The long lines of unending hallways returned to view bringing conflicting emotions, longing, and boredom. Unlike a couple of hours ago, they were now almost devoid of activity, very few people crossed passed them apart from the occasional patrolling units.

Elgan could guess why. It was already nighttime, and people weren't machines, they would have probably gone to have dinner and go to sleep.

The journey continued without any interesting event whatsoever much to the youth's disappointment. None of the two armed women seemed eager to start a conversation with his pitful ass, and to be honest, neither was he interested to talk to them. Not after all the things he had to see today.

The slam of their soles extended through the metal corridors accompanied by the occasional flickering sound of the lights. They turned a corner changing routes from their last course arriving at another elevator terminal, this one far broader than the last one having a row of eight elevators, none of them being used at the moment since they were the only ones present. Together with a fragile-looking rolling cube.

'Another cleaner...'

If he had learned something today was that these people were very clean. Maybe too much.

| Bip |

The system slid open the doors, the two soldiers entered the cubical steel case without a second thought, letting out a long sigh Elgan followed after.

- Positive; Fifth floor. Area [NAT-Ady]. -

The doors closed, the magnetized cabin moved through a series of both vertical and horizontal tunnels before arriving at its destination.

'What is this... An hotel?'

The doors opened to reveal yet another slightly different interior design. To be fair, none of them were bad looking. In fact, the interior of the housing complex had nothing to envy of any decently luxurious hotel. If someone had tried to convince Elgan he found himself inside a military barrack, chances were he would have eaten their kneecaps.

Unfunny jokes aside, the quarter's hallways were covered in the same whitish alloy, no speck of dust to be seen, though instead of lengthy infinite corridors, this level followed a more traditional approach to housing.

As they walked passed rows upon rows of dorms, Elgan noticed each door had a small incrusted led light, most of them shining in red, very few in green. All in all, none of them bothered us, we continued our journey down the tangle until we arrived in front of a room lit in white.

|Clack|

Taken by surprise by the leading girl stopping, Elgan turned to face the door, which unlocked subsequently, the led circuit shining in bright red.

"That's your dorm."

One of them said in the same lifeless robotic voice, they turned around ready to disappear wherever.

...

"Thanks."

Elgan said, his hand pushing the doorknob.

"Day starts at 6:30, the academy at 7:30. Lights out at 21:30."

One of the two soldiers said before turning a corner.

'6, 7, 21. Got that.'

Elgan entered the room slightly surprised by how spacious it was. The door closed behind him. As expected there were no windows to the outside, it appeared a view to the outside was a rare luxury in these lands. He could guess the reason to be that most of the complex was buried deep underground.

Acknowledging his presence, the room's lights turned on. A bathroom and a bedroom, each decorated in the same simplistic boring way.

He had nothing to complain about anyway, He'd lived worse.

'Well, shall we try?'

Even though he had supposedly been sleeping for a good long time already, Elgan couldn't help but feel tired. The changes, new information, new people, new environment. The world may have been upside down for a long time already, but Elgan had not come to comprehend the scale of the change up til now.

Telepathy, holograms, cleaner box AI, laser guns. Hell, even ultra-fast elevators. It felt already like a sci-fi film, and he had only witnessed the tip of the iceberg.

'Sleep...'

All he'd done today was walk across corridors and talk, and yet that was enough to shake his perception of the world completely. Everything he once knew had crumbled before his eyes, and now he had to reconstruct it all over again.

'More than that.'

The young man finished removing his white undershirt, his stare lost on the bulging veins and wrinkled skin of his arm. His stare pierces it, as if waiting for the grotesque approximation of a limb to excuse itself.

Needless to say, it didn't.

'I don't think that man was lying.'

More than mind-blowing technologies, new geopolitical situations, or the endless war against anomalies. That which had sparked something inside him was the Fragmented. It didn't matter how or why, the thing was, for a matter of fact, it was possible to transcend human limits.

He had seen it with his own eyes... well, eye.

Moving things with the mind, running slightly faster than average, reading minds, regenerating lost limbs. The possibilities opened before him.

'I lose nothing trying anyways.'

Determined, Elgan's hand extended in the air, his grip facing the red book sitting over the grey desk, trying to move it from a distance.

...

His expression progressively contorted into a grimace as he attempted to make the object float without result. His face formed a scowl, his hand finally retracted as he stared at the reflection produced in the bathroom's mirror in embarrassment.

"Haha..."

Elgan lay in his bed, the cushion of the mattress absorbing the impact, his gaze set on the white roof, his hands acting as pillows. Still, he wasn't trying to fall asleep though... not yet. He had other things to do.

'It seems I don't have telekinesis after all.'

He pondered for himself.

'Maybe my powers have yet to fully awaken.'

He shook away the idea for the moment, he would probably find out in the morning anyway.

Elgan's hand then darted to the left pocket in his trousers, pulling out a plastic wristband. The accessory had been one of the two 'gifts' Armstrong had given him after their meeting, and although he didn't exactly know how it worked, the kid had a good idea what its purpose could be.

Every person he had encountered so far had one of these equipped for some reason, just like the doctor back in the hospital had shown him, they were capable of creating holograms, being something of a portable laptop of sorts. Though Elgan suspected the reason everyone had one was deeper than that, the reason as to why he wasn't convinced equipping it was a good idea. More so knowing it was the Official's courtesy.

The identification Holo-Watch XD.01 engraved on the soft white plastic.

'Holo-watch, that sounds better. I wonder how it's used, do I have to talk or-'

Alas, surprisingly enough, a bluish hologram interface appeared before he could finish his sentence. A half-transparent circle enlarged in front of him, the words "Interraei Corporation" span around it as a series of icons dragged across the virtual screen arranging a wheel menu.

"Is that the manufacturer?"

Another piece of information to take care of.

"I'll look into it later."

He muttered to himself as he examined the floating menu, his interest picked.

'Whatever, I can just smash it if turns out to be problematic...'

Having said so, he would be lying if he didn't admit he couldn't wait to check out his new toy. As a young man interested in everything to do with technology and electronics, he would be committing a sin if he were to throw away such an opportunity.

"Hmmm..."

Although the feeling of pressing buttons made of nothing but air was certainly a new one, the youth didn't take much time to get accustomed to it. Hologram keyboards and old keyboards aside, the interface remained almost unchanged, making it easy for him to navigate the system.

All in all, the Holo-Watch had certainly an interesting design, far lighter and more versatile than any mobile phone he had used.

'99% of battery, 593 hours remaining.'

Elgan read the small text on the side of the flat screen, intrigued by the high autonomy the wrist band allowed. Still, though impressive, it was something else that Elgan wanted to know. His fingers span the wheel-like menu, selecting that which called his attention. His fingers hovered over the half-transparent icons, invoking in the process a brief summary of each application.

Losing control over his unbound curiosity, his knowledge-hungry gaze sped over the lines of words.

Map:

Netless access to the Coalition's earth map database enables the user to easily navigate both interiors and exteriors as long as [Access Level] is equal or higher than the perimeter's threshold.

Specifications: [App Access]-Granted [Interiors]-Authorized [Exteriors]-Unauthorized [Access Level]-1

His eyes open in surprise at his first catch.

'A map!'

He pressed the icon without a second thought, the menu disappeared back into a small circle, materializing instead a representation of the labyrinthic net of hallways he found himself in. Instinctively, Elgan's fingers touched, enabling him to rotate the map at will.

Four signs at the side of the screen dragged his attention away.

[F]-Show Navigator.

[F]-Show Pathway.

[Current Access Level]-1

[Current Area's Level]-1

Interested in the two disabled options, Elgan activated the Navigator.

The second he did so, the screen became surrounded by smaller icons of various designs, each pointing in one direction, a list with each of the locations appeared on the left side of the hologram.

NAT Academy - Current Level

Training Hall - 192 yards

Armory - 420 yards

Cantine - 434 yards

Library - 532 yards

...

Several dozen lines of words appeared as the model shrank to make room for the locations.

'That's huge!..'

...

'There's a Cantine, a Training Hall... There's the academy too.'

He scanned around the map getting a rough idea of where each should be. He clearly remembered one of the girls saying the academy started around 7:30... He didn't want to arrive late, did he?

"Good to know."

Zooming out several times himself, the map expanded. What he already thought of as a complex structure became yet even more convoluted. The framework of diagonal elevator tunnels, large hallways, and large rooms became exponentially more complicated. Gazing at the infrastructure as he did, Elgan couldn't help but feel like he had found his way into the middle of an ant colony.

Still, the fact that the hologram's disposition revolted around his real location, bothered him. Exploring freely wasn't possible unless he himself moved through the map. The graphic quality was not the best either, but overall it did certainly have its usefulness, more so now that he didn't have anyone to show escort him.

'Well, that would explain why he hadn't seen any signs giving directions.'

Entertained with the source of information, he spent the next few minutes finding his way through the maze, time flew by, and lights were already out by the time he realized it. He peeked at the hour.

'21:37, hmm... I can stay up for a bit longer.'

He closed the map tab and read the description of the next function.

'This could prove useful...'

SOS beacon:

Ignite a beacon at your last registered location alerting surrounding Coalition members who may or may not act on set information.

Specifications: [App Access]-Denied [Code: SF-Glt is secured.]

'A smart feature, but the way it's phrased makes it seem like no one will give a shit.'

Knowing the application wasn't functional right now, he skipped to the next capability. To Elgan's bewilderment, it seemed the camera was blocked for some reason...

So were the rest of the functions.

Camera:

///

Specifications: [App Access]-Denied

Winternet:

///

Specifications: [App Access]-Denied

Profile:

///

Specifications: [App Access]-Pending (Processing User)

Messenger:

///

Specifications: [App Access]-Pending (Processing User)

|Tssk|

He scoffed.

This is where paranoia kicked in.

Elgan was highly doubtful from the beginning that the wristband was simply an innocent gift, in fact, he was sure it served some other secret darker purpose. The description of the beacon fitted that notion perfectly. It was the basics, but the thing was, people didn't give anything for free, much less the military.

"Pompous chatting and leisure activities my ass."

The fact that the wristband was designed more as a way to throw away your time rather than being productive made Elgan's suspicion spike to new levels.

Elgan glanced at the SOS icon one last time, one last time, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of situation would force him to press that button.

He didn't know.

...

His fingers shifted to the very last function the Holo-Watch offered.

Configuration:

Edit the device's preferences for a better experience.

Unlocked variables: |Alarms| |Language| |Sound| |Battery|

Locked variables: |Wipe| |Autodestruction| |Location| |UI Interface| |Connection|

Specifications: [App Access]-Granted

...

The hint of excitement in Elgan's lonely eye died down as he read the description.

'Although it was to be expected knowing the icon was a metal gear.'

Swiping away with his hand, Elgan closed the hologram interface, putting the wrist band over his nighstand. He chucked for himself.

'That sucked.'

Even though the wristband offered far more applications than he estimated, the fact that he wasn't able to even access the camera bothered him.

It was a dumb decision no matter how he looked at it. Out of the seven icons available, only two of them were actually unlocked for him to use. And despite the fact that he understood both his profile and messager would be available to him soon, it didn't change that it was half as useful as it should be.

Elgan sighted, his eyelid closing, slowly getting heavier. The ceiling above grew darker.

'Tomorrow will be better.'

With that hope, the young man went to sleep.