Jinwoon looked at the book for a long time. Abin didn't say anything for a while. "You don't have to read it straight away. This book is now yours. You can read it whenever you want. If you have questions, you can ask me or Kuno."
Jinwoon swallowed hard. "Thank you. I'll… I'll…" Jinwoon didn't know what to say. While staring at the book, he started to be hesitant. 'Did he really want to know what was going on. They do say that ignorance is bliss.'
'But if I can find a way to go back home? But do I want to go back home? I have nothing there. Here I have Sung Hoon and the others!' Questions were popping up in Jinwoon's mind. Did he really want to know?
Abin could 'feel' Jinwoon's hesitations. "Why are you scared?" Jinwoon turned to Abin. "I… I don't know. I… There isn't much to go back to. I'm not sure if I want answers." Abin smiled. "Who said that there are answers? I have no idea what's written in it."
"I can't read it, so I can't tell you anything. You will have more doubts if you ignore it. You really have nothing to lose but take your time. You don't have to read it now or tomorrow." Like a grandma, she took Jinwoon's hand and patted his hand.
"Let's go back to the others. We have a lot to do and a little time to achieve it." Abin stood up before waiting for Jinwoon. Jinwoon also stood up and followed Abin back to the large tent. Hara and the others were busy talking. She walked over when she saw Jinwoon.
"Jinwoon-nim! There is so much we can do here. They are very prima…" Jinwoon stopped her. "We can talk about it later." Jinwoon didn't want the elders to get offended by being called primitive. Hara turned slightly red. She understood Jinwoon's intention.
She glanced at Abin. "Uhm…Yes. We can talk later." Abin had a small smile on her face. "Let's join the others." She, Hara and Jinwoon walked back towards the others. Jinwoon could see that both the elders and his people were full of enthusiasm.
"Could you tell us what you've decided?" Adin looked at the group. One of the Elder's, Cropa, was the one to answer. "Grand Elder. They are amazing. They can help us with the cultivation problem. They might even be able to help us to make the sandlands green again!"
Hara turned to Jinwoon. She showed him her tablet. "These are the sandlands. The elders explain that it used to be green and full of life but after the Jinoco's arrived, they killed all the animals and cut down all the tree's. I'm sure that they did more than that."
"The elders said there was water, so for it to turn barren is unusual. Me and the Yoon brothers will leave tomorrow to see what the cause is." Jinwoon looked at the information on the tablet. All he saw was a large area with only sand.
"Is it smart to take the Yoon brothers?' Jinwoon turned to the three men. The Yoon brothers were triplets by the name of Yoon Gi, Yoon Sun and Yoon Il but since they were always, people would just refer to them as the Yoon brothers.
They were three skinny men, who spent all their time inside. During the training they would get exhausted from walking more than 10 minutes. "There are no automated cars here." Hara tried to hold her laugh. "There are smaller Elep that we can use."
"Bring two extra people with you." Jinwoon thought they might not get anything done. "I'm sure it's going to be fine. They were the ones that volunteered. We're bringing 5 soldiers with us. If necessary, I can ask them to assist me."
Jinwoon agreed. They started to listen again. "I think we should leave the fighting to the Howa. If any of the young ones want to join we can send them there. The Jinoco fear of the Howa." Cropa said. Another elder, Noowg scoffed.
"Fear, the Jinoco fear nobody. They treat the Howa as playthings." Cropa gave Noowg a glare. "Then why haven't they wiped out the Howa?" Noowg didn't have a comeback for that. The other elders wanted to agree with Cropa but they couldn't.
They felt that Noowg's words were also true but like Noowg, they had no idea as to why the Jinoco had left the warrior tribe alone. "My brothers, this is not why we are here. Beside cultivation and the sandlands, what do we need to do more."
"Do we still need to get resources?" This question was the only other female elder in the group, Amene. Compared to the others, she was still young. When she noticed that the others were looking at her, her head dropped.
"That is a good question!" Abin turned to Jinwoon. "I think we should talk with Sung Hoon first. I personally think that if you want to create an ambush it's best to have the usual rescoursed ready. This will keep the fighting in one place." Jinwoon scratched his head.
He felt like that was the most logical method. The elders nodded in agreement. "We'll help you gather everything that is needed." All the elders bowed. "That will be great. It's always a burden for us to get everything finished in time.
Hara was busy tapping away on her tablet. "Mining equipment, farming machines, weather machines..." She seemed lost in her own thoughts and would mumble but everything she registered were about the matters they just talked about.
It started to become dark and Sung Hoon and Sung Joon hadn't returned. They also hadn't called back. After having dinner with the elders Jinwoon walked outside to call him. "Sung Hoon? Where are you?" A few seconds later, Sung Hoon called.
"I'm so sorry. Were you worried?" Sung Hoon sounded out of breath. "I was. Are you alright?" Sung Hoon laughed. "I'm doing great. The Howa are amazing. Me and the soldiers have been learning how they fight!"
Sung Hoon was enthousiast. "If you saw what they can do, you'll be blown away. They still use spear, bow and arrow. Their hand to hand combat is crazy. If we equip them with better modified weapons, they will be invincible."
Sung Hoon kept on talking about the Howa techniques, Jinwoon began to regret calling him. "My love..." Jinwoon had to stop him. He heard Sung Hoon gasp. "What is wrong? You never call me that!" Jinwoon turned red. "I'm hanging up."
"Wait! Can you say it again?" Jinwoon bit his lips. He had dug his own grave. "If you're a good boy, I'll say it again. I'm going to bed." Before Sung Hoon could say anything else, Jinwoon hung up. Going to bed was a big lie.
He and the other scientist were about to make preparations. He walked back inside. "Where should we begin? Where are the elders?" He looked around and noticed that the elders had left. "Most have left to talk to their tribe."
"The others need to send a message because their tribes are too far away." Explained Hara. "Did you know that they travel here since the greeting probe landed? It took some a month to get here" Hara shook her head.
Jinwoon just stared at her. 'If you knew that just a few months ago, we were doing the same?' But he couldn't say it out loud. "We feel that that is the first thing we should change. We need to make travel easier for them."
"They elders don't want our automated cars. We were thinking of using the portals. They are easy to hide and they are hard to detect." Jinwoon liked the idea. "If the elders agree, then we can do that. What else?"
"Hara has already made a list of things we need to get transported. We'll need to make extra space ships and battleships. Tomorrow we'll have to contact Ground control. We didn't bring enough materials to do all this."
"We'll have to wait until Ground control sends everything." Jin Jun was one of the lead scientists. He was usually calm and collected but Jinwoon could see that he was excited to begin.
Jinwoon stared at the rest and saw that they all had the same thrilled look on their faces. Jinwoon couldn't help but laugh. "Tomorrow we'll contact the other ships and ask them to send everything here. We can then see which project we can start first."
Jinwoon turned to the soldiers, who had been quiet the whole time. "Except for the ones that are going with sandlands, I think it's best for the rest of you to go to the Howa." The soldiers finally looked excited.
"We'll leave 4 people here." The commander, Jong Dae said. Jinwoon felt bad for the four that would be staying but they would have enough to do. Maybe he'll ask for Sung Hoon for a rotation. "Alright! Let's go to bed. We'll have a lot to do."
The elders had told him that they could sleep in the tent for now. Everybody spread out and found a spot to sleep. The soldiers took the place in front. While the other laid in the middle. The tent was big enough for them to all be comfortable.
Jinwoon lay down and after hesitating for a while, he grabbed Hyung Woo's dairy.