Wherever I Go, That's My Future

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was February 21st.

Noer lay on the hospital bed, clutching a letter in his hand.

However, the smile was gone from his face now, his eyes vacant and unfocused.

Several doctors in white coats bustled around him, tending to his broken body.

Due to his condition, Noer couldn't be given sedatives or anesthesia.

Yet, even under these circumstances, the pain from his fractured body did not stir any emotion within him.

If one looked closely, they would notice a faint shimmer of tears in his confused eyes, and he himself wondered why they were there.

Was it sadness? Perhaps, but it wasn't that intense.

Or was it anger? Pain? Or confusion and helplessness?

"Beep beep~"

"Shhh~"

As the doctors were busy attending to Noer's broken body, two beeps sounded from the hospital room door.

The door opened, and Cruze, wearing an eyepatch and a Z.A.F.T. uniform, walked in.

"What happened?"

Cruze paused slightly, taking in the scene before him.

No one answered; the doctors were all occupied with Noer's treatment, while researchers monitored his data nearby.

Noer himself lay there with a distant look in his eyes.

Cruze opened his mouth to speak, but his peripheral vision caught sight of the letter Noer was clutching, and he seemed to have an idea of what was going on.

"We just received intel that the Earth Alliance's first, second, and third fleets are advancing towards the lunar bridgehead."

As he spoke, Cruze slowly walked up to Noer and picked up the envelope from the table.

Sender: Anna Joy

Mailing Address: July Colony, Junius 7.

Recipient: My dearest brother, Noel Cassia.

In addition, there were letters from Lenoya Sala and Asya Ito.

However, apart from the names, their mailing addresses were all the same: Junius 7.

"Earth... Alliance?"

Noer slowly turned his head upon hearing this, unsure of how to feel about everything.

The Earth Alliance, he himself was once a part of Earth.

Initially, he had held great hope and affection for Earth. He truly wanted to see Earth, even if it wasn't his homeland, it was still Earth, the star of humanity.

But now...

Junius 7 was the colony where the orphanage was located. While he slept, everything had been decided.

His place of belonging had once again vanished forever.

Noer didn't know how the other transmigrators felt after their journeys, but deep down, he had always harbored a sense of loneliness and confusion.

Especially when he first arrived. He lay alone in a hospital bed, looking out at the strange world outside his window.

That feeling of loneliness was exceptionally strong, so suffocating, so confusing that he didn't know what to do.

Because you knew you could never go back.

Your friends, family, brothers—everything was no longer connected to you.

Although he forced himself to escape these two feelings every day, telling himself to accept his fate, his rationality constantly reminded him that he wasn't from this world.

Even though his physical structure was the same, his heart, his soul, his memories were still out of sync with this world.

Therefore, from beginning to end, he had no strong sense of belonging to Earth or PLANT.

Even Earth was only because he had once belonged to it, and his memories retained a lingering love and attachment to it.

This feeling persisted until he returned to the orphanage.

While he was filled with anxiety, the people at the orphanage accepted him. Asya gave him sincere, friend-like affection, filling the void in his heart.

He learned that he had friends here too, that he could integrate into this place.

He could find a sense of belonging again, a place to anchor his soul.

Anna was like a mischievous younger sister. Although she was annoying and he often felt like spanking her, seeing Anna's playful antics truly made Noer happy. It was a satisfaction that filled the emptiness within him.

Sister Aya, a girl not even twenty years old, dressed in an old-fashioned manner every day to appear more mature and reliable, mimicking the styles on television and putting on makeup with pretense.

Although it often looked awkward, her burning passion and the way her eyes constantly watched everyone were something Noer would never forget.

It was the care for her loved ones--

Sikkel...

Peter...

Every companion in the orphanage was so real, sincere, and genuine, allowing Noer, who was in a strange world, to find a sense of belonging in his heart.

Although every night when it was quiet, he would gaze at the starry sky and savor the suffocating loneliness, as time passed, that sense of loneliness gradually disappeared.

And it was precisely because of the existence of Asya and the others that Noer could taste the flavor of loneliness, so he cherished everything in the orphanage.

So even though he could roughly guess the name of the PLANT's security satellite and could leave on his own, he still chose not to leave. Instead, he chose to stay in the orphanage and hypnotize himself.

'A foreign land cannot accommodate the soul, and the homeland cannot accommodate the body.'

But for Noer, he was never a person who chose the body; he always chose the soul.

In fact, he wasn't afraid of death at all. Even though he talked about how to survive every day, and even knew the best survival route, he still chose to stay in the orphanage to accompany them.

Death is not scary. When you don't know the meaning of life, and can't find belonging and attachment in your heart, your breath loses its meaning.

As we say, only when you lose something do you know how lucky you were to have it.

However, losing twice in a row plunged Noer into deep confusion.

"They will reach the Moon tomorrow." Cruze put down the letter and looked at Noer.

"Is that so."

Noer slowly withdrew his gaze, staring blankly at the ceiling above.

"Are you planning to continue being depressed like this?" Cruze continued to ask, very satisfied with Noer's expression and demeanor.

"Depressed?" Noer's expression was as calm as stagnant water.

"Are you unable to find direction for your future?"

Looking at Noer's expression, Cruze couldn't help but think of his past self.

This was too similar, almost exactly like his past self.

"Future... Heh."

Noer sneered and looked at Cruze. "You, who wants to destroy the world, are talking to me about the future?"

"I was like you once. I couldn't find the meaning of life, didn't know where to go, and didn't know where to return."

Cruze said as he slowly walked to the window, looking at the bustling scene outside, and clenched his fist tightly, saying, "But that doesn't stop me from moving forward. Since I don't know where to go, I'll just walk randomly. Since I don't know where to return, I'll create my own home."

"And then? What do you want to tell me? What do you want to express?"

Noer retorted. Such meaningless words did indeed touch a chord in Noer's heart.

"Do you want to know your future? Then stand up and walk out. Wherever you go, that will be your future." Cruze turned to look at Noer.

"Wherever I go, that will be my future?" Hearing this, Noer slowly clenched the letter in his hand. Wherever I go, that will be my future, but where can I go?

"I'm going to the Lunar Sphere next to participate in the defense battle, to fight for myself, to fight for my future!"

As Cruze spoke, under Noer's gaze, he walked to the hospital room door, tilted his head to look at Noer, and said, "If you don't know where your future is, don't know where you should go, don't know your own belonging, then stand up and move forward. At least it's easier to find answers than lying here."

As the door slowly closed, Cruze's figure disappeared from the hospital room.

"Stand up and move forward..."