Chapter 240.
<strong>Chapter 240. The Valentine’s Day School Dance: Dance Monkey. (4/4)</strong>
<span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, indeed, indeed! I couldn’t have said it better myself. How rare, to see a first-year high school boy with such cold and bold opinionated views. It seems we might have a bit inmon in terms of how we think. It is quite an unexpected surprise to meet such a young boy.”
<span style="font-weight:400">She pped happily when I finished and sported a smile for the first time since we met.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Though I can see your point of view, in regards to the sr storm. Things wouldn’t necessarily y out the way you imagine it would. It’s entirely possible humans could survive.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes, honestly humans would likely survive and get through it. But personally, I just don’t have a very high evaluation of humans. We’rezy in nature and can’t deal with boredom. If a strong enough sr storm hit, and the inte was gone for a year or longer, I’m sure I’d be the first one tomit suicide out of boredom. There might be fiber optics that aren’t affected, but if power grids werepletely fried despite our best efforts to protect them, it would be a long time before things get back to normal.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Semiconductors would be one of the greatest limiting factors in everything. If all the semiconductors were fried, we’d have to go through a very long process just to make more. Creating a batch of semiconductors can take three months alone. But what if the facilities that produce them themselves are all damaged and need to be repaired, or in the worst case, need to be rebuilt from the ground up? That would be the absolute worst-case scenario, a terrifying one.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“There are just so many potential dangers of a powerful sr storm. That is why humans need to spread their wings and fly. By doing so, our chances of survival in this cold merciless universe would increase.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“But sr res aren’t even the final boss of nature. They’re honestly just cute puppies trying to y with the weak little baby birds. There’s still the threat that we may be in a race against other civilizations out there. It may very well be an inteary space race between species for all we know.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“In all likelihood, from a statistical standpoint, there is life out therepeting against us. We don’t know for certain whether they would be friends or foes. The only way we can ensure our own safety is to be the first. If we can set the ground rules, that would be the ideal situation. If we’re beaten, but they’re friendly, then that would be great. But if they’re not… then war may be our only option if talking is not an option.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“We could be an enved species, or we could even face extinction. Who knows? That’s why humans need to regain a sense of urgency. Climate change isn’t our enemy for us to fight against. It’s the power of our strongest ally, a form of pressure the mother that birthed us is putting on us to help our species be stronger.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Bravo. You should be a politician. I think you’d benefit humanity a lot more than the pathetic spineless cowards who are in power now. If I were an English teacher, I’d give you full marks if that was for a speech you had to give.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Thest slow song this time around came to an end and a new song started. This time it was a nightcore version of Fearless pt.II by Lost Sky. The beat was pretty solid.
<span style="font-weight:400">Wait. A sudden realization hit me. Forget the song, how the hell did this happen? Why am I suddenly getting along with my AP Biology teacher like we’re long-time friends?
<span style="font-weight:400">How did this even start again?
<span style="font-weight:400">Ah. Damn it, it was that kiss! How’d I get caught up in her pace? Oh… right… virology.
<span style="font-weight:400">To think, my biology teacher specialized in virology. Honestly, it was quite a shock.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Hey, Ms. Gene, if I said there was a virus that could make you live forever, what would you think?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I’d think you were messing with me. Where’d thate from all of a sudden?”
<span style="font-weight:400">I leaned on the edge of the railing and watched my two girlfriends slow dancing together as the song Speechless by Dan and Shay started to y.
<span style="font-weight:400">With distant eyes, I responded nkly, “Nowhere really… I just thought... it was sad that we probably wouldn’t live long enough for humans to colonize space and we’d never see extraterrestrial life with our own eyes. By the time that happens... we’d either be too old... or already six feet under. I wonder… just what life would be like in a couple hundred years. Would humans still be… alive? Or... would we be... extinct?”
<span style="font-weight:400">My body slumped down further until my chin touched down on the back of my ovepping hands. In myst life, it was always something that had me depressed.
<span style="font-weight:400">I unconsciously stretched my left arm out over the railing and muttered out my true thoughts, “It’s so far out of reach. Too far to grab hold of within a single generation. Life is… too short… too fragile… But that ephemeral irradiant spark is what gives life value.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Dreams... are a beautiful thing. But sometimes... the unattainability of those far-off out-of-reach dreams are soul-crushing.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I shut my open outstretched left hand and continued, “Impatience gets the best of us all… unable to wait, we know our time is limited. Thus, we struggle against our fate, fully aware of the futility of the act.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yet… we still resist. We walk forward atop the innumerable dead bodies beneath our feet. The lives that came before us, the countless sacrifices that got us to where we are today. Just as our great ancestors once did, and their great ancestors before them did; we climb. One step at a time. To new heights once thought unattainable. We surpass the previous generation before us and grow. We may stumble and fall along the way. But we get back up, learn from our mistakes, make adjustments, and climb again. That endless cycle is life.”
<span style="font-weight:400">With it, I pushed off the railing and took a seat as yet another song came to an end.
<span style="font-weight:400">I hadn’t noticed, but Ms. Gene had fallen silent. When I nced in her direction and saw her face, I was shocked. Tears were flowing down her cheeks like a river. I don’t think she even realized she was crying.
<span style="font-weight:400">It was only when she felt something wet soaking herb coat that she raised a hand and touched it that she asked, “Huh? Myb coat is wet? Why?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Maybe you were drooling or something.” I shrugged,id down on my back, and pretended I had no idea.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Your chronic illness, what is it?” She suddenly asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Who knows.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“What do you mean? Are you saying doctors don’t even know what it is?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well, you could say that.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Is it something that shortens how long you have to live?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Maybe it is.” For all I know I might need souls to keep living. If being a devil was considered a chronic illness, maybe I wasn’t lying and just didn’t realize it.
<span style="font-weight:400">I still don’t know whether I was a devil the first time around or whether I only became a devil this second time through. That was still an unsolvable mystery to me.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Your reluctance to neither affirm nor deny leads me to believe it is.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Think what you want. It’s not like it matters.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“It does matter. I think I’ve found the motivation to keep trying. I’d long resigned myself to defeat after everyone rejected my work, but… I’ll do it. I’ll show the world that I’m not wrong. In my lifetime, I will create that super virus. With it, that chronic illness of yours won’t mean a thing.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Hah? What? Wait, wait a minute, teach. What the hell are you going to create now? Did I hear that right? A super virus? Huh? Did I… perhaps do something really bad? A mistake that could have a drastic impact on the future?
<span style="font-weight:400">While I toiled internally to myself sweating nonstop, Ms. Gene headed down the stairs and abandoned her lookout duties.
<span style="font-weight:400">I screwed up here.
<span style="font-weight:400">A virologist was a very dangerous profession, a single one could have an effect on the entire world. They could be a boon or a bane to mankind. This teacher seemed like she would fall into thetter category. She was the reckless type, that was the impression I had of her.
<span style="font-weight:400">Well, it had nothing to do with me. I’ll just wash my hands clean of this mistake and act like it never happened.