Chapter 2: Alien Immigrant

John woke up, he looked around his surroundings and found himself laying on a space rock just the size of a small car. His eyes suddenly shot open as he realized he was in space. He quickly held his breath and started looking around.

"..?"

He was confused as he didn't feel the sense of suffocation or shivering cold, he removed his hand on his mouth and started breathing, he was able to breathe in space. He wasn't so surprised since he knew he was in space for thousands of quintillion years but the fact that he was breathing involuntarily in an actual space and not on a white blank plane made him chuckle slightly.

"Hehe...huh!?"

He was shocked to find out that he could hear his laugh resonating in his ear.

'It's not a voice in my head right?'

"Ah...ah...hello?...!"

He was sure that he was hearing his voice as the sound was resonating towards his ears, he couldn't help but smack his face in disbelief.

"This is real..this is too real."

He said in awe. He looked around his surroundings and found out that he was surrounded by space rocks of different sizes, one was the size of a marble, and another one had towered up to the size of a mountain. He wondered how he had come here as he recalled what had happened before he had gone unconscious.

'Oh yeah! There was something about that blue panel saying I was transported in space...Um.. how can I make that thing reappear?'

Things had become too much of a surprise for John that believing that he had the power of the system made it feel normal that 'that' thing could've existed and not just a hallucination in his mind.

"Status."

Ting~

[John Morris

Age: 10¹¹² years old

Level: ~null~

Race: Deified Human (Perfect)

Class: Cosmic God (EX)

Cosmic Energy: Infinite (EX)

Lifespan: Immortal (EX)

Status: (Null)]

John's eyes widened as he saw the window panel hovering in his eyes.

The panel didn't appear back when he was under constant pain and he couldn't even check the skills that he had earned like he was under a trance. But now, he could see his status, and seeing the contents, he couldn't help but be in shock.

"So I'm a god....and how old am I?"

John muttered to himself, he wasn't so sure that he deserved this and he didn't have any goals in his mind. He didn't even know how this God occupation would do good to him. He was stuck in a desolate space of land not knowing what to do. Unless he could find life in this universe, there was no point with this godly power. He'd yet again suffer alone for eternity.

He sighed and plop down on the ground of the space rock.

"If I'm a god, does that mean I have godly strength and powers? Hmmm..it wouldn't help to check it out."

John stood up and walked to a nearby giant space rock the size of a boulder. Moving in space didn't make him float around and surprisingly, he had involuntary control of his gravitational pull for his comfort.

"Let's try this out...haaap!"

Xerel punch the rock with a bit of his strength trying not to overexert and as soon as he first touched the surface of the rock, the surrounding area where millions of other space rocks surrounded was blasted and disintegrated to nothing.

It didn't end there, the force of his punch caused a ripple in space and time. The surrounding area of his attack had to bent everything in universal space which spread far and wide that he couldn't tell how bigger and farther it will end.

He wasn't sure what happened but he felt like his strength was something not any human could do. His fist destroyed rocks the size of planets and stars in millions of quantities and even rippled the space around it.

"Oh my god..."

John was both elated and terrified of the result.

"This..this is too dangerous."

John stared at his fist and relaxed his body. He wanted to explore this rocky space but his senses suddenly rang like an alarm in his head causing him to avert his gaze on his back.

From a distance, he could see a light moving toward him at a speed faster than anything he had ever seen. In just a second, the spaceship arrive in front of him as it had just blinked a distance from the earth to the moon revealing a spaceship the size of a two-story building.

"Are those things extraterrestrials? Their machinery looks similar to alien spaceships that are shown in movies. Wait, does that mean aliens exist? I've been working in Space Z for 15 years and I've never seen an actual spaceship, the ones I've seen were just UFOs."

John stared at the giant spaceship towering over him. Although the ship was immense, John didn't feel any fear or heavy pressure, he simply stood and looked at the ship with curious eyes.

Below the ship, a door opened as smoke released from the entrance. Two humanoid silhouettes appeared at the entrance. Both were 8 feet tall and as they got out of the smoke, John took a step back as soon as he saw their appearance.

'Aliens.'

That's what John could describe them. They were slim gray figures wearing green armored vests as they held two alien rifles each. Their fingers were very long and each point elongated into a round shape. John couldn't see their faces as it was being hazed by their helmet that looked like a fish bowl.

"State your race."

The alien spoke as it pointed its gun at him. John was surprised at the sudden threat that he raised his hands in the air and spoke.

"I-i am human."

'Wait! How can I speak an alien language?'

John was surprised, he looked baffled as he was suddenly speaking an alien tongue and he wondered how can he understand what they were speaking. He could tell that the language they spoke was neither English nor TagalogThe national language of the Philippines), rather it sounded gibberish to the ears.

"A human? Never heard of that before."

"It must be one of those lower species outside of our universe or even species from other universes."

"Check his identity."

The alien said to his companion. It nodded and pressed a button on its futuristic watch that flashed a light that started scanning John. The scanning process was finished and the light disappeared as a ringing tone echoed his watch and a hologram appeared.

Titing~

[???????

??????

?????error???

404?????

Universe- 616]

"Huh? It says error?"

"What do you mean? This scanner is used in the multiverse and has already contained 80% of the entire species, why would it have an error?"

"It's either this thing's rank is too high or he's from a universe which is not yet discovered. It states that he's from a Universe- 616."

"616? It's not in the books so it's a nomad universe."

"So what should with him?"

"What else? Take him to the prison of course! He's an illegal immigrant from an unknown universe and is trespassing Universe-177013. He,y you!"

The alien said to John. John looked at him in confusion.

"Who? Me?"

"No that rock over there- who else would we be talking to?"

"Oh.."

"Follow us."

"O-okay."

John had overheard their conversation and he could understand a bit of what was going on. He was an alien immigrant from a different universe and is gonna be put in jail. He wondered if this was fair but for now, he simply followed them without any reprimand.

"They said that the outskirts of the universe are currently in a state of chaos due to some unknown force that even the neighboring universes were bothered by the sudden wave of chaos. There were a few lesser galaxies there that had been destroyed in a blink of an eye. We patrolled here and it's only him who we found, don't you think it's a bit suspicious?"

"So you're saying, it might be that stranger? But I don't even sense an ounce of cosmic energy in him, and even if he can breathe in space, there are thousands of species who can do that, and, it looks like he is lost."

"But, look at his eyes, it's so dull and dark, it's as if he'd seen death countless times."

"What do you know? You just got recruited for patrol, we're not here to butt into the stuff in the multiverse, let the higher-ups do that, our job is to patrol, report, and get paid."

The two kept on talking while John eavesdropped on them, he was surprised after hearing that a few galaxies had been destroyed and are now causing a disturbance in this universe.

'Was I the one who did it?' He pondered. He wondered if there were living species on those galaxies that he might have ceased to go extinct due to his recklessness. Even if it didn't, he felt that his power was too strong. He caressed his hands and felt a chill at his strength.

'I shouldn't be reckless with my powers.'

************

Soon they arrived at what seemed to be a reception room. The background design was similar to a steampunk type of machinery yet they evoke the sense of supreme technological advancement. It was odd and interesting and as a space engineer, Xerel couldn't help but be curious.

He unconsciously went close to the machinery and examine its parts and he could see scribbles of foreign language on the wall. He wondered what they meant and suddenly, the words mixed and rumbled and turned into a word he could understand. The alien words became alphabetical.

VESSEL OF GRAND- 4566

'Is it the name of this ship?'

"He,y you!"

"Aahhh! What?"

"Get over here! You need to be examined first!"

"O-okay."

John followed the alien soldier who guided him to a small room that was piled with documents but one couldn't tell that there was a table on the mountains of documents and a frail-looking humanoid alien could be seen sorting the documents out on its table.

Without the fishbowl helmet, John was able to see the face of the alien. Its head was oblong, it didn't have a nose it had four eyes which were similar to a snail, and a mouth that had no lips. Other than the eyes, it looked just like the aliens John had seen being portrayed in the media.

"Kapoy, I need you to check this alien immigrant's cosmic output and level, we are suspicious that it might have a connection to this sudden cosmic wave."

Happy, the tired alien stared at John with its sleepy eyes and opened a drawer on its table. It brought out an orb similar to an oracle that magicians would use. It was dusty and when Kapoy tried to turn it on, it made a whirring sound that a machine would make when it's not working properly. He turned it on again the second and it worked successfully, now the orb was shining in the grey light.

"Put your palms in the orb, it will absorb some cosmic energy so it will sting a bit, I'll tell you when to stop."

John followed the Alien's words and placed his right hand on the orb. Soon a flash of light beamed in the orb that blinded everyone for a second then the orb broke into fragments.

"What the hell happened?"

"The measuring tool broke."

Kapoy blandly replied to the shocked alien. John was also shocked as he thought he might have done something wrong and seeing the two alien soldiers' reaction, they might get more suspicious of him.

"Why did it break? Is it because his cosmic energy is too high? Then is he the source of the sudden cosmic wave?"

"It's rather the opposite. Our universe and even the neighboring universe only hold C-rank elites and even if he is from a nomad universe, they are mostly Baby universes that haven't even come up with D-rank species. This orb had been used almost a thousand years ago and it's only a matter of time before it breaks plus, I have the skill [Eye of Discernment] so I had measured his cosmic output and it's no less than 10 cosmic energy it's average energy count of nomad species."

"But we still have to be sure, I'll commission another measuring orb and it'll take a month or two for it to arrive and we'll check this Alien's cosmic energy again, for now, we'll have to bring him to the Grand Prison."

When John heard that he'll be given a sentence in prison, he stood up and rebate to their words.

"Why am I gonna be put in prison? Shouldn't I get a lawyer in this type of situation? Or if not, should I not be put in a welfare department, being put in jail is just too much!"

"You will be given preferential treatment as you are from a nomad planet. You are only given a 5-year sentence. You'll be put at the 1st level so you wouldn't have a hard time, you'll be given edible rations that are fit for your pallet and if you'll follow the orders of your senior, you'll have a comfortable time in prison and you wouldn't even realize that 5 years had already passed."

"Still...this is just unfair."

John said as he looked at his hands. He wondered if this was for the better. The last thing he wanted to do was to resort to violence.

'This is the first time that I have encountered sentient people after the endless solitude, if I were to venture out myself, I might get lost in space and wouldn't be able to contact any life. I need information about this whole cosmic verse. Maybe going to prison isn't gonna be so bad, I could ask the inmates for the information I need and it's only 5 years, I've been stuck in that empty void of space for more than the years I could count, serving for 5 years is nothing more but a speck of what I had to endure plus this soldiers are only doing their jobs.'

John stood up from his seat and brought out his arms to get handcuffed. The guards look at him in confusion and asked.

"What are you doing?"

"Aren't you gonna restrain me or something?"

"Oh! No need for that, with such a small amount of cosmic energy, putting restraints on might kill you since handcuffs are designed to lock 95% of your cosmic energy with just enough for you to survive. Your cosmic energy is deemed the lowest in the entire multiverse so you should wear any cuffs at all. Even if you try to escape, we're level 25 soldiers so our ranks are in the Mid-tier of E-rank. It's like comparing a small bug to a tank so don't think of any funny business."

Even with the fishbowl helmet hiding their faces, John could tell that they were smirking and looking down on him. He wasn't annoyed but rather he wanted to be put in prison quickly. This was the first time he'd want to be put in jail of his own volition since he had never been put in jail in his whole life.

The guards then escorted John to a cell, the cell had a small bed a small table with a stool, and a book. A smile etched on his face realizing that this would be his first-ever comfortable resting place. He immediately plop down on the bed with a warm smile as he stretched his entire body, the guards look at him with a confused glance.

'This is the first time I've seen an inmate so happy to be put in jail.'

'Who can you blame? Maybe the alien didn't have any comfortable resting place in their home, he's probably stuck in space and sleeping on some hard rock and has never felt the comfort of a bed before so let's let him be.'

The guards soon left and John was sleeping on the bed as if he was sleeping on the softest mattress in the world. But he was quickly awoken by a clank in the wall and saw that there was a set of clothes given to him. It was a gray cellar clothing that included a small chip that automatically stick to his neck and although he didn't feel any pain from it, it was a bit of discomfort. John could remove the chip on his neck but was afraid that he might cause a commotion so he let the chip be and quickly wore the clothes as he had just realized that he had been naked all this time.

'They probably thought I was some hairless alien and didn't think weird of it but still, flashing myself in public is just embarrassing.'

John didn't want to think deeply about it and decided to grab the book from the table and read it. The inscription of the book was similar to the ones he had seen on the walls and as he focused his gaze on the book, the words jumbled into the alphabet which he could now read.

"THE GRAND"

That was the title of the book. When John started reading it, he realized that the book's premise was similar to that of the Bible, with the supreme being making the universe in 9 days and resting for 3 days, and forming a man in the image of himself. The man was defined like the aliens he had met and as he continued to read, John couldn't help but be baffled.

The stories of The Grand and The Bible had a lot of similarities but what differentiates them from both is that This supreme being was unlike the God John knew. It enjoyed fighting and wars and would mess with the world so that peace would never happen, the story didn't have any happy ending nor a bad ending as it abruptly end as if some pages were ripped out. Still, John enjoyed the book, the book was closer to that of an action novel than a religious text.