Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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/Din!/

[Floor: 1]

/Shua…/

Dale stepped out of the elevator, already seeing his ride, parked by the road in all its glory.

Just outside of the gates leading to his apartment complex, a black floating car awaited patiently for his arrival.

It was sleek and a bit long, its windows were also dark, making it impossible to see what was inside.

Some people were looking at the car in amazement, some even taking pictures, recognizing the model to be pretty expensive, and this bothered Dale a little.

'Couldn't he have picked up something a bit less conspicuous? And above all, not parked it in front of my house?'

'I hope no one recognizes me...'

Nonetheless, he put on a pair of dark glasses before making his way to the car with a quick stride.

As he approached, one of its doors immediately opened as it levitated upward, and he stepped inside without much difficulty.

/Shuuun!/

The moment he did so, the floating car came to life, levitating a few more cm off the ground before moving on along the road.

... And off he went, in search of his destiny…

…

/~Music…~/

[Would you like some water?]

"... Yes, please."

/Chin… Clack…/

/Pour…/

[With or without ice?]

"... One cube should be enough."

/Crackle… Ploop!/

/Grab…/

"..."

'Damn expensive car even has an ice maker…'

Although Dale wasn't much into cars, he recognized some models and their purposes as they were often portrayed in media as symbols of wealth and status.

This one, for example, wasn't meant for individual use, it was a super high class, Bentley Mag-Car, meant for the rich who were too rich to drive around on their own.

Mag-Car or Maglev as it is called by old people, is a term for cars that floated around thanks to strong magnetic forces, they were extremely limited and needed severe infrastructure to work, but once such structure was in place, there was the possibility of creating vertical car lines as well.

By now, most cities had a few main lines for this exact purpose, his was more developed as it had simpler sub roads that supported such vehicles as well.

But without those, a Mag-Car can't float, and even if he wanted to, it won't float very high, not because it can't but because it was programmed to.

Each road has its limit for how high you can get and that is given to the Virtual intelligence that drives the car, making sure its driver doesn't fling himself into a building in an accident… Or on purpose.

In this one, the height limit is one meter, not very high but enough to not bump into anything.

Although Police and Swat Mag-Cars can go as high as fifth-ish meters, like what happened when he caused all that mess a few roads down three to four weeks ago…

It had a lot of little things unneeded in day-to-day life and too bothersome to maintain, such as this liquid dispenser, why would anyone have that when they could just bring a water bottle with them?

Much less keep a crystal cup with a golden engraving in it… Multiple at that.

'It's comfortable, too much at that.'

'It makes me want to sleep…'

This particular model was made to not have any driver and to maximize the space and comfort of its passengers.

It was working.

"How much longer until we reach the International Airport?" Dale asked as he awned slightly

[It will take around twenty-five minutes for us to reach the New Horizon Statal Airport by following the given path, would you like to change it?]

"No, stick to the schedule."

'This path was definitely planned for beforehand, it's the one with the least chance for mishaps… Unless they plan on taking me out today.'

'That would be rather bad…'

/Chuckle…/

'In the first place, we're not going to any International Airport, it doesn't have what we want.'

'We'll be going to the fancy Airport used by rich people and politicians…'

'I researched it a little and it's ridiculously expensive.'

'No wonder people complain so much about taxes, if you reduced the number of privileges these people have I wonder how much you would be able to take off from that?…'

[Understood]

"..."

'For now… I'll just enjoy this, I'm not paying anyway.'

'No matter what, it'll likely be a while until I sit in one of these again.'

With a thin smile, Dale began inspecting every inch of the car, asking the Virtual intelligence all kinds of questions as they flew by traffic thanks to their VIP status.

And eventually, they arrived, at the International Airport.

…

"..."

Looking through the window, Dale saw a massive 'tower' slowly approaching in the distance.

'A Space Elevator… I never rode one of those.' He thought as he looked at the humongous structure pierce the clouds and into the beyond

The reason why it wasn't so apparent from afar is that the base of the tower was built with special panels that distorted light in a way that after a few Kilometers from it, the tower would seemingly vanish.

This is to reduce visual pollution within the city, and it was very important considering there were dozens of these in the country now.

Several decades ago around 2034, when China funded the construction of the first rudimentary space elevator in the Pacific Ocean, they needed to go through dozens of procedures to ensure the elevator did not fall or collapse.

In today's world, that isn't as necessary, building one is easier and more affordable thanks to breakthroughs in material science, and maintaining it is also simpler, albeit the legislation became more intertwined than a pair of old-school earbuds after being left in one's pants for too long.

This was mostly in part due to the second space rush China provoked, since when they succeeded in building what most thought unrealistic for the time, everyone suddenly became euphoric to do the same.

And then everyone tried, including the United States.

Well… Those are stories for another time better told by his grandfather then himself.

[We've arrived]

[I was told to drop you at entrance Blue-2, do you have any other preference?]

"No, that much is fine."

'I have no idea where Blue-2 even is.'

/Fuuom… Stops…/

/Clack!/

The doors unlocked and a burly man opened them for him, allowing Dale to step outside.

"Thank you." He said as he walked ahead

'So this is the life of a rich bum huh?'

Although he never stopped walking, Dale was silently inspecting his surroundings.

The people coming and going, albeit few, were each quite noticeable, some more than others.

He saw mostly businessmen rushing in and out of the Airport, getting into cars very much like his and vanishing within a few seconds.

Even if they had it easier than others in some aspects, the life of a rich person can be hard on its own, depending on what you did to gain or maintain that wealth and lifestyle.

"Good morning sir, please."

Before entering the airport, Dale got face to face with a group of guards checking every person entering the airport, they were fast and extremely efficient, not stopping anyone for even a minute.

They may seem like Customs, but it was not, it was just plain security.

This was also mostly thanks to the people's cooperation, and as to not embarrass himself, Dale already knew what to do.

He raised his left hand, showing them his watch as he placed his long case on a strange machine on the side before removing it and placing it there as well.

The moment he did, the case was lifted and suspended midair as it was encased in a metal box for analysis.

"Anything sharp? Cigar cutters, pencils, razor blades…"

As he checked Dale with a strange device, he listed at least two dozen more things in quick succession before Dale replied, without shaking his head:

"Nothing at all, aside from my Physical Documentation in my right back pocket."

"Understood… Thank you for your cooperation, you may retrieve your luggage on the side, have a nice day." The strong man said calmly and composedly as Dale adjusted his clothes

He put his 'watch' back on and made his way to the side where his suitcase awaited, floating a meter off the ground.

It gave Dale a familiar feeling, he felt as if he was looking at Caladbolg, how funny.

With a light smile, he grabbed it and moved on deeper inside.

Where though?... He didn't know, this part of the plan wasn't defined…

But hopefully, things would solve themselves soon.

…

/Meanwhile, back at the entrance…/

"Hey… Did you see that guy's suitcase?" A man whispered to a woman as someone else placed their luggage in the machine

"Yeah? What of it?"

"Come on, did you see what it was? And the fact he walked inside without caring a single thing about what he had? The fact we…"

"Look, Thomas, our job is to check if things comply or not, it is already tiring enough to memorize the ever-changing regulations from our darned bosses and you now want to bring forth the Tabboo?" The woman replied snappily as she tipped a few things in her terminal

"It doesn't matter what he had, we were given the green light so he passed, the most we can do is send a quick report to our superiors, which I already did and you know what they said?"

"Here, check it out yourself." She said as she swiped her hand in the air, flinging a floating hologram to him

"... Hum?... Damn…" Thomas said as his eyes opened a little

"Yeah, now shut your tap and focus, you know better than to gossip about a passenger's things… Besides, we've shitter things."

"That is true but… That? Do you think he's a Hitman? A CyberNinja?!"

"A CyberNinja? Come on... Leave your imagination back home…"

"And what Hitman would walk around with a…"

"Thomas, can you come here for a sec?" A fat man said on the side as he approached their table

"Oh shit… Uh... Coming Boss!"

"... I told him to shut it… Welp, good luck."

…

/At the same time…/

"..."

'What the fuck… These Muffins are fifty bucks each? Are they made out of Gold… Oh wait, they are covered in gold…'

'Who would buy this shit… Wait, is someone eating that on the side?'

'Forget what I said...'

/Step…/

"Mr Houston?"

"...?"

…

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Notes

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