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."A toy like this? I'm going to break your jaw. 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.
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Julius commented, "Man, are you really from the twenty-third century? I always thought you were a genius ahead of your time, but you really amazed me!"
As Julius spoke, Noor was staring at the model with her eyes sparkling with passion. Surely, this was every child's dream to see such things. But it was so close to me. "Uh... please, move back a little if you don't mind." I tried to gently push her away, but she was too engrossed. It was a shock to me. How could a child ignore me like this? But then again, she's just a kid."آه... من فضلكِ، ابتعدي قليلًا إن أمكن."حاولت ....إبعادها ثم
But if her brother wasn't around, I would have pushed her away like shooing an insect off my body. Wait, where was her brother all this time? I turned to Julius and saw him making gestures of indifference, as if saying he wasn't present. Then Julius turned back to me, giving me a thumbs-up as if saying, "Take the opportunity to get closer to her."
I made a face showing that I refused. "No, no, no! Aren't you supposed to move your sister away before I get annoyed?" But he showed me a face full of relief, as if it was okay.
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3
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Ah, how stupid of me! And suddenly, we collided with something...
Actually, it was nothing. We reached the surface. I ordered them to prepare for the next task. Each of us moved to the side of the tank and moved all the food and other things. The purpose of this operation was to try to direct the exit opening downward, so that air wouldn't escape when opening the tank.
When we finished, Julius prepared to exit and secure the tank with the help of 016, while each of us got ready to open the hatch and enter the water. We started changing our clothes. My body was yellowed from too much exposure to the sun, and extremely thin, almost like a zombie. As for Julius, when he removed his jacket, it began to sag with the bending of his muscles. His body was like that of a warrior, toned with slightly tanned skin, and he liked to train in the sunlight.
As for his sister, she was frankly strange. She was delicate at her extremities, like her hands or legs, and very pale with some pink at the joints. What struck me was that she was 10 years old! Isn't that right? But her chest was larger than the average for girls her age. There was something odd when she started removing her shirt.
Maybe I was exaggerating in my observation, as signs of embarrassment were clear on her. But unexpectedly, I noticed a strip of bandages falling from her lower back, extending a few meters on the ground beside her foot. I understood that she was trying to hide their size from others.
At that moment, memories flooded my mind of when some students used to bully me back in middle school. I thought she might be suffering too, as a girl who could have faced some harassment from those jerks.
My thoughts were interrupted by the assistant's message, informing me that it had scanned the area and found no marine creatures threatening our lives. We counted to three: "One, two, three!" and then opened the hatch.
It was a shock. As soon as we opened the tank, we were met with a scene that struck terror into every creature's breath. Hands, legs, limbs, eyes, and faces were crushed, with reddish water around the floating debris, and some wreckage scattered around us. My heart began to race, and I felt a bit of exhilaration.
I turned to Julius with a strange, hysterical laugh. Yes, I had some psychological disorders from my childhood, like sadism and enjoying the sight of living creatures being torn apart. But Julius hit me and then shouted loudly, "Not now, Ali, please! Not now! Get a hold of yourself!"
After this ordeal, I regained my composure and shouted at my watch, "016, you damned robot! Didn't I tell you to check for dangers around us? Did you get damaged somewhere in your damned circuitry?"
016 responded, "Lord Ali, I have already scanned all body patterns around us, and there are no neural messages or vibrations indicating the presence of living creatures."
Julius patted my arm, saying, "Ali, he's not at fault. He can't understand that this is a disgusting sight. Even if he could, he wouldn't be able to change the result. He's just a robot."
Suddenly, 016 replied, "Sorry, Mr. Julius. Although I may appear to you like any other robot, this is an insult to me. I am one of the latest models created by Lord Ali and Miss Emilia, and you could say I am the first of my kind in the whole world. I can understand and analyze human emotions better than they can, but I struggle to explain emotions in mathematical equations. Other than that, you could say I am the first of my kind in various fields..."
Despite that, everything around me seemed blurry. I was overwhelmed with terror. Was it possible that my darker side had awakened after so much exhaustion and attempts to get rid of it? Julius grabbed me and said, "It's okay, I'm with you now."
I began to relax a bit, and the terror faded from my features. I remembered how Julius played a role in concealing my sadism. Then I recalled that 016 was created after my recovery, so he didn't know about my psychological illness. "Ah, shut up for a moment. I get it, alright. I'm sorry for my outburst." I apologized while thinking logically about 016's explanation.
"Programming error, please repeat what you said, Lord Ali. Did you apologize, or did the water block the message?"
"Yes, I really did apologize. Is that strange?"
016 replied, "This is the first time I've heard that word, and now it will enter Lord Ali's lexicon, so I was surprised."
Julius laughed loudly, "Haha, even the robot is surprised! Haha."
"Mr. Julius, I have a name that I value because Lord Ali gave it to me. Could you please use it?"
To Julius's shock, he said, "Really... you're strange. You join conversations on your own and you really have consciousness. I don't feel like I'm talking to a robot."
"Anyway, I'll start the procedure. I hope we can work together smoothly, 016."
"Understood, Mr. Julius," 016 replied.
After Julius dived, I turned to Noor. She was overwhelmed with fear, her face pale, staring at the water filled with red masses of meat from various creatures. I realized she was just an ordinary girl. She couldn't get used to these sights quickly like her strong brother or me, the madman.
I tried to touch her, and as soon as I did, she collapsed to the ground, and the tank began to shake. I realized her legs couldn't support her, let alone swim with them. I held her close, and she immediately started crying.
She couldn't handle it. I hugged her tighter until she calmed down, then decided to take on her task instead. It was good that the water was stable, so the raft wouldn't drift away. I decided to leave her in the tank and leave my watch with her so I could contact her through 016 if something happened while I finished the task.
We started the procedure, which was going smoothly until the water began to churn and hit some wreckage. This caused the tank's balance to falter, and the worst scenario occurred: the tank tipped over and began losing air and sinking downward.
I shouted at the top of my lungs, "Noor, get out of there, it's dangerous! Noooor!"...