The day of the second session.

Arriving at the building, I’ve been looking forward to meet the girls today. The past few days have been tough for WJSN and their fans, caught up in a nasty battle against a few particularly big-name groups and soloists for first place in music shows.

It was an incredibly close call, but thanks to everyone’s efforts we managed to bag two trophies this week. More would be great, but it was already amazing that we could trade blows with the best K-pop groups and come out on top several times.

The recent streak of wins should have cheered the members up quite a bit; I’m looking forward to what they’ll be up to today.

Sejin was around this time, overseeing the people handling the control boards as they ran the AI system and booted Hyperspace Frontier up.

He was seated further back in the room, accompanied by a staff member who was also around last week.

“You got past through security pretty quickly, KC.” The lead developer joked as he patted my shoulder.

“A little courtesy always helps,” I reply. “Plus the guards have learned my face anyway.”

The staff member shot me a glance, but turned back to the monitor on the control board without saying anything.

“We'll wait for the girls to come before we open the capsules, KC.” Sejin showed me to a seat further back in the room. Thanking him, I sat down on the chair and joined the development team in standby.

Scanning press coverage about HF on my smartphone, I could only find the same few still images already revealed to the media some time ago. Other than the dry landscape with was probably Nillon, I was unfamiliar with the other pictures of the game.

So much more to see...!

Switching to Twitter, I scrolled through my feed to look at fansite pics of the girls from the last few days. There were no pics of today's schedule well as last week's. Starship must have kept this under a pretty tight wrap.

The jingle of the door to this section of the building sounded, and we stood up from our seats in expectation.

Not long after, the girls led by their two managers entered the control board area.

“Hey~” I called out to them.

Two of the members waved at me, but didn’t say anything more. Lining themselves up in front of Sejin,

“Would You Like? Good afternoon, we are WJSN! Please take care of us today!”

Led by Exy, the thirteen members said their greetings.

“Good afternoon, girls.” My friend answered, “Let's keep this casual, everyone. We already know each other anyway.”

As they relaxed, Sejin and the team left the control board room to get the capsules ready to be used.

“Hi, KC! Been well?” Eunseo went over to me.

“Quite alright I say,” I replied. “Congratulations on your two wins this week!”

“They're all thanks to Ujungs' hard work.” Her eyes were bright as she said those words. “Thank you.”

“Anything to make you girls happy.” Representing the fanbase, I reciprocated her gratitude.

“Afternoon, KC.” Yeoreum called out to me. Turning to where that voice came from, I saw her beckoning me over with Meiqi next to her. I went over to them together with Eunseo.

“Ready for today?” She asked.

“Yep.” I responded. “How about you all? Was there a schedule this morning?”

“Just a little afternoon lethargy setting in,” Meiqi chimed in.

“We had a news interview earlier, so our throats were a little dry,” Yeoreum continued, “But other than that, everyone's fine.”

I looked over to see Dayoung chatting with Yeonjung and Exy. Turning back to the group,

“It looks like Dayoung's alright.” I commented. “Have you thought about what the three of you will do today, Yeoreum?”

“We have some plans.” The younger member smirked. “It involves some action, to give you a little hint.”

“Looking forward to it.” I grinned in return.

I talked with them a little more until Sejin and the staff came back.

“The capsules are up and running, girls.” He announced. “Get yourselves cozy in them and we’ll log you in at the half-hour mark.”

Everyone split up and went to the same sets they used last week. I headed over to my own and settled inside.

The login screen for HF was there, space city landscape and all. However, the background music playing was different.

You: It’s You, You, You this time, huh?

I typed into the chat group.

Eunseo: Consistent, at least 😆

Bona: If the game really played this song, I wonder where we’ll hear it.

Yeonjung: A place with a lot of purple, maybe.

Yeah, that sounds about right, I think to myself.

Seeing as it was our second day, there wasn’t as much chatter in the group this time. Everyone’s still excited to play, but we knew now what to expect.

At the of the half-hour, the login process completed on my screen. As the final chorus of the song played, the universe opened up below me.

Once again, I fell into a new world.

---

[Day 2, Morning]

It was night time when I realized that I was standing on the small hill, overlooking planet Nillon’s Kremur Falls. In the corner of my eye, I saw a woman in a business casual fashion come into view beside me.

We turned to look at each other, and smiled.

“So what are you going to do today, Eunseo?” I asked her.

“Chengxiao’s planning to give Guinness’ core to his son this morning, so I’ll wait for her on Kamag.” She replied. “How about you?”

“I’m thinking of starting the day slower.” I answered. “Dawon’s having her first live performance today, right? I’m going to take a look.”

“Sounds good. Make sure to contact her to let her know you’re coming.”

“Yeah.”

Under the now clouded night of Nillon, we walked over to the landing point and boarded our own ships.

As I began to enter the hatch, I saw a beige-coloured scorpion about the size of a giant human burrow out of a pile of rocks nearby. I waved to it and told it we were leaving, and it nodded in return.

Inside, I checked that the interior of the Wandering 14 was as I left it a week ago, and moved to the bridge. Starting up the systems and running the engine, I was ready to depart.

“You’re going over to Dayoung, right, Yeoreum?” I spoke into the transmission channel. “I hope the three of you meet up somewhere safe.”

“We’re seeing each other on Ramvin Ser, actually.” She answered. “That’s the Gate Space Station orbiting this planet.”

Yeoreum explained that after everything is settled on Yomborae, Bona will guide her to another GSS to warp to the Malia System.

“Got it, I’ll see you off there.”

“Sure.”

Nadeum was in the Shalim System, so I had to use Ramvin Ser’s portal to get there anyway.

After a few seconds, dust flew around us as the three ships left Nillon’s ground for outer space.

As my ship escaped the planet’s gravity and shot through layers of the planet’s atmospheres,

You: Are you there, Dawon?

Dawon: What’s up, KC?

This was a separate chat from the group one, just between the two of us.

You: When’s your performance going to be held? I’m thinking of going to see you there.

Dawon: You’re coming here, KC?

Dawon: I don’t know if you’ll make it, though. It’s in an hour.

Ouch, an hour, huh?

I set the navigation to give me directions to her place from here. Having downloaded the Nexus star map Xuanyi and the rest provided the group, the information the system had was quite detailed.

What might have been an hour’s time was shortened to half, and that’s with the heavy traffic on Ramvin Ser. Five minutes to get there, ten to queue up for the warp, another five to land on Nadeum, and finally ten to get to where she was.

Okay, that’s not too bad.

You: I think I’ll be able to manage it.

Dawon: Alright, see you there 😊

You: 👌

Closing the chat window, I belatedly realized that the Wandering 14 was already moving to the first stop of the journey, going around the curvature of Nillon to reach the GSS it hosts.

“I’ll see you around, Yeoreum, KC.” Eunseo’s voice came through the ship communications. The Virtuous 08 began to pull away from our other two ships, and set off in another direction.

“Aites, see you.”

“Until next time, unnie.”

We said our farewells and continued on our journey to Ramvin Ser. As predicted by the navigation, we arrived after five minutes to a rather grotesquely designed metropolitan space colony, with curved golden spikes serving as the scaffold for the atmospheric force field surrounding the station. A few other spikes jutted outwards around it; no apparent function that I could see.

“Why do I think that some kind of tournament will be held here?” I said.

“Me too.” Yeoreum agreed. “I hope it won’t be too brutal for us.”

“Wait, when you said action…” I realized.

“You’ll hear about it when we’re done.” She cut me off. I could almost hear the grin on her face from the words she spoke.

Deciding not to pry into it, I instead looked outside for where the portal was. I found it pretty quickly, because of the long line of ships waiting to use it.

Is Prestige really that hard to get that many people are still using these public portals to get around? Or was it a mechanic only players could use?

Anyways, I steered my ship to the end of the line. It shouldn’t take too long before it’s my turn to warp, so I’ll just sit back and relax.

“If there’s nothing left, KC,” Yeoreum spoke.

“Ah, yeah.” I responded. “I’ll be fine here. Go ahead and have some fun with them, Yeoreum!”

“Alright, see you.”

“See you too.”

I watched as the Indignant 11 flew off towards the rather intricately designed Ramvin Ser, beginning the next chapter of her own adventure.

I found it fun to think about what sort of challenge each of us will face in this world. Are we going to become wiser and stronger overcoming the difficulties this game will give us? Is that possible?

While I was lost in thought, a screen appeared in my HUD.

On the picture was the blank-faced person in uniform. At the same time, the neutral voice sounded once again, asking me the destination of my warp.

Using the star map, I translated Dawon’s location to a coordinate form, then communicated it to the authority in-charge.

“…Nadeum,” it recalled. “It’s that time of the year for them already.”

I didn’t inquire about its comments.

“Your ship is not coated.” It continued, “Is it your first time there?”

Coated?

“Yeah,” I answered.

“It’s not a requirement, but do consider coating your ship in Depth Paint if you plan to travel to abyssal worlds often.”

“Alright, thank you.” I heeded its advice.

“…The ship’s good.” It finally stated. “Safe travels.”

The prompt to activate the warp drive appeared on my HUD. Checking that I didn’t leave anything important, I floored the pedal and disappeared from the spatial vicinity of Ramvin Ser and the Malia System.

---

With the characteristic feeling of recoil, the Wandering 14 manifested nearby a deep blue planet, illuminated gently by a sun of purple-red.

Nadeum appeared to be mostly ocean on the surface, with only four or five patches of land I could see dotted on it.

I checked the clock on my system and it looked like we were still on time. Switching to the navigation, the route that appeared in my view pointed towards the planet… but not on any of the land on it.

Was I supposed to go straight underwater from the skies?

Wait, could it be that that’s what the coating was for?

Does the nav know my ship isn’t coated yet?

“Ah, whatever.” I told myself. Too many questions.

“We’ll cross the bridge when we get there.”

I pressed the ers onwards and initiated entry into the Nadean atmosphere.

As the ship approached the ocean surface, I saw a large, low laying block of white suspended above the water, unperturbed by the tide that passed through it.

I looked back to my navigation. This was where the next stop of my journey was, according to the directions it gave.

Is this a hangar for uncoated ships?

Nearing the building, I received my answer in the form of a notification.

‘Welcome to Overwater Hangar 22. All landing spots are currently occupied, please wait until the next departure.’

…Looks like I’ll have to wait until someone leaves their parking space. It sounds like the devs were really encouraging us to use the Depth Paint for oceanic planets like Nadeum.

Fortunately, I was the only one around waiting to land. A spacecraft flew out of the hangar before long, and an automated guiding system directed me to the landing spot it vacated.

Immigration went by without a hitch, but I still felt that the entire experience was cumbersome thanks to the limited space this landing point had.

Following the signs, I went down several floors inside the building to get to the terminal that would take me underwater.

Hangar 22 was nowhere near as fitted as a shopping district, but it had quite a few services of its own. There were even a few places to stay overnight, if you wanted to do so.

I thought I wouldn’t come across any problem on this trip, but that notion was shattered as soon as I reached the terminal station.

On the LED sign fixed above the sealock doors,

‘The next carriage on the southbound route is indefinitely delayed due to deep-water currents. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.’

I felt a headache come on in my head, flashbacks of the times I was late to my appointments because of public transport service outages and irregularities.

The headache never actually came, which was fortunately thanks to the Astronaut physique players had in this game.

Still, the worry that I’d miss Dawon’s performance started appearing in my mind. 25 minutes had already passed by the time I got here; as I paced back and forth in the terminal, the time crossed 30 minutes.

Other people waiting for the carriage grew restless as well. A humanoid lifeform wiped the sweat from its leathered face with a paper tissue, held by its cybernetic claws. Another constructed a bench out of plasma and sat on it dissatisfiedly.

“I’ll get some food first.” A blob of gel groaned as it left the terminal and went back upstairs.

Clearly this delay wasn’t in the plan for many people.

Another ten minutes passed before the carriage finally arrived.

When the sealock doors opened, the passengers that came out didn’t look too well from their expressions.

Terrible turbulence, I’d say.

I didn’t say this joke out loud for fear of immediate retribution by the disgruntled sufferers.

After they emptied out the carriage, the rest of us jostled into the available space without saying anything.

I never had a chance at the seats. Standing up with my right hand on a hanging strap, I braced as the sealock doors closed and the carriage left the terminal.

I looked at the time again. 17 minutes remaining.

Trying to allay my anxiety, I looked around the cabin and outside the windows at the underwater scenery. The passengers were all occupied in their own matters, and the ocean wasn’t really bright. It was already getting dark on this part of the world.

I realized that the air wasn’t stuffy inside the carriage. I had no idea how they could achieve this underwater, but the ventilation was surprisingly good.

Still, other aspects of the experience could be improved, in my opinion. Trying to take my mind off those things, I continued to look around at other people to pass the time.

…?

I made eye contact with another person. Wearing a navy-blue uniform comprising a vest and a middle-length skirt, she looked like a flight attendant or a tour guide. The bowl hat on her head completed the look.

She looked human enough to me, if I ignore the fact that her figure was assembled from a mass of cyan blue fluid with cloudy wisps inside it, instead of flesh and bone.

Her face was translucent as the rest of her, the only organs I saw being a pair of ‘eyes’ that looked like crystalline, silver gems.

“…What is it?” She asked me in a concise manner.

“Oh, nothing,” I answered. “Sorry if I was being rude.”

“Oh, alright then.”

Seconds passed in silence between us,

“By the way, now that we’re talking,”

Again, it was her that began.

“You don’t look like you’re from around here, are you?”

“No, I’m not.” I replied.

“That’s good. I mean, not that I want you to not know about this place, but you get my point.” She continued.

I continued to look at her, without saying anything.

“I’m basically a tour guide in training.” The uniformed lifeform explained. “If it’s fine with you, can you help me practice my introductions?”

So a tour guide after all. The uniform gave it away.

“Be my guest.” I agreed.

Information is information, no matter where it came from. I certainly had nothing better to do, especially in a crowded underwater carriage travelling to a place I’ve never been to.

“Alright.” She encouraged herself, “I’ll begin.”

“Okay.”

Taking a breath,

“Welcome to the Underwater Planet of Nadeum, sir! The furthest of three planets in the Shalim System, Nadeum consists of an advanced network of highly developed underwater cities connected to each other by both resilient railways and a system of marine transporters, such as the one we are on now.”

“The largest city in Nadeum is Mara Artemis, but many other cities boast their own features such as titular capitals of art and music,” She continued, “Not to mention the oceanic expos and consortiums held every month on Meriah Zenith!”

A busy planet, like most well-habituated ones are.

“It's the right time of the year to visit, sir.” The tour guide went on. “On the eighth of the Nadean calendar, it's peak season for the rainbow fish to hold their performance of colours for everyone to see!” The tour guide told me.

“The fish will perform for us?” I couldn’t help but interject. “Is it a mating thing, or are they migrating somewhere or something?”

“It's a tradition for the rainbow fish to offer a performance annually for the Guardians of the Ocean, for pretty much the entirety of Nadeum's history.” She explained.

“But in this day and age, we don’t really mind the tribute aspect of their offering as much. Instead, we just treat it as more of a formality, and allow them to showcase their dance to our visitors.”

“I see.” I nodded.

Wait,

“When you say 'we', do you mean...”

I hesitated to tell her what I thought.

She understood where I was getting at, and didn't wait for me to finish to explain.

“You are human, right, traveler?”

She began,

“We are what the older of your people would call 'elementals', descended from the forces of the planets' nature themselves.”

“The Guardians of the Ocean and Guardians of the Land refer to our forefathers, that of the Li Shaen and us Mun Shaen, repsectively. Their blood runs in us complete.”

I was trying to make sense of her words. Was she saying that they came from the environment itself?

From her appearance, I figured of course that they wouldn’t have evolved in the same way we did, but this wasn’t an origin story I expected.

“There has been debate about our identity in relation to what our ancestors were. A sector of the people still believe that we remain in possession of the absolute authority to rule over our own worlds. However, the majority believe that the current races, having learnt the concepts of civilization, culture and peace, are different from the savage, lawless tirades of the old gods.”

She continued, ignoring the few other people listening into her explanation.

“Where our abilities are concerned, however, we retain the full might of the Guardians. The Li Shaen can manipulate magma and earth, as well as make land animals submit to them. Conversely, we can control ice and water, and make the ocean life listen to us.”

“After our change into a civilised race, however, assisted by the Ne-Dangsa Pact's fourth rule, we aren't allowed to use our powers on our own home planets. We're prohibited from controlling animals anywhere in the Frontier either, except to protect ourselves.”

Pausing to take a sip of water from the bottle in her bag, she wrapped up her explanation.

“I guess I went off quite the tangent.” She admitted with a giggle. “I'm so-so at using my Guardian powers myself.”

“Not very confident at controlling the Neptunian deep atmosphere lifeforms, but everything else should be fine.”

Finished, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Thanks for the information, uh...”

I looked around for a name tag on her uniform.

“Myustrig.” She introduced herself, “And if I may know your name?”

“It's KC.” I answer.

She nodded. “I do hope you enjoy your time here in Nadeum, KC. Do make time to watch the rainbow fish performance if you can... This Guardian recommends it!” Myustrig joked.

Still taking everything in, I could only laugh along. The idea of an incredibly powerful and revered race just choosing not to use their strength because of a few arbitrary laws is pretty shocking to me, after all.

---

The carriage’s first stop was fortunately the city I wanted to go to, a quiet, uptown location by the name of Meritus Selatan.

The terminal was on the top level of a particularly tall building, overseeing the rather scenic arrangement of houses or shops encased in bubble-like structures made out of metal and glass-like materials.

The warm lights from the buildings illuminated what was otherwise a rather dark place in the depths of the ocean; from a distance, I would mistake Meritus Selatan as a candlelight lantern left on the bed of the abyss.

I left the terminal and tried to weave through the crowd as I went down the floors of the building.

The constant descent deeper down into Nadeum’s oceans creeped me out, but the chatter from the building’s radio speaker system kept me grounded.

Apparently two announcers were joking around with each other about a recent slug trend, but I was too focused on walking to find out more about it.

As soon as I could get a bit of space,

You: It’s in Hinagakure, right?

Dawon: Yep, third street off the road south from the central square.

You: The city centre… I see it now.

Dawon: 👍

I wasn’t lying when I said I saw the city centre. It’s just that I saw it from the window of the building I was still trying to leave. The elevators were busy and I’ve been jumping down the escalators for the last few minutes.

Looking at the time,

Five minutes!

I prayed in my heart that I could make it in time. I didn’t check the navigation again, because I couldn’t waste any more time on it.

Some people understood that I was in a rush and gave way, but there were just too many people around for me to move at my quickest.

Nonetheless, I pressed on, thanking those who let me through and going down a dozen or so more floors.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally ran through the exit of the building and rushed in the direction of the city centre.

City centre… Central square… South Road…

Zipping through the rather homely landscape, the colours melded together in my eyes as the words repeated themselves in my mind.

All that I thought about was making it in time to see Dawon sing.

At the end of my trial stood a wooden, two-storey house with walls painted in a light pink, supplemented by the dark brown colour of its wooden panels. On its sign, a slab of bark, was the name I was looking for.

The diner Hinagakure.

---

I slammed the door to Hinagakure open, panting in order to catch my breath.

In rushing here as quickly as I could to make it in time for the performance, I didn't realize how hard I pushed the diner's wooden doors for them to make such a loud sound, attracting the attention of everyone inside to me.

I saw the heads of both the customers and staff turn to look at me, curious at the commotion I caused.

“Uh...” I didn't know what to say.

Over by a piano-like instrument on what looks like a stage in the restaurant, stood two Mun Shaen individuals and a human person. The two Shaen were elderly and of a young adult age respectively, from what I could see; and the human girl was the only person I knew on this planet.

“Hello,” The older liquid lifeform began, after a few seconds of silence. “You must be the friend here to see Miss Dawon sing, aren't you?

“...Yeah,” I replied. “Did I interrupt anything?”

“Don't worry, boy.” He answered, “The busking here isn't so formal as to require beginning right on time. We're just waiting for everyone to settle down before we begin.”

“Oh, okay.” I nodded. A relieved sigh escaped my body as I began walking over to the woman by the stage, who was going over a piece of music sheet before the commotion got her attention.

“Hey there, KC.” Dawon called out to me as I reached her seat. “Glad to see you make it.”

I saw her giggle a little at my entrance. Trying my best to hide the embarrassment on my face,

“Is that a music sheet you're holding?” I asked, “Are you going to perform as well?”

“Only on the Queneth piano.” She answered. “Timayther's going to handle the rest of the instrumentation.”

“Timayther?”

“The producer paired with me.”

Dawon motioned towards the young Mun Shaen beside her. He was busy setting up what seemed to be a modular board, with some kind of string instrument attached to it.

His eyes met mine, and I bowed my head slightly in greeting. He returned the gesture and went back to tuning.

“The company which signed me in saw potential in his talent, so they matched us together for a few songs.”

She explained.

“Oh.”

Looking around the diner, I saw people still enjoying their food and talking to each other, some of them preparing to leave. It didn't look like they had much to expect from the performance they're going to show.

“So, are you going to play your compositions now?” I turned back to her.

“We only have two or three melodies done, lifted off Timayther's portfolio for the most part. I only contributed a few vocals here and there, but we did do some arrangements on one song and polished it up.” Dawon responded.

“It’ll both be covers and original songs.”

“I'm looking forward to it,” I told her. Even if no one else's going to pay attention to Dawon sing, one legitimate fan will.

“You'll be surprised!” Her face lit up as if wanting to tell me something. However, calming herself down, “You've never heard a Shaen perform live, have you?”

“...I haven't.” I answered, “Is there something special about them?”

“I think we're ready to go.” The older Shaen motioned to her and Timayther, signaling them to get ready.

“You'll see.” She winked as she brought herself over to the piano.

I didn't want to block the crowd's view, so I left the stage and took a seat nearby.

A waiter set down Hinagakure's menu with his right tentacular arms, then stood by to take my order.

It was evening in Meritus Selatan, morning in Standardized Time and sometime in the afternoon in real life. I really had no idea what to get.

“...Fish and chips, please.”

I settled on something safe in the end.

“Coming right up!”

As he left to get my order, the stage lights lit up and I was brought to the attention of the older Mun Shaen preparing his introduction.

---

“Good evening, respected clients of Hinagakure. I am your host, Vulliarus, here to take you along through the evening’s performances.”

I saw Dawon and her partner stand by at the ready, lined up with a few other acts on the stage.

With a motion from Vulliarus’ hand, all of them bowed to the audience and went back to their original positions.

“We’ll begin the event with a newcomer act. An unlikely pair of Human singer and Mun Shaen player, DT Coastline will perform their song ‘Sunset Flower’ as well as covers of several Human and Mun songs.” He announced.

“Let’s give it up for Nam Dawon and Timayther Gerrinie, DT Coastline!”

With a subdued applause, the two of them went on stage, Dawon seating herself behind the piano-like instrument and Timayther over to his own apparatus.

A few seconds transpired in silence as the two performers on stage looked at each other.

I felt a little nervous at how this performance would turn out.

However, as soon as the first few notes played from Dawon’s Queneth piano and Timayther’s instrument, I felt my mind disappear into orange, evening skies and a garden of flowers.

…

Sunset Flower was a slow, melodic-electronic number, with soft strings flowing into a lush bassline as the vocals swam through the verses and soared into the chorus, assisted minimally by a select few sparkly synths,

It was by no means acoustic, but it was slow, tender… peaceful.

The song ended well before I could savour it in its entirety.

However, when I came back to my senses, confusion invaded my mind.

The imagery communicated by the song was much more vivid than anything that I’ve ever experienced. Even my favourite songs didn’t elicit such a strong sensation.

What was going on? I thought to myself.

As DT Coastline moved on to their covers, I received my answer.

Every song they performed, no matter if it was the trance compositions of the Mun Shaen, or Dawon’s more familiar Korean ballads; they sent me into a realm of dreams, expressive and evocative, matching the emotion of the song that played.

The pair completed their setlist and went down the stage. However, there were still several other artists in line to perform, and many of them were Shaen. As expected, I was thrown again into a trip as they performed their songs.

At the end of the busking event, my food has gone cold untouched, and I had to ask a waiter to heat it up again.

---

Dawon went over and sat at my table as I ate the reheated fish and chips. Timayther stayed back on the stage as he had to pack his instrument away.

“So, how was it?” She asked while leaning over to me.

“It was an experience,” Wiping my mouth, I began. “I didn’t know Shaen music had such an effect.”

“Only if they’re performing it live, recordings will sound just like normal music.” She explained, “It’s one of the reasons Shaen performers are such in demand throughout the worlds… At least that’s what I’m told.”

“And with their status, people will think twice about treating them poorly, I guess.” I commented.

“Ah, so you’ve heard about it as well.” Dawon realized.

“Straight from the lips of a Mun tour guide, no less.” I smiled helplessly.

I remembered her saying that the Shaen could control animals. Could it be that this ability permeated into their musical performance, influencing their listeners’ minds?

With no more information to go on, I stopped thinking about it.

Taking another bite out of the fillet,

“Anyways, I thought you were branching out into other genres, Dawon? This sound is quite still you in my opinion.”

I gave my thoughts on her performance.

“It was what the company that picked us up told us to do. Tim wanted to do deep house himself, but that’s not the kind of music you’d play at a busking event, right?”

Dawon leaned back on her seat.

“There’s no contract, though, and the rates per gig are quite generous for such a small company.”

“I see.”

I forgot that, humble as it appeared to be, Dawon was in a legitimate career. As Eunseo told me in Day 1, having a job in HF is one of the most reliable ways to get a steady income of credits and Prestige. Acting in her forte and getting paid for it? She’s probably the one who’s progressed the most in this game out of any of us.

“What are you going to do now?” I asked. “Are you going to spend today and Day 3 here, just composing and performing songs for the Nadeum audience?”

The member in front of me cast her eyes down in thought.

“I was thinking about that myself, is there another way to get our music out there?”

“Hmm.” I pondered about it myself.

The canyons on Nillon flashed into my mind. The dark metal…

“How about making a trip to Udepra?” I suggested. “I was curious about a few things on that planet myself.”

When I skimmed through the star map Xuanyi and the rest uploaded, I saw the description about Udepra being a warm, volcanic planet and the homeland of the Li Shaen, the Mun’s lava counterpart.

“Udepra?”

Dawon looked surprised.

“I don’t know about that…” She spoke with some hesitation.

“You don’t have any more schedules today, do you?”

“I don’t, but…”

“Well, you don’t have to perform if you don’t want to. Just accompany me on my sightseeing trip.” I continued.

“Okay, then.” Dawon finally agreed.

I finished the rest of my food and paid the bill.

“Tim, was it?” Standing up from my seat, I called out to the young Mun Shaen holding up the bag containing his instrument onstage.

“Yes, um…” He replied.

“It’s KC.”

“Ah, right. What is it, Mr KC?”

“We’re going on a trip to Udepra, and you’re coming with us!”

“What!?”

“You’ve got everything, right?” I asked him. “Let’s go.”

“Please wait a moment!”

I went out of the Hinagakure in a hurry while Dawon and Timayther followed behind.

There was plenty to see in Meritus Selatan, but thinking about the stuff in my inventory, I couldn’t help but quicken by pace towards the terminal on top of the tall building from before.

As the three of us rode the elevator up, I could hear Tim mumbling to himself. Riding on the carriage towards the hangar where our ships were, the tense look on his face didn’t subside.

He didn’t look like the kind of person to get in trouble with other people; and even then, he’s Shaen. A member of a proud, powerful race.

What was he so worried about?

---

“After you.”

With a grin on my face, I invited Timayther into the Wandering 14. He was hesitant to go through with this, but I insisted that it will benefit him.

It was by coincidence that Dawon’s ship was also in Overwater Hangar 22. She split up from the group once we arrived in the building suspended over the water, so there were only the two of us.

“I really don't know about this, Mr KC.”

“I'm an explorer, so if anything happens you can count on me to protect you!”

“Even so...”

“Look at these babies!” My ship extended its cannons under my orders. Showing the weapons and defenses I have in my own inventory,

“Not bad, right?”

“No!” He continued to shake his head, “It's suicide to go up against the Li Shaen! You don't know how terrifying they are if you get them mad!”

“Wait, what do you mean going up against the Li Shaen?” I was surprised.

“Huh?” Timayther looked at me in shock, “But we're going to Udepra, right? That's their home world!”

I put down my arms holding the beam saber and blaster, and told the Wandering 14 to retract its cannons. Walking over to him,

“The Mun Shaen is the closest thing the Li Shaen have to a sibling species. Why would they fight you at all?”

The crystal stars within his amorphous head trained their gaze on me.

“I've heard stories about them boycotting our stages, blocking our careers! Why do you think no Mun Shaen musician has made it on Udepra yet!?”

I was taken aback by his words.

There was no mention about significant conflict between the two of them in any of what I've learnt so far. That he mentioned such an accusation towards the Li Shaen came out of the blue.

“I've never heard of this.” I admitted.

“Of course you haven't.” He snapped. “If they find out that I’m a Nadean Artistice, can you really say that they'll accept me there?”

The musician stood up and walked away, leaving me alone.

My hand brought up the chat window and typed.

Me: I'm sorry, Dawon. Something came up between me and Tim, stay put for now.

Dawon: What happened? Was anyone hurt?

Me: No, not really.

After a few seconds of hesitation, I switched to the group chat.

Me: Say, has there been any real bad blood between the two Shaen species?

Dawon: Ah, so that's what it's about.

Dawon: As far as I know, there have been rumours that Udeprai Li Shaen aren't very accepting of Mun musicians going around the Nadean music industry...

Me: Really?

Luda: Nothing of the sort on my end, KC 🤔

Luda: Among the people I work with, it's my Shaen colleagues that care for each other the most.

Eunseo: My colleague's a mercenary who's been in countless battles.

Eunseo: He says no two Shaen of opposite sides will have met in battle without both honouring the other, no matter if it's the Li or Mun among themselves or between the two.

Exy: I've neither seen a Mun merchant speak bad about a Li one, nor vice versa.

Xuanyi: The data we got from the Nexus doesn't show any sanctions put up by Udepra or Nadeum against each other, either.

Exy: I think on behalf of the girls I can say that something's off about that claim, KC.

The girls' responses came quite rather more quickly than I thought.

I asked Uzzu if anyone can tamper with our communications and fake their messages, but it replied that NPCs cannot tap into player-player communications at all.

You: I'm surprised that you'd be so defensive about them.

You: I’ve heard things about the Shaen myself, but is the bond between the two sibling species really that admirable?

Exy: Their relationship is envied quite a bit among the other aliens in this game, so they'll spread all sorts of rumours to create discord between them and break them apart.

Exy: You've seen the same comments people made about us, haven't you?

Her statement caught me off guard, and I froze in position.

> There's no way the girls can be that close <

> I bet they'll shun each other when the cameras stop rolling <

> It's all fake and you're all just fools for falling for it <

The hurtful comments flashed through my mind, and I felt my heart tighten.

I knew how hard our fanbase had fought to prove that WJSN was close to each other, especially during the time they were separated for so long. That some people were still cynical of the girls' relationships was something I could never understand.

If the antis' comments had such malicious intentions... Anger welled up in me, and I barely held myself from losing it.

I was at a loss of how to respond. Looking at the silence in the chat group, it looked like no one knew either.

Exy: That was too much, I'm sorry for bringing down the mood.

Exy: They're just game characters after all. Conflict would make sense if it moves the story towards an important resolution.

Seola: I haven't really met many aliens myself, but I want to believe that such a strong bond can exist. In this world as well as in real life.

Seola: Don't you?

Xuanyi: As a person with a little brother herself, I can say from the bottom of my heart that, even if siblings do fight often, one will never leave the other out to dry.

Xuanyi: It's one thing to fight with your own family, but hurting them is another entirely.

Huh.

Xuanyi's words immediately cleared up the clouds in my head. She's really not the Chinity's leader for show.

You: You’re probably right, Xuanyi.

You: I don't know how I can investigate the rumours on my own, but I can at least protect Timayther from whoever’s trying to hurt him.

At this point in time, with the limited knowledge I had, this was all I could do.

Also,

You: And Seola?

Seola: Yes?

You: I can definitely say that the bond you’re talking about exists in real life.

Seola: What do you mean?

You: I mean, it’s the reason I became an Ujung after all.

The group erupted into chaos, and I skimmed over the girls’ responses with a half-smug, half-embarrased expression.

---

Closing the chat window, I turned to my ship and spoke.

“Wandering, can you give me Tim's location?”

A few beeps sounded from it, and a minimap appeared on my HUD. On the map was a mark that didn't seem too far from where I was.

I followed the red arrow that indicated Timayther's position and ended up at a food court in the hangar building. He was by himself at a table eating a hotdog sandwich, seemingly deep in thought.

“Oh, KC?” A voice sounded behind me. Looking back, I saw Dawon in her spacesuit, an orange-yellow colour with a different pattern than on my own.

“What are you doing here?” She continued, “Where's Timayther?”

Without saying anything, I pointed in his direction. When she found him, an 'ah' sound left her lips.

“I was a bit too aggressive just now,” I told her. “But I still believe that he needs the change of pace.”

“I agree.” Dawon commented, “His manager told me that he never goes out the studio except for groceries or meetings with the company.”

She told me to go ahead and sit with him while she grabs some food. Apparently, she hasn't eaten anything since their performance back then.

I bought a can of iced glacial chocolate from a nearby vending machine and went over to him.

“Hey.” I called out.

“Hey.” He responded. He moved his seat to make room at the table for me. I thanked him and pulled over a chair of my own.

Taking a sip of my drink,

“You know, Tim,”

“What is it, Mr KC?”

“You were right, there's no point in pointing guns at anyone without reason, especially not at the terrifying Li Shaen.”

Timayther didn't respond.

“So,”

I leaned over to him,

“If there's any sign of trouble, we'll just pack our bags and bust our butts out of the place, pronto. No one gets hurt, right?”

“You're really set on taking me to Udepra, aren't you?” Drinking from his lemonade, the Mun Shaen read my intentions.

“That’s right,” I grinned. “If the Li really didn't want Mun artists on their home planet, we'll show them how unreasonable they were.”

“I'm a producer.” He shot me a glance.

“Then tell that to them!”

Timayther sighed, having given up on going against my nonsense.

At this time, Dawon reached our table with a tray of food. It looked like thick breadsticks with a yellow-brown jam spread on them, freshly fried with a fragrant smell.

“What is that, Miss Dawon?” Her partner in music asked. “That looks really sweet.”

“You don't know either?” I chimed in.

Well, it didn't look like he was a food enthusiast, so it's not really that surprising.

“I was told that they were fried breadsticks. They looked good, so I went for it.” Dawon explained. “The spread is made from a palm fruit, I heard.”

“Huh.”

The two of us looked on as she held one breadstick in her hand and bit a piece off of it.

After several chews,

“It’s good.”

She looked back at us.

“What are you looking at?”

“…Oh, sorry.”

“Pardon me.”

We were so caught up in our curiosity watching her eat that we forgot to finish our own food (in my case, drink).

I looked away in embarrassment as I gulped the glacial chocolate down, while Timayther hurried to take care of his remaining supper.

Seeing as I finished first, I took advantage of the situation and said,

“See, Tim? Even on your own planet, there are things you haven’t seen or tried. Imagine what you can learn out there in space!”

“It’s literally the next planet over,” the Shaen flatly refuted. “And it’s not like I haven’t been to Udepra before.”

“Oh? When?”

“Back when I was a kid.”

“So you’ve been there as a defenseless child, and lived to tell the tale!” I concluded, “That’s proof right there.”

“My parents were there and I wasn’t a musician back then.” Timayther argued.

“Oh, you’ve been to Udepra?” Dawon interjected with her own question, “Tell me about it.”

“Well, I don’t really remember much from it, but it’s like this…”

The silly exchange of words between us lasted for the rest of our supper time in the hangar’s food court.

---

“Ready, Tim?” I asked the lifeform behind me.

“I guess.” He answered. His voice was still shaky, but it was no longer indecisive.

“That answer is all I need.” I grinned. Speaking into the transmission, “Flight control, we’re ready to depart.”

“Roger that,” the reply came. The landing pad where the Wandering 14 was parked in began to turn, pointing the front of the ship towards the exit.

I turned back to make sure the Shaen was secure in his seat.

At first, I was nervous about bringing an actual sentiment lifeform with me out into space. After thinking about how I met Guiness and the Schor Tabem family, however, the panic easily subsided.

“Meet me outside Nadeum’s atmosphere?” I spoke again into the transmission.

“I’ll see you among the stars.” This time, the characteristic tone of Dawon’s voice sounded through the comms system.

At the end of the countdow, I accelerated the engine, and the Wandering 14 zoomed out of the hangar into the vast expanse of the night sky.

I thought about my ship as it passed through Nadeum’s atmosphere. This time, it wasn’t just carrying the dreams of WJSN or my own, but that of a person who was neither of us.

I told Dawon earlier that we didn’t have to perform on Udepra if they didn’t want to.

Still, I hope that bringing Tim there can be enough to change things for the better, no matter what they really were.

May the Starlight watch over us.