Michael watched the physical world burning down with his mental world.

No, he couldn’t have killed a woman. That couldn’t be true.

He knew it was true. He watched her die. He watched her final stare of pain, shock, anger, and desperation.

He literally could not move. Even standing upright made him sick to the very inside. He wished someone could just knock him out or give him a shot of sedative so that he could get distracted by a looming darkness. He needed a break from this.

The soldiers of the phalanx were shooting people as if they were target boards. Did they ever think about what it meant to take a life? Or did they get too accustomed to it? How would they be able to sleep at night? Michael was certain that he would never get an ordinary night of sleep from this day on anymore. However, that discussion would be for later. Right now Michael had to concentrate on using his powers to help his team to get out of the sticky situation.

The phalanx was escorting Michael’s team through a maze of corridors, then a few elevator rooms, then another few corridors. Michael was mapping out the entire structure of this facility in his head.

It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that the phalanx was leading them in circles and loops after they walked for ten minutes, but Michael’s problem was that he still couldn’t manage to properly model the structure. He was able to recall the details of the pathway they had taken, and meanwhile he was also creating a 3D blueprint of the building in his head through microscopically observing the details of each room. His spatial talent allowed him to remember the arrangements of the chairs and tables in each room, and this allowed him to differentiate almost identically structured chambers.

However, when he tried to overlay his visualized pathway with the 3D model in his head, he found discrepancies that he never encountered before in his life time. There were multiple mismatches, and even after efforts of rescaling the two layers of construction, it was still clear that many segments of the alleged pathway extended greatly out of the physical boundaries of the building. This couldn’t be possible unless they walked out of the windows.

Or unless… A revelation came upon Michael as he remembered the structure of the elevator rooms…

“Here is the destination for you four!”

Johnson’s voice severed the links of Michael’s analyses. Johnson scanned his retina, and the door glided open. The guards escorted the Hypersphere executives through another exit while Johnson led Michael’s team through the suite. Johnson toured them around the four chambers on each side of the suite before halting at the central common area.

“I understand that what happened at the auditorium was a traumatizing event, and ArtTech would take full responsibility for it. But your wellbeing could be fully guaranteed over here.” Johnson brought out his calming, trusting tone again.

“Take full responsibility? Bullshit! By trapping the rest of the people in the auditorium until they kill each other?” Alexandra suddenly exploded from her silence and shock. Nicholas’ eyes turned towards Alexandra’s direction as if he wanted to calm her down, but he soon revoked that decision upon seeing her enraged countenance.

“I agree with you, Miss Gauss, that this isn’t the most optimal outcome, but I believe a mathematician of your status understands that this is the decision I must make to minimize the potential damage.”

Alexandra opened her mouth and closed it, and after a while she opened her mouth again, but not a single sound came out. Then she stayed in silenced frustration and defeat.

“What do you want from us?” Jay asked the real question.

“Cooperation. I know the government sent you all here, and I’m not against that. I can help the government with achieving their ultimate goals, and in the process I will need you guys to help me.”

“Hey! We are not the equivalent of the government here! Don’t assume that we represent them,” Michael interjected.

“Yes, Mr. Livingstone, but don’t you agree that the poverty and unemployment issues are harming everyone here, and it must be solved.”

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Michael’s thoughts drifted off for a second. He never enjoyed poverty, not even since he was a kid, but he just lived with it. He lived with all byproducts like bullying and derogation when he was young, but he could still faintly remember that his life used to be different.

When Michael was still a kid, his parents worked in offices, like hundreds of millions of other replaced workers. The artificial intelligence revolution began when Michael was born, and ever since, the efficiency of AI increased and their prices decreased. At that time, Michael’s parents were extremely hardworking and outstanding, so the first wave didn’t hit them. Their colleagues and friends, however, were not as lucky.

Michael’s parents always told Michael the importance of studying hard. When Michael was just born, his parents would play Mozart and Beethoven for him. He learned to read the alphabet before he learned to walk properly, and he learned simple arithmetic calculations with number cards before he could even hold a pen. It was Michael’s astounding learning speed that made his parents aware of his talent, but it was Michael’s experiences in the automobile shops that made his parents certain of his genius.

Michael always liked to go to the gigantic collective 4S automobile shop. That whole place was a metropolis in itself — floors and floors of interlaying mazes of corridors decorated with vehicles of different brands. Michael always skipped excitedly towards the saleswoman standing at the front of the store. Michael always called her by Paula. At that time Michael was only eight, and Paula was twenty. They were both young to this new society and new technological revolution, oblivious of the impending catastrophe.

Often times when Michael’s parents went to work, they would drive Michael to the automobile shop and have him stay with Paula. Paula would then show him around the labyrinth of corridors with the help of a five-page map, and other times she would bring Michael to the observer’s room, where he would watch all the corridors flying and dancing around and connecting themselves with each other like a magical castle right out of Harry Potter. He also idolized the Tesla model displayed at the lobby. He could stare at the car for an entire hour. The warm and bright orange often livened up the atmosphere of the greyscale normcore and minimalist construction.

The shifting corridors and mobile stairway of the automobile shop. That was the key! It was a maze back then, and the concept was used in this maze right here!

In the present reality, Alexandra took a step in front of Michael and protectively shielded him from Johnson as if Johnson was a lurking predator. “Stop using your brainwashing words on Michael. How dare you mention about poverty? It was your corporation, your artificial intelligence, that caused the unemployment and poverty!”

Oh, Alexandra was just like Paula. They resembled each other so much.

“ArtTech’s fundamental goal is to reduce the inequality in the current economy, and as you work along with us, you will see more and more on how this could be realized with our current strategic approach.”

The inequality in the current economy… Inequality wasn’t a current thing. When Michael was still at elementary school, his family was still not affected, yet, by the AI revolution. However, some of Michael’s classmates weren’t so fortunate. The notorious school bully Superman’s family wasn’t an exception from this. Whether it was out of jealousy of Michael’s intelligence or of Michael’s family’s employment, or maybe out of pure envy that Michael could afford more expensive things than him, Superman decided to pick on Michael. He forced all his followers to call him by the superhero name Superman, and every act of bullying was to “restore order” and “establish justice”, so in this case he self-justified bullying Michael into Superman beating up a rich wanton and taking a stand for the oppressed and unemployed.

This continued on for a few weeks, and Michael never dared to tell his parents. One day, Superman and his goons were chasing Michael past the automobile shop into an ally near by. Just when Michael was about to suffer another beating, Paula showed up with a walkie talkie.

Stay away from Michael, or I will call the automobile shop security.

Pauls took a step in front of Michael, just like Alexandra did, and shielded Michael behind her from Superman. Her usual friendly face was filled with determination and assertiveness. Superman was seething with rage, His eyes and mouth opened wide and stared at Paula, but Paula didn’t flinch a bit.

If you ever dare to bully him again, my security guards will find you.

Superman and his goons ran off, and they never touched Michael again.

Michael thought his life would be a little more peaceful.

Back at the ArtTech suite, Nicholas threw a question at Johnson, “Why does cooperation involve imprisoning us here?”

“It’s for security purposes.”

“Security? Do we look like we are capable of hurting other people?” Nicholas said coldly and Jay coughed.

“No. Security to protect you four.”

Security for physical safety didn’t matter as much as financial security in this world. Physical wounds would heal, but unemployment was permanent.

Michael’s family was shattered when both of his parents received the letter of layoff on the same day.

Michael was only nine at that time. He didn’t understand the argument his parents had in the bedroom. His mother cried about how the family must stay together no matter what, and his father shouted how they must prioritize Michael. Even now, Michael couldn’t understand why his parents must separate, and he still felt the burden of guilt on his parents’ divorce because of his father’s words.

When his parents walked out of the court, both of them were crying. They hugged each other so tightly like two lovers saying goodbye. His asked his dad why they had to divorce, and his dad responded with tears that it was for his own good and he would understand when he grew up. Michael never understood.

When Michael’s dad accompanied him to their new home, they walked past the automobile shop again. Paula was packing up a small box of her personal belongings, and her badge was gone. Michael could see that her eyes were red. Next to her, some workers were removing the orange Tesla model from the display stand.

Michael moved in to a much smaller flat with his dad, and his dad never dated another woman.

Back at school, Superman shot Michael disgusting looks again, telling him it was karma.

Michael passed by the automobile shop again.The orange Tesla was gone from the stand, replaced by a suffocating grey model. The last tint of color was gone. It was a greyscale world.

Paula was no longer there. A holographic machine now took her place.

A manager saw Michael dressed in cheap, dirty clothes. The manager shooed Michael out of the store.

Michael never returned to the store again.