Chương 15: Planet 501 (2)

The first thing that came to my mind when I stepped foot on the surface was that we were not on Planet Earth. The surroundings were too desolate to be a place on Earth. There was no vegetation; no grass, no trees, no bushes. There were no bodies of water, like lakes, or even an ocean. All we could see on this planet were grey rocks and a grey sky. Humans would not be able to survive for long on this planet. It was like we had just entered a work of art where the artist had just painted his whole canvas grey.

What we were all looking at was the epitome of depression, dejection and gloominess. It was cold as well. Definitely colder than back home on Earth. I was shivering uncontrollably and I couldn't stop no matter what I tried. I could definitely conclude that we weren't on Mars. In fact, this didn't look like any planet in our solar system. That meant that we must be millions, or maybe billions or trillions of light years away from Planet Earth. The only way back home was through the portal.

"Looks a bit glum, doesn't it?" Ben asked Cayman.

"There definitely isn't any life on this planet." Cayman nodded.

"That's why I chose this planet on purpose." Maya's face scrunched up.

"What is all this? Why is everything so dark? It reminds me of sadness. I don't want to be reminded of this! I want to feel happy on this occasion, not sad!" I smiled. At least someone was trying to brighten up the situation. That was when Cayman gathered us all together.

"Listen," he said, his voice echoing in the barren, desolate land.

"There is a reason why I've brought you all here, and it's an important reason. So before we go exploring this planet and getting lost, I want you all to listen up." Maya stopped and walked towards the area where Cayman was standing.

"This is Planet 501," Cayman began.

"It will be unfamiliar to all of us. Not even I have been on this planet before. However, the main reason I want you here is because I want this to be our home base away from Planet 500. Away from human life. The purpose is to prevent non-skill users on Planet 500 from seeing what we're doing. So I want us to build a base on this planet on the surface above the portal room that we can all use." We all nodded, understanding the task we had to complete.

"That's the most important thing. Then we have to clear the mission on this planet and claim it."

"Huh?" Ben was confused. So was Theo and Maya. It was fine if they didn't understand. In Night Hoppers, skill users fight in order to claim planets, and sometimes, a full-scale war breaks out between two groups of Hoppers to decide who claims that planet. The planets that Cayman and Ellie have claimed are all numbered, meaning they have claimed 500 planets. So that meant it was a race against time, and it meant that once we built our home base, we had to complete all the missions this planet had to offer.

And we had to complete them before anyone else arrived, since that would just mean competition. Luckily for us though, it seemed like there was nobody else on this planet not in our group. Or at least not in the vicinity. Cayman began reaching into his system and digging out various materials. He had pulled out piles of wooden planks, hammers, nails and other building materials from his system.

"Alright," Cayman said after he finished unloading the materials and tools from his inventory.

"Let's start building. With the six of us here, we should be finished in no time." We all grabbed several wooden planks and began surrounding the hole we had just dug up. While Maya and I held the wooden planks, Theo and Ben hammered them into place. Surprisingly, we made a pretty good team. After repeating the process several times, we realised we were making good progress. Cayman let us take a rest while he and Ellie continued building. We had planned to build a small wooden hut in the middle of Planet 501.

A structure which would be a marker for us, indicating where our home base was so that we wouldn't get lost. It was a simple yet smart idea. It looked as though Cayman and Ellie were more productive compared to me, Maya, Ben and Theo, because those two had all the walls completed about ten minutes after we sat down to take a rest. We were glued to Cayman and Ellie's speedy building because we were impressed, but it looked like those two interpreted the situation differently.

"If you're bored of watching us build, you can walk around the planet for a while," Cayman said.

"You might be excited, so I'll let you wander around. Don't go too far, though, since I don't want you guys to get lost before the mission begins." Those two are highly experienced, I thought to myself. They must have been doing this kind of thing for over ten years, or maybe even fifty years. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

I was never going to get bored of those two building our home base, but the offer to walk around and explore the planet seemed more appealing.

"We should just leave it all for them to do," Ben said to Theo.

"We're just newbies. We don't have as many skills as them. At least we helped. Let's explore the planet." Theo gave Ben a wry smile. I thought carefully about what Ben had just said. It was true that Cayman and Ellie had more skills than us, and that they would be more efficient than the four of us at completing missions and other tasks. Those two were monsters. There might be tens, hundreds, or even thousands of skills that those two have that we don't know about.

Night Hoppers never included a complete description of all of their skills. I sighed. It might take us ten, fifty, or even a hundred years to reach their level. We might not ever reach that level at all. I stood up.

"Robert?" Maya asked me tentatively.

"Why are you standing up? Do you want to resume construction of the house again?" I shook my head. Did Maya really not hear what Cayman just said?

"Maya," Ben said while I thought about Maya's words.

"We're going to explore the planet further. You coming with us?" Maya looked like she had been daydreaming. She might have been the most impressed out of all of us with Cayman's building. She took one last look at Cayman and Ellie building the structure before she got up and followed us. After she stood up, we began walking. All we could see was flat land. We were surrounded by the colour grey: grey sky, grey rocks, grey surroundings. It all looked very dull.

The simplest way to describe what we were seeing was a rocky desert. The most barren and desolate landscape you could ever imagine. There appeared to be nothing interesting for at least a hundred miles. Cayman saying before we reached the surface that there were no trees or bushes in the area we were digging was a complete understatement; there might not be any trees or bushes or any sort of green wildlife on this planet at all.

"Is this really what the first planet we hop to looks like?" Ben appeared confused.

"This atmosphere does not match our mood at all. In fact, it is literally the opposite of what we are feeling. A better name for this planet is 'Planet Sadness'."

"Agreed," Theo replied bluntly. I looked around. Although we had been walking for quite a while, we could still see Cayman and Ellie building the home base in the distance. It was as if they were still just a hundred metres away despite them being at least ten times further. Maybe walking on this planet was more boring than watching Cayman and Ellie build. My friends and I had been walking for around twenty minutes when- Clop! Clop! What was that? I thought I just heard something. Clack! There it was!

It looked like some kind of animal. It shot past like a car on a race track. One moment, it was in my line of sight, and the next, it was gone. Did my friends see that? If I told them that I had seen something in the distance that they didn't see, they might not believe me and think that I was hallucinating. My social awkwardness was showing signs of returning to my body. Turning to face the home base, I watched Cayman and Ellie finish the walls in the distance.

It wasn't going to be a large house, but it was enough to be seen from miles away and it was enough to house the hole leading to the portal room. With my heart racing, I started walking back to the home base. My friends followed behind.

"Robert! Theo! Why don't you two come and help me finish the roof?" Cayman asked us when we arrived back at the house. I nodded, and so did Theo. Walking a kilometre and back didn't use up much of our stamina.

"All I need you to do is to hold this ladder steady so that it doesn't fall," Cayman told us, putting down the ladder in place. At least he didn't tell us to help out in the building of the roof. That would completely drain my stamina. Out of all of us in the group, I was confident that I had the least stamina. I could imagine Theo and Ben starting off with more stamina points than me and Maya, and I could imagine Maya having already used some of her crystals to improve her stamina.

I, on the other hand, had enhanced strength since I had used one basic mana crystal to upgrade my strength, but that was it. That was because at the time, I wanted to use that strength to fight against the bullies and prove that I wasn't weak. Now that the bullies that I feared weren't bullies anymore but friends, I felt like upgrading stamina was the best choice.

However, I only had one advanced-level mana crystal left, and I still wasn't sure whether I should improve my stamina with it or if I should improve another trait or use the crystal for a different purpose. The possibilities with mana crystals were endless. I held onto the ladder firmly and with all my strength, while Theo grabbed the other side, allowing Cayman to climb up to the roof and lay down the wooden planks. The house was nearly complete. I looked at Maya and Ben.

They seemed more tired after the walk than I was: Ben was laying down on the floor like he was sunbathing, although there was no sun and just thick grey clouds in the sky, and Maya was cheering me on. At least I had a group of good friends with me. Clop! Clop! What was that? Was that the same as what I heard on the walk? I flinched, nearly letting go of the ladder. If I had let go, it would've been disastrous. I didn't even want to think about what would happen if I did. I wanted to get Cayman's attention.

I wanted to know what was making that noise. I wanted to ask Cayman what was going on. I looked around. Ben was still sprawled on the ground, whilst Maya was still staring at me. Theo still had his attention on the ladder, so he might not have heard the noise either. Ellie, who was keeping watch of the place, also looked like she hadn't heard it. But I definitely did. And I knew I was not hallucinating.

It sounded like an animal running, like a runaway horse who wanted freedom after being forced to pull a carriage full of people. That was the second time I heard it. Just stop thinking about it, I said to myself. I repeated that sentence at least ten times in my head. Finishing the base was more important than hearing the sound of a horse and wondering why it was running. I tried turning my attention back to making sure Cayman was safe.

"All done here," Cayman said after a while. That while felt like five hours. I was sweating and panting, and I could feel my heart rate increasing significantly. I couldn't remain at ease; I demanded answers and I wanted them as soon as possible. I wanted to know what that thing was that kept on running around us in circles like a mad man. Once Cayman got down from the ladder, he called for us and took us inside the house.

It was a simple house with not much space inside since there was a massive hole leading to the portal room underground. It was like the electric substation back on Planet Earth.

"Make yourselves at home, I guess," Cayman said awkwardly following an extremely awkward silence. There wasn't much to do to make ourselves at home in this hut, which had a strong smell of wood attached to it from the planks. There wasn't even space for a small chair. It was a miniscule building just large enough to fit the six of us inside. A nightmare for someone with claustrophobia. Well, that was the best we could do with all the wood that Cayman had in his inventory. Clop! Clop! Clop!

There was that sound again. It was making me paranoid. I couldn't see what it was from outside the window, and I doubted that the others could hear what I was hearing. I wanted to ask Cayman and Ellie what was going on since they had finished building the house. I wanted answers. And I was going to get my answer very shortly. My system window opened, and my eyes were attracted to an ominous-looking message like magnets. You have a new mission! Mission 1/1: defeat the beasts