The World, A Thousand Years Later
Although it is called a coffin, this object is completely different from the wooden coffins we have known so far. This coffin has five layers, made of a high-quality metal called Mo902—a molybdenum alloy that is difficult to melt. Furthermore, unlike the narrow wooden coffins where it is difficult to even lie down, the space inside this coffin is quite spacious. It is about the size of a 16-square-meter room with a high ceiling. Inside there is a mattress, a refrigerator, and a temperature controller. Various machines are also lined up, such as gas, electricity, and signal generating machines. Reference books are piled up. There are also various other daily necessities, such as ashtrays, toothbrushes, and razors. In short, it is like a combination of a laboratory and a library.
Furuhata has been sleeping frozen in this strange coffin for over a thousand years.
The term “frozen sleep” here means that a person is frozen in a state of being still alive, then left alone for a certain period of years. The technique is quite difficult, especially determining the degree of freezing. If the technique is wrong, the person who is frozen will die immediately. If the technique is correct, let alone three days, a person's life can still be maintained a hundred years later. In Furuhata's case, for example: a thousand years later. At the right time, the frozen person can be unfrozen, then can be revived as before. The technology to thaw frozen bodies and restore them is still quite difficult at this time, but in Furuhata's case everything went well.
It makes sense, because Furuhata, the young scientist, did not do this experiment alone. He collaborated with other scientists who were members of a group with a long name: the Thousand-Year Human Freezing Project Research Committee.
The inside of this coffin is a cube-shaped room, but the outside is spherical so that it can withstand pressure from all directions.
Seven days have passed since waking up from a thousand-year sleep, Furuhata has completely recovered from the fatigue that has plagued his body. But he felt as if he had just entered the coffin yesterday. He had indeed slept soundly for a thousand years.
But was he really asleep for a thousand years? The radium clock hanging on the wall guaranteed that. This clock measures the decay of radium due to constant radiation, so it can automatically record time over a very long period of time. When Furuhata first woke up, the first thing Furuhata did was to rush to the clock and read the time that had passed. According to the clock, he had been asleep for a little over a thousand years. The clock showed that it was the thousandth day of the year one hundred and sixty-nine, or the winter of February in the year 3600 according to the Gregorian calendar. In other words, the machine in the coffin had made an error of only 169 days. Compared to a thousand years, 169 days was clearly not a significant error; especially since the machine had a commendable advantage: Furuhata was able to stay alive for a thousand years while frozen.
However, beyond all that greatness, there was a worry: someone had to knock on the coffin from the outside after a thousand years. And until now, the knocking sound had not been heard. In fact, as stated in the manual, this sturdy coffin that was impossible to open for a thousand years was designed with a special mechanism so that it could only be opened from the outside. That was the only way to ensure the strength of the coffin's structure.
“I wonder why? Maybe, because I woke up 169 days late, the person who was supposed to open my door has gone somewhere.”
In a closed room that cannot be opened, this kind of anxiety attack is much more frightening than the death penalty.
He suspected that there was a problem with the signal device, so he quickly went to check the equipment. However, he found no errors there. Furthermore, the news that he had regained consciousness and woken up should have been transmitted to three cities: Tokyo, New York, and Khabarovsk.
“Why didn’t anyone come to help me? What exactly happened?”
If no one came to open the door for him, Furuhata could still survive for another 30 days. But after that, there was no chance for him to continue living. However, rather than thinking about his almost-extended life span, what was more regrettable was that he would die without having the chance to see the world when he woke up a thousand years later.
Naked Female Professor
The time has come.
Kriiing, kriiing….
The sound of the bell suddenly rang loudly, as if enlivening the atmosphere in the room.
“Oh, finally! Finally someone has come! Someone is knocking on the coffin lid.”
The system was designed so that the bell would ring when the coffin lid was knocked. Finally I'm saved, he thought happily. Then he felt a very strong jolt. The coffin would be opened soon.
After his joy had subsided a little, Furuhata began to wonder: who on earth would come to open his coffin. Just before the locked door opened, the jolt became even stronger.
Then the door swung open. At that moment, someone entered from outside the dimly lit room.
"Ohh!!!" Furuhata screamed—clearly unable to hide his surprise. His eyes caught the figure of a human being who had visited him for the first time after he woke up from his long sleep: the human was naked. Naked in the literal sense and not a metaphor. The figure was a woman—anyone could tell just by looking at her. Furuhata's face turned red with embarrassment. However, the woman did not blush, she stood in front of Furuhata without hesitation.
"Assistant Professor Furuhata. Right?"
“Yes. I am Furuhata. Thank you for opening this door.”
“It is I who am grateful; I am happy to meet someone who lived in the world a thousand years ago. I found your notes inside a long stainless steel pipe, while destroying the air defenses in District 199.”
“Oh, really?” Furuhata replied. He remembered that his friends had made notes about his burial. The notes were put in two hundred sturdy tubes; some were buried underground in various locations, others were displayed in museums.
“Then, what is your name?”
“Me? I am Chita, Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology at Khabarovsk University.”
“Dean? You are certainly extraordinary, to be able to become a dean at such a young age. Ah, forgive my rudeness.” Furuhata frankly expressed his surprise.
Professor Chita just chuckled.
“Haha. What’s young? This year I turn 903.”
“Wow, so you’re 903 years old, huh? That’s hard to believe.”
It is certainly hard to believe: an energetic woman who looks like she is still 19 or 20 years old with long legs, is actually 903 years old. The basic question is, is there anyone who lives that long?
“Hehe. I am very happy when you say that. Now I can clearly see the level of intelligence of humanity a thousand years ago. It really helps me,” she said happily. “However, it would be unfair if I were the only one who is happy. I myself can’t wait to introduce you to the basic insights about the current state of the world,” she continued.
While stroking her blond hair, Professor Chita also said that 900 years ago humans had conquered the god of death. In other words, humanity is better off without death. This is a major discovery.
Why did this happen? Because research into human physiology is increasingly advanced. Diseases are diagnosed with electronic devices, then cured with electrical therapy. Patients with worsening heart conditions, for example, can have their hearts immediately replaced with replacement hearts. Then people with high blood pressure, their blood vessels can be replaced in just half a day. So, if someone doesn't want to die, they definitely won't die.
When the medical world was developing rapidly at that time, the price of replacement internal organs was very expensive. Not to mention the weight was also quite heavy because it was made of metal. That's why people who use replacement organs can't walk.
If all three internal organs—heart, lungs, kidneys—are replaced, the total weight is approximately the same as the weight of three people. With this condition, a person certainly can't walk alone. In order to travel freely, the person must be carried in the car.
But now it's not like that anymore. Now, they can walk more easily. That's because the replacement organs have become smaller in size. In addition, the material no longer uses metal, but artificial flesh that is resistant to pressure so it is lighter.
"Because of all that, now look at my body. There's nothing strange, right? And I can still move freely," said Professor Chita. In front of Furuhata, she flexed her arms and legs like a dancing girl.
Furuhata did not blink, stunned by the surprise in front of him.
“Then, you were able to live this long, 903 years old, thanks to the replacement organ?”
“Of course.”
“I see. This is surprising to me. From the outside, it is very difficult to guess where the replacement organ is. And the replacement organ must be much lighter and smaller. But honestly, there is something bothering me. I feel like the Professor is making fun of me.”
“Oh, why are you saying that? I did not do anything you said at all.”
“Because this is strange. If there was a replacement organ installed, there should be a surgical wound, either on your chest or stomach. But as far as I can see, your body is as beautiful as a 19 or 20 year old girl. There are no wounds whatsoever, not even a needle prick. Isn’t this very strange?”
Hearing Furuhata's story, Professor Chita smiled faintly, as if sympathizing with Furuhata's old-fashioned thinking.
"It's like this. Since 950 years ago, surgical technology has been perfected, so that it no longer leaves surgical scars. But it's not because of that technology that I don't have scars. It's because I use synthetic skin."
"Synthetic skin?"
"It's similar to synthetic flesh. Well, because it's synthetic, it can be used anytime, and it can also be replaced with a new one."
"Oh, really?" Furuhata replied briefly. He was at a loss for words. He had been blushing since earlier seeing Professor Chita naked. Once he found out that it was synthetic skin, he knew that he shouldn't blush.
"Then, I apologize in advance if I'm being presumptuous, your current body has changed a lot, even different, from the one your mother gave birth to?"
"Mmm... it's not a big change, though."
"Isn't the only thing that remains from your old body only your brain, bones, and facial shape?"
"You're wrong."
“So there’s still something that hasn’t changed since the past?”
“Quite the opposite. You just said that the shape of the face is what has remained. Well, the shape of the face is something completely different. To be honest, I wasn’t very pretty back then. A protruding forehead, narrow eyes, wide lips, and a crooked nose. At one time, I wanted to change my face. At first, I looked through the face catalogue, chose one that I liked the most, and then asked to have my face changed to the one I chose. People at that time didn’t have any worries other than the good and bad of a face, but it could be said that they didn’t have enough wisdom. On the other hand, the good and bad of a face is determined by the shape and arrangement of the parts that make up the face, namely the eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, and teeth. For example, sunken eyes can be implanted with flesh. It doesn’t require major surgery to do that. And ever since synthetic flesh and synthetic skin were successfully created, people with ugly looks have been increasingly beautifying their faces, transforming themselves into beautiful men and women. After this, we’ll go to the city. Surely there you won’t find a single person with an ugly face.”
“Hm….” Furuhata replied shortly, his tongue tied.
The good and bad of this face may have been a topic that dominated human history for 30,000 years; but now, there was only regret in Furuhata’s heart when he learned that humans could change their appearance at will.