Chapter 150: About The Past
The old man looked at Dhruv as if he didn’t understand what he meant by, ’Old man, tell me how things happened from the start...’
’Does the lord want me to tell him how I got captured by the gang... or something else,’ the old man tried to guess, but he couldn’t understand. So, he turned to look at his lord and asked,
"I’m sorry, but I don’t think I understand what you mean, My lord," the old man said, not hesitating to address Dhruv as Lord.
"What I mean was, tell me how things had happened before the start of the evolution and how it progressed from there on," Dhruv said, clarifying his interest.
"From the start?!!" the old man looked at Dhruv as if wanting a second confirmation.
"Yes, from the start," Dhruv pressed.
"O-okay!!!"
With slight hesitation, the old man took a sigh and began to explain how things went downhill...
"I don’t remember exactly the day, but approximately one year before the start of the evolution, the military presence in the city began to increase significantly.
They would randomly remove someone from their houses and would begin to guard that area. This has happened many times throughout the city. And if anyone were to ask the previous owner of the house anything, the answer they would get was that there was some kind of infestation that had happened in their house...." The old man paused as he now understood the reason behind this action.
’So, they had also known about the dungeons and were removing people while guarding the area around the crack. Doesn’t that mean the one who was guarding the crack would absorb the mana and become the chosen one in the process,’ Dhruv thought, once again enlightened about the extent of the government’s knowledge and power.
’But the effect wouldn’t be that great, as the mana would be distributed among everyone present there... right?’ Dhruv thought. He controlled his thoughts and refocused on the old man.
"...At that time, if they had told us about the existence of the dungeons, maybe we would have been better prepared..." The old man sighed.
He was about to blame the government but instantly stopped speaking when he remembered that they had a seven-day time frame before the start of the real hell, the second quest, and yet they were unable to achieve anything.
"As time progressed, the military presence increased, and the reason they had given was that there is some sort of virus which is appearing due to some bizarre reason, and that’s why we have to quarantine that place as soon as possible," the old man explained.
The old man looked at Dhruv and said, "You must be wondering, my lord, how the government was able to convince us with this bullshit reason, right."
With slight hesitation, Dhruv nodded as he indeed was thinking about this.
"I had heard somewhere that if the lies are told enough times, they eventually become the truth, and that’s exactly what the government did. Almost 24/7, they would show us made-up horrible effects of the virus, fake death counts, scientists researching the virus, etc on TV, in newspapers, and even on social media. They almost engraved that thing in our brains, and eventually, we accepted that as well," the old man sighed.
Dhruv nodded as he took note of this method, as it was a very effective way to influence the masses. Spread the misinformation so much that it becomes the accepted information.
"This progressed until the day the evolution began. As you know, there was a worldwide announcement that had happened, and there wasn’t anyone on the planet who hadn’t heard about this..."
"...What was the reaction of people after the announcement?" Dhruv asked cutting the old man in the middle. There was a hint of curiosity on his face.
"Sigh! Everyone had different reactions. Some thought of this as some alien invasion of some sort, I was one of them. Some thought of this as a government secret project getting out, some thought this was the effect of that virus, and some thought of this as the response from their god. But everything changed after the second day...
"What happened on the second day?" Dhruv asked once again.
"What was the task of the first quest?" the old man asked.
"To get a class," Dhruv answered.
"Exactly, and by the second day, everybody had managed to get a class, I mean almost everybody.
The first class I had gotten was ’guard’ because of my job as an ATM guard. As more and more people completed the task, they began to take the matter very lightly and thought that this was just so simple, there wasn’t anything to worry about.
And to hit the final nail in the coffin, every government began to say the same thing: ’We don’t have to worry, and we will be able to pass everything easily," the old man said. with a hint of regret in his voice as if he was thinking that he shouldn’t have accepted what they were telling him.
"And due to getting reassurance from the government, nobody prepared for the future..." Dhruv asked with a frown on his face, as he could already imagine what would have happened in the second quest without any preparation.
"Regrettably, yes, this is what most of us decided to do. But some groups were urging us to prepare, that the apocalypse was about to happen, and we should prepare for it. But the groups were made up of teenagers, and nobody listened to their warnings. Now, am I wondering how they knew about the apocalypse?" The old man thought about this...
He instantly came out of his trance and continued...
"Before the second quest, we even got the rewards. On the seventh day, we even got rewards for things we didn’t even do, boosting our ego further..."
After thinking for a while the old man continues,
"...If I remember correctly, I got a silver chest from which I got a necklace that provides me with a 10-level increase in my Magic power, and there was this exclusive ability as well. My exclusive ability was ’Rational Thinker,’ and the use of it was to make me think through everything from a rational perspective. It was due to this ability that I managed to survive the quest along with my grandchildren."
"Grandchildren..?" Dhruv asked with a surprised tone.
