Chapter 0: Prologue

Long ago, people used to say there was a gateway to another world on the far side of the moon.

Because the far side of the moon could never be seen from Earth, it was possible to dream such dreams.

Beyond the roads, at the edge of the seas, in the depths of the earth.

This world was once filled with places no one had ever seen, places that stirred our imaginations.

And without fail, someone would always go and witness those unseen sights.

I want to do that, too. It was only natural to feel that way.

I didn’t want to look at scenery that someone else had already laid eyes on; I wanted to see a view that no one had ever witnessed before.

If there was any meaning to my birth, I believed it was for that very purpose.

Since then, everything reflected in my eyes became a means to an end. Everything became a tool to fulfill my dream of leaving my footprints on untrodden lands.

I couldn’t afford to waste time.

If I stood around waiting, someone else would beat me to it and leave their mark first.

Faster. Faster. Even faster.

The human population keeps growing, and time flows on without mercy.

Only a mere handful of people can truly stand at the vanguard.

Not a day goes by that I don’t wonder what I will see when I finally stand at the very front.

A brand-new frontier with no familiar sights, no tiresome common sense, and no boring past.

The kind of front line where my every move becomes history.

In the Sea of Tranquility on the lunar surface, the footprints of the first human to stand on the Moon still remain, preserved exactly as they were.

They spoke volumes.

Impressions left in the sand, spanning less than a meter.