This is a story that never existed because it was forgotten by time.
No one remembers its existence as it dates back 2000 years before Razel's current situation.
This is the forgotten story of the first generation of humanity.
◇◇◇
Republic of Olympia.
It was the location of a laboratory.
The republic was the only country in this world.
According to recording archives, they had lived here for exactly 1000 years.
A long time ago, some colonists set out in interstellar ships to find a place to live.
Their planet had no pollution or wars over resources.
They simply decided to expand further due to global overpopulation.
Many space aircraft traveled to different destinations, looking for places to live.
One of them arrived at this planet.
They settled down and sent a message saying they had found a place to live.
But no one came.
As time passed, they forgot about that and began to build their civilization.
Everything went well for the first few centuries, but one day... they were invaded by mysterious beings, a species of giant reptile they called "dragons" according to children's stories.
These dragons were enormous beings that spewed fire, lightning, or poison.
The republic used powered suits, better known as Combat Armor.
They were giant robots in every sense of the word.
Some measured 24 meters... others over 100 meters.
There were also unique robots known as artificial intelligences.
Round spheres with colorful eyes.
The fight against the dragons turned peaceful humanity into a hostile battleground.
They changed their peaceful lifestyle to one of guerrilla warfare.
Education for the future, such as farmers, doctors, or teachers, changed to soldiers and medicine to heal the wounded and send them back to fight.
Humanity lost 15% of its population in those 1000 years.
One day, thanks to a person known as Professor Epstein,
Humanity pushed back the dragons, recovering territory and sending them to a distant island.
At this moment, that person was looking at a monitor.
He played with his long hair while biting a candy.
"Professor, stop playing and get serious."
"Frankenstein-kun, I'm being very serious-desu."
"That strange way of speaking makes no one believe you."
"Puhh~"
"Kuh, this person is—!"
Professor Epstein was a very childish and strange man; he would spend days without eating or sleeping when he locked himself in his room to write new inventions.
At the moment, he was very bored.
He played in his chair despite being a recognized and respected person.
He spun around and around, making his assistant, a colleague from the national university, dizzy.
Frankenstein, a young man with white hair and red eyes, left some documents on a table.
A floating robot used its arms to process the documents.
"Tell me how the data is going."
"There is an 85% probability that the experiment will be negative."
"That much?!"
"Yes. The test subjects would die before the drug takes effect."
Frankenstein touched his chin to think.
"The test subjects are negative for the trials then. Using animals instead of dragons doesn't seem to work."
He turned to look at his superior, who was now making bubbles with a toy.
He looked at him with a sour face and then said.
"I'm going to have lunch; a human being cannot think clearly on an empty stomach. Although I think you're not human to begin with."
Just as Frankenstein was leaving the room,
"Stop right there!"
He was stopped by Professor Epstein, who stood up shouting.
"Frankenstein-kun! What did you say?"
"Huh? I'm going to eat."
"That's not it-desu!"
"You said 'you're not human,' right?"
Epstein smiled wickedly. Frankenstein knew that smile.
"... What are you thinking?"
He put his finger on his mouth while walking in circles.
"You said I'm not human, but I look like one."
"Yes, so?"
The smile grew more wicked.
"What if we create artificial humans?"
That surprised Frankenstein greatly.
"Isn't that prohibited?"
Epstein raised his finger to indicate.
"It is! But only on the home planet. On this planet, there is no such law. So we shouldn't fear things like creating impostors."
"We have lost 15% of our population in recent years. So using fake humans will help us avoid losing loved ones."
Frankenstein looked confusedly at his superior and the robot beside him, who seemed to understand that he was seeking an external response.
"There is no violation of human rights or anything similar, as the professor says. I can contact the high command to make a video call and suggest this proposal."
"Please do so."
"Understood."
Frankenstein sighed as he watched Epstein jump for joy like a little child.
◇◇◇
22 years have passed since then.
Epstein and Frankenstein have spent two decades researching the creation of new humans.
Due to technology, people extended their lives out of greed and because they didn't want to die.
But eventually, the body has a limit it can tolerate.
The estimated lifespan is 150 years.
At the moment, both are 53 years old.
The first process was opening Pandora's box of forbidden secrets and showing clones.
They were imperfect.
When creating them in test tubes, the growth process took 3 days, but their lifespan was only 2 months.
After several imperfect ones, they used artificial wombs.
The growth process took between 20-25 days, and a lifespan of over 2 years.
The clones were forgotten after many failures.
Then they used homunculi, beings created in human wombs.
Their development lasted a maximum of 50 days, and they reached up to 20 years of age.
The difference between clones and homunculi was that clones were physically weak, and homunculi developed a strange pathogen.
To go outside, they used masks with oxygen tanks on their backs.
The homunculi also used, as a core that served as their heart, a strange red crystal they called the philosopher's stone.
But even so, it was inefficient.
At the moment, Epstein was irritated.
He looked with frustration at a 2-meter-long tube that contained a creature inside.
It was a woman.
Her hair was blonde, and her ears were long.
"It's a failure."
Frankenstein, who was by his side, was reviewing some notes.
"Is it? It's a bit strange, yes, but I don't think it's a failure."
There were several long-eared women in other similar tubes with bright green liquid.
"It's just that I don't see much in them. I don't think they'll be useful to us."
"It's not our concern whether they are useful or not. They must serve on the battlefield."
"I'm going to eat; do you want me to bring you something?"
"An energy bar."
"I'll call you the crazy energy bar scientist at this rate."
"Puhh~."
◇◇◇
A few days passed. Frankenstein arrived at the room he used to work in.
Since it was a holiday, he hadn't come to work for a week.
He wanted a break.
Upon opening the door, everything was dark.
Except for one bright point in the back.
He pressed a button to turn on the light, and when it came on, he was frightened by what he saw.
There were strange images.
Numbers appeared, like coordinates of something.
Also a strange drawing of an eye and a kind of door.
Epstein was sitting in a corner looking at a small box.
Inside there was nothing, only a piece of cloth.
Frankenstein knew what that piece of cloth meant.
He said nothing, but Epstein spoke to him.
"Frankenstein, do you know what I discovered?"
He didn't respond, as he thought it was a rhetorical question.
But he was pulled and saw that Epstein's bright eyes were red.
"I made an incredible discovery! It's something I never thought possible... in fact, I still think it's a dream."
"No, it's not. If it were, I would have woken up and forgotten by now."
"Do you want to know? Okay, I'll tell you."
Epstein approached Frankenstein and whispered.
"I found the door to our questions."
"What door?"
Said Frankenstein, while Epstein smiled at him in a terrifying way to say something that would mark the fate of the entire republic.
"The door to something beyond our understanding."
Frankenstein's thought afterwards was:
If only I had stopped him... perhaps none of this would have happened.