One day had passed, and now Joe Walker, Alice, and Maria had become accustomed to the underground space.
The more they explored the place, the more amazed they were by the technology present. They also discovered a research left behind by Alex and Violet in the form of a plant growth-accelerating liquid.
This liquid could speed up the growth of any plant planted in the soil to be twice as fast as usual. This means that if a tree normally takes 20 years to grow and bear fruit, using this liquid and watering it daily could make the tree only need 10 years to grow and bear fruit.
There were also other research findings, such as a small room-cleaning robot that was tasked with cleaning the area automatically. Unfortunately, Alex and Violet had passed away before evolving the cleaning robot to the next level.
Apart from the mentioned discoveries, there were still many other research findings left behind and some strange things that Alice and Maria had never seen before. The underground space also had several areas like a storage warehouse containing many items for human daily life. There was also a robot research area with many scattered bolts.
Two days passed, and Alice had actually recovered, but they all decided to stay longer to relax before continuing their unknown journey.
Alex and Violet were also okay with that decision because from the beginning, they were just guests in Joe Walker's body.
Since that day, Alice and Maria continued to learn many things there and gathered some useful items that might be helpful in their journey.
Meanwhile, Joe Walker focused on exploring the almost 1-square-kilometer area.
Alex and Violet showed Joe Walker the way to a secret place that led to an underground train tunnel.
The path to that place was quite narrow, Joe Walker even had to crawl through a secret ventilation to reach the underground train tunnel.
"Ughh, you made your daughter go through this?" Joe Walker exclaimed after successfully passing through the ventilation.
Violet looked sad hearing that.
While Alex replied, "There was no other choice, it was just a precaution in case my secret underground space was discovered by the rebels."
"Rebels living in the lower levels?" Joe Walker started walking around the tunnel.
"No, on the contrary, the real rebels are the traitors. They use the excuse of supporting the lower-level humans to gain full support from them and manipulate them at will."
"So, who is actually evil?"
"...," Alex fell silent, unable to answer due to his uncertainty.
"Why are you silent?"
"Joe, I think all humans of that era are guilty."
"Meaning all humans, including yourself, are evil?"
"Being guilty and being evil are two different things. I am also at fault for creating robots and even letting those robots evolve into highly dangerous weapons, but i'm not evil. Our intention, Violet and I, was to create robots to assist humanity and to create peace."
"Peace?"
"I thought that by creating robots and publicly stating that they were weapons, it would make the lower-level humans afraid and prevent them from foolishly rebelling."
"So you wanted to use fear to prevent rebellion?"
"Yes, you're right."
"...," Joe Walker fell silent, pondering.
Was that the right thing to do?
Alex smiled, seeing Joe Walker deep in thought. He then said, "Do you think that was foolish, Joe?"
"Foolish? I don't know..."
"According to me, that was a foolish thing to do. That method was foolish because it failed. However, that method could have been a genius one if it had succeeded. But because it failed, it was undoubtedly foolish. And what made that method foolish was me, a regular man who thought he was a chosen genius who could do everything. But now I realize, after my death, that I am no different from any other human. Just a foolish creature standing on this planet and destroying it out of selfishness."
Violet could only remain silent, watching her husband with an unpleasant expression. It was a face full of regret that even everyone could see.
Seeing that expression, Joe Walker was sure that Alex regretted something. He suddenly asked, "What's with that expression? Do you regret something? What do you regret?"
Alex realized that he was the one being asked, even though Joe Walker seemed to be looking elsewhere. He was also confused and said, "I .. I don't know, what do I actually regret?"
"Do you regret being alive?"
"Maybe you're right."
"My dear...," Violet looked at Alex, holding back her sadness. She felt sad seeing Alex suffer from regret even after their death.
Joe Walker felt there was nothing to inspect around there. He turned back, saying, "Let's go back, Maria and Alice must be worried about me."
Along the way back, Joe Walker always glanced at Alex and Violet, who looked sad. There was a slight feeling of guilt in his heart that made him uncomfortable, although he didn't quite understand what that feeling was. But he was sure it had something to do with him realizing that Alex and Violet were feeling sad.
Feeling unable to turn back time and correct his mistakes, he tried something else.
"Hey, Alex... If you weren't born, what do you think would happen to this world?"
"Eh? Why are you suddenly asking that?"
"I'm just curious, would your two daughter be born into this world if you weren't born?"
"That's impossible! Have you ever studied human reproduction?"
"I have no memory of that, but I understand. Maybe in my previous life, I had learned about it," Joe Walker remembered his mysteriously disappeared memories.
"Ha, what do you mean?"
"Nothing, forget it. More importantly, I want to ask you about one more thing, Alex."
"What?"
"In your opinion... Would the world still end up like this if you had never been born into this world?"
Alex fell silent immediately. He was puzzled by Joe Walker's reason for asking that question, but he was also curious about the answer to that question.