Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

'I wonder if they are going to notice,' I thought while lowering my head in a late apology.

There was a reason why I didn't explain how I wanted to get off the mountain for a reason. A reason likely to be extremely stupid and ultimately wrong…

But given how neither Fay nor Claudy managed to see what I planned in advance…

The chances of their psyche allowing this place to alter the results of my stress test were minimal.

Sure, I myself knew the reason behind this display of what others would call recklessness while Maglev pilots would call an efficient use of the technology. But, if one's psyche really could affect reality, then there was no reason for me to turn one man knowing the reason for such a rapid descent into a group of three people in the know.

"You did all of that…" Fay spoke slowly, her forehead marked with a long wrinkle.

"For a good reason," I cut her off, staring right into her deep, blue eyes.

Our eyes meet and locked in mutual gaze. A short moment later, Fay brought her face down and took a shallow breath before restarting her mental state and looking back up.

"Well, we got back quickly, if anything," Fay finally admitted, trying her best to act as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Are you for…" Claudy spoke out, only to end up undercutting himself by clearing his throat and looking away. "This was quite the ride, I admit."

Composing himself, Claudy released the lock on his straps and stood out from his chair before starting to pace around the maglev's cabin.

"I'm sorry guys, but it will be better if I explain it later. And for now, not to waste any time," I spoke out only to look right back to Fay. "Are you ready?"

Fay looked over at my face before following the direction of my eyes, to the stick she could grab with her right hand at her leisure.

"I was ready to try on that chasm, so what's there to fear in learning how to use it instead?"

Continue your story on empire

With a smile full of renewed confidence flashing on her face, Fay looked down and reached for the stick before twirling her fingers around the shaft. She rubbed her hand around to find the best possible grip before finally looking up at me to signal she was ready.

After the portion of fearsome shock from before, the blue of her eyes now flashed with curiosity and anticipation as opposed to those unpleasant emotions.

'Why is she making it feel like…' I heaved an exasperated sigh and glanced over to Claudy.

"You might want to strap back in," I suggested before waiting for the man to return to his seat and silently locked the safety belts over his chest.

"Now then," I turned my head back to Fay while raising my left hand up and slightly in front of her. "Moving the stick left and right controls the roll. Front and back controls pitch while twisting the thicker part at the stick's top allows you to alter our yaw."

For each of the possibly unfamiliar words, I twisted and turned my hand at its wrist, first rolling it to the sides, then pointing it up and down and finally turning the direction it would face.

In planes of the old, one would control the aircraft by turning the plane's fins to affect either of those three. In other words, they lacked the simplistic steering scheme developed for land vehicles.

And yet, with my main stick, I could freely control the direction of the vector that pushed our vehicle, regardless of the direction, twist, or turn of the craft.

In other words, the two systems of control were completely independent and had to work in perfect harmony to bring out the hovercraft's full potential. The separation of those two forces allowed the hovercraft to move freely in space, without the need for constant momentum necessary to generate the forces that carried the planes of old to the skies.

However, due to two separate frames of perspective of one's motion, a single brain wasn't enough to process all the necessary information to effectively maneuver the craft.

Sure, my ability to process information was on an ungodly level by now… But it only allowed me to process the data faster. And in this particular scenario, there were too many things that I had to pay attention to in tandem for me to catch them all.

If my intelligence referred to a processing power while my wisdom reflected a sort of RAM memory, then what my mental setup lacked would be multiple cores within its processor.

The main problem that came with this system could easily be solved and turned obsolete by giving the pilots enough hours with the sticks in their hands to learn how to integrate and synchronize with their partners.

In the current case, though, I could only hope my bond with Fay would help us connect our battle sense to bridge the gap of several years of training less than desirable for us to take this damn expensive vehicle for a spin.

'I better not mention the wrist holder,' shrugging all my thoughts off, I glanced over at a small protrusion near the stick's base.

By pressing it, one could bring out a few inches long mechanism with a sort of cushioned holder for one's forearm.

My trainer called it the pussy for pussies, as it only served to secure one's grip over the spinning part of the control stick.

As a round, static cushion with a narrow entrance that tightened upon the insertion of one's arm, the first part of its popular name came to be. As for the second part…

To ride on a maglev was an honor like no other back in the glory days of the military.

Just like cutting through the skies in the newest model of the nation's fighter in the past, to serve on the maglev meant one reached the peak of their practical military career.

And those who achieved that status prided themselves in their ability to maintain cold blood and steady arm even if it was to be torn off in the process.

This, an important point that only served to reinforce the tradition of ignoring the arm holder, often happened to those who turned their arm static, holding it in place even if the rest of their body would end up thrown out of their seat by an explosion, crash or other accident.

'Let's not risk this so-called support breaking her arm if we are just training,' I thought before turning my head and giving Fay an encouraging smile.

"How about you give it a first try while we are still static?"Nôv(el)B\\jnn