If I wasn’t so used to teleporting by now, the experience would have been a lot more jarring. The teleportation to another planet that was who knows how far away had been instant, or at the very least, had been made to feel like it. I wasn’t a stranger to vaguely doubting the way the system did things, so the conundrum was quickly relegated to the back of my mind as I took in my surroundings.
I had appeared in an empty, circular room. It was well lit and mostly made out of some bright metal, reminding me a bit of the platforms used to descend the layers of Suigoss, looking like it could comfortably accommodate a monster at least three times my size. The room itself was rather boring, so my attention quickly shifted to the vague sounds of a crowd coming from behind what was obviously a sliding door. Was this some sort of arrival platform, and once I stepped out there, I’d be thrown off the deep end? I wasn’t entirely sure about how I felt having to find my way through a whole new society without a guide, but it was looking like I’d have to take the plunge, as a small screen integrated in the right half of the door was begging for my attention.
I gingerly extended a tentacle toward the blinking screen, which immediately displayed a string of characters I could not read. Before I could really wonder what this was all about, a system screen came to my rescue.
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Welcome to Traveler Hub #6439!
Congratulations on completing your tutorial quest! You have proven your worth and are now fully accepted into the Traveler Initiative. Be aware that your status as a traveler comes with new duties that you are expected to fulfill. Please head to a quest hall at your earliest convenience to learn more.
As part of the onboarding process, the universal traveler translator skill will be granted to you.
Please enjoy your stay!
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Universal Traveler Translator (?) (Passive)
Allows you to understand all other travelers, no matter which language they are using to communicate.
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Well, that was awfully convenient. I took another look at the message on the screen, now completely legible. In perfect English, it read: “Welcome, traveler. Please step out of the arrival platform as soon as possible to make space for other arrivals”.
I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. Looks like this place was strictly business, so I pushed down my budding nervousness and pushed the on-screen button labeled “open”.
The door parted without a sound, giving me my first proper view of the hub. I exited onto a larger platform that was lined with cylindrical metal constructs of varying sizes, shortly after confirmed to be other arrival platforms like the one I’d just been in, since I saw several beings step out of them. A good seventy percent were some sort of humanoid, some of which I recognized from fantasy stories on Earth. Elves and dwarfs, for example, but there were other, more outlandish humanoids as well.
Some had several sets of arms, some were scaled, some had feathers and wings, and skin colors varied across the whole color spectrum, or so it seemed. The other thirty percent of people going about their business were monsters, like myself. Everybody seemed to coexist peacefully, which shouldn’t have been a surprise, but somehow it still was. I had just spent some time living with what I could best describe as aliens, which would probably cause a panic on Earth, but this somehow felt even weirder.
The arrival platform was located in a large, dome-shaped building where most of the walls were made out of glass, so I got my first glance at the outside, which wasn’t terribly exciting, since a skyscraper dominated the view. I followed it upwards with my eyes to see how tall it was, but immediately forgot about it when I spotted several space ships hovering high up above. I was stunned by the sight for a few seconds, when my moment of wonder was interrupted.
“Hey! Hey, you! You’re Gary, right?” A voice that sounded a tad too excited called out to me, and I refocused my attention on a human who was approaching me with too much enthusiasm while waving at me. “Please, may I have a moment of your time?”
I was about to ask how he knew my name when a bearded dwarf came out of nowhere and tripped the human up, causing him to stumble. “Shove off, Carcival, I saw him first. Gary, pleased to make your acquaintance, I am…” He didn’t get any further since the human shoved him from behind, which immediately caused a scuffle to break out. The commotion drew some curious glances their way, and then mine, before all hell broke loose.
I noticed some people excitedly pointing somewhere behind me, so I turned my eyes to look back. Above the cylinder I arrived in, sat a small display that was currently displaying my traveler ID. Upon checking again, each of the arrival platforms had one, and whenever somebody stepped out, it would display their ID. Well, that explained how they knew my name, at least. Which left the question of why half the people present in the building were currently rushing my way, pushing, shoving, and shouting over each other in an attempt to be heard.
“We’re a very prestigious guild…”
“Our benefits are leagues above…”
“At the Hollow Knights, we are more like family…”
“We’ll pay you so much money you won’t know what to do with it…”
“You’ll have all the women you’ll want!”
“We have access to sooo many hidden quests!”
“YOUR OWN SPACESHIP!”
“... and that’s why…”
“Please, I’m begging you, my boss will literally kill me if you don’t join!”
I could make out some snippets here and there, quickly figuring out what it was they wanted. It also helped that I was getting inundated by system messages, all requesting me to join some guild or other. I immediately became suspicious. Sure, from what I’d gathered, joining a guild would probably be something I’d need to deal with somewhere down the road, but this was all moving a bit too fast for my tastes. Did they treat any unaffiliated newcomer like this, or was there something special about me that I wasn’t aware of?
“Do NOT touch me!” I shouted as an overly friendly human woman was about to put her hand near where my shoulder would be on a human in an overly affectionate display. “I am incredibly poisonous to the touch.”
That got her to back off quickly with an apologetic look, and had the convenient side effect of keeping the roiling masses at bay as well. They were still promoting their guilds, all at the same time, in an attempt to stand out, which made it hard to understand anything properly. I was about to shoot them down collectively when one of the many notifications caught my eye.
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You have been invited to join the guild: Tier 0
Would you like to accept the invite?
Y/N
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Suffice to say, the guildname piqued my interest. After all, I’d started out as a humble tier zero monster myself. Looking at the frothing masses, I started to suspect that simply telling them to leave me alone until I found my footing here would not help at all. I wasn’t great at reading people, but even I could feel the desperation in them. For some reason, they were obsessed with the idea of having me in their guild. Not wanting to be harassed for the next few days, I called out to the crowd.
“Who’s the representative of the guild called Tier 0?” I shouted as loud as I could to be heard over the din. “I would like to discuss terms!”
This was, of course, a bald-faced lie. I was at best mildly curious about the guild and was using them as a cheap way out of the situation by pretending that I was actually interested, hoping that it would get the others to back off.
“Me, that’s me!” A shout came from somewhere behind the crowd, which split apart to both make way for the guy and shoot glares at him. “Pleased to meet you, Gary! My name is Liam, and I’m the representative for the Tier 0 guild. Would you like to go somewhere more private to discuss your future with us?”
I couldn’t help but be confused when, instead of a monster, a handsome elf in a suit was the one emerging from the crowd. Could the intelligent races also start at tier zero somehow? My confusion didn’t last very long, though, since my hidden radar skill alerted me to something being wrong. That, combined with the fact that my void feelers told me something was off about the guy, led me to use the archive. He was clearly identified as a tier twelve doppelganger. Which, in turn, quickly made me realize that I was probably completely surrounded by people and monsters that could delete me from existence with a sneeze.
“Yes… sure… let’s do that…” I slowly got out the words while warily eyeing the disappointed crowd. Loud arguments were already breaking out about how someone else had ruined someone's chance, but the crowd was starting to disperse, with no small amount of envious looks shot Liam's way.
Which was another thing giving me pause. What were the chances of this guy's name being Liam? That was my name back on Earth, before I’d renamed myself. Either this was some cosmic-level coincidence, or the guy was fucking with me somehow. A bit suspicious, I started to follow his lead in the rough direction of an exit, when a human man came over to stand in our way. He shot Liam a mean look before focusing on me.
“Please, I’m begging you,” the man fell to his knees in front of me, giving off a truly desperate vibe. “My boss will literally kill me if he hears that I let you slip by without recruiting you. He’s actually crazy, I’m serious…”
“Oh, sod off, you know the rules, so back off,” Liam said with barely concealed annoyance. “You’ll get another chance if Gary says no. Don’t listen to him, he’s just trying to play the pity card, it happens all the time.”
Liam ushered me past the now openly sobbing man, still begging me to at least consider going with him first. I kept an eye on that guy, and he seemed dead serious. Either that guy's boss was actually ruthless, or he was a phenomenal actor. Which reminded me, once again, about how desperate they all seemed to invite me. What was so special about me that would cause such a commotion?
As we neared the exit of the building, I looked at the guy, or rather, the monster that should be able to answer all of my questions. And, if he actually wanted to stand any chance of me actually joining his guild, he better answer all of them, without fault.
“So Liam, before we start talking business, there are just a few things I’m curious about…”