Chapter 939

Anton had long since decided that he would let his batchmates watch James Cameron’s Avatar films, starting with the first movie in the franchise.

He wanted his batchmates to experience the excitement of reaching an alien world—something breathtakingly beautiful yet unimaginably dangerous.

Anton imagined that the scenes depicting the places where the Na’vi lived would overwhelm his batchmates. He remembered how he had felt when he first beheld the nighttime scenes in the jungles of Pandora. He was already somewhat jaded when it came to magnificent movie scenes filled with CGI, but he too felt a little overwhelmed when he first saw those scenes. He was confident that the beauty of Pandora would be enough to get them hooked on films.

He wanted the other novice travelers to understand why the movies he had grown up watching had inspired him to become a multidimensional traveler. He hoped the movies would inspire them as well.

He wanted them to develop a sense of camaraderie based on their shared desire to become travelers, and Anton thought movies were a great tool for inspiring that kind of connection.

Anton was surprised when Maura and the others brought him somewhere else instead of the room they had previously used for their gatherings.

He realized that his batchmates had probably chosen a venue that could accommodate far more people. That meant not only his batchmates would be attending. There were probably many others as well.

They brought him to the third floor and entered an enormous meeting room.

“How much did you pay to rent this place?!” Anton asked.

“Not that much. Everyone who wanted to attend the movie viewing contributed to the funds we needed to rent the place, purchase the equipment we would use, and provide the food over there,” Maura said, pointing toward a large buffet table.

Anton had already told Maura that the movie would run for approximately two hours and forty-two minutes. His batchmates had announced the runtime to everyone and told them to prepare themselves beforehand so they wouldn’t have to interrupt the movie.

Apparently, they had decided there would be no breaks in the middle of the film.

They would spend an hour eating and talking before the movie started.

“Why did you choose to eat before the movie?” Anton asked.

“We thought it would be better to watch it with our bellies full. It would be more comfortable that way. We also expected everyone to prepare themselves beforehand so they wouldn’t have to take bathroom breaks in the middle of the movie,” Maura replied.

After that, Anton joined those getting food from the buffet table.

He saw his Initiate Tutor, Lemuel, together with several other people. Based on the conversation he overheard, they were also Initiate Travelers.

That meant Maura’s original intention of allowing only novice travelers, aside from a few higher-ranking tutors, to watch the movie had failed.

Based on what Anton heard, more than half of those attending were Initiate and Apprentice Travelers. There were even a few Journeyman Travelers and several Adept Travelers among them.

Anton noticed that some of his batchmates were a little nervous about being around higher-ranking travelers, but Anton was accustomed to such situations.

He had already experienced watching movies with high-ranking individuals. He had even watched them alongside members of the forest elven monarchy.

When the time came to watch the movie, everyone took their seats and prepared themselves.

Anton knew that some of the people there were skeptical about how interesting this new form of entertainment could be, but as travelers, they weren’t about to let something that came from another world pass them by without experiencing it.

Anton didn’t waste any time and prepared his Globe of Browser Sharing spell.

He tested a video clip that ran for a few seconds to ensure that the video and audio quality met his standards. Once everything was ready, he started the movie.

At first, Anton intended to leave so he could continue his studies and meditation. However, because more than half of the audience consisted of higher-ranking travelers, he became interested in seeing how they would react to the movie.

Anton saw that even the first few minutes intrigued them.

Most of them couldn’t understand why the soldier protagonist remained crippled. When they realized that the movie was set in a world where magic didn’t exist, the story became even more interesting to them.

They still wondered why the soldier remained crippled despite the world having achieved such an advanced level of technology. Surely, they thought, such a disability should have been easy to resolve.

After a while, they understood that the cost of repairing his disability was prohibitively expensive, but Anton could tell that his fellow travelers found that logic difficult to accept.

They couldn’t understand why a government would allow soldiers who had served it to go without proper healthcare.

Anton laughed when he thought about the state of healthcare in some countries on Earth. Even the nation considered the most powerful and wealthiest in the world suffered from such an anomaly.

Soon, the audience stopped talking among themselves and focused entirely on the movie.

As expected, Anton’s fellow travelers were awestruck by the beauty of Pandora.

The jungle, the Hallelujah Mountains, the animals, and the ocean—all of them were so beautiful that, just like Anton, they had probably begun imagining themselves discovering such places during their own journeys to other worlds and dimensions.

When the scenes arrived that would make any viewer’s blood boil, such as the destruction of the Hallelujah Mountains and the fall of the Hometree, his fellow travelers reacted as though they were part of the film. They sided with the protagonist and the Na’vi against the invaders.

That made Anton smile.

He had thought that, unlike the elves, they would remain calmer because travelers were accustomed to witnessing such things in different worlds.

Even those who were considered experienced travelers among them reacted the same way.

Their eyes filled with tears of righteous indignation, and Anton hoped none of them would react like the elf girl who had once cast a spell and destroyed the screen used to show one of his movies.

When the movie ended, the silence that descended over the hall was almost absolute.

Then, after a few seconds, applause erupted.

It was so loud and lasted so long that Anton was tempted to cover his ears.

Anton laughed when he saw many of the viewers rush toward the bathrooms to relieve themselves.

Even though they had been warned to prepare beforehand because there would be no breaks during the movie, some had disregarded the warning.

His batchmates gathered around Anton and bombarded him with questions about the movie.

He had to firmly reiterate several times that Pandora wasn’t real and that the events depicted in the movie hadn’t actually happened.

Anton repeatedly explained that the world where the film had been created had not reached such an advanced level of technological development.

Based on some of their reactions, Anton knew that many of them didn’t believe him.

Still, Anton believed that he had accomplished his goal of inspiring his batchmates.

When he told them that the movie they had just watched was the first in the franchise, they shouted with excitement, drawing the attention of most of the other people in the venue.

Once they learned that there were three more Avatar films, everyone became extremely excited, and plans for the next movie viewing were immediately made.

It would be held the following week.

When someone suggested that they hold it sooner, Anton firmly told everyone that they were all busy studying and that it would be best to wait a week.

Since they had no choice in the matter, they reluctantly agreed.

Anton didn’t plan to watch the next movie with them. He would simply hand a Tiny Globe of Browser Sharing to Maura when the scheduled date arrived.