Once they’ve loaded up their things into the car, they take a seat and the woman who hasn’t talked decides to ruin their plans.

“I’m sure you have questions, but please wait until we’ve arrived. Your questions will be answered there.”

Sen and Lynna both frown, and for the rest of the car ride Lynna ignores her comment and tries to dig up information anyway. She isn’t able to get anything out of the two people, and after the first half hour, she gives up and starts chatting with Sen.

“So do you think that the rest of the group will be there? They’re all A rank as well, and they live in the same area, so they should be, right?”

“I’m sure they will be,” Sen says, even though he isn’t sure.

“Well I’m sure you’ll be glad to still be able to stay with Xue,” Lynna says, teasing Sen out of nervousness.

“Oh, and what about you? That guy you like isn’t going to be there, are you gonna be ok?” Sen decides to get revenge before instantly regretting; that came out a bit mean.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have..” Sen tries to salvage his words.

“Oh, you’re so sure about that are you?” Lynna interrupts.

Sen looks at her a bit askance. “So if he’s good enough to go to whatever it is we’re going to, why haven’t we played with him?”

Lynna just replies with a laugh. Sen wonders what that’s about for a while, until he gives up, and the conversation shifts to different in game topics. While Sen isn’t sure if they’ll even play Fifth Dimension again, he definitely doesn’t mind helping his sister distract herself from whatever it is that is to come.

Eventually, the car starts to drive away from the city, and Sen looks out the window to see a ton of nothing. It’s just rolling hills and farmland as far as the eye can see. While most farming is done in vertical hydroponics farms, people who have the money are usually willing to pay a premium for “genuine” food.

Eventually, even the farms are left behind as they enter what seems to be a desert, and it’s not long until they come across a massively long barbed wire fence patrolled by soldiers at regular intervals.

They’re screened at the entrance, Sen and Lynna having to give their thumbprints again, and this time a bit of their blood as well. Once they’re inside the fence, massive amounts of office buildings, apartments, and odd blocky concrete buildings surround them. They’re brought to one of the office buildings, and dropped off with a small crowd of others, told that their things will be delivered later.

Sen can recognize many of them as the professional teams from nearby, so it’s basically everyone that lives nearby that has reached A rank. Looking around, Lynna and Sen spot Jennifer chatting with Julie, and they head over to them.

Lynna cheerfully greets them both with a hug, while Sen simply smiles and nods, thinking a hug is a bit overboard when they’d seen each other the day before. The four of them are all a bit quiet, expecting some sort of announcement to start soon.

The announcement never seems to happen, but after around half an hour, Xue shows up. Sen gives her a hug as she joins the group, enjoying the smile she gives as he does so. They hold hands as they join the group, ignoring the snickering from Lynna and smiles from the others.

“So Kang isn’t going to come?” Jennifer asks.

Xue shakes her head. “He’s too young.”

Everyone tries to connect that with the information they already have and fails. They spend the next few minutes trying to pressure Xue for information. Sen feels honor bound to support her silence, and takes most of the flak. It’s another fifteen minutes when a person wearing a pristine suit, his tie not a millimeter out of place, takes the stage.

“I’m sure that you’re all wondering why you’ve been called here. I’m here to explain to you what you’ll need to know for the future of both yourselves and the future of Alpha.” He pauses for a second for dramatic effect before continuing.

“The first thing you’ll need to know, is that while Fifth Dimension is a game, it’s also based on an actual place we’ve named the fifth dimension, hence the name. This dimension was soon found to have some sort of energy within it that sentient races can use, and monsters were found to have an organ known as a crystal within them. Crystals are a simply a condensed form of this energy, and they can be used to power almost anything, including devices that would never work under standard physics.” He pauses to have a sip of water, knowing that everyone is hanging on his words.

“Included among these physics defying devices is the warp drive and gravity drive. Crystals have thus become a requirement for our galactic federation to survive. There are various other reasons for their value. You can find more on the device you’ll be given after this meeting. Just know that crystals are terribly valuable, even the lowest G ranked crystal being enough to buy food for a week.

The game has been training you to thrive in the true fifth dimension. The exercise it puts you through is designed to build up muscle memory from what you’ve been doing in game, so you should feel no disconnect between your virtual body and your real one, aside from the difference in stats of course.

You can, of course, decide to not participate in going to the fifth dimension, but you will not be allowed to leave the premises until this becomes public knowledge. For those of you that do decide to go, you will be provided with the supplies you will need. May you gain fame and fortune in the fifth dimension.”

The man steps down, and the room erupts in conversation.

“Wait, so the game was just a training tool?” Sen asks.

Xue nods.

“Well, is there anything else you can tell us now we know?” Lynna asks.

“All I knew is that it was a training tool for going to another place.”

The group nods, then follows the rest of the crowd as they leave the room. As they exit, they’re each passed a small tablet, and told to press their thumbs against the corner of it to key it to them. The group does so, and they open the tablet to see a few different things.

First, and most prominent, is the rooming situation. Sen is assigned to building D room 304. Checking with the others, he finds out that that’s the room that they’re all going to be staying in. Whipping his head up, he questions the person who’d handed him the tablet.

“Wait, why are we all rooming together? Aren’t guys and girls normally segregated?”

The woman looks at him with an amused fashion. “We group people based on their own parties. You’re going to need to be used to spending time in close proximity, as it’s normal for everyone to sleep in the same vehicle when out on longer trips.” She then decides to add something Sen really didn’t need to know. “We also provide free birth control of course, we can’t have our hunters getting pregnant.” She looks between Sen and the girls in a way that makes him think she’s trying to pair him with each of them.

Sen, face flushed, excuses himself and tries not to run as he’s escaping. Lynna is laughing at him, while Xue is nearly as flushed as he is. Julie and Jennifer aren’t as bad as Lynna, at least they’re trying to hide their giggles, even if they aren’t being too successful.