2. A New Morning

In an ordinary forest.

On an ordinary morning.

A young man walked carelessly along a dirt trail.

The man walked barefoot along the dirt path while enjoying the scenery around him, the smell of the earth and flowers, the sound of insects flying from one side to another, the light singing of birds above the trees and the feeling of the earth in his feet.

But looking closely you could notice some things that were a little different in this scene.

1. Even walking on the ground, no piece of dirt stuck to the man's foot and no stone or branch on the path seemed to bother him, even with obviously read and soft feet without a single callus to protect their soles.

2. Any type of insect approached humans, it would be common for insects such as butterflies and bees not to be too bothered by intruders in an area with several flowers, but not even flies, mosquitoes or mosquitoes, known for always bothering people whether at home or in open places, they didn't even pass near the man, even the ants that passed in front of him seemed to give way to him.

3. And finally, the fact that the man is beautiful. It may seem strange, but the strangest thing was simply how beautiful the man was, after all there was no other way to describe him other than that simple and direct word. He was tall at 1.82 meters with a tanned and toned body that seemed to have a buff of its own, his body had no excess fat or imperfections. Just like her face, from her slightly curly dark blue hair, to her eyes with an impossible natural color of pink, her high cheekbones and her red, full mouth. Every aspect of the man seemed to have been molded or refined to the extreme of perfection, there is a point impossible for any human to reach.

This man continued to walk at a pace that was neither slow nor fast, stopping every now and then to look at the insects going about their lives or the birds in their nests getting ready to go look for food. As he continued with a walk that seemed to have no destination other than to enjoy the environment, he soon arrived in a small clearing facing a small river with crystal clear water that allowed him to see the bottom without any problems, as well as see the fish that occasionally jumped to the surface. out of the water to catch some unsuspecting insect.

'Life is an amazing thing.' he thought as he watched the fish feeding, the birds emerging from their nests behind him, as well as the insects flying from one blade of grass to another as he breathed in the fresh air. So different from what it was millennia ago, with a stagnant, pungent and toxin-filled air that if it had continued until this moment all forms of life would simply die at the same time.

'Even after so many tragedies, he still manages to rise... Well with a little help too.'

He thought walking towards the edge of the river ahead. He ran lazily along a gentle curve in his path, just below a small waterfall that produced a calming, clear sound. As the man looked at the crystal clear water reflecting his face, the man couldn't resist touching his own face to ensure that the reflected image was himself.

'How long has it been since I was like this? 5 or 7 thousand years? And yet it's hard to believe. What would my family say? He thought, trying to remember the faces of his old family, but no matter how good his memory was, it was impossible for him to accurately remember things that happened more than 10 thousand years ago.

As much as it may seem impossible to believe, this is the truth, the man who looked at himself in the river water was already well over 10 thousand years old, even if his appearance showed a man who had just turned 27 years old. This man, Lucien, was human, born and raised on planet Earth, and he was, is and until the day he dies will be a human.

But how could this happen, a human would only live for a maximum of 100 and this is often already in decrepit states, how could there be a human who would live for either 1000 or an even more unthinkable 10,000 years, let alone even longer.

The answer is quite simple, Lucien is a human born in a distant time, more than 100 thousand years ago since humans began exploring space in the 1950s. Or as it came to be known, the age of exploration, the age of evolution or era of expansion depending on the time or place where it was asked, having officially started in 2099 AD or year 1 E.E., from that year onwards humans dedicated themselves almost entirely to special exploration with the objective of colonization and more sustainable technological development, in addition of artificial improvement of the body. Both aspirations being motivated by the major climate catastrophes that intensified in the 2030s and 2070s, involving both environmental catastrophes such as typhoons, earthquakes, floods and tsunamis in places where these had historically never happened, and artificial catastrophes such as epidemics that are much more deadly than those that have occurred. at the beginning of 2020.

After witnessing near-extinction firsthand and seeing the possible consequences if things continued the way they were, the idea of ​​leaving Earth became even stronger in the minds of humans to the point that they reached the initial milestone of establishing viable colonies on Mars. just 100 years after the start of the Age of Evolution or in 2200 AD as it was still used in that era.

From that point on, humans rekindled the fire of desire to discover the unknown, on a greater level still gives the "age of great navigations", even more so as this new era is based on the ideas of exploration, expansion and improvement of humanity throughout known space. . And having these 3 ideas, humans began to adapt to the new realities that surrounded them, both having to live long periods in empty space, and the reality of adapting to the new environments of new worlds. To accelerate this adaptation in a safer way and not leaving everything to the chance of mother nature, nanobots were created and started to be injected into all human beings from the year 3000 A.D. or 900 E.E.

Caught in this ascendant, they not only triumphed but also proved the veracity of the Drake Equation, an equation that dictated that there should be at least 20 civilizations on the same level as humans in the Milky Way, which in fact there were. However, these civilizations developed more in mental improvement for the most part or in improving the species (similar to what humans were doing with nanobots).

Upon encountering these species, incredibly instead of the common reactions to humans such as conquest and subjugation, the first contacts of humans with non-human species were totally friendly and productive, with no ulterior motives regarding the species or their planets regardless of the type of miner, exotic plant or animal that could be present in them. In a short time, more and more species joined humans, consisting of both native species from other civilizations and hybrids resulting from the mixing of several DNAs between them, further improving the genetic strength of humans and generating even more new genomes that provided greater adaptability. and lifespan for humans.

Around the year 10,000 E.E. (roughly 11,000 AD) even "low-rank" humans had an average lifespan of 100 to 300 years, "middle-class" humans living from 200 to 700, while "high-rank" humans lived from 500 to 1700 years, thanks to the genetic improvements made by nanobots, more detailed genetic engineering and hybridization with other species, which further opened the range of possibilities for improvement, and as the name of the era indicates, Evolution.

And this is where Lucien's ability to live for millennia came from, of course he was not a high-class citizen, but rather the epitome of the common citizen, with him and his experienced family being members of the middle class. And yet here he was, alive after millennia, alive even longer than members of the upper class.

As he looked at himself and remembered some events from the past, his extremely sensitive ears picked up a sound that for many other animals was still a mere whisper, but which with each second increased in volume and intensity.

*thum... Thum, Thum*

With the sound of the footsteps approaching, the other animals also began to hear it and try to escape as quickly as they could, birds fled their nests as quickly as they could, small and medium-sized animals left the forest in the direction in which the sound was coming, jumping in the direction of the sound. river of the small waterfall in desperate attempts to get away from what was behind them.

*Thum.. Thum, Thum, Thum, THUM!*

And in a few moments, the person responsible for so much chaos appeared, and even a blind person would be able to tell that he was not an ordinary creature or that he was supposed to exist in the midst of the idyllic scenery of moments ago.