Chương 59: Theo’s Planet

Now that we've all completed our solo missions, how about we go to each other's planets and have a look around? That was actually such a good idea. I couldn't believe I didn't think of that when we were still in that hospital ward recovering from our injuries. And I didn't think Maya was serious about that idea either. She seemed to always have this aura of jubilation wherever she went which was impossible to suppress or defeat.

It was overpowering, which made me think that 'serious' was not a word in her vocabulary. Once we left the school for possibly the final time, we spent at least an hour messaging each other using the system before we could confirm the arrangements, and somehow, we managed to get Devon to help us set up the portal in advance. And oh yeah, we were officially high school dropouts now. So we waited for the day to come.

The day when we would all go to the planets that had been explored and claimed during the solo missions. And soon, after countless hours of torturous waiting, the day finally came. I was the first to arrive at the portal room since I lived only a few blocks away, meaning I had to patiently wait for the others to show up. Unfortunately, I didn't have a phone anymore since Cayman had used it to create a skill that I believed was useless.

Although Cayman promised to buy me the latest model, I still haven't heard back from him about whether he actually had. Eventually, I heard noises from above.

"Someone's got to be down here already. I remember hearing someone say they live just a stone's throw away from this place, but I don't remember who." Clack, clack, clack. It was definitely one of my friends. Was it Maya? Was it Theo? Was it Ben? Or was it Daniel? I was going to get my answer very soon.

"Robert? Were you the one who said that you lived very close to this place?" I nodded lightly, slightly taken aback. As someone who seldom spoke to other people, I didn't want to use my lips and mouth to respond.

"Good for you," Ben continued, putting his backpack on the floor.

"You can come here anytime you want." I turned my head ninety degrees to the right to cast my gaze at Ben. All the colour had come rushing back to his face, and it was almost impossible to discern any trace of his grievous injuries from his solo mission.

"I can't wait," Ben said in a hushed tone, which belied his flamboyant, effervescent nature.

"Aren't you curious about what other people had to go through? Do you want to see what the other planets look like in person?" Again, I simply nodded, keeping the stoic, lifeless expression on my face, no different from the face that Ellie usually wore.

"Well, well, well. Look who's here already." I was too busy talking to Ben to notice the person who had just descended the ladder. I couldn't hear their footsteps at all. Theo, Maya and Daniel had all appeared in front of me.

"So, are we doing this?" Theo asked, scratching the back of his head.

"There's no time for chatting. If we're really serious about this, let's head to the portal. Devon's already done all the hard work for us." As soon as Theo finished, Ben and I got up from the floor and followed Theo, Maya and Daniel into the portal, where we all let the mana trap us inside a purple box with no escape. We were heading to another planet.

When the smoke dispersed, what we could see was another portal room. It was a sight we were used to seeing by now: a huge stone box with torches placed on the walls and a portal right in the middle. It was a treasure box of mysteries waiting to be uncovered and shown to the world. The fact that we were used to seeing this seemingly monotonous sight was a testament to our Hopper careers.

"Whose planet is this?" Ben asked, eager to know the answer. He was basically forcing the answer out of us.

"I don't know," Maya replied, shrugging her shoulders.

"We can only find out once we're on the surface. Everything is an enigma when we're down in the portal room." Ben looked like he was ready to rush out of the portal room once it was fully in view, and Theo and Daniel looked ready to restrain him as soon as that happened. Because of that, we all stepped out of the portal in unison, instantly searching it for any signs of a ladder. And soon, Daniel found it.

"Was this here before the solo mission? Or was it built by one of us here?"

"I had to build a ladder, but I won't be able to recognise whether this was the ladder I built," was Theo's reply to Daniel's question.

"Climb it then!" Ben shouted, manifesting an aura of impatience. Clack, clack, clack. Clack, clack, clack. After an eternity and a half, we reached the surface.

"This is my planet," Theo said once we were all on the ground.

"It's just like I remember it." It was a landscape to admire. Everywhere I looked, I could see green; the grass was green, the tree leaves were green, the bushes were green, the vines were green. The trees were skyscrapers penetrating into the sky, trying their best to touch the clouds, their lush leaves creating a thin blanket shielding the ground from the sky.

"This is beautiful," Maya said, admiring the allure of this perfect, untouched forest.

"The similarities between this place and my planet are uncanny." Theo smiled and said, "I know. You've told me this before in the hospital ward." I didn't want to listen to Theo and Maya's conversation, however, since this planet had already enthralled me; my vision was shrouded in a layer of green in this all but whimsical land.

"Wait a second," Daniel said, interrupting the conversation and contorting his face.

"Theo. You said that you built a ladder up to the surface. Does that mean you built that ladder we just climbed?" Theo simply nodded, but Daniel wasn't done yet.

"Are you sure? The ladder we climbed just now was extremely sturdy and well-built. If you built that yourself, how long did it take you?" In response, Theo shrugged his shoulders.

"Time flows differently on different planets," he said bluntly after a while. Once Theo and Daniel's conversation had reached its abrupt end, we had already dispersed, walking in different directions. However, despite walking a good few metres away from the hole leading to the portal room, my vision was still a green cloud with no way for me to penetrate through. Soon, however, I heard a shrill scream from behind.

"What the hell is all this?" It was Maya. Once I rushed towards her, it wasn't hard to deduce the reason for her screams. What am I looking at… It was a true massacre. Bodies were piled up and rotting, emitting a strong stench of blood and death. The odours lingered, causing Maya to cover her nose in disgust. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Oh, so you found it." It was a repulsive sight. Although the bodies didn't belong to humans, it was still enough to elicit a fear response in an ordinary person. What we were seeing were dead snakes. Some still had remnants of skin that hadn't fully rotted yet, and others were nothing but a pile of lifeless bones. Some of the bones had been pulverised to a pulp, whilst others were still intact, free from the wrath of those despicable Hoppers. By no means was it difficult to ascertain the cause of all this.

"I punched some of them, I kicked some of them, and I think I ripped off the heads of some others. I don't fully remember how they all died." I wanted to marvel at this impressive sight, but simultaneously, I also wanted to look away at this harrowing scene. The effort was there, but at the same time, the animals had been murdered in the most brutal ways possible.

"I don't even know if all the mana crystals have been looted yet." Ben flicked his wrist.

"Chill out, dude," he said; somehow, there was a subtle hint of sass in his voice.

"We're at the advanced level now. What are some measly basic mana crystals gonna do for us?"

"I don't know… maybe sell them?" Theo shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyways, this is exhibit number one: the snakes. I was actually bitten by one of those things. Luckily, they weren't venomous, or else I would have joined the lifeless pile of bones over there."

"Don't belittle yourself like that!" Maya interjected, wanting to slap Theo in the back.

"We need you! Don't even think about dying now when we're trying to have a good time!" Theo nodded as Maya ran off into the distance. Soon, however, another shrill squeal could be heard in the vicinity.

"Damn it, what is it this time?" Once Theo spat out his curse, he began running in the direction where he heard the screams. We followed suit primarily because we didn't want to get lost in this vast but quaint forest.

"What is this…" Maya's face was contorted in a way I didn't think was possible. She pointed at something on the ground which was tantamount to an oil spill or a spillage of black paint.

"Leftovers," was Theo's brief response.

"What do you mean?"

"I dragged a few of them back to eat for breakfast, but my stomach could only manage to take in one. So those are the bears I didn't cook. Yes, I just left them there." Upon hearing Theo's words, Maya looked ready to faint. She put both of her hands on her crown, looking poised to tear out all of her shiny hair. Her face was pale, devoid of any colour.

"How did it taste?" Ben asked nonchalantly while Maya was still enduring her sudden panic attack.

"Scrumptious. You should try it soon." Maya let out a horrific, ear-splitting wail.

"Let's get out of here," Daniel said quietly.

"I don't think my sister is particularly enjoying it." And that was the moment when I suddenly realised that Maya and Daniel were related. That fact had completely escaped from my brain during the solo mission and recovery phases, and realising it was like getting back one of my old childhood memories that I had suddenly forgotten. Everything was truly a mess at that point.

"Let's go this way," Theo said, pointing to a direction once everyone else calmed down. The direction we followed was inadvertently marked with a trail of fresh black paint. Thankfully, the effects of Maya's panic attack had finally subsided, meaning we were able to follow the sinister path of blood without any interruptions.

"Once I had breakfast-""Do not mention eating a mana beast ever again," Maya said in an overly stern voice that belied her usual zealous nature.

"I might actually kill you if you do."

"OK. Once that had happened," Theo said, rewording his sentence, "I heard another mana beast in the distance, and I got up to follow it. I tried to follow it without startling it or diverting any attention towards me, and when I did, I saw something magnificent." Clop, clop, clop. As we walked, I could finally focus my attention on the grass that welcomed our feet with open arms. Forget about it being green for a second; this is possibly the softest grass I will ever walk on in my entire life.

The ground was a huge mattress spanning the entire planet, ensuring that walking on this planet is the most comfortable thing you will ever experience. It was at that moment that I longed to stay on this planet forever. Apart from the corpses, everything about this planet was perfect, from the grass to the trees to even the weather. There was no need to worry about it being too hot, since the blanket of tree leaves provided a barrier that meant it was always shady on the surface.

The humidity was at a tolerable level too. Theo had been blessed with such a planet. Peaceful, tranquil, serene, picturesque. I revelled in my newly found favourite place in this entire universe.

"Stop." I abruptly looked up. I couldn't remember how long I had been in a daze for; when I looked up, I realised that my surroundings had changed dramatically. There was a hole in the green cloud which had previously shrouded my vision on all sides. The thing that had successfully penetrated this layer of green was a cave. Of course it was. Almost every planet I had been on had at least one cave. However, this cave, in the middle of this luscious forest, was perhaps the most imposing thing I had ever seen.

It evoked an even greater sense of fear in me than the huge cave on Planet 501 and cave 33 on Planet 505. Maybe it was because I had never seen this cave before. Was this where Theo completed the rest of his missions? The grandeur of this cave was unmatched; a vast, hollow opening led to a pitch-black abyss so enticing that it was almost akin to a black hole absorbing everything in its path.

Vines cascaded down from the trees above, creating what appeared to be unruly bangs haphazardly covering the top of the cave entrance. It was a block of grey right in the middle of the greenery encapsulating it.

"This is where I defeated the boss beast," Theo explained.

"Although you might feel fear at first, there really is nothing to fear. All the mana beasts have been defeated already, and there is a surprise waiting for you inside."

"What surprise?" Ben blurted out.

"If I tell you now, will it really be a surprise when you see it?" Without another exchange of words, we entered the pitch-black cave in search of this mystery surprise. Clop, clop, clop. Drip. Drip. Drip. Rogue droplets of water intermittently fell on our heads in a sporadic manner, but that didn't faze us. What worried us the most was whether there were rocks protruding from the edges that could potentially be our one-way trip to the afterlife.

Theo reached into his pocket and pulled out a mana crystal which he used as a torch, prompting us to do the same. It wasn't the best source of light, but sometimes, you have to utilise what you have to the best of your ability.

"If you see corpses, don't worry. They are all there because of me. I'm saying this particularly for your ears, Maya, because I don't want you having another panic attack and ruining the good mood that you want us to have." Theo's words were safely nestled in our brains. Clop, clop, clop. We continued walking until Theo stopped all of a sudden in the middle of the path.

In the dim lighting, I could faintly make out Theo pointing at something to the left of us, but Ben, Maya and Daniel had trouble trying to discern Theo's hand gestures.

"What is it?" Ben asked. Defeated, and slightly infuriated, Theo shone his crystal nearer to what he wanted us to see. There, seemingly engraved into the wall, was a door. A door which was as ancient as the one leading to the training facility in every portal room. A primordial door which appeared to have survived all the appalling calamities of this world. Theo, who had taken the lead, pushed the door open, beckoning for us to follow.

And when we did, we thought we had just stepped into a completely different world. We were in some sort of room, and there was light inside. No, not just light, but an abundance of light, providing a stark contrast to the cave just outside. In front of us, appearing as if it was staring right back at us, was an opulent throne seemingly made of pure gold.

The implicit message that it was priceless was eloquently conveyed; it was only suitable for the most ostentatious people with a desire to flaunt their overwhelming wealth. It sat proudly on an island which was delineated by a small stream with currents that flowed in a circular direction around the throne. And plastered on the walls of the throne room were large, sinister advanced-level mana crystals which formed a ring of danger around this seemingly royal room.

If this planet was enough to make me enthralled, then this room would want to make me live on here forever.

"This is where I got my jewellery," Theo explained.

"Do you like it?" However, Ben and Daniel weren't paying attention to the extravagant details; they were staring at something foreign on the floor. The area around it reeked of dried blood, and some of its exterior had decayed, revealing its cracked bones.

"Oh, that? Don't mind that. I haven't cleared it up yet. If you guys want some advanced mana crystals, feel free to start mining." Ben turned around, and after reaching into his inventory and pulling out a pickaxe, he began to mine the crystals hastily.

"This is beautiful," Maya said, unable to take her eyes off the throne at the centre of the room. She pointed at the throne and asked Theo, "Can I sit on that throne?" Theo nodded subtly, causing Maya to sprint towards the throne, jumping haphazardly over the little stream which was possibly a moat. I watched as Maya sat on the throne and started posing despite the fact that we didn't have a camera. I was just relieved to see someone else feeling the same sense of happiness as me.

Daniel had joined Ben in mining the crystals, but after a while, they stopped, clearly knowing their limits.

"Are we all done here?" Ben asked, his hands filled with tiny shards of mana crystals.

"If we're done, it's time to leave. You might all want to get your coats on, since the planet I went to is basically Antarctica." Maya sighed and said, "But I want to be here all day!" Her petulant whining was akin to a young child pleading for more screen time.

"We have to go to another planet now if we want to go to all four!"

"No we don't," Theo said, reassuring Ben and patting him on the shoulder.

"We're gonna skip your planet since it's so cold there and there's basically nothing there for us to do. We're going to Maya's planet next. After all, we're not ready to freeze to death just yet." Ben's shoulders dropped to the side.

"Whenever you're ready, it's time to leave. We're going to Maya's planet next. Everything's all set up. However, we're not in a rush, so take all the time you need." But that was enough for Maya to hastily jump off the throne and run towards Theo and Ben, getting her legs partially drenched in the process from accidentally stepping in the water.

"I'm ready!" she squealed.

"After all, I still need to get my stuff back from that stupid tent near the creek."