LE V1 (Main) C8-2

Chapter 8 - What's expected of me - Part 2

TL: Eevee

Ed: Oer

"The level of the prehistoric civilisation is known by the scholar s.h.i.+n Chaeho's studies."

"The people of the prehistoric civilisation created stars in the sky and rode in carriages of steel that could move faster than tanks without horses nor oxen; there was no starvation even in times of famine, and food was so abundant that even commoners could afford to throw it away."

Pyongang continued after Flute.

"And they could annihilate faraway nations from where they sat."

The star in the sky meaning satellites, the metal carriage probably referring to cars and food wastage was a famous problem so I find myself nodding my head. But isn't destroying faraway countries impossible? Even one of biggest nukes, the Tsar Bomba, with it's 50 megaton output could only destroy a city. Well, the damage from the fallout and radiation would be much greater, but not to the extent that it would annihilate an entire country.

Or was that only figuratively speaking?

"Is it really true?"

"For the most part. Even Korea had satellites."

They'd used Russian rockets for the job, although a certain amazing person sold it to another country for a pittance.(1)

"The carriage that moves fast even without oxen or horses is probably referring to cars, I've got one of those as well. You've ridden it as well, Flute."

I hadn't finished paying it off yet, so I wondered if they'd brought it back safely. Although I wouldn't need to finish paying it off anymore, at this point it's going to be hard to get another so you can say it's one of a kind. Plus I was fairly possessive when it came to 'my things.'

The G.o.d named Sunang had ordered for it to be brought back without even a scratch, so maybe the people remaining had pushed it over? They'd gone to a fair bit of trouble. But what can I do? Rank is supreme.

In hindsight, the arrows that the Sambulcho or whatever had shot at me most likely were actually warning shots. Probably to avoid damaging the car. I feel kinda guilty now. If they'd told me in advance then I'd have calmly followed them.

"The problem of food wastange was a problem that even the state had headaches with."

I heard disposal fees cost thousands of billions(2) every year. But although not to the point of starving to death, there were definitely people who went hungry. You had the homeless, and others who for whatever reason couldn't get the basic state benefits.

"But I don't think you could destroy a country, hmmm…… Now that I think about it, Seoul could be destroyed whole, so it's probably not wrong by this world's standards? The surrounding regions would also turn into a land of death. But our country had no nuclear bombs."

Even North Korea's nukes weren't actually nuclear bombs but atomic bombs. Although no one knows the real truth.

"……So it was true."

"I thought it might have been exaggerated but it was actually real?"

Flute aside, I hadn't expected Pyongang to be surprised as well. I'd half-expected them to believe everything, but maybe it was due to the influence of the current era after all.

"How could such a thing come about? What led the prehistoric civilisation to develop like that?"

"Science."

I a.s.serted. The power of science.

Social affluence is brought on by culture, but material riches is brought about by science. What I'd mentioned previously were all the products of science.

Thank goodness. If that was the case then I might be able to do something at least. Worst case scenario the G.o.d called Sunang or Pyongang will probably help me, and even if I don't 100% live up to their expectations of me, at the very least I should be able to fill up some gaps in their knowledge.

"What's science?"

"Would you call it the systematic and formulaic a.n.a.lysis of natural phenomena? Something like that."

The true definition is ambiguous.

According to a certain someone(3), science is "the study of making the complicated as simple as possible, whereas literature does the complete opposite." Although personally, no matter how simply you put it, science is still stupidly hard. On the other hand, you can find some way to understand literature no matter how you say it.

"Does Jinsu know a lot about science?"

"I don't think I'd fall behind my peers at least? Because I'm an engineering student. In other words an engie."

My grades were on the okay side as well so I'm probably right.

Thank goodness. That I graduated from Engineering School. If I was an Arts student I might have had problems.

"What's an engineering student?"

"They call the study of how to apply science to be useful in daily life 'engineering,' and they call those who study engineering 'engineering students.'"

If someone asked me 'what exactly is engineering?' then I'd be troubled to answer. That's why science is normally divided up into two divisions, Natural Science and Engineering. Strictly speaking, Applied Science is a separate category of its own but most of the time it's lumped in with Engineering.

"By the way, in our country, people first enroll in primary school for six years when they're around 7-8 years old; once they graduate, they spend three years in junior high, and once they graduate again they spend another three years in high school; after that, they have to spend another two to four years in university. Our country was especially fanatic about education, so the majority graduated high school at least, and the majority of those people went on to university. They call students going to university 'university students.'"

"So you're telling me that you spent at least twelve years in that place called school? And the majority of the people did?"

The words "my goodness" were left unsaid.

"Yep. And if you wanted to study further, you had the option of postgraduate study, and if you still wanted to study more you could study for a doctorate. You'd be around thirty years old by then. Not many people go that far. In my case, I was going to graduate from university and try to get a job at a corporation."

But unfortunately, in the recruitment wars of the latter half of the year, I couldn't get a job at the company where I wanted to work, so I had been preparing for the recruitment opportunities at the start of the next year.

Since my father was a director at a major company he said he'd put in a good word for me, but I deliberately avoided applying there. In this day and age, if you get caught for something like that, both my father and I would be at risk, and I didn't want my efforts thus far to be looked down on. To be honest after failing to get a job at other workplaces I did kinda regret it a bit, but I was going to hold myself to that resolve for at least a full year.

Oi, what's with your gazes?

Pyongang aside, Flute was looking at me with awe as well.

"So Jinsu really was an amazing person."

"What's so amazing? You can find people smarter than me everywhere you go. My skills are just about average."(4)

I don't intend to sell myself short. But that's the truth.

Looking back at myself, I studied quite hard, and I think that my head is pretty decent; however, the world is overflowing with geniuses filled with talent, and there are a countless number of people that work harder than me. I'm not going to start bragging anytime soon.

"But it's only Jinsu."

"The only human still alive."

That's true…. The only human still alive is me.

Unlike other transmigration fantasy novels, no matter what I do…… I won't see my friends and family again.

Pyongang's words brought my mind back from the dream-like reality.

It felt depressing all of a sudden.

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(1) And that certain amazing person would be none other than former Korean President Lee Myung-bak, almost as famous for cronyism and corruption as his successor, who ended up getting impeached. In 2010, he sold the satellite Mugunghwa No. 3 for a pittance at 500 million KRW (approx. USD $430000) when it still had a decent operational life for at least 5-6 more years and valued at 100 billion KRW (approx. $86 million USD). Said satellite cost roughly 300 billion KRW (approx. $260 million USD) to build and launch. Relevant article: https://translate.google.co.nz/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://amn.kr/sub_read.html%3Fuid%3D16656&prev=search

(2) In KRW, ofc. Current exchange rates are going at approx. 1150 KRW to the USD, so do your own math.

(4) You mean like a certain 'perfectly average girl?' (No, not really)