From as far as we can see into the past, we have established that this world seems to stretch infinitely from side to side. There is no visible borders nor there is curvatures. Soon after that, we realized that we can't really see further than a certain point because it's blocked by an opaque fog. There's nothing special about this fog, after all it's made out of the air that we breathe in everyday. Naturally, humanity seems be curious about what lies beyond, a mystery to conquer and surprises to be discovered. The island that they are stepping out of course, is the one and only biggest most populated island known to date. Let us introduce you to Ha, the massive floating island. Floating not in a sense of boat that floats in water. But more like a lump of great landmass, flying in the air and doesn't fall down, unlike every other element that men have discovered.

These brave men and women that ventures outwards has a special title that's bestowed upon them by the government, the people, and everyone in between. They are called adventurers.

These brave kinds are often young, motivated, and came from the learned kind. They go out into the world curious of what lays upon the unmapped territory of this world. Although we've truly come farther away from Ha if we compare ourselves to our ancestors, it's truly staggering how much we don't know about what's outside of our horizon.

The journey of an adventurer could be summarized into several milestones. The first one is "the virgin voyage". As they're on the border of Ha, this will be their first time to experience the gripping and sucking sensation of dread when they look of what's below their feet. A breathtaking void made out of the color of the sky, invitingly light blue yet terrifyingly endless. All their life they thought that they're living on a solid rock which stretch all the way to the bottom of the universe, yet these children doesn't realizes the reality that they're in. There is no such thing as a bottom. At least, not in this world. Soon after that, they must survive the transport between Ha to the outermost island that we have discovered. We call these far away islands as The Edge.

As of right now, there are several options that you can choose to get to The Edge. One of them is using an airbowl. Airbowl is a bowl shaped vehicle that's powered by mana and are able to fly for around 2500 km without needing a refuel. Although statistically speaking you have a very small chance of dying when riding one, there's enough record and documentaries out there that will remind the passenger that this is no where near a safe trip. For example, if the engine went out because lack of mana or any unforeseen malfunction there will be two main scenarios that you will face. The lucky ones will crash a nearby island which might or might not kill the entire crew and passenger. The unlucky one will never meet the ground, speeding into nothingness with no way back home.

If an adventurer survives the trip to The Edge, most of them tend to use the available (usually barely working) communication channel. They will tell their family the news that this is where their adventure will begin. Some of them will cry, smile, and laugh. The rest won't even have a chance to communicate at all.

On The Edge, most adventurer would be working on an expedition that's sanction by the government or private companies. A party of dozens or even hundreds will coordinate with each other to reach an objective. We call these activities as "The Projects". These projects could be a quest for a new mana reservoir, creating new line of communication, or establishing facilities for newcomers to live in.

As soon as they found a new island, these parties will note and sample whatever new things that they have found. Be it flora, fauna, or new form of minerals. If it is within their abilities, some would even brief their employer in Ha about the status of their journey. They would provide maps, illustration of a new species, or native men using an unknown language.

We call the people that have lived for a long time outside of Ha as "outsiders". Some of them are friendly to visitors, and others would go hostile without warning if you look them the wrong way.

The government treat these outsiders based on how useful they are, or which government that they are talking to. The Republic for example, have a pretty neutral and humane attitude towards outsiders. They will leave them alone if it's determined that they wish live in isolation, while considering another route to circumvent their territory. But this doesn't mean that they will sit still towards an unreasonably hostile tribes. After all, achieving peace and anti violence is two different school of thoughts.

On the other hand, a militaristic and utilitarian government such as Milium will have a very indifferent attitude towards keeping "peace". For them, the only thing to do to an untapped resources is to extract it in anyway possible until it's barren. It seems that this behavior doesn't bother the people of Milium that much, knowing how their system of government and law works. Most of the time, they will transport the resources, whatever they might be, back to Milium using heavily guarded convoys.

Although a section of the society would consider being an adventurer as a perfect way to grow as a person, much of the populous would rather live within the area that they're familiar with. As of right now, everything that's considered futuristic and deemed important is in Ha after all. You wouldn't want to be a bumpkin or an "outsiders". Think about what you would lost if you walk out of this very livable, massive island. The facilities, school, hospitals, communal transport, and other great benefits of living in a well maintained country.

The inevitable difference of the spread of wealth within and outside of Ha more often than not spark small fights within the community. Those who live in the mainland, and those who venture outside of the comfort of their own home. This is a problem that every country deals in different way, with a differing success. In some cases, it's about the lack of promised accommodation. The Republic is quite bad at this problem as soon as they're too far away to reach within a single flight of Airbowl. This of course happened because of the exponential logistical cost of transporting heavy amount of medical supplies, techs, and entertainment items such as novels and comic books.

As for how Milium would handle this situation, they're very meritocratic when helping others. If they don't have anything useful for the country to give, there would be no supply for them. From the perspective of this tyrannical government, It's not as if they have the power to protest and retaliate without any significant effort from the mainland. Because of that, most of the time being an adventurer in Milium is seen as a risky and unrewarding job. Only those crazy enough to live and die outside would do it. But there is at least one story about the Milium government helping a remote colony in need.

It happened a long time ago, about twenty five years from today. The colony is code-named "Z-87". It's an expedition party that fare too far from their initial destination and ended up in an unknown island. The colony's members contain mostly of women researchers, accompanied by some men that worked as a security guard and odd jobs.

It has been a month since the last time they could contact the mainland. Food supply is running thin with some men falling sick because of malnutrition. This situation is also worsened by the fact that they need medical care to those who are wounded by the harsh condition of this unknown island. The only good thing that's happening right now is a tent that shields them from a raging rain. It seems that the fate of these people is sealed and they must survive in this jungle island full of insects and unknown plants.

The story starts off when one of the researcher saved a baby that's washed up near a river. The baby is found sleeping in a cradle made out of wood fiber, without notes and any visible identification. Maybe this was caused by a sense of parental duty that was felt by that researcher, but to preserve the well being of the baby, this researcher hid the baby away from the rest of the party.

As you may have known, one of the main behavior of a baby is crying. She got found out immediately after that, an hour after not feeding the baby with a proper food. The first one to found out is the eldest woman around, a lady called "Missus".

As of right now, Missus is in his late fifties pushing sixty, quite old if compared with her comrade and other researchers that lives in Ha. The main purpose of her going far outside the communication range of Milium is to search for a reliable source of Mana outside of the main island. But of course, all of those mission description are meaningless in the face of reality. Because for all we know, the only significant object that they have encountered so far was this baby that they found in the middle of nowhere.

The baby brought a new joy and laughter among the members of the expedition. Although life is hard, sometimes all it needs is a cute little creature to brighten up the day. From then on, searching for food and experimenting with the taste of the wild life seems like an adventure rather than a full on survival. They starts to joke around and spread happiness amongst themselves, as if hypnotized by the charisma of the baby.

All of them felt the positive effect, except for Missus. She is as grumpy as she was at the start of the journey. She seems to be the only one that saw through the baby's influence and recognize that the situation is fairly odd.

Based on her background as an expert in the field of mana studies, she got curious and did some measurement behind the backs of her comrades. One of the measurements done was the affinity between the baby and a container of mana that's placed nearby. If it's done to a regular human, the mana would not react at all and should not glow. But somehow through repeatable experiments, she founds out that this baby made the mana container glow. It seems like this baby might be her ticket to go back home.

As soon as she realized that, Missus began to create a contraption made out of junk and other unused equipment as an effort to contact the government in the mainland. She prayed to the god that she believes in and add a little bit of mana to that barely standing pieces of junk. It was a success, she's able to create a voice line with the central government.

Someone on the other end is picking up and it truly did give Missus a sense of relieve. She spends no time to explain her situation and also the "magic baby" that their group found far away from the known edge. This of course intrigues the governments of Milium into helping them out of their misery.

Not three days and two nights after that call occurs, an massive armored airbowl escorted by several small one is seen on the horizon. The group fast realized that they are being rescued, although they don't really know the reason why. But they don't really care about the "why", they're just relieved that this horrible experience is all behind them now.

Upon boarding the airbowl, the baby is safe cradled in the hands of Missus. She of course didn't keep this cute little miracle without a good reason. From the start, Missus already planned to use this baby as a subject for research which would imply more funding toward her work as a mana addict. Her evil grin is seen throughout the trip from the edge island until the mainland. By some time after the airbowl land, everyone have said their goodbyes and goes back to their homes, except for Missus. She is summoned by the Minister of Electricity and Mana for a questioning. This event transpired inside of a luxurious office near the capital.

Because of the corruption or rather, the malpractice of allocating funds, most money that's circulating within Milium is spent by the government to create huge and well maintained official building for the sake of image. One of that overpriced building is used by the Ministry of Electricity and Mana which includes several luxurious features such as hundreds of meeting rooms, toilets, large dining hall, dancing hall, swimming pools, private cinema, and secret bedrooms scattered throughout the building which is not known to the general public. The questioning happened inside one of this bedrooms, which the Minister himself just used a minute ago. That explains why there's several very lightly dressed women going outside of the room before Missus is going inside.

He is still tired and seen smoking on top of the bed wearing nothing but short and his official military-like jacket. The jacket has a name tag, loosely hanging on his left breast. Missus could spell out the name from the distance, it says "Great Minister Geil".

He starts with the standard questions, asking who Missus is and his role within the organization she is in. After that's answered with a stammering voice, Geil proceeded with the important question. He wants Missus to explain the baby that she's holding right now.

Geil

What is the baby's name?

Missus

Her name?

Her name is...

Geil

Have you not thought of a name suitable for her? A baby that you've found alone in the middle of nowhere, I've heard from the others.

Missus

Her name should be...

One.

Her name is One.

Geil

Subject number One huh?

Well whatever, we're going to use her in experiments anyway, let's not get too attached to it.

Good work, you may continue researching this baby, we will send you the promised amount of money.

Missus

T-Thank you Great Minister Geil.

I will no-

We will not disappoint you.

One, the lonely baby in the middle of nowhere.

One, the woman used for her affinity with mana.

One, survived on the greed and desire of a nation wanting power and superiority.

One, the only one that's innocent in this story.

One.