Jude opened his eyes as the darkness of the place welcomed him. The cloud was dark—almost like it was about to rain. Pain spread across his face until it felt numb, as though his blood was not flowing freely at all. He managed to stand.
What he needed now was to go home, bathe, and sleep. This suffering was too much. Before he knew it tears began to fall down his cheeks as the wound burned even more, the salty tears making the open cuts sting worse. He could not stop crying it was like all the pain he had endured during the punch and blows from Aron finally came out now.
"You're a fucking man, get your shit back together," he groaned loudly at himself, as if that would help him stop—but it didn't. He just felt lamed, cursed. Why was life like this?
He did nothing wrong, owed no one, and yet suffering and pain kept coming to him like a curse. He walked as the clouds rumbled. Good thing his house wasn't that far.
Though far, it was still just a twenty-minute walk from here to his house—compared to the last trash job that had taken an hour, four minutes, and three seconds to reach home.
He sighed as more tears rolled down his cheeks. He refused to make a sound, unable to control the flow. His soundless cry was more painful, more crushing, because he couldn't even stop it despite telling himself he was a man.
But it was okay for a man to cry. After all, he was human.
"Weakness, Jude. Weakness." He tried to remind himself why he shouldn't cry, but still, the tears kept coming, burning against his dry, bloodied face. He wondered how many hours he had been passed out. He couldn't even imagine tomorrow—without money, without food. This life was not fair at all.
His tears mixed with the dried blood stained his shirt. He didn't care. Time passed, and his crying slowed. His eyes were red swollen, worse than the last time. He looked wretched and pitiful, like a living dead man.
The clouds rumbled again as the lights of the city glinted colorfully. Car lights moved across the air overpass. On a normal day, Jude would have been happy to see the afternoon darken like this—rain threatening but not falling, just the wind carrying the sky's weight. But not today. He wasn't even sure if it was afternoon or evening anymore.
City light shone brightly as people walked…mostly couples and families. And yet here he was, alone. No family. Just free art painted on his face by a stranger's fist.
All he wanted right now was food. If he had money, his book would never have gone on hiatus. He would have completed it. But readers weren't paying. They called him a stingy author for charging high. Only one top fan had kept supporting, saying he loved the story. He had readers, yes, but he also needed money to survive. That thought led him instantly to…
"The robot."
He began walking faster as cold air swept across his body. The clouds darkened further, the wind whooshing past him, goosebumps crawling across his skin. Yet he kept his expression cold and unreadable. Finally, he reached the back of the building where his little apartment sat.
He couldn't imagine what he would have done if he hadn't carried that robot home. Thanks to the robot, he had a door to lock. He was still shocked by how much the machine seemed to know, different from any other he had seen.
Sure, robots were programmed to do various tasks, but it was usually a specific task, but this one was unlike any he had ever encountered.
Earlier, as he passed the crowded road, he noticed nearly twenty percent of the people walking with phones were robots…and no one even noticed. Nobody cared.
At last, he reached his door. He pushed it open, and immediately the warmth of the room enveloped him, calming the chill that clung to his body. But then, something mouth-watering wafted to his nose.
Grrrrrr
His stomach growled loudly. Was he so hungry he was imagining things? But no—the smell was too much to be imagination. He turned, and his eyes widened.
Next to the robot sat a box of pizza and a can of Cokess drink. Jude froze, staring.
"The pizza won't eat itself," Rune spoke as Jude stepped forward in disbelief.
He opened the box and to his surprise it was not a prank but they were real pizzas. Only then did Rune finally lift his eyes from the laptop. He had been typing nonstop. Now that Jude was here, Rune leaned back, ready to ask how jude's work had gone..,but he was greeted with a bruised face. His brow arched.
"Who did this?" he asked calmly.
Jude ignored the question, grabbed the pizza and drink, and set them on the bed. He walked straight to the wardrobe. He needed to bathe, eat, and then sleep.
"Some street dudes," he finally muttered as he grabbed a top and pants, "not entirely street—they're from rich homes. But they find joy in bullying the homeless and the weak."
He moved toward the bathroom door, hand on the handle. But then he paused.
"Rune… where did you get the money? And how did you buy this?" he asked, realizing.
"The trading app," Rune answered casually. "Got me fifty dollars as a beginner, since I started all over and changed your settings. You don't have to worry. The order man dropped it at the door. I came out when he left."
Jude's lips curved slightly. On a normal day, he would have been screaming in joy because he had never made a single cash from this trading app at some point he called it a scam.
Not that he wasn't happy now, but he was too tired, too hungry. Right now, he needed to bath, eat and sleep. Then once he woke up, he'd ask Rune exactly how he managed it.
He opened the bathroom door and was about to close it when Rune's voice came again.
"Wait..the boy who punched you. What was his name again?"
Jude halted.
"Aron. That's his name."
With that, he shut the door. He would have argued, but the thought of pizza was still ringing in his head. He needed to look fresh and eat. He could already imagine how luxurious that would feel.
Meanwhile, Rune moved back to the laptop. He saved his work, then opened the Hellogram app. The sound of metallic fingers tapping against the keyboard echoed through the room. Finally, he pressed enter. His lips curved into a smirk.
"It would not be bad to play a little game, hmm?" he whispered, a grin widening across his face.
"How about a follow request…" he spoke calmly as he pressed the enter button.
♢♢♢
Inside the setting lab, the scientists moved quickly as the experiment was about to take hold. The president was coming—this was a huge deal. Normally, it was only the governor who visited, but today was different.
They rushed around the lab, arranging a strange tube filled with a clear liquid that could easily be mistaken for water. That was why heavy warnings were placed everywhere.
The lights above blazed brightly. At the front of the room were sofas arranged neatly for the president, and in the middle stood the table where the experiment would unfold—the very experiment meant to shape the future.
A certain man walked in, straightening his coat as he cross-checked the setup. He was the one to try it out for the very first time…right in front of the president.
"Sir Brentford, the president will be here in five minutes," one of the scientists rushed in, calling out as he rushed out to call the others.
Mr. Brentford scanned the room. He had spent years on this project, and now, the time had come to test it.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed. Strange. His phone was on Do Not Disturb—he always set it at work that way because of how serious today was and every other day. It had never buzzed before unless there was an emergency from his wife. His heart sank as he slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled it out.
But it wasn't from his wife. It was a notification from an app—a book app he had downloaded months ago.
'Mass update of five chapters daily begins tomorrow.'
He frowned, switching off his phone. How had that even come through? His phone was on DND. He didn't have time to puzzle it out now. He shoved the device back into his pocket, turned around—
—and his waist bumped into the rolling table.
The glass tube wobbled, the lid shifting loose.
SHRAANG!
The tube fell. Glass shattered across the ground.
"No… no… no, fucking no!" Mr. Brentford roared, his voice echoing down and through the corridors.
Smoke spilled into the air. The lights flickered, then cut out entirely. Darkness swept through the lab as the smoke moved fast, seeping past the walls.
Within moments, the entire company's power shut down. Then, one by one, the lights in the city began to blink out.
**
Jude sat in front of his laptop. He moved the mouse, hovered over the chapter he had just finished, and clicked Publish.
"Let the game begin."