Anji looked up into the sky while shading her eye with one hand. It is a bright morning that promised a sunny new day.

Despite the glare of the bright sun, Anji can see the stars beyond the clear heaven and even the tiny dot she knew to be the neighboring planet of Aegis. Anji wasn't sure about it, but she suspects that her assurance and knowledge about the planetary system is due to the nanites inside her.

She was sure at least that the zooming capability and the ultra high definition of her sight are because of the Brykar's upgrade of her body. They called it "Reality Enhancement," as if it needed an upgrade because the reality is boring.

Warm water splashed her thigh and she smiled distractedly. Why am I looking at the sky when I am already in paradise? She thought to herself.

She let her eyes wander around her surrounding instead and marveled again at the white sand covered water. She is in between two islands right now and technically she is in the ocean. it is just that in this part of the ocean, and just about 20 miles in all direction, the deepest part of the water is about 3 feet. Right now, the water barely reached Anji's knees and she rolled her black nanites suit up her leg to feel the splashes of the water.

Sea shells and starfishes can be seen clearly below her and brave little fishes nibble at the dead cells of her feet. The whole scene could have its own zen commercial and she should be at peace and content and happy.

But she was not.

Actually, she feels irritated.

One day, the Kavak transport ship dropped from the sky and delivered 2 spider-like worker droids to her island. When she asked what they are for, Alpha Codex 4 explained that they are there to lessen her workload. "Think of them as work mules," He said.

But they were more than that. By the second day, the 2 droids were able to make a clay kiln and started smithing. Within a few hours, they were offering Anji the use of proper axes of different weight and a full set of knives and cutleries.

By the third day, they were able to clear a sizable portion of the jungle by physically pulling the trees by their roots. those bastards were strong. 2 of their eight feet are grappling tools while the other 2 are precision chisels that can shape the wood to almost anything they want it to be. Their mouths are filled with small razor sharp teeth that served both as a grinder and a saw. And they can eat almost anything but they don't do so because they are hungry. The things that they consume like barks, and leaves, and dirt and stones, and biological matters all become materials that go to its abdomen. The abdomen of the worker droid is like a chemical factory on its own that secretes through glands in the mouth either a powerful acid that can break down any metal or to a superglue that can bind almost anything at the molecular level.

By the fourth day, the damn critters are already mixing cement and are building her a proper stone house... with a basement. By nightfall, they already constructed enough clay pipes to design an elaborate sewerage system and even created for her a proper clay toilet... with a working flush.

And of course, the worker droids work all throughout the night that by morning, Anji found herself the proud owner of a table, 4 chairs, a wooden sofa, a cabinet and a drawer with a complex flowery carving design. She now also owns several sets of baskets, sets of wooden plates, bowls, cups, other utensils, and cute little condiment containers.

Anji decided to hunt for food instead before her annoyance towards the droids reach her boiling point. She stops for a moment though when she gawked at a wooden swing with thick roots for ropes, slowly swinging invitingly at a nearby tree. One of the droids stopped carving the door it is working on with the words "Home sweet home" when it noticed Anji staring at the swing and it ambled towards her.

"Would you want to try the swing? I can push you at an optimal level for your maximum enjoyment," It said in a metallic voice. Anji left without a word.

Anji spends the entire day hunting an animal called Domomo. A wild bison-like animal with a disproportionally huge head. It reminded Anji of a tamaraw but with smaller triangle horns. Alpha male established dominance by butting head with other males of its species until one gives up. They have black or brown leather hide and twice the size of a regular earth bison.

Anji stalked a herd of 6 Domomo, then encircle them so she is downwind of their position. This made sure that they will not easily smell her approach. She crawled for an entire 2 hours and the entire terrain is wet with mud and cracked stones. Her efforts assured her of a bruised body. She targets a younger Domomo and waited patiently until the stupid cow grazes nearer her location.

When it was barely 30 feet away, Anji took a deep breath, silently stood up and ran toward the creature with her spear in her arm. She aimed the spear and with a powerful heave, threw the spear with all her might. Her aim was true and the spear slashed the air as it flew toward the mammal, who never even saw what killed him.

Unfortunately, the spear simply bounced back from the thick hide of the startled animal. It bleated its surprise and pain and ran toward its mother. The mother roared its anger and every one of the herd ran in a different direction. Two adults ran toward her position and before she could react a blur of black covered her view and next thing she knew a blackguard was carrying her to safety.

30 meters away from the rampaging herd, the blackguard gently deposited her to the ground and promptly went invisible again.

Everything went so fast that Anji wasn't able to say anything. she just watched the herd mother gather her flock and the Domomo moved away. "Fucking shit faced in a box!" she blurted out, not even caring that what she just said means no meaning even to herself.

She cursed for a whole thirty minutes as she walked back home, tired and disgusted with herself. When she trudged back to her campsite, the stone house was already finished and one of the worker droids is pulling a Domomo inside a wooden fence. One big Domomo is already inside and just standing there dumbly.

For half a minute, Anji just stared at the fence with an open mouth, then to the Domomo inside the fence then to the next Domomo being pulled docilely inside and then to the worker droid then back at the Domomo.

"How the fuck did you domesticate that freaking animal in one freaking day?!" Anji shouted at the Droid, knowing that she was losing it.

The droid heard her and moved towards her in that rickety steps of theirs and faced her. She endured the droid vowing to her before it started to explain.

"The local creature is not 'domesticated' in the normal sense of the word.," The droid reported happily. "The animal received a tiny medical procedure that requires the removal of its emotional cortex in the lower lobe of its brain. This makes the animal still able to follow basic functions but is now unable to access its instinctual core. It is now docile as you put it."

Anji stared at the droid with its bleeping lights, then to the two Domomo just standing inside the fence, and then back to the droid. "You... lobotomized them?" Anji said in disbelief.

"Essentially, that is correct."

Anji wanted to say something more but sigh instead and turn to walk away. She went back to her new house, ate nuts and berry for her dinner and without another word, lay down in her new wooden bed and closed her eyes.

The following day, Anji woke up early. brushed her hair, splashed water on her face, then drank 3 cups of the fresh ocean water. Then she stepped outside and stared at the 8 feet high stone and cement wall surrounding her house and the fenced animals. In a dazed, she walked outside the wall and she can see one droid scooping up dirt and is beginning to build the foundation for a motte.

Anji wanted to explode but stopped herself mentally in the proverbial nick of time. She took a deep breath and calmed herself instead by counting sheeps in her mind. Then she did something even she was surprised when she did so.

"Alpha Codex 4, are you there?" She whispered in the wind.

Alpha Codex 4 materialized right next to her and the warrior immediately dropped to his knee. "Yes, Alpha Command?" He said in his strong low voice.

Anji took another deep breath and started speaking. "What I am doing in this place is called 'camping' something me and my dad like to do when he was still alive. The idea is to conquer the elements, keep yourself alive by taking advantage of what nature can give you."

Anji spent the next hour explaining the reasons of why she is 'roughing it out' in the wilds and the fun of it and why the introductions of the droids are lessening that.

There were lots of blinking lights around Alpha Codex 4. It took him awhile and he did struggle to understand the unprecise explanation given to him but eventually, he did understand. Anji nodded to himself and she herself received an invaluable lesson on how to interact with the Brykars.

They are like children, Anji thought to herself.

For the first time, the fact that they are all living in a different time, with different culture and years of assumption and speculation about gods that they literally do not understand, finally hit Anji and she realized that she wasn't the only one struggling.

With a sudden impulse, Anji leaned down and embraced the startled warrior.

*****

For the next month, Anji decided to explore a larger part of the planet and she, with her worker droids and bodyguards, went to different places around it. They went to the sandy desserts in one continent and Anji experience massive sand storms inside domed shields. She wore a thick Domomo leather jacket when she visited the northern part of the planet when temperature drop in the negative levels. She also visited swamps, got herself drenched in the rainforest in the west, watched exotic sheeps bound around in a treacherous tundra, then run like a little girl in a vast green grassland in the biggest continent. She also visited a mountainous plateau including the tallest mountain on the planet. When she stood at the summit, her shield was covered in thick ice in a matter of minutes.

"What do you call this mountain?" Anji asked.

"We call it terrain 401-29B," Alpha Codex 4 answered promptly.

Anji rolled her eyes then think about it for a while. "From now I call this place 'Everwork' mountains," she declared.

Alpha Codex 4 nodded, send the necessary data to Aegis and just like that, the mountain received an official name for the first time in several millennia. likewise, several other natural wonders in the planet known as Gaia also received similarly uninspired names. The largest river is now called 'Barbarian' river, while the largest cave received the name of 'Mordor' and the deepest part of the world located in the largest ocean which is not yet named earned the inglorious name of 'Glory Hole.'

Today, Anji was dropped to the nearest natural wonder which turned out to be this several miles long of shallow beach front that she did find breathtaking.

She heard chirping noises to her left and when she looked, the two worker droids are hauling two massive tuna-like fish held over their head with four arms and kept moving with another four. Anji smiled as they chirped away excitedly, no doubt already thinking the banquet they are already planning for her.

2 days ago, she marveled as these same droids worked to create an uber futuristic yacht from scratch in order to bring her to the deepest part of the world. First, they made a very deep hole in the ground, 15 feet wide and 30 feet deep, and the moment it was finished a Kavak transport ship brought a massive tanker in its belly and poured its content into the hole.

Anji watched in complete fascination when the shiny metallic black substance inside the hole was gobbled up by the droids in massive amounts. Anjii calculated that each droid consumed about 50 liters each of the liquid then proceeded to the wide construction area they set aside near the beach. The droid sprayed the liquid out of there mouths and the frames of a ship started to structuralized in moments. The droid proceeded to gobble up more of the black liquid and sprayed them in key positions. Meanwhile, the black substance that was already sprayed is growing on their own to created the metallic frame of the ship itself. eventually, all the black substance in the hole are sprayed in the structure and within 2 hours a modern futuristic yacht was almost finished.

Several Kavak transport ship then landed and the droids unloaded more specialized machinery such as engines and underwater thrusters, plus modern consoles and sonar and radar devices. All of this was expertly carried into the yacht and assembled with unheard of precision by the worker droids.

Angi later found out that the black liquid is actually nanites. When the yacht was almost finished the outer nanites turned their appearance from black to ivory white which turned the yacht into a majestic ship.

The circular ship design had a huge dome on top for Anji to see the underwater nature. Yesterday, they are on their way into the "Glory hole" trench when the ship encountered a giant sea animal the size of a small mountain. At first, the creature simply followed but as its curiosity mounted, it inches closer and closer toward the ship. Even Anji was awed by the creature and gave it hand signals to make it come even closer. Its thick exterior hide was an actual island with the rich fauna living on top of its back, while the yellow ancient eyes half submerged in the water, wearily watched Anji inside the dome of her new ship.

Unfortunately, when the animal crossed an invisible line about fifty yards near Anji, a bright red Plasma energy beam screamed from the sky and proceed to cut the mountain fish in half. Hot steaming mist of water mixed with blood splashed over the dome as the ocean temporarily boiled over. The ship turned sharply to the other direction as it escapes the carnage. Anji watched in horror as bright red blood stained a huge part of the ocean.

"What the fuck was that?!" Screamed Anji to no one in particular, but Alpha Codex answered her nevertheless. "That fish is a known carnivore and the chances of that fish trying to eat the ship is about 58% We cannot accept that."

Another argument ensued that only stopped after Anji calmed down. By then, Anji's mood soured and she simply took the word of the AI's around her when they mention that they arrived at the deepest part of Gaia's ocean. She named the place "Glory Hole" and she ordered them to leave the area.

Today she is in this natural wonder of the shallow beach. She smiled as she splashed the passing droid who blip in surprised and edged away from her.

She tried to analyze her life and the weird new position she was thrust into. Part of the reason she is always irritable is the fact that her culture is so completely different from the Brykar. Most of the time, they are adorable in their fanatism, but there also times when all she wants is to wring their metallic neck and shake them.

"I need to find my own kind," she said to herself so suddenly that it even surprised her. "Where ever they may be. I need to track them down and get there myself. I have to." And just like that, a purpose was made for her.

And just like that, a purpose was made for her.

Alpha Codex 4 appeared to her right and dropped to his knee and bowed. Anji blink in surprise. "Yes?" She asked.

For a moment, the warrior didn't speak and stayed just like a statue. "... I... I have been elected as a messenger by the Brykar unity," He said in his now familiar low voice.

"Well? Out with it, big guy" Anji said, a bit irritated.

Alpha Codex 4 sighed and finally raised his head to looked at his elder. "The Brykar unity would like to request building a city in one of your planets. Will you allow it?"

Anji just stared at the warrior stupidly.