Chương 146: Chapter 157 — First Place Again

Ava was standing in front of the Frontier Gate, waiting for the countdown to run out. She brought up and read over the message again. [System Notice] Frontier Representative Confirmed Preparation Period Remaining 10 Days Additional assignment details will be provided tomorrow ◈ ◈ ◈ Then she opened up the first message again.

[World Announcement] Nine Frontier Gates have been established throughout the occupied world Three Frontier Regions have been designated Thirty Frontier Representatives have been selected Selected Frontier Representatives will report to their nearest Frontier Gate in ten days Safe passage has been authorized Failure to report will result in termination Additional Pioneer Candidates will arrive following the establishment of regional civilization Further assignment details will be provided to selected Frontier Representatives ◈ ◈ ◈ She read that line again.

Failure to report will result in termination That did not sound like a good idea. She closed both screens and looked at the timer again. There were now only seven minutes remaining. She had received the first warning nine days ago when she ignored the System's suggested route. She guessed the System was not going to give her a choice. She had been having fun for the last few weeks. She had fully explored five new zones.

She was about to head back home when this stupid message popped up and made her head two zones in the wrong direction. Oh crap, the gate had just opened. She must have missed the message, and she quickly brought it up. [Preparation Period Complete] Frontier Gate Opening... Please Proceed ◈ ◈ ◈ Oh, there it was; the timer ran out. Ava whistled, and Swoop came down and landed on her shoulder. When the message came about what she could bring, it had been a difficult decision.

The four of them had argued about it for days before finally agreeing that Swoop would be the most useful in an entirely unknown region. Bramble and Chew would make their way back to Beaver Crossing and wait for her return. Finally, the last person standing near the gate walked forward and vanished. Ava finally snapped out of it and grabbed the reins and rode toward the gate. The next thing she knew, she was in a field, and her horse had suddenly come to a halt; it was almost jarring.

Swoop took off and slowly circled upward. Ava opened her map to see if this was a zone connected to one she knew. She opened her map to get her bearings, and all the zones she knew were gone. Well, all except one named Rivendale, so she opened it up. Well, that was not what she expected; the whole map was all grayed out. She dismissed the system messages as fast as they appeared. She was not interested in them; she wanted to know how this place was connected to the others.

She could see they were at the south end of this area called Rivendale, about halfway between the center and the eastern edge. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. She instructed Swoop to fly south and tell her the name of the zone below them. She turned to watch her go when Swoop suddenly stopped in midair as though she had flown straight into a wall. Swoop started to tumble and then gained control quickly, but Swoop was upset.

Swoop could not really talk; mostly feelings came through the bond. Ava watched Swoop turn south once more. A heartbeat later she jerked backward as if she'd struck the invisible wall a second time. Swoop did a sort of deadfall drop before she regained control and beelined directly toward her. When she landed, she started picking at her feathers. A few had been lost, and others were not pointing the right way, but she refused to move. Ava just looked south and could not see an issue.

It would take about fifteen minutes by horse to reach the place Swoop was squawking about, so she started forward at a slow trot. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so they just slowly moved forward until the horse stopped and bent its head at a funny angle. The horse then suddenly planted all four feet, threw its head back, and jumped sideways. Ava lost her balance and slid to the ground. Ava looked south and then at her map.

She was right on the border of the zone, but there was no indication like normal of the name of the next zone, so Ava walked forward until she smacked her nose and stopped. Putting up her hand, she touched an absolutely clear boundary of some kind. Ava finally skimmed through all the messages she had received and found the most recent one.

[Regional Boundary Discovered] Rivendale Boundary Confirmed Travel beyond the assigned Frontier Region is currently unavailable Boundary information has been added to the Guild Map ◈ ◈ ◈ She opened up her Guild Map, and indeed, there was a new marking that went out all the way around the zone borders. She looked at the discovery message, and sure enough, it labeled her as the discoverer.

She had, a week ago, turned off all the discovery messages because with the speed Swoop flew, it was a little annoying to constantly have messages blinking at her. The first week was fun, but the constant messages had to stop. Good thing there was a filter setting for messages in the interface. Finally, she brought up the guild rankings for discovery. Someone else had been slowly gaining on her, and if she did not get moving again, they would pass her. After the screen came up, she blinked.

It was blank, or rather, it had a single name: hers, and the count was low. The last time she looked before walking through the gate, it had been in the thousands. As she watched it, she noticed another name added to the list below hers. Then the person slowly started gaining points and passed her. Ava then started flipping through pages, and they were all blank except a couple of them that she was listed on. She was looking at one of the blank pages when a name showed up.

But it was not hers; it was someone named Naomi. She had just discovered an unknown plant of some kind. As she watched, the number ticked up again. Looking around, Ava saw a bush, went over, and picked a branch off it and studied it. There, her name showed up on the same list with 1 point. But Naomi was already at 11. Ava continued to flip through the pages and found another one that was tracking rivers, and it had someone named Declan with three points.

Ava quickly looked around, but there were no water sources anywhere near her. To the east she could see a mountain. Quickly filtering the tabs, she saw that no one was listed with mountain discoveries. She whistled and called Swoop, who reluctantly flew over to her and landed on the ground. Ava instructed her to fly east, but she refused with an impression of running into a tree shared with Ava. Ava guessed that was the best she could explain what she thought had happened.

Ava explained as best she could and assured Swoop that if she flew north of the line, it would be safe to fly to the mountain and circle the closest peak and fly back. Reluctantly she took off. Ava mounted up and headed in that same direction, going a little northeast until she was a decent distance from the wall, then continuing east toward the mountain. It took Swoop an hour before she flew back, but by that point she was first on the list for mountain discoveries.

This was going to be fun; she was in first place again. When Swoop returned, Ava directed her to go north and find something different. Swoop should look for anything that stood out. Ava, though, continued east; she wanted to see these mountains that she had gotten credit for discovering. When Ava was first told she had to come here, she thought she was going to hate this place. But this place was great. If she pushed herself, she could be first in everything; this was going to be fun.

When she finally got to the foothills of the mountain, she looked up at it. Then she looked northwest, where her map showed some small hills and a stand of trees that Swoop had flown past, before looking back up at the mountain. That mountain looked too tall and too much work to climb. She already had credit for it; maybe the trees and meadow would get her something, and it would be a much easier ride than trying to climb a mountain.