During our stay on Earth we lived through a week full of all sorts of situations.
First we visited the planet’s history museum, where all of humanity’s advances over its long history were on display.
It was there that I finally understood which were, at present, the greatest powers governing Earth.
The United States held first place, with major technological advances in weaponry and the largest number of active-duty soldiers, in addition to controlling a considerable number of colony worlds.
China came in second.
It had the largest network of trade and scientific routes for civilian use within the Federation, and was also, of the four, the one with the most worlds under its direct control, backed by an army genetically modified from top to bottom.
Russia held third place, on par with the United States in both weaponry and number of worlds, although its true specialty lay in building Titans and combat Knights, as well as planetary-scale mining.
Japan rounded out fourth place, standing out for having the most technologically advanced fleet in the entire Federation, and for being undisputed masters in the development of artificial intelligence, both civilian and military.
In fact, it possessed the largest AI army ever assembled in the whole Federation.
There were, of course, other heavyweight powers, while others had fallen by the wayside.
North Korea, for example, failed to keep pace with society’s accelerated progress and ended up left completely behind, while its southern neighbor became one of the pioneers in sending colony ships beyond the solar system.
At some point in history, North Korea went as far as detonating a nuclear bomb over a South Korean city, kicking off a bloody Second Korean War that ended in the North’s total defeat, abandoned even by China and Russia as soon as it stopped being useful to them.
Another memorable episode was the fall of Dubai, at one time one of the richest countries on the planet thanks to oil and tourism.
Its fortune shot up like a rocket, but its fall was just as fast once the oil ran out and tourism lost all its appeal.
The country sank into an unsustainable debt, and in the end, its own cities were bought up, one by one, by various corporations.
Another curious event happened when one of Yuna’s friends invited her to watch one of the famous genetic beast fights, which were illegal both for moral reasons and because of how dangerous those creatures became once they got out of control.
Even so, the authorities usually looked the other way in exchange for a “small commission” for their services.
Even the upper echelons of society openly sponsored their favorite competitors.
When we arrived at the meeting point, the noise of people screaming with excitement was almost deafening.
Yuna and her group settled into one of the VIP booths, ready to enjoy the next fight.
A hostess, wearing an outfit that left very little to the imagination and a radiant smile, came over to ask whether we wanted to bet on any of the contenders.
Yuna and the girls in the group declined immediately, but the boys couldn’t resist: some for the chance to win a little money, others to look good in front of their friends, and probably also because the woman in front of them was far too attractive to say no to anything.
Once the bets were collected, the hostess turned to leave, showing off her entire figure.
The boys, unable to help themselves, leaned forward in their seats so as not to miss a single detail.
The girls, who of course caught them red-handed, shot them glares capable of freezing hell over.
Noticing this, the boys were literally paralyzed with terror.
Once that awkward moment had passed, the first fights began.
In the arena, enormous genetically modified creatures tore each other apart without any restraint whatsoever.
Blood and limbs flew everywhere.
Some of the beasts looked like reptiles, others like gigantic insects, but they all shared one trait: colossal size, at least six meters tall.
The last bout of the night was, without a doubt, the most spectacular, since it pitted elegance against pure brute force.
One of the creatures looked like an impossible cross between a velociraptor and a serpent.
Its tail, which at first seemed to be a single limb, split mid-fight into four independent appendages, all of them moving with lethal precision.
It moved across the arena almost as if it were dancing, launching swift, accurate strikes straight at its rival’s joints.
Its opponent, however, didn’t just stand there.
Heedless of the wounds it had already taken, it charged head-on with every intention of ramming it.
But at the last instant, Turdorapter flipped through the air, dodging the impact entirely and landing right behind it.
With a relentless move, it slammed it to the ground and, pressing its foot against its rival’s head, pinned it completely.
With both hands, it seized Khanivore’s left arm and pulled hard until it ripped it clean off, leaving only a bloody stump.
The beast’s roar of pain mingled with the ecstatic screams of the crowd.
Those who had bet on Turdorapter began chanting its name, convinced the victory was in the bag.
But then the unexpected happened: from Khanivore’s severed stump emerged a blade of bone, sharp and menacing.
The creature counterattacked at once.
Even so, for the first time in the fight, the predator took wounds that made it stagger.
Turdorapter advanced, imposing, with a slow and steady stride.
In a burst of fury, it cut off another of its enemy’s limbs and disoriented it with a brutal blow straight to the skull.
Khanivore tried to recover, but had barely managed to raise its gaze when it was pinned by the neck against the stands, its rival’s bone blade sinking into its abdomen amid a spray of crimson blood.
The crowd went wild, screaming Turdorapter’s name, howling for the finishing blow.
It all seemed over.
But just when everyone had given Khanivore up for beaten, it played its last card: the only tail it had left intact coiled like a snake around one of Turdorapter’s horns, wrenching its neck to one side.
In that instant, it sank its jaws into its throat, tearing through flesh and bone, bathing the arena floor in blood.
Both of them fell at the same time.
Only one got back up.
Khanivore emerged victorious, completely drenched in its rival’s blood.
With a roar of triumph, it tore off Turdorapter’s head with its one working arm and raised it before the crowd.
The whole stadium shook with cheers as the beast displayed its macabre trophy, proclaiming its victory with a roar that rattled the arena to its very foundations.
The crowd erupted in a deafening wave of ovations, screaming Khanivore’s name as if it were a god of blood.
Those who had bet on it jumped for joy, celebrating with hugs and laughter, while those who had trusted in Turdorapter ground their teeth in sheer rage, cursing their luck.
With that last triumphant roar, all the night’s fights came to an end.
The results left me thinking.
For me, the real lesson of the night wasn’t in the betting or the spectacle itself, but in the level of mastery humanity had achieved over genetic alteration.
Seeing how that same science served both medicine and the creation of deformed creatures for entertainment was, in equal parts, terrifying and fascinating.
The boys, for their part, had followed my advice on the bets and ended up walking away with a small fortune.
The whole group was in excellent spirits, laughing and joking, still with the adrenaline of the fight coursing through their systems, or their blood, depending on the case.
When the roar of the stadium began to die down and the lights started going out, we decided to leave.
We walked through the crowd, which was still heatedly debating the fights, until we reached an elegant restaurant on the outskirts of the district, where we closed out the night over drinks and hot food.
In the last days we had left on Earth, I went with Yuna to a party thrown by the governor of Seoul, at a five-star hotel called the Pearl of Seoul, where the city’s entire elite gathered.
My gaze wandered among impeccably dressed people, women with skin as fine as jade, all of them looking like movie stars.
Yuna had managed to convince Mia and Fletcher to come with her; the rest of her friends from the institute, ordinary folks, had no interest whatsoever in this kind of gathering.
For her, these parties were unbearably boring: everyone talked about politics, business, and strategies for building connections with other companies and corporations.
We spent a good part of the evening having as much fun as we could.
Every so often some guy would come over intending to ask Yuna to dance, and she, with enviable reflexes, would use Fletcher as a human shield to get rid of them, which got more than one laugh out of us.
The calm was shattered all at once when Sakura appeared at the far end of the hall.
She shone like a star, with a presence impossible to ignore.
But what truly caught my attention wasn’t her, but the little girl with her: silver hair, blue eyes as deep as the night sky, casually escorted by two adults who seemed to be her parents.
As soon as Sakura noticed us, she frowned with visible irritation and, without saying a single word to us, withdrew with her entourage to another part of the hall.
The unsettling thing was that the girl kept her gaze fixed on Yuna and me, without looking away for even a second, as if she were trying to decipher something only she could see.
Lunaria’s Perspective
After spending several days watching the young Miss Yuna like a real paparazzo, trying to figure out whether she was a reincarnator or not, I finally managed to confirm something that left me in shock: the automaton my sister had described was, without a doubt, an exact copy of Samuel Hayden, the character from Doom.
It stood just over three meters tall, with the unmistakable white metal plates and a blue visor that gave off a cold presence.
And the most unsettling part of all: it also called itself Samuel.
The more information I gathered on Yuna, the bigger my doubts grew.
The automaton seemed to belong to someone else, and everything suggested it was only passing through Earth.
Yuna, for her part, showed nothing out of the ordinary: a free-spirited girl, nothing more.
But the way the automaton behaved was strange, too self-aware, too human.
That suspicion was fully confirmed during the party.
Yuna was there, with her friends and, of course, with Samuel. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
It took me several minutes to work up the courage to approach, but as soon as she noticed I was staring at her, I didn’t dare take another step and awkwardly looked away.
I faked a sudden interest in the snack table and hurried off, almost running, to cover it up.
With a plate full of food in my hands, and after a few minutes to calm down, I decided to try again.
Fate, as if it wanted to lend me a hand, had Yuna come over to the same table to help herself to something.
I seized the moment and greeted her with a shy smile.
Although the relationship between my sister and her was a disaster, I hoped she wouldn’t treat me just as badly; after all, I was only a ten-year-old girl.
To my surprise, Yuna was kind, even affectionate.
We started talking about simple things: how her day had been, the institute, the odd anecdote here and there.
She spoke with enthusiasm, and she made me feel she wasn’t nearly as cold as my sister insisted on describing her.
At some point in the conversation, I dropped, almost in passing, the names of video games, of events, of famous people, hoping for some spark of recognition.
But all I got were looks of total confusion.
She had no idea what I was talking about, and that disappointed me quite a bit.
Then Samuel appeared, with two slices of cake in his hands.
On the piece he set down in front of me there was something curious: a series of letters and symbols etched with surgical precision into the icing.
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A.
The famous video game code.
And, next to it, names that shouldn’t exist in this reality: Halo, Doom, Sonic, The Traveler.
I felt my heart pounding hard against my chest.
I looked up at Samuel, and he nodded, slowly.
I returned the gesture, and with an almost imperceptible movement he slipped a small communication device into my hand, without Yuna noticing a thing.
That night, back at the mansion, I activated the device.
After a minute of waiting, Samuel’s voice answered on the other end.
We talked for a full hour about our respective circumstances, about what it meant to have been reborn in this world.
I, of course, kept certain information to myself.
And so did he; I could tell from his silences, from the calculated way he answered every question.
The most shocking thing was discovering that he wasn’t a drone being remotely controlled by someone else: Samuel was, in every sense, an AI in his own right.
When I asked about his future plans, he went quiet.
That silence only sparked my curiosity even more, but before I could press him, he broke off the conversation with a statement I wasn’t expecting at all.
“I’m leaving this planet tomorrow.
If you want, you can come with me.”
I froze.
I asked him why, and his answer turned out to be even more unsettling.
“Earth is not going to be a safe place.”
Something in his tone told me he wasn’t joking, that he was taking this very seriously.
So, in the end, I agreed to go with him.
Samuel asked me to pack my luggage and wait for him at dawn, at seven o’clock sharp, right in front of the Yoo family mansion.
From there he would take me to the ship.
That night, as I carefully folded the few clothes and the few belongings I planned to take with me, I couldn’t stop asking myself the same question: was I really taking the first step toward my destiny, or toward a trap I would never manage to escape?
The next day, I slipped out of the house using Shadow Steps, a skill I had developed over time that let me become temporarily undetectable.
When I activated it, I blended into the shadows around me, invisible to both sight and hearing.
After a few minutes’ walk, I found Samuel waiting outside the mansion, wrapped in a black cloak.
I dropped Shadow Steps and planted myself right in front of him, which took him completely by surprise.
He asked me if I was ready.
I told him I was, and minutes later we were already on our way, in a vehicle headed for the starport.
I hope you can understand, and thank you for your patience and support!