Chapter 241.
PART 1.
Hatori is observing the adaptation of the animals to their habitats. So far, for being resurrected creatures, they are not showing any unusual signs. Given that they live in their original environment, Hatori does not expect them to die out suddenly.
However, the environments in his dimension are not static. They are also changing constantly. The entire project was very interesting for Hatori. The world is like an operating system, while the various habitats are like virtual environments. Each time a change occurs in a species, the system saves it and shifts it into its own environment. That way, Hatori can observe all the branches of evolution, even if some of them are dead ends.
‘Looks like everything is working fine. I don’t see any errors in the logs.’ He thinks. ‘Now to make sure those raptors don’t escape too outside, again.’
The city nearly had multiple raptors arriving at it, but Hatori worked hard to make sure that they didn’t escape into the real world. Those creatures are evolving at a fast pace, and their intelligence is also increasing very fast.
‘At this rate, I might need some way to accommodate them if they reach the human level intelligence. But that is quite far away.’
After he was done with his observations, Hatori worked on adding new habitats, and new species of that era. So far, he has gotten a lot of animals from the dinosaur era and before, but now, he wants to add the animals after the end of the domination of the dinosaurs.
He comes out of the teleporter and then goes to his room. Unknown to Hatori, the spirit of the house is observing him. The spirit observes how Hatori is designing some runes. The spirit does not understand what the purpose of these runes is, nor it does care to understand. Its function is simple: guard over this house, and help out its members.
After two hours of constant work with the strange symbols, Hatori then goes to another room in the house. This one was newly created after the house was expanded. This room is in an isolated part of the house, and once the door is closed, the person inside is cut off from the outside world. Only the spirit of the house has access to this room after the door is closed.
Hatori sits down in this room right in the center and starts to channel lightning throughout his body in various ways. The flow of current is so strong that the enforced tiles of the floor and roof are scorched by it. The damage is superficial, it is nothing for the spirit of this house. It can fix it with a snap of its fingers. After a final burst of lightning, Hatori’s body stops sparking, and he comes out of the room. He starts to walk towards his lab once again with some purpose, but the spirit has enough.
Manifesting itself in front of the master of this house, the spirit gives Hatori an impressive glare. “What are you doing?”
“Some yantras are waiting for delivery. I need to go over the enchantments.” Answered Hatori, while thinking why exactly the spirit of the house was questioning him in this way.
“No. you are not doing any such thing.” It commanded.
“What?” asked Hatori in surprise.
“You are going to take a break.” It declared.
“But—” Hatori tries to argue.
“But nothing.” The spirit teleports him outside of the house and closes the door on his face. “Come back when you are relaxed, and can think of something else besides work.” Said the spirit from inside.
Hatori looks at the door, confused. On one hand, he could easily overpower the spirit, and get his way. But on the other hand, he does not wish to do that. Brute force is not an answer to every time someone defies you. Besides, the spirit has good intentions, Though Hatori does not know how exactly he can relax.
“Dad?” asked Sushima, coming from outside. “What are you doing outside?”
“I’ve been kicked out by the spirit,” said Hatori.
Sushima finds this funny, but he cannot laugh. His father is sporting a rather confused look on his face, he has never seen him like this before. “Why? Has it decided to go rogue?”
“No. it wants me to relax.” Said Hatori.
“Then go do that,” said Sushima. “I mean, if I can spend time with my friends over the summer, then surely you have some people you can hang out with?”
“That is an excellent suggestion.” Smiled Hatori. After ruffling his hair, Hatori leaves. “Looks like it is time that I remind some old friends that I am not dead.”
PART 2.
Sushima meets with his mothers and shares the strange experience he had with his father in the afternoon. “He decided to meet with his friends. He was very excited about it. Though I don’t know why he was so confused.”
“He gets like that sometimes,” said Ravina. “He likes to work.”
“Yes. it is our responsibility to remind him that there are other concerns when he drowns in his work.” Said Daphne. “You did a good job. I think you deserve some extra sweets; don’t you think?”
“Sure.” Said Ravina.
Sushima is happy that he got a compliment. But he is not a good boy. ‘Looks like I need to cause some problems to make sure they don’t think too good of me.’ he starts to plot the latest chaos in his mind, all the while enjoying the sweets given to him by his mothers.
PART 3.
Ajay sighs in tiredness. Another day of teaching is over. Another day is done, where he has to teach the students how to generate the code. Most of them don’t even understand what is coming out of their commands. After the companies lost their shit in the mid-20s, what with their practices of paying peanuts for entry-level jobs, where the skill has to be senior level or mid-level, this caused a bubble.
The older developers did not have time to train their juniors, and the juniors moved on to other places, leaving the IT field entirely. The senior developers then retired or left their jobs after being burned out, this resulted in a complete collapse of the industry, as generations worth of knowledge was lost. They are still reeling from the impacts of that bad decade to this day.
When AI came to the scene, it changed the entire field. Now it was possible to generate the code, but since people of that time knew the code, they were able to debug that code. But now, every day Ajay hears about problematic code where no one knows how to fix the security holes.
As a result, teachers like him are highly valued, since they were the last generation who actually typed the code, and knew what they were doing. But every year, Ajay finds himself more and more disconnected.
Coupled with his responsibilities as the principal of the school, the burden of work is overbearing. ‘Just one more year, and then I’ll leave.’ He says to himself, but he has repeated this phrase multiple times in the last ten years.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Sir,” said his secretary. “There is someone here to see you.”
“The meeting times are over.” He said in reply. “Are they a parent of some student?”
“Not at all.” Said a deep voice. Ajay looks up, to see his secretary being covered in the shadow of a large man, who has to duck to get inside of the room.
“Sir, I told you to wait.” Said the secretary, turning around and giving this large man a glare.
“It’s fine, let him come in.” Said Ajay. “Since he is already inside, might as well hear him.”
“Fine.” She snapped and started to leave.
“Why don’t you take an off early today?” said Ajay. “I don’t have anything scheduled for the remainder of the day.”
“I’ll leave in an hour. I need to process some student complaints.” She sighed and then left the office.
Ajay then motions this large man to come and take a chair in front of his desk. He looked down on those chairs and sneered. “Not good for my size.” He grumbled.
However, Ajay was alarmed to see a chair coming into existence. There is no way this man was carrying such a large spinning chair on him, and Ajay knows that he has no such chair in his office or anywhere in the school. Maybe spinning ones, but not such big ones.
“Now, that is what I call a proper chair.” Smiled the man. “You’ve done wonderfully for yourself. It took me a while to track you down though.”
“Is that so? And why did you do that?” asked Ajay.
“Because you have yet to beat me in a fighting game.” Said the man.
“What does that supposed to mean?” he asked. The man looks a little bit familiar, but Ajay does not remember meeting a man who is around six foot nine inches tall and has these artificial-looking eyes.
“You have forgotten me.” said the man. “I am Hatori. Do you remember now?”
Ajay’s eyes widen after hearing that name. “No way,” he said. “You can’t be him.”
“I am.” Said Hatori. he then begins to recount all the memories he has of his school days, and Ajay has to admit that no one else knows these things apart from himself, some other friends from his childhood, and Hatori.
“But where did you disappear to? We searched for so long. Your parents were never the same after you disappeared.” Asked Ajay.
“Long story.” Said Hatori. he gives him an explanation about magic, but does not tell him about the war, or how exactly he ended up in that dimension.
Ajay has no other choice but to believe him, since he saw him conjuring up a chair just a few minutes ago. “Anyway, I hear you are teaching programming now.”
“Don’t get me started on that. the entire field has been destroyed.” Said Ajay. “I never realized what was going on during our childhood. It only hit me when I entered the industry.”
“Tough.” Said Hatori. “And you still persist with teaching. Why?”
“Why not? It’s not like I’ll do that for too long anyway. I’m in my fifties already, I don’t have the energy I once used to have.” Said Ajay.
“True. What do you say to learning a few of my tricks?” asked Hatori. “I’m sure it’ll be a great challenge. It will keep you on your toes during your old age.”
“So funny.” Said Ajay. “How the hell do you look like you are so young? If it weren’t for your height, I would say you are in your mid-twenties.”
“Magic,” smirked Hatori.
“Dammit.” Cursed Ajay. “You know what? Screw it. I need a drink. Are you coming?”
“Yeah fine.” Said Hatori. “I suppose I have to drop you at your house once you are drunk enough.”
“I don’t drink that much,” said Ajay, getting the keys to his office. After informing his secretary, he leaves the school.
“Why is the city so desolate?” asked Hatori.
“Oh, nothing. The majority of the people now work from their houses, so they don’t feel the need to come to a city like this one,” said Ajay. “Still, things are not that bad. Though property market has still not recovered after the bubble burst.”
“Looks like you had some crazy times,” said Hatori. ‘Though I bet they were not as bloody as my time.’
“You have no idea.” Said Ajay.
“The same can be said in my case. You have no idea what I’ve gone through.” Said Hatori.
“Hopefully, it won’t be forced cyberization.” Said Ajay, pointing to Hatori’s artificial-looking eyes.
“Oh no. These are designed by me,” said Hatori.
“How?” asked Ajay.
“Magic,” smirked Hatori.
“You’re gonna troll me all day long, aren’t you?” asked Ajay in reply.
“You got it!” smiled Hatori.
“You haven’t changed much.”
“The same is true for you. you are still a workaholic.” Said Hatori.
“Look who’s saying that. I remember how you used to drown yourself in the studies.” Ajay fired back.
“Well, that was because the code was interesting. Everything else I ignored.”
PART 4.
While Hatori is busy meeting his old friend, some developments are happening in the Subcontinent of the Mage Dimension.
While some parts have not changed much, the other parts have changed a lot. The grip of the noble families is now broken. Every area has to send a representative to the king’s court, and these members are elected by the public.
While some nobles have managed to be elected, most of them have found themselves unable to adapt to these changes. The latest elections are now beginning, and Ishwar Chandravanshi is preparing to fight in these elections for the first time.
PART 5.
The events are proceeding in the court of Avinash. His plans of linking up with the other side are going well, so he decided that it is time that they actually try to form a greater understanding of that world. Starting with Zhongguo.
Avinash chose that because the Subcontinent of the other side has some tensions with Zhongguo. So, if they can understand them better, they will be ready to react if anything unusual happens. For this purpose, they decide to read the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. While a novel may not give them a proper understanding of the Zhongguo of that side even if it is based on real events, Avinash thinks it is still going to give them an idea of how the people think.
At first, the novel caused a huge debate in the court. It was about whether Zhuge Liang was a mage or not. The Zhuge Liang who is the ambassador to the Subcontinent disputes this.
“I think he was good at predicting things. But he was not a mage. I can’t cause havoc like he did.” He spoke.
“Maybe you are not trying hard enough?” taunted Maria, another ambassador.
Before the argument could erupt, Avinash distracts them. “Anyway, let’s go to the end. There aren’t many chapters left.”
The ending was one hammer blow after another. So many characters died one after another, and the main characters and their descendants never achieved their goal. This caused the entire court to cry.
Meanwhile, some young girls and boys, tasked with serving the court quietly sneak away. They could not believe that the people in charge of this country had such soft hearts.