If Gio was there to hear the Headmaster’s thoughts, he would have had no choice but to agree. The current humanity was not prepared for what it was about to face, and that was why he wanted to change humanity.
’The first step, aside from what I’m doing with Farrah, is right here.’
The three people he was taking with him to this Scenario Quest; they were his first "investnts."
After gaining permission from the Headmaster, he sent the three of them back to their rooms to prepare anything they needed. It was a trip where they’d spend most of their ti in the wilderness, so there were so essentials they had to take.
Gio had the Storage Hole, but he couldn’t bring it out easily. He packed a bag with his most essential items and saved the resources in his Storage Hole for the worst-case scenario.
’Once I’ve learned to trust them, it’ll be fine.’
But, for now, he wasn’t quite comfortable showing his wealth.
He still had an hour to waste after he was finished. He used the ti to call Farrah and inform her of his leave.
She was his business partner, after all. She had to know if he’d be away for an extended period of ti.
"Are you doing sothing insane again?" she asked. It really only took a single sentence for her to understand that Gio was planning sothing similar to the ancient ruin expedition again.
"I am, but it’s different this ti."
"Different in what way?"
"Um...well, we can save that conversation for when I get back. How is the research going?"
"Haa..."
Farrah sighed, accepting that she was more likely to find out what he was doing through an obituary than his own mouth.
"The research is going fine. In fact, if you’ll be gone for a month, then it should almost be in production by the ti you get back. We’ll have to do so networking and marketing when that ti cos, and I expect you to join for it."
"Of course," Gio responded with a smile.
"I’ve also been dying to make so connections in the industry. I’d never turn down an offer like that."
"Good. Co back alive so my investnts don’t go to waste. If you die, I’m going to recover my losses through your family’s assets. You get ?"
"I get it, so don’t worry. I’m not going to die before we accomplish a lot more than just a Sequence Enhancer."
"Mm."
The call ended quickly after everything was said.
’The networking she’s talking about will all be going to conferences and summits. It’ll be a great opportunity to dip my toes into new industries.’
He was excited to see the scholarly side of the world as well. However, that side would have to wait.
He left his dorm and made his way to the school’s front gates, where Shiro and Neriah were already waiting for them. Serene showed up not long after he did. There wasn’t a single one of them who wanted to be late.
"How are we doing this?" Shiro asked.
"The Godspark Mountain Range is like two days away by plane. There’s no way you want us to drive, right? We didn’t book flights, either, so..."
"You didn’t book flights," Gio responded with a grin.
"But I did."
He tapped his holowatch and flicked his finger towards each of the three of them, sending holographic windows into their watches. Of course, they were the tickets Shiro was concerned about.
"We’ll fly into Hova, where the closest airport is. From there, it’s about eight hours of driving before we reach the edge of the mountain range."
Sensing the questions coming at them, Gio gave preemptive answers.
"We’re flying Gehenna Air. They’re Sequencer-friendly, so we just have to check in our weapons and equipnt. They won’t be confiscated."
There was at least one sigh of relief from Serene before they moved on. They were only able to have idle conversation for a few minutes before a car arrived to take them to the airport.
They checked in their bags, went through airport security, and boarded their plane without a problem. As Shiro said, the flight was still long.
It took four flights over the course of two days to reach the airport at Hova. The four of them were practically zombies by the ti they arrived.
They grabbed their bags and hailed a taxi to take them to a hotel in the city where they could pass out for the night, and on the next morning, they were back on the road.
’If it weren’t for my father’s influence...’
Gio had his license, but he wasn’t old enough to rent a car. Luckily, the Atmos Clan was able to provide him with a car to use.
’That also ans Father will learn that I’m here...I should let him know what I’m up to.’
He wouldn’t be able to contact anyone on the outside once the Scenario Quest started. He didn’t want to leave anyone worrying about his life.
Nevertheless, as he crafted a clever excuse to justify the fact that he had moved halfway across the world all of a sudden, he drove his party out of civilization and into the wild.
It was an eight-hour drive at normal speeds. With Gio driving, it was shortened to six. Before it got dark, the world around them changed.
The ordinary rainforest started to change in elevation. The roads changed from paved paths to dirt ones that were made more through use than purposeful building.
"We’re here."
The timing couldn’t be better. Gio put the car into its hover mode and flew into the sky, revealing the sight of the Godspark Mountain Range in its full glory.
"Wow..."
Several gasps ca from the seats around him.
"I expected it to be pretty, but this is another level," Serene said.
"True. It looks way better than the photos, but also..." Shiro muttered.
"Indeed."
Neriah had the sa thought as him.
"The monsters down there are far more prevalent than they make it seem on the intranet."
"It only looks bad. We just need to find a good place to land and set up camp before everything starts. If we’re smart, we won’t be attacked even once."
Monsters targeted humans before targeting anyone or anything else, however, there were ways to avoid them.
In this case, they were entering an existing ecosystem where humans were not often present.
"Since they’re mostly isolated from humanity, they’ll pounce on any human they see. If we’re stupid enough, we might even reveal to the monsters in the central areas of the mountain range that there’s a human settlent nearby. That would be a very bad scenario," Gio explained.
"But because of that isolation, they’re also set in their patterns. They won’t be as receptive to changes in the environnt if we’re careful about how we move. As long as we disguise our presence properly and don’t disturb anything directly, they won’t even notice that we’re here."
His eyes were scanning the ground in search of the location he spoke of. They were flying deeper into the mountain range and further away from what they would consider their comfort zone.
They eventually landed on the shore of a lake clearing that was more silent than the majority of the rainforest.
’If it happens the sa way it did last ti...we’ll wake up to a new world.’
The worries of his teammates were inconsequential, as they wouldn’t be in the dangerous position they pictured for longer than a single night.
’Well...’
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