The teleportation gate was created using the One Society's secret technology. Its construction and operation are considered top-secret in the United States.
Furthermore, the teleportation gate is equipped with a special security system. If anyone attempts to hack the system or disassemble it without permission, the gate will instantly vanish into another dimension.
For this reason, despite numerous individuals and national organizations attempting to create similar teleportation gates, none have succeeded.
Currently, connectivity to The OneNess remains exclusively controlled by The One Society, making it a globally powerful organization comparable to the United Nations.
However, while The One Society monopolizes the technology used to create the teleportation gates, they don't monopolize the gates themselves.
They are manufactured and sold like any other commodity. Anyone with sufficient funds can own one. Naturally, their price is far from affordable for the average person.
For example, the medium-sized teleportation gate installed at The One Society in Thailand, used to transport only a few thousand people into The One Nest daily, costs a staggering 300 billion baht, equivalent to one-tenth of the country's annual budget.
Despite the price of the teleportation gate... No matter how incredibly expensive it is, the benefits derived from The Oneness are many times greater.
However, this also depends on the player's skill. If a player is of low quality, the resources they can extract from The Oneness are limited. Conversely, if a player is of high level, the resources they can extract become exponentially more valuable.
After giving money to his mother and sibling, Nawa is now extremely limited. Frankly, after entering The Oneness, Nawa has almost no money left.
This is a gamble; if he can't reap the expected benefits from The Oneness, he'll likely have to work as a laborer for the rest of his life to pay off the interest on the loan from PlayforClash.
With the current public transportation system, travel time on the roads is much shorter than five years ago. Even in the provinces, it's possible to reach The Oneness association in less than half an hour.
All of this is thanks to The Oneness.
The immense power from the energy crystals, combined with many other things obtained from The Oneness—items, magical runes, artifacts—when combined with technology on Earth, has led to a massive technological leap.
Even today, Nawa can't help but wonder... Is this really the world he left behind five years ago?
No matter how advanced technology becomes, the human world still requires money. Wanting to save his meager remaining funds, Nawa decided to rely on his own two feet instead of public transport.
It took him almost two hours of running and walking to reach the The One Association of Thailand.
If Nawa were wearing ordinary clothes, his entire body would be drenched in sweat and emitting an unpleasant odor.
But now, Nawa was wearing the outfit that came with his player equipment. Besides being durable and comfortable, it also absorbed sweat and eliminated body odor effectively. Therefore, Nawa didn't feel sticky or smell bad at all.
Actually, the outfit given by The One Association with player equipment wasn't anything special. It was just ordinary clothing. Even laborers wouldn't wear it because of its extremely low defensive power and lack of special effects.
But for Nawa now, it was the only outfit he could wear into The One's Nest. Clothing from his world would have significantly reduced durability inside The One's Nest; it would tear more easily than paper.
And it's not just fabric; even iron from this world, once brought into The Oneness, is no different from dry twigs. This is one of the main reasons why modern weapons and technologies are unusable in The Oneness.
As expected, the moment Nawa arrived at The Oneness, he was met with many stares. More than half of them showed sympathy for the fate Nawa was facing, as the clothes he wore were no different from walking naked in a dense jungle. A considerable number also looked at Nawa with contempt.
Nawa ignored those stares and walked towards the location of the teleportation gate. It was a massive dome located behind the building where Nawa had tested as a player yesterday. Inside, Nawa saw players bustling about.
Many were wearing medieval knight-like armor, some in ancient Thai costumes, and even some dressed as martial arts heroes from Chinese martial arts films. The atmosphere was similar to the gathering points in old-school online games.
For Thailand, with only around 100,000 players, at least 10,000 players enter and leave The Oneness every day, and more than 80% of them use the teleportation gate. And almost all of those who use this service are low-ranked players. It's rare to see high-ranked players here.
This is because most players at that level already belong to a guild, and of course, it's one of the three biggest guilds in the country.
Those guilds have small teleportation gates for their high-ranking members to use, because the entry and exit points of The One's Nest for high-ranking players are considered guild secrets. If they were leaked, it could have serious consequences.
Nawa noticed that some players were still carrying large amounts of backpacks and luggage, even though they had dimensional storage.
But Nawa didn't bother to ask anyone; it wasn't his business and didn't seem important.
Nawa looked past them to a large structure in the center of the plaza. It resembled a giant swing set in Bang Khun Phrom, or perhaps a traditional Japanese temple gate.
However, its color seemed as if it were made of real gold, not painted wood. The golden gate towered over 50 meters high.
In the center was a faint, oval-shaped white energy barrier that emitted light whenever someone passed through. Nawa immediately guessed it was a teleportation gate that would take him to The Oneness, a land filled with monsters and various dangers.
Unfortunately, from where Nawa was now, he couldn't see behind the gate because a metal wall over 30 meters high divided the plaza in half, with the teleportation gate as the central point.
Before going to the teleportation gate, Nawa stopped at the energy crystal vendor. He used all his money to buy 30 copper-colored energy crystals. Each crystal was the size of… An adult's thumb-sized finger.
In The Oneness, people don't use money, but exchange it with energy crystals. There are three types of energy crystals: low-level (copper-colored), medium-level (silver-colored), and high-level (gold-colored).
One copper-colored energy crystal is worth approximately 100 baht, a silver-colored one worth 10,000 baht, and a gold-colored one worth approximately 1 million baht.
Sometimes these energy crystals are called "coins," with 100 copper coins equaling 1 silver coin, and 100 silver coins equaling 1 gold coin.
"Hmph…" Nava sighed deeply as he placed all the energy crystals into his dimensional storage. This was all the capital Nava would carry with him to live in The Oneness.
After taking another deep breath, Nava stepped through the teleportation portal. Immediately upon passing through the white energy barrier, Nava saw nothing but white light. Soon, a system alert sounded in Nawa's head, and a message window appeared.
"Ding!"
(Your rank is E.)
(The teleportation gate service costs 10 copper coins.)
(Do you wish to pay the service fee?)
(No) (OK)
Nawa thought to himself, "(OK)." Ten copper crystals from his dimensional inventory appeared from nowhere before being absorbed into a white light.
(Because you have the title "Talented Teleporter," the system will grant you the privilege of choosing to teleport to various save points within the Yotandia Kingdom. This will cost 50 silver coins.)
(Do you wish to use this privilege of your title?)
(No) (OK)
Nawa read the message with mixed feelings, unsure whether to be happy or sad. From what Nawa knew, normally when a player teleports into The Oneness, they are sent to the last coordinates they logged out from.
However, sometimes the point you logged out of isn't the place you should return to. In The Void, danger can strike at any moment. Today it might be a peaceful grassy hill, but tomorrow it could be the heart of a monster horde.
The Void Guild has therefore installed certain devices in highly secure locations. Around these devices, a force field is created, making them difficult for monsters to see, thus greatly enhancing player safety when teleporting into The Void.
Players call these locations "save points."
In the Kingdom of Jotandia, these save points are scattered throughout the kingdom. Players Rank B and above have the privilege of being able to teleport to one of these save points instead of returning to their logged-out point.
Of course, it's not free. The cost depends on the player's rank and the distance of the save point from their logged-out location. The higher the player rank and the further the teleportation distance, the higher the cost.
For beginners, choosing a good save point can make the hunting journey much easier. Unfortunately... Nawa didn't have enough money to use the service (50 silver coins is equivalent to almost 500,000 baht), so he didn't waste time thinking about it.
(Player refuses to use the privilege of the "Talented" title. The system will teleport the player to a random save point in the Yotandia Kingdom.)
Soon, the message window faded, leaving only a white light that grew brighter than before.
Nawa felt the same way as when he entered the Himmapan Forest 5 years ago. Soon, the white light began to disappear, before the scenery of The Oneness appeared before Nawa's eyes.