As far as I can remember, from the days of my very early childhood, I was a very curious about stuff related to science and tech, filled with curiosity, I wanted to do everything I possibly could, whether it would be about becoming a tech genius who would discover inter galactic space travel technology and travel between different galaxies or becoming a tech genius who would at the very least reach the peak of Artificial intelligence and live my life surrounded by all the modern tech that i would discover or build in the future that would make my life worth living.
Sometimes I thought of making Time Machine to jump between different points in space time to visit the very distant future for what lies ahead or what kind of technology there might be developed in the next few centuries or in the very distant past to visit the early human era full of dinosaurs and dragons that might be roaming on the earth. I might see some huge plants bigger than the modern buildings or clear fresh water, beautiful landscapes and scenery stretching endlessly towards the very boundaries of horizons.
Those were some kind of thoughts that occupied most of my mind in the very early childhood days of mine, full of hope and enthusiasm, filled with positive attitude towards the world and myself and of what I could achieve in the not so distant future or what i would probably do in the next years of my life.
But life never goes the way we want it to be.
It didn't happen so suddenly that I didn't realise it but slowly and surely I realised that things that I want to do and the things that I can do are two different things.
I thought that we would learn about science and tech in our schools when we grow up but what we were doing now was cramming some formulas and books written by some nobodies who never even did a single scientific discovery, ppl who haven't even seen a single atom in their whole life were now teaching us what was atom and what was physics and chemistry.
Reality completely broke my heart and Imagination, it shattered the moment it met with reality.
"So, Mia, stand up and tell us, What is an Atomic Number?"
Mr. Roy scanned through the whole classroom with what seemed like his X ray vision and randomly picked up Mia, one of the Girl's topper or that's what she was famous for, because I couldn't see anything other than that she could have possibly achieved in her little to no presence of her school's life.
She stood up from one of the seats in front of the classroom with a cold expression on her face devoid of any human emotion. She carefully picked up that heavy textbook and as her pale, slender fingers moved across the printed lines she read that dense blocks of text.
"The total number of protons found in the nucleus of an atom is known as its atomic number"
She gently rested the book she held in her thin, pale hands and sat down back on her light brown desk.
Mr. Roy convinced with her answer once again started scanning through whole classroom to pick up his next vulnerable target to answer his next standard question. After scanning through the whole classroom his eyes landed on me sitting in front of the boys section.
As soon as my eyes met his gaze, I started looking down on my shoes as to avoid his question because it's not the first time it's happening but it's now a daily schedule.
I don't know if other students are just too dumb to answer these simpleton questions or is this teacher fixated on me and her to answer all his questions every single day because he knows it that all his questions will be answered here.
"What is Mass Number?" He asked me the very moment I tried to avoid his gaze.
The whole classroom started looking at me, because they knew Mr. Roy was looking in my direction and just like every other day, I was trying to avoid getting picked up.
"Hey you, yeah you Ansh, the one who's buried his head on his desk. Get up", as soon as he said it, the whole classroom burst out in laughter as it was their daily comedy show.
I stood up without any book in my hands with a little smirk on my face as to blend in the mood of the classroom.
"Mass Number - The total number of protons and neutrons combined inside the nucleus of an atom".
As soon as I said it, their was gentle smile on my face, like it was nothing, like I was a genius who knew almost everything and it was just toddler stuff, beginner knowledge they were asking me about.
Thinking about all this as soon I started feeling a little happiness inside my chest, I started hearing a voice in my head, my world started getting distorted and it felt like the reality in front of my eyes was glitching.
[…]
"Captain, wake up, we still got a lot of beasts to slay in front of us."
I opened my eyes in that dark and dreary atmosphere, bathed in crimson red light, filled with the stench of the rotten flesh, and blood spilled all over the ground with monsters corpses' devoid of any life.
I pulled myself up with my back still hurting a little like it was hit by some heavy impact on the floor, my legs still numb and my body devoid of even a single ounce of energy.
My hands gently went over my waist as I stretched out my chest as to start fresh yet once again after doing the same work for god knows how many hours.
I picked up my blood rusted sword and for one last time looked at the crimson moon hanging above our heads before heading out in the battle once again.
"Rin how long was I out for?", I asked the guy who woke me up the question while riding together back to the battlefield.
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