Awakening [1]

The population became too vast. Starting from the year 2150, Earth wasn't large enough to hold the entire human population anymore.

By the year 2350, Venus and Mars were also colonized. They were home to human colonies as large as the population of Earth that existed within artificial atmospheres which had been manufactured during the two-hundred-year period. 

And, by the year 2600, the human population expanded until even that much space was not enough. 

Humans could not spread out and colonize the starry sky around them. Their own solar system had already been developed.

The solution to their problem was obvious. With great hopes behind them, mankind developed the greatest space technology ever seen and launched expeditions that would take them into the furthest reaches of the galaxy and even deeper into the universe. 

However, when they tried to leave and explore the rest of the galaxy, they found themselves blocked by a transparent wall. 

It was an inviolable wall and one of the main contributors to humanity's demise. They had the technology and the means to leave their solar system and escape to safer parts of the galaxy, but that wall made it impossible for them to do so. 

They were stuck in their original solar system, dying to a population problem before anything else could harm them. 

Humanity had populated all planets in the solar system with solid ground except Mercury. 

Still, Earth was the most crowded. 

In order to account for the population growth, technology was researched to find solutions. 

In the end, only one thing succeeded. 

Earth itself was divided into seven sub-dimensions that were stacked on top of each other. Each snapshot of Earth existed on Earth at the same time and coordinates, but the people within them would never interact with each other directly unless they actively visited each other's dimensions. 

That didn't mean they weren't interconnected, though.

The seven dimensions became status symbols of sorts and started to represent a class divide, but that was the consequence of making the world better step by step. Some were forced to suffer until it came time for the next step. 

The Gehenna Tree was the foundation that supported everything humanity claimed. If it weren't for the Gehenna Tree, it was highly unlikely that humans could ever reach that level of ingenuity to create such a high-level civilization. 

As for its origins…

To this day, there has never been suggested a single feasible answer to that question. 

Now, the year was 3005. The creation of sub-dimensions, or "Stratums" as they were called, drastically improved the amount of space present in the solar system. With several Stratums on Earth, Venus, and Mars, humanity was able to live comfortably for four hundred years without worrying about overpopulation.

As for Neptune, its colonization was a new development at this time. It was the first example of humanity terraforming a previously uninhabitable world into a place where they could live. It took hundreds of years of effort and even more funds, but with that time, humanity was able to establish a "Frontier" on the very edge of their solar system.

It was true that the Gehenna Tree fueled all of this innovation. In fact, the connected system that bound Earth, Venus, Mars, and Neptune to the Gehenna Tree and each other was aptly named the Gehenna Complex.

Most importantly, the Gehenna Tree was a truly massive entity. Seeing it was as simple as taking an ordinary camera, pointing it at the sky, and zooming. 

"Still, it's strange…" 

The Gehenna Tree and the wasteland around him both told him that he was undoubtedly in the past. The thirteen-year-old he saw in the mirror when he awakened was undoubtedly his past self. 

He'd only just returned, and he was satisfied with what he was seeing. In the process of making sure that he was experiencing reality, he took out a phone camera, pointed it at the sky, zoomed in, and found the Gehenna Tree.

"It…is dimmer than before."

Rather than the bright and clearly visible figure in the sky that it used to be, the Gehenna Tree was a much paler and vaguer entity that blended into the sky. 

'Its power has obviously weakened. Is this what that woman was talking about?'

He recognized the first immediate flaw in the past compared to the one he knew.

And the second…

'There is a Gehenna Tree, but…there is no Tower of Babel.'

The pedestal atop which the World Tree once stood was gone. Now, it burned brightly in the sky on its own.

He felt like he could still see it, but it was intangible, something like an illusion.

The year 3005. The year he turned thirteen. It wasn't a very special one.

The most special year of his childhood would come around two and a half years from the current moment. 

'Before that, I have to prepare.'

He rationalized the fact that he'd regressed rapidly. This was originally his wish, so it wasn't his place to be surprised.

He planned very carefully for the moment he was able to return to this very past. Now that he was here, why would he waste time reminiscing?

'I won't be able to see anyone for some time anyway. It's better to focus on my plans for now.'

Those plans were simple. Currently, he was no more than a child. This was the perfect time to start building a foundation.

Unlike his previous life, he was going to make full use of his talents in this life to become inviolable. That way, when humanity faced Calamities, they would not be helpless.

'I'll set the foundation so that nobody else has to suffer. Ironically enough, this is the perfect place.'

It was not the place where he was born, but it was the place where he had been raised ever since he was no more than six months old. 

Earth had 7 Stratums. 

The 1st Stratum was the peak of society. It was known colloquially as "Elysium," as it was a paradise beyond paradise. 

The 7th Stratum was the perfect opposite. It was known as the Rathole, and its residents were just as kindly referred to as "Rats." It was a cesspool and a slum. There was nothing more to be said about it.

From the 2nd Stratum to the 6th ranged a variety of cultures and classes that filled in the space between those two extremes.

Of those "fill in the blanks," he was raised in the 6th. 

'This place is called Wasteland, and we're called Scavengers, but the treatment really isn't as bad as it is for Rats.' 

Plus, for his current purposes, the Wasteland was the perfect place.

'In the Tower of Babel, I spent 10 years fighting without a Gene Sequence or Bloodline Sequence. Through this, I first started discovering "those things." I must bring them back in this life, and to do so, I must first strengthen my physical body.'

The 6th Stratum was called Wasteland for an obvious reason. It was mostly overrun by mutated beasts and monsters, two very different things that appeared along with the Gehenna Tree.

The Wasteland was a dangerous area where people truly only could scavenge to survive. On one hand, one could make absurd amounts of money by selling the monsters and mutated beasts one killed in the wild, but on the other hand, death was always around the corner.

For a child, it was never a good atmosphere. It was a terrible place to grow up.

However, childhood trauma was a matter of his past life. It no longer concerned him. He had returned to this body as an adult, so rather than crying, he planned to make full use of his second chance.

"Hey, Gio, you goddamn Mud Rat! Get back in there before the Boss starts shitting on us all!"

Just as he was going to fall into thought again, a man barged into his personal quarters screaming a name he hadn't heard in decades. 

Though that name was also accompanied by a slur referring to the color of his skin, he didn't mind all that much.

The big, bumbling idiot who just walked into the room was a figure that was very familiar to him.

Because, though he was nothing more than trash right now…

'...you will grow into someone who risked his life so I could escape.' 

The moment he regressed, he met the first person whose debt he had to repay. 

'It's good to see you again, Ricky.'

He couldn't say it out loud because he knew the man would surely beat him up for it, but thinking it was more than enough.

Looking at the man who was urging him out of his apartment, he couldn't help but smile.

'The presence of other humans…is something to be cherished.'