2:30 IST, Third day, Fourth month, 3079 PV | En route to Sol (~29%) / Deliverer Galactic Freighter / Skydome

  Okay, this is super cool.

  Ray, who is very cute in her uniform, is currently resting in my arms. The twist, we are floating in the middle of space.

  Or at least, that's what it feels like.

  Turns out this ship has a super fancy skydome, like the ones on the Sycos and Clak. But that's a bit of a misnomer, as it's more like a skysphere. In all directions, all we can see is a projection of the stars around us.

  Though, we are moving so fast that they really just appear like streaks of light. Just like you always see in TV shows that involve superfast space travel. But this time it's actually real.

  “Darling.”

  “Yes, Darling?”

  “Headrubs.”

  “Certianly.”

  So, there we float. Suspended in null gravity, floating through space as though we are truly outside.

  A human(ish) boy, and a very cute human girl. Wrapped up in a tight embrace, hair floating in absolutely every single direction possible. Oh, and there are some headrubs for good measure.

  We stayed like that for several hours. Just watching as the countless stars pass us by. Each potentially contains worlds that could host billions of lives. In fact, some of them certainly do host billions of lives.

  I ponder the merits of our situation. I mean, we are some of the most influential people in the universe right now. With potential power to shape the dynamics of the universe for eons to come.

  Like, barely a few months ago I was an extremely depressed high school dropout. Living as a NEET off of my father’s fortune.

  Now, I'm a space wizard traveling the galaxy and doing some crazy stuff, along with my very cute girlfriend. Did I mention my girlfriend is very cute? I think I forgot to mention she is very cute. You don't understand just how cute she is. Like, it's a world ending amount of cuteness. It is imperative that I convey the message of how cute she was to future generations that may be reading this. After all, her cuteness may very well (and kinda already has) go on to shape the entire universe.

  “Hey Ko. Do you think we will make it out of this?” She asks, without her normal confident tone.

  “What do you mean? It's us, the moonlight duo. How could we possibly fail?”

  “Im not sure, but it does kinda feel like this is a bit out of scope for us. Like, sure, influencing a school is fun and all. But an entire universe? With trillions of lives. That's a whole different ballgame.”

  “Well, then I guess we better step up to the home plate. Then we just give heck of a swing. One for the history books.”

  She grips me even tighter. Seemingly reassured by my words.

  “Well, then I guess the universe better have one heck of a pitcher. Cause we are going to get a home run. No matter what.”

  “Sub luce lunae, omnia possibilia sunt [under the moonlight, anything is possible]. We shall persevere.”

  “Darrling, you're forgetting one thing.”

  “What might that be, darling?”

  “We are the moonlight.”

  “Well then, Luce lunae per aspera ad astra et ultra.” [By moonlight through hardship to the stars and beyond]

  I pull Ray closer into my arms and give her a nice kiss. Which she reciprocates, quite greedily. We drift there for quite a while.

  11:30 IST, Third day, Fourth month, 3079 PV | En route to Sol (~90%) / Deliverer Galactic Freighter / Admiral’s Quarters / Bedchamber

  Vel (Ship AI): “Attention passengers. We are due to drop from hyperspace acceleration in thirty minutes. Please prepare for purging procedures in fifteen minutes. Our arrival at Earth IEC Training Facility is estimated to occur at 12:33 IST. We will have about four hours of downtime before our wonderful leaders give an address to the citizens of humanity.”

  I awakened from my slumber to the wonderful message from Vel. How unfortunate that it comes at such a bad time.

  After all, Ray (who is super cute in her sleepwear), and I just got super comfy. It seems there is an exponential relation between time spent in bed, and quality of cuddling. I hope that I can further investigate this observation. Extensively.

  “Agh, just five more minutes. I don't wanna go to class.”

  “Good morning, darling Ray. The cutest in the universe. It's time to wake up. They are going to be waiting up on us.”

  “Oh, good morning darling Ko. Who's gonna stop us from lazing around in bed? We kinda rule this ship, right?”

  “I guess you do make a point.”

  We then proceed to laze around in bed for about fifteen minutes.

  Vel: “Attention passengers, purging beginning in five seconds.”

  While in the middle of lazing about. We are violently interrupted.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The strange foam stuff spills out like every pore in the ship. Invading every fiber of our beings. My entire body is on fire. In more ways than one.

  After a few minutes, the foam recedes and we are freed.

  “Augh, that was so uncomfortable.”

  “Yeah, coming back to Earth sounds fun and all, until you remember we gotta do that every time.”

  “Hmm, I wonder if we still have a bit of time to laze about?”

  “Hmm, I think we have a few more minutes.”

  We laze about for a few more minutes.

  “Attention passengers, hyperspace dropping in two minutes. Please ensure you are seated in stasis chairs if you are unused to the effects.”

  “Oh kek.” x2

  We quickly stop our lazing about and get dressed. We rush out of the room in record time and take the rail system to the bridge.

  We make it to the bridge and slide into our seats. With seconds to spare.

  We undergo the deceleration and such. Reality warps, yadda yadda. Don't need to explain it every time, right? You should get the drift by now.

  After our recovery, we look out at the monitors.

  On the horizon (is that a word that applies to space?), we see the beautiful pale blue dot. Rapidly getting closer.

  Vel: “Dear passengers. Welcome, or welcome back, to the Sol system. Cradle of humanity. Though, it won't be the Sole star system much longer soon these humans get to travel beyond the Sol system, in the masses.”

  “Oi, Ko. How does it feel to be back, once again. I mean, the last time we were here some cool stuff happened.”

  “Oh yeah, it was when I gained a super cute girlfriend.”

  “Hmm, strange. The last time I was on Earth, I gained a super cute Boyfriend. What a massive coincidence.”

  “That is strange indeed. I wonder what the odds of such an occurrence are, must be pretty low.”

  “Yeah, also he is like the cutest in the universe too!”

  “No way! My girlfriend is also the cutest in the universe! I actually filed some paperwork with the UFH to give her that title officially. Unfortunately, they denied me. What jerks.”

  “Aww, how disappointing. Unfortunately, my dear boyfriend already has a registered title. He is like, Ascendent of some Transcendent being in an order. It's very culty.”

  “How unfortunate. Though, I can't imagine them granting him the title either. I bet he is just some worthless backwater NEET that dropped out of high school at age 16.”

  “Hmm, that isn't far. But I think he isn't quite useless. After all, he is kinda a genius. Plus super cute of course. I wonder what your girlfriend is like. I feel like she must be absolutely beautiful.”

  “She is mega beautiful and super cute. Like, unbelievably so. You wouldnt believe how cute she is even if you saw her in a mirror.”

  Vel: “Sorry to interrupt your flirting. Though, I'm not sure if it can really be called flirting. I am not seeing anything matching this exact strategy in my database. Humans sure are strange.

  Anyways, we are now docking with the Earth IEC Training Facility. You have four hours of leave, feel free to go explore Earth for a bit. I'm sure you two have some interesting memories.”

  Naturally, we do just as is suggested.

  Over the next few hours we end up exploring New Boston. It is a bit hard, since it seems the IEC control isn't nearly as strong. We kinda draw a small crowd that just looks at us wherever we go. But they still interact normally with us, and give us space.

  We walk around Earth and view its enhanced development.

  Over the past few months, the place has changed quite drastically.

  Large powerplants are being built to run off of antimatter. Which are required to fuel all of this crazy alien technology. Namely is a galactic WRN hub, to serve as a relay into the wider universe-net. Which will greatly increase humanity’s development and access to knowledge. By the way, it's massive. It makes the data centers built in the 20s look like little sand castles. Like seriously, it's larger than most small cities. But I guess when you're going to coordinate all WRN traffic from an entire galaxy, such a scale is necessary.

  By the way, the net is a key part of our plan going forward. You shall soon see why.

  There are also massive industrial developments, especially towards shipbuilding. After all, humanity cannot develop out into the galaxy and beyond without a decent ability to produce ships.

  We also notice something else. Many of the humans are now equipped with augmentation kits. From the data we received, about 45% of them on Earth have undergone the procedure. With varying degrees in the colonies.

  Many are still hesitant to undergo such a massive procedure. But as they see what their peers are able to do, more and more are signing up. We expect to spur a massive spree of signups when we give our speech tomorrow.

  One condition of becoming a colonist in the Game’s trial is to have the kit installed. After all, the universe is ridiculously dangerous even to sovereign beings. Let alone non-sovering ones. Trying to live on a foreign planet in its early stages of development would certainly be fatal to a normal human. Not to mention the intense mental effects of longer term hyperspace travel.

  I hear the world leaders and management AI have been undergoing some intense revisions. As the IEC steps in to help with the ascension. Since, without assistance there is no way humans would have the knowledge of what needs to be done.

  As we walk, we pass by one of the few completed ascension structures. It was very quickly built, as it is quite important.

  “Woah, that's one big university. I can't believe they managed to construct it so fast.”

  “Yep, and they are just about to have their first graduating class. The first humans to receive some form of higher level education. To make them fit to become colonists in one of the three faction’s colonies.

  Actually, that's the whole reason we are on Earth to begin with. In a few hours we will be giving their commencement speech basically.”

  “Yeah, but it's really just a political rally, isn't it? Like, come on, the future ruler of all humanity as your university keynote speaker? That's not very normal.”

  “What part of this whole ordeal was normal to you?”

  “Youve got a point. But there is one mostly normal thing.”

  “Hmm, what is it?”

  She leans in close and whispers into my ear, “Well, we are back together. And deeper than ever.”

  She does make a good point. Even after I ghosted her, this whole trial thing kinda fixed that.

  It's almost as if some entity moved things around to bring us back together. Though, I do wish they could've done it in a little less grand of a fashion. Like, maybe give us a chance to get married, then send us on the intergalactic journey.

  Though, I guess exploring the galaxy and interpersonal relationships at the same time isn't so bad.

  After all, I've got a realllllllllly cute girlfriend out of the whole deal.

  Ko:“I do hope that we can get even deeper then. I'm sure there are still depths left unexplored.”

  “Sure thing, darling. However deep you desire, we shall reach it.”

  I'm sure that whatever is to come, we will overcome it together. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 57