When we arrived down on the planet, we found ourselves in one of the high elf cities. High elves were known as the more urban elves, so their cities often formed large metropolises. And sure enough, we could see towering buildings of metal and glass surrounding us. The ground was made of smooth stone, similar to asphalt. However, there was no separation between the road for vehicles to drive through.

That was not because they were not worried of safety issues, but rather because the high elves had a rather interesting transportation system. At every intersection, there was an escalator heading downwards. These led to a complex subway system, with exits throughout the entire city.

Around us, we could see both humans and elves, as well as various other species that had appeared after Neo Life transformed a large portion of the human population. Some of them were surprised by our appearance, unused to people teleporting into their surroundings. However, as there had been no alarms issued, they probably decided it was unlikely we were an enemy.

“This should be the right city.” Celeste said, looking around. “Maeve only gave me an address instead of coordinates, so we should be nearby.” Indeed, it was easy to smell the sea from where we were, so we were definitely in a coastal city.

“Let’s head over there.” I pointed to the nearest escalator, where people were going in and out repeatedly. From the looks of things, we were at a rather popular transit point. The girls seemed to agree with that, especially Celeste who literally skipped forward. The rest followed behind as we got in line.

Surprisingly, nobody really seemed to pay attention to our group, despite us having a winged woman and one made entirely of slime. Apparently, strange races were not really that strange here. Though, a few people did move to the side to make room for our party.

When we arrived underground, we found a scene more representative of an actual street with a four way intersection. In front of us was a wide, white platform filled with people. Above us, on the roof of the ceiling on either side of the ‘road’ was a set of rails. In front of the platform, there was a green lit sign with the words ‘Awaiting Transit’ displayed on it facing either of the two roads our corner touched..

Soon, a loud sound echoed through the tunnel, and we saw a white bus pull up. When it stopped, the edge of the platform extended out to the side of the bus, and several people got off. After that, even more people got on the bus until it was full, leaving about half of the number that was there before.

When the bus drove away, the green sign turned red, the words changing to ‘Idle’. I could hear someone off to the side let off a sigh before they hit a button on the wall, causing the sign to change back to its previous state. We ended up waiting another ten minutes before a second bus drove up. This one seemed entirely empty, so everyone from the platform was able to get on.

Once aboard the bus, we noticed that a lot of the people stopped by a large map located on the far wall of the bus, pressing one of various buttons. The buttons were laid out in a grid pattern, each one representing an intersection station like the one we boarded from. “Oooh, this is fancy.” Celeste said, walking up to the map when it was free. “Let’s see… This should be the right place.”

Celeste pushed a button, and we went to stand off to the side to let other people choose their destinations. Once everyone was done, the doors to the bus closed and it began moving. One thing I noticed was that there was no driver for this bus. Also, on the map, there was a green dot moving along one of the lines, likely representing us.

Every time we passed an intersection, the line connecting it would briefly glow yellow. When we finally stopped at one, the doors opened and a few people got out, before more came in again. This process repeated a couple more times, before Celeste called out. “Hey, this is our stop!”

At her words, those of us from our group piled out of the bus. “Okay… we just need to do that one more time and we’ll get there.” She said with a wide smile. The elves’ transit system was rather convenient. An evenly spaced grid of underground roads, with public transportation freely available. Like this, nobody would ever need more than two buses to reach their destination.

After repeating the entire process again, we walked up the escalator at our final destination. When we exited, we saw a series of smaller buildings than where we had initially teleported down to. In the distance, we could even see the see down the road. It seemed that this shop was fairly close to the beach, which made sense considering what it sold.

“This should be the place.” Celeste said as she walked up to a particularly colorful store. While most around us were bland, with only colorful signs advertising their name and products, this entire building had been painted orange. Such a bright orange that it was practically an attack on my eyes.

On the sign of the building was the image of a surfboard above a wave. Hanging off the back of the surfboard was a bikini top… Finally, under the wave was the name of the shop, ‘Wane’s Wares and Wears’. I had a sinking suspicion that this was, in fact, not an elf run store. A suspicion that was immediately proven true once we entered the store.

“Yo dudes!” A voice called out, speaking fluent english. “The High Babe told me you guys would be dropping by. Feel free to pick what you want.” When I turned to look at the speaker, I regretted ever being born on that planet.

The shopkeeper was wearing a loose fitting, button up shirt that looked like someone had vomited a rainbow onto it. His eyes were blocked by oversized shades, and both his brown hair and beard were braided into several rows. Please… this is not the part of Earth culture I wanted to survive.

Next to me, I heard Celeste giggle playfully as she saw the state of the shopkeeper, while Yo just gaped in awe. “Way cool.” She said quietly, seeming to appreciate this kind of attire. “Got anything for people of less… substance?” Yo asked the man as she poked her face, actually sending her finger through her cheek and into her mouth to demonstrate her point.

“Wicked.” The shopkeeper, whose name I can only assume to be Wane, nodded approvingly at the slime girl. “Maybe a one piece, dudette? Not exactly the normal deal.”

Yo smiled nonetheless, moving to the section of the store dealing with one piece swimsuits. “Uhm… me?” Yang was the next to ask, though her voice was much smaller than Yo’s.

“Hmm… Definitely a bikini for an angel like you!” His words made the bird girl blush, though she nodded her head.

“Do you have any inflatables?” I asked, looking towards her wings. He made an ‘ahh’ sound, understanding my intention.

“Right, right. Back of the store.” Like that, one by one several of the girls asked for advice on swimwear. Some, like Yo, Yang, and Tokemi, it was because of their different body aspects. Others, like Tessa and Beth, it was more because they were curious what the fashion was like for elven swimwear.

Either way, each one went to the changing rooms to try on the outfits one at a time, though Sharon went back with Tokemi to help, while Yin went back with Yang. After all, it was the first time for either of them to wear a swimsuit. I’m sure that even Yin had Sharon help her with it before they met up with us back at the ship.

In the end, the girls all found swimsuits for them that fit. Yo was wearing something that I could only call a japanese schoolgirl’s swimsuit, a one piece dark blue swimsuit that had a short skirt on the bottom. She stretched around in it happily, making sure that her body didn’t leak out in any unwanted ways.

Next to her, Tokemi also wore a one piece swimsuit, much to my surprise. Though, unlike Yo’s, hers was black and had an open back, which went down just low enough for her tail to come out. Around her waist she was wearing a pink inflatable tube. This would be her first real experience swimming, so we all insisted that she get one of those. Also, it looked really cute on her.

Yang also had inflatables, though they were two red ones on her arms instead. Her swimsuit was a bikini, like Wane recommended, pure white and small enough to be tempting to anyone that saw it. Yo seemed to be enjoying the view, casting looks at her every now and then.

Tessa and Beth wore match red and white striped bikinis, standing next to each other. Tessa had picked up a snorkel and goggles to go with her swimsuit, while Beth had chosen a wide-brimmed hat. When she saw me looking at the hat, she smiled slightly. “I don’t really care for swimming much, so I’ll probably just relax on the beach.”

When Wane heard that, he made sure to give us six large towels, and three beach umbrellas. The umbrellas were about as colorful as his shirt, so I was hesitant to accept them, but Beth simply smiled as he did, taking them from him. At least they’re free…

“Alright, everyone’s set?” I asked, looking around. For my own swimsuit, I had just picked a rather generic pair of green trunks. Like everyone else, though, I had switched my shoes out for sandals, with everyone storing their normal shoes in their inventories. When everyone agreed that we were ready, we thanked Wane one last time and left the store.

Thankfully, we could already see the beach even before we entered the shop, so it was only a short walk to get there now. Seeing as none of us were actually low level, a walk like this didn’t really impact us at all. Even Tessa and Beth had leveled up quite a few times just practicing their skills.

Once we got to the beach, we found that it was surprisingly empty. It was to the point that I even looked into the air to make sure the weather wasn’t going to be bad. However, the sky was perfectly clear. It seemed like it’d be the perfect day to go to the beach.

On the beach, I could only see a total of three people. One was a male elf sitting on a red chair a fair distance from the water, his eyes scanning the shore. If I had to call him something, it’d be a lifeguard. Though, he seemed to have a much too serious expression, considering the place was practically empty.

As for the other two people, I wasn’t able to get a good view of them under the blue and white umbrella they were using for shade. All I could tell was that it was a pair of women, and that one seemed to be in her late teenage years, judging by the size. It wasn’t until we all got closer that a voice spoke up from under the umbrella.

“That you, John? Took you guys long enough, I thought you might have gotten lost.” The taller of the two figures poked her head out from under the umbrella, turning back to look at me with a grin. Naturally, it was Maeve… Which of course meant that the other one was…

“Good evening, John…” A small voice spoke up from the other side, as Talia poked her own head out. Though, she seemed much more embarrassed to be here than the High Queen.

“I really wasn’t expecting the two of you to be here.” I stated as I looked at them, and then turned an accusing gaze to Celeste.

The pink haired Deus Ex raised her hands in a defensive manner. “Don’t look at me, she never said anything about coming here personally.” After saying that, she turned to look at the queens. “How did you even get Talia here, anyways? Isn’t her forest supposed to be on the other side of the planet?”

Maeve grinned playfully as she stood up. She was wearing a risque silver bikini, one that barely covered up what it was supposed to. “Oh come on, Celeste. We’ve had enough time to pick up some basic teleport spells. Besides, little Talia here hasn’t taken an actual vacation since she took the throne, so we thought it was long overdue.”

I couldn’t help but raise a questioning eyebrow at that. “Are royalty even able to take vacations? Don’t you need to manage things.”

Talia looked like she wanted to speak up, but Maeve beat her to it with a dismissive gesture. “We have aides to manage things for the day.”

Sharon chuckled from the side, walking over to the queens. “Well, I guess it’s you that cleared the place out then?” Maeve nodded with a smile, to which Sharon continued. “Well, at least we have plenty of beach to play in!”

As she said that, she looked back at us, stuck her tongue out, and ran towards the water. With a tall leap supported by her high strength and agility, she brought her legs up to her chest to cannonball into the water roughly thirty meters from shore. If someone saw that scene back before everything changed, they probably would have called it impossible.

Maeve simply laughed as she saw Sharon’s antics. “That’s the spirit!” She called out, running towards the water as well. Though, her speed was far slower, showing that she likely didn’t have that many levels to boost her ability.

“W-wait! Aunt Maeve!” Talia called out in distress from under the umbrella, finally standing up herself. What she was wearing was a green one piece swimsuit with leaf patterns covering it. “That’s not proper!” When she looked back, and realized we could all see her, she let out a yelp and crouched down to hide under her umbrella again.

Shaking my head slightly, I looked over to Celeste as Yo, Tokemi, Yin, and Yang all began walking towards the water slowly. “So, how are you going to help the others enjoy the scenery?” I asked curiously, waiting for her to show me what she has no doubt been waiting for.

Celeste grinned, making a motion to open up her inventory. What I saw was her pulling out white metal boxes one after another, setting them on the ground. Once they were all out, she also retrieved a handful of soft sticks from her inventory, and plugged each one into one of the boxes.

After that, the boxes seemed to shift, rearranging themselves as if they were made of liquid instead of hard metal. All of them, without exception, turned into the form of a child, no older than six or seven years old. Though their robotic nature was still obvious with the unnatural skin tones, glowing eyes, and lack of hair, it was a rather interesting sight to behold.

“I figure you can study them while they play on the shore a bit. This is the first time any of them have had a real body, so I wanted to let them enjoy it while it lasted.” She said, casting a soft smile at the dozen little robot children. As they didn’t have souls, they couldn’t be called Deus Ex, but they were still every bit Celeste’s children. The only difference was that they did not have access to the system that now controlled the world. “Is that alright with you, John?”

I nodded my head, accepting the request. Honestly, doing my work while watching them play would probably be less boring on my end than simply staring at a pile of soft sticks. Furthermore, with them interacting with each other I could see how making conscious decisions affect their consciousness patterns.

Soon, everyone was either playing in the water, relaxing on a towel on the beach, or playing around in the sand. Even the monster girls had begun to enjoy the water, with Sharon, Celeste, and Beth taking turns to teach everyone how to swim. It was fun listening to Celeste’s explanation, as she tried to explain it from a more technical viewpoint that the girls couldn’t understand.

As for me, I sometimes switched between performing a deep scan of the consciousness of the AI children and playing with Tokemi and the others in the water. It was honestly the most relaxed I had felt since this war had began. Perhaps the only one that wasn’t enjoying herself too much was Talia, who did her best to hide under her umbrella for over an hour after we arrived.

Only after a good deal of coaxing, did Sharon and Maeve convince Talia to swim with them. And by convince, I meant they grabbed her ankles and dragged her, her arms flailing to try and uselessly grab something to stop her. To my surprise, once they got her in the water, she slowly seemed to enjoy herself more. She even swam laps around the beach with Tokemi, playing a game to see who could make it the fastest.

Nobody had expected that, as the sun was starting to set, Sharon vanished beneath the water for a while. She was gone long enough that I even began to worry, only to have her suddenly appear in an eruption of water far away from the shore. She was holding a massive fish, easily three meters long, high above her head. “Hey guys!” She called out to us with a wide grin. “I found dinner!”