“Mornin’ Ms. Fletcher,” I greeted a woman whom I passed by. She—Ms. Ela Fletcher—was the guidance counselor and an excelling calculus teacher. She wore a blue pencil skirt and black glasses, giving her a little bit of the ‘secretary’ vibe. Though with the advancements of ophthalmology and eye care this past decade, I can only assume the glasses were naught but a decoration.

“Good morning Alice,” She nodded as she went past.

And yes. It’s 1 p.m. and I’m at my university right now, Elton International University to be exact. (Pro tip: Don’t fucking take the 8 a.m. class. Trust me on this one.)

The school is just one of many out there. It’s neither a poor nor a prestigious university, it’s somewhat in the middle.

I spent my day yesterday examining the different files I’ve found. All of them would have been useless except for the fact that I managed to grab missing cargo file and the company bankruptcy file. I’ve been really progressive yesterday.

You didn’t even study for the quiz today and you ended up munching on pizza for the whole day.

I don’t really need to eat healthy, you know? The nanites will do their job.

They won’t always be there, you know?

Yeah, yeah. Anyways, I walked past the corridor and entered class.

Good, the professor’s not here yet. I found a seat somewhere at the back and sat while being as inconspicuous as I can.

I grabbed a book from my backpack and started reading while the class waited noisily for the prof.

Titled “Link Delta”, the book shows a story where major disasters and mysteries in the world were not caused by aliens and advanced secret technology, but rather by the occult and ancient arcane powers. I’ve been putting off reading this book for quite a while now, since it’s almost similar to other conspiracy novels.

Before I could even read a whole paragraph from the book, the professor—Mr. Arnold White, entered the room, making me put down the book to my table.

Prof. Arnold is a man in his late sixties and has graying hair; he often had to look up to students (literally) because of his small stature.

The cacophony of voices was muted and the entire class greeted him.

He greeted back and started the lecture, he himself is an esteemed chemical engineer who mostly focuses on biotechnology, he also studied bioengineering and genetics back at his day. He was talking about the use of nano-particles that can be used to cure wounds when they were injected to the blood stream.

I looked at the book on my table and started reading it again. I’ve been admiring the work put on this book since it almost seemed to have full details of different entities like dhampirs and demons. The writer really did the research on this book.

“—ayers,” I felt a sudden nudge at my shoulder and looked to my left, my seatmate pointed towards the front without saying anything and I noticed that most of the class was looking in my direction.

“Ms. Mayers. Would you please put that book down and stand up.” Mr. Arnold sighed, “Now, for the fourth time, what is the answer to my question?”

……

…

.

Shit. I wasn’t listening.

Well, I told you earlier not to bring the book, and guess what? You still did, didn’t you?

Shut up, we both know it was an interesting read.

…Okay fine. You win this time.

I did as I was told; I put the book down to my desk and stood up.

“Umm… Would you please repeat the question, I wasn’t listening.” I did a wry laugh and scratched my head.

A bunch of students can be heard containing their laughter but Mr. Arnold shushed them.

“Damn right you weren’t,” He sighed and I just looked at him apologetically, “Anyway, my question is: What steps and processes have bioengineers conducted to try to make nano-particles that can heal internal wounds?”

“Well, for the past decade, scientists have been trying to make this technology possible, some tried to make similar researches using modified viruses to enhance the natural human healing speed and battle other viruses.” I took a deep breath and continued, “This, however was stopped due to concerns of the possibility that the researchers will be able to create an unstoppable virus There was also the concern that if our enemies have somehow taken hold of this modified strain, they would be able to reverse engineer it create something that can destroy it, thus the Council deemed the research too risky to continue.”

“… Thank you Ms. Maye—“He tried to say something but…

“I’m not done yet professor, “ I interrupted, “Since there is always the possibility of making a bio-weapon using the previous process, researchers started to think about using mechanical nano-machines—Nanites. However, this process has its fair share of problems, an example would be production, while a virus has the ability to replicate itself, nanites cannot—except if it’s versatile enough to be able to make a copy when resources are present.” I took a small pause to catch my breath.

What else? Did I forget to include something?

Yeah, you forgot about the Korean.

Oh yeah, thanks.

“Up until the last year,” I continued, “This has been a major problem in the nanite research, however, when Jin Chun, a Korean geneticist and bio-engineer developed a system where the nanites can be easily mass produced,” With a sigh of contempt, I finished my speech.

The class went silent and everyone was looking straight at me.

Don’t you think that was too much?

I think its fine? It’ll stop him from calling my name again to answer a question.

Finally, he was the one to break the deafening silence inside the class.

“…That… That is all correct. Congratulations, you just summarized 3 days’ worth of class,” He sighed again, “For goodness sake Alice, take it easy.”

I raised my hand and called out to him just as he was about to turn back, “Can I sit back now?”

“Yes Alice, yes you can.” He sighed once more; honestly, one more sigh and I think his soul would come out of his body.

It's all your fault, nerd.

Hey! You contributed to it, you know!

I sighed internally, sat back down and grabbed the book.

“Put the fucking book down, Alice.” He scolded.

“Fine.” I mimicked a surrender gesture and slowly placed the book back to my bag.