Chapter 45: (The Oldest Known Era) 1,976,999 Years Befor Zero : the first modern human to touch a mammoth.

"Hei, hei, hei!! Are you really done modifying this jet ski? Why do I feel like I’m about to drown every time a wave hits it?!"

"Of course, you idiot! You only asked me to modify it! You never asked me to turn it into a yacht!"

"Shit!!"

Under the sea of stars, Van’s hands continued moving with the handlebars of the jet ski as it rocked with every wave of the ocean, each one seemingly trying to push them away.

Unfortunately, Van’s first experience riding a jet ski had to happen while crossing the ocean surrounding Antarctica at night.

And he wasn’t carrying a beautiful woman like he had imagined.

Instead, he was carrying Beluga, who had both jewel-covered flippers resting on Van’s shoulders. Whenever a wave nearly swallowed them, Beluga would grit his teeth and press down on Van’s shoulders.

"Shit!! Hey, can you even ride a jet ski?!"

Van laughed loudly above the fierce, freezing ocean.

"Of course not! How much do you think this thing costs?!"

Hearing that, Beluga finally wrapped his flippers around Van’s neck.

Only then did he realize that he could actually die from being tossed around by the waves.

Van tried hitting Beluga’s flipper with one hand while keeping the other firmly on the jet ski’s handlebars.

"You damn whale!! You’re a whale... ohok, ohok."

The scene was witnessed by millions of stars, which seemed to laugh at them for some time before their shift changed.

The ocean gradually became calmer, allowing Van to drive the jet ski much faster and more steadily than before.

A sleepy yawn escaped Van as he watched the sky turn pink, while clouds that had previously been invisible began appearing to accompany them.

Even so, the air temperature didn’t become any warmer.

Van, thanks to his adaptation potential, had no problem with the cold.

Beluga, however, was another story.

"Damn human. It’s nice not to feel this cold, huh?"

Van chuckled.

The vibration of the jet ski’s handlebars no longer bothered him, especially with the sun that would soon greet them.

"Take off your jewelry. The cold must be hitting you harder because of all that. Besides, aren’t you a beluga whale?"

Beluga clicked his tongue.

He considered keeping some of his jewelry on, but eventually abandoned the idea.

Van whistled casually as the wind caressed his now-short, almost-bald hair. Even his thin mustache swayed along with the breeze.

"By the way, you said I spent 23,000 years there? Good grief... doesn’t that mean I’m really the oldest human alive right now?"

Beluga, whose body was still swaying with the jet ski and whose two flippers were still gripping Van’s shoulders, sighed.

"What’s the point of living that long if you don’t do anything? Your only conversational partners are those four demons or your own imagination..."

The sound of water being split by the jet ski drowned out Van’s laughter.

"I don’t think I just stayed there doing nothing... at least, as far as I remember. Didn’t I do a lot of things? But you said this is the Ice Age now, right? And it’ll change eras in five years?"

Beluga nodded several times.

Van knew because he could see him through the rearview mirror.

The two continued speeding across the open ocean, which had begun reflecting the sunlight of the rising sun in the direction they were heading.

Slowly, the sun became bolder, revealing more and more of itself.

Not a single cloud tried to block it.

Van and Beluga began frowning, their eyes seemingly burning as they stared at the sun that had just arrived to begin its shift.

Beluga patted Van’s shoulder several times.

"Hey, is it just me, or is the sun really glaring?"

Van bit his lip.

His gray eyes had previously been narrowed, but his adaptation potential allowed him to gradually adapt to the sunlight and its reflection across the blue sea.

"The sun really is fucking bright! I think this is because of the Ice Age!!"

Beluga tried to nod.

"How do you know?"

Van raised both shoulders.

"A hunch. I think I read about it a few thousand years ago."

After the sun climbed higher, Beluga finally gave up.

He decided to disappear and leave Van behind because he couldn’t stand the glare or the cold wind hitting his body.

Even his black sunglasses, covered in diamonds and gold, couldn’t help him.

Van was finally alone again, accompanied only by the sound of crashing waves.

’If even Beluga can’t endure it, are there any humans who survived?’

Van clicked his tongue.

’No matter what, they must have developed, right? Right? You guys managed to survive, right?’

After an unknown amount of time, with the sun now at its highest point, Van finally saw his first piece of land.

He immediately accelerated the jet ski to full speed, eventually reaching a point not far from the land.

It turned out to be a cliff stretching farther than Van could determine.

Van turned off the jet ski’s engine and allowed himself to sway with the waves.

He stood up and stretched his body while lazily yawning.

Dark circles had formed beneath his eyes.

"Finally... damn it. So, am I officially the first person to travel from Antarctica to the nearest land by jet ski?"

He grinned.

"It’s nice to be the first once again."

Van slowly floated into the air.

Rather than leave the jet ski behind, he made it disappear because Beluga had modified it and filled it with cheats.

Van floated toward the land and finally descended after spending more than a dozen hours at sea.

His sandals touched the ground first, meeting the texture of hard, dry soil.

Meanwhile, reflected in Van’s gray eyes was a savanna covered in yellow grass as tall as his stomach.

The grass swayed in the cold wind, which occasionally carried grains of sand with it.

Van tried checking several times to see how far the savanna stretched, but he couldn’t determine its end from where he stood.

"Is this also an effect of the Ice Age?"

Van repeatedly stomped on the hard, dry ground.

He then decided to fly low over the tall grass, surrounding himself with invisible space because he was worried about being attacked by animals hiding behind the grass that reached his stomach.

Van also repeatedly took pictures while floating.

Unfortunately, every picture he took showed nothing but tall grass.

The farther he floated, the more he could see the silhouette of a mountain range at the end of the savanna.

Van had no idea how far away it was, but at least he had found his destination.

The monotonous journey made Van increasingly tired.

He repeatedly rubbed the back of his neck, which was beginning to feel heavy, until a blast of cold wind swept across his entire body and brought something new with it.

A vibration could be felt, accompanied by flying gravel and dust covering one area.

Van turned to the left.

He began descending toward the hard ground, which was mixed with grass that reached his chest.

His gray eyes couldn’t see much through the dust, but his ears picked up a sound identical to a trumpet.

A sound that made both of Van’s eyes widen.

"Elephant?"

Van cautiously approached, sneaking around the area.

From behind the cloud of dust, a large silhouette suddenly emerged, running at full speed.

The vibration of its footsteps even reached the place where Van was hiding.

After a while, a large, brown-furred figure emerged, waving its trunk.

Van’s mouth fell open.

"Mammoth...?!"

The mammoth ran with all its strength, but its body seemed to be restrained by something that prevented it from reaching its full speed.

Strange shouts echoed through the area, as if a crowd of bullies were mocking and frightening the mammoth.

Then, emerging from the dust cloud, Van saw a dozen humans wearing clothes made from animal fur, with hoods covering almost their entire faces.

They were all wearing sunglasses as well.

The dozen humans were being dragged along behind the mammoth as they desperately tried to restrain it.

One of the largest men finally managed to catch up with the mammoth.

He then slammed into its body, which was much larger than his own.

Strangely, the mammoth—despite being tied up by ropes held by a dozen people—was knocked off balance by that single impact.

It tripped over its own feet and fell.

Everything was reflected in Van’s gray eyes, especially the largest man.

"Potential? That’s potential! Shit!"

Van slowly began approaching, moving like a curious predator.

Meanwhile, the dozen men surrounded the mammoth.

They began tying it down even though the mammoth was still struggling.

The man who had knocked the mammoth down then placed his foot on its face and laughed loudly.

"Hahaha... he’s so big! If we sell him to the empire, we can live peacefully for an entire year!"

Laughter followed his words.

He raised his hand, making the mammoth close its eyes as though it had surrendered.

But when the man was about to touch the mammoth, something invisible stopped him, as if an unseen barrier were separating him from its fur.

No one noticed except the man himself, since the others were busy talking among themselves.

The man tried touching the mammoth several times, but he was repeatedly stopped by something invisible.

He was about to tell the others when a scream suddenly caught his attention.

One of the men suddenly floated into the air.

His sunglasses fell off, causing him to immediately squeeze his eyes shut. He didn’t dare look at the sun.

The man tried to scream, but in an instant, something wrapped around his stomach.

It felt like a giant octopus tentacle, yet there was nothing visible in the darkness of his closed eyes.

The dozen people slowly began screaming as they floated into the air one after another.

One of them shouted loudly.

"Hold onto your sunglasses!!"

They slowly flew farther and farther away, toward the sun that was now at its highest point.

There was nothing to obstruct it.

Not a single cloud could be seen in the sky.

Those who had previously subdued the mammoth were now flying away to who knew where, leaving their prey tied up behind them.

Even the mammoth blinked several times.

It was confused by what had happened.

But its ears suddenly twitched when it heard the sound of grass moving, followed by footsteps and a voice it could understand.

The mammoth turned toward the right.

There, Van stood and revealed himself, showing that the grass covering the savanna only reached his chest.

Van smiled widely. In one hand, he held a camera.

In the other, he held an entire watermelon.

"Hello! I’m Van..."

The camera shutter clicked, making the mammoth blink in surprise.

"What’s your name?"

The mammoth snorted.

It tried to free itself from its restraints while extending its fur-covered trunk toward Van and trumpeting loudly.

Meanwhile, Van patiently approached the mammoth, using the watermelon as a shield.

"Calm down, big boy... the hunters are gone. And I’m not a hunter either. Of course I’m human. Yeah... I already made them fly away with a flying, multi-legged octopus."

Van cleared his throat several times.

He began walking more slowly because he was afraid the mammoth would go berserk, break the ropes tying it down, and then charge straight into him.

He slowly brought the watermelon closer to the mammoth’s trunk.

The mammoth immediately sniffed it.

"What? It tastes sweet? Of course... Do you only eat grass? How pitiful..."

The mammoth finally took the watermelon with its trunk.

It immediately began chewing the watermelon, which was rich in both water and sweetness, until some of the juice spilled from its mouth.

Its trunk, which had previously seemed to be warning Van not to come any closer, suddenly produced a trumpet-like sound of excitement.

Van chuckled.

He took a picture of the moment, feeling a sense of déjà vu as he remembered how Bong had reacted when Van once gave him plenty of fruit and food.

Van finally crouched in front of the still-tied mammoth and began giving it plenty of fresh fruit from his Sunset Space.

He chatted with it for quite a long time.

The mammoth didn’t even ask him to remove its restraints.

It only kept asking for more sweet and juicy fruit.

Van laughed loudly.

He stroked the mammoth’s furry body.

"This is crazy!! I’m touching a mammoth!!"

Van’s gray eyes sparkled just as brightly as the mammoth’s black eyes while it continued eating the fresh fruit.

Van’s ears twitched when he heard the mammoth’s question.

"What?! You want to follow me?!"