The eternal routine remains, unging, ever marg, toward the ideal future, towards a guaranteed happiness. Towards a fair, equal, happiness for all, a true utopia grao us by the stewards of this universe. Their fair reach will envelop all without exception.
Praise the benevolent stewards of the universe, their guiding tousuring equal, guaranteed happiness.
There is no need, no room for doubts. Tomorrow, to the ey of the stretch of the sea of time, the Primeras will only ever guide without strings attached, their benevolence’s satisfa derived from nothing but our happiness.
Tick, tick, tick.
In ten more ticks, the system will activate, and with it, another day will start.
Tick, tick, tick.
Each tick was engraved in Izabel’s mind. She looked at the device strapped to her wrist, oh a small s attached to it. From her touch, the s was activated, showing the familiar s.
[Izabel Viator]
[Status: Happy]
[Happiness: 98/100]
[Physical Health: 99.7%]
[You are satisfied and happy. Tomorrow and always, the Primeras will guard your happiness.]
Izabel took a deep breath, her eyes focused on the number. It seems like she was safe for now, and a little deviation will not send the trackers and meical attendants after her.
“I hope the system maes shatter and end everything, stewards of all? What a shitload of junk.”
[Happiness: 89/100]
[You are currently happy, perhaps, we help to make you as happy as be? Remember, the Primeras offer aid and promise happiness for all, with her requirement nor strings attached.]
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
There was o pte further, for the clock had struck. A quice at the device eternally strapped to her wrist firmed Izabel’s thoughts. As she had expected and seen ever since she could remember, it was 06:00 System Hour, a cue for the habitation unit she lives in to rouse to life once more.
[Good m, we hope you had a restful evening.]
A retort bubbled ohroat, but as the tless times had taught her, she swallowed it, relieved that the shift in her happiness coeffit was negligible.
“Yes, I had a restful sleep. Thank you for your sideration.”
Her reply sounded forced to her own ears, but as practice had taught her, her expressiorayed no such thoughts. After all, they always watch, they always lurk. Enough shifts of her mood would send a suffog swarm, tirelessly asking for her well-being. Benevolent as the Primeras may be, their gaze extends and pierces through all uhe dome,
[That is reassuring to hear. Let us ence a quick s]
The robotic voice was soft, reassuring, but perhaps, it would be more fitting to say that it would be reassuring when perceived by a scared kitten. Though the voice had been the stant factor that stayed ever since she could remember, for quite a while, it sounded more infuriating to her ears, a fact that irouble more times that she had the capacity to t.
[ Vitae System s plete]
[Results: Izabel Viator’s mood is stable, no illnesses or deviatioed]
[Happiness coeffit in Mirror app has been adjusted]
“Okay, we start with the daily routine now?”
[Certainly]
Wake up at 6, se yourself, eat, do the assigasks, eat, do the assigasks, go back to the habitation unit, se yourself, eat, immerse yourself iertai provided by the system, and sleep, to wake up ahe cycle repeat anew. Aions not permitted by the system’s calcution for optimal routine would alert the meical attendants.
Her mood, her thoughts, everything, it was all id bare for the Primeras to see from their throhe room shifted, transp her to the bedroom while she was musing. With a little scoff, she he temperature of the warm water, 43 degrees, one degree warmer thaerday. The bath was fortable, but the routiretched over untable system hours, felt nothing short of suffog.
Perhaps, she thought, gng at the clock to ehere were no signifit shifts in her mood, these Primeras’ benevolence aid in this suffog embrace, a routine of calcuted happihat felt nothing short of suffog.
After getting dressed, in colors that, just like everything else, was decided for her, she walked out. If the system decided that there was no need for humans to walk, perhaps, that liberty would be denied from her, too.
As soon as she fihe meal made by the unit’s molecur geor, she walked out of her habitation unit, right to the transportation unit waiting just outside. Painted in a soft blue, decorated with drawings of nature, beautiful, but as false, as artificial as everything else.
Another day, another routio an unging future.
Nothing but lies, illusions, a gilded cage of stant supervision by unseen overlords without eves to appear.
[Happiness: 80/100]
[How we help you? Feel free to tact the assistanit.]
The s of the device strapped to her wrist flickered, a silent firmation. For the first time in her life, it went dark. She stared at the s, as if wanting to savor the very, very first disruption to the eternal, unending, unging cycle. The transport unit started to move towards a destination she was familiar with, but this, this was his was a break, and Izabel inteo savor it.
But the trast made the wait stretch to ay, enough to affect the meter.
[Happiness: 68/100]
[Personnel has been dispatched to your area. Help is ing]
Another flicker before Izabel could react to the message, followed by the transportation unit screeg into a halt with force strong enough to throw her body forward. The blue skies she had seen for her entire life had started to ge, red bleeding from unseen cracks with the speed of a drop of ink in pristier.
Just like the skies, the s on Izabel’s wrist started to disie and fade, being pixels as it fell away to reveal darkness. In that brief instance, she saw her face was reflected on the dark s.
[gratutions! You have been chosen to bee the beta tester of Heart Mirror]
An i sisting of a silver, reflective heart ed in blue-e cables fshed across the s.
[Beta Tester: 1000/1000]
[MIND: 100% - 00%]
[eg to server…]
[Acquiring e – 10%]
From the red, broken skies, globs of pulsating liquid started spilling, their very existenstable and flickering. Behind the gss window, Izabel watched as a few curious people approached the blobs, expressions i and unmarred by fear. The sight was surreal, one she could not tear away her eyes from, a ge from routine and curiosity log her attention to the se.
Then, there was screaming. Primal, ear-pierg screams of fear and pain, their bravery paid as they were ed by the creatures, melting into the ground in a bination of blood and guts. Their clear shock alpable, proof that such a feeling was alien.
In that moment, perfe has truly crumbled, giving way to raw, unpolished truth. The sight anchored Izabel’s feet to the floor, her legs too heavy to move, her eyes fixated on the sight as the bystaried to escape. Frozen to the sight of ge she had once desperately wished.
Amidst the unfolding chaos, a notification appeared on the device.
“Run! … damned… you—”
A voice pierced through Izabel’s thoughts, hasty and tinged with anger. However, they kept flickering, repeating variations of words that made no sense, while static obscured the rest of the words, turning it into a jumbled mess.
[Acquiring e – 99%]
[Mirror Avatar has been acquired]
“By Delen’s thralls— Use ys!”
Izabel’s entire body jolted with shock, breaking her out of the reverie. The stern voice, filled with urgency, has shattered the spell that held her in pce. She stumbled and tripped on air, falling backwards to the etallic floor. It took her a few precious seds to realize, that indeed, her life could be forfeit should she still focus on the fact that the eternal routihe perfe that marked her entire life, had shattered.
“ you hear me clearly now?” The voice tinued, a little softer than before, “Listen to me, I uand that this is a shock, but for now, hold out your hand.”
“But— no, I get it.” Breathe, breathe, owo, and then, Izabel held out her hand as instructed. Energy welled up from within, traveling into her arm as it materialized into a stark white implement with red, oral highlights in varying gradients, starting from a vivid red fading into whites, merging with the on in a seamless manner.
“That is called a gun. Now, calm down, give some distaween you and the wall” the voistructed, “Hold your hand steady, and fire, press and hold the trigger with your index finger.”
Even though the on was unfamiliar, something she had never seen in her life, the weight of power in Izabel’s hold alpable. A shudder racked through her, was it perhaps excitement, for a new occasion that would never have beeted to happen had everything proceeded as it always was, or was it fear, a deep-seated warning from survival instinct?
There is no time to ponder, as chaos destabilizes the dome, and the life she had known. It is time to fight.
She did as was told, and energy started to gather, f into a burning, red-hot sphere no bigger than a toy marble.
“Now, release!”
Izabel released her hold origger, and the sphere unched forward, expanding upon tact with the door and creating a man-sized hole with bck soot around the edges. As her feet touched the ground, some of the monsters started to move towards her, perhaps attracted by something. She looked around, every single visible area crawling with those things.
“Go to safety! You take out a few if you use the on I gave you. o press for too long, they seem to be weak!”
“Okay!”
Izabel did as the voistructed, and indeed, with a series of short, quick presses, the monsters disied, turning into dust before scattering in the air. Everythi new, and she had moments of being uo aim correctly, resulting in her shots not hitting the mo all, but it was enough to allow her to escape as she slipped into the space between buildings. It seems that for now, she was safe.
A message appeared in front of her eyes.
[ Vitae System emergennou]
[There was interfereo the dome from an unknowy. We are currently w on a solution to this crisis. Please stay calm and find a secluded area. During maintenance, system ands and funs are disabled.]
“As usual, they really are quick when it es to their things being disturbed,” the familiar voice mused.
“Now that we are safe, you at least tell me who you are?”
Izabel felt silly for a moment, but then again, to speak to the system, you o speak to thin air, too.
The air in front of her shifted for a moment, and then, ay made of light came into view. Beautiful was the first thing that came to mind, with her bck clothing. Her eyes were a deep, molten gold mixed with e, fieress radiating from her stare as she looked at Izabel. Her long hair reached down the small of her back, vivid red on the roots, then slowly fading to white at the tips. Along with the oral hat she wore, her ensemble gives her a dignified aura. On the woman’s hips, there ocket holding the on – no, the gun she had used before, along with an unfamiliar, sheathed long, curved on.
Her boots floated a few inches off the ground, and if Izabel focused, she could see the wall behind the mysterious woman. It reminded her of a story once read to her at her scheduled eai hours, about an intangible thing that could pass through walls to pull pranks at anyone who didn’t follow the system-mandated schedule. In hindsight, perhaps such a story was made to instill belief in the Primeras from the moment she could form memories.
“You call me Hunter, I am the Mirror Avatar assigo you with the acquisition of Heart Mirror in your trag device,” the woman said, her words eg in Izabel’s head, “I feel and hear your thoughts, everything, including yer towards the Primeras, and I too, uand, for those fiends, fang themselves stewards of all se beings, log all they could rea a gilded cage. You felt it too, correct? Every single day, following their orders without being given any other options that didn’t lead to their desired oute, all in the name of happiness,”
Hunter spits the st word, lips curling in distaste.
“I know that you have never evehem in person, the Primeras, right?” Hunter asked.
“ you… not do that? It’s a little unfortable,” Izabel said. It was ohing for the system to prod and turn her current thoughts and feelings into numbers, but it is ao see someoangible, well, perhaps real enough is more accurate, prodding into your mind.
Hunter’s fierce gaze turned a little softer, and she gave Izabel a small smile.
“I hear your thoughts even if I do not want to, unfortunately. I uand that it is a little discerting, but, if it helps…” Hunter floated towards a nearby wall aended her arm, letting her hand sink into the wall, “I am the panion assigo you by the Heart Mirror, and we are effectively two within one flesh, as I am uo affect the world without you. I will always be by your side e hell h water, and all I ask is for you to trust me.”
Hunter paused for a moment, turning her head to look at Izabel.
“After all, our objective is the same. In a more pragmatise, proteg you bes me, too.”
Only a few moments have passed sihe emergennou, but another one has already appeared in front of Izabel’s eyes.
[ Vitae System annou]
[The problem has been fixed. Find a fortable and hidden spot, should your situation allow it. We will deploy the measure to take care of this problem within 30 seds]
[00:16]
“Fast, as always. A reminder, Izabel… Be wary when they ask questions.”
“Why? What is going to happen?”
“Their solution whenever anything breaks their thin veneer of lies. You will see it in a little bit.”
Before Izabel could ask Huo eborate, a fsh ht light from all around her drowned her vision. Everything was engulfed in colorless flood, and the st thing Hunter focused on was the gun, the on disappearing into thin air following Izabel’s darkening sciousness.
