By: Jy Hung Ong

Timen sighed in frustration. He officially gave up trying to find “the Void”. He had been trying to find the mythical dimension for the past week, asking anyone if they knew where the Void was. The answer was always “No” or “a random hole in the ground”. He thought he might be stuck in 2019 forever when a white head appeared.

“What NOW, Chaos!?” I am seriously getting old of this white ghost thing.

“I feel sorry for you,” Chaos said. Yeah, definitely. “No, I don’t. However, I would like to taunt you. Your time machine is in the largest Void in this world and time,” it said, disappearing with a pop.

As usual, Timen was confused after the head left. The largest Void? There’s more than one? It is already taking me forever to locate even one! There must be another way to… Timen stopped his train of thoughts. What if this was a trick? What if there is no “mythical dimension”? This whole time… what if “Void” isn’t “Void”, but “void”? Then it would just be the largest hole in 2019…. That was what I was supposed to be asking!

Equipped with this piece of information, Timen asked the first person he could where the largest hole in the world was. He got an answer: the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Siberia, Russia. So, he started on a trip to Siberia. He was currently in Atlanta, Georgia. Conveniently, he was right next to Atlanta’s International Airport. Quickly booking a plane to Siberia at the airport, he walked toward the departure hall. The white roof curved in many different places.

The floor was quite solid, so Timen assumed it was either marble or granite. After waiting for about one hour, the plane was ready to take passengers. Since he was in First Class (courtesy of his infinity card), Timen got to board first. After listening to a video about plane safety and other things, the plane finally took off.

After about 15 hours, the plane landed. Afterwards, Timen took a taxi to the Borehole. Learning from earlier mishaps with taxi drivers, he was careful not to leave a single possession in the car when he left. The Borehole was massive. Timen started to worry the time machine would be at the bottom of the hole when he suddenly noticed the machine. It was an orange-colored box hidden inside some silver 2019 pipes. Honestly, he was surprised he didn’t notice it sooner.

Timen hopped into the machine and powered it on. He switched the date to January 1, 4200. The time was turned to 3:05 PM, exactly five minutes from when he departed to 2019. The place was Panten University’s basement. After adjusting all the settings, he made sure there were no hijackers before pressing GO. The world disappeared in a flash, and feeling quite disoriented, Timen landed back in 4200.

He could immediately see why Chaos had said, “Your precious humanity is currently at war.” The place looked like a warzone. The basement was completely gone. It was just an empty crater in the middle of an area was completely barren, a lot like New York City. Nukes were fired everywhere, and it felt like each one might land onto the time machine. He had to fix this.

He switched the time from 3:05 PM to 3:00 PM five seconds. Hopefully he could fix this war catastrophe then. Pressing GO, he was immediately whisked back in time for about five minutes.

Thankfully, the basement was not destroyed. It seemed just as he had left it… until he realized a blaring from the television screen nearby.

“DICTATOR KAY JUM-UNG OF NORTH KIMON IS THREATENING TO LANUCH NUKES TO THE UNITED PROVINCES. WE ARE NOT SURE WHEN.”

Everyone inside the building, including Timen, stared at the TV screen. It didn’t seem possible. There was no way Kay Jum-Ung would nuke the United Provinces. However, Timen had experienced firsthand exactly what was going to happen.

Crystal Rock City, his home city, was going to get nuked… unless Timen did something about it. “Everyone! Prepare to go to the bunker at the city center immediately!” he shouted, though not very loud. Everyone heard him, and there was a massive stampede of people rushing out of the basement. Yes! I’ve stopped two crises from happening.

That’s where you’re wrong. That was not Timen. Was that Chaos? I will find a way to destroy your humanity… soon.