Transcendent Gene
Chapter 178: First Institute [2]

Chapter 178: First Institute [2]

Most of the four-day journey was spent over human territories where they couldn’t hypertrain. Only when they got over the Wild Zones did Gio get to experience the so-called thrill of the car.

It was definitely a full-body experience. From the backseat, it was like the entire world sped up around him. His body was pushed against the seat and forced to feel the strength of the world. It sounded painful, but somehow, there was no pain or strain at all.

Instead, there was a rush of adrenaline and a feeling of wind rushing against his face even with the windows closed. Certainly, marketing such a thing as a thrill wasn’t wrong at all.

But the experience was really meant for the driver.

Gio wouldn’t be able to try for a license until he was 16, but that was beside the point.

The point was that even if he had to actually take the test to drive legally on the roads without an adult in the car, he didn’t have to worry about legality when they were flying over Wild Zones.

He only got the chance a few times for no more than a few minutes each, but that didn’t mean he wasted the opportunity. No matter how old he got, driving fast would never get old.

He raced through the sky like a professional, catching his chauffeur off-guard. He was supposed to teach Gio how to drive and let him experience hypertraining a little, yet, there was nothing he could teach. Rather, the chauffeur felt like he could learn from the way Gio drove.

The fact of the matter was that he sensed his job being threatened after around ten minutes and felt like Gio would take them the entire rest of the way if he had the chance.

It was a shame that he couldn’t drive for longer, but it was far enough from a boring trip that the four-day time period was justified. A plane could have reached Celestelle in a few hours, but...

Well, he decided not to think about it since he had fun. In the end, they still reached their destination.

Celestelle was a Sky City. It floated hundreds of several thousand meters in the air with massive chains connecting it to the world below. It had to be approached in flying vehicles and there were even ferries that ordinary people could use to reach the city from the ground.

The area below Celestelle was also colonized and industrialized to keep beasts and monsters away, however, it was surrounded in all directions by a Wild Zone called the Great Northern Forest for hundreds of kilometers before the next nearest big city.

One would believe that this made it hard for Celestelle to become an important city in Arcadia, but that wasn’t the case in the slightest.

Humans had conquered the sky to new levels. Despite the dangers below, approaching Arcadia was easy for those who made it as powerful as it was today.

Celestelle’s government also did its best to hire and support researchers, who built their labs in the city and brought even more researchers in. The scholarly culture that developed in the city was a big part of its reputation, and the artistic culture that rose in response was another part.

It was a city that had everything one could want. It was expansive with countless highrise buildings creating its skyline, glowing with a myriad hues in the nighttime. It was filled with life and people of all kinds, and most importantly, it was a city made for Sequencers rather than ordinary people.

’I know I should be more proud of Helix since it’s my city, but it doesn’t compare to this.’

As they approached, an opinion like that appeared in Gio’s mind. When they got through the city’s border checkpoints and started the short trip to the First Institute, it was reaffirmed.

Helix was beautiful in many ways and became active on weekends when people weren’t busy, but it had a much quieter vibe. In Celestelle, whether it was day or night, weekday or weekend, there were always people on the street busily moving towards their own goals and ambitions.

It was a city filled with fortune and even more opportunity.

And the central point of that city was the institute where they raised the best Sequencers of the next generation.

’There are five main institutes in Arcadia. The First Institute competes with the Whiterun Institute for the title of best. The Second Institute is ironically always squarely in second, while Teiran Institute and Ravenfall Institute are usually fighting for third and fourth.’

There were many others, but these five were the institutes all young Sequencers in the world wanted to reach.

The First Institute’s campus was enormous, to say the least. It couldn’t even exist within the city of Arcadia because of its size. It was, instead, a second floating island attached at its hip.

For the sake of its activities, it was much more similar to a fortress and had the ability to be piloted. It spent half the year in the sky and half on the ground as the curriculum changed.

The central building was architecturally similar to a cathedral with two long wings spreading to each side. It was surrounded by ten to twelve buildings spread out over several kilometers, but the entire campus spanned over seven thousand acres of land that Gio could slowly explore with time.

The driver lowered the car and brought the wheels back out when they were in front of the island and drove the rest of the way to the main campus.

The sun was already setting, but there were many cars and buses driving in front of and behind them as new students flocked to the campus.

They came from all over the world. Some had already arrived, and some would arrive even later than this. As long as they were present before the cutoff the next morning, their attendance to the school would be validated.

After several dozen minutes of moving through traffic, they arrived in front of the gates. The driver got out of the car and opened the door for Gio.

"The Master has informed me that they are already aware of your attendance. There should be a guide waiting to lead you into the school..."

As the two of them looked around to find the said guide, a voice caught their attention from behind.

"Hey!"

A girl with bright blue hair and eyes wearing a blue sailor hat and a school uniform approached them.

"This is a nice car. You guys must be from a good clan, right? Please tell me you’re Gio...?" She said as she approached, her words getting quieter and more breathy as the distance was closed.

It seemed she had run quite a distance to reach them. Gio almost felt bad.

"That would be me," he said, raising his hand awkwardly.

"Yeah, it’s nice to meet you, too, after asking the same question eight hundred times. I’ve been waiting for like six hours to get off this fucking shift so it really is great to see you."

"Sorry...?"

"No, no. It’s not your fault if you came from Helix by car. It’s more like why did they make me wait if they knew you were coming late? I literally could’ve come an hour ago and nothing would have changed."

The girl shook her head and righted herself, collecting her breath.

"Anyway, my name’s Serene. I’m supposed to be your guide, but I’d guess you’d prefer to go straight to your bedroom instead of getting a tour, right? ...right?"

"A short tour would be nice...?"

"Right, a short tour would be nice."

Serene sighed to herself.

"I guess it’s my fault for losing the bet, anyway. Can you at least buy me a drink when we swing by the cafeteria? I don’t think I’ll have the energy otherwise..."

Gio smiled wryly.

"I can do at least that much."

"Great!"

Suddenly, all of Serene’s energy came back to her body.

"Some staff will come by later to get your bags from the driver and take them to your room. While that’s going on, let’s go straight to the cafeteria," she said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him along.

It seemed Gio’s tour of FIS would begin with a short coffee break.