Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 109: In the air once more

Isaac spent the flight to Singapore grumpy as hell. Somehow, flying seemed to be all he was doing lately. To South Korea and back, now to Singapore and back, then to South Korea in another two and a half weeks.

Intellectually, he knew only a small fraction of his time was spent on planes, but it didn’t feel like it.

At least, this time they wasn’t flying commercial. There were enough people from Germany government employ going that a government transport had been provided. However, said transport wasn’t completely filled by government personnel, so the rest of Germany’s ‘delegation’ got to come along. It did tie their appearance to the government somewhat, but it was mostly known that they worked together and the sheer amount of hassle they spared themselves by not flying commercial was absolutely worth it. Airport security would probably recognize them this time around, but that wasn’t a given, sadly.

Also, there was more space available on this plane, which had properly cemented their choice.

There was a small issue, though. The powers that be had checked the [Auras] of a bunch of people on this flight to make sure they didn’t affect their environment in any destructive way, then sent them Isaac’s way for training, ‘given that there was nothing to do for twelve hours’. Blatant manipulative BS, but Isaac didn’t mind people benefitting from his instructions. Well, there were quite a few individuals he personally wouldn’t have liked to teach, but none of them were present.

Then again, the people who’d be sent to a conference on how to best deal with the [System] would be people involved in those sorts of things. Sure, a few pure politicians had been involved, but they were in the minority. There were people like Habicht here, who dealt with monsters directly, others were like Dr. Sarai, who pried into the mindset behind people who delved too deeply into the [System].

All in all, it was pretty even mix between people who dealt with the [System] in some kind of intellectual capacity and others who grappled with problems in a more direct, forceful, way.

Even as his sensory [Aura] casually batted away three other [Auras], his thoughts drifted off towards the future.

Things had been relatively calm so far. Sure, there’d been large scale monster attacks, a serial killer, an Event that had gotten literally millions killed, but all of those things would have eventually gotten dealt with, somehow. Heavy use of military grade ordinance would have eventually killed the monsters, and at some point, someone would have caught that serial killer, hell, Sarai had already been damn close before Isaac had showed up to help.

But even if the whole Korea incident didn’t come to pass, at some point, people would start going after [Raid Bosses] and the world situation would ever so slightly go south. Hopefully, Isaac had stilled enough good summoning etiquette into humanity to stabilize the situation.

Accidents, breakouts, party wipes and other catastrophes would happen no matter what he did, but hopefully, they’d be outliers, rather than the norm.

In a way, it wouldn’t be the worst thing if the Demon Lord was summoned, so long as it was stopped before it hit a populated area. Because if Isaac managed to play a large enough role in defeating it, that would give him a solid platform to speak about summoning from, how to properly do it, what not to but most importantly, how badly a flat ban could end for everyone involved. But whatever ended up actually being the case, the most important thing would be that there wasn’t a city razed or population massacred to get him there.

Isaac’s thoughts continued to drift as his [Aura] tore the opposing energy fields to shreds with casual ease. His first few ‘sparring’ partners had either been people he’d trained directly, like Habicht, or people his pupils had trained. Those could actually put up a decent fight. Not too big of one, not in the least due to the fact that an [Aura’s] strength rose with the wielder’s Level and Isaac had reached Level 44 before coming here, but a decent one nonetheless.

Once he was done with the sparring, a full four hours later, Isaac just leaned back in his seat and popped in a pair of headphones.

“That’s a very interesting choice of song, nothing like your usual taste music, you normally listed to stuff intended to get the blood pumping, this is weirdly calm.” Patrick commented from the seat across from him. Of course he’d been able to hear what Isaac was listening to, hell, practically everyone on the plane probably could if they strained their ears. Coupled with a sense of curiosity that often overrode standard boundaries and privacy concerns.

“Well, just like the lyrics.” Isaac said “There are some sentiments I can really appreciate, ones that most people should remind themselves of every once in a while.”

“What song is that, anyway?” Patrick asked.

“’My Way’, by Frank Sinatra. Be happy with what you’ve accomplished, don’t let others dictate your actions, live your life in a way that you won’t look back on with shame.” Isaac answered wistfully.

“Not letting others who have no business ordering you around tell you what to do is an important life skill.” Patrick nodded, a faraway look in his eyes.

The conversation took a turn for a depressing after that, in that it stopped completely. It wasn’t that Patrick had said something particularly depressing or offensive, it was just the way he’d said it, so morose and final, that it had left them both deep in thought.

The flight continued, and Isaac somehow managed to avoid going stir-crazy, but eventually, after a long twelve hours, the city-state of Singapore was finally in sight.

But it wasn’t the same island it had been a mere six months ago. Vast expanses of ground had been added to the southern edge, some still stained with algae from when it had been at the bottom of the ocean.

Sure, they were still a small fraction of the actual city, and far less than what a handful of people with high rarity [Classes] could have achieved, but it was still incredibly impressive. As to why Singapore had more high Level people rather than ones with such [Classes], well, that was a byproduct of their caution. Powerful [Classes] sprang from extraordinary events, most of which happened to also be extraordinarily dangerous. Steady, safe power growth was the calling card of Singapore, and it showed.

A few minutes later, the plane touched down so smoothly that Isaac probably wouldn’t have even felt it if it hadn’t been for his enhanced senses. Damn, that was a good pilot. Sure, he was probably also using [Skills] to help them, but it was still an impressively done landing.

Leaving the airport was likewise an incredibly smooth process, with them barely receiving any scrutiny. It was more than they’d gotten getting on the plane back in Germany, but it had nothing on ordinary entry into a foreign country. One quick glance at their passports, and that was that. Even Raul’s two supernatural pets were let in with nary a comment.

“So, we’ve got a few hours until the conference, I’d suggest we go check into our hotel, explore the city, then get changed into our formal outfits and head over to the conference center.” Bailey suggested. When no one spoke up against it, they headed out into the city proper using a taxi. Personal flight was an absolute no-go in Singapore unless there was a dire need for it, at the streets were a little to crowded to go running about without bumping into a whole bunch of people.

“Oh, Karl, Isaac, here are a couple of umbrellas.” Bailey said, handing over the devices in question “Make sure to roll down the plastic sheets on the side until they reach the ground, It rains heavily enough here that you’ll end up drenched up to your chest if you just use a regular umbrella.”

“Don’t we get any?” Amy asked.

“You have magic.” Bailey reminded her “These umbrellas are clunky as hell, but they’ll need those if they ever head out without a [Mage].”

“Is the rain really that bad?” she asked.

“We’re in the tropics, even if it doesn’t look like it, here in the city. The rain is almost daily and it’s vicious.”

As they talked about nothing in particular, the city blurred past outside, beautiful, tall buildings rising into the sky. And it was a beautiful city, staggeringly clean by anyone’s standards.

Most German cities looked like a rebellious teenager’s room in comparison, but there wasn’t so much as a single piece of gum so old that it had practically become one with the pavement visible, a single piece of trash outside of the trash bins, and a notable lack of graffiti even in side streets and tiny alleyways.

It was a beautiful place that Isaac could have seen himself moving to and working from if he hadn’t had Bailey right there in the same city as him. It could have become a far greater jewel than it had become on its own.

On the other hand, being here would have massively limited his ability to go off on his own and pull stunts that would have been incredibly stupid if he’d been anyone else.

Isaac nodded thoughtfully. Despite all the bad things that had happened even with his intervention, things had worked out ok for the most part.

Suddenly, Patrick’s phone rang. He rolled his eyes and answered the call, listening to the person on the other end of the line grumbling something. Isaac tried to avoid overhearing, bringing his hearing down to normal human limits, but even so, he was sitting right next to Patrick, he couldn’t avoid overhearing that side of the conversation.

“Nah Dad, I told you I’m going on holiday … sure, maybe … I might do that eventually … that sounds like work …”

All in all, it was a very weird conversation that showed a very different side than Isaac had ever seen from his colleague. He sounded … well, he sounded lazy, bored, aimless and parts had been bold faced lies. Isaac declined to comment, but he didn’t bother controlling his expression either, and something must have showed on his face as Patrick answered the unasked question immediately after hanging up.

“Those were my parents. They keep bugging me about continuing onwards, striving for excellence, above all else, no matter what I’ve reached and what I’ve accomplished. Now that I’ve got my Master’s, they want me to join some famous research group.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow “And Professor Bailey doesn’t count?”

“He would … if they ever stopped nagging long enough to realize what I’ve achieved or even just ask what I’m doing right now.” Patrick answered with a sad smile “So I’m telling them nothing until they get their heads out of their asses.”

“I suppose that’s one way to deal with it.” Isaac nodded, and shut up, the conversation once again very much dead.

Soon afterwards, they reached their hotel, the Fairmont, checked in and placed the few belongings they didn’t want to carry in their storage spaces within, then explored the city for a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, there was only so much you could do with so little time, and most of that was spent exploring a food court. The freshly squeezed sugar cane juice in particular was a great hit.

With that done, they briefly returned to their hotel to get changed. Wearing fancy clothes and then going out to eat … bad idea. Cleaning magic could fix a lot of stuff, but not everything, especially if the stains were particularly stubborn.

Isaac was wearing the bracers he’d gotten from the Dungeon, shifted to look like sleek and smooth leather bracers, a dark green silk polo shirt and a pair of formal pants, also made from mostly silk, but with enough other fabric woven in to remove the characteristic shimmer. The whole thing offered him his full range of motion, and offered a degree of protection that eclipsed pre-system bullet proof vests, as well as having an additional effect that slightly reduced air resistance thanks to the tailor’s [Skills].

The entire outfit split the difference between formal beauty and raw utility so perfectly that it was hard to tell which of the two had been the designer’s original goal and which had been added later.

He also had Old Reliable in its Kabar form clipped to his belt, half hidden beneath his shirt, the S-Rank he’d gotten from the South Korean Dungoen Guild clipped to his belt, likewise half hidden beneath his shirt. Lastly, his nametag would read ‘Dr. Thoma’ once they were actually there. Each one of these things showed one of his ‘allegiances’, representing his power, dedication to research and willingness to reach out to others across the world, without shoving any of it in people’s faces.

Karl, Raul and Bailey all wore proper and traditional suits, well, at least Bailey and Karl did. Raul’s was normal for the most part, but it had been reinforced on the shoulders to allow Brisa to settle there, as well as an extra-large breast pocket to accommodate his dragon, Aurelian. The Dwarf Solar Dragon’s true size was about that of one of those ‘house ponys’, whatever those were called, but having a dragon that big around a bunch of summoners could get dicey, a creature that big would put everyone’s hackles up. No one could be mad at a ‘widdle baby’ the size of a newborn kitten, though.

Patrick and Amy, meanwhile, had gone with some strange fusion of stereotypical mage’s robes and traditional formal wear. It looked strange in a modern, non-Renaissance Fair context, but that was only for right now. They’d asked Isaac what would be ‘in style’ a few months or years from now and he’d obliged. Hell, his own outfit was the typical clothing for a fighter who wasn’t expecting combat in the immediate future.

With that done, they hopped into a pair of cabs and rode them all the way to the conference center. After maybe a quarter of an hour, they left the city itself, heading through a field of new construction that covered the newly acquired land.

Yet they left even that behind, heading out into a vast stretch of empty land, utterly untouched except for the road, which wasn’t really a road at all, but rather a smooth pane of rock created by a [Geomancer] or similar [Class]. There was only a single building there, another kilometer in the distance, rising from the green-stained rock as a massive edifice of glass, metal and crystal.

It would later go on to become the administrative hub of Singapore’s supernatural affairs, but as of right now, it was being used as a conference center.

There were countless busses, taxis and cars outside, sending forth a constant stream of people. This was going to be rather cramped, wasn’t it?

But that wasn’t what stood out the most were people’s outfits. Many people were simply wearing standard suits and dresses. Some … weren’t. They were wearing clothes clearly modelled after what he was wearing at the moment, the same thing he’d been wearing during parts of the Korea visit, as well as several of his lectures. Sure, it was a nice outfit that showed one’s profession without looking weird as hell, and could easily reflect the wearer’s Level by the monster bits woven into them without being fully ‘in your face’.

Isaac shook his head, a wry grin playing pulling at his lips. Of all the things he’d expected to become in this new timeline, a fashion timeline wasn’t one.