Peach's frown slowly faded into a smile across her face. "You know what, buddy? I'll stay right here with you to help!" chirped Peach, "Honestly, I doubt I can complete the game alone. After all, without you, I would never have gotten this far!"

Orion was surprised at Peach's supportive response and decided to confirm what he heard again with her, "Are you sure? An emerald-class artifact is worth at least $50,000! Are you willing to let go of that huge amount of money for me?"

"Oh! Come on, buddy!" exclaimed Peach, slapping Orion on his back, "Money isn't everything to me! Our friendship is way more important!" She linked arms and nudged him towards the professor, "Let's help this lady together!"

"Hello to you both, I'm Rox, or you may call me Prof. Rox, whatever works for you," greeted the professor with disdain. "I'm so glad that both of you are helping me today.

I'm always glad to have a breath of fresh air. The insights of new students compared to those who have studied here merely expel the regurgitations of the past," continued the professor in a flat, moodless voice, before taking a deep breath and walking ahead.

Orion and Peach followed her closely, entering a clean and white hallway, resembling that of a hospital. Passing a section sat a stern guard, who stopped the team, asking for their passes.

After scanning the passes with a scanning pen, the man requested for them to stand in the middle of what mirrored that of a security check box—those seen in the airports of the past.

"You are free of ether pathologies. Next." said the guard.

Using a head nod to substitute a verbal "thank you", Prof. Rox moved past the security section and led the pair through the mysterious bright white walkway.

Keeping close to each other, Peach whispered in a low voice to Orion, "Hey! I wonder where this endless route leads us to?" Unsure of what lay ahead too, he shrugged his shoulders.

Prof. Rox suddenly jammed her steps and turned around to speak, causing the pair to nearly stumble on their steps. "Remember to do a full body scan when you leave this place," she chuckled animatedly,

"You'll never know if an ether bug may escape and enter your nervous system when meddling with ether." She turned around and continued walking.

Anxiety filled Orion's mind as he heard of the possibility of an ether bug entering the nervous system. He asked in a nervous voice, "Erm… Prof. Rox?"

"Ye? You've got a question?" She replied in a nonchalant voice.

"How often does one catch an ether bug?" Orion nervously asked.

Pausing on her steps, Prof. Rox swiftly turned to the pair and, with a short, emotionless reply, said, "It depends. it's seasonal. Comes and goes" Adding on with her monotonous tone, "There have been times when we see a spike in the number of people catching the bug and we get mass quarantined. Other times, we have a flat zero for a few months."

Orion's eyes started to sparkle, and a deep, adventurous spirit rose within his heart. "I'm now delving deeper and deeper into the world for the ether!" Orion thought aloud to himself, "Real life and practical experiences instead of only theories from high school!"

Excitedly, he nudged Peach's elbow and whispered in an animated voice, "I wonder what it would feel like to catch an ether bug!!! I envision a number of possibilities…" he drifted into a dreamy vision and smiled to himself.

As they reached a heavy, three-storey high automated door, the professor waved for it to open. Like the Red Sea, the door seamlessly parted, and a glaring bright light shone through, putting the trio in the spotlight. A strong gush of wind blasted into their faces, nearly lifting them off their feet.

Finally, with some variation in her voice, Prof. Rox exclaimed, with arms raised up, "HERE WE ARE!!!" She continued slowly, with a gradual increase in volume, "The laboratory of the... INTER! DIMENSIONAL! ETHER! TRANSFERENCE!"

An enigmatic smile gradually formed across her face as she did a sassy hair flip with her long light golden brown hair.

Orion and Peach's jaws dropped in awe as they were greeted by the majestic-looking machines that looked like capsules.

The atmosphere was intense as they noticed two other laboratory assistants in full concentration working on their spacious white tables in the corner of the lab.

The researchers were completely oblivious to the team's entrance as they vigorously keyed their reports into the bulky desktops.

"Today! We shall test if this latest frequency can transfer over a simple object from the etherlands!" Prof. Rox spoke in an assertive voice, startling the duo.

"All you have to do is to sit inside these pods," as she pointed her skinny index finger from Orion to Peach and gestured her head in the direction of the majestic-looking machines also known as the pods.

"And visualize..." the professor continued her explanation, swaying from side to side with animated hand gestures, "your hands grabbing something."

The team proceeded to enter their separate pods. Orion sat alone inside the pod, placed on the gloves provided by Prof. Rox and started visualizing.

Orion felt a strange pull on his hand, which abruptly interrupted his visualization. It felt as though something had passed through his hand, but when he tried to grasp it, there was nothing there.

"OH WOW!!! COOL!!! I FOUND SOMETHING!" came an enthusiastic voice from the next pod.