Chapter 1: Prologue: Regular day; ir-regular activities

A loud blaring alarm woke Gregory up. who had been sleeping comfortably in the warm embrace of his bedroll in an improvised tent.

Startled awake, Gregory tried to search for the damnable clock but to no avail.

(Two minutes of eternity later.......)

He found it and stopped the constant buzzing with a sigh of relief.

While rubbing his hands together, Gregory could not help but grumble to himself.

Why was he even here in this dastardly place rather than drinking hot-chocolate coffee in his plush chair in his heavenly appartment?

But not long after, he recalled the work that needed to be done and couldn't help but become giddy with excitement and anticipation for what was to come.

***

Both Gregory and Shawn had binged on alcohol just other night. The reason?- none other than Shawn's breakup, which had happened a week ago. But their goals for drinking were entirely different: While Shawn's was to wallow into self-pity about how life was so unfair to him. Gregory's was that Shawn wouldn't shut the fuck up about his breakup for the entire week.

So to help Shawn lift himself up from his self-inflicted misery. Gregory decided to have a shift in locale and work.

As he thought, friends are there to help one another in times of need, right? But things didn't go as he had planned, and it quickly devolved into a full-fledged drinking competition; to the point of comparing who had the biggest junk of the two.

 

As for the after effects, that which he had been currently experiencing as of the moment are due to their little-adventure yesterday.

Feeling quite groggy, and experiencing a splitting headache which won't go away, he decided to take proper medications.

After a full session of medication and meditation he finally began to feel relaxed.

 

Following, Gregory began his daily routines, which included pushups, situps, and suryanamskara. While working in the corporate world, one must be familiar with exercising since one never knew when one might gain some extra 30 pounds. Even in 2060s, one problem continues to hound people that is obesity, which had became more prevalent day by day.

 

Feeling refreshed, Gregory strode outside, fully garbed like a mountain man. With his teeth chattering and shivering, he approached his stove and attempted to light the match.

But owing to this damp weather, the match strips became wet. Even last night's fire was put out by the wind and torrential rain outdoors.

After shuffling outside for some time with his nemesis, the match, he was eventually able to light and start the stove, and afterward, he proceeded to heat the water.

 

When he thought back on yesterday's events, a simple smile subconsciously emerged on his lips, and when he looked at his friend, who he found as always snoozing away without a care in the world.

So Gregory called him out loud; "Hey dude, wake up! We are already late for our reporting!"

However, no response came from within.

Shawn didnt even flinch when his AI tried to rouse him up.

Grumbling, Gregory could not help but mumble to himself, “He is well suited for his nickname in highschool as Kumbhakarna.”

 

Finally, giving up on his futile effort of waking Shawn up in humanly ways, Gregory decided to use an unorthodox method which he had developed in his free time that was to picking up water and splashing onto shwan's face and that he indeed did, he picked up the water canister and dumped it right on Shawn's face.

Since the water was left outside in the cold it was pretty cold and it finally caused a response. Shawn abruptly woke up and gazed about frightfully.

When he saw that it was only him and Gregory, he began cursing Gregory's hundred generations and their cruel ways of waking someone from their beauty sleep and as well as for spoiling his wonderful dream of dating Miss Lena.

When Gregory saw the indignant look on his face, he couldn’t help but chuckle, and as Shawn was getting ready to go to sleep again.

 

Gregory feigned loss at him, "Shawn, you know right today is the big B-day and you have to get ready fast, we are already running late for reporting. But if you don't want to go to the induction, you will certainly miss Miss Lena's speech and you wont be able to use those pickup lines you practiced on the way."

"If you want to be late, that's fine with me, we can simply wait for the weather to get clear and relax somewhat in this nice weather."

That got him going, really really fast.

He started to pack even more enthusiastically and started to cuss and berate Gregory for delaying.

After eating instant ramen and eggs. Gregory and Shawn packed their belongings and started to trek toward one of the highest mountains in the world.

 

Mountains as large as Himalayan ranges creates their own microclimates, so as Gregory and Shawn were scaling the mountain, it felt to them like the weather and the mountain itself had teamed up and were trying to hinder their path, elude them, so they wouldn't be able to unravel its wonder and mysteries.

The weather was rainy and chilly the whole way up, but right here at the peak of their destination, it was a freezing sunny day.

 

Despite waking up late, both arrived at their destination on time, and the area was buzzing with activity. The entire section of the mountain was packed with people, from archaeological research teams to reporters and even politicians. The discovery of the century made it much more delightful to people for coverage rather than the actual caves.

Most people came to the site by hover stabilizer jets, but people like Gregory and Shawn who could not afford such luxury had to come by foot.

People value reputation and entertainment more than invention at this time of the century. Most schools and high schools were forced to close at the end of 2040 because of a lack of students.

Nowadays, children tell their parents to shut up and let them do whatever they want as they earn more money than the rest of their family combined by making some entertaining videos.

It got to extreme levels to the point people started taking videos of themselves, even taking dumps. Lots of murders and robberies had been carried out to make something new and exciting. But in the those that did that got sentenced by their own hand's proofs.

Even more ironic fact is that people watched those videos by millions. And some of the influencers popularity was so high that government could not even afford to hold them in jails as that created even more ruckus.

This also had an adverse effect on Gregory's salary, as he had to look for lot of jobs here and there and finally getting stable job as linguist.

 

His internal monologue was interrupted by a guard who asked him for his identification documents.

Gregory carefully handed them his ID and the authorization documents that were needed.

As he was passing by the side gate, he noticed several reporters reporting on recent events regarding mountain and all the happenings. He leaned slightly in their direction just listen to learn some fresh titbits on the discovery of these caverns.

As expected, he heard some juicy information; "In the year 2080, the World Archaeological Congress (WAC) discovered deep branches of caverns in the mountain's interior here in the Himalayan mountain ranges. Which is located at a height of around 7000 meters above sea level. Additionally, they have discovered traces of an ancient civilization in these caverns. According to studies of the cave's paintings, this prehistoric civilization predates the Sumerian culture and is the oldest long-lost civilization ever discovered by humankind."

The caverns in these mountains are thought to be man-made; the entire portion of the caves was carved from top to bottom. It is even ridiculous to envision just how those folks in the Ancient Era's managed to carve mountains at such heights without the use of any advanced equipment or technology.

After meeting with their colleagues and getting relevant information about the caves and its branching system.

Shawn and Gregory both started moving towards their designated caves. While traveling, Gregory couldn't help but be in awe of the murals' intricate details and the precision with which they were created.

Both Gregory and Shawn are professors of linguistics who specialise in Sanskrit, Hebrew, Tamil, and nine other ancient languages.

Given that both had quite a good reputation in the field of language decoding, when they heard about the discovery of ancient prehistoric ruins, they received research contracts with ease.

As both were walking through the ruins, corridors, and intersections, there were organic candles and glow sticks placed at each junction, as these caves some-how interfere with electronic circuits, so modern equipment is not feasible in this environment.

That caused the use of torches and glowsticks rather than any light bulbs.

 

As they arrived at their alloted cave.......

Gregory could immediately see the difference between the caves that they had passed through on their way here and this cave; other caves had sigils flashing continuously on their sides. But here there was none; everything appeared broken or carelessly arranged, and there was not a single piece of art that drew his attention. Shawn was complaining about how they were given a broken cave when others were given better ones. Gregory, too, could not ignore the possibility that this was a blatant act of ageism.

But they couldn't complain about the task that was assigned to them; if Gregory made queries about the placement, he might get even kicked out instead of being listened to.

So they started their work by placing equipment in order not to affect the natural color or pigment of the murals; both of them also had to take various other preventive measures.

After all the setup and preparation,

Gregory and Shawn had a clear understanding of what they needed to interpret.

Shawn looked toward Gregory and said with a creepy smile, "Greg, no matter what you say, I will be the one who's gonna find what those jack-ass ancient's hidden behind these murals, and that discovery will definitely make me filthy rich, Nobel's not that far away I think!".

Gregory could not help but say in mock resignation, "Only you, hah!" to which Shawn shrugged, "No shit, bro. Someone has to be my assistant and count all that money, which I am gonna make, and that privilege will only be yours." He feigned punch on Gregory's shoulder.

Both started laughing at Shawn's terrible joke.

 

"Let's get started then," Shawn said to Gregory.

Gregory nodded and activated his trusted AI partner,

"Ava, sweetheart, could you please scan the carvings for me and provide me a distant comparison to the available data?"

 

[Scanning and Recording the Symbols and comparing data with available databanks]

 

[Processing information……..]

 

[Request for data access]

 

[<Request Accepted>]

 

[Comparing information with available data]

 

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[Matches with 08% Sanskrit, 02% Sumerian, 01.27% Persian……..]

 

[88.73% Unknown…….. No data available]

 

'holy crap' Gregory couldn't help but gasp, as he examined the statistics. They both compared their records several times and came to the same conclusion: this shit was going to take a very long time.

So the long days and sleepless nights of deciphering, comparing, and decoding began.

 

Days went by………

 

Gregory and Shawn were busy conducting their routine language decoding and room repairs one day. Similar to finding a hidden pattern in a word puzzle, Gregory noticed one in the paintings and sigils.

He pointed this out to Shawn and, after compiling and comparing both, had concluded that there might be some riddle behind a repeated symbol in this specific room.

So both started organizing those symbols in the right order. Many times they had to redo their work, but after confirming with their AI, they finally solved the puzzle.

As the final piece of the puzzle was placed in its right position.

Following results were not as they expected to happen.

 

First, there were mild vibrations; then the entire cave or even the entire mountain started to shake, and both of them started panicking. Shawn even started to hyperventilate. Vibrations continued to increase in intensity, and even it became hard to maintain a proper foothold on the ground.

 

Just as they had oriented themselves and were about to get out of the cave, the quaking caused a cave-in. As the cave shook, boulders from the wall got loose and started raining down.

One such boulder was directly aimed straight at Shawn's head.

Gregory could not even warn him as the sound of shaking was dampening his voice, so he resolved himself and pushed Shawn out of the way, towards the opening of the cave.

That bolder came straight onto his thigh and he collapsed like a sack of potato from the impact.

And the whole place collapsed right after and Gregory knew no more as he was consumed by darkness.

When Gregory came back to his senses again, he was in a whole lot of pain. There was not a single part of his body that didn't hurt. He tried to pat down his body, but he could not even focus properly; he had never felt such pain before in his life.

After a while, as he got accustomed to the pain he managed to reorient himself, and he was finally able to see the condition his body was in.

There was a deep laceration over his torso, from left shoulder to right hip. And his left leg was crushed by a rock. Seeing the condition of his body.

Gregory called out in hiccups and deep breaths to Ava.

“a‑ha, Ava, I__i_i reeeeequire a phyyyysical examinatinnn."

 

[Host's current condition severe:- three broken ribs, left tibia and fibula, severed, left shoulder dislocated, and internal bleeding in major and minor organs]

 

[Nanites are working to stop further worsening]

 

[Host is required to immediately go towards the nearest hospital for further inspection and medication]

 

[Contacting authorities……… Error]

 

[Electromagnetic interference detected]

 

Looking at the information on his injuries, Gregory could not help but feel despair creep in. He knew that with this much commotion, help would be on the way; but it might take weeks or even months to dig him out of the cave if they could even find him, and he just hoped Shawn survived the landslide.

Gregory had no time for panic. It wouldn’t fix his leg and would make it even worse. So he decided that he could panic later after getting out of here.

 

Just as he was thinking about how long his injured self could survive without water or food. He felt a faint breeze tickling his nose, and looking in that direction; he only saw a dark cave in the periphery of his vision; but there was a small gap on the left side of the cave, through which he could barely crawl in. He could not help but hoped there might be running water, or, even better, an opening, in there.

 

First things first: he has to lessen the pain and mend some of his injuries.

Greeting his teeth hard, Gregory commanded Ava

"Ava, direct all the nanites to staunch the bleeding and support the broken tibia, use nanites from the heart too. Permission granted on Al96 protocol."

 

[<Affirmative>]

(Six hours later)

After mitigating his wounds and mending broken bones. Gregory started slowly but painfully moving, first crawling, then walking with a supporting pole, which he found in some wreckage.

When he came to the opening, rather than seeing an air vent or running water, what he saw was a crown made of some intricate crystalline material, sitting atop a pedestal.

The most mind-boggling fact to Gregory was that the crown looked like it had grown from the column itself. An outsider observer would’ve been more boggled by how it also shifted in on itself as if it’s not a physical entity.

 

But when Gregory saw the crown, he forgot all the worries or the pain. He was captivated by the crown; so much so, that he even dropped his pole and started hobbling towards it.

When he was an arms-length from the crown, it started emitting dense rays of colorful light at him, enveloping him and coating the walls of the cave in a resplendent shimmer.

After being lit up, the cave started to shake again, strong enough that Gregory broke out of his stupor, not that he could see anything through the rainbow surrounding him. He tried to look around, frantically, as he didn't even know how he was in this situation; as he decided to get back, the rainbow surrounding him faded and he saw that the rocks that were showering down from the roof of the cave being blocked by the rainbow light coating the cave.

As he was mulling over how to get out of this dire situation; he heard a deep gong in his head.

 

{!!Requirements met!!}

 

{!!Consuming the soul and body of the physical entity to access genome code to break dimension!!}

 

{!!Process initiated!!}

 

Right after that, Gregory felt his whole body was being gnawed from the inside out, and he felt pain that he had never felt before; this pain was on a whole new conceptual level.

After struggling for a few seconds to escape from the ungodly grasp of this wicked crown to no avail. He was not even able to move a single muscle.

Trying futilely for a few moments which felt like hours; he failed to do anything, because of the immense pain coursing through him caused to pass out.

 

[Foreign energy detected!]

 

[Energy harmful to host’s body]

 

[Requesting to host’s permission to prevent energy from entering the body]

 

[Host is unresponsive]

 

[Necessary responses initiated]

[Energy harmful for host body, prevention measures under protocol × U390 initiated….]

 

Right after that, all the nanites in Gregory's body started gathering in the direction of the foreign energy to prevent it from intruding into his body. And as this was going on, it was like reality itself twisted. Gregory's body also started to break down, at the molecular level, and he was gone like that: poof, nothing left of him, not even memories; as if Gregory Clegane never existed in this world.

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