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nChapter 17: Leaving Earth

nDante was surprised by this entourage. While the idea of a villa naturally had him picture maids and butlers, he had never actually experienced such treatment directly.

nNaturally, Beatrice was unfazed, likely due to her upbringing, so she ignored the robots and entered the building. Dante noticed that she had a sharp dislike for non-human machine life, and his eyes narrowed as he wondered why.

nHe kept his thoughts to himself and followed her in. The interior was much more splendid than he expected. Picture the most ultra-modern house you could and then magnify the size by ten times.

nThere were so many rooms and facilities here that Dante would literally never need to leave the house.

nFood? He had 3 kitchens and even a pantry big enough to be called a presidential bunker that could store anything indefinitely by freezing it in spatial stasis.

nWater? He could literally condense atmospheric humidity into dew through the purifier.

nLabor? There were androids ready to serve him in any way for anything. ANYTHING.

nSocial? He could connect to a quantum network and interact with anyone, anywhere as if they were right in front of him, play PvP games like he was in Sword Art Online, and more.𝘰𝑣𝘭.𝗇𝓔t

nHealth and Fitness? You didn’t even need to worry, your AI chip regulates your body’s hormones and prevents the storage of fat. So even if you’re a slob, you’ll only ** more since nothing is stored as excess. As for musculature, that one is hard to atrophy or deteriorate since the standard of humans and species here are much higher than on Earth.

nDante was set. If he didn’t have to go to the Eternal Academy to better himself, he could just laze here every day and absorb what he wanted, live a decadent life based on the 300 Etrans per week welfare he got thanks to the contract.

nHe would relax in the Eternal universe and then slowly take over Earth using superior technology, living the life of a lesser god.

nHowever, that thought only fleetingly passed through his mind. There was no earthling born after 1980, one who was born in the digital era, who would receive a chance like this and use it to laze about.

nRather, like Dante was about to do, everyone would actively seek to better themselves as if they were preparing for war, with a zeal that would make natives of this universe wonder if you were a tryhard.

nDante followed Beatrice to the central control room of the villa which was underground and closed off completely from the outside world, disallowing any signal to escape.

nThere, he bound the villa and its facilities to his AI chip since it was already bound to his ID. Thanks to quantum connectivity, his AI chip was the only entity that had a direct connection to it from any distance in the universe.

nSo no, you couldn’t be all assassin-like and sneak into Dante’s villa to steal or kill him. Well, there might be other methods since no technology in the universe could block the effect of superpowers, which was why they were so revered and treated so importantly.

nBionics could be crippled and Psionics could be disabled. Even one’s AI chip could be interfered with if one had special methods, but superpowers could only be countered by superpowers.

nAnyway, Dante had sorted out his villa and Beatrice pulled him to the living room to chill. He didn’t need to explore every single room since his AI chip had already downloaded the layout and presented a fully holographic 3D image of the entire villa, a list of rooms and their functions, as well as all surveillance facilities directly to his brain.

nRight now, no one knew this villa better than Dante, even the ones who build it would pale in comparison.

nHe sighed and sat down opposite Beatrice and folded his arms. He had only woken up an hour or so ago but felt like he had walked 300 miles. Even with his vastly superior SDI than earth humans, he still felt physically and mentally fatigued.

nFor the first time, Beatrice didn’t tease or bother him. She just glanced at him casually and then brought up her holographic screen from her right palm and browsed the things on it with her eyes and her mind.

nDante lay with his head back on the seat, slumped and deeply relaxed. He even napped for a short while before suddenly waking up, feeling less tired than before.

nHe also felt little to no grogginess thanks to his increased SDI and AI chip regulating his body. As such, the moment his eyes opened, he was ready to go.

n“Where do we go from here?” Dante asked while rubbing his eyes.

n“Straight to the edge of the universe,” Beatrice replied lazily as she closed her holographic screen.

n“And what’s over there?” Dante asked with confusion.

n“The Eternal Academy of course. The Academy was built around the Zero Gate, and the Zero Gate is located at what was previously the edge of our known universe.” Beatrice answered helpfully.

nDante nodded and set his AI chip to download information about the Eternal Academy. By the time he exited the building with Beatrice and walked towards the car, he was already well-versed with the Eternal Academy, its rules, location, history, rumors, and the latest news.

nDante had to say, that academy was less of a school and more of an organization. If he was to compare its power, wealth, and influence on society, it would be like Disney on modern Earth.

nIt was definitely going to be a big stage in his future in this universe, so Dante was looking forward to it.

nOne thing everyone could agree with was that coming to a place or location seemed to take years upon years, but leaving seemed to be in the blink of an eye.

nDante and Beatrice left Earth and entered the spaceport, being shuttled into The Inferno rather quickly. They got instant clearance to move out and then did so, launching into the solar system at light speed.

nUnfortunately, they couldn’t enter Hyperdrive within the milky way galaxy, so they had to exit it first. This took about 30 minutes of travel with the speed of The Inferno, making Dante click his tongue.

nWhy did going from the solar system to the edge of the milky way feel like taking an Uber down to the city center to do shopping?

nWhile they moved, Dante was pondering many things while Beatrice was interfacing with the ship. When they eventually exited the galaxy, Beatrice was about to initiate hyperdrive when Dante stopped her.

n“What is it?” Beatrice asked with surprise.

nDante took a deep breath and decided to trust her with this much since his future hinged on it.

n“I want to test some of the limits and rules of my superpower,” Dante stated calmly.

nBeatrice’s eyes flashed. “No problem, I can leave if you want.”

nDante shook his head. “I need you here because what I am about to test is very risky.”

nBeatrice was deeply shocked. To show someone your superpower was almost taboo and despite Dante claiming to have one, she never actually asked for it, and neither did the Human Council before giving him his identity.

nUnless you took the initiative to reveal it or used it in public, allowing people to deduce your power, no one would ask. Some children didn’t even trust their parents with their superpowers, and Dante was about to show her his??

nBeatrice was a little flustered inside by the sudden kindness. Her impression of Dante so far was not entirely positive, as he was mostly cold, on guard, and confrontational, but she understood why and did not blame him for it at all.

nShe sucked in a deep breath and nodded gravely. “I’ll help you, and I swear that I will not reveal anything I see here ever in my life. I put this on my word as a member of the Portinari Family.”

nDante nodded and then looked around. “Can I get an Exosuit? It can be any type.”

nBeatrice didn’t ask why and commanded the ship to grant Dante the Vice-Captain’s Exosuit. Akin to iron man equipping his nanotech suit, a wave of nanites were released from Dante’s jacket that slowly covered his body, much to his surprise.

n“If you’re going to be the Vice-Captain, you naturally have to get all the stuff allotted to them. This is the Mark V Exosuit, the current top in our entire military and usually meant for those with Bionics and Psionics over level 25 in the military category.” Beatrice commented with amusement.

n“But technically as long as you have an AI chip, you can use its most basic functions.” Beatrice shrugged and explained.

nDante’s AI chip paired with the Exosuit and registered it to his own DNA. He then received a tutorial and list of its function, and he couldn’t help but suck in a deep breath.

nThis thing was crazy!

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