章節 1: Chapter 1 < Indian? America!? >
Chapter 1 < Indian? America!? >
The advancement of science and technology was much faster than what ordinary people expected.
Things that were only imaginable 10 or 20 years ago became reality.
And finally.
Humanity conquered 'aging'.
The current maximum lifespan was still at the level of 120 years, but the life expectancy soared to the level of immortality.
It was because aging had been conquered not long ago.
As a result, people looked forward to infinite time and envisioned a rosy future.
Yes.
Until a giant asteroid was discovered approaching Earth.
*
The cigarette smoke that flowed out of his mouth soon dispersed in the air.
Kim Ki-woo stared blankly at its shape.
The sky was cruelly blue.
As if mocking the humans who had built a huge civilization under the sky.
'Is this scenery also the last one today.'
Beyond that blue sky, in the vast space, the giant asteroid Narvas was getting closer to Earth at this very moment.
In less than a day, Narvas would hit Earth.
What would happen then?
'Earth will become a planet that is hard for living beings to survive for a long time.'
No matter how much he tried to be optimistic, there was no possibility of survival for humanity living on Earth in the scenario of Narvas colliding with Earth.
'Why did it have to be...'
He resented Heaven.
Maybe in a few decades, humanity could have become an interplanetary species.
Or they could have diverted that giant asteroid.
Now that the technological singularity was in sight.
It was certain that a scientific revolution that was incomparable to before would come when the technological singularity arrived.
But unfortunately, time was not on humanity's side.
Swoosh, whoosh...
Kim Ki-woo took another deep drag of cigarette smoke and exhaled it. But his suffocating feeling did not go away.
"I knew you'd be here."
A rough voice from behind. A voice too familiar to Kim Ki-woo.
Kim Ki-woo opened his mouth without even looking back.
"What are you doing here, you don't even smoke."
"I came to see your pathetic look. Hehe."
"Bullshit. You came to get me because you're done with your preparations."
"Can you tell? Your intuition is really like a ghost, huh? Come on, let's go. The director is waiting."
It was then that Kim Ki-woo finally looked at Song Seong-jung's face.
They say you can't spit on a smiling face, right?
The old saying was not wrong.
Song Seong-jung was smiling even at this moment.
That's why. Kim Ki-woo blurted out what was on his mind without filtering it through his brain.
"Aren't you afraid?"
A sentence with an omitted object.
But both Kim Ki-woo and Song Seong-jung knew very well what that object was.
Kim Ki-woo felt regretful for a moment, but he couldn't take back what he had already said.
At least within the research institute, expressing anxiety verbally was implicitly prohibited.
As Kim Ki-woo was about to apologize for his slip of the tongue.
"I'm afraid."
Song Seong-jung cut off Kim Ki-woo's apology.
"I thought I could finally be free from death, but now I'm going to die soon. Who wouldn't be afraid? You know very well how chaotic it is outside the research institute."
"..."
His voice was as dry as if he was talking about someone else's death.
It was as Song Seong-jung said.
The world had fallen into a panic state since the news of the giant asteroid Narvas colliding with Earth was made public.
The only people who could survive after Narvas hit Earth were those who had enough capital to go into space on a spaceship.
Not that their chances of survival looked very high either.
"But we can't just be afraid, can we? We have to cling to anything. If you're done with your mental preparation, let's go down. The director is waiting, and I'm not kidding."
"...Okay."
Kim Ki-woo knew very well what Song Seong-jung meant by anything.
'It's literally anything.'
He thought to himself.
It was nothing but a hope with a probability that was infinitely close to zero.
But what could he do?
He had no choice but to hope for that tiny possibility.
This was the most powerful kick that humanity could do right now.
*
Whiiiiing!
The sound of a computer booting up seemed to be amplified dozens of times and hit Kim Ki-woo's eardrums.
Was it because he was nervous?
His heart was beating like crazy.
His mouth was dry.
-One minute before activation. You can check one last time.
The director's bland voice came from the speaker.
Kim Ki-woo did as he said and checked his whole body thoroughly.
Starting from the clothes he was wearing, to the safety shoes, goggles, backpack and parachute on his back.
He checked them at least ten times. There was nothing wrong.
"No problem."
Would he be able to stop the activation if there was a problem?
Probably not.
The entrance would have been sealed off as soon as energy was supplied to this imperfect time machine.
There was no turning back. For Kim Ki-woo to survive, he had to warp precisely into Earth's atmosphere somewhere in the past.
If not, he would die for sure.
This experiment was nothing more than a hypothesis that had not been proven yet.
In other words, it was a gamble.
A gamble with the lives of ten men, including Kim Ki-woo, and astronomical funds.
If it wasn't for the imminent destruction of Earth, it would have been a theory that could only be proven after a long time.
'The chances of success are almost negligible.'
There was no guarantee that he could go back to the past, and even if he did, most of them would warp into space and die instantly.
Space is vast and Earth is nothing but dust in space.
Even if he warped to Earth, he would be lucky if he didn't get buried alive in the ground.
If he miraculously warped into the atmosphere, he would just drown in the water if he warped above the ocean.
The more he thought about it, the more hopeless it seemed.
It felt like a way of committing suicide with astronomical money.
But someone had to do it.
It just happened to be him.
With one hope that he could save humanity if he only survived in the astronomical probability.
It was a simple story.
If he could go back to the past and accelerate the development of science, science might advance decades, or maybe centuries faster.
If that happened, humanity could change the direction of that giant asteroid or migrate to another planet before Narvas reached the surface of Earth.
-...5, 4, 3.
While he was thinking about this and that.
Before he knew it, the countdown continued at a fast pace from the speaker.
And the moment that sound reached zero.
With an immense pressure that humans couldn't bear, Kim Ki-woo's consciousness flew away.
*
Parararararak!
"Huh!"
Kim Ki-woo came to his senses. No, he had no choice but to come to his senses.
The strong wind hit his whole body fiercely.
Kim Ki-woo opened his eyes and looked around.
He could look around thanks to the goggles.
'The sky! Then...'
Did he succeed by any chance?
This was definitely high up in the air.
At this very moment, he was getting closer to the ground every second due to gravity.
Gravity was so lovely.
He had never felt this way before.
He had done skydiving eight times in training, assuming this situation.
Thanks to that, Kim Ki-woo was able to quickly regain his composure.
Then where is this?
Kim Ki-woo looked at the surface.
Thankfully, it wasn't the ocean.
He could see a vast plain, a forest, and a faintly large river.
The strange thing was, there was no trace of development at all.
There was no development in such a wide plain?
It was a rare sight in modern times.
'The probability of being in modern times is low. It's highly likely that I came to the past. Oh my God! I can't believe that crazy science fiction theory actually worked!'
He suddenly felt goosebumps all over his body.
It was because of the ecstasy of having survived with an impossible probability and coming to the past.
But Kim Ki-woo suppressed his rising emotions.
He had to save his appreciation for later.
Right now, he was free-falling from the sky.
Survival was the priority.
'I have to go to the river.'
He didn't know what time period this was or what continent this was, but one thing was certain.
He couldn't see any traces of civilization in his sight.
And most civilizations develop from rivers.
Because it's a favorable place for farming.
In other words, he had to go to the river first, whether it was life or death.
Kim Ki-woo sorted out his thoughts and opened his parachute at an appropriate point.
Flap!
Suddenly, he felt a strong force pulling him up to the sky, and his falling speed decreased drastically.
Immediately after, Kim Ki-woo started to descend slowly towards the river.
'It's big.'
It was Kim Ki-woo's short impression of the river.
It was not only long but also quite wide. But he couldn't tell where or what river it was just by looking at it.
Still, Kim Ki-woo tried his best to remember the shape of the river.
When he got close enough to the ground.
'People?'
Kim Ki-woo's eyes narrowed.
They still looked like ants, but they were definitely people.
'What a good start?'
It wasn't just good. It was the best scenario possible.
To accelerate the development of science, he had to blend into human society in this time period in some way or another.
It wasn't one or two people. By eye, there were about ten or sixteen people.
And finally, when he got to a distance where he could somewhat see their faces.
Kim Ki-woo could see their appearance.
They covered their lower bodies with something that looked like leather or fur.
And they decorated their heads with feathers. Crude spears and bows.
A word flashed through Kim Ki-woo's mind.
'Indians?'
To be precise, Native Americans.
And that thought turned into a certainty as he got closer to the ground.
Then.
'America? Is this?'
He wasn't sure if it was South America or North America, but the fact that they were here meant that this was America.
'Huh, I can't believe I landed in America.'
Of course, he had prepared a scenario for when he landed in America. But he had hoped it would be Asia.
He had no choice.
America had a very low level of civilization before the Europeans immigrated.
It was better to have some foundation to accelerate the development of science.
And Europe seemed hard to blend into society because of race.
The worst were Africa, Australia, or small islands. At least it wasn't one of those places.
As Kim Ki-woo was thinking about this and that.
He heard a noisy sound from below. Kim Ki-woo glanced at the source of the sound.
Snicker!
Soon, a chuckle escaped from Kim Ki-woo's mouth.
They were bowing down to him as if they were worshiping a god.
< Indian? America!? > The End
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