities I can see. One is that doctor is right, so I never grew up with Sia. So someone or something is causing me to have those dreams.' Varian wished it was false.
But he couldn't rule out the possibility. If the dragon bracelet had the system which prevented him from awakening for so long, maybe something or someone was giving him those dreams.
Varian's first suspect was System itself. With all said and done, he knew nothing about its origin or motives.
'System, what is your goal?'
[Host, this system's goal is for you to stand on the absolute top of the universe. Our goals are aligned.]
'Why? What do YOU want?'
[...]
Varian shook his head and stopped asking. This system was hiding something very important from him. However, it said it would not reveal anything about itself but wouldn't stop him if he had the chance.
Varian then thought of the second possibility 'Second. The doctor is wrong. She is a level 6 Telepath. Maybe she can detect a Level 7 Psychic. But what about Level 8, even...'
'Even if they want to erase my memory, why would a Level 8 Psychic come down for an unawakened 17-year-old teen? Any Level 5 or 6 Telepath is more than enough.'
'But if it's really the second possibility, then… I should be worried.' Varian sighed, but despite the troubles it meant, he wished the truth was second. Then his dreams about Sia would be his memories. Their bond would be real.
As he drifted into the thoughts, the hover car finally reached his dormitory. Varian absent mindedly walked up the floors and reached his room.
He sat crossed long on the bed and took out the aura crystals. He absorbed the aura and felt it turn to chi and space power.
He focused on the chi and tried to adapt his body to it.
The other times, he tried to sense space around.
He immersed himself in the state and time slipped by.
{Your class will start in an hour. The location is sent to you.} The comm notified.
Varian opened his eyes and saw the suns just rising from the horizon. It was 5:00 AM.
At the same time, system prompted.
[+10 Xp
Body Path Level 2: 10/200
+0 Xp
Space Path Level 1: 60/100]
Varian felt the chi in his body was better integrated with his body. However, there was no significant improvement in his space power.
'Am I missing something?'
He didn't study the divine paths in detail. He was focused on combat. His peers, once awakened, studied the Divine Paths thoroughly.
'I can ask a tutor.' He thought and changed into the uniform.
He reached the first year's teaching block. It was a large complex with many buildings connected.
He saw every student was going to one of two lecture halls and checked his comm.
{There will be three types of classes every day.
General Classes: You'll be taught general knowledge, leadership and more.
Combat Class: You'll duel with your peers and hone your combat under supervision.
Speciality Class: Divine Paths will be explained.}
'Now it's a general class.' Varian entered a lecture hall. It was already bustling. More and more students entered and chatted with their new friends.
Everyone was quickly forming their own group.
'They're preparing for the missions. Forming a team early would be beneficial.'
Varian took a seat and the students in his row left their seats in a hurry. Even the ones in front of him moved away.
It was as if they were avoiding a plague.
Varian took a breath and calmed himself.
'As I thought, I can't form a team with these guys.'
Soon, the lecture hall was filled, and the clock hit 6.
A middle-aged man appeared on the stage. He was in a lab coat, strange for a military academy.
His aura indicated his level to be only Level 4, but no one despised him. He must be a researcher in the military academy of sciences. They were the people who built most of their technologies. Angering them would result in no good results.
He didn't even bother with introductions and started his speech, er, lecture.
"We'll start from the beginning." His voice resounded throughout the hall.
The students perked their ears.
"Why did blink happen?"
"The old sun was split into two due to some unknown events and aura was released suddenly. Humans couldn't adapt to this sudden spike and died." A female student with curly hair answered.
He repeated, "Why did blink happen?"
The subtext was 'Why did the sun split into two in the first place?'
The female student opened her mouth but couldn't find the answer. No one really knew.
"It was holding aura inside from the beginning and it split when its limit is reached." She gave her opinion.
The professor shook his head and said, "Aura is compressible. Even if aura was compressed, leading to it bursting out, then Sun would implode, not sit."
Everyone nodded. But the question still remained.
The professor stretched his arms and said "This is the reason."
A hologram of a black and white spaceship appeared in the class.
It was way different compared to human space shuttles, which were closer to ancient aeroplanes.
This one was disc like. It was similar to what old earth humans called as UFO.
The students looked at it for a moment, and soon they gasped. "Isn't this the ghost ship in urban legends?"
"Yes."
"I thought incidents reporting its appearance were publicity events."
The murmurs increased.
Ghost ship was the nickname for this flying saucer space shuttle. Since the advent of blink 520 years ago, there were many instances with humans claiming to have seen this ghost ship.
Initially, it was struck off as someone trying to start the UFO cult of old earth. But fast forward into the future, the incidents still remained and only increased.
The government declared no evidence of 'ghost ship' was found. But the increased popularity despite lack of evidence cemented its position as an urban legend.
"This ghost ship was the one that broke Sun. That caused the re-emergence of aura." The lecturer stated.
Aura existed everywhere in the Universe. Today's humans only explored a few star systems close to Solar system but aura was found everywhere.
Thus the consensus was that aura existed everywhere except solar system till Blink.
Why?
"The aura of solar system and its vicinity were locked by something we don't know yet. This ghost ship broke these chains, if you will and aura broke loose." He said, and the class turned silent.
"Now you must be wondering who can even seal up the aura of the entire solar system. We all know who they are." The professor paused for a moment.
Varian thought for a moment, and his eyes widened.
"They…"