VI

Some of the crew decided not to enter their pod for a week. Jikein left them a few intructions before he went back to his pod. They are trained for deep space travel and there won't be much trouble as long as they followed protocol.

Before he knew it, he was back swiveling in the EDGE. Jikein lingered at the empty space for awhile. He summoned his message panel to check on his social life. There were still some trusted childhood friends who kept in touch.

>>1 Message From Liam E.<<

A faint smile appeared on his face upon seeing the notification. Liam had been his closest friend for as long as he can remember. Unfortunately, their paths separated when Jikein left to join the syndicate. For a century, humans lost taste of nationality and culture. Some of the reasons why humanity can't unite as one. However, some people and historians kept this classifications in records and practices.

Liam stayed as a citizen of the Coalition. Their generation was caught up at the time when the war against the Dominion is coming to an end. To contribute however they can, Jikein entered the Stormtroopers of Rygorant while Liam joined the Marine Corps of the Coalition. They spent most of their teenage years in the savagery of evolution and extinction--repelling extermination while humanity evolved into a cautious race while maintaining their moral convictions.

"Read!" Jikein commanded. Programmed with linguistic interfacing, the system efficiently displayed the content of the message.

Jikein's smile instantly disappeared as soon as he saw Liam's cocky smile, arms around a beautiful woman. It was always like this whenever they met. Liam always tried to show-off his girls. Gritting his teeth, Jikein's face turned ugly as his competitive spirit was ignited. If it's about girls, he also have one or two to gloat.

"Wait!" Jikein muttered as realization dawned upon him, "Do I even have one?"

After a moment of contemplation, Jikein grudgingly stopped. He got dismayed with the constant flashes of a woman with violet hair.

"No matter," He reassured himself with an evil laugh, "I'll just bribe a random girl to take a picture with me."

Jikein discarded the message and focused on his next destination.

"Archive!" He called out and the atmosphere turned dark before scrambled letters floated around him.

"Official Forum of Infinity."

The system showed him multiple tabs as a result of his search.

After choosing the right tab, Jikein read the introduction for a few seconds and proceeded to his original purpose.

"The Rzir Race."

A page immediately popped out infront of him.

>>The Rzir Race

Officcially rated by many players as impossible.<<

As an experienced Shadow Agent, Jikein was even more curious. Information came first so one can gain advantage and profit later. In this case, he needed to gather information before he flung himself into Infinity.

Jikein thoughtfully scratched his chin after reading all the reviews. There were also videos that the players recorded showing their agonizing death after being flung into the hearth of a burning star or crushing down an uninhabitable planet. The Rzir left or escaped from something on their dying planet. As a result, they are scattered all over the quadrant.

Jikein had creases all over his face. Not one person posted something useful. Every single one of them are satisfied to lash out their anger at the developers for creating an impossible starting stage.

Logically, Jikein would have abandoned his interest but he just can't discard his nature of explore and exploit.

"No harm in trying." Jikein muttered to himself and called out to the system.

"Infinity!"

Jikein's consciousness was sucked into another platform.

>>Welcome back!<<

The grim voice greeted. Just like before, he started floating like a satellite in orbit around a planet.

Before the grim voice repeated its earlier introduction, Jikein immediately voiced out the race he wanted to try.

"Rzir."

The list of planet rotated until a planet covered in dark mist, stopped infront of him.

>>Planet Akevir:

Home of The Rzir. An enigmatic race from the Dark Quadrant unknown to all the major races. Although an Isolationist, Rzirs gathered a lot of information about other alien cultures.<<

Suddenly, the dark planet started to dissipate and countless starships started to navigate space.

"Well done! That's a good introduction!" Jikein said nervously. The animation was so real that he thought that one of the ship that is headed toward his direction would crush him. He almost dove out of the way.

>>The Rzirs abandoned their dying planet to seek for a new homesystem.<<

Jikein suddenly saw a countdown and took a closer look.

>>Official end of the availabilty of the race in:

5

4

3

2...<<

"What the..." Jikein nearly cursed. He slowly calmed the panic growing inside but ultimately roared, "SELECT RACE! SELECT RACE!"

Almost instantly, everything went dark. At first, Jikein thought he failed until a whisper came. It was so calm and ethereal.

>>From darkness came force. Then came chaos and order that produced creation and destruction before light.<<

Jikein started to feel his own hearbeats as he watched the figure from a distance.

>>Congratulations! You are the last player to pick the Rzir and the sole surviving one. Therefore, you are the last of the Rzir. Will it last?"<<

A strange sensation raced through Jikein's body as he started to grow taller. His slim body made no change but some strands of his black hair turned silver and grew longer on the front and sides.

>>Do you prefer your own looks?<<

"Yes. This will do." Jikein nodded, inspecting his body. He clenched his fist, checking his compatibility with his new physique.

>>Then there's no longer a reason for us to dawdle.<<

The figure waved a hand and Jikein was thrown into an endless fall until he blacked out.

>>You will be updated further if you miraculously survived The Wrath of the gods!<<