Capítulo 17: Leaving Earth
Dante was surprised by this entourage. While the idea of a villa naturally had him picture maids and butlers, he had never actually experienced such treatment directly.
Naturally, Beatrice was unfazed, likely due to her upbringing, so she ignored the robots and entered the building. Dante noticed that she had a sharp dislike for non-human machine life, and his eyes narrowed as he wondered why.
He kept his thoughts to himself and followed her in. The interior was much more splendid than he expected. Picture the most ultra-modern house you could and then magnify the size by ten times.
There were so many rooms and facilities here that Dante would literally never need to leave the house.
Food? He had 3 kitchens and even a pantry big enough to be called a presidential bunker that could store anything indefinitely by freezing it in spatial stasis.
Water? He could literally condense atmospheric humidity into dew through the purifier.
Labor? There were androids ready to serve him in any way for anything. ANYTHING.
Social? He could connect to a quantum network and interact with anyone, anywhere as if they were right in front of him, play PvP games like he was in Sword Art Online, and more.
Health and Fitness? You didn't even need to worry, your AI chip regulates your body's hormones and prevents the storage of fat. So even if you're a slob, you'll only shit more since nothing is stored as excess. As for musculature, that one is hard to atrophy or deteriorate since the standard of humans and species here are much higher than on Earth.
Dante was set. If he didn't have to go to the Eternal Academy to better himself, he could just laze here every day and absorb what he wanted, live a decadent life based on the 300 Etrans per week welfare he got thanks to the contract.
He would relax in the Eternal universe and then slowly take over Earth using superior technology, living the life of a lesser god.
However, that thought only fleetingly passed through his mind. There was no earthling born after 1980, one who was born in the digital era, who would receive a chance like this and use it to laze about.
Rather, like Dante was about to do, everyone would actively seek to better themselves as if they were preparing for war, with a zeal that would make natives of this universe wonder if you were a tryhard.
Dante followed Beatrice to the central control room of the villa which was underground and closed off completely from the outside world, disallowing any signal to escape.
There, he bound the villa and its facilities to his AI chip since it was already bound to his ID. Thanks to quantum connectivity, his AI chip was the only entity that had a direct connection to it from any distance in the universe.
So no, you couldn't be all assassin-like and sneak into Dante's villa to steal or kill him. Well, there might be other methods since no technology in the universe could block the effect of superpowers, which was why they were so revered and treated so importantly.
Bionics could be crippled and Psionics could be disabled. Even one's AI chip could be interfered with if one had special methods, but superpowers could only be countered by superpowers.
Anyway, Dante had sorted out his villa and Beatrice pulled him to the living room to chill. He didn't need to explore every single room since his AI chip had already downloaded the layout and presented a fully holographic 3D image of the entire villa, a list of rooms and their functions, as well as all surveillance facilities directly to his brain.
Right now, no one knew this villa better than Dante, even the ones who build it would pale in comparison.
He sighed and sat down opposite Beatrice and folded his arms. He had only woken up an hour or so ago but felt like he had walked 300 miles. Even with his vastly superior SDI than earth humans, he still felt physically and mentally fatigued.
For the first time, Beatrice didn't tease or bother him. She just glanced at him casually and then brought up her holographic screen from her right palm and browsed the things on it with her eyes and her mind.
Dante lay with his head back on the seat, slumped and deeply relaxed. He even napped for a short while before suddenly waking up, feeling less tired than before.
He also felt little to no grogginess thanks to his increased SDI and AI chip regulating his body. As such, the moment his eyes opened, he was ready to go.
"Where do we go from here?" Dante asked while rubbing his eyes.
"Straight to the edge of the universe," Beatrice replied lazily as she closed her holographic screen.
"And what's over there?" Dante asked with confusion.
"The Eternal Academy of course. The Academy was built around the Zero Gate, and the Zero Gate is located at what was previously the edge of our known universe." Beatrice answered helpfully.
Dante nodded and set his AI chip to download information about the Eternal Academy. By the time he exited the building with Beatrice and walked towards the car, he was already well-versed with the Eternal Academy, its rules, location, history, rumors, and the latest news.
Dante had to say, that academy was less of a school and more of an organization. If he was to compare its power, wealth, and influence on society, it would be like Disney on modern Earth.
It was definitely going to be a big stage in his future in this universe, so Dante was looking forward to it.
One thing everyone could agree with was that coming to a place or location seemed to take years upon years, but leaving seemed to be in the blink of an eye.
Dante and Beatrice left Earth and entered the spaceport, being shuttled into The Inferno rather quickly. They got instant clearance to move out and then did so, launching into the solar system at light speed.
Unfortunately, they couldn't enter Hyperdrive within the milky way galaxy, so they had to exit it first. This took about 30 minutes of travel with the speed of The Inferno, making Dante click his tongue.
Why did going from the solar system to the edge of the milky way feel like taking an Uber down to the city center to do shopping?
While they moved, Dante was pondering many things while Beatrice was interfacing with the ship. When they eventually exited the galaxy, Beatrice was about to initiate hyperdrive when Dante stopped her.
"What is it?" Beatrice asked with surprise.
Dante took a deep breath and decided to trust her with this much since his future hinged on it.
"I want to test some of the limits and rules of my superpower," Dante stated calmly.
Beatrice's eyes flashed. "No problem, I can leave if you want."
Dante shook his head. "I need you here because what I am about to test is very risky."
Beatrice was deeply shocked. To show someone your superpower was almost taboo and despite Dante claiming to have one, she never actually asked for it, and neither did the Human Council before giving him his identity.
Unless you took the initiative to reveal it or used it in public, allowing people to deduce your power, no one would ask. Some children didn't even trust their parents with their superpowers, and Dante was about to show her his??
Beatrice was a little flustered inside by the sudden kindness. Her impression of Dante so far was not entirely positive, as he was mostly cold, on guard, and confrontational, but she understood why and did not blame him for it at all.
She sucked in a deep breath and nodded gravely. "I'll help you, and I swear that I will not reveal anything I see here ever in my life. I put this on my word as a member of the Portinari Family."
Dante nodded and then looked around. "Can I get an Exosuit? It can be any type."
Beatrice didn't ask why and commanded the ship to grant Dante the Vice-Captain's Exosuit. Akin to iron man equipping his nanotech suit, a wave of nanites were released from Dante's jacket that slowly covered his body, much to his surprise.
"If you're going to be the Vice-Captain, you naturally have to get all the stuff allotted to them. This is the Mark V Exosuit, the current top in our entire military and usually meant for those with Bionics and Psionics over level 25 in the military category." Beatrice commented with amusement.
"But technically as long as you have an AI chip, you can use its most basic functions." Beatrice shrugged and explained.
Dante's AI chip paired with the Exosuit and registered it to his own DNA. He then received a tutorial and list of its function, and he couldn't help but suck in a deep breath.
This thing was crazy!
Capítulo 18: Testing Superpower
Aside from its ability to keep Dante alive in the vacuum of space, it also recycled the liquid in his body so that he would never be dehydrated and could extract the waste in his body to obtain nutrients to sustain him.
But that was just basic life preservation.
It was apparently strong enough to resist laser blasts head-on! As the latest in military tech, it had surpassed all other defenses and was now tuned to protect from the most dangerous of attacks from superpowers and the like.
Protecting from mere laser beams was child's play. Even more exaggerated was the fact that the user of the Exosuit could survive having a nuke dropped on your head.
That's right, whether it was the shockwave, the heat, or the radiation, they were all nothing to the Exosuit. All forms of kinetic and natural elemental damage were completely blocked and the majority of special energy damage like lasers, psion beams, dark matter weapons, etc were easily resisted.
Kinetic damage immunity especially meant that dropping a building on Dante was useless. Hitting him with a speeding train was useless and dropping him from high up into the ground was useless.
Dante couldn't help but breathe roughly. In his plans to conquer earth, he had mostly opted for the conservative approach, by taking over in the shadows through the underworld and then moving into the light through finance, entertainment, politics, and then the military if necessary.
However, with this, he could just take the direct route and beat everyone to death. Even if he currently didn't have the power of Bionics or Psionics, he could walk around earth unimpeded for nothing at their level of technology could even remotely threaten him with this on.
Still, even if he did have the power, he wouldn't choose that path. Dante calmed himself down and remembered his goal, as well as the reason for this.
Having this Exosuit guaranteed his safety in this powerful universe and practically deified him in his home universe, so could do what he wanted to now with a level of impunity.
Dante closed his eyes and then pictured his home universe. As for Beatrice, he simply used the AI chip to transmit that he wanted her to lower the ship's speed so that she could leave this particular coordinate of space but remain nearby.
Then, he used his Quantum Entanglement ability to return to earth with a pop, causing Beatrice's face to change greatly. Was this Dante's superpower? Teleportation he called it?
But if he could teleport… then where did he go?
...........
Dante reappeared in his apartment and felt his body stabilize. He noticed he was still connected to the Exosuit through his AI chip and this made him happy. As long as he could carry this suit back and forth, he would be good to go.
With his superior SDI and upgraded AI chip, Dante felt like the world around him had changed. He felt it in the other universe too, but that was different because well, it was hard to tell since he was not truly a native.
But here he could feel it, the heightened colors, senses, and smells. Most especially the pollution in the air that even caused him to choke up slightly as he frowned.
However, nothing could prepare him for what happened next when his AI chip automatically began scanning for a Quantum Network Hub. There was obviously none on this earth, so it searched the entire sector, which included the Milky Way, Andromeda, and a few other galaxies and nebulas.
Dante sat down on the ground with a dazed expression as this was his first time roaming the Quantum verse without a hub, so the AI chip used more brain resources to facilitate it. Coupled with the fact that there was no proper 'Etranet' here, Dante was forced to search for one.
Unfortunately for him, he did not find a universe-wide or even quadrant-wide connection, but he found little pockets of weak communications from various civilizations.
These civilizations had either mastered or were at the entry-level of Quantum Computing and communication, but they only used it to communicate within their own species and spheres of influence, ignorant of the others.
The nearest quantum species to earth was in a whole other solar system around 30,000 light years away, deeper into the center of the milky way. This didn't rule out that non-quantum civilizations like earth didn't exist on the way, but they were too weak to even make themselves known indirectly.
Dante shut down the connection and found himself sweating profusely. His brain was hot and he felt like he was having a migraine, but the AI chip soon regulated his stress and temperature to normal levels.
Dante settled down and pondered what he found out. Most of it was gibberish since the languages each race used was different, but the AI chip could translate them using a cipher from the Etranet if Dante went back.
For the meantime, he was done here and had to head back. As such, he naturally pictured himself returning to the Eternal universe and felt himself sucked into that familiar long tunnel.
Only that this time, he felt like there was a branch in the tunnel. Two exits were placed in front of him, one that led to the dead of space and one that led to the spot he stood within The Inferno's Observation Deck.
Surprised, he naturally chose the second exit and felt himself pulled along that flow. When he stabilized, he was standing in front of a puzzled Beatrice who was looking him up and down like he was a monster.
"So what did you even test?" She asked with rightful confusion.
Dante paused and then sighed with relief. Naturally, the most important thing to test with a space-related power was how it regarded space. Some powers automatically distinguished between livable space and unlivable space, but some others were raw.
If Dante had teleported back to earth while on a ship and then ported back without any safeguards, there was a chance his superpower could deposit him right in the vacuum, causing him to die.
That would be a pointless death, so it was better to test such a thing when he was safe and had someone who could rescue him like Beatrice if something went wrong.
Now that he had gotten his answer, he was quite satisfied. There was one more test he had to make, but he wasn't sure if Beatrice could do it.
"Does the Inferno have onboard space suppressors like on earth?" Dante asked solemnly.
Beatrice noticed that he did not answer her question but was not bothered. After all, she was lucky enough to win his trust regarding his superpower, and asking for more was taboo.
"Yeah, sure. The ship can do that easily and we even have various levels of it. What do you want to do?" She answered with a bored expression.
Dante sighed with relief. "Great, then I want you to set it to the highest level of suppression once more. Oh, and the ship can return to full travel speed."
"Right-o Daddy-o," Beatrice responded half-heartedly, causing Dante to glance at her askance.
He could recognize that she wasn't too happy being ordered about for something she wasn't really involved in and wasn't allowed to know, but she was too lazy to act difficult.
"I'm just testing whether I can teleport out of a space-locked area. Previously, I tested whether I would end up at the same exact coordinate I left from or whether I could appear on a different coordinate when I leave from a moving vehicle." Dante decided to reveal this to her because it didn't compromise the main secret of his ability.
Once she heard this, Beatrice was surprised, then she glanced at Dante weirdly.
"This is probably why we should get you to the Eternal Academy quickly. They have in-depth courses on superpowers and how they work, and the first thing I can tell you is that superpowers function based on higher dimensional rules and science." Beatrice shook her head.
"I mean, if a person who could control fire as a superpower had to be afraid of the heat of his attack, the kinetic force of launching it, and the physics of flame generation, why would we treat superpowers with such respect? We'd classify them as hazards and people like you would be pitied." Beatrice stated as she folded her arms.
Dante heard this and felt a chill in his heart. His mind was on something different than what Beatrice said.
From a certain point of view, it was very reasonable and wise for him to test out such basic rules of his superpower.
From another point of view, wasn't he insulting the intelligence and effort of the higher dimensional lifeform that was kind enough to turn his mistake into a superpower and stabilize his existence?
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