"So, this is Earth, huh?" Beth asked, looking around.

"I don't know why, but I expected it to be dirtier." Derek commented.

Chris gave him a weird look. "Why would you think that?" The three of them had the rest of the week after the graduation ceremony off, and nothing to really do, so Chris had offered to take them to Earth to explore and experience the different culture, which the other two had immediately jumped on.

"I dunno." Derek shrugged. "It's called earth, like dirt… I figured I'd be dirty."

"Dude, we literally live underground. If anything, we should be the dirty ones." Chris shook his head.

"Earth is a pretty generic name though…" Beth muttered. "Why do you think they didn't come up with something better?"

"Poor imagination?" Derek offered.

"I think it just kind of happened." Chris replied. "Like they just kept using earth like the land. You work the earth, walk on the earth, and eventually, everything is Earth."

"And how is that different from poor imagination?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking slightly.

Chris paused. "Fair."

Since Chris hadn't wanted to deal with the Anti-Abductor Agency, the three of them were exploring Anthony's home town, which… Well, it was a lot different than the City, so that was nice, but it wasn't a big town, so there wasn't really much to actually see or do. They were currently just wandering down the main street, when Derek paused. "Hey, is this that game you keep talking about?" He asked, gesturing to a poster behind the window of the game store Chris had bought the game at.

Chris nodded. "Yup. 'The Maze'. Fun game, even if the implications are somewhat terrifying."

Derek studied the poster for a moment. "So these are Elves and Orcs… you know, I've always been aware they existed, but I never thought about ever having to actually deal with them. They were always something from the old world, not relevant for us today. We have to deal with goblins and kobolds and shit. Elves and Orcs are just beyond us."

Chris snorted. "Well beyond us. They're off thriving on the surface, while we couldn't even survive up there. We are just so pitifully weak, it isn't even funny." He sighed, shaking his head. "And I have no idea how to fix it. I mean, I can make myself stronger, but that isn't going to help anyone else."

"We'll find a way." Beth replied softly. "It's what we do. Humans, that is. When we were on the surface, we needed someplace safe to live, so we created the Maze. We needed better weapons to fight with, so we created Coreforging. We needed a way to move between the City and the Maze easily, so we created the teleporters. Now, we need to be stronger, and we're figuring that out too. It may take time, and we'll make mistakes along the way, but it will happen."

Chris and Derek looked at her with slightly stunned expressions. "Where did that come from?" Derek asked. "I mean damn! I feel like I should clap or something."

Beth flushed as Chris chuckled, pulling her close. "That was beautiful. And you're right. We will find a way. I'm just hoping it's sooner rather than later." Beth smiled back at him, leaning into him slightly.

"Yeah, yeah, go humanity." Derek rolled his eyes at the couple's antics. "Come on, let's check out what games these people have besides the one foretelling the doom of our civilization." He commented as he pushed his way into the store.

"Welcome to-" The girl behind the counter began cheerfully, before suddenly cutting off with a choke as she caught sight of Chris coming in behind Derek.

"Oh, hey, long time no see." Chris waved to CrimsonValkery. What were the odds of her being here both times he came to this store? Given the average work week… decent? Yeah, not a problem.

"H-hey." She replied nervously, glancing between him, Derek, and Beth, Derek giving her a vaguely bemused look while Beth narrowed her eyes at her suspiciously. "Is- is there anything I can help you with?"

"You know this girl, Chris?" Beth asked, turning on him and raising an eyebrow.

"Vaguely. She's the one who sold me the game. Nice girl, kinda weird, but who isn't?" Chris shrugged.

Derek approached the girl with a smile. "Hey there, I'm Derek." He introduced himself, holding out his hand.

"V-Valerie." Valerie replied, hesitantly taking his hand and shaking it.

"I take it from your reaction you've figured out we're not from around here." Derek chuckled, taking his hand back and leaning over across the counter. "I know Chris doesn't make the best impression, but don't worry, the rest of us are fairly normal, just with a little extra… spark." He grinned as he activated his ability, causing small arcs of electricity to flash from his skin like a little light show.

Valerie's eyes widened. "You can manipulate electricity?!? That's my ability!" She exclaimed, before flushing. "I-I mean, not my ability, but… in- in the game." She muttered in embarrassment.

Derek's eyebrows rose slightly. "Is that so? Maybe we could trade pointers sometime. From what Chris has said, this game is pretty realistic, and I've been looking for new ways to make use of my ability."

"Oh, I don't- I'm- I'm just a mid-tier… I really can't do much with it." Valerie shook her head.

"Hey now, don't knock mid-tiers." Derek retorted. "Strong abilities give you a boost, sure, but they don't make you any harder to kill, and once you reach a certain threshold, every hit is an instakill. You just gotta make sure you hit them before they hit you."

"Unless, of course, the ability itself makes you harder to kill." Beth interjected. "Like a certain someone who managed to just shrug off a blatant assassination attempt." She added, nudging Chris.

Chris frowned. "There was an assassination attempt?"

"Dude, it was yesterday." Derek sighed.

Chris blinked. "Oh yeah, that did happen… I wonder what was up with that."

"My point." Beth rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Chris is an anomaly." Derek protested. "In general, my point stands. As long as you can get the drop on someone, it doesn't matter how much stronger their ability is, cause their fleshy bits fry just as well as anyone else's."

"Unless you happen to be a rubber person that electricity doesn't do shit to." Beth retorted with a smirk.

Derek scowled at her for a moment, before sighing and shaking his head. "I can't win with you people." He then turned back to Valerie with a smile. "So, Valerie, are there any other good games you could recommend besides the game? Preferably ones that don't need to connect to an external server? Our home has some… connectivity issues."

Valerie blinked. They actually came here just to buy games? "Uh… well, if you're looking for something that doesn't need an internet connection, we have some portable systems that have some decent games? There are also some retro games, but… well, after 'The Maze' came out, the rest of the market kinda dried up. Who can compete with a game that offers that much realism and freedom? The only games that people still go for are the quick and easy ones you don't have to sink much time into, because if you're going to sink time into a game, it might as well be 'The Maze'."

Derek frowned. "The game can't be that good, can it?"

"It's like a second world." Chris commented. "But with more freedom and less consequences. Plus abilities that these people don't already have. Also, it helps them learn faster, if they take proper advantage of it, though I can't imagine many do…"

"Even if you learn in the game, it doesn't help you get a job." Valerie commented. "The universities lobbied pretty hard to make sure it couldn't count as an accredited university."

Chris raised an eyebrow at her. "What does that matter? If you have the skills you have the skills. Who cares how you got them?"

Valerie hesitated. "The government? They don't want the entire university system to collapse overnight?"

"But if it's no longer beneficial, it should collapse." Chris countered, frowning. "You can't stop progress just because it upsets the status quo. That's- that's what progress does!"

"Well- but people still can- still do use the game to help them study…" Valerie protested. "It's just the universities make sure they actually know what they say they know."

Chris paused. "I suppose that makes sense… though you'd think you could cover that with a simple competency exam."

Valerie shrugged helplessly. "I'm not exactly an expert on this stuff… I just work at a game store. I barely make minimum wage."

Chris nodded in understanding, before pausing. "Ah, crap, I forgot about money. Derek, we can't buy anything."

Derek frowned at him. "What do you mean? We have tons of- oh, right, different world." He nodded as he realized the issue. "Damn, that's annoying… I'm sure as shit not getting a job over here just so I can buy some video games."

"Right?" Chris nodded. "Last time I sold some gold, but that's been annoying the shit out of me because it's still connected to my world, so I can just sense it out there, getting split up, turned into jewelry, and passed around. There's forty-four pieces floating around already!"

"Can't you just take them back?" Beth asked, cocking her head curiously.

Chris gave her a bland look. "Beth, that would be stealing. I'm not going to turn into a thief over some minor annoyance."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Then if we don't have money and we can't buy anything, what are we going to do? So far, besides being on the surface, this place isn't much different than the City."

Derek nodded in agreement. "She's not wrong. It's like a small section of the City with a weird ceiling. Not really that special."

Chris frowned. What could they do here that they couldn't do in the City? He quickly searched through Anthony's memories, looking for something. They could hike? The environment was a lot different up here… but that'd also mean dealing with the sun which Chris would rather avoid. Plus all those tiny insect- Chris paused as he had an idea. What was the one thing that was way too dangerous for anyone to do on Azza? Chris looked at them with a grin. "How about I introduce you to something called 'pets'."

"She is so precious!" Beth hissed excitedly, cradling an adorable little kitten in her arms.

"This should not be as fun as it is." Derek commented with a smile, playing tug-of-war with a small puppy. When Chris had told them they were going to play with animals, they'd been hesitant. Any creature other than another human was dangerous. That's how they'd grown up. But creatures without abilities? Creatures that had been domesticated? They were just so freaking cute!

"I don't quite get the point of the fish." Chris muttered, tapping on the tank where several colorful creatures swam back and forth. Though he did find observing their moments oddly… relaxing.

"Chris, open up your world." Beth whispered as she got close.

He gave her a look. "Beth, we are not stealing the cat."

"But I need her!" Beth protested. "Look! Look how much she loves me!"

"And it is adorable, I know, but we don't have the money, and we have no way of actually caring for the cat at the moment." Chris shook his head. "You won't be able to take it in the Maze with you, and can you really leave it for two months at a time? Wouldn't you rather she get to live with someone who can play with her every day?"

Beth hesitated, looking down at the lightly purring kitten with the most torn expression he'd ever seen on her face. "Oooh, but she's so cute!" Beth groaned, before letting out a sigh. "No, no, I know you're right, but… can I at least visit her? Until she's adopted?"

Chris smiled. "Whenever you want."

"I'm coming too." Derek added. "Whenever I can… this little guy rocks."

Chris shook his head. He may have made a mistake introducing them to the animals… The three of them spent the rest of the day at the pet store, Derek playing with a few of the different animals, while Beth remained firmly dedicated to her little kitten. It was almost painful when the two had to separate as the store closed and the employees told them it was time to go.

"Well, I'll see you guys later." Derek announced, beginning to walk off. "I'll contact you when I need a way back." He added, waving the phone Chris had connected to the Immortal World for him.

Chris blinked. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, Valerie offered to meet up after she was done with work, to talk about the difference between abilities in the game and real life." Derek replied with a small grin. "Don't wait up."

Chris frowned as he watched him walk away, before turning to Beth. "I feel like I'm missing something. Are they dating now?"

"No, I think they're just… interested." Beth muttered, frowning as well. She honestly wasn't much better at picking up on the subtleties of casual dating than Chris was. The formal dating of the upper class, sure, but not just two people meeting randomly and thinking they might like each other based on almost nothing beyond pure attraction.

"Okay… but why? They just met, and they barely talked." Chris asked, his brow furrowing even further in his confusion.

Beth shrugged. "That's just how it works sometimes. You see someone and you get… interested."

"Huh… weird." Chris shook his head, deciding he didn't want to think about it anymore. It wasn't anything he'd need to deal with anyway. "So, what do you want to do now?"

Beth paused, considering the question for a moment as she looked around. It was beginning to get dark and the sky was turning interesting colors. "Could we just walk around for a bit?"

"Sure." Chris agreed, and the two began walking down the street, the opposite direction from Derek. It was mostly just more buildings for a while, due to Earth's weird obsession with putting their buildings as close together as possible, until they found a park with a small pond. They wandered around the park, Beth fascinated by the squirrels and ducks that made the place their home, until they found a bench overlooking the pond and sat down, just in time to watch the sun set.

"Wow…" Beth muttered in an almost awed tone. "It's so… beautiful."

Chris narrowed his eyes at the annoying ball of light as it tinged the world orange, making the clouds pop out in stunning detail. "It's… something." He vaguely agreed. It didn't make up for how unconscionably bright the damn thing was.

Beth gave him an amused look, rolling her eyes before resting her head on his shoulder. "This is nice."

Chris wrapped his arm around her shoulder, smiling slightly. "Being with you is always nice."

"Really?" Beth asked. "Even when I'm being neurotic and anxious and I can't even tell you why?"

Chris paused. "Well, that's certainly not fun, but it's still… maybe not nice but… I don't know, there's just something good about being around you. More than anyone else. I'm not really sure how to explain it. Probably because I love you."

Beth felt something warm surge within her chest even as a breeze brought a slight chill, causing her to snuggle closer to him. "I love you too." She whispered, closing her eyes and simply enjoying being with the man.

The two sat together as the world turned dark and the stars began to come out, providing a new vista of beauty for them to enjoy. Well, for Beth to enjoy. Not that Chris didn't enjoy the stars, he just didn't see much point in staring at them. They looked nice, sure, but it didn't really do anything for him. Eventually though, it was time to head home, but still, it was a nice night. Something they should definitely do again.