Maxim looked back down. In his mind, he wasn't sitting in a wooden desk in Moscow anymore. He was a submarine captain descending into the midnight-blue depths. He turned to the page and felt the humid heat of the Amazon rainforest. He flipped to the Political Map and imagined crossing the borders of countries he couldn't yet pronounce, each one a different shade of pink, green, or yellow.

"Ah, the deepest point on Earth," the teacher smiled. "Did you know that if you dropped Mount Everest into it, there would still be two kilometers of water above the peak?"

The dusty, oversized book sat at the bottom of Maxim’s backpack like a sleeping giant. It was the , its blue cover featuring a glossy image of a spinning globe. To most kids in the class, it was just a collection of colorful shapes and confusing lines, but for Maxim, it was a literal treasure map.

When the bell finally rang, the other students rushed out, but Maxim stayed for a moment, gently closing the Atlas. It wasn't just a textbook for a grade; it was his first passport. He realized that the world wasn't just a place he lived in—it was a giant puzzle waiting to be solved, one page at a time.

"I’m just... looking at the Mariana Trench, sir," Maxim stammered.