"Jeez! How is this even possible!" A familiar black-haired man exclaimed as he slammed his hands on the steering wheel.
Kanum wore a simple light grey outfit along with a black short-sleeve coat, making him look quite dapper but it's obvious that he wasn't the one to pick out that outfit.
*Beep beep* car horns blared
In front of Kanum, there were hundreds of cars, filling up the road, barely moving. Only inching forward every few seconds
"What did you expect? Today is the resonance day after all." Shelt, who was sitting beside Kanum, stated naturally
Shelt wore a semi-casual light blue dress that reached down to her knees along with a white undershirt and a set of long light blue pants.
Shelt's outfit looked a bit strange in contrast with her crimson hair but she didn't care, because the colors of her dress allowed her to match her son in both his sky blue hair and taste in clothing
"Nothing like this happened on my resonance day!" Kanum retorted with artificial anger, directed at the cars in front of him
"Huh? But we've all experienced this. Are you just misremembering it?" Shelt replied with suspicion
Shelt found it quite strange that Kanum acted like he hadn't experienced resonance day traffic before. Because everyone that she knew, experienced the same event
Shelt couldn't help but look at Kanum weirdly. That's because the traffic is almost like a tradition to the families experiencing the resonance day. But Kanum acted like he didn't know anything about this, which sort of made Shelt suspicious.
Kanum wanted to respond but then thought about it. Searching through his memories, Kanum couldn't remember anything about this tradition; he even began to think it was weird that this is so normalized. So, in an effort to understand it, he began searching through his memories of this day thoroughly, and finally he found the reason why he didn't know.
"So that's why we did that!" Kanum exclaimed as he silently gasped with his hand covering half of his mouth.
"What?..." Shelt asked in slight intrigue but mainly out of confusion.
"My family went on vacation for a week during that time, and our hotel was walking distance to a resonance hall, so when it was time, we just had to walk there." Kanum answered as a slight smirk rose.
"..."
After hearing that, Shelt was speechless; she didn't know what to think because although she couldn't believe her parents-in-law actually did that
Shelt also felt a bit envious, she had to wait hours, cooped up in her parents' car, while Kanum and his family just casually walked there without any trials. She even started to feel a bit betrayed,
But as she thought back to that moment, her face lightened. She realized that it wasn't a bad memory, and after looking back at that moment, she realized fond she was of that memory.
"Woahhh"
During their conversation, Shry in the backseat leaned his head through the gap between the two front seats, trying to get a clearer look at what was going on in front.
From afar, it looked like there were 4 dots flying around on top of the cars, but what was really worth watching wasn't that; it was the constant erection of what looked to be arcs.
As they got closer, the 4 dots were finally revealed to 4 earth musicians working as traffic managers.
The 4 musicians flew around on earth platforms and also seemed to be split into two groups for each side of the road.
Both teams were extremely coordinated, like they could read each other's minds. When one of them falls short, the other will quickly pick up to increase their efficiency.
*Vroom, vroom*
As the earth's musicians connected their newly created roads to the preexisting one, cars began to move, causing the traffic to be significantly reduced, but it still fell short due to how dense the traffic truly was.
"Fwaaaeell, they better be getting paid well for this. I can't imagine how draining it is, using Node like that and there are only 4 of them..." Kanum whistled and stated with sympathy as he looked at the 4 highly skilled musicians.
Almost like the musicians had heard him, a single tear left their eyes, and a strange silence preceded among everyone within the area for a moment, almost as if someone had died.
After that, nothing much happened; the earth musicians just followed the same routine, and after almost an hour, the traffic in Kanum's section finally began moving.
"Wow, they are way more efficient than I thought." Kanum saluted the musicians as he drove past them.
Shelt nodded in agreement and seluted the musicians as well
"FINALLY!" Shry cheered as he put a fist in the air.
On the contrary to Shry's exclamation, Shry actually secretly wanted to stay longer in order to observe the musicians and their magical abilities. But he was also exited, because it meant that he's just that tiny bit closer to finding out his resonance path
Shelt and Kanum were a bit surprised by Shry's cheer, but Kanum quickly picked up and matched his son's energy.
"WOOOOOOOO!" Kanum challenged Shry's enthusiasm.
"Woo—" Shelt was almost caught up in their foolery and cheered as well but caught herself before more could come out.
While the father and son were having fun, Shelt was embarrassed and acted like she didn't know Kanum even though no one was looking.
As they got closer to their destination, the scenery went through a significant change. During their whole trip, their scenery was that of a colorful, aesthetic and semi futuristic looking city with all kinds of mechanisms and technology that maximize efficiency and promote convenience
From what they have seen up to this point, it looked like they had entered a forest, but that was only on one side, as across the road from it was still the same scenery that they have grown so used to
From a bird's side view, their destination looked like a nature preserve but with a twist, as in the middle of it. Laid a humongous, glistening white cube.
"Oh! So they use old school parking lots. But shouldn't they change it to the modern version since it saves so much space" Kanum muttered in delighted surprise
The parking lot for the resonance hall was extremely large, comparable to about two full-sized football fields. It is quite uncommon to see parking lots in this age because, due to the advent of new science. Because The gaps within old science's physics can now be filled by utilizing the mythical power known as Node, almost any contraption made for convenience can be created without all the theories and speculation as long they understood Node
"No... I think they should keep it this way. It's kind of like an art piece, acting like a statement to our perseverance." Shelt disagreed with Kanum's oppion and provided a counter argument
After hearing Shelt's defense, Kanum disagreed with it at first, but as he continued thinking, he'd come to the realization that she was right. Since it truly does display the stubborness of humanity, because despite how far humanity had progressed, even after tens of thousands of years, nothing about the resonance hall had changed
"....I guess you're right." Kanum said, as a small but prideful smile appeared on his face
Finally finding a spot, Kanum was ecstatic; he quickly twisted his steering wheel, shifted to reverse, and carefully backed into his spot.
"I'll take care of the parking meter," Shelt said neutrally as she got out of the car.
Kanum, who got out after Shelt, immediately began stretching his stiff shoulders and legs. While Shry, who also got out at the same time as Kanum, looked for his mother before running after her.
Shelt, who noticed that Shry was following her, slowed down slightly, and once Shry caught up to her, she looked at him and smiled warmly before she continued walking to her objective.
In front of Shelt, there looked to be a fairly old-looking parking meter by today's standards at least. The parking meter didn't have a coin slot; instead, below the meter, was a hollow compartment, big enough for a person to stick their hand into
Without hesitation, Shelt stuck her hand into the hollow compartment, and subsequently, the entrance to the compartment slowly shut around her wrist.
When Shelt saw that the entrance was fully shut around her wrist, she selected the 3-hour option through the screen that displayed the meter and after doing that, Shelt fired up her Node, and her hands, glowed silver.
Immediately, Shelt began releasing node energy through her hand into the parking meter, and after about 10 seconds, the meter released her, and following that, Shelt casually reverted her arm back to its natural color.
In this world, or in this continent at least, government and privately owned public conveniences, like public transport, toilets, and parking lots, required the user to pay a tax. Not in money, but in their ever-flowing node energy that can be regenerated.
Because of the dawn of new science, the demand for Node energy had become immensely high, higher than even that of electricity, but the only way to supply that demand is through humans because it is only through them that it becomes possible to trap Node into a canister to later be used as a battery.
Because of all these outlets though, the demand for Node was able to be met without having to resort to inhumane methods.
"Jeez, why are my shoulders still so stiff!" Kanum complained while still stretching.
"Maybe you're getting old," Shelt said cheekily as she came up behind Kanum
After Shelt was done with the tax, she went back to Kanum in order to get him to get going, but when she heard what he said, She couldn't help but make a joking remark.
"Hey! We're the same age; don't go telling me I'm old!" Kanum lightly rebuked
Pausing her movements for a moment, the corners of Shelt's lips lifted slightly, forming a teasing smile to purposefully tease Kanum; she even turned her head to the side a little to make sure Kanum saw it and after doing that, She just shrugged her shoulders and acted like nothing happened.
Seeing this, Kanum scratched his hair in annoyance, but after seeing his wife and son got further and further away from him, he couldn't do anything but relent and accept that he had been made a fool of.
"Hey! Why don't you guys ever wait for me!" Kanum's voice filled with a hint of sadness rang as he ran after Shelt and Shry.
Getting closer to their destination, the sight of a humongous but odd-looking structure came into vision.
"That's the Resonance hall, right?!" Shry pointed at the structure and asked in excitement.
"Yeah!" Shelt confirmed cheerfully.
The structure they see in front was their destination. With its all-encompassing and perspective-changing structure, the Resonance Hall stood almost as tall and wide as the Pyramid of Giza.
Its architecture is nothing to scoff at either, because although from afar, the Resonance Hall might just look like a giant marble cube, when you examine it close up, you'll see that despite how big the structure is, every single corner of its glistening white walls is covered with intricate engravings.
It's not like these engravings were done just for decorative purposes either, because through the eyes of those willing to read it, every single bit of engraving on these walls was done with purpose and heart, as each one of them tells a story of the past, and by compiling all these engravings together, you'll be able to get the full story of humanity up until the creation of the Resonance Hall.
All the hardship, struggles, losses, and perseverance were all laid bare for all future generations to witness, to inspire them, to comfort them, and to push them forward to the future that those who built the foundation with their blood, sweat, and tears sought to create for their children.
"Woa—" Shry was halfway through expressing his astonishment when a male voice interrupted him.
"MY DAY IS RUINED!" Kanum dramatically fell onto his knees and cried out in despair after he saw the amount of people waiting in front of the Resonance Hall.
The scene in front of them was surprisingly pleasant; groups of people, mainly families, were sitting in the forest that surrounded the Resonance Hall, mingling, and having picnics below the trees.
Even though the scene looked serene and nice, Kanum wasn't prepared for any of this; he thought he could get this day over with quickly and go home with his family to celebrate but after seeing that he couldn't help but over exaggerate his feeling of doom
"Shut up..." Shelt whispered and shoved Kanum gently with her left leg.
Due to Kanum's declaration, people around them to stare at their family. Through all their gazes, Shelt got embarrassed and tried her best to drag Kanum back to standing upright before they caught more people's attention.
"Mom, can we join th-" Shry suddenly stopped talking as pointed at the people having a picnic around the resonance hall.
As Shry looked around, he suddenly spotted someone familiar. Without even waiting for an answer to his question, Shry suddenly began sprinting toward his friend.
Shelt was still busy with Kanum, so she wasn't able to stop Shry when he ran. She did manage to get Kanum to stand up, though, after Shry ran.
*Haaaaah* (oh, come on.) Shelt sighed and thought internally as she side-eyed Kanum.
"How is this my fault?" Kanum rebuked defensively.
Shelt got a bit frustrated after hearing what Kanum said, since it was partly his fault that she wasn't able to stop Shry before he ran. But she decided not to pursue the issue too much since she is still partly at fault as well. So, in an effort to make it even between them, she decided to jokingly jab at Kanum
"He is your son, isn't he?" Shelt said with a smile.
"Humph, my word! I can't believe you'll say such a thing; isn't he your son as well?" Kanum dramatically said out loud, catching the attention of more people.
Shelt noticed that they were getting more attention from the people around; she loved that side of Kanum, but she hated it when he did it in public, so in an effort to remove the people's attention towards them, Shelt forcefully dragged Kanum to the registration booth to report their arrival.