LIGHT UP THE DARKNESS- Prologue:
LIGHT UP THE DARKNESS
Prologue:
In 2022, human has made outstanding progress in science and technology. So far, digital technology is still developing, but it has to face to be replaced by three-dimensional (3D) touching technology. Artificial brain robots invested in and developed by humans to become the primary entertainment and aid tool for humans- help humans solve lots of things in their daily lives. Humans are also developing technology to help them go to space, so spaceships and space stations on other planets on space as Mars are created.
In addition, another remarkable step forward is time-travel technology which has made it possible for humans to travel to all dimensions of spacetime in history through a dimension called Z- Quantumenia- which is being developed. But the technology that the majority of countries around the world focus on developing and mass-producing the most with the ambition to change the balance of power between countries - nuclear weapons, atomic eapons, etc. The unbelievably rapid development of the technology industry is something predictable but it makes humans face a big dilemma: if a new world war broke out and the things they create, are put into use for war, what would be the fate of the world?
Francesco Iriston (or Fran) is a young man with an extreme boring life living in Mayqueen, Seattle, U.S.A. His life revolves around the job of collecting plastic waste from the construction site of an industrial factory. He used to witness a friend once whodied from accidentally inhaling a strange smell of a kind of toxic metal discharged from one of the industrial plants while doing his job, from which he contracted a type of virus that exists in extreme toxic chemicals that affect the lungs and not long after that, he died because the toxicity has spread very quickly to other parts of the body.
He could do anything but join the strike of the protesting crowd and then send the letter of the lawsuit to the Court of Highness to take legal proceedings against the factories for causing the deaths of many workers after admitting that not just his friend who was the only victim of the public process of industrialization. But the lawsuit failed and those factories were acquitted, which made him get dissappointed massively.
He often goes back to the vacant lot where his parents built a house and got married, then gave birth to him and lived together for a long time ago, and then lost the right to live there when the government intervened with generous compensation. He is aware of the reason why the government wants to own that land: They always aim to destroy the old things to make way for industrialization and modernization, they even constantly called for speeding up the construction of his houses. That's why Fran always hated government in his childhood.
That time, he realized that all the old values before the industrial revolution have been destroyed by the government, the people who used to be his family's neighbors also turned their backs on betrayal that supported the government to build factories for profit themselves, followed their ambitions and ignored the pleas of his parents who intended to stand up against the inhuman decision of the government. He still sees the change that takes place on that land after that decision everyday, from the moment his house was demolished, to the time when the subordinates of the government came and launched the plan to build the factory. That changed his life forever.
Until one day, while doing the familiar garbage removal job, he accidentally picks up a purple ticket. At first glance, it looks like a ticket for the cinema.
The special thing is that it is a brand- new one, and on that ticket, besides the strange words that he can't understand, there is a picture of a character that he guessed is a character from a sci-fi movie mentioned in that ticket. He thinks: "So it's a movie ticket, nothing special. but I don't see it on movie posters outside the cinema. I guess I don't care about movies these days, so I'm out of time. Lucky! Anyway, I got a movie ticket, so I can go to the cinema to watch it on my day off after it's released. I've been a fan of movies since I was a kid, I just don't have time to watch any of movies so far when I grow up."
Without much thought, he picks it up, puts it in his bag, and continues to work without realizing that the moment he picks up the ticket changed his life forever. For a few days past, he forgets its presence as if he doesn't have it. It always is until he meets a petite little girl who always follows him from behind with a strange, glowing device in her hand. Fran finally finds out about this sneaky act of the girl after quitting his job and was on his way out of Mayqueen City because of a small conflict related to the girl and the work with his boss who then decides to sack him.
When the little girl is about to explain to him something, she suddenly sees a man behind Fran running towards them. The girl is so panicked that she gives up on confessing to Fran and takes advantage of the time Fran was not paying attention, and put the strange device in his bag and ran away.
Fran sees someone chasing the little girl but he just ignores it. Then, after he has arrived at the hotel, he finds that device in his bag and guesses it's the girl's, so immediately decides to return to the place where the two meet to return it to the girl. After meeting her again at another place on her promise, he is told about the origin of that device, and how to use it with the ticket he picked on the ground in his working place before. The girl calls it "A- Arckorp Driver"- a kind of device that is being developed in her timeline, says that the guy who gave her that device and she came from a place far away here, tells Fran that that one is the device from the future. After giving it to her, he asks her for added that he have a message for anyone who received the device from her: "Leave the past aside and move forward. Remember in your heart that your mission is to change the world, protect the future of the next generation. All for our children's children!", then the girl tells him to keep it and fight because he has something to protect other than the memory of old times he is keeping in mind.
She says if he can't change the world the way he wants, he should learn to adapt to it, no matter if he knows he will face many difficulties. But he ignored the girl's words and rejected her offer of cooperation, placing the other device on the table and leaving. Not long after, he hears some noises in the cafeteria he just left and decides to run inside, but he doesn't have any method to trace her. When he looks back in his bag, he sees the device again in his bag, it turns out that when the girl approached to pull his shirt and beg him to protect her, she surreptitiously put the device in his bag again. So that time, he complains about the reluctance to continue to go to her heart, even though in his heart he only thought of her safety in anxiety. So he instantly runs to find her, thinking: "She definitely doesn't run far from here."
Thanks to the device that detects the old girl on the device, he easily finds her in a dirty and smelled lane. That time Fran encounters the one who kidnaped her, and the kidnapper already sees his face. The device that helps him transform into a red warrior, a sturdy armor he wears with a sharp knife, and a box of tickets, thanks to the girl's explanation, he realizes they are item tickets that will appear every time he transforms and provide him necessary equipments and weapons for fighting. The two of you have a big confrontation, unfortunately, because Fran is not familiar with the new combat types of equipment, he is easily overwhelmed by the kidnapper, the girl is slapped to the wall by the kidnapper. Witnessing that scene makes Fran mad, the outburst of anger causes him to recklessly attack the kidnapper violently with his hand, making it difficult for him to fight back.
When his neck is grabbed by Fran's hand, the kidnapper think out an idea: he takes off his left glove and touched his helmet. The helmet melts to ash in an instant, revealing Fran's true face inside the helmet. Fran is in shock, letting go of the villain's neck, but the kidnapper quickly uses a dirty trick on him: opened the lighter available in his right hand and pressed it to his face, gloating as if he knew he had won: Finally, I got you, boy. Checkmate!" Fran got goosebumps at the sound of his voice, but what shocked him more was when he realized that there were a few oils in his left hand. Fran realized that quickly, the kidnapper touched his face by his left hand a minute ago, and as a result, the fire was burning with oil on Fran's face. The fire burns half of his face, making him scream in pain. He falls to the ground in pain, but he couldn't put out the fire that was burning his face with his hand covered with metal.
As the kidnapper is about to finish Fran with a big advantage, he suddenly sees a young man passing by. Seeing that scene, the young man is so frightened and trembled, he looks at the kidnapper, takes the gun from his pocket, and exclaimed: "Oh my god, there's a murderer here. What the hell is going on? Freeze, you monster! If not... I'll shoot...you... Yeah, I'm telling you!". But the kidnapper is not a goofy guy, not just does he not flinch, but he also stops the other guy from doing anything harm him: He takes a knife from his pocket and throws it to the young man's throat right one second before he pulls the trigger which causes the young man to fall to the ground, clutches his neck in pain and drops his gun on the ground. The young man's hand hugs his neck with blood that keeps flowing down. When the kidnapper is about to finish that man, he is stabbed by the girl in the back with a broken knife in Fran's armored hand. Getting furious and hurt because of getting stabbed, he grabs the girl's neck with his right hand, strangles her to death, then throws her body to the ground mercilessly. After that, because of exhaustion after the battle, not to mention that he was wounded in the abdomen, most of all, thinking that all of his enemies are dead except Fran, he just spends a few minutes left to take the driver that Fran put on his hip but it's unlucky for him that it's too tight to take off. After a few minutes of putting in his all effort, he decides to give up and run away...
Then three of them were brought to the hospital, but there is only one person who is saved the life. According to the doctor who was the witness who took that patient's life back during the time responding to some of the journalist's questions about the massacre that day, the person who survived after the surgery is the young man who was injured by the kidnapper throwing the knife to his throat. The main story is set about 2 months after the event, that young man- now known as "F.I." and lost his memories by accident- had been handed over a set of equipment from someone who knew Fran with the task of finding the killer who was responsible for the murder of Fran and the girl two months ago. Accompanying him now is a strange man who only communicates with him through an encrypted voice resounding from the device, who claimed to be a member of an underground organization in the future with a mission of telling "F.I." about Fran's background instructing and guiding "F.I." with a huge amount of knowledge about the era that both of them came to. Sometimes, "F.I." tries to do something to figure out his past but can't achieve anything useful no matter that he tried his best. His assistant explains that among three of the people that were brought to the hospital after it was just him who was healed by doctors in the nick of time, so he's alive. But the rest of the two people didn't lucky enough to escape from death. When the doctor asked his name, he said that he didn't remember anything of the past. That's why he called "F.I".
With a mysterious background, a passion for solving crimes, and a somewhat reckless, brave, wise personality, he is tasked with uncovering all the mysteries, and above all, he shares the same ideals as Fran- one of the reasons he was given the set of equipment that Fran left, making him Fran's unofficial successor. The special feature of this guy is that he always reminds himself that he doesn't want to drown himself in the past anymore, but wants to keep moving forward, living an useful and purposeful life, finding direction for himself, not living meaninglessly anymore. "F.I."'s journey to find the light of his life begins from now
*) NOTE: The events take place in many parts of the world but occur at three different time points: unspecified time in the post-ice age, 2022, and 2047 but the main events take place mainly in 2022 - the year in which the main character experiences many events that affect the main storyline and has a development in his personality, introspection, and goals. The story revolves around the battle between the people who shoulder the great responsibility of changing the world's and their own future with different ideals of the worldview, the intense battle of wits, the psychological struggle, the conflict in the minds of the characters after experiencing the events in the journey to find the self and the purpose of life... The events of the past and future are closely related each other, and the storyline is continuously pushed up with the interweaving relationships between the characters in different periods of time, creating many knots, mysteries, and drama. Furthermore, many foreshadowing details are set up of the twist, each decision of each character can determine the destiny, even the future of one or even many people, many problems of society and the world are exploited with many layers of meaning, giving the reader a lot of time to reflect to fully understand.