Chapter 80: Random Encounters and Letters
This... is a Danger Zone?
Several hours later, the buses carrying the freshmen students of Mega Academy have officially landed on the so-called Danger Zone right next to the land area of Ohio. They have been on flat land now for half an hour, and it was only now that they were finally seeing just how haunting the entire state of Ohio looked like.
Seeing it in the pictures did it no justice at all. Seeing this horizon of flat land made them feel like they were about to be swallowed by it, drowned by its endlessness. The land was incredibly smooth, to the point that the afternoon sun was almost reflecting on its vastness.
Even after ten years, the government had not reclaimed nor built any buildings on the flatness of Ohio—that was because to do so would be astronomical due to the fact that digging through the ground was almost impossible. The ground was compressed to the point that it was as hard as steel.
"I thought... the buildings we drove past earlier was the Danger Zone?" One of the students asked, and Katherine immediately sighed in response as she stood up from her seat.
"The ruined buildings you saw earlier—they were... within radius of the shockwave. I don’t think any of you truly understand just how powerful Ms. Phoenix was. She was so strong to the point that it was scary. I was only seven or eight when it happened, but it was all over the news—she flattened most of Ohio in an instant. I’ll repeat that, in an instant."
Katherine then leaned on her seat and stared at the horizon outside,
"The heat that feat produced was felt throughout the entire country. The cities that weren’t in the Compression were melted and blown away. I remember my mother telling me that those in the Compression could be considered the lucky ones—their deaths were instant. The others... their skin melted off their bones, and I don’t know if you noticed, some of their remains are still there, sticking to the walls, the roads... anywhere, really. That kind of power... is what it means to be called one of the most powerful humans in history."
"Why... did she do this? I’ve read about her, and before this... she was beloved by all the people."
"She went insane," Katherine sighed, shrugging as she leaned away from the window and faced the girl who asked, "Imagine, all that power... and she couldn’t stop herself from turning crazy. And you’re right about her being loved by the people—she was everyone’s idol. Mine too."
Katherine’s voice turned weak, her eyes lowering to the floor as she seemed to reminisce the day it happened, "She was mine too. Her mastery and raw strength still have no equal, even today. But now all you could read about her is how she was the worst criminal in our century."