CHAPTER 166: ARRIVING IN X-GUARDIAN TOWER

Its price was outrageous, reaching into the hundreds of millions of Nvdollars for fusion, an amount of money beyond even an above-average rich Corer.

He was more than surprised to find one here.

"You’re a New Recruit, Everlearn Snowfall?" the man said, and Everlearn nodded, watching as a gold card glided back to him in midair, and he took it back.

In the next moment, a button on the man’s table dipped in as if it had been tapped, and from the floor a few meters away from his feet, a mechanism slid out.

A gargantuan teleporter.

"This should take you to X Guardian Base," he said, and Everlearn nodded, stepping onto the teleporter, which immediately activated, and in a blink, he disappeared into motes of green light, leaving the academy.

______

When he reappeared, he expected to be out, back in X Guard City before the entrance to the X Tower, but he was wrong.

When Everlearn reappeared, he came to a place completely unrecognizable.

He was right atop a bridge.

A bridge whose ground was made from a golden-colored marble, the surface pulsing quietly with visible Nanostrands.

’A bridge of Nanotech!? Weird...’ he mused, turning his head to look down the bridge.

What he found wasn’t water at all, but a golden liquid, indistinguishable from water except for its radiant hue.

Behind him, there was nothing but fog.

There were lights up ahead, shimmering through the darkness.

The X-Guardian Card in his grip pulsed toward the same direction, so he continued forward, letting it guide his path.

The farther he walked, the clearer the lights and he soon reached his destination.

It was a tower!

An ultra-gigantic, skyscraper-like tower rose before him, carved from a golden ore and marked with a massive X emblazoned across its surface.

Outside the tower, dozens of people, both men and women, moved in and out, and many paused to give Everlearn a raised eyebrow, their expressions clearly filled with surprise.

"A New Recruit!?"

"How is he so young and already a recruit?"

He didn’t mind the whispers and simply continued into the tower.

It was just like the Academy dorm building, with no staff and instead elevators.

He was led to one of them and slid his card over the scanner.

It closed after, and he waited silently, feeling the mild reverberation beneath his feet.

The silence continued for about seven seconds before it stopped, the reverberation fading off.

BEEEEP!

A beep sounded, and Everlearn stepped out, only to be surprised by a wavy sensation, as if he had once again passed through a teleporter

And truly, he had, as when he looked forward, expecting a corridor...

He found ground.

Yes, ground.

A ground of marble gold, as spacious as a football field, and at the end, a dome-like building also carved from golden materials, which the entire tower seemed to have been made of.

As he stepped forward through the wide open ground, a golden ripple surged beneath his feet from every step until he finally reached the door of the dome building.

There was a scanner by the side, and he slid his X Guardian Card against it.

It opened right after, though it remained pitch black inside.

Everlearn moved inside, and the moment the door shut, the room lit up brilliantly.

Pure white light filtered from the ceiling, illuminating the place, and light crossed in his eyes when the AI voice echoed through the room.

"Welcome to EverBase, Everlearn Snowfall,"

"EverBase!?" Everlearn replied.

"Yes."

"The building of every X Guardian is named by a nickname of their choosing by The Boss, most likely their first name, and hence yours is called EverBase."

"Interesting,"

He mused, placing the bag on a golden sofa, which slowly rose from the ground.

In fact, the entire room was circular, about 100 meters in diameter, and initially empty.

But right now, things were starting to come out from the walls and from the ground.

He watched quietly as the sofa emerged from the floor, followed by the glass table, and then the TV stand at the far wall.

As the living room materialized, he turned to see the bedroom forming behind him: a massive bed for five, and walls of glass replacing wardrobes, holding dazzling clothes within.

They were actually coats!

Blue ones that matched the color of Everlearn’s hair.

He walked over to them as the AI voice continued.

"I am Gine, the All-Knowing AI for all X Guardian Bases, though this is an individual consciousness of mine which you can remodule yourself," it said, and Everlearn reached the glass stands, asking:

"And who owns these coats?"

"Those are your X Guardian Coats."

"A tool that must be worn at all times in the X Guardian Base and also on missions, unless with the special permission that is usually given during secret missions where the X Guardian identity is better concealed."

It explained, and Everlearn hummed, opening the glass and bringing out the coats.

It was long and made of thick material.

When he draped it over his shoulder, it trailed on the ground, but before his eyes, it quickly reshaped itself, becoming compact and perfectly fitting Everlearn in just three seconds.

"The X Guardian Coat is more than just identification," Gine continued.

"It has been tested to withstand any X- and W-Grade Level Weapon head-on, nullifying both damage and momentum, and is impenetrable to any attack below W-Grade!"

"For real!?" Everlearn muttered in disbelief, running his fingers over the coat to feel the material more closely.

Only at that moment did he finally sense it, his eyes widening in surprise.

The materials weren’t fabric at all; he could sense Nano layers hidden beneath the material from which the clothes had been made, and almost imperceptible runes of Arcana hidden within.

"It’s really crazy durable," he mused to himself in disbelief.

The coat itself was an ultra-powerful defense gadget able to ignore attacks below the W-Grade level.

When he looked at the rest of the glass boxes on the wall, he saw shoes, trousers, watches, and other miscellaneous objects, all in blue, each with the same arcane and Nano glint in their depths.

"I’m starting to like where this is going,"