Date: XI XVIII, MMMDXCVII

VOLUME 1 EPILOGUE

As I walk continuously, everything is way darker here than the Bubble gap. I do know that I'm not flying off the space since I'm walking on a surface. I'm quite dizzy and I can see the air itself! It's very polluted to the point that it is visible to one's eye.

As I look around, that's where things get more confusing. In the distance, there is also a glowing blue thingy. Is that another Ozonosphere? It looks exactly as the one in my back, where I came from.

As I continued to observe the surroundings, the realization kicked in. There are plenty of Blue domes around me, are those Bubbles as well? Does it mean there are tons of us… As soon as I grasped the idea, everything went black as I passed out.

I once again opened my eyes. I'm on a bed? What are these things attached to my arms? Where am I? I look around and it looks like I'm inside of a medical facility. My bag is missing, even my attire now is different. How long was I out?

Shortly, the door opened sideways as someone entered.

"Greetings Ms. Tanya, I'm Doctor Artemis. How are you?" A sophisticated looking lady, wearing an all black setup, and a black lab gown on top of her outfit.

"I'm fine… How do you know my name?" I hesitantly asked.

"Oh honey, I have data for everyone here. In fact, you are the most impressive one" Dr. Artemis said.

"Data? Show me your digital nameplate" I told her.

"That only works in the artificial place, such us Bubble #189 where you came from. This is the real world, no virtual chuchu and every other mystic things" She answered.

I'm entirely puzzled by every word that she's saying. "Where am I?" I asked.

"You're in the only surviving facility on planet Earth." Dr. Artemis responded.

"Earth? I cannot follow…" I confusedly replied.

"Poor thing, let me explain everything to you" Dr. Artemis said as she walked closer. "You see, those domes that you saw earlier are called Bubbles. They are artificial places in order to preserve humanity. Every center is connected to the cloning area where we send randomly genetic humans when the population deflates" She explained.

"Preserve?" I reacted.

"Yes honey, outside of this facility is a dead zone caused by toxic nuclear gasses. Those who go there will definitely die" She added.

"You mean all of our lives there in the bubble are being controlled?" I questioned.

"Well If you put it like that, then technically yes? But it is more complex than that" she answered.

"I don't understand, why can't we just live there normally. Without us forgetting about everything. It's horrible there!" I complained as I'm starting to lose my cool.

"Oh honey calm down, believe me, humanity is better this way" Dr. Artemis said. I calm myself down as I listen further to what she's about to say.

"You see, humans have a destructive nature inside of them. All of their ideologies crash as their egos inflate. We normally learn from our mistakes, that's why we recovered from the previous world wars. We recovered but it was not fixed. The cold war lasted a century, countries building their own schemes as humanity leads to the inevitable doom. Us, the Secret Scientists Society (SSS) already predicted this event. It took us multiple decades in building this underground nuclear proof facility. Of course secretly founded by those big time humans who want their genetics to be preserved." Dr. Artemis said.

"What happened next?" I asked.

"Well exactly as we expected, last January 11, 3597, the nuclear war broke out. Everything on the surface was wiped. Those who are left on the surface probably died from the toxins outside. We were thankful enough that the earth did not explode from the impacts but it's surely inhabitable now. We hypothesized that this planet looks like a Gas planet from the outside, the space perspective." She added.

"But why are you telling me this?" I questioned.

"Today, November 18, 3597, you are the 132nd specimen who managed to escape from the 200 Bubbles. Normally we just throw everyone back again but you are a different one. The first 131 specimens get out of the Bubble accidentally but you… you managed to escape in detail. I find quite an interest in you now" Dr. Artemis said.

She must have read my diary, my backpack is missing after all. I could not hide anything from her now. "Quick question, do you remember Gara?" I asked.

"Oh the ugly annoying guy? Well I thought I could train that monkey but he is just too annoying. We just threw him back to the Bubble. He'll forget everything anyway. Why did you ask?" Dr. Artemis asked as she changed her vibe, it looks like she's skeptical of me now.

"Nothing, I looked up to him when I was small. He disappeared for a long time but he then does not remember me when he comes back" I defensively answered as I fabricated all of what I've said.

"Ooooh, so that's what happened. For a second there I was worried that he was still somehow being annoying there." She said as she laughed.

Wait… Does it mean they don't know about the Bubble gap? They should be checking those if they know about it…

"Another question, why does it have 2 layers?" I asked her.

"Oooh, you are a scientific girl. I really want you on my team now." She reacted. "You see, the Ozonosphere prevents the excess toxic gasses from the Earth, while the Mist acts as the reset button. You already know about the Mist so I don't need to explain that. In short, the one is the gasses barrier while the other one is the memory barrier, simple as that." Dr. Artemis added.

Honestly, there is something twisted with this Doctor. But given the circumstances that I have, I don't have that much of a choice. She could be lying but I highly doubt it.

"You see honey, we've been running this facility for months now. It's not that long, there are still small errors that we cannot resolve yet. The plan is to preserve humanity and of course prevent anyone from escaping as well. Maybe we can go back up there after a couple more centuries. Science will keep us alive so don't worry. Someone smart like you can be an asset to our team. Now for my offer, so what do you want, join my team or I'll throw you into a different Bubble? You are too smart to be in the same Bubble after all~" she offered.

Dr. Artemis clearly did not know about the Bubble gap. She said that the operation encountered some problems and the Bubble gap could be the small margin they failed to look at. If I took her offer, I can study everything here while in the background. If I don't, I don't know where I'll end up with. Regardless of the choices, I would not be able to see my family from now on. Should I defy everything here?

November 18, 3597, Tanya from Bubble #189 no longer exist. End of my diary.