I was wondering why these people grabbed me from school and brought me here to the very place where my memories are mostly composed of the worst and crazy stuff I've had in my childhood. But, you see, it held more than that of my own sad story. It housed something more than what the world had ever known and somehow the world had forgotten since it's not common to look back at the dark past that humanity has suffered in the past life. People just don't do that. They tend to erase bad omens from their being which I remember is called Repression, a sort of PTSD symptom. That being said, it's still here. Right at this place. It held a past we should use to understand the present and plan the future but people failed to somehow utilize it.
I've traveled across 2 Zones to reach this place. It has been a smooth ride but somehow my gut is screaming from these guys' mysterious facial expressions gleaning to and fro the rearview mirror. I could not read the atmosphere very well and that made me quite uneasy. It feels like butterflies kept swirling inside me, I might throw up. But, when I looked at the scenery of the city I've been passing by, the butterflies are slowly sleeping.
Countless holograms of different kinds of stuff you can imagine floating above our heads and below our feet. It felt like the whole city is inside an IT amusement park. People walk in the streets nonchalantly like on any normal city day, talking, bickering, walking, and all those stuff. I looked around and was pretty amazed that I can feel my smile reaching my ears as the welcome arc of the city waved at me "Welcome to the Aurum City".
The car took a right turn from the highway and made a full stop in front of the entrance of a huge building spanning 40 km wide, 60 km long, and as high as the clouds can reach, erected at the center of Aurum, the city of the new origin. It's the icon of the very city, both its savior and protector. Its power surpasses no one.
ORION.
This building seemed to be the least of the places I want to find myself in, but here I am, stepping inside its hallway like a welcomed guest. I was wondering if they will hang a garland on my neck or welcome me with bouquets, not that I am expecting that. I look at one of the guys but he snubbed me, so I brushed the thought of being pampered.
We went straight to an elevator on the right side of the building, got inside, and these two guys stood in front of me like they don't want me to escape from that place. I kinda felt a chill running down my veins. But somehow at the back of my mind, I was feeling like a VIP with them guarding me, but at the front of my mind, I felt like a prisoner transferring from one cell to another. Thank goodness I have not worn our Orange PE T-shirt today.
"I can't get anywhere, you know..." I muttered but they didn't even bat an eye. Not that I can see their eyes directly because it was covered with their dark-tinted eyeglasses. Yeah, yeah, I'm contradicting myself, just think of it as a figure of speech. (smirks) I held the straps of my backpack tighter and managed a deep sigh. I looked down and saw my shoes filled with dirt from school. The floor of the elevator is a transparent glass I can see what's below it and it's kinda moving nearer and nearer to my feet as we go down the I don't know what floor of the basement this is.
A few minutes later, the doors opened, and the two men stepped out, leading me to follow them. We reached the 5th lower ground of the building where all I see is darkness until my eyes got used to being underground. I shivered at the blow of cold air from a big fan which I cannot reckon where it was placed. I've never been like this under the ground for quite some time now so I got an eerie feeling.
"Why are the lights here so damn dim?" I asked my head out and apparently, they replied to me with a stern look. Not again that I can see their eyes but I just kinda felt the glare. "Okay okay, I won't ask anything. Tsk" I tried to look around, but I didn't get anything interesting to see.
We walked away from the lift and reached a never-ending lobby filled with HEXACLE rooms (bcoz it's shaped like a hexagon but they are like cubicles so, hmm) separated by glass walls on both sides attached like beehives. The rooms were filled with huge monitors which run a massive number of codes and crypts in different colored fonts. Few people of around 3 or 4 are inside those rooms, facilitating whatever is happening inside those walls. They all wear worn-out faces and how should I put it? Huh! (deep sigh), anyway, they all looked like fishes out of the water for almost a month. Yeah, yeah, their eyes seemed so tired. I can see eyes immediately if that was bothering you. It was the first thing you see on a human face, right? Or, was it just me?
We kept on walking until we finally reached a well-lit area, an intersection that came from nowhere. It was the only eye-catching thing on this floor, for me. Why? It's not the intersection that amazes me here though. The intersection is not that surprising. It will just lead you to a choice of whether to go left or to go right. What caught my eye here is what is written on the wall of this intersection. It depicts the history this age has forgotten and was overlooked since the new era was formed.
Here lies the story of where we began the technological advancements from time immemorial up to the Times when robots, holograms, and AI have become pretty much common in our everyday lives. Devices such as cell phones are customized to whichever item you want them to be, cars that float with their tires, and houses that dance like what my teacher said before (oh, that was a joke).
Anyway, at this age, you can even learn or study while you sleep. Yes, yes, while you sleep. You see, students go to school and most of them sat in their seats, lean on their desks, and just sleep during classes. I mean, that's how the school is, right? Or was that just me again? So, the teachers innovated something for them to utilize this laziness (bcoz they've gone lazy in dealing with problem students). They are now using the Taurus, a headset made by ORION, in teaching while students sleep in their classes. It's part of the curriculum and the subject, so why not? I personally like this stuff. I mean, even though you're learning, you're sleeping, right?
The Taurus acts as a converter device. It converts audio messages and even text messages into an impulse and imprints them directly to the brain's sublevel neurons and you will remember what you've heard because it's already in your head. What a nice cheat, right? But you see, the brain also has its limitations and so the law of long-term memory still resides within. If you don't use those imprints, your brain will automatically delete that info and yeah, you will still be able to forget them. But it stays in a minimum of one month so if a test is coming, this thing is very handy.
Back to this wall, I just came to realize, that more than 2 centuries have passed since the earliest known computer, the ENIAC was shown to the world. It was still cumbersome at that time because it weighs 2 tons and only processed bytes of info. I wonder what info they send and receive with that metal. Not even a "Hi" can be sent, I guess.
Anyway, improvements like the different engines to cracking the Enigma, the emergence of Morse, Boolean, and Crypts, and the appearance of transition computers to WINDOWS, IOS, AND ANDROID, were all started here.
Huh... (deep sigh) 2 centuries' worth of technology was wiped out by the end of WW3.
Woah, stop stop! World War 3?! How did it start, you ask? Well, the world was drawn into hardships at that time. Amazon burning, Australia forest fire, Philippine earthquakes, typhoons, floods...
But the worst was when the superpowers became obsessed with their powers waged war against each other and fought fearlessly in the middle of a desert. That's not the end, they also caused a worldwide pandemic that killed millions. They also suffered from the backfire of this strategy so they wagered a cease-fire, and the war became a race to which country will first have the vaccine. When a party finally discovered it, they again waged war to claim it. It so happens that one sleeping country accidentally fired its nukes and wiped out half of the world. Yeah, you heard me right, NUKES! Are you feeling grateful that the other half was spared? Well, don't be. Apparently, days after the nukes, the sun gave a strong solar flare to that side and... Do I need to elaborate? (He shook his head)
But more importantly, humanity survived, though partly. It was, right here at this part. (He was pointing his finger at the script on the wall). The other half of the globe didn't suffer much more than the nuked part, but it turned the world back to its stone age, a world without technology. Why? Because the solar flare affected only those substances with metallic compounds and elements. They all rusted, and others dissipated in an instant. People with implanted metals inside them suffered. The flare passed thru any living substance through radiation and somehow changed them but those people who didn't withstand the flare died in an instant. Imagine how the planet Mars lost its atmosphere because the flare dissolved its protection; that thing happened on Earth as well. Luckily, we managed to survive.
That time, November 18, 2X20, the Earth went on reset.
The apocalypse predicted to happen in the year 2012 was nothing in comparison to what happened in the year 2X20. But people are resilient, and they prayed for a miracle that apparently happened after a month.
I guess prayers do well in these kinds of times.
A meteor fell to the earth, and scattered its parts across the globe, to where the nukes infected and cleared the radiation on the area. Also, It was so big that when it dissipates due to the Earth's disasters, the strong energy it produced (like a magnetic field) shielded the Earth from the sun's flare by deflecting it and that energy became the Earth's new energy source.
Humanity lost its hope for advancements and innovation. They despaired. They only thought of survival and not the revival of the old world. They had a hard time getting back to their feet. They didn't make use of the knowledge they have since they are too lazy to find the resources. Governments fell and the world burst into chaos. The previous superpowers were rendered useless in their crisis. The meteor saved them, but they still don't want to move on.
Until one man, dressed in bravery and faith, ventured to the barren land of the half hemisphere for a greener pasture to claim the meteor for himself and use its advantages. He stood firm to his beliefs and ideals of the future to claim back what they have lost. He and his family stood out from those trials and used their knowledge to rebuild themselves again. The world laughed at them, degraded them, and thwarted them from dreaming and moving towards development but they never wavered. They reached the meteor and He called it The Turbulent Trail, Haena. He and his family studied it and eventually, they were able to use it to their advantage.
The world heard of his success, and they went to him to take over his possessions. Even in times of crisis people haven't changed, they still want to Plunder. Haha (sighed)
Groups of mercenaries came after the man's life, but he managed to get them to his side. At least that old man is a peace-loving freak. One time, when the mercenaries took over his place, they used the technology he built but they couldn't reproduce what he can do. In the end, they gave him back the helm and they worked for him. The problem was resolved peacefully, and he eventually transformed those men into science-loving individuals.
That man's name was Ginsei Hiroki, 72 years old by the time he claimed the meteor and built his house right above it. He was a Nasa scientist before everything fell into ruin. He studied mostly foreign space objects and their characteristics when he mustered the courage to go to the meteor, he jumped to his delight.
Well, because of that, he was the first to discover the element that made the meteor help the Earth, he named it Haentium. It was the 119th element in the periodic table after the Oganeson, not that it was updated after the Great Fall. I kinda felt bad for Mr. Mendeleev. It was a remnant of H, He, C, and Li when they have gone through nuclear fusion in the vast universe while the meteor traveled to Earth from the neighboring galaxy. In other words, it was a solidified gaseous liquid with an unknown metalloid from a nuclear reaction that dissipates in the atmosphere to block the solar flare and since it has H, it can support life.
Huh, I don't really like science explanations like this. My head spins like the milky way.
Anyway, some of those mercenaries claimed a part of the meteor that fell on other places when it was split while entering the earth and made use of it with the knowledge they got from the old man. Those men he taught, educated others and so the world started to move again as new companies from a few individuals who never gave up sprang from the face of despair. With that, they built the NEW EARTH.
People are slowly adapting to the new normal. They changed their ways and abided by the rules of the old man. He became the new face of the barren earth which he transformed into a livable place. People from the other side of the earth slowly came to his domain. The people heralded him as a hero. And when he died at the age of 98, his son continued his legacy and slowly advanced his father's ideals to a higher notch. During his leadership, sovereignty started to flourish, rules were slowly rebuilt, and the names and leaders of the new countries were recognized.
Ginsei Saesen, 65, whose name become known across the globe as the man of the new era. His constitution and revisions of everything became the basis of how the rest of the world came to be. They only made some minor adjustments. All the laws made were patterned after Saesen's constitutional decree. He was also the man who made sure that the history of the Old Earth will remain known to this time of the world. He believed that the roots are important to build a better stem and yield more fruits.
"Too bad he died at the age of 75 because of pneumonia," I muttered in the lowest voice and the two men didn't notice I was talking to myself. "Well, you can say that the world is very busy improving itself but when a pandemic strikes, or even a common disease like cold or pneumonia, we still don't have the proper cards to play. Tsk"
His Daughter inherited the company after that and continued what her forefathers have started.
70 years, 3 generations of Ginsei's have passed and another strong-willed man took the realm and skyrocketed the technological platform to a whole new different level. He ventured what his forefathers didn't see in their study on the meteor and so he used it to make improvements to their current company. He made more use of the massive amount of Haentium they have in their company and creating new stuff. That knowledge is his basis for building the New Goldstar Company, the primordial of Internet communications and worldwide innovations, the ORION.
Well, I know this current part because I've personally seen the guy and he's so awesome. He's a well-known businessman and a researcher, not to mention he's young and handsome, that is why many ladies out there are drawn to him, Tsk. He's brilliant, but he can't do much programming that's why he asks people to be his arms and legs. He's a goody-two-shoes boss but with somehow a bad temper and a doting...
"We're already on our way, Sir... hai,...hai... Understood." One of the escorts talked to someone on the next line, holding his communicator. He eyed his mate, and then the two of them eyed me, not that I can clearly see their eyes, but they were facing me so why not.
But this story is not about that awesome guy. It's a story of my own awesomeness and how I became this awesome for some reason.
We took the right turn, and they lead me to yet another long hallway. I wish I brought another sandwich.