Upon opening the door, instead of my closet, we saw a narrow corridor bathed in warm blue light.
Stepping through the gateway, I didn’t bother looking back and instead sent another mental transmission to Brenden.
’Don’t just stand there like a fool; this isn’t your first time seeing a Particle Facility; hurry up, we can’t allow Deeana to wake up and see us entering Gnarnia.’ Rolling my eyes as I caught Brenden’s body language in my perception, I walked forward into the corridor and spun around right as he closed the door.
"You named it Gnarnia…." He said while still trying to get his head straight.
"I mean, why not? It’s a hidden world housed within a closet, close enough, right?"
"Uh…I guess, so how big is this place? Or I suppose I should ask how many Facilities you have linked up to." With a hurried step, Brenden caught up to me, and the two of us walked down the narrow corridor. Then, we came upon a large automatic and metal double door.
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"Ah, little brother, how lowly do you think of me…if I was going through all the fanfare of introducing you to the facility, why would I ever allow it to be lackluster…" Pausing my speech, I went through another batch of recognitions, and with a pressurized hiss, the double doors opened, revealing what could only be described as a command bridge on a large spaceship-like in S**r Trek.
"Holy shit…you got your hands on more than one, how, what, when, HUH!" Beside me, Brenden babbled in shock; never in his wildest dreams did he think I’d have gotten my hands on a Particle Facility, let alone upgrade it so quickly.
It was one thing only to have a command center, as that in itself was considered a special Particle Facility. Still, when we entered the facility, which was the size of a gymnasium, Brenden’s brain went haywire because there were multiple doors, all of which were labeled and could be easily recognized as other Particle Facilities that had been linked to the Command center.
"Well…it all started with that guy over there," tapping my brother on the shoulder, I directed his attention to the door similar to the one we had entered with a golden placard hanging above it titled "Training Room."
"The training room was my quest reward; meanwhile, after completing The 5th Event Subquest, I earned two more Particle Facilities, The Workshop being the first and the MedLab being the other; it was only when I linked all three that I got access to a Command Center; thus, four Particle Facilities all linked together."
"Wait, Woah, hold on, what the hell are you talking about? I thought you had to start with a Command Center even to unlock a linking function…" Tripping over his feet, half because he wasn’t used to his body and the other half surprised by my statement, Brenden grabbed the edge of a ground-mounted command post to steady himself.
"Usually, that would be the case; however, since the Training Room was the first Facility I got my hands on, I set it up so that I could get some work done thanks to the ambient particles floating around."
"However, when I stepped into the basic training room for the first time, I got a prompt asking if I’d like to link up all my Facilities and that a Command Center would be generated if I did…so that’s exactly what I went with." With a shrug, I smirked at Brenden because I knew what he was thinking.
"I…could have saved so much cash had I tried it that way…but I was more worried about getting Vesaragon set up with a command center. I neglected to do anything other than the standard method…that, and I only ever had, at the maximum, one other facility ticket on hand." With a rueful expression, Brenden thought back to the millions of Ark-Coins he had spent on his Command Center and felt like crying.
"I suppose it takes more than 2 to tango, but then again, I don’t expect many people were walking around with three Facility tickets in the Origin Timeline. Hell, I wouldn’t have either had I not received them as rewards and waited to exchange them."
"Regardless, I got extremely lucky with my pulls. The MedLab is good in its own right since there are facilities to make potions as well as a healing Tank, but it’s the Workshop that got me all excited." Walking over to the center console, I tapped a few buttons and brought up a holographic monitor with 20 different boxes, each one linked to a camera somewhere in the house outside of the Command Center.
"Paranoid as ever…is there really a need for 20 cameras? Wouldn’t like 4 or 5 suffice?" Walking up behind me, Brenden shook his head while looking at our house from every angle.
"You even set up a couple in the trees outside…"
"Well, duh, I wanted zero blind spots, and that’s exactly what I got; anywho, place your hand on that panel over there so I can get your scans and grant you access to our Base."
"Our Base?" Placing his hand where I had directed, Brenden asked while the console recorded his palm and fingerprints into the access database.
"I said what I said; Gnarnia isn’t just for my use, it’s for our family. Hopefully, I can get a few more upgrades done soon so that I can unlock a new random facility. As it stands, they are all Alpha-Grade, thus the abundant Alpha Particles floating in the air."
"The goal is to Upgrade them to Beta-Grade; that way, we will have a safe environment to break through to the Beta-Rank when the time comes…." Letting my words trail off, I noticed Brenden staring at a particular camera.
"Dad…" he said with clear emotion in his voice.
"Looks a lot younger, doesn’t he? I have to say, he was pretty damn skinny when he was younger, a far cry from that beer belly he got in his later years." Wearing a knowing smile, I thought back to how horrendous my father’s diet was before the Descent of Arkadia.
"What do you expect? All the old man ate was Tasty Cakes and Icecream, haha,"
"Yep, don’t worry, little brother, things will be different this time around; I’ve already got a workout routine in store for him, and I’ve been slipping him supplements from Arkadia; when the descent happens, he will already be adapted to Alpha Particles and ready to hit the ground running."