Chapter 36: History Class
In the large lecture podium at the front of the whiteboard, a screen projection displays a blue-green planet.
'It's three times bigger than Earth,' Ryan thought as he took in the sight of the planet he currently resided on. The Eastern continent alone counted for roughly 33% of the planet's mass, not counting the islands surrounding it.
"It's similar to Earth, if not bigger," Jacob almost yelled in excitement, his eyes sparkling.
"Earth?" Astin asked. That way of addressing reminded him of his previous world.
"The planet's earth looks so green from up in space. Hahahaha," Jacob laughed awkwardly.
"..." Forget I asked.
"..." Ryan gave Jacob a side-eye, thinking helplessly, 'This guy needs a reality check and a zipper to close his mouth. What was the world consciousness thinking when they transferred the soul of an idiot to the body of a genius?'
"The thing you see on the screen is our beloved planet Talus," Professor Lucas appeared, wearing a suit that fit perfectly on his lean, tight, muscular body.
With a snap of his fingers, he attracted the attention of everyone present as he proceeded to prop his glasses up. His long hair cast a shadow on his eyes, rendering them barely visible and foggy, giving him a mysterious vibe.
His eyes held no trace of emotion as he looked at the 411 students of both years combined; his eyes softened in a flash when they met Ryan's.
Those eyes overlapped with the disgusted, filled with hatred, annoyance, and menacing eyes that seemed colder than ice.
'If you want to do this world a favor, why don't you die?'
'This world doesn't need such annoyance as you, Mr. Hiro.'
"Now, can anyone tell me at which point in time Talus looks like this?" Professor Lucas asked, his eyes were by far much softer as if the earlier indifference was just a mirage.
Ryan blinked back to reality at Lucas' blunt voice.
Holding his hand straight, Jacob was almost shouting, 'Pick me, pick me,' as he excitedly raised his hand.
The moment Jacob transmigrated into this world, he spent the first month learning basic spells and mostly checking if this world's history matched up with the novel's history and if everything was exactly the same.
Professor Lucas nodded and signaled to Jacob to answer.
"Talus 4000 years ago, just a few months before the meteorite hit the planet."
"Why do you say that?"
"If you look closely, the magnetic field is pressed from the side by waves of radiation, like electric currents pressing on it. The atmosphere already twisted at the top upper corner using an advanced scan spell." Jacob's voice held both pride and a bit of awkwardness, feeling a bit smug.
"..." This kid just wanted to brag about his scan spell. Lucas felt the urge to laugh a bit, but he held it in.
Snapping his fingers, the screen changed, and what Jacob said appeared in full view.
Professor Lucas continued.
"Today's technology in the world is lacking, but that doesn't mean that society is backward, but..."
"The society was like this," he continued, and with a snap of his fingers, the picture changed.
It shows magnificent cities filled with high towers and buildings, amazingly built castles, palaces, and high-above-in-the-air floating islands.
He said, "This is the kind of technology the world has lost after the destroyer hit."
A girl raised her hand and said, "I never heard that flying islands existed."
Lucas propped his glasses and said, "They truly did exist, and were built by the strongest civilization, but not anymore."
"Due to the role that the Angus imperial family played, which lasted for 3400 years, the hierarchy system never fell, and those flying islands were a symbol of strength and superiority that only the high priest, dukes, and emperor enjoyed," Professor Lucas continued his class.
"If not for the destroyer hitting the central city, Angus's imperial family might have never disappeared. They had such a strong bloodline that even dragons feared them."
"Dragons? I thought they were just a myth," Jacob said, wiping his big round eyeglasses that almost fell off.
"No, they weren't just mythical creatures, Mr. Jacob; you only don't know about them because they have been erased from the panel of history."
Snapping his fingers, the screen changed again, showing a giant four-legged, humongous creature graced with enormous wings, a terrifying horn, slit-cold eyes, and a scaled black body.
And despite his deceptive aloof expression, he was known as one of the kindest professors and easily approachable.
Looking at the students' shining eyes, he said, "Nonsense, they never did."
"That was the symbol of the mighty church. Just search it up in the library if you're curious." A slight smirk appeared on Lucas' face, looking at the disappointed students who had been fooled.
Clapping his hand, in the absolute silence that no one dared to interrupt or dare to have the audacity to insult, he said.
"Now, let's go back to what we're talking about. Today is the 5231st year in the millennium calendar, used on the only existing continent."
"And technology has changed drastically from this to this." The view that greeted the students of high towers and buildings, amazingly built cities made by interesting architecture," Professor Lucas admired the view.
"What do you think? Did technology evolve upward, or did it evolve backward?"
The students started raising their heads hesitantly; he picked randomly a second-year student saying, "From now on, the discussion is up to you."
"Technology isn't evolving backward; that is, after the destroyer hit and after almost 60 years of wars that resulted in huge deaths," Sarah said, "I would rather say it became disabled."
"Afterward, there were multiple small to large conflicts because hatred didn't end with the destroyer's last explosion; the era of peace has only nominally started."
Lucas nodded his head and said, "Go ahead."
A student continued, "Afterward, because of the inability to properly use radiation and several things such as side effects not being known, caused more deaths, more illnesses, and people dying younger."
"All that led to an overwhelming decrease in the human population, as only a little over 2 billion people remained alive."
"To stop that, research was done by scientists."
"Now in such an environment in which the western continent was annihilated and with only peace of its land, the people of that time didn't dare to approach."
"Discrimination started again."
"Population was scattered."
"Fortunately, it got solved by the Farris Union that formed at the time."
Discussions formed everywhere as the students passed the talk to each other.
"After the era of rebuilding the world, a lot of research heavily based on mana has been lost or couldn't be replicated, due to a lack of power to sustain it; as a result, humanity lost all of its technology."
"They, as if they have returned to the stone era. And from then onward, humans started exploring again, trying to coexist with each other."
"Today's technology is a repeated mistake of our ancestors before the destroyer era who only heavily relied on mana."
"In this era, we only heavily relied on radiation and mana because, in this world, power remained as the ruler."
Ding-- dong,
Hearing the classroom bell, Lucas wiped his eyeglasses and said, "Before you all get dismissed, and now since we did a general representation of what should have been solely a second-year history class."
"It's an important topic. It should have been only available for second years, but it has been due to some circumstances and the rise of villain activities that started to get restless after the long period of oppression under the Faris Union."
"I need to give an announcement," Lucas said in the same blunt tone.
"Faris Union has played for long the role of Angus's imperial family."
"But due to the appearance of this guy ten years ago, the power game has shifted," he paused and observed the reaction of his students, the screen showed a figure of a man covered completely in black.
"Hero killers."
"A man so feared that Heroes start to despair just by hearing his name."
The murmurs and whispers of the students continued to fill the entire hall with a slight stiffness.
'Am I on the kill list now?' Astin looked amused; he had been on the kill list of this country, Marcoos, since forever, but it seemed that only now that the Union started to see him as a threat.
"Hero killers," Lucas muttered, "As the name implied, this man only killed Heroes."
"The approximate number of recorded deaths he has caused, once a day, every day for the last 10 years, he killed multiple heroes."
"As of today, that amounts to almost 35,640 heroes."
And with that announcement, only Lucas's voice could be heard lingering in the lecture hall.
The students who were still previously chatting with each other now had all of their mouths shut as their eyes all looked at him nervously.
"The government and the union have released a statement about it, 'Hero killer' is the most dangerous supervillain that threatens the existence of the system."
"Why do you think the third year was sent to the union," Lucas made an exaggerated sigh.
"That is to grow stronger," he continued, saying in a downcast voice, "Hero killer had single-handedly put an entire great nation in fear, and you kids need to be strong, as you may as well become his next target."
Gulp--
"But no need to worry, you still have plenty of time to grow. Here in the academy," Lucas reassured.
The name of the killer that scared even the highest-ranking heroes into crying in fear, sent shivers down their spine.
Everyone still feels worried, although they all came to the academy with the goal of defeating villains such as 'Hero killers,' in mind; they still felt scared of him as most if not all did not possess an SSS rank potential.
Everyone's eyes fell on Damion, their only hope.
"Oh, don't worry, he only kills veteran heroes; you babyish, unripe adolescents do not arouse his interest; you can still give up now on yourselves."
"..." No one can drop out of the academy once you enter. And even failing your course won't save you either, as you will be sent directly to the union to receive 'Outcast Training,' which is worse off than hell, becoming someone's lackey.
Everyone wanted to curse at Lucas for casually scaring the living shit out of them; wasn't he supposed to be a mysterious, aloof, and cold professor?
"I look forward to seeing you, future humanity heroes shine," Lucas smirked pleased with himself after scaring his students, leaving the podium in a snap of his fingers. "End of class."