The free period was over before long, and a good number of students were directed to the second building for their simultests.

The building was dimly lit inside, with one floor for each level of education. On each floor, there were clusters of MAPs and other equipment spaced evenly apart. Small groups of students and staff stood near some of these, while others were still vacant. Each floor had a teacher standing near the stairwell, taking attendance and directing students. When Nao reached the seventh, he saw that the teacher on duty for their floor was the science teacher.

When Nao walked over, she asked, “Name?”

“Ta—” Nao stopped, then corrected himself. “Nao Suruna.”

“You have a team yet?” she asked.

“Um—”

Nao had barely begun to speak when a languid voice spoke up nearby. “He’s with us.”

Nao looked left, feeling a flush of relief and gratitude. Wen Xulong waved cheerfully to him, while Rin only nodded in greeting, as he was currently being wired into a MAP. Both of them were wearing tight-fitting black bodysuits; Nao couldn’t help thinking that they were both very handsome. . .though the outfit matched Rin better.

“Head on over,” the teacher said, breaking Nao out of his thoughts and waving him along. Nao thanked her, then joined Rin and Wen Xulong.

“Welcome to the team!” Wen Xulong said. He grabbed a folded square of black material from a nearby table and tossed it to Nao. It was heavy; Nao almost dropped it by accident. Wen Xulong pointed to a curtained-off area. “You can change in there. The zipper goes in front.”

“. . .Mm. Thank you.”

Nao lifted the curtain and walked in, then changed from his school uniform into the black suit. The material was like heavy-duty elastic, sticking close to his skin, but there were still parts where it was loose—around the knees and elbows, as well as the ankles and wrists. Nao wondered if it would effect the suit’s functionality.

He rejoined the other two. Wen Xulong directed him to stand on one of the MAPs, and a staff member came over shortly. They ran their fingers around the inside of the cuff at Nao’s neck, and the bodysuit sucked in, leaving not even a single wrinkle or bubble. After this, they had Nao put on a pair of black boots and gloves, both of which worked like the bodysuit. Finally, they began plugging him in.

Nao started to feel nervous at last. It must’ve shown on his face, because Rin spoke up.

“Long-xiong’s our defense, so you’ll need to stick with him,” he said. “I’ll take care of clearing a path, Long-xiong will cover us, and you’ll collect the samples we need. Sound good?”

“Mm.” Nao nodded, then smiled tentatively. “Thanks, Rin-san.”

Rin’s pale cheeks took on a little color, and he looked away. “. . .Just doing my job.” He then looked back to Nao. “Just don’t worry too much. Long-xiong and I have experience with this, so nothing should go horribly wrong.”

“By which Shini-sama means to say, we won’t let you get hurt,” Wen Xulong said. “And we’ll definitely ace this test, and we’re all gonna do great.”

Nao’s smile deepened, but before he could respond, another staff member spoke. “Alright, we’re putting you under in fifteen seconds. Be prepared.”

Nao’s nerves swelled again. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. The brief memories from before his death flashed unbidden in his mind, but he didn’t allow himself to panic. Instead, he put a more positive spin on things—however bad this test might be, it at least wouldn’t be anything close to dying. . .

Or so he hoped.

The timer ticked down. In the last three seconds, Nao’s body tingled and went numb, unpleasantly reminiscent of his last night as a First Age citizen, and his vision was blocked out as someone lowered a visor over his head, strapping it under his chin. His scalp also numbed.

For a moment, he remained blinded; then, with a blur of colorful pixels, a space materialized around him.

His body regained feeling. Warm droplets of rain that stung slightly pelted his skin, accompanied by a chilly wind that raked around him like razors. His bangs were plastered to his face, but through them he could see Rin and Wen Xulong dressed in soldier garb. Around them were forests, half of the trees dead and the other half struggling on even despite the harsh conditions.

MEI’s voice sounded. “Test duration: two hours. Objective: avoid injury and collect eight samples, four of each category—mutation and vegetation. Time starts now; you may begin. Good luck.”

It was as if the slight virtual feel faded as soon as MEI’s voice cut off; Nao suddenly felt that he was truly on Earth’s surface. It was very odd, and, as Wen Xulong had said, frightening.

“The pollution index here is on the higher end.” Wen Xulong’s voice crackled in Nao’s ears. “We may run into upper-class mutations here, and definitely middle-class ones.”

“Mm.” Rin pulled a rifle from his back, holding the muzzle toward the ground and releasing the safety. “Nao’s more important than me, so stay closer to him. Nao, you handle gathering the four samples for the vegetation category—Long-xiong and I will handle the mutation category.”

“Right,” Nao replied. He was immensely glad that his voice didn’t shake.

There were plenty of plants around—thorny vines and thickets of bramble, fluffy beds of weeds interspersed with spiny grass, different kinds of trees. Nao crouched down and cut a few sprigs, storing them in test tubes. In no time at all, he’d gathered four.

“I’ve got four samples,” he said. “Should I keep gathering, or is there something else I can do?”

“Grab a few more, but leave a few bottles for the mutation-category samples,” Rin answered.

Nao set back to work. After gathering three more kinds of plants, a foreign noise came.

Nao had heard recordings of the sounds creatures on Earth made. He knew birdcalls, the howls of wolves, the trumpeting of elephants, and hundreds more. But this wasn’t quite like any of them, and yet shared similarities with many.

In the end, Nao thought it was closest to a cross between the chittering of a dolphin and the growling of a wolf. But the sound was stranger than either—thick and muffled as if by a layer of mucus, with an almost human undertone.

Nao suppressed a shiver of horror and straightened up, instinctively taking a step closer to Wen Xulong. When he spoke, his voice was low. “What. . .what was that?”

His tone was one of forced calm.

“Lower-class mutation, amphibian type,” Rin replied. He didn’t sound worried in the least. “They also have characteristics of dolphins and wolves. They only become a real threat after reaching middle-class and developing human voices.”

“They look kinda funny,” Wen Xulong said. “They have the bodies of frogs, but their feet are dolphin flippers, and they have heads like wolves. Anyway, they’re pretty dumb at this stage of development, so they aren’t a huge threat. We could kill one and get our first sample.”

“Mm,” Rin said. “Let’s head out that way.”

Rin kicked down a patch of thorns and headed northwest.

“After you, Nao-chan!” Wen Xulong was as cheerful as ever.

Nao felt somewhat reassured by how nonchalant Rin and Wen Xulong seemed; he relaxed a little and followed carefully after Rin. The rain continued to fall; Nao’s skin had shifted from slightly pained to slightly itchy and pained.

“. . .The rain really is very acidic here,” he commented after a moment.

“Mm.” Rin was the one to answer. “Earth’s atmosphere is full of toxicity now. Most of the harmful gases and particles linger higher up in the troposphere and eventually end up on the ground via the rain. Because of this, the pollution levels on the ground continue to rise, while the troposphere is slowly cleansing itself. Although the rain is still acidic, it’s not enough to cause lasting damage. Worst-case scenario, you’ll have a rash for a few days after exposure.”

“Then does that mean that the troposphere will return to normal?” Nao asked.

“It’s estimated that in about six or eight years, it’ll be about the same as it was in the 2030s,” Rin said. “The rain will be harmless—suitable for growing crops. At that point, it’ll only be a matter of healing whatever damage the Earth’s surface has sustained from pollution and mutation.”

“Is there a way to cleanse the Earth?”

“. . .None that we know of yet. But research is ongoing. There’s sure to be a solution someday.”

The sound of the amphibians was growing louder. Nao could faintly hear the gurgle of a spring over the pattering and whistling of the rain and wind. He’d just begun to wonder exactly how weird the mutations looked when the loud crack of gunfire shocked him back a step.

Smoke curled off the nozzle of Rin’s gun. Something writhed in the bushes near his feet, then fell still. A moment later, a pool of brown fluid leaked out under the bush, surrounding Rin’s boots.

Nao understood now why Rin and Wen Xulong had thrown up after their first simultests. Nao was tempted to follow in their footsteps.

Rin held out one hand to Nao. “Tube.”

Nao obediently handed one over, his fingers shaking a little. He watched as Rin crouched down by the dead thing in the bush; there was a disgusting squelching, tearing noise as he cut a piece of flesh from the creature. Within thirty seconds, Rin had cut a slice off, stored it in the tube, and straightened up again. He didn’t pass the bottle back and only tucked it in a pouch at his belt; Nao breathed a silent sigh of relief. Though the bottle was clean on the outside, the idea of touching it made Nao’s skin crawl.

Nao’s relieved sigh had barely dispersed among the air when the world blurred and he was yanked sideways into the brush.