[When gravel cuts the palm and flame comes into view, it becomes them.] ——[The Stone Age]
...
My name is Adam. I'm a time traveler. The good news is, I've traveled into another dimension. The bad news is, in this timeline, hundreds of millions of things are wrong.
"Why is this the Stone Age?"
They don't seem to have moved beyond the category of beasts. At best, they possess a spark of primitive awareness—baring teeth and claws upon the earth, living in groups. Even their polished stone tools are crude; they simply tie any rock they can find to a wooden stick, hoping to make a sharper weapon.
He became more and more convinced: he had truly arrived in the Stone Age.
But Adam wasn't going to complain about his misfortune, wondering why he hadn't ended up in an ordinary timeline, become a copycat, latched onto a beautiful girl, and lived a happy, everyday life.
Fate was always the same. He quickly accepted this reality and began to think about what he needed to do to integrate himself into the human race of this era.
He looked at the people of this land.
Oh no!
Even if they didn't need to fear all that, they would still worry about food. After all, hunger is a suffering deeply ingrained in human genes.
Adam watched those who were hunting. Though they were still far from the concept of "human," he had no other choice.
In the end, besides them, where else could he find other beings with intelligence?
Aliens?
Gods?
Or was he simply... an exception?
Adam's mind was in turmoil. He still hadn't figured out what identity he would use to face his own kind in this world.
But one thing was unavoidable: he would eventually meet them.
The center of their lives was flame.
The flame was guarded within a cave. Ash piled up like mountains, and they constantly added wood to keep it from going out.
Because fire could instill fear in other beasts, allowing people to escape the darkness of ignorance, and making food more delicious and safer to eat...
Thus, the Keeper of the Flame was the strongest person in the tribe. He didn't need to hunt; his people gathered berries and hunted prey for him, all to prevent the flame from being extinguished or stolen by other races.
After all, not all races could possess fire, and not all races could keep it burning forever.
In their eyes, Adam was a true outcast.
If Adam hadn't had a torch...
This sparked a flicker of doubt in them. They couldn't understand how a man with a torch could be alone. So Adam could only smile, holding his weapon in a threatening gesture, his gaze fixed on the man beside the natural stone platform.
He was the strongest in the tribe. It was he who had brought back the flame, born by chance when lightning struck a giant tree. He was also the first to lead the Firebearers on hunts, and he was the one who proposed the method of preserving fire.
It was all because of fire...
And now, how could a man not dressed in animal hides, strangely clad, holding a torch high, not be terrifying?
So the strongest of the tribe, fear in his eyes, let out a threatening roar. The people around him began pounding the ground with their stone weapons, shouting along with their chief.
Adam didn't care. He simply extinguished the torch in his hand.
Seeing this, the people grew even more frightened. Some even began to lose their minds, letting out desperate howls.
Such was the way of their race.
No one played with fire, not even the chief.
The leader, the one the people obeyed.
A small miracle. A great gift.
It was impossible to imagine that in the future, there would truly be gods who could bring the dead back to life.
The chief held a stone spear, vastly different from the other crude weapons. It was carefully ground and sharpened.
He gripped the spear tightly, arched his back, assuming a posture ready to pounce at any moment, and let out a guttural roar.
To drive out the uninvited guest who blasphemed the flame.
Until Adam pulled an unknown gadget from his pocket—one that future generations would give a familiar name: a lighter.
The people were shocked by this sudden movement. The leader prepared to lunge immediately.
But then, they saw flame born in Adam's hand.
Fire!
The flame that had appeared when thunder from the sky struck a giant tree—now it materialized from nowhere in Adam's palm.
Though the flame was very faint, like a small ember that could go out at any moment, it was still fire.
A small miracle. A great gift!
Their gazes no longer held disgust, no longer terror, but reverence... A reverent gaze fixed upon Adam.
They watched as Adam, with that faint flame, reignited his torch and handed it to the chief of the tribe—the very man who, moments ago, had been ready to fight him to the death.
"Are you... fire?"
Adam didn't understand why he suddenly understood these people's language. Before this, he had only heard roars and growls.
But he wasn't going to dwell on that question, nor did he answer the people's inquiry. Instead, he said, "Humans should not be beasts. Still less should they be bound to the earth. We are children of the stars, and we shall go forth into the sea of stars, to..."