The present year was 22 AR.

A great many things have happened over the course of the past hundred years. In 2020 AD, a novel virus swept across the entire globe, and due to the negligence of the people, governments, and the world as a whole, an entire tenth of the human population ended up passing away in agony. Countries shut down in quarantine, hospitals became overloaded, and the families of the deceased were left unable to see their loved ones one final time as their lifeless bodies were stuffed away into isolated refrigerated cargo containers to be disposed of.

In particular, underdeveloped regions in South America, Eastern Europe, and Northern Asia were hit the hardest. Following this worldwide humanitarian crisis, renewed focus had been put into modernizing these places. And by some miracle, by the year 2060 AD, virtually all underdeveloped regions of the world were eliminated as high rise cities took their place to support the new wave of expansion.

However, while megacorporations pulled the wool over everybody's eyes with the promise of wealth and prosperity, the looming threat of global climate change was able to gently sneak up on the world. Even though many climate experts continuously warned of the oncoming dangers, they were merely viewed as anti-progressive and their voices were ultimately drowned out by the mass consumer markets.

Before anybody had realized it, the average global temperature of Earth had risen by about 1.8°C and sea levels by an entire 0.6 meters. Nature was merciless and uncaring to the difficulties of man. Beginning with coastal cities and island nations, millions of people lost their homes to the oceans. What followed after was a world food shortage problem as the world's reserve of phosphate– an important component of fertilizer– depleted to nothing, a concrete shortage as the world's beaches dried up and became submerged, and even a wood shortage as trees became increasingly difficult to source legally.

Thus, the true race to find a clean source of alternative energy, along with food that could fuel all the world's rapidly growing needs, seriously began.

Veganism picked up momentum slightly— however it would never truly replace humanity's love for consuming meat. Ironically enough, the movement ended up causing the price of organic and non-GMO foods to skyrocket and be put on the shelves next to luxury products such as caviar, truffles, and Japanese A5 Wagyu.

Mariculture on the other hand rose to meteoric heights as seafood became a much more significant part of people's diets— with this being helped by the new generations' love for Japanese culture.

The proposal for abundant nuclear energy resurfaced, albeit it was shut down by public discontent before any true groundwork could be laid.

The idea to turn the entire Sahara desert into a solar energy farm was also something that was briefly rekindled, but as with many other ideas, it was met with the same fate as the proposal for nuclear energy.

Finally, in 2070 AD, a breakthrough happened in the field of antimatter research as ongoing antimatter blackhole annihilation experiments yielded the first rift that connected to the otherworld. Through this rift crossed over the 300 year old Arcanian Archmagus, whom the internet quickly dubbed "Professor Dumbledor" due to his similar appearance to the headmaster of the iconic book and movie series of witchcraft and wizardry. With his knowledge, the entire world was enlightened about the existence of the otherworld, Arca Archa, and the boundless source of free-floating energy that came seeping out from the other side of the rift. It was "Aether," the quintessence of classical Alchemic properties long believed to be mere conjecture.

The shocking news brought about a decisive split among the world. On one hand, Arca Archa had all the resources needed to solve their ever growing needs. On the other hand, it would mean establishing contact with the denizens of another world, and many were unsure whether or not this would be a good idea. The late Stephen Hawkings especially warned against seeking contact with aliens, citing the tragedy of the Native Americans in the New World as the prime example of what would happen.

However, pressure from the pro-contact faction won out in the end. There had been no doubt that Earth, in the state it had been in, lacked the means to support all the people on it. So with there being an entire whole other world of resources laid bare before them, how could they say no? Perhaps it was but human nature for man to inevitably wring anything placed before them dry for all it had.

Once the decision had been made, it only took until the turn of the century, 2100 AD, later to be renamed 1 AR, for the world's first stable rift to be opened. Once it had, it signaled the bridging of the two worlds, Earth and Arca Archa— and what was once myth now merged with reality.

…

…

A wave of humidity washed over me as I left the apartment complex.

Idling, I checked my phone again. The autonomous taxi would be arriving in the next couple minutes so I made my way to the designated pickup location.

[TAXI STATION E]

[STAND HERE]

There was a blue hologram projected onto the sidewalk instructing me where to wait. There was one more taxi point just a couple meters next to this one, but seeing as how it was still quite early into the morning, I was the only person there.

A minute later, a green vehicle appeared in the distance and soon pulled over to where I stood. The door opened to four empty seats facing towards each other with a distinct lack of a driver's seat or steering wheel. A welcome message played, spoken by a smooth female voice, as soon as I approached.

"Welcome, Edmond."

Once inside, the voice ran through some basic safety protocols. I knew that there were cameras hidden in the car to make sure they were followed, but I could not pick them out with a glance. Though I did find a dull red emergency stop lever on one side, along with a glass breaker for emergency escapes.

"Please fasten your seatbelts and keep your hands and feet away from the door."

The interior was clean, albeit the seats were slightly worn with use. The walls and floor however had many scratch marks scattered all over. Public transportation was something that really went through a lot of abuse.

"Please remain seated at all times."

The doors finally closed shut. Within seconds, the taxi began to drive all on its own. It was sometime during the last century where non-autonomous vehicles were made less and less road legal, especially on municipal roads, until it became entirely illegal to drive. Incidentally, I was part of that last generation who had to learn to drive for a reason that was not purely recreational.

Although the act of driving was not difficult in of itself, it was certainly much more liberating to be able to do whatever else I wanted to during the time required for a drive to finish, instead of that time being wasted. When the final law passed to ban all vehicles without level five automation from driving on public roads, I had the choice to switch my car to one as well, but I decided not to. With the abundance of cheap automated taxi services at my disposal living in Singapore, it just never made much sense to own one.

[Estimated arrival time: 50 minutes]

"Hm…"

The drive time was twice as long as expected. If I had to guess, the recent protests must have blocked some of the roads on the way downtown.

I shut my eyes briefly as my mind drifted back to the phone call with Oryza. It only just happened so it still rang vividly in my mind. Out of everything in this world, just what could it have been for that busy man to want to meet me so urgently? I could tell that he was stressed, very much so. It was just in the way his voice shook. I was beginning to feel more anxious the longer I sat still.

"It's starting to ache…"

—My stomach, that was, and it started with a slight tinge of uncomfortableness. It was not something that would happen often, but through my time working at the guild, I learned to take it as a sign of bad things to come. Instinct was something that those in our field never ignored, because when lives were on the line, it was always better to be safe than sorry. This time too, it made me worry about what was in store for me. Perhaps I should have just gone to him right away. It was too late for that now however.

…

I was jolted awake when the taxi came to an abrupt stop.

"What's going on?"

The taxi did not hit anything, thankfully. A quick glance at the augmented reality display on the windows told me nothing, so I lifted myself off the seat to look past them.

I saw a young lady with blue hair and a beret on her head standing in the road in front of the taxi. But that was not all, she was desperately trying to hold onto a purse and was shouting something. I could not catch it though due to the soundproofing of the vehicle, but that was of little importance when I noticed the two men with distinct Arcanian features who were trying to take that purse off her.

"In broad daylight too!" I swore loudly. Perhaps it was due to my time as an emergency worker, as before I knew it, I was already on my feet and thinking of what I could do about the situation.

"Help! Get away from me!"

As soon as I had leapt out of the car, I heard the young lady's shaking voice and I knew my decision to be the correct one.

"Police! Hands up in the air!" I yelled with the most fierce growl I could muster, and it worked, if only for just a brief moment. The two assailants looked away from her, and then with just a bit of gusto from my part, I shoved the smaller one into a car and rammed the other with my shoulder.

"Ah!" I heard the girl yelp out in surprise.

"Run!" I cried out to her as I grabbed her arm right above her elbow.

She followed— or well, I dragged her away in the opposite direction. We kept running and did not stop until we had rounded at least a few corners. By the end of it, it had been about five minutes later and we had ended up stopping in the middle of a park.

"Are you okay? Hurt anywhere at all?" I finally asked her after catching my breath. Now that we had gotten away, I could finally relax and get a good look at her. She was smaller than I had initially thought. The top of her head came up to my chin and if I were to guess, she was probably around 160 cm tall, more or less— less if I had to make a call on it.

"Uhm…" she spoke meekly, and even looked away when our eyes saw each other.

"What was that?" I repeated. Just barely— it was only just barely that I could hear her voice, though I was unable to make out just what she had said to me.

"…arm…" her face flushed red as she made an effort to speak louder.

"Arm…? Oh shit, my bad. I'm sorry!" I apologized as I released my grip immediately. How could I not have realized I was still holding onto her like that? What was left on her arm was a deep red impression of the shape of my hand.

"No…! Don't apologize!" She gripped my sleeves tightly. "Th-Thank you for helping!"

"Ah…" I was surprised again. "You don't have to worry about it. Two grown ass men ganging up on one girl— that was far too outrageous for me to sit still anyways. Well, if you're okay now, I should get going. Remember, if you ever need to find help, don't yell out 'help.' People will be much more inclined to actually help if you shout out 'fire' instead."

As I got ready to leave, I placed my hand over her head as though I was ready to pat her. I felt a clink, which I presumed to be a hair ornament. Strange to wear under a hat though.

"—Ah… damn. I didn't mean to do that, my bad. I just did it out of instinct. I apologize."

"No… it's okay."

Perhaps it was something to do with the way she looked so meek even as she grabbed my sleeves that I subconsciously treated her as though she were my kid. Verretheia used to enjoy it a lot as well when I would pet and run my hand through her hair, so I was sure that if our daughter had been born back then, she would be just about this age right now as well.

"Maybe it's fate…" I murmured, "Is there anything you need me for before I skip? I have some plans I need to attend to, but if you need a ride home or anything, I can call a taxi for you."

"Uhm…" she raised her voice briefly.

"Yes?"

It looked like she was about to say something when our two gazes crossed a second time, but in the end she only ended up striking silence. Shyly, she pulled her gaze down ever so slightly and apologized instead.

"No… sorry, it's nothing. Thank you."

She bowed at me before hurrying away with a slight jog to her steps. However, she ended up stopping just a few paces along the way before taking a glance back towards me. For sure, I thought she was going to muster up the strength to say it this time. I had even cheered her forward in my own mind. But in the end, she eventually continued along.

"Strange girl," I shook my head. But that did not mean she was a bad person, just bad with people. "Where am I anyways— what the hell?"

When I pulled out my phone to check the map, I was greeted with a slew of notifications from the ride application.

"Figures," I supposed. The taxi service was not happy with my ditching of the ride midway so I ended up being charged the full fare despite me not having sat through the entire service. It was a small price to pay to help that girl back there however, and I would do it again without any hesitation.

When I checked the map, it turned out that I was practically where I needed to be anyways. I was at a park, but the memorial site I had been headed towards was just a few minutes away.

"Well, what do you know? Looks like things worked out in my favor anyways."

…

…