Chapter 196

I called Ellie.

The call was connected while I was about to hang up after not being connected for a while.

Ellie said in a pleasant voice.

[Hey, Jinhoo.]

“Are you a company?”

[I just got home from work and was washing up. When she heard the ringing, she thought for some reason that Jinhoo was walking, so she ran out.]

“Are you going to come back later?”

[It’s okay. I’ve washed it all.]

She’s out of the shower and she’s on the phone?

Then she’s not wearing anything… … .

[Hmm, are you not imagining it?]

“… … Could it be?”

I quickly brought up another story.

“I am late for work today. Are you very busy?”

[Yes. I’ve been working overtime for several days. Jessica doesn’t leave work at all, and she lives at the company.]

Big One changed not only the geography of the west coast of the United States, but also the financial landscape. Almost all IBs, big or small, have been hit.

However, Golden Gate believed in the potential of Big One and made quite a profit thanks to the overall position adjustment.

So he made a huge donation to this fundraiser.

For reference, OTK Company didn’t donate a single penny, but no one said why they didn’t donate.

Even so, the amount of relief supplies that the U.S. government has requisitioned is billions of dollars. I’ll have to pay for it later though.

[I keep watching the news of Jinhoo. Today, I toured the rescue site with Ronald.]

“Yes. Ronald personally visited the rescue site and met the Korean soldiers who were put into the work and encouraged them.”

Ellie whined.

[Hey, hearing your voice, I miss you more.]

“I miss you so much.”

As soon as we started dating, I didn’t know that I would experience such a life breakup.

[What time do we get back?]

“I’ll be back soon, so just wait.”

There are a few things left to do before we go back.

* * *

I got into the car with the bodyguards and headed to Pasadena near LA.

The California Institute of Technology is America’s premier engineering school (MIT might not think so) and California’s pride.

However, after Professor Mohan’s claim that the Big One was coming became known, it became a source of ridicule.

For a while, Caltech students couldn’t hold their heads up because they were shy, and the school was flooded with demands to fire Professor Mohan.

In the academic world, scholars who are called ‘introverts’ came forward and pointed out the errors one by one. Nevertheless, Professor Mohan did not give up his argument.

Later, when Ronald declared a national crisis in the San Francisco Bay area, criticism spread out of control.

Protesters flocked to the campus to protest, and emails threatened to open fire at Caltech unless Professor Mohan was fired.



When it became difficult to conduct classes normally, Dean Charles Ball stepped forward and said:

“I also think Professor Mohan is talking nonsense. However, academic diversity must be respected. Continents moving and the Earth revolving around the sun were all bullshit at one time. If a scholar can stop talking nonsense, who can say such a thing? To protect the honor of the California Institute of Technology, I will never fire Professor Mohan.”

While some admitted that they were right, the majority threw the blame even on the dean.

However, it was eventually proved that the judgment was correct. If Prof. Mohan had been fired by succumbing to the pressure of public opinion, Caltech would have become a mockery of the world.

The Big One was powerful enough to destroy San Francisco, and Los Angeles and its surrounding cities suffered some damage as well.

The building shook violently, bookshelves toppled, fluorescent lamps fell, and large and small injuries occurred. Fortunately, there were no cracks in the road or the building collapsed, and Caltech looked fine.

The campus was quiet during class, and I hid into the building so no one could recognize me.

Men and women in suits and in-ears were standing around the seismology center and laboratory. After the Big One outbreak, it was designated as a major facility, and for that reason, FBI agents were also dispatched.



I greeted them lightly and entered the lab.

The book boxes piled up on one side had disappeared. The first edition of ‘The Big One is Coming’, which was originally destined to go to a wastepaper disposal plant, has now become a rare edition that is difficult to buy even at 10 times the regular price.

If I had known this would happen, would I have brought a box with me?

Professor Mohan was almost burying his face in his computer monitor.

I purposely coughed. Then he said without raising his head.

“For the time being, interview requests have been declined.”

In the meantime, I must have done hundreds of media interviews so far, so now I’m tired of it.


“Then how about coffee?”

Professor Mohan raised his head at the sound of my voice, reflecting on him.

“Who is this?”

I looked at the coffee in his hand.

“How you doing?”

* * *

When I first came to the lab, the coffee I drank was terribly tasteless. So I stopped by a cafe before coming and bought it.

I looked around the lab and said.

“I can’t see Carrie.”

“I went to organize the data, so I’ll be back in a little while.”

“Still busy.”

After several aftershocks, Professor Mohan reassured people that the movement of the fault had calmed down, but he is still alert for the possibility.

Professor Mohan said while drinking coffee.

“There will be no major earthquakes for a while. Minor earthquakes will continue to occur, but it will not be felt by the general public.”

“The Great Earthquake of 1906, the Great Earthquake of 1989, and this year. Is the earthquake completely over now?”

He shook his head at my words.

“Is that possible? It is still an unchanging fact that California spans the Pacific Rim orogeny. Earthquakes are the fate of the people who live on this earth. I don’t know if the next great earthquake will be decades or hundreds of years from now, but then, why don’t we find a solution in our own way?”

I smiled.

“I think so.”

That’s something the people of that era should know.

I told you about the rescue site I visited with Ronald a few days ago.

Only a fraction of what the media broadcasts on TV. The rescue scene I saw was very different from what I saw on TV.

It was more like excavating a corpse than a rescue. It would be nice to find an intact corpse. torn, broken, crushed. There were not one or two bodies that were difficult to identify.

Professor Mohan, who heard the story, put on a bitter expression.

“Too many people have died. It could have saved more people.”

I’ve had the same thought hundreds of times.

Why didn’t he know that he couldn’t save everyone? Couldn’t have done better? If given one more chance… … .

I said quietly.

“The professor did his best. Everyone will think so.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

The number of dead and missing was a little less than 70,000. The number gradually decreased (survivors rescued) and increased (additional missing persons were registered).

A person can survive for about a fortnight without eating. If there is food in the confined area, the survival period is further increased.

Fortunately, as the threat of earthquakes increases, emergency food and drinking water are stored in each household and public facility. As a result, news of the rescue continues to this day.

However, the number was small, and most of those missing were likely to have died.

The worst disaster ever to have occurred on the US mainland was the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

At that time, about 3,000 people died. But Big One caused more than 20 times that number of deaths. The numbers alone made it clear just how terrifying the catastrophe was.

I changed the topic.

“How is the academic environment these days?”

Until the Big One came, all the scholars who called me a nerd argued that the Big One would never come.

But when Big One really came, everyone was shocked.

Some apologized, some made excuses, and some cut off contact and disappeared.

“Anyway, Professor Josh Brown just came to apologize.”

“Who are you?”

“As a professor at MIT, he is one of the leading authorities in seismology.”

“Ah! I think I saw it on TV.”

Professor Mohan said it was refreshing.

“Fuha, I should have seen that friend’s expression.”

It seems that there was a lot of accumulation. In the meantime, he has been called an Indian, and has been treated as a heretic or a geek in the academic world. But now he has become the supreme authority in seismology.

Is this why people can’t understand things?

Professor Mohan drank coffee.

“My grandmother came to me in a dream a few days ago.”

“What did you say?”

He was a little shy at my question.

“He complimented me for doing a good job and stroked my hair. Maybe I’ve been studying all my life because of her grandmother’s words.”

“Thanks to you, you saved a lot of people.”

Professor Mohan stroked his beard with thick fingers.

“But there is one thing that I don’t understand no matter how much I think about it.”

“What?”

Professor Mohan hesitated for a moment as if he was thinking about it, then said.

“How could we have known the future?”

I was surprised by that.

“Yes? what is that… … ?”

Maybe you noticed?

Professor Mohan said with a smile.

“Ah! it’s grandma Her grandmother is how she could tell me what she would happen in a few decades.”

“Oh, I see.”

I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

If you think about it, it all started with his grandmother.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

As he said, if his grandmother hadn’t told him that there was going to be a major earthquake, he might have chosen a different path than a seismologist.

Then I would have had a hard time communicating the dangers of the Big One, or I would have failed to convince Ronald.

The most important thing to pay attention to when predicting the future is the changes that result from it.

Even the smallest action, like the butterfly effect, can change the future drastically. Prophecy appears to be self-fulfilling or self-negative.

Suppose a famous economist predicted a financial crisis a year later.

Hearing this, companies will delay investment in preparation for the financial crisis and reduce household consumption. Then, there could be a real financial crisis. Conversely, if the government proactively responds to a financial crisis to increase fiscal spending and encourage investment, a financial crisis may not occur.

Either way, the act of prophesying has an effect on the future in itself.

I suddenly had this question.

What was the future she saw?

Did you see everything collapsing with Big One like me, or did you see the current state of being turned upside down?

If it was the latter, he would have deliberately told his grandson a prophecy in order to create a situation like now. And you must have known that I would act like this.

Since he passed away a long time ago, there is no way to determine which one is correct.

“As I said before, her grandmother’s ancestors were Indian shamans from generation to generation. So, does the bloodline of a shaman really have that kind of power?”

i told him

“The professor is his grandson. That means you are also descended from Indian shamans.”

“Huh?”

Professor Mohan looked at me in bewilderment.

“If you think about it, isn’t it a bit strange? Trusting her grandmother and studying earthquakes in California all her life. Besides, the professor pushed through to the end that his argument was correct despite numerous objections and criticisms from academia.”

As I say now, there were many loopholes in his argument. If the research results had been clear in the first place, there would have been no objections.

Nevertheless, he was convinced without the slightest doubt about Mohan’s own claims.

The reason is probably… … .

“Maybe the professor knew that the Big One came unconsciously?”

“… … .”

Professor Mohan looked shocked.

After thinking for a while, he stuttered.

“Well, I’ve never thought of it that way, so I don’t know. I’ve been a scientist all my life. Therefore, it is difficult to understand what is not scientifically proven.”

So do I. Until a few years ago, it was thought that superpowers only appeared in novels and movies.

“There are countless things in the world that have not yet been scientifically proven.”

“That’s right. Modern science still does not know the exact cause of earthquakes. Just because you can’t explain it doesn’t mean you can’t deny it. So did her grandmother really see the future?”

I smiled.

“You don’t know. Maybe there is such a thing as the ability to really see the future.”

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