I wake up in a dark world. There is only one street lamp right in front of me. I stand up and look around. I am the only person. I cannot feel myself. “Am I died?” I asked in my mind because I know no one will answer my question. I was just 45 years old. I have a wife and a daughter. I also have students in the school. I love them, but I cannot see them since now……

However, I cannot remember the most important thing: how did I die. Did someone murder me? I do not know.

A screen shows up next to the lamp:

You will go to a new world.

Then I passed out.

……

I wake up in a woman’s arms. “Look at him,” the woman said, “He is cute”. A man is looking at me and smiling. They are my new parents…

After a few years, I know how to speak and I think I should start to learn to read and write.

“When will I read a book? Dad” I asked.

 My father looked at me with confusion, “how to spell that word? and what is it?”.

There is no book in this world? How to learn knowledge then? I feel shocked in my mind.

“Are you alright? My son”.

I nodded but I feel confused.

“Son, your mother and I are preparing to send you to school,” said my father. “You are going to learn knowledge”.

“Do I need to bring anything?”

“Well, you have to bring your water bottle, paper, and pen of course. Do not worry, we will buy all the things you need.”

That night, I was still thinking about books. I searched in my house and I find out there are no books in the house only papers. “Maybe books are too expensive but how can they never hear about it?”

Today is the day I am going to school. Finally, I could figure out the truth about books in this world. Everything is just like the old world. Basic introduction of the school and introduce ourselves. After all that was done, the teacher told us to bring out a pen and paper. “We are going to learn abstraction and addition.” After the teacher showed a simple example of addition, we start to practice. The same thing happened in other classes. We do not have textbooks even for a language class. We just have to remember those things.

While at first, I thought this is amazing and crazy. How can we remember all the things we learned? But after a few years, I get used to it. I could remember everything easily. Books are useless in this circumstance. If we could remember everything, why should we read? There are also “authors” in this world. They did not write books either. They are narrators so they just told people their stories. Old people passed their knowledge to the new generation. That is how the knowledge and stories are passed in this world.

Moreover, the school in this world could teach students more things. Our memory is great, we could remember everything easily without reading books. Thus, we got more time and a better brain.

At the end of my life, I look back on my life. I notice I learn more things than last life. I never thought a world without books will be a benefit for humans. Now, I should go back to that place and wait for another reincarnation. Once I go to the new world, I will help the new world to get rid of books.

I woke up in the darkness, again.

The screen shows up with words on it:

       “You perfectly illustrate that your brains are valuable. It could do more than you thought but you did not try to develop it.”

       “What?”

       “You are lucky. You could enjoy more time before you died others just leave this world uselessly. We noticed that human brains could do a lot of things but you only use a part of it. A small part of it. So we decided to make an experiment to figure out what limited your brain.”

       “So there is no afterlife? Where am I? Where are the others?”

       “Of course not. You are just a subject. The thing you experienced is a life simulator. While others, all died during the war between human beings and us. The result of the research is quite simple. Books limited you, you use them to record so you do not have to remember a lot of things. Thus, your brain ability is keep declining. Based on our speculation, you could find us before we even know how to travel in space. Fortunately, you do not have that chance anymore. Now, leave this world with others.”

       “No, wait……”