The silence from being underwater started to calm us in a strange way, almost as if it was pushing us into a state of drowsiness. With just fifteen minutes left before we reached our destination, I noticed the signs of exhaustion that were clear on Julius and Noor's faces.
Their eyes were growing heavy, and their breaths were slowing down, as if the weight of everything had begun to press on them.
"We can't sleep now," I said, breaking the silence. "Not with just a few minutes left before the most critical part of our journey to the surface. We need to talk about something, anything."
Noor turned toward us and said, "Since we need a topic, what do you think about telling me how you first met my brother?"
"Hmmm," I muttered, "It's a silly story, but better than nothing."
Memories and images returned to my mind—of a boy lying on the ground, being beaten by six other kids surrounding him. Then a child shouted at them from behind, "Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? So many of you against one person…"
"Hahaha," I laughed unconsciously at those memories. Noor said, "What's wrong with you? Aren't you going to tell us, or are you waiting for my brother to tell it instead?"
"No, no, girl, I'll tell the story. I just remembered a few things. Five years ago, I met your brother for the first time, and it wasn't the best meeting in the world."
[The scene shifts to a child sitting in an empty classroom as sunset approaches.]
In an empty classroom, a lone child sat after school hours, turning the screws of some toy labeled 002.
After fiddling a little with that worn-out piece, he finally left the room and headed home. On his way back, a group of boys surrounded him. In the middle stood a very tall boy who looked one or two years older, and his appearance was savage—like a monkey.
He spoke, "Look who finally decided to come out—the coward boy."The kid turned to him indifferently and said, "Ah, muscle-brain, hello. It's been a long time since I last saw you. Your face looks even more monkey-like than last time… aghkk…"
He didn't finish his sentence before another one of them struck him."Shut up! Who do you think you are to talk to the boss like that?"
The leader of the boys was fuming with rage.
"You're still calling me a monkey, you brat?! Damn you!"
He and his gang started beating him. And when they started getting tired, the boy spoke:
"Hehe… coughcough… you still punch like girls despite your giant body."The bully leader screamed, "Ahaaaaa! Shut up!"
The boy replied immediately, "Why do you want me to shut up? Are you afraid I'll expose you even more?"
The leader asked angrily, "Just what did I ever do to you to embarrass me like that in class?"
"Ah, you mean when I called you a savage monkey? I wasn't wrong, to be honest.
I don't know why you're ashamed of your own species. Don't you have any personality? The teacher kept explaining the lesson again and again, and in the end you asked him what 'X' means.
I was literally giving you the best reason to drop out of school. And didn't you see the teacher punished me too?"
The bully leader snapped back, "You idiot! He punished me too—he made me stand at the back of the class!"The kid answered, "Of course, monkey.
Who in their right mind causes chaos in the classroom and doesn't expect to be punished? You're truly a pile of nonsense. I don't know why you even have human rights. If some animals had rights like yours, it would be far more beneficial than wasting them on you. All you know is how to speak with your fists."
As soon as the boy finished talking, the leader became furious, then sighed."Ah… you've left me no choice. If you'd asked for forgiveness and kissed my feet and begged, I might've considered forgiving you. But you've reached a level no one before you ever has. So…"
The boy took out a long wooden stick with nails in it, which one of his followers handed him. The followers held the kid down. His toy robot 002 fell out of his bag, and the others began mocking him. The leader picked it up, grabbed the robot's jaw—which looked like a mix between a dog and a cat—and continued:
"…So… you've left me no choice but to rip out your filthy tongue! Hahahahahaha!"
He began laughing hysterically with his friends. Then he broke the robot's jaw, turned to the boy with eyes full of the pleasure of torture and the desire to kill." I'm going to break your jaw like this toy . Then tell me if you'll keep pretending to be tough, Ali! Haaaaaaa!"
Just before the nailed stick reached Ali's jaw, a boy appeared behind them and shouted, "What are you doing?!"
The leader froze and turned around, annoyed and confused."Hah? Who dares interrupt me?"
"Boss, he's the new kid. He transferred to our class today."
"Hah, another annoying brat about to get beaten."But when the bully leader saw him, he laughed and said,"Hahaha! Look at his face—he's prettier than the girls. Does this sissy think he can do anything besides taking punches? Actually, this is good. He'll be my new punching bag."
The new transfer student interrupted, "I'm warning you—leave the boy now or—"
"Or what?" the bully said, standing directly in front of the new kid, with his nail-covered stick making him look like a mountain towering over him.But before he could finish his sentence, a direct punch hit him in the face. What followed was a one-sided massacre.
Afterward, the transfer student spoke:"I am Julius Asterion. Hey boy, what was your name again? …"
[Tititititit—my assistant beeped through my watch. Ten minutes left until arrival.]
"I think that's enough for now. We don't need to sleep—what we need is to understand what the hell happened in this world to cause such a massive flood, and what we're going to do after surviving it. Which authorities should we even try to contact…?"
Noor grumbled, saying, "Oh come on, seriously? You haven't told me anything yet except your struggles, which have nothing to do with me."
I ignored the girl and continued thinking.
Before I could continue speaking, Noor suddenly cut in. "And besides, what are you even rambling about? Authorities? What authorities? We should think about the survivors first. You know, I don't think anyone cares about saving others over saving themselves—even if they work for governments or their agencies."
Her words hit me like a slap. Of course. What was I saying? We were lucky to even be alive after the catastrophe.
I looked at the others, realizing how absurd the situation was. The tsunami had destroyed almost everything. We would never have the same world again. What happened to me? How could I forget something like that?
"Tsunami..." I murmured. "It must have killed millions. Maybe even billions."
Julius nodded seriously. "Yes. We're not the only ones affected. Cities near the coast must have been wiped out instantly."
My thoughts raced, fear rushing through me. What could cause a wave of this size? Something that massive doesn't just happen… suddenly.
A suffocating silence took over. My thoughts tangled as I tried to understand what happened and what we had survived.
"Why did this happen without the Meteorological Authority knowing? Or did they know and decide to hide it from us because they couldn't save anyone except themselves in this great disaster? And why did it happen on the date 2222/2/22, at the dawn of the Engagram civilization?"
"Is it a cosmic phenomenon, or something caused by human interference? Was it an experiment from the Fifth or Fourth Empire? And what would be their purpose if so? … Ah, damn it, I have a million questions and not a single answer."
While these questions spun in my head, the air suddenly felt lighter, and a pressure built in my skull from lack of oxygen. I was drowning in my thoughts.
"Ali, are you okay?" Noor asked, giving me a strange look, as if wondering why I looked like that.
I blinked, surprised by the warmth of her touch. Julius glanced at me and laughed.
"He's fine. When Ali goes quiet like that, it means he's overthinking. Give him a minute."
I held my head as if it were about to fall off from all the thinking. I lowered my hand and adjusted my position. "I'm fine, I'm just… thinking."
Then I returned to the more important matter. "According to my assistant, we have five minutes left. Get ready."
I continued, "I forgot to introduce you to my assistant. He's an excellent companion on land, sea, and air, equipped with the latest AI systems that surpass human abilities in certain fields. He's the sixteenth model in my lab and the most advanced among my robots. I named him 016. If you want to communicate with him, these glasses will let you see what he sees."
I pulled out four pairs of glasses from my bag—two that I was still working on, and two I had finished.
[A strong blue light floated in the air, projected from the watch. It formed the robot's three forms, a 3D hologram responding to Ali's hand gestures as he explained some of its advanced systems—almost everything, really.]
As I showed them the robot model through the three-dimensional projection emitted from my watch, shock was clearly written across their faces.
Julius commented, "Man, are you really from the twenty-third century? I always thought you were a genius ahead of your time, but you've truly amazed me!"
While Julius was talking, Noor was staring at the model with sparkling eyes. No doubt seeing something like this was every child's dream. But she was way too close to me.
"Ah… please, step back a little if you can." I tried to push her away, then—
I turned to Julius and saw him making careless gestures, as if telling me he wasn't even there. Then Julius looked back at me and gave me a thumbs-up, as if saying, "Take this chance to get closer to her."
I responded with a firm expression of refusal. "No, no, no! Aren't you supposed to take your sister away before I get angry?" But he just showed me a relaxed face, as if everything was fine.
Suddenly, we bumped into something…
In truth, it wasn't dangerous. We had reached the surface. I ordered them to prepare for the next task. Each of us moved to one side of the tank and began transferring all the food and other items. The purpose of this operation was to try to tilt the exit hatch downward so the air wouldn't escape when we opened the tank.
When we finished, Julius prepared to go out and secure the tank with 016's help, while we prepared to open the hatch and descend into the water. We began changing our clothes. My body was yellowish from excessive sun exposure and extremely thin, almost like a zombie. As for Julius, when he removed his jacket, his muscles tightened then loosened. His body was like that of a warrior—muscular, with slightly tanned skin. He loved training in the sun.
As for his sister, she was honestly strange. Her limbs were thin, such as her hands and legs, and her skin was very pale with some redness around the joints. What shocked me most was that she was only ten years old! Right? But her chest was larger than usual for girls her age. Something felt off when she began taking off her shirt.
Maybe I overreacted, and the embarrassment on her face proved it. But suddenly, I noticed a strip of bandages hanging from her lower back, stretching several meters on the ground beside her foot. I realized she was trying to hide her size from others.
At that moment, memories of students bullying me in middle school flashed through my mind. I wondered if she, too, was suffering—perhaps as a girl who was teased by those jerks.
My thoughts were interrupted by the assistant's voice, telling me he had scanned the area and found no sea creatures that might threaten our lives. We counted to three: "One, two, three!" then opened the hatch.
It was shocking. The moment we opened the tank, we saw a scene that would terrify any living thing. Hands, legs, limbs, eyes, shattered faces, red water surrounding floating remains, and scattered debris around us. My heart began pounding, and I felt a strange rush.
I turned to Julius with a hysterical, eerie laugh. Yes, I had some psychological disorders since childhood—sadism, enjoying the sight of living creatures being torn apart. But Julius struck me and shouted loudly, "Not now, Ali! Please! Not now! Get a grip!"
After this ordeal, I regained my composure and yelled into my watch, "016, you damn robot! Didn't I tell you to check for the surrounding dangers? Did you get damaged somewhere in your cursed circuits?!"
016 replied, "Sir Ali, I have already scanned all body patterns around us, and there are no neural signals or vibrations indicating the presence of any living creatures."
Julius patted my arm and said, "Ali, it's not his fault. He can't understand that this is a disgusting sight. Even if he could, he wouldn't be able to change the outcome. He's just a robot."
Suddenly, 016 responded, "Excuse me, Sir Julius. Although I may appear like any other robot to you, this is an insult. I am one of the latest models created by Lord Ali and Miss Victoria, and you could say I am the first of my kind in the entire world. I can understand and analyze human emotions better than they can, but I find it difficult to express them through mathematical equations. Aside from that, you could say I am the first of my kind in many fields…"
As the robot kept talking, everything around me felt blurry. Terror consumed me. Could it be that my dark side had awakened after all this exhaustion and all my attempts to suppress it? Julius held me and said, "It's okay, I'm here now."
I started to feel a bit relieved, and the fear faded from my expression. I remembered how much Julius had helped hide my sadism. Then I remembered that 016 had been created after my recovery, so he didn't know about my illness.
"Ah, shut up for a moment. I understand, fine… and I don't know why you talk so much after I adjusted you last time."
I continued, "From now on, don't just measure the signals of living creatures. Identify the types as well and give me a full report—without long details."
Julius said, "I think you're putting too much pressure on the robot, aren't you?"
016 cut him off immediately, "Sir Julius, I have a name I am proud of because Lord Ali gave it to me. Could you please use it?"
Julius replied in surprise, "Really… you're strange. You join conversations on your own and have real awareness. It doesn't feel like I'm talking to a robot."
"Anyway, I'll begin the procedure. I hope we can work together smoothly, 016."
016 replied, "Understood, Sir Julius."
After Julius dived, I turned to Noor. She was drowning in fear, her face pale, staring into the water filled with clumps of red flesh from various creatures. I realized she was just an ordinary girl. She couldn't handle such sights as quickly as her strong brother or me—the lunatic.
[In Noor's eyes, bloody memories of a laboratory and men wearing long white coats and masks flashed.]
I tried to touch her, and as soon as I did, she collapsed to the ground, and the tank began shaking. I realized her legs couldn't support her—let alone swim with them. I pulled her into a hug, and she started crying immediately.
Obviously, she couldn't handle it. The best biological behavior at her age to calm her was hugging; it naturally provides a feeling of safety. So I held her tightly until she calmed down.
Then I decided to take over her task. Fortunately, the water was stable, so the inflatable boat wouldn't drift while I transported the items. I decided to leave her inside the tank and leave my watch with her so I could contact her via 016 if anything happened while I completed the mission.
We began the procedure, and as we agreed, Julius held one side of the tank while 016 supported the other. His precision was incredible—he countered every wave or vibration. After 016 confirmed the tank was stable, I set off and dove into the water.
The water was extremely strange—warm despite the ocean's cold, not salty at all. When I surfaced, I released the inflatable boat, then handed the rope attached to the boat to Julius, who held it with his mouth so it wouldn't drift.
I quickly began transferring items from the tank to the boat as fast as I could. Everything was going smoothly until the water began to stir and collide with debris!!!
This caused the tank to lose balance, and the worst scenario happened: the tank flipped over, began losing air, and started sinking down!
I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Noor, get out of there! It's dangerous! Noor!"…