Neil was surprised as her soft pink lips gently pressed against his, but after a moment, he leaned into her. Wrapping his arms around her body and squeezing her soft body tightly.
It was quite rare for her to be so clingy while being in the open and with so many people around, even her father and grandfather were close by.
The two controlled their urges and separated after a minute, her tender lips sticking to his a moment longer before gently bouncing back.
"I will be waiting for you on the other side." Jane spoke, still hugging him tightly.
"Mmm…" Neil nodded, the two remained silent and just embraced one another, relishing each other's warmth.
Although the warp ships would be stopping once in the week long trip to refill the fuel but there was little to no chance of them meeting at that time.
"Let's go, say hello to uncle and grandpa. Also, don't scare away the people in the warship with your death glare and…" Neil began to speak and Jane kept nodding like a cute doll.
Finally, the two separated and headed towards their respective warships. Neil nodded towards Jane's father and grandfather who were also heading into ship number 2.
Normally it was not allowed for families to travel in these warships along with all the teenagers.
But with their influence and strength, such small things were certainly possible. Instead they would be an additional layer of security.
Although the two didn't object to their relation but Neil had a feeling that they didn't like him all that much.
Each interaction with them felt unnatural, they probably looked down on him.
'Wish my parents were here as well…' he thought before walking towards warship number 7.
Neil's parents influence and strength was way higher than Jane's.
"Whoa, it's so big!" Seeing the large spaceship, Neil paused just like many others, each warship could easily carry thousands of them.
"Hurry up!" one of the men from E.C.O shouted, bringing the amazed teenagers back to their senses.
Soon Neil joined the queue, they were allowed to enter after showing their cards, so the whole process was quite fast.
Soon he was at the front of the line.
"Neil Yate…" a woman with shoulder length black hair and in a red battle suit took his card and muttered.
Then she gazed at his face and extended her right hand: "I have heard a lot about you, I am Amanda."
"Hello." Neil smiled and shook hands with her, but suddenly from somewhere far away, he felt a burning gaze.
Rolling his eyes, he glanced back and as expected Jane was there. According to her, everything about him, even his smile, only belonged to her.
Taking the card, Neil excused himself and headed inside before Jane attacked someone.
Neil stepped onto the escalator, which brought him directly to the entrance of the warship.
As he headed inside, everything looked quite similar to the ones he had seen in videos.
Suddenly Neil felt something crawling over his palm, he jerked his hand instinctively and threw the tiny insect away.
"Huh? An insect inside a warship?" he didn't ponder much and continued.
The tiny metallic insect hit the wall, sparks coming out of it before it lunged towards Neil again.
Yet it failed and ended up on another teenager.
There was so much space inside, everything so advanced.
But before Neil could get a nice tour, one of the officers approached him and extended his hand.
Neil silently gave his card. After getting a look at it, the man gestured for Neil to follow and walked into a large hall.
The hall was filled with sleeping pods, more than half of the candidates were already inside.
And the officers were helping them settle inside. Some of them, especially girls, fainted and many got afraid.
"Don't panic inside, you will wake up once you have awakened. There won't be any pain." The guy said as he started to prepare.
"Uh… Thanks for the detailed instructions." Neil didn't ask much, since such basics were already explained to them in the academy.
Then he climbed into the pod and laid down, his arms resting on either side of his body.
Taking a deep breath, Neil closed his eyes.
"The mask will be deployed in 3 seconds…" a mechanical voice sounded.
And then a cold mask pressed against his face, through which a gas was released that put him to sleep within moments.
Several thoughts passed through Neil's mind but before he knew it, his consciousness descended into oblivion.
Then several mechanical hands moved, piercing needles through his arms, feet, head and back.
After which a glistening red fluid began to enter his body, slowly merging and spreading.
The same procedure was happening with all of them. In the other warship, Jane too fell unconscious as her body got injected by the Gene Fluid.
Before her consciousness faded, she touched the ring on her finger, hoping for this long trip to end soon.
So she could be back with him.
Once all the teenagers had entered their sleeping pods, the warp ships took off from Earth at extreme speed.
Their destination was after all a few million light years away.
As days passed, the teenagers began to wake up one after another. The officers noted their readings from the sleeping pods after helping the newly awakened.
By the third day, almost all of them had woken up.
Even Jane woke up at day four, and by now everyone except Neil had awakened.
Normally they would have already started the process of announcing their talent and skills but because of Neil they halted it.
Only because the academy and ECO put great importance on him.
At day five, the twenty warships landed on a planet with no life forms to refill their fuel just as they had planned without any problems.
…
Pain shot through Neil's body, as if he was being torn by two powerful forces. Even in his sleep, he continued to endure this pain, unable to even move or scream.
But finally at day five, his eyes fluttered open as the pain slowly subsided.
'Ughh Was that level of pain normal? Wasn't it supposed to be painless?' Neil wondered, the lights of his pod turned green and it finally opened.
The mask and needles also got removed. Using the lid for support, Neil pushed himself to sit, breathing heavily.
Even after not eating or drinking anything for days he was still perfectly fine.
After calming down, he looked around and saw that several officers were standing around his pod in wait.
"Sigh finally he is awake. Are you feeling well?" one of the women stepped forward and tried a few simple tests to check his condition.
"Yeah, I am fine now. How long has it been?" The officers helped him get out of the pod, and as Neil gazed around, all other pods were already empty.
'I am the last?' he thought.
"It's been five days, anyway, get some rest and tell us if there is anything you need. The ceremony will soon be starting."
Neil gazed down at his body and tried to sense the changes but he really couldn't tell yet.
"Right, details about your awakening will be added to your personal assistant soon, then you will be able to check your status."
Seeing his pondering expression, one of the officers said.
"Okay…" Then the officers brought Neil to one of the rooms. After delivering some food and drinks, the officers left him alone.
Lying back on a comfortable bed he muttered: "I wonder how my awakening went, anyway, Nemo call Jane."
"Alright Master." Her soothing voice sounded instantly and a virtual display popped in front of Neil.
At the first ring, Jane picked up the call. Her cold yet worried voice sounded from the other side.
"Are you okay? You just woke up?"
"Yes and yes. But I didn't expect the process to be so painful."
"Huh? There was no pain."
The two chatted for a while, though it was mostly Neil talking. Just as he had finished eating his food, there was a knock on the door.
"Yes?" Neil called out as an officer opened the door and questioned.
"Do you think you can attend the ceremony? If not then-" the male assistant asked.
"Yes, I am perfectly fine now, I will be there in a minute." Interrupting the officer he spoke.
The officer nodded and sent the message through his assistant after leaving before getting busy with preparations.
"Oh, the ceremony is finally starting."
After a few seconds, Jane's surprised voice sounded, making Neil roll his eyes.
Just because of his parents, he was getting way too much attention and importance.
He just hoped that it doesn't come back to bite him in the ass later on.
'Sigh I have a bad feeling about this, anyway let's go.'
Sighing he walked out of the room as the door shut behind him automatically.
The ceremonies would be happening in all the warships at the same time.
"Let's continue the call and hear each other's report." Neil suggested and Jane hummed in agreement.
Then Nemo led him towards the auditorium of the ship where over a thousand teenagers had already arrived.
The sight of the warp ship was truly wonderful, the price of a single one was unimaginable.
As Neil took a seat, he attracted quite some attention, as the boys and girls began to pass comments about him.
"His parents must be really confident in him, they didn't even come here, I guess things are different for those big shots." A boy muttered.
"Yea, I wish I could obtain at least a 3rd tier talent, then I will be able to reach the rank of 3rd Origin Class Lord." A girl beside him muttered.
Soon, Michael climbed onto the stage, his expression solemn.
Without wasting any time he got to the topic: "Now, I will be starting with your reports. When your name and number are announced, just stand at your place."
After a pause, as the teenagers quieted down, he began: "Mike, 132655-003."
A boy nervously stood up, his face covered in sweat.
"You have not awakened any innate skills, your synergy with the Gene Fluid is 38%. A 3rd tier talent!" Michael's loud voice reverberated, and Mike sat down, a smile appearing on his face.
He had kept his expectations low, so even this was not bad.
"Lin-004!" Michael called out.
And a girl stood this time, her body shaking badly, she looked very nervous.
"You have not awakened any innate skills, your synergy with the Gene Fluid is 43%. A 4th tier talent!" As his voice sounded, the girl let out an excited shriek before sitting down in excitement.
She too was humble with her expectations.
Talent not only represented the upper limit of a person but even the speed of regeneration of energy, the amount of energy they could hold and more.
For now, it could be said that it could decide how their future would go.
This single word could dictate a person's entire life. Based on this parameter, they would then choose to challenge the suitable Domain.
The Domains were divided into several classes, with the lowest being bronze, then silver, gold and the most dangerous diamond.
Though bronze were for those with the lowest synergies who would do small jobs on the Zoratian Planet.
Quite a lot of them would choose Silver class domain. Gold class would be chosen by considerably fewer teenagers, it was impossibly dangerous for those under 40 percent.
But only the ones above 50 percent would be more confident.
And then comes the diamond, which is the rarest and very few choose it, the success rate being extremely low.
Not more than twenty would challenge the diamond class and not even a quarter of them could succeed.
But considering that the Zoratian planet had a population of several billions, from all sorts of races, the diamond class lords were not too many.
After the announcements, each of them was being called to receive the update of their status panel in their personal assistants.
Only then could they see their status. Some returned to their seats while most left the auditorium, excited to read their status panel and tell their families about it.
On the other side, the ceremony started as well, as Jane waited for her turn.
"Jane" Neil called out in a low voice.
"Mm?" came her response, as always she spoke few words.
"…Which territory class are you going to choose?" he questioned. The territories were divided into several classes, with the lowest being bronze, then silver, gold and the most dangerous diamond.
He felt that she might choose diamond and the ones who succeeded in conquering that Domain became the strongest lords.
"Gold… maybe diamond, I will choose what you choose." Jane answered after thinking, she loved to have everything matching with him.
Suddenly their chat got interrupted as the loud voice of the instructor reverberated on warp ship 2.
"Jane-108!"
She stood up, her fists clenched and heart beating faster. On the back, her father and grandfather both leaned forward, waiting for her report.
They had high hopes for her; she had been really good at everything she did.
And was almost at the 1st position in every sort of test.
The instructor looked at her and then at the screen before his eyes, creating a rather dramatic pause.
"You have awakened one unique growth type innate skill: Light Manipulation. Your synergy with the Gene Fluid is 85 percent. You have awakened an 8th tier talent!!"
His loud voice shocked everyone on the warp ship, the teenagers stared at the gorgeous Jane in shock.
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Thanks for reading...