After their wounds were treated, the three decided to get away from the school and take a breather.
"Where should we go?" Dave said throwing his arms in the air for a stretch. They walked towards the gate all feeling gloomy but he chose to cheer them up.
"Dunno." Cassandra looked at the exploded building. "Anywhere away from here. I just--," her hands are shaking.
Markus grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes.
"What if another building explodes?!" She said in a whisper, looking on her feet.
"That won't happen again." Markus said and smiled at her. When he felt that she had calmed down, he checked his phone for possible updates. "The police is around the area and they've already locked down the perimeter. We should be safe for now."
"You heard that?" Dave intentionally bumped on Cassandra's shoulder. "So, stop worrying, Cass." he looked around carefreely, "Anyways, where should we go?"
The fog slowly lifting from their faces.
"Let's just go that same place," Markus suggested. The two exchanged looks and agreed to go to their fave café at the back entrance of the Sea Mall.
They walked straight to the subway and took the train going to Zone 10, where the SeaMall is.
The salty sea breeze welcomed them as they set foot on the mall grounds fronting the huge entrance. They went straight to the cafe at the back of the mall facing the green sea, taking the long way around the mall itself. Cassandra went straight to the counter to order and the two waited outside, sitting around a coffee table shaded with a solar parabola floating above them.
"Ahh, this place feels relaxing," Dave muttered with a weird smile.
"I agree." Markus dropped himself on a chair and took a sigh.
"This is where we eat those victory cakes back when you've started playing ROA, right?" Dave said.
"We come to this café ever since."
"Anyway, that was one of an insane lunch break," Dave said as he laid his upper body on top of the table as if he was diving on his bed, sighing. "My heart is still racing from what happened back at school." he looked at the two and said, "You sure you're alright, Marky?" he asked. A part of his forehead just above his eyebrow was patched with a gauze.
"We won't get out from school if we were not okay, Dave. Stop being a worrywart." Cassandra muttered as she approached their table. She slightly touched her scarred leg and sat on the empty chair. "And don't take all the space on the table." she brushed her friend away.
"But--" Dave complained, but he complied and sat properly.
"Cassy's right, Davey. We're both fine and I'm glad you too." Markus said as he scanned the book he picked up from the library floor.
They didn't saw him complain about the wounds on his back, it kinda made them uneasy.
"Ne, Marky, what was that you're reading? You kept on holding that book since we got out from the library." Cassandra said. "Don't tell me you're using that to do something bad again."
"Nothing of that sort, Cassy. Believe me. Look." Markus replied and showed them the 5by12by10 inch book.
INTRODUCTION TO LINEAR ALGEBRA
Bon Garson and Gliu Tan
©1966
"Linear Algebra?" Dave asked " Not to mention it was dated before the great Fall. Isn't that an ancient artifact?!"
"You stole a book from the library?!" Cassy said glared at her friend but she heard a bell from the counter and looked at it, trying to get a hint of their order but it was not yet ready. She returned her gaze to their table.
"The Great Fall of 2020, huh?" Dave said, brushing Cassy's worries.
"Before that year occurred, the earth was at its finest. It was indulged in different stuff we can imagine as well. Transportation, Communication, Entertainment, name it, they all have everything. Knowledge is not a privilege but a right, though their tech is not on par with what we have now. Countries exist with their own rules and natural resources unlike our current state right now..." Markus explained
"But I guess they were given too much freedom that made them fall because of their greed, right? " Dave added.
"That's true. 2 centuries worth of history were wasted, huh," Cassandra said. "Not to mention nature helped on their destruction."
"But it was nature who saved the remaining lives as well," Markus said.
"Ahh, it was because of that meteor under the Orion that everything started to move again, right?" Cassandra muttered. "That was our savior."
"Ahh. Everything leaped from nothing to something, thanks to Markus' grandfathers." Dave teased.
"It's their success that we're able to live like this at this moment, not mine." Markus sighed and looked at the wide sky. "It's blue-green, huh."
"Of course it is. Since the Meteor was helping the New Earth to protect itself from the Solar flare, many things changed including the weather." Cassandra muttered.
"It was Yellow at the old earth, right, the sky?" Dave asked. He traces his finger on the edge of the table to ease his nerves.
"Where did you get that info, idiot?" Cassy glared. "It was in the test just this morning, duh...Have you not listened to the discussion the other day?" She looked at Markus to play safe. "It was blue before, right?"
"Ahh. It was blue before. It was the most dominant color that passes thru the earth's atmosphere in a broad daylight. Though it was not the color that has the longest or shortest wavelength, it was the color that reflects the ocean, mountains, and many sceneries. " Markus explained. He flipped another page of his book.
"What?! " Dave exclaimed." I've already lost a point there, argh! " he slammed his face on the table.
"We can determine the time of the day just by looking at the sky now, too." Cassandra brought out her pen and picked a tissue paper at the center of the table. "It was Red by Dawn, Green at noon, and Violet at night."
"Orange and Yellow in the morning before noon, Blue and Indigo in the afternoon until the sun sets." Markus continued. "The colors I've mentioned take 3 hours each in our current sky."
"It was definitely the Rainbow sky, right?" Cassandra giggled. "Didn't we studied that at Physics class, Dave?"
"Out of the items you've mentioned, I only got 3 correct answers. How am I so dumb?" Dave complained.
"The climate was affected by the meteor as well," Cassandra mentioned. "If they have 4 seasons at the old earth, now, we only have the extremes of it. The Hot season, which is very sunny until it transitions to the Cold season, where everything freezes until it goes back to the hot season." she looked at Dave as if asking him if he knows it.
"I know that well, Cass." Dave sat properly. "At least that, I know it."
"I was starting to worry back there." Cassandra giggled. "Now that I remember, it was fine weather today right?" she took a deep breath to feel the fresh air under the fair sky. "It's as if everything can happen right under our noses."
"I like this weather as well. There was no buff in the Internet when the sky is clear." Dave added. He checked his phone for emails and other matters.
"Iced coffee and sweets for Ms. Cassandra are ready at the counter. " the kind waitress called.
"I'll just go get it." Cassandra stood and went to the counter to get their order.
"De, what was that book all about?" Dave asked Markus.
"It was about advanced mathematics with a computer application. Like, you combine numbers in matrices that lie in different dimensions and solve a different kind of stuff. Like 2d, 3d, and many more." Markus mumbled.
"I'm not anymore surprised that I didn't get any of that, heh." Dave faked a smile.
"Sorry for the wait. Hai, here are your orders gentlemen." Cassandra placed their food on the table and dig in.
"Hmmm." Dave sipped his iced coffee from his cup. "Now that I notice..."
"What?" Cassandra took a bite of her cake.
"Aren't we sipping water with flavor?" Dave asked.
"Yeah. Since the world's fall, most of the organic things vanished in the face of the earth." Cassy replied. "It was thanks to machines, encrypted with codes that release the flavors that the old earth have, that produced these things for us to enjoy. Even this cake I have is also synthetic." she finished her plate. "The Ginsei's encoded these data from the first generation until now. Isn't that amazing?"
"Ahh. Also, because of the radiation from the flare, everything was ruined. But because of that as well, humans survived longer since it affected the brain functions releasing its limiters. It was focused on survival despite lacked resources. It was what the Ginsei's exploited to rebuild everything. " Markus explained.
"But we still have water though," Dave said. "So the world was not that damaged, right?"
"No." Markus stared at him. "The old earth was rid of water when the solar flare strike. It was the meteor who was giving us both the energy we need and the water we use to live. Remember its composition? It has Hydrogen, that is why we have water today. Also, thanks to the infrared dome that the Orion installed around Aurum, we were able to plant crops for food inside the city without it dying from radiation and other harmful substance outside the dome."
"And you made the genius talk with your idiocy, Dave." Cassandra rolled her eyes. "By the way, what was that book that you stole all about, Marky?" she pointed to the book that her friend was reading while they chat. "What are you going to do with that? "
"It will help on stopping the one who made that explosion..." Markus answered
"Huh?!" the two exclaimed. Dave almost dropped his cake.
"How are you going to do that?" Dave asked.
"I was right," Cassandra exclaimed. "You were up to something dangerous again!"
"It wasn't as dangerous when I left Orion this morning," Markus explained. His eyes showed his stress. It has been days but he hasn't got an answer or solution to counter the Destroyer. Now that he's with his friends, his weak side is sipping out his body.
"Care to explain further? " Cassandra glared, she crossed her arms and smirked.
"I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about this. Louige-nii gave me an order to do so." Markus said.
"But it was what friends are for, right?" Cassy exclaimed. "If it's something we can help out, we would always lend a hand, Marky."
"Yeah, Cassy's right, Markus." Dave finishes his cake and pointed his fork to his friend. "Didn't you say we're best friends? Besides, we were injured because of that explosion that you were so worried about. You can't say that we're not included in this fight now."
"But, it was getting dangerous," Markus warned. "And I don't want my friends to get involved in this kind of situation."
"I don't care. Your mom left you in our care. So don't ever erase us in the equation. We're the constant, like the +C in integrals." Cassandra stood from her seat and went behind Markus. "Now, speak."
They all fell silent and felt the salty breeze of the see behind the mall.
"I lost. Okay, I'll tell you everything. I need help anyway." Markus placed his book on the table and opened a certain page. He also got the tissue he kept in his pocket and laid it on the table. "Actually, Orion called me the other day and I've been working nonstop to solve their problem."
"That's why you're not in class for the past days." Cassandra crossed her arms. "Does your mom know about it?"
"Sorry and No." Marks gulped and said, "Anyway, we're dealing with a virus injected in the Internet, and Orion's clients were affected by its attack. To think that even the Masons can't defeat it means that it was something off their game. That is why I've been searching for something that matches this stuff. " he pointed at the tissue paper where he wrote the numbers he found in a program.
"Oh, I see. That so happens that it was the same with this stuff in your book, huh?! " Cassandra pointed out.
" Ahh, it was a cyphered text using linear algebra for encoding and decoding," Markus explained. "At least that's what I thought."
"De, why can't the Masons decipher it? They have been dealing with Quantum codes and other stuff since they started working for Orion, right?" Dave asked.
"It was because they never cared about the old generation. They forgot they have this stuff before. They don't know what's binary codes ever since." Markus said.
"And You know about it?" Cassy muttered.
"Somehow. I've been staying at the library to read things. It's what I got from my hard work, you know. And besides, I'm an old earth lover." Markus bragged.
"I hardly can sympathize, Marky," Dave said. "But if the old earth has smoothies that are not synthetic, then I guess I can be with you on it."
"Don't forget me, idiots." Cassandra placed her hand on Markus' shoulders.
"That's when I thought.. if I can't decipher it using a computer program, maybe I can decipher it by manual calculation." Markus continued. "It was something that the world has left behind because of the Internet's influence."
"Can't you just Athena it?" Dave muttered.
Cassandra glared at him for butting into Markus' explanation.
"It's not yet in Athena," Markus replied. "Though it's the current search engine that the Orion has developed, it's still incomplete. Only a few people were tasked to encode info on it so it's not as good as the old earth's Google yet."
"Ehh." Dave exclaimed.
"But Markus, can you really do that?" Cassandra asked, "...the manual calculations?"
"Not yet, I still have to finish reading this..." he looked down and scanned the pages of the book page to page. "...ahh, so you have to find its minor...then..." he whispered to himself.
"There he goes again, talking to himself..." Dave muttered. He rests his back on his chair and looked up.
"As if we're not used to it." Cassy took her seat as well. "Just let him be, I have not seen that muttering for a while, I kinda missed it. Besides, we just have to take care of his back..." she added, "... would that be alright with you?"
He gestured an OK sign with his fingers. "Let him be, huh? That's fine with me, but is that okay with you? I mean.. " he looked at her with a teasing glare.
"Uhhh..." Cassandra shook her head "... Say a word and I'll smack your nose to bleed," she turned away and her face turned red.
"I see, I see..." Dave raised his hands as if he's been arrested. "No violence."
The city wind crossed the street and gave them chills.
"Anyway, he was already far ahead of us... all we have to do is guard his back for he is so focused on facing what's up front. That's what we are, right?" Cassandra said. "the Good friends."
"Hai... Mom... But it would be nicer if we can walk beside him." Dave said. "Like Best friends should be."
"...as what we are now, that's not possible." Cassandra bluntly said. She lowered her gaze.
The chills were broken when Markus stood up closing the book. The two flinched and stared at him.
"I have to get back to ORION." He exclaimed.