Temporal Jump Station

"So, you gonna tell me about this yet?" I asked Abby.

We were in our own private room, which we had requested from one of the clerks behind the counter of the Adventurer's Guild. The room consisted of just a round table and a few seats where we sat on. It was utterly silent, with no trace of the loud clamor of conversing adventurers. The walls of this room must be sound-proof.

Abby didn't answer my question. Instead, she simply swiped her arm over the table, and a hologram appeared. The hologram was of two miniature people, one woman and one man, who must have been Abby's parents. If it weren't for their small size, I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart from a regular person.

Abby looked away from the holograms, her expression looking conflicted. "Just listen to the message," she told me.

The two figures moved and started speaking. So it's actually going to be like some Star Wars type message, huh?

"Abrielle," the woman started. "If you're listening to this message, then we most likely have been arrested or even sentenced to death."

"Please take care of yourself, Abrielle," the man continued. "We are terribly sorry we would not be able to watch you grow up any longer. You must hate us now, right? Still, we won't force you to forgive us. All we want is for you not to place any of this blame on yourself. All of what we have done until now has been our decision solely and our decision fully."

"Yes, Abrielle, if you ever feel down—"

Abby swiped her arm across the air, and the figures suddenly changed position, indicating that some time in the recording had just been skipped. The man continued talking.

"Honey, you probably already know this, depending on how much information the government has released to you, but we still believe we need to give a proper confession."

"Behind my job as an officer of the special forces and your father's job as a cyber detective," Abby's mother said, "we were, in reality, undercover criminals."

"Now, please understand us," Abby's father continued. "We had suspicions about the government since the very beginning, before we even had you. And one discovery led to another until we just couldn't go back to being a normal, brainwashed citizen anymore."

"We are recording this just after our most recent mission," the woman explained. "Our target was a secret government database. Your father was lucky enough to be assigned there on a little investigation. Our objective was simply to drop in, hook ourselves up to the local servers, transfer any important data, and get right out. Things went smoothly, and we've gotten home safely."

"However, there is always a chance we had left even the smallest traces. That is why we are recording this, just as we do after every other mission. If the worst-case scenario does come true, all our research up until now has been stored in this suit. It is our last gift."

"We know it might be too large of a responsibility for you, so if you have any doubts about this, please, by all means, hit the self-destruct button. But…" the woman paused and sighed. "…I don't want to make you do this… but… the future of the world depends on this…"

Abby's father placed his arm around her mother, and his tone became serious. "Abrielle Alexandre, if you do wish to continue our work, then get going. The government will catch onto this quicker than you think. So keep this suit on, get to the temporal jump station, and escape this region. The first world you need to get to is Conlincia. The temporal coordinates are in your system. We wish you good luck."

The playback stopped. Abby's parents stood motionless, peering forward into the distance. Silence filled the room as I stared at the figures. Then, Abby swiftly flung her arm over, and the hologram disappeared.

I looked up at her, expecting her to explain more. But she sat still, keeping her eyes where the two miniature figures stood just moments before. During the entire recording, she had been turned to the side, trying not to look at her parents.

Just how long ago did she first get this message, if she still hadn't gotten over her parents' apparent arrest? A few months ago? A few weeks ago?

"Well…I guess that also answers how I got my suit," she finally said.

"Yeah…" I replied faintly. I didn't want to force her to talk any more about her parents, but I had so many questions. What had they found out about this government? What was the research they were doing? Why did they say to go to that specific world?

However, I stayed silent, not wanting to give Abby even more pain than it looked like she was feeling. Maybe those questions would be answered as time passes. And either way, it wasn't my problem. All I'm here for is my A-rank status, and after that, all this won't matter to me anyway.

I stood up from my chair, breaking the awkward silence. "I guess we should sign up for the quest now, right?"

After Abby didn't say anything, Ari spoke up. "I guess we should," he said, standing up as well.

"Ah—yes!" Em stood up quickly, too, and looked down at Abby. "We should get going, right, Abby?"

Abby suddenly snapped out of her head, coming back to reality. She lifted herself up and shook her head, clearing her thoughts. "Yes, let's go get the quest."

We walked out of the room, rode down the elevator, and strolled back into the lively lobby of the Guild. We went straight to the reception area again, where the same group of employees stood.

"Hello!" A reception lady said as we neared her. "What can I do to help such a close group of friends today?"

Friends? Did she really just call us friends? I took a step away from the other three to put some distance between us.

"Hi, we'd like to sign up for one of the quests," Abby replied.

She lifted her arm, and her card appeared in her hand. After a moment, a holographic display appeared over it, displaying the same quest description she had shown me earlier.

After reading the display and fiddling around behind the counter, the lady looked back up with a smile. My hand quickly reached to grab my brand new ID card. I was excited that I'd finally be able to provide at least some identification when asked.

However, the woman quickly destroyed that dream. "We've scanned your ID cards, and your request has been approved, so your cards have the pass to Conlincia now," she said, then turned to a worried tone. "But you four are sure you want to take this quest, right? I know it's only a D-rank world and you have a potential A-ranker, but the quest is pretty hard and most of you are F-ranks…"

Abby waved it off. "Don't worry about us. We requested our low rank by ourselves."

"Yup," Ari added, "I can guarantee you we could become S-rankers in no time!"

The woman sighed and shook her head. "Well, I can't stop you," she said as she placed a small vial over the counter. "Here is the antidote mentioned in the quest information. The formula has been added to your cards as well… Just stay safe out there."

The woman silently waved us goodbye with her still worried expression as we left the building. I watched Abby, wondering which direction our next destination would be. But it turned out it was directly across the street. I guess they decided to build everything around the Adventurer's Guild.

Although the building was not as tall as the one we had just come out of, it was. The front reminded me of the teleportation station, with large, open gates. However, this one didn't have a beacon shooting out from behind. Large words saying [ROYAL TEMPORAL JUMP STATION] slid by on a screen, making me wonder how I hadn't noticed them before.

The crowd walking about this building was even larger than the one at the Adventurer's Guild. Following everybody in, we emerged into a large room with tall, glass ceilings.

There was a row of reception desks in front, which continued from one end to the other of the long building. After talking with the attendants, the travelers, mostly adventurers, continued between the reception tables and into a door. I followed Abby and the other two to one of the receptionists.

"Thank you, adventurers," the man said politely, "your cards have been scanned, and you are heading to Conlincia, am I right?"

"Yes," Abby replied. The rest of us nodded in approval.

"Then, the temporal link has been configured. You may step through the doors now."

We continued towards the door I saw many people already disappear through. So beyond this door would be an entirely different world? And was this the last I'd see of this world, at least for a while?

Well, I should be used to this world-hopping now. I guess it's just another place to visit.