As every university student would agree, most Professors wanted students to be workaholics. Whether that be revenge for having to work so much for so little or preparations for the field didn’t matter —Sean hated this lifestyle. He’d just managed to get admitted into a decent university overseas, but was doubtful he could keep his belly full while getting decent grades.

Broica didn’t have many options for those who wanted to truly study. There were a handful of universities, but even the most prominent one wasn’t really known. Google would have to intervene a fair bit until employers finally understood that he was talking about a university instead of a restaurant down the street, or some major clarification on his part.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Clara, a brunette that stood half a head shorter than Sean, who wasn’t all that tall as well. She was the closest thing to a ‘girlfriend’ that Sean had, and quite frankly the only thing that made him want to stay in this hellhole his entire life. While his parents weren’t all that awful, and his family situation was as boring as it could get, he didn’t really like how he lived. Everything was far too boring, stagnant, and almost detestable —but Clara changed that. Her mere existence did. The hours they spent were the most fun he’d had in his life.

His eyes wandered toward her bosom, but he peeled them away and instead stared into her eyes. They glimmered like sapphires, and they sought to pierce the hearts of any man that stared at it long enough. Suffice to say, Sean had stared enough to have it be pierced a thousand times. And then he licked his lips which had gotten far too dry for his liking, and then nodded, “Yeah, I am. I’d just end up getting tangled up in astronomical debt.”

“That’s so like you,” said Clara and giggled slightly as she turned away at the last second, despite Sean’s slow approach toward her face. They both knew what it would have turned into. She didn’t mind, Sean could swear, but there was that issue about ‘commitment’ Clara spoke about. She couldn’t get too attached. She moved around too much, courtesy of her father’s work requiring him to move around the country erratically, “Thinking about money more than the possibilities.”

“Possibilities that may as well not exist. I like to be cautious,” said Sean and walked toward Clara who was now walking away, with a quick pace, too. She liked to do that —having him run after her, both figuratively and literally. He didn’t know which one she took more joy in. Probably the latter. With how fast she walked, Sean wondered why she wasn’t an athlete. She could put it to good use, no?

“Of course. That’s what I love about you. Always oh-so-cautious, brooding at the last seat in the classroom because it’s the closest to the exit, ready to dash if your teacher turns into a spider monster out of nowhere,” said Clara, and she turned back to stare at Sean, and he almost bumped into her. He managed to stop, but at the cost of losing his balance, which meant he had to awkwardly regain his balance by raising a leg and an arm, of opposite sides, to wave them around, “I swear you have that in your pocket right now, just in case.”

“Pocket, no. Backpack, yes. In the hidden compartment right behind my laptop. And come on, I’m not that bad. I assume she might snap and pull out a gun on us. Didn’t you hear the news? Apparently, a professor in America decided to end his misery and bring down the annoying kids down with him. Never know when your teacher might snap,” said Sean, half justifying his actions and half-joking, “And you know that I can… visit you, you know? If you move away.”

“We’re not having this conversation again, Sean. You know full well that I’m not going to be your girlfriend,” said Clara, nodding her head for emphasis. She’d made it fully clear. They wouldn’t be dating, but they’d just be hanging out. And she’d been here in the capital for as long as he knew her, meaning 2 years, “Anyways, I’ll have to go. See ya at the house tonight.”

Right. The house. He was supposed to meet her dad. Clara’s mom had left the world a long time ago. That’s all that Sean was told, and being the sensible man he was, he didn’t ask any further. His granny had died a decade ago, and he wouldn’t want people talking about her all the time; and that most likely applied to Clara and her mother.

“Do you need some spare change? You spent a lot in the hut,” shouted out Sean, and got a middle finger in the face. Not literally, though. She was around a dozen meters away. She almost religiously loved milkshakes, and while she waited for Sean to finish his last class, she’d managed to drink five. And those things cost a lot, too. The hut was what they called a nearby cafe —comfy, and small. The latter was why they’d come to call it the hut. It could maybe fit 20 at most, but Sean wagered not even 10 knew of that place. The only customers he’d seen were a pair of punks, complete with Mohawks and all.

And with that done, he had to get home and finish his assignments. It was about time to get rid of that algorithm assignment he’d been putting off for a week. Just 20 problems in a day. Not much, if he didn’t sleep, and he wasn’t planning on it. Especially since he was probably going to spend a good 4 hours at Clara’s… Yeah, nothing would go wrong, right? He hoped so.

It was just about evening too. If there was one thing about spring, it was the fact that the evening lasted for a good hour or two. He could get home by dark, more or less. Walking let him clear his head, the opposite of what resting did. If he rested, he ended up thinking, and that thinking caused a headache and made him want to do things —things he didn’t want to do.

It’d take around 20 minutes, and he’d almost automatically walked the first 10, head almost devoid of thought. It was relaxing. He took a deep breath. It was nice to breathe fresh air without a mask on. That Covid fiasco was annoying, but finally, it had been taken care of. Not globally, though. Just out of the country for now, but vaccinations had started a couple of months ago.

There was only really one road back home if he wanted to get there promptly. And that was to walk through the park. Not many people visited it, and it had a tranquil vibe over it. He appreciated the quiet, or rather, the sound of nature. Very rarely, birds chirped here, and a river flowed through it so it was always nice to hear the sound of a rushing river. There was a fair amount of trees around the place, too, lining across both sides of the road so it would feel like a forest. Some parts had more trees, giving off the image of a forest —he supposed it was a forest before most of the trees were cut off in the olden days of the city being a mere establishment.

On the eleventh minute, something happened —it felt like an earthquake. He collapsed to the ground as he felt the wonky feeling of standing on something moving peculiarly. What was that? The magnitude could be nothing short of 7, or 8 if it was doing this. But soon he realized it wasn’t it. It wasn’t a tremor in the ground but his very own perception. Did he get drugged? No way. He hadn’t eaten anything suspicious or stabbed by a needle, for that matter. Nothing came up no matter how much he thought. Ugh...

He collapsed to the ground and barely managed to use both arms to halt his fall. As his palm ran against the tough concrete road, he felt a stinging pain. Some skin had been ripped off and he was looking at a world of pain. He frowned as the weird feeling faded. What was that about? Exhaustion, maybe. Then he’d have to hold off on that algorithm homework after all. It wasn’t good to overextend.

Sean stumbled to his feet and looked around. There was no knowing whether that was an earthquake or some sort of illusion. Not without seeing buildings, at least, but he knew that he’d have heard a fall, or at least something if a building had collapsed. He was close enough to the end of the park, but then he had the ingenious idea of looking back, back to the urban area of the city where the skyscrapers could be seen even from here.

Yep… still there, standing there like it was no one’s business. And if that had really been an earthquake of such a magnitude, then they’d have certainly toppled a long time ago. But he instantly halted his thought process the moment he saw something that was far too alien —a screen, floating right before his eyes.

System Notice

Welcome to the System, denizens of Earth. You have been integrated as a part of the 405th Generation. The Calibration shall commence in 1 minute.

“What the hell?” mumbled Sean as he stared at the status screen in front of himself. He knew full well what it was, but how? Yeah, he most likely died after the earthquake. Probably a tree fell and smashed him. The earthquake was quite strong, after all, and he wasn’t the most durable guy in the shed. Struggling to believe his eyes, Sean brought his hand to his face and pinched his cheek.

Ouch. He felt that pain. So not a dream? No no, obviously, if he’d died, then he would feel pain. Since this is the afterlife, and it would be somewhat similar to real life. At least that was his theory. He’d never been overly religious, but if it was his heaven, then he’d finally have the mundanely adventurous life he always wished to have with Clara. But something deep within him told him that he was being delirious, acting like a total fool. He knew that this was real, on a subconscious level.

And what was this calibration all about? There was a clock floating at the side of his vision. When he focused on it, it brought itself forward. What was that? What sort of sensor did that? As a programmer, he knew that this was utterly ridiculous. Too advanced for humans to make, for sure. For the next decade or so, at least, unless this was some sick government experiment of another country. Broica wasn’t rich enough to fund something like this.

“Please tell me this is a joke,” mumbled Sean under his breath his breathing growing more ragged. He was panicking ever so slightly. He liked staying out of trouble, thus his mild paranoia. But this? This was unavoidable, and this was exactly the sort of thing that he hated. He hated it with such fervor that he wanted to scream out to release the frustration whenever he got into an inescapable situation.

Time Remaining: 0 Seconds

And with that, Sean was covered with a pillar of bright blue light not dissimilar from how a tractor beam would look in movies. When the light faded, he was gone. Whatever this calibration was, he didn’t look ready. Far from it. He only had jeans and a plain black shirt with a backpack that had nothing but his laptop, which he was worried about, and some snacks.