[The year 2000: Earth, UM Headquarters.]
Tap! Tap! Tap!
"Are you really sure about this, professor Greive?" A man wearing a white lab coat directed his question at the man standing beside him as he looked at complex patterns that appeared on the screen of the computer in front of him because he was about to initiate a dangerous defrosting process.
"Do it. Doubts won't change the course of things." Greive said. "But that thing can…"
The UM, which stood for Unknown Matters was one of the few International organizations where humanity worked together for the sake of their own survival.
This organization dealt with things that were beyond humans' knowledge, such as foreign technologies, parallel worlds, and unidentified substances and matters that appeared on Earth.
The existence of this organization was highly top secret, and even among those who were at the top, only those who controlled the world from the shadow were informed about the experimentations conducted there, as well as the results of these experimentations; information that would never be disclosed to the public.
"You know that they will also go after our family and our relatives if they found out about this, right?" The man wearing a white lab coat looked at Greive.
"Are you saying that you have a family?"
"Well, no."
"Me too. I broke up with my lover and abandoned my newborn son. After all, the day we came here, we stopped being normal. If people knew what we've been doing here, they would look at us as if we were monsters, so doctor Coulson, why don't we do one good thing before we die?" Greive said, placing his hand on Coulson's shoulder.
"Haha. Well, this is a thriller!" Coulson said and hit a single red button on the console.
[Access authorized: Launching the project A.D.A.M.]
Coulson and Greive looked at the huge tube filled with nitrogen being dried out and something appeared in the middle of the tube.
"Is that it?" Coulson asked.
"Yes. Let's retrieve it quickly, we don't have much time." Greive said, hurrying up and taking a portable container.
"That's just a fruit, right? A fruit, that has a golden color. Is that the most important project in this organization?" Coulson said, looking at Greive with eyes full of doubts.
Coulson was recently promoted to his new post so he wasn't aware of some information even if he was a member of the UM.
"Thanks for your help, Coulson," Greive said, as he exchanged the golden fruit with a dummy one. "But, that was the easiest part, and we still need to get out of here."
"Yeah, you are right. They must have already found out about what was happening." Coulson said. "Well, this is the end of the line for me, so I will hold them as long as I can. Now, go save the world, or should I say the universe. Sounds like we are inside a movie." Coulson said, handing a rectangular metallic object to Greive.
"I believe that we will meet again my friend, somewhere, someday…" Greive said.
The metallic object that Coulson handed over to Greive was an armor made with nanotechnology, something that normal people living on Earth believed unimaginable.
Greive placed the metallic object on his chest and then it expanded, covering his body and turning into an armor.
"Don't forget it, you only have one chance," Coulson said.
"I know."
Greive placed the container on his back, which attached itself to the armor, then rose to the ceiling.
After that, red dots appeared on his armor, covering his entire body, and as if the ceiling was made of plastic, it melted and Greive passed through it.
The headquarters of the UM was situated deep underground, and also under the ocean, a place that wasn't easily accessible.
Consequently, there was only one entrance and one exit.
Coulson looked at Greive taking off, and then observed the most protected room of the UM headquarters.
There was no one alive inside of it, but there were fifty or so dead bodies, killed with an odorless and colorless poison, created by Coulson himself.
Both Coulson and Greive were geniuses and their talents were highly acclaimed by the people at the top, but what they just did was considered high-level treason.
"You are proud of me now, aren't you mom?" Coulson said, then killed himself with his own poison before the door was breached.
Boom! Boom!
Dozens of armed droids entered the room, followed by some important-looking people.
"Greive, Greive, Greive… I thought he was a man with a vision." Another man wearing a lab coat said, picking the dummy fruit and then throwing it to the ground and crushing it with his foot. He was a middle-aged man who had a haughty look on his face, with his silver beard and carefully combed silver hair.
"Such foolishness. Bring him to my office in one hour." The man said, looking at the men wearing different kinds of military uniforms of different countries that came inside the room with him.
"Roger!"
However, they weren't aware of Greive and Coulson's real plan, and the fact that Greive was just trying to buy time.
Greive tried to reach the only path that connect the headquarters with the surface. His suit was the result of his research related to more advanced technology from another world, information that he didn't disclose to anyone else.
[Master, the probability of success is close to none. Are you sure that you want to proceed with this plan?]
"Yes, Cristal, we need to lure them and trick them into thinking that I have the item," Greive answered to the AI that was installed inside of his armor.
Unfortunately, before Greive could reach the main path, the enemy had already spotted him.
[Turn right, and go straight for twenty meters before turning left.]
Crystal continued to navigate Greive's movement to avoid the pursuer, but as time passed, it became harder and harder to lose these droids.
These droids were made of nanotechnology too, so they were polymorph and could go fit anywhere.
"We need more time," Greive said.
He never wanted to run away from the beginning, as if he knew that he would never be able to hide from these people as long as he was on Earth.
But suddenly…
"Huh? Where is this?" Greive was confused and looked around after a huge castle appeared in front of him.
"Would you like to have some tea?"
A voice came from behind Greive and when he turned around, he saw an existence sitting on a table and pouring some tea inside a cup.
"Wh-"
Before Greive could say anything, he was already sitting on one of the chairs, holding a cup in his hand, and his face was uncovered. The container that he brought with him was already on the table, and the metallic object that turned into his armor was next to it.
"What you just did changed everything. All of the pieces needed to give birth to the one who will save the world are now gathered together. Even I can only wait for such a miracle to happen despite all. Now, you must finish your work." The existence said.
Dumbfounded couldn't even describe Greive's reaction, so he wasn't even listening to the existence's words.
He never brought that 'item' with him, and instead, he used one of his most recent inventions to teleport it to a very specific location, where a mother was living alone with her son.
The little boy was so happy to receive a cool-looking gift for his birthday, but his mother tried to take it from him, however, after inspecting the object, his mother didn't find anything weird with it, and just thought that it was a toy, sent by a relative.
But when the boy was playing with this so-called toy, it sparkled and a mysterious golden fruit appeared magically.
He was only a kid who watched too many cartoons, so instead of calling his mother, he ate the fruit, and it tasted good so he didn't stop.
No one knew what happened on that day, and the mother never read the letter from Greive that came with the weird object.
After that, the boy told the story to his mother, his friends, and his classmates, but people began to get concerned about his mental health, and he became an outcast. And as he grew up, he began to think that all of that was just his imagination when he was a kid.
"That's what happened after you left that world." The existence said, after telling the story to Greive.
"What? Mark? What happened to him?" Greive said.
"You still have the chance to redeem for your mistakes, as a father. Can you see that little boy? He is the reincarnation of your son. So, do you want to make a deal with me?"
"A deal?" Greive asked, looking as if everything that the existence said.
"So you know, you were about to die before I brought you here, but I will give you 10 years more to live, and all you have to do is to watch over your son. To be precise, you just need to make sure that he grows up while following the right path. Yes, the right path."
"Is he really my son?" Grieve looked at the existence with puzzled eyes.
"There are various things that you need to take into account, now that he has reincarnated, but yes, he is Mark. So do we have a deal?"
"Y…yes, I guess," Greive said, looking like he didn't really have that much choice.
After that, the existence made sure that Pride followed Greive's words, knowing that he was Adam's father. However, Adam himself didn't know anything about this, as instructed by the existence.
What Adam ate was The Fruit of Life, the origin of Good and Bad, Creation and Destruction, Life and Death.
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