"Humanity has conquered the skies for thousands of years, but today, the sky has become a forbidden area for the gods..." At the podium, the old teacher read aloud. Irin yawned and turned to look out the window. In the distance, far, far away, a tower loomed, reaching into the clouds with no visible end.
"Irin!"
Accompanied by the roar of the teacher, a short electronic pen struck Irin's forehead with unmatched precision.
"Ouch!"
The force of the electronic pen left a red mark on Irin's forehead. Teacher Febi, a 40-year-old unmarried man, easily irritated, with a small belly, was said to have a "spirit" attribute of 3.2 and an impressive throwing accuracy of 93%.
"Irin, stand up!"
Irin heard those words, rubbing her sore forehead, a hint of helplessness appearing in her eyes as she stood up slowly.
"Irin, answer this question! Humanity has conquered the skies for thousands of years, but today, the sky has become a forbidden area for the gods... What day am I referring to?"
Irin sighed. Then she gazed at the distant horizon, the towering gray structure.
"You don't understand, do you? If you don't understand..."
The old teacher at the podium observed Irin's reaction. He straightened his face and wanted to scold her, but Irin casually provided her answer.
"November 11, 2111..."
The teacher's expression turned cold, and he silently squeezed another electronic pen in his hand.
"That answer is known by the whole world; I hope Teacher Febi is satisfied with my answer."
Irin's tone changed, and the pen the teacher intended to throw was forcibly reclaimed. Irin smiled slightly and continued, "On November 11, 2111, four colossal towers appeared on Earth from the thin air, but on our continent, there were more than 200 million towers in the south, north, and east where these gigantic structures emerged. The population evaporated just like that..."
"At 11:00 PM that night, 3,422 artificial satellites from outer space fell to Earth simultaneously, triggering the most 'spectacular' meteor shower in human history... That night is referred to as the 'falling star night' in history. In one day, humanity truly lost its supremacy in the skies."
"And since November 11, 2111 AD, many people have proposed it as the beginning of a new era... the Tower Era."
"However, regarding the original source of the phrase, it came from the paper 'To the Sky That Humanity Will Lose' published by Molly, a tower science researcher, in the journal 'Creation' on January 5, 2114. This paper, through various data and experiments, confirmed the actual existence of a 'no-air zone' above 3,000 meters."
"So, the answer Teacher Febi is looking for should be January 5, 2114."
After saying this, Irin calmly stared at the teacher in front of her. The teacher's eyes widened; he did not expect a student who was usually quiet and appeared innocent and friendly to actually have a certain understanding of "Tower Science."
"Sir, may I sit down?"
Cough cough! The old teacher coughed twice to hide the embarrassment in his heart. With a straight face, he clapped his hands: "Student Irin is serious and eager to learn, and has a deep understanding of the history of tower studies, which is commendable! Student Irin, please take a seat."
"Thank you, Sir."
Irin calmly sat back down in her seat. This small scene did not disrupt the old teacher's class spirit. He pressed a button to erase the content on the screen and began writing again with the electronic pen.
"Today marks the greatest disaster in human history, but at the same time, it is also the beginning of a new human civilization..."
Irin's gaze drifted out the window again unconsciously, as if staring at the enormous gray tower through endless space and time. Hearing the teacher speak with great interest at the lecture desk, Irin shook her head. This was the "reality" currently accepted by humanity.
After class, Yi Rin packed her books and prepared to leave.
A tall figure walked toward Irin. She looked up and saw him with a bright smile on her face: "Bro Henry, is that you? What's up?" As she spoke, Irin quietly repeated the name of the person approaching three times in her heart.
Henry, Henry, Henry.
"Hehe, bro Irin, don't you want to study Science in the future?" Henry leaned on Irin's shoulder and asked with a smile.
"Yeah..." Irin put the book in his hands into his bag and then smiled helplessly. "I heard the country needs a lot of professionals to study 'Tower Science.' Studying science will reduce the total attribute requirements, um... It's one more hope."
"Also, who says Irin is just an ordinary person…" Henry's eyes shone with a hint of disdain, but his face was even wider as he patted Irin's shoulder hard, then changed his tone. "By the way, today's homework is history…"
As he spoke, before Irin could agree, Henry stuffed a thick stack of homework into Irin's school bag.
"Oh... homework! No problem, I'll take care of it for you!" Irin happily sorted through the homework that Henry had given him.
"Truly worthy of being my good friend. Don't worry, bro Irin, I'm a genius with strength, agility, and mental attributes all above 10.0. In the future, I will be Lord Henry, and I won't forget you."
Irin laughed. "Yeah, that's what makes us good friends. If bro Henry doesn't have anything else to do... I'll be heading out now."
Irin finished packing and was about to leave the classroom with his heavy school bag on his back. As he walked out the door, Yi Rin suddenly remembered something: "By the way, bro Henry, I think the weather is looking bad. It might rain heavily tonight, remember to close the doors and windows. See you~"
Henry looked back as Irin left. After Yi Rin was completely gone, Henry spat out two words with disdain on his face.
"Who cares."
"Welcome home, Irin."
"It's July 8, 2121, 6:30 PM."
As Irin opened the door, the lights and air in the whole house turned on and began to operate automatically. A sweet but impersonal electro-synth sound played. Irin casually tossed his school bag aside: "Bella, please warm up the nutritious fast food, flavor B, ready in 30 minutes."
"It's for you, Irin."
Irin stared at the electronic screen, bowed his head, lifted it again, lowered it again, and repeated this six times. Today was indeed July 8, 2121. Even the AI housekeeper could make mistakes; if it were a normal day, it wouldn't matter.
But today... don't let mistakes happen.
"About three hours to go."
Irin calmly nodded and went to the gym. In the gym, the floor was actually filled with dummies. The dummy bodies were covered with deep and shallow scratches, but these scratches were more concentrated on the neck, the middle, and were very dented. Some dummies were even split in half at the neck, looking somewhat frightening. Irin approached the strength tester with a blank expression. With all his strength, he threw a punch.
"120 kg!"
Immediately, a cold number appeared on the strength tester's screen.
"Only 120 kg... That should be about 2.0 in strength attributes."
Irin's expression didn't change. He went to the speed tester again. After pressing the button, countless small balls were shot out of the barrel. Irin focused on them and quickly slapped the small balls into the air with his palm.
"I missed 5... Agility around 3.0? But that might not be very accurate... but it's enough."
Irin nodded in satisfaction, then stopped wasting energy and walked out of the gym. After showering and changing into clean clothes, he took the nutritious fast food out of the microwave at the right temperature and gulped it down.
Although it was nutritious food, it looked like mysterious pasta. As for the taste... that didn't matter.
A few years ago, the head scientist of the country discovered a magical instrument that could classify human talent into three main attributes: "strength," "agility," and "spirit," and measure certain values. Among them, the level of strength attribute related to muscle strength, explosive power, physical fitness, cell activity, etc. Agility was related to various factors such as reaction speed, running speed, and sensitivity. As for the mental attribute, it equated to a comprehensive score of various abilities such as memory, calculation, observation, comprehension, and abstract thinking.
The emergence of attribute testers has completely changed all talent selection systems in human society. Since then, all schools and units have abolished the "examination" system, replacing it with attribute testers to assess the "three-dimensional" attributes to evaluate everyone's potential talent.
Even five years ago, the country announced two ancient fitness techniques to the whole nation: "Body Strengthening" and "Breathing Technique," which had been passed down since ancient times. As long as you continue to exercise, you can keep training to improve your strength and agility attributes. This triggered a resurgence of human capabilities in the world.
Just like the school where Irin was, physical education classes consumed half the time. According to data released by professional researchers, the measurements of ordinary people were all below 3.0. Strength and agility attributes could continuously improve with training in the body-strengthening techniques and Dragon's Way, but the improvements were related to talent. A single attribute score exceeding 3.0 was considered excellent, and if it exceeded 4.0, it was genius. Irin had undergone the official "preliminary test" three years ago. His three-dimensional attributes were... Strength 1.5, Agility 1.8, Spirit 2.9. And the final comment was.
"Just an ordinary person."
8:00 PM
Irin only did one thing, practicing the body-strengthening technique twice. Accelerating digestion. Given that nutritious food provided enough energy, excessive fullness shouldn't affect body flexibility.
8 points full, exactly. One more point, one point less is not enough. Too tired, too lazy, too full, too hungry. He had tried hundreds of times, eating nutritious food and practicing the tonic technique twice after an hour.
"Just right." Irin was very aware that he had a slight obsessive-compulsive disorder, especially regarding numbers. But it didn't matter; it didn't affect the overall situation.
8:10 PM.
The rain outside the house was like in my memories; it was pouring. Watching the storm come as scheduled, Irin finally breathed a sigh of relief. For the past three years, he hadn't even dared to spit on the street. He was afraid that a single spit would cause some unpredictable butterfly effect, turning the rainy day of July 8, 2121, into a sunny one.
8:30 PM.
Irin completely emptied his bladder. He took out the waterproof black sweater he had prepared three years ago from under his bed and put it on. He dug out another box from the toilet that had been dusty for three years: gloves, a mask. And one more thing... a new dagger. Under the drawer of his desk, Irin ripped it open, pulled it out, and took out a small paper bag that had been taped to the bottom. The small paper bag was square and light.
Irin carefully opened the paper package, and there was only a small card, blank on both sides, with nothing on it. But Irin carefully placed the blank card near his body.
"Let's go."
When Irin was ready, he walked out of the house, left the community, and stepped into the storm in the blink of an eye.