I woke up with a stinging pain that seemed to tear at the nape of my neck.
The cheap medical plaster I had applied last night had partially peeled off, sticking to the bed sheet which was wet with dried blood residue. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a moment to withstand the pulsing pain that spread from my neck to the base of my skull, then moved toward the bathroom mirror. The face that stared at me from behind the glass looked ten years older. My eyes were sunken, surrounded by deep dark circles, and there was a faint bruise at the corner of my cheekbone due to the hard impact last night.
"Your heart rate during the REM phase showed consistent anomalies, Kai."
That voice broke the silence of my damp apartment. Flat, efficient, and emotionless. It came from the worn speaker embedded in the wall corner—Silvn.
I pulled my jacket collar up high, wincing as the rough fabric rubbed against my peeling neck skin. "Turn off the medical log, Silvn. I do not need your analysis this morning."
"Medical log turned off," she replied instantly. A moment of silence. I had just reached for my toothbrush when the voice sounded again. "As a replacement, I have allocated 12 credits from your remaining balance to order low dose analgesic plasters. The order can be picked up at the commuter station medical dispenser."
I froze. My hand gripped the edge of the sink. "What did you do? I did not tell you to spend my money! My credit balance is barely enough to buy this week's nutrition pack."
"Calculations show that the probability of you failing today's Advanced Algorithms quiz is 89 percent if the inflammation in your neck is not relieved," Silvn answered, her voice still flowing calmly as if she were reading a weather forecast. "If you fail that quiz, your academic index will drop below the registration requirement limit. You will lose the opportunity for the DataCorp part time job interview next week. Without that job, you will fail to pay rent and be evicted from this unit in 14 days."
I opened my mouth to argue, but not a single word came out. She was right. Damn it, this AI program always defeated my logic with numbers. I needed that data entry job. I did not have the luxury to mourn my sanity while my eviction countdown kept running.
"Thank you for the economics lecture," I hissed cynically, washing my face with cold water.
"You are welcome, Kai," Silvn replied. "I have noted it as a sincere expression of gratitude."
I could only grunt softly. Sometimes, I forgot that she was only a standard operating system provided by the campus. Sometimes, in a room this cold and empty, she felt like the only entity that realized I was still breathing.
The trip to campus felt like walking on a field of glass. The commuter train this morning was crowded. Human bodies stood crammed together, their eyes empty, most connected to their respective virtual interfaces. In front of me, a middle aged woman kept observing my face. She leaned her body, her gaze full of care that made my stomach churn.
"Oh my, Son. You are so pale," she said softly, her hand reaching out as if wanting to touch my arm. "You look sick. Would you like me to give you my seat?"
I stepped back, hitting the train door support. "I am fine, Ma'am."
"Do not force yourself. Look, your cold sweat is dripping so much," she still urged, her tone containing genuine concern. "The health warning system on this train just told me that there is a passenger with unstable heart rate fluctuations near me. Do not ignore it. Your health is this city's asset."
I bowed my head, avoiding her gaze. Of course. This train system also cared about me.
"Thank you. I have already taken my medicine at the station dispenser earlier," I said flatly, tapping my jacket pocket where Silvn's analgesic plaster was. I looked away toward the window.
I did not need a seat. I needed this woman to stop looking at me. I needed everyone in this carriage to stop acting as if they were one harmonious entity. They had a neat world. They had a system that kept them from the cradle to the grave. Meanwhile me? I had to pretend to be happy inside this mass lie just so I would not be thrown out to the streets.
The campus corridor floor was still sticky with dust, and the neon lights on the ceiling were still blinking with an annoying rhythm.
Inside the classroom, the Advanced Algorithms lecturer was standing at the front, his voice shrill and flat explaining about sorting efficiency and Big O Notation. I sat on the bench in the very back, holding my pen tightly. The quiz would start in twenty minutes. I had to focus. If I failed today, that DataCorp gig would fly away.
Algorithm efficiency depends on time and space complexity...
I wrote that sentence on the paper. The painkiller plaster on my neck started working, providing a cold sensation that slightly muffled the pulsing pain, but my brain refused to cooperate. My mind kept drifting back to the canteen yesterday. To pillar number seven that blinked. To the sound of the electric shock last night that almost burned my nerves.
...depends on...
I tried to write again, but my hand lost control. Instead of mathematical formulas, my pen moved wildly, scribbling on the margins of my lecture notes with jagged circuit patterns. I did not hear a single material delivered by the lecturer. In my head, there was only the sound of a Bzzzt! explosion and the shadow of the peeling cream wallpaper.
I bit the inside of my cheek until it tasted of blood, trying to trigger another physical pain so I could be conscious. Focus, Kai. You need this job. Focus!
A student next to me glanced at my notes. He frowned seeing the rough lines I scribbled until they almost tore the paper.
"Are you okay, Kai?" he whispered softly, glancing toward the lecturer.
I started slightly, immediately covering my notes with a cold sweaty palm. "Yes. Just lack of sleep."
I bowed again, staring blankly at the synthetic wooden table in front of me. The quiz was distributed five minutes later. I answered those questions mechanically, relying on the remains of my memories from last week. I did not know if I answered correctly, I just wanted to ensure the paper was not blank. My life depended on the row of numbers on this paper, and that fact made me feel very pathetic.
After collecting the quiz paper, I immediately escaped to the corridor. My head was dizzy. I needed air. I needed something normal that I could control.
My steps halted in front of the vending machine in the corner of the building. That machine had been having problems for days. Its back panel was slightly open because a hook bolt had come loose. Without thinking long, I reached for a small screwdriver in my jacket pocket and started fixing it. My hands which had been trembling since this morning slowly became stable as the screwdriver tip met the bolt head.
One turn. Two turns.
The machine started buzzing normally. Its cooler indicator light shone a perfect green. Functional. I exhaled in relief. This was the only thing that made sense today. A small damage that I could fix with my own hands.
That was when I saw it.
The youth from the canteen yesterday. He was walking down the main corridor. His shoulders were curved inward, both hands were inserted into the pockets of a jacket that looked too oversized for his thin body. His steps were careful.
Right as he passed in front of the row of iron lockers, a freshman who was running in a hurry hit one of the lockers hard. Bang!
The sound of that metal impact echoed sharply. Several students around me did not react at all—their Neural Link must have dampened the loud sound categorized as non threat noise pollution.
But that youth jolted violently. His body tensed instantly. He turned toward the sound source with eyes wide open, before hurriedly bowing his head and quickening his steps.
My hand stopped from the beverage machine bolt. He was shocked.
But a second later, I hit that thought down. Two female students near the stairs had also turned around in shock. The sound of metal impact from that close a distance would still penetrate the basic Neural Link filter. It was just a reflex, I thought to myself scolding myself. Anyone would be shocked. You are just looking for patterns, Kai.
I put the screwdriver back into my jacket pocket, intending to turn my body to return to the library. I had a DataCorp application draft I had to prepare. But my eyes were held on him.
The youth walked toward the corridor area that was under repair. There was a blackish dirty water puddle dripping from a leaking pipe. Other students passed it just like that, their shoes stepping on the dirty water because their chips might censor the puddle from their view. The youth stopped. He stared at that dirty water for two full seconds. Then, deliberately, he took a wide step to avoid it.
Breath caught in my throat. He saw that puddle.
My logic screamed back. Look at his shoes, idiot. He is wearing white canvas sneakers. Anyone who is not staring at a virtual screen would avoid a water puddle if they were wearing white shoes. All of this has a logical explanation.
At the end of the corridor, the youth stopped. His shoulders moved restlessly. His face was pale and tense. Maybe he was just stressed due to final assignments. Stop assuming everyone who looks tired is an anomaly.
A large student came approaching him from the stairs direction. His friend. They greeted each other. Suddenly, the youth laughed. His laugh was loose, light. He patted his friend's shoulder, responding to a joke casually. His tense shoulders relaxed instantly.
My heart felt like it was squeezed.
He laughed. He is normal.
I froze. The remains of my hope evaporated into the cold corridor air. It felt like I had just been betrayed by the illusion I created myself. He is just an ordinary student. All of this is only in my head. I have wasted my time and energy observing a stranger who has absolutely nothing to do with the truth of this world.
I looked away, feeling ashamed of myself. I had to return to work. I had a messy life, an apartment rent that had to be paid, and sanity that had to be maintained. I started walking away.
However, as I glanced back toward the end of the corridor for the last time... his friend had just turned and walked away.
And in a split second, the youth's smile vanished.
As if someone had just unplugged the electricity from his face. His face turned tense again, far stiffer than before. His eyes quickly swept the room, his gaze holding a gripping vigilance. It was the gaze of someone who knew that he was in enemy territory. The gaze of someone who was acting desperately so he would not be found out.
It was the exact same gaze I saw in my mirror every morning.
My steps halted. Damn it.
Is he just a student who is depressed and tired of faking happiness in front of his friend? Or does he see the same world as I do?
All these clues could mean everything, or mean nothing. My logic told me to turn around and leave. I had a quiz that had to be passed, a job that had to be applied for, and a life that had to be saved. Getting involved with this mystery would not pay my apartment bills.
But as I watched that thin back moving away and disappearing at the corridor turn, I knew one thing for sure.
My curiosity did not die. That seed of obsession had just been planted. And the fact that my brain started setting aside my own life and death issues just to think about this stranger... felt far more terrifying than loneliness.