Out of This World #5

In "The Test of Character," Jo, a quiet bookkeeper with two decades of routine behind him, is summoned by his boss Dunston to stay late and find a missing figure in an account. When a mysterious Vision appears that night, it offers him the power to control men—only to test whether he’ll use it for good. As Horace’s choices spiral from small corrections to global dominion, the line between dream and reality blurs, leaving him suspended between ambition and awakening.

In "The King of Planetoid X," curiosity sweeps the galaxy as distant civilizations marvel at how a single ruler maintains peace across his world—without conflict, without resistance. The truth, revealed in quiet, unsettling detail, is that the king's subjects are not people at all, but obedient robots, their harmony a carefully engineered silence.

In "Come! See the Flying Saucer!", two con artists set up a roadside carnival act with a fake flying saucer and a cheesy alien costume, hoping to swindle gullible crowds—unaware that real extraterrestrials are watching from the shadows, drawn to the very spectacle they’re trying to fake.

In "The Antartic Monster," a colossal alien spacecraft—shaped like a towering robot—descends upon Antarctica, terrifying a team of polar explorers who believe they've encountered a prehistoric beast. As the Neptunian invaders pursue the scientists across the ice, the massive machine collapses through thinning sea ice, vanishing into the freezing depths of the Weddell Sea.

In "The Rain Maker," an aging inventor has perfected a machine capable of summoning rain—life-giving in a parched land—but his creation draws the greed of a ruthless businessman and his loyal aide. When they attempt to seize the device by force, the old man activates a hidden paralysis machine, freezing them in their tracks.

In "The Garden of Time," a weary man stumbles into an ancient garden and finds himself swept back to the medieval era, where he meets a woman whose presence stirs something long dormant. When he returns to the present, he discovers a new kind of longing—not for the past, but for the woman’s descendant, whose quiet presence echoes a love that spans centuries.