"Bring it on!" John sat comfortably on the cozy sofa, while waiting for ED to start the demonstration it promised. John wanted to know everything about the world, its history, main events, the current power map, and other stuff like economy, politics, demographic, and a lot more!
ED told him this would take a long time, considering John's stubbornness on not changing any of his questions or desire for knowledge.
"Fine! Give me a few minutes, I will try to sum many stuff up and bring them in succession," ED finally resigned to John's persistence, "I'll start with basics first, then you can try to ask and I'll answer!"
"Isn't there anything like a computer and internet?" John asked out of curiosity, "like letting me go through all this by searching and googling…"
"Never heard of any of that!" John paused for a few seconds before adding, "if you want to know something, you need my assistance in that! We have a common network that connects all EDs together. Of course there are different companies that manufacture people like me, but let's call them all ED for simplicity, ok?"
John simply nodded, as he knew if he started to discuss with ED, the latter wouldn't stop talking! Yet he could easily tell that the network was like the Internet on Earth, yet for a reason he didn't have access to it except using ED's help.
"That's a bit weird," John admitted that in a low tone, yet he decided to put such curiosity aside for the time being, "there will be a time for me to delve into more complex things, like trying to secure access to that network for myself. For now, it's best to just lay low and relax, and enjoy the show!"
John rested for longer than he imagined, while waiting for ED. As he was waiting, something else happened in the outside world!
"Strange!" As many Mechas landed from the aerial tour, the sergeant couldn't help but pause in front of one particular Mecha, "ED, can you go through the records and see who is using Mecha Thirteen?"
"Right away, serg!" ED's voice wasn't a soft female one like John's, it was a harsh and deep male voice. The Sergeant stopped in front of John's Mecha, wearing his goggles, while everyone else stood around him.
"It seems your pal is going into deep sht again," one of the squad members whispered to Alfred, who gave this fellow a warning glance.
"Interesting," the sergeant suddenly said, "John is inside that Mecha? And he has been there for six hours straight?!"
The answer that ED brought back was as expected, John was the one operating inside the Mecha. It was his, so no one else could operate inside that Mecha without permission from the sergeant!
And yet this was the most bizarre situation the sergeant ever faced with John! "Hey Alfred, you told me John suffered a strong head trauma?" the sergeant turned to John's best friend, trying to confirm something.
"Yes serg," Alfred said in a weird tone, "I heard the doc cleared this day off for him. It's weird…"
"I know, he isn't the type to get up from his bed on a day off and get into his Mecha," the sergeant paused, while his mind stirred with another question!
'If you woke up and wanted to drive your Mecha, why did you confine yourself inside it for six hours straight without moving a muscle?!'
The sergeant looked into the security cameras, or more precise he asked his ED to go through it and find out what John did. John didn't do anything but go into the Mecha, he didn't even try to move it around or fly it away.
"I'll go and ask about his condition with the doc later," ED told the sergeant about Sophie's presence before John jumped into his Mecha, "as for everyone else, you can call it a day. As for Alfred, if I saw your Mecha missing with him, I swear you two will suffer a military court in the morning!"
"Serg… We would never do such a heinous crime!" Alfred didn't stand his ground, tried to keep up with the sergeant's pace while walking away from the training zone!
As the sergeant and other soldiers in the squad left, ED finally appeared in front of John. "Did I take so long? I feel like it was ages ago, but what you asked me was really too much…"
"Did you get it done?" John didn't care about any of that; he just wanted to see what ED prepared for him.
"I'll start right away," ED finished his words, and the next thing was for a black screen to appear in front of John. It appeared in the same way that happened two times before, and this time he didn't panic.
"It seems like this world's technological thing, for screens to appear out of tiny black dots…" he murmured this to himself, while the screen finally appeared fully in front of him.
"Let's start with the basics…"
The screen lit, and then lots of scenes appeared for the next two hours. During which John didn't speak a single word, only memorising what he was watching, and literally everything was new to him!
"Ok…" After two hours, ED said the introduction was over. The AI tried to summarise most of the basic knowledge about the world and waited for John to ask for anything in particular to prepare a deeper report about it.
"This world is called Athanasia, which is something I never heard of! The common language is English, which is weirdly similar to the English language on Earth. The world is very vast, with eight major sectors, each was like a gigantic continent. What also piqued his interest was the names of these sectors!
"Mercury, Venus, G. Zero, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune… These are all the names of planets in the solar system… What's really going on here?!!"
John couldn't grasp anything from this except there were few similarities and many differences between this world and Earth. If there was zero similarity between the two then he would have concluded this world had no ties with Earth. And yet the presence of such similarities made his decision quite difficult.