Chapter 1064 - Orientation

The woman finally nodded to him in return, her neon blue hair swaying with the motion, and turned around to lead the way. She brought him down a long hallway, down a few flights of stairs and around a couple corners before they made it to a metal sliding door with such tight tolerances and seals that he was sure it was airtight. It slid open and they entered a wide room. The ceiling height was still at about eight feet, but the room stretched forty feet in front of him and hundreds of feet to either side. There was also a set of nearly floor to ceiling windows in front of him which made the room look more like a viewing gallery of some sort. The woman led him forward, as if she knew what would draw the most attention, taking him up to the window and letting him look through while she started to speak.

An immense city stretched out in front of him. The window was angled slightly so he could get a few downward and let him get a good approximation of their ‘height’. The city was down on the ground tens of miles below them. Their current height was enough that it looked like they were gazing down at a satellite image and only the immense size of the city below was enough to make it easily visible and recognizable from this distance.

“There are thirty one thousand, four hundred, and fifteen floors, or layers as we call them here. This is the largest one, with each lower layer having a gradually shorter ceiling height, but even the lowest level extends high enough to allow for atmospheric events.”

Sage looked upwards and saw a layer of thick fog covering the ceiling on the enormous chamber, like an ephemeral layer of clouds that perpetually covered the sky. From within them he also saw light shining forth and illuminating the world below. The misty layer also felt very familiar to him and he saw a similar thing below the viewing window stretching straight downwards. With the enhanced eyesight of an Immortal he could also see a tiny indication of the same thing straight ahead, tens of thousands of miles away.

“The uppermost layers are continuous, running uninterrupted for the full span of the Universe Ring, and contain many cities and other spaces. The lower layers are instead subdivided into many smaller plots and leased out to individuals. All new arrivals here are given such a space as a welcoming gift. You can speak with the management department later to learn more details or make other arrangements if you wish to purchase more space, move to a higher layer, or otherwise change locations.”

The reason the mist looked so familiar was suddenly crystal clear when the woman mentioned that name: Universe Ring. The unusual properties and mystery surrounding the ring he’d carried for so long was suddenly resolved. It was not a pocket dimension or folded space like other Storage Bags, it was actually a teleportation device. He wasn’t carrying around a ten square mile world, he was just getting transported up here to this giant ring floating in space above the planet. It also made him wonder which of these two prospects was more difficult, especially since he’d never seem to run into a limit on how often he could bring things in or out of the Universe Ring.

“Now there are some rules here that everyone has to follow. You may only speak of matters relating to the Universe Ring to those who have also earned their own space here. Those in the world below are not qualified to know of the world above. It is not good for them to be distracted by such knowledge when they already have so much to do in the world below. If they are truly driven to ascend then they can make it here by breaking through just like everyone else here has.”

Sage turned to the woman, and she stuck her tongue out at him, making a ‘cute’ face, “I didn’t write the speech. Sorry! Those who are born up here can stay as long as we can perform our jobs. Those who can’t meet the standards get sent down.”

Sage nodded. Given the scale of that city he was looking down at, many millions of people could easily fit in such a place and he was curious if they would all be Immortals. Even if the percentage of people that reached the seventh rank were small, if they truly were Immortal at this level, then it was conceivable their numbers could build up over time to immense numbers, but it made more sense if most of the people here were merely the support staff and servants for all the Immortals instead.

“Insight into Laws can be shared with those here, but sharing such information with those down below is prohibited. Only those with specific clearance can bring a Law Heritage down below. The details of which can be found with the management department. This and many other things can be purchased with Universal Points. Universal Points are earned by performing various tasks given out by management, or posted by others here like yourself. At certain times, mandatory tasks are given out and those who do not complete them will have their access to the Universe Ring revoked, or worse. It is not recommended to neglect those tasks.”

She paused to make sure that last line sunk in before she finished up her quite succinct speech, “Lastly, you can use your Universe Ring to show the rules, their penalties, and the rights of those living or working the territory you are on. Please make sure to check the rules of the cities, or businesses you enter. If you break them, you will be subject to the listed penalties.”

Then she looked around and leaned over her board, holding up a hand to cover her mouth as she whispered, “Some of them say death!”

With her little conspiratorial admission finished she stood straight up again, “Now then are there any questions? If not, I will bring you over to management where you will be issued an identity ring and registered. You can then see the available tasks, available rewards, and inquire about your territory.”

Sage nodded, “You say detailed rules are available for every territory I enter, but can I see them before entering a territory?”

“Good question. You can direct your ring at a territory before entering it to learn the rules, or you can pay to access a repository to look at the rules of every territory.”

“Who sets the rules for a territory?”

“They are set by the territory owner, but they can also fall under the rules of a larger territory. So if a business is in a city it might follow the rules of the layer, the city, the city district, and then the business owner’s rules.”

“I see. I assume the rules will also be accessible with the ring? Let us continue on then.”

With a nod she tapped a button on her stone-like tablet and a circle lit up on the ground beneath the two of them, “Please don’t resist. It just wastes time.”

The light on the ground turned into a glowing column, wrapping around Sage and blocking out his view of his surroundings. He felt a bit of power fluctuate and then the light column disappeared again, showing he was in a completely different location. He found himself in a crowded street, the narrow road almost closer to an alleyway, barely wider than a pair of sidewalks. He was standing under an old and tattered awning while rain spattered down into the alley around him. The buildings on either side of the alley were all metallic and the street a form of concrete. In the air a few sled like devices went flying past. They were some sort of amalgamation of a canoe and a convertible, like small boxy cars that fit only a few people in a row.

The awning in front of him covered the storefront of what looked to be a street market, with displays of random goods on crates and tables. The window in front of him had the word ‘Management’ scrawled across it in red paint. The blue haired woman was there beside him and she walked forward between a pair of tables and pushed open the door to the shop. Sage followed her in while a door on the bell tinkled and he saw that the inside looked more like a deli. There was a large glass display case separating the customer area from the workers, while the wall behind and across from them were chalkboards with abbreviations that Sage didn’t recognize.

The woman knocked on the counter, “We got a new arrival!”