Do Androids Plan for Tomorrow? -2

Dark fabrics descended from all sides, like a stage with the lights turned off. He could see the stars twinkling in the night sky, like glass shards scattered across it.

In the pitch-black darkness, the fire in the stove that NB had lit cast a faint, hopeful light around them.

“Are you going to sleep?”

“…I’ll stay awake a little longer.”

It was the first night after the Dimensional Shift.

Sleep wouldn’t come easily, and the words Dimensional Shift, which NB had spoken, kept echoing in his ears.

“Then, shall we take a walk for a bit?”

NB, who had been gazing silently at Inho, stood up.

“Where to?”

“It’s not far.”

As he took the offered hand and stood up, he asked, and NB looked down and said.

NB led him down below the base.

They moved forward, relying on a small nightlight, and Inho stumbled dangerously several times on the uneven, natural stone steps.

Eventually, NB carried him down on his back. Contrary to NB’s words that it wasn’t far, they had to walk for quite a while.

“You said Dimensional Shift earlier. Explain it to me more.”

Each time NB took a step, his body swayed up and down.

“After the development of superconductors, technologies began to advance rapidly. Among them, research into this world progressed the fastest.”

“Research into this world?”

“Yes, humanity has always been curious. What is this universe, what is this world? That’s why they invented cars, airplanes, and even spaceships to leave this planet.”

NB explained the development of vehicles.

“What’s next after spaceships?”

“Spaceships launched into the sky by each country. One of those spaceships, which started unmanned and ended manned, discovered the end of the world.”

“The end of the world?”

“I ask Kang In-ho. Is the universe infinite? Or finite?”

“Infinite, isn’t it? It’s constantly expanding.”

“Everyone thought so.”

“But the spaceship discovered the end?”

“That’s right.”

“What happened next?”

The world is not infinite. The discovery that the world is finite must have had a significant impact.

“According to records, there was initial confusion. Many people couldn’t accept the fact that humans were the only intelligent beings in this vast universe.”

NB, having descended from the base, moved to a secluded area.

“But people emerged who saw beyond the end of the world, and humanity began to study something else.”

“Beyond the end of the world?”

NB moved aside some branches, revealing a hidden wooden plank. NB lifted it, revealing a huge passage leading downwards.

“According to the records of the spaceship that reached the end of the world, they couldn’t go any further, as if blocked by a transparent membrane. But there was some kind of space beyond that.”

“Like a game map, maybe.”

Something you can see but can’t actually go to.

“That’s right. Research into going beyond that was actively conducted, and one theory emerged.”

NB began to descend the stairs with Kang In-ho on his back.

“Is that the Dimensional Shift?”

The coolness of the underground ran down his back.

“That theory calls this finite universe a ‘dimension,’ and the movement between dimensions is called ‘Dimensional Shift.'”

“So, did that Dimensional Shift succeed?”

“It succeeded, but it failed.”

“What does that mean?”

“When they opened a dimension to send an unmanned spaceship to another dimension, huge rifts appeared all over the world.”

“Rifts?”

“Yes. They distorted as if cracks had formed in the air, and undefined things began to invade from there.”

“What are those?”

“Diseases.”

“Diseases?”

“Yes. Diseases began to spread throughout the world, and humanity took another step closer to extinction.”

“Is the reason for humanity’s extinction because of diseases?”

Each time NB continued to move, he felt something warm approaching.

“It’s one of the reasons. The biggest reason for humanity’s extinction was the depletion of the planet’s energy due to the continuation of dimensional research. The energy depletion shook the global market, and constant conflicts arose in various parts of the world…”

“So, they destroyed themselves.”

“That’s right. On top of that, environmental pollution became so severe that all regions except Aaru became wastelands.”

“I see. So, where are we going now?”

As the stairs gradually became gentler, NB bent down and put Kang In-ho down.

NB took his hand and pulled him forward.

The passage, intricately carved from stone, had wood added to it.

It felt like a dungeon from a fantasy comic.

As they passed through the passage, a warm heat came to Kang In-ho.

And as they emerged from the passage, what appeared before his eyes was a huge cavern.

“Wow….”

While squinting at the countless streams of light, he let out a soft exclamation at the magnificent sight that entered through the gaps.

A huge spaceship, difficult to take in at a glance, stood tall in the middle of the space.

“Dimensional Navigation Ship, CLBS-1283.”

NB’s finger pointed to the end of the huge spaceship.

“I found this place on the 12th anniversary of its activation. A spaceship for Dimensional Shift was hidden here.”

“So, you can use this to make a Dimensional Shift?”

“It’s possible if I fix this spaceship completely.”

“Is it broken?”

“I don’t have an engineering module, so I still can’t diagnose the condition of this spaceship. However, I’ve been repairing the spaceship based on the research data left here.”

“So, the junk you bring from Aaru is to fix this.”

“99% of the items I bring are useless, but 1% is used to repair the spaceship.”

“But why are you fixing the spaceship? Are you trying to make a Dimensional Shift?”

“I haven’t decided yet. I just wanted to see this spaceship working when I first saw it.”

NB put his hand on the railing.

“It was made for a purpose, so if it fulfills that purpose, wouldn’t this spaceship also have meaning?”

NB muttered, scanning the body of the unlit spaceship emotionlessly.

Kang In-ho felt like NB’s words were directed at himself.