After about 10 minutes of flying, he had finally arrived at his destination. The source of the light was a city, but it looked... Futuristic. This surprised him. There was a 20-meter high wall surrounding the city, and then there was a glass dome. Two layers of protections against the outside world? It was strange, but the city looked completely fine, and untouched by any external force.
Hayate descended from the air and landed on the snow-covered ground, next to an old and long dead tree, The tree was a pitiful sight, stripped of its leaves and roots, the trunk was dried and dark, it was hollow. If trees could die from depression, this tree definitely would have. He had no idea how long it had been since the tree had been uprooted, it could have been years, maybe even decades. Who knew?
He was a kilometre away from the city. He felt a little bit winded after flying, he wasn’t used to it yet, but it wasn’t anything major. He touched down on the hard ground, brushing off the snow that had accumulated on his body during his flight. He tucked his wings close to his body, the feathery surface folding neatly.
He looked around the barren landscape, there was nothing in sight except more snow, wind and dead trees like the one he was standing next to and the massive city ahead of him.
The city stood out like a sore thumb in this bleak landscape, it was like someone had taken a piece of heaven and placed it here. It was also surprisingly...normal-looking. It looked like it was build by human’s..not that he was much of a architect. Hayate hadn’t seen much of the city yet, but he couldn’t be sure if it was human made or not. The style was rather human-like, he thought. But it could easily be made by other races too, if he was indeed in another world.
Hayate also thought about the possibility that he was in Hollow, the world of the game he played. After all, in the game, there were humans and a ton of other playable races around 200. It was plausible. But it wasn’t the only possibility. He could be in another fantasy world, or a completely different world he had never before seen. There were no certainties yet, and it was frustrating.
There were so many possibilities, and so little clues to go on. He felt like a fish out of water. He sighed.
Hayate didn’t want to just waltz in blind, he needed more information. He needed intel. And that’s when he remembered – divination magic! Of course, why hadn’t he thought of that before? Or spyware magic as he liked to call it. This kind of magic allowed him to gather information from a without the target knowing. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
There were many different kinds of divination spells, and just as many different anti-divination spells. It was a constant war between these two types of magic. If someone noticed you spying on them, they could easily cast a counter-spell that would cause your spell to end, or even damage you. And this was just one example. There were many factors to keep in mind when using these type of spells. Hayate had to know what kind of anti-spying measures the city took, if any, before deciding what kind of spells to use but sadly he didn’t.
He would have to play it safe and go for the least offensive spells, just to be sure. He wasn’t trying to make enemies after all, it was just an information-seeking mission.
The world of magic was vast and complex, and it was hard to master all of it. That was why most people specialized into specific schools of magic, rather than try and learn it all. It was just too much although he was...the latter.
Hayate looked around, checking for potential eavesdroppers. Seeing no one around, he closed his eyes and concentrated. There were many divination spells to choose from. The one he decided to go with was called [Eye of Heaven] a 3rd tier spell that allowed him to share the vision with a invisible floating eyeball and see what the eyeball is seeing.
[Eye of Heaven] had it’s fair share of weakness too, of course. It couldn’t enter buildings or enclosed spaces, as it required a clear line of sight to the target. This meant that any area with a good level of privacy could easily render the spell useless. The spell could also only be maintained for 3 minutes and when using any simple anti-invisibility spell like [true sight] you could easily spot it.
It was not the most advanced spell, and it’s range was also very limited when compared to others, but it was enough for him. The information he wanted was how it looked like around and if possible, inside the city wall’s.
He muttered to himself, “[Eye of heaven].”
And as he said the words, a small, floating eyeball appeared in front of him. It was a human eye, so it looked quite disturbing.
The eye was about the size of a child’s fist, and it floated about an inch above his palm. He willed it to move, and it slowly lifted itself up into the air, hovering above him.
He could see what the eye was seeing, which was great but very dizzying, after all his sight had basically become split, with part being his own view and the other part being the view through the eye. It was like seeing double. If he tried to concentrate too much on the vision provided by the eye, he found himself seeing triple. So he had to focus on the eye, but not too much.
It took some time before he finally managed to get the balance right, and soon enough he was able to simultaneously see the actual landscape and the vision of the eye. He began to look around.
He flew the eye towards the city wall. The city indeed seemed to be protected by a 20 meter wall. It was an odd sight, to say the least. Who would bother to build a wall around an already well-protected city with a glass dome above it? It didn’t make any sense.
He had to assume they had other defences set up besides the wall, maybe automated turrets?
He flew closer to the city, and just as he had thought, he saw some turrets poking out from the wall, ready to fire at any potential intruder. That made sense.
Hayate flew the eye in a counter-clockwise circle, taking care to go the entire way around the city. He soon discovered that the city was a huge. It was probably larger than Tokyo. The wall seemed to go on forever, after 3 minutes had passed the spell ended and his vision returned back to normal.
He took a deep breath. That took more out of him than he had imagined. He had been concentrating hard on the eye’s point of view, and had gotten extremely dizzy from seeing two different viewpoints at the same time. He shook his head, trying to clear his head. He would definitely need more training with such spells. But it was worth it. He had seen the city from all sides, and he could now get some rough estimate of its defences. There were multiple turrets, at least two for each kilometre of the wall.
And these were just the defences he could see, he had no idea what kind of other defences the city had, they didn’t seem to posses any magic from hollow though, so that was good...maybe..
Overall, the city looked impenetrable. From the outside at least. Hayate decided to go for the next steps in his plan, he was gonna use a spell to make himself invisible and sneak in somehow.
He could just go on without it but that would risk alerting the turrets, although he wasn’t sure if they would work on him considering that one of his rings have him protection from anything which does piercing damage unless it was shot by a player or npc level 90 or above and bullets did piercing damage, so he theorized they wouldn’t hurt him. But he wasn’t sure and definitely didn’t want to test it.
The last thing he wanted to do was find out the hard way that bullets could indeed hurt him. And even if they didn’t, he didn’t want to give the people any reason to shoot at him.
The invisibility spell he would use was called [True Invisibility], a relatively easy 5th tier spell, This spell effectively hid not only his appearance but also his sounds, heat signature, and even his mana presence. It’s cost was 5 M.P per 30 Second’s of use and it’s counter was the formerly mentioned spell, [True sight]. True invisibility spells were popular amongst assassins who needed to remain undetected, or for espionage purposes. The only limitation was the spell’s duration and cost.
Hayate muttered, “[True Invisibility]" and casted the spell. He stepped out from behind the tree, feeling a bit weird now that he was completely invisible. There was no reflection when he looked down at himself, and even the sound of his footsteps on the dry frozen earth was muted.
It was an odd feeling, like being naked in public..no..that was a weird comparison.
“what am I thinking..”
He said to himself in his mind and sighed.
Hayate started walking, heading towards the city wall.
While waking, he glanced down at his feet, noticing that even his shadow had disappeared. The spell was more thorough than he had expected. He also wasn’t leaving any footprints. The lesser legendary ranked boots he was wearing, the [Boots of the Wanderer] had the passive effect of not leaving any footprints along with giving him the ability to walk on both water and lava in game and a few other things. He also found himself thinking about one of his friends from Hollow, vampire bunny. VB was a doppelganger and an assassin class which was pretty ironic. VB wasn’t really part of Hayate’s friend group, most like an acquaintance but he had helped Hayate plenty.
“You would have been so useful right now..buddy..”
Vampire bunny or vamp as Hayate liked to call him, was of the first online friends Hayate had ever made, outside of his friend group. He lived in... Canada? Or maybe the usa?
All he knew was that he possessed a really strange sleep schedule, and he was incredibly lethargic. Vamp also had a proclivity for playing pranks.
A...good memory just came back.
Doppelgangers had the special ability to change their appearance into anything they wanted, within certain limitations. And there was one day once a year in Hollow called Halloween, where doppelgangers could transform into anything they wanted for a entire day. And what Vamp had decided to turn into that day...well it wasn’t exactly appropriate.
It was a adult star.
And he wasn’t the only one of course, although he had gotten a small temporary ban for it. Just before vampire had quit Hollow and that was also the last time Hayate had talked with him, vampire had given all his gear. All enchanted, legendary and lesser legendary items all of which to this date were rotting away in his inventory. Hayate had considered selling it at some point since he didn’t really need any assassin gear, but he couldn’t do it even after half a year, it felt like he was betraying his friend. He had a lot of good memories with him after all, and the gear acted as a memory of them. He just couldn’t see himself selling it even if he didn’t need it. So yeah, the gear was rotting away in his inventory, collecting dust.
He had asked vampire many times before why he quit, but the answer he had received was always the same “it’s complicated”, which really didn’t tell him much. Hayate had even tried to check vampire’s character profile while the latter was offline, just to take a look at his stats, but that had been in vain, vampire had disabled those options to the public. Hayate had been baffled by that, he had no idea you could that but apparently, you could.
Hayate had spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out if there was a way around this, but had been unsuccessful. In the end, he had decided to give him the space he needed and just wait for him to contact him again. Vampire had assured him that he would.
That day never came.
What happened, has happened. That can’t change.
He shouldn’t dwell upon that.
Hayate’s thoughts were interrupted when he reached the wall.
The wall was smooth and black in colour, there were no footholds or anything of that nature to help in climbing it. It was just a straight up 20 meter wall of stone. Nothing grew on it, like ivy or moss and the top well..from the top came out the glass dome which covered the city.
He walked around the perimeter of the wall, searching for an opening. Finally he came across a gate within the wall. It was a massive metal gate, probably the way into the city.
Hayate looked towards the road from the gate, it was made of asphalt, similar to those of the outside city roads. Hayate looked at the roads once again. The asphalt roads looked exactly like the ones in Tokyo, just more rugged and old-timey.
So? This was most definitely somewhere on earth. But was this earth in the past or in the future? That was also another question that needed answering. Hayate could only speculate right now.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He turned his back to the road and looked at the gate, it was a formidable sight. Made of some unknown alloy, it was heavily fortified, with a reinforced wall on both sides. It seemed to be the only opening in the city, or least the only opening from where Hayate was standing.
“Damn, talk about overkill,” he grumbled to himself, eyeing the colossal gate.
He then cursed at himself. In Hollow, there were many spells he could have used right now. Spells like [Wraith’s blessing] or [Wraith form] which allowed one to pass through any physical surface. Wraith’s Blessing was a lower tier spell which could also be used on others, while Wraith Form was a higher tier spell. And there was also a summon with the same name, [Wraith].
The wraith could pass through any solid surface and was unaffected by any non-magical physical attacks and he could summon it but he didn’t need a monster right now. Sadly, he hadn’t learned the formerly mentioned spells.
If he had, he could have easily snuck in.
“Should I force my way i—”
He cut himself off before he could his sentence.
“No that would be stupid.”
If he really was desperate, he could just use one of the 3 big aoe spells he knew like the 6th tier spell [atomic blast], or either of the two 7th tier spells which were [supernova] and [Dragon god’s wrath].
But that would draw the attention of the inhabitants of the city as all 3 of them caused massive explosions.
No, that wouldn’t do, he would have to find someway to quietly and easily enter the city without causing to much of a fuss and the sound alone would likely alert everyone within the city to his presence. While thinking on what kind of spell he should use, he noticed the ground started to rumble.
He could hear a sound of heavy footsteps approaching, this was most definitely a monster, a large one like an ogre.
His first instinct was to hide.
But considering that he was invisible, that was not really necessary but in truth, this wasn’t caused by any monster. No, this was caused by some kind of large vehicle.
He turned back to the road and what he saw made his heart skip a beat.
Tanks, 4-5 of them, materialized out of thin air. Their forms shimmered for a moment, as if cloaked in an invisibility spell, before becoming fully visible.
“Invisibility technology? They have that here?” he muttered to himself in disbelief.
The tanks were large and menacing. Each one stood tall at around 10 feet, their width reaching 14 feet. Their gun was a massive 36 feet long, and the hull stretched to 30 feet. Their sharp yet sleek form was accentuated by the thick metal armour that covered them, paint in a dull grey, almost blending into the ashen grey snowy environment surrounding them. Each tank had rounded corners and smooth lines, giving it a sleek, aerodynamic look. On the front section, Instead of the expected massive gun, each tank was equipped with a colossal railgun, topped with an automatic machine gun. What struck Hayate the most was the lack of windows on the tanks. They were completely opaque, their thick metal hulls hiding away their internal mechanisms, meaning anyone looking at the vehicle head on would only see an impenetrable wall of metal. The only protrusions visible were small road lights, currently turned off, embedded into the tank’s frame.
Hayate had to take a moment to collect himself. He was not expecting to see a damn tank of all things. He had no clue if he was more surprised by their existence or their appearance.
They looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, with their blocky design and large gun, like an unholy mix between an APC and an IFV.
Back in his own time, the only tech he knew that had similar capabilities were the American stealth bombers and planes, but even these weren’t truly invisible. They merely evaded radar detection.
But these tanks, appearing out of nowhere and staying invisible until they suddenly appeared – this was uncharted territory. It was an entirely different level of technology than anything he had seen before. A technology so advanced that it could easily be considered magic. He was stunned, As the tanks moved forward on the road, they left deep tracks in the old asphalt and snow beneath them.
He paused, studying the metal hulls more closely. “No windows...no visible crew...are they using hidden cameras or...are they unmanned?”
He was curious about the technology now.
They had to some way of seeing, either through a camera on the inside or if it was unmanned, there would be cameras or some kind of sensory equipment in the top turret and the hull itself, and the data would be relayed back to an actual control crew in base.
But then, why go through the effort of making them invisible? It was all very strange.
His thoughts shifted again, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted something else.
The tanks were heading straight towards the gate, a gate which was closed up.
“Are they planning to....” He didn’t finish his sentence, but it was clear to him now. One of the tanks fired its railgun. The resulting sound was deafening, like the roar of thunder multiplied a hundredfold, coupled with the ear-splitting screech of the railgun’s spinning rails. The tank’s barrel glowed bright red as the projectile burst forth, its speed too great for him to see any details, only a fiery blur streaking across the frozen ground. The projectile slammed into a nearby gate, sending huge chunks of metal and debris flying in a massive explosion.
The ground shook, the impact causing a small shockwave.
Or atleast, that’s what would had happened lest his thoughts were true.
Instead, the tanks rolled towards the gate, coming to a halt in front of it. The gate trembled for a moment, and then slowly but surely, it began to draw open. So these tanks were not enemies but allies, Okie.
Hayate decided to check if they were un-manned or not by using the spell, [Detect].
The spell, a 4th tier spell, allowed him to detect mana signatures or heat signatures of anyone within a 100 meter radius of him. It costed 5 m.p.
He looked at the tanks again and then muttered.
“[Detect]”
His eyes glowed faintly as the spell took effect, He waited for a few second, but nothing happened.
“No heat signatures..so they are unmanned...probably. “ he said to himself
He considered following the tanks, but thought against it.
He was invisible but what if the tanks had sensors which picked up on any lifeforms, he wouldn’t wanna find out. Instead, Hayate would wait until the last tank had went in and as soon as the gate would start closing he would run inside.
That was the plan.
While waiting, he stared at them and if he was being honest they reminded him of golems from Hollow.
Golems, back in the game, were versatile creatures made from various materials. Whether it was clay, stone, or metal, the quality of the material used directly influenced a golem’s strength. To create a golem, you needed to first gather the necessary materials, and of course, a core.
There were four different tiers of cores, ranging in rarity. These cores were the key to making a golem truly come to life. While temporary golems could be summoned, they were inherently weaker than their crafted counterparts. The crafted golems, unlike the summoned ones, were permanent until they were destroyed.
They were really good tanks, there was a level 100 Golem dungeon Boss which he and a few of his teammates fought a month ago, it was so annoying to defeat it, it’s defense was too notch and nearly 60% of it’s skills just recovered it’s H.P
The good thing about it was that it’s attacks were slow, so that was the only opening they had to damage it, using a variety of debuffs and combos for maximum dps and damage per hit.
It had taken about 2 hours to kill, but that was nothing compared to the 9 hour long raid boss they had to fight during a Christmas event, that guy was crazy. A server boss.
That is a story for another time though.
Back to the present.
The last tank rolled past him and came to a stop, joining the others on the other side of the gates.
He could see the gate start to close slowly, if that didn’t give him an opening he didn’t know what would.
He spread his wings and with lighting fast speed, he bee-lined for the entrance and blitzed straight in. Crossing over the threshold into the city, his heart hammered in his chest. He was actually in the city. He looked back at the now slowly closing gate and breathed a sigh of relief.
He was inside.
A sense of accomplishment washed over him. It had been more challenging infiltrating the city than he had expected, but he had succeeded.
He looked to his front and the sight that he saw blew him away.
There, behind the main gate, was an entire city, and it was magnificent.
A cyberpunk city.
It was a city of the future.
Tall neon skyscrapers filled the sky stretching upto the dome, each adorned with countless lights and holographic billboards.
Hundreds of lights illuminated the area, bouncing off the tall buildings and creating a glittering, artificial night. Flying cars buzzed through the air above, barely making a sound, while hovering vehicles silently glided along the roads, carrying people to various destinations.
A wide road ran straight ahead directly from the gate before branching out into four different directions, with holographic signs marking where they were going to ; District A, B, C, D
The wide road was packed full of traffic, with all sort of vehicles moving along at a brisk pace. He could see countless people walking on the road, or on the sidewalks, not sparing even a glance towards the enormous tanks in their way.
Despite the cold temperature outside, the area within the glass dome seemed warmer, the city’s own microclimate working to maintain a comfortable temperature
The air within the dome city was not only warmer but breathable, too. The reason was twofold: the heavy smog that blanketed the outside world prevented any sunlight from reaching the surface for the past 20 years, keeping temperatures consistently low. In winter, they dropped even to 0°C.
To counteract this, the city was littered with heaters, and the dome itself was equipped with air filtration systems. Though they hadn’t been cleaned in the last two years, they still ensured breathable air, making it unnecessary for people to wear masks.
Feeling no change in temperature due to his supernatural immunity, Hayate paid no mind to the city’s internal heating. His body, as usual, maintained a consistent 35°C, unaffected by the external environment.
But he did register the difference in air quality, breathing in and feeling the air clearer and fresher than it had been outside. This minor comfort was a welcomed relief.
Out of everything in this city, two things caught his attention the most.
First was the language on the holographic sign, it had English alphabets and number’s. Second was the sight of humans, going about their business.
There were people going to work, and people shopping, and others just walking around and talking. Some were dressed in simple clothes while others wore more futuristic-looking outfits. Their looks accentuated by various modifications. A few even had what looked to be cybernetic enhancements
He saw one man with a metal arm, another woman with a glowing, mechanical eye and quite a few with colourful hair. He also saw a few that looked like they had some type of genetic enhancement, some had feline like ears, or even tail’s.
The place was quite busy at the moment, but he realized one thing.
In the whole crowd, there was not a single non-human there. Everyone he had seen so far looked human, not a single elf or..dwarf, demon or any other kind of monster/beast race he knew so he was definitely not in another world.
At least, it seemed to him, that this was earth.
He turned his head and in the corner of his vision saw an advertisement. The first thing he noticed was the holographic 3D ad that hovered in mid-air.
Its bright neon colours caught his attention. The ad was in Japanese. Japanese script and language filled the screen.
Hayate’s eyes were plastered to it as soon as he saw Japanese.
It read ; “Model 6 super lung pack,” accompanied by a picture of a metallic lung embedded in a mechanical rib cage.
“Tired of feeling winded?” the ad asked, “Struggling with smog and pollutants?”
“Introducing the 17L super lung pack,” it continued, “With 2 hours of on-board stored oxygen, perfect for a contained or low oxygen environment. The ad then proudly boasted “Introductory price: ￥191,270,636” and promised an easy payment option.
To top it off, the tagline in the bottom read “Take a breath of fresh air whenever you want — live longer, live stronger.”
And underneath it was written the name of the company, “TecCorp.”
The price listed took his breath away.
￥191,270,636!
And that was an “introductory price”
Hayate couldn’t help but shudder. The value of money seemed to have inflated to astronomical heights. The cost of a “Model 17L sup..” whatever it was was nearly two hundred million yen, as an introductory price. What did that say about the rest of the city’s economy? Did people really have that kind of money to spare?
He was sure that this “TecCorp” was a huge monopoly, like many in the real world, and that they had probably gotten these huge riches by either making or inventing something important to civilization or by just forcing others into giving them money or whatever.
The latter was not a new thing; people had been doing it since the beginning of time. It was just that after becoming rich, they made sure to hide the fact the best they can by using bribes and blackmail.
Anyways, Inflation aside, the price being in yen and the ad being in Japanese solidified Hayate’s thoughts. The city, the people, the language – it all seemed pointed towards one conclusion. He was in Japan
And considering that Tokyo wasn’t some advanced mega-city, he realized that he was in a distant futuristic version of his country. This was the most plausible explanation, he didn’t have all the details yet, but he could assume that something big happened. World War 3, maybe? Or some other war?
That would explain the presence of military machinery.
He looked around again.
The tanks rumbled forward, the crowd parted quickly to let them pass. However, one elderly man was not quite quick enough to get out of the way. Caught in the path of the tank, he was knocked to the ground with a sickening crunch.
His body fell to the ground, his bones clearly shattered. The tanks trundled on indifferently, and strangely, not a single person paid any attention to the old man who was now writhing on the ...ground in agony. They merely continued on with their day.
This was not the Japan he remembered.
The apathy and indifference of the people towards the suffering of another was mind-boggling to him. He remembered a time when people would rush to help the elderly, to assist those in need. But here...it was as if lives didn’t matter. He wanted to reach out and help, wanted to offer the man some sort of comfort or aide. But something held him back. Perhaps it was the fear of drawing unwelcome attention to himself at a time like this. To reveal his concern, to help, would risk putting him in danger. After all, who was he but a stranger in a land which is now foreign to him.
But then, this feeling only lasted for a small while until it was gone.
He wasn't a human now after all, he was a demon.
Human suffering shouldn't matter to a demon. In first place a situation like this was never meant to happen where a human would be in a Demon's body.
He couldn't help but grimace.
His original self wouldn’t have ignored the scene before him, but now..he could barely register any feeling for the old man. Just the slight feeling of pity and nothing more. It was like he had lost his humanity. Or it was more like it was being overwritten.
Hayate, after letting out a silent sigh, continued onwards and walked towards district D.
He took in the sights of the city. Despite his initial surprise at the change in his surroundings, he was starting to adapt. The city was alive with activity. There were no trees or greenery that he could see, just concrete and metal. Everything seemed geared towards efficiency. There were no parks, no open spaces. Just building after building, and people moving about quickly and efficiently.
There were no trees, no plants, no wildlife.
No birds, no insects. Nothing to break the monotony of the endless metal structures. It was as if nature itself had been banished and replaced with cold, hard steel and machinery.
It was a depressing sight.
It didn’t help that the clouds overhead made it seem like it was about to rain.
It didn’t seem like a storm was brewing though; it seemed like it was the norm.
This dullness, this depression-inducing setting, was something he had never experienced before. And he didn’t like it. He thought about what could have caused it but as he walked, he realized that speculating on the cause was almost as futile as trying to count the numerous holographic ads that surrounded him. What he needed was information. Real information about what had happened in the world, not wild theories based on personal observations and guesses.
Hayate paused, his footsteps faltering as a thought occurred to him. He had been walking blindly, taking in the sights and sounds of the city. He needed information that someone local would have. He needed to find someone and talk to them, ask questions, gather information. The problem was, finding the right person to talk to. Who could he trust? Who would have the answers he needed?
An idea suddenly came into his mind. Mind control magic.
