Prologue

“sir they are going to be in the conference room in 10 minutes.”

“alright I will be there”

*door closes*

A long inhale followed by a slow exhale is heard in the room. ‘its almost over.’

‘I’ll probably try that new thai place to celebrate after this.’

A man in his mid 20’s goes for a cup coffee, too occupied with his up and coming meeting to notice.

*CLANK*

He looks down to see his hand jittering.

“darn, its acting up again…crap the coffee is all over the place.”

He tries to clean up the mess made, but its ultimately an unremovable stain.

*sigh

Looking at the mess that resulted from his condition, he begins to recollect how he was able to get to this situation.

A few years ago, he happened to be a computer science university student about to be kicked out due to his underperforming grades.

For the past few semesters his marks were horrendously low due to many reasons. The main one being the financial troubles at home, forcing him to take some jobs part time.

He was in a dangerous situation and because of his stubbornness to take on much more work than he could handle, he was facing a future that he was not expecting.

To him, it was obvious that instead of a future where he can get a job that can support him and his family like he hoped, he was facing instead a future filled with debt and a dead-end job that may not even keep him fed.

However, while he was going through this tough time, a peculiar drug was recently circulating on the streets.

When one of his acquaintances from school informed him about it, he was skeptical on how this drug can let people do the impossible. Want to learn a new language? It would be possible in a week. Want to understand quantum physics to a PhD level? Would not take a month. Pick up any instrument and even preform outstandingly in sports.

To him it just seemed like the street drug scene has a new and improved marketing team.

He was very hesitant at first but since he was even considering something like Ritalin to improve his currently falling marks, he decided to take it. His thought process was that ‘the stronger, the better.’

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Once he took it, he finally understood why it had so much hype. Anything he wanted to remember was easily recalled, anything that was difficult to understand was as simple as ABC.

He was completely blown away. However, he did not know what others would do when they were on it, but he knew what he would do.

For the next few hours he completed all the work that was needed for his courses this semester, he was even sure all his work was perfect. He was elated, now he could get high grades and not have to worry about sch-… ‘oh wait there are exams.’

How would he do on exams if he was not on this drug? Currently he can easily recall all the information he needed, but it was like his brain would recall information differently when he was off the drug.

‘how to solve this?’

Maybe he could keep taking the drug? That seemed not optimal, he did not want to depend on it especially since it’s a street drug. He also didn’t think that making notes would be much different to how the situation was.

“ah!”

He recalls a time when he was watching tv. He was not really paying attention to it but the tv programme was talking about something that could solve his dilemma.

He begins to search online and finds it. “yes, a memory palace.” It is a technique where you use a familiar geographical locations/landmarks and assign memories to those geographical spots. Usually one would have a memorable object that reminds them of the memory they wish to recall with the familiar landmarks. For example, imagining a giant basketball in your childhood room to remember the time of a basketball game.

Yes, with this he could create a mind palace that will have all the information he needs from history date to difficult question and how to solve them. There is quite a lot of information, but he can make a model for himself to keep practicing and remembering the memory palace he made, without needing much time and effort on practice.

****

“phhhew~..”

He sat back with a relaxed smile on his face.

Now if everything works out as it should he will be fine for school. Looking at the time, it seems he doesn’t have much more time before the drug wore off. At least, that’s what was told to him.

Now that he thought about it, he became curious and began to search about the drug. As he recalls it, his now best friend that introduced the drug to him called it “Clear”.

Through a few searches and some news article, he learned about the drugs recent circulations and having many different street names. Through doing so he discovered something that his “friend” forgot to tell him.

It seems that using Clear for too long causes the brain to shut down, leading to death.

*sigh*

“I guess its time to go.”

After reminiscing the past, he began to walk to the meeting, which will allow him to sell off his company and retire.

He didn’t want to retire after this, but his circumstance requires it.

The main reason being the long-term side effect of Clear. Even though he learned to make his own batch, for private use, hoping to reduce its side effect. He ultimately failed to have any meaningful change.

Thus, he minimized his usage of the drug, sometimes he wouldn’t take one for months.

But in the end, the side-effects have become unbearable, forcing him to end his career.

Though its not like he will be left with nothing, after selling his company he won’t need to ever work again. Hell, with his investment plan, even his great grandchildren will neither need to work.

However, while walking to the meeting room, a strange phenomenon occurred.

The entire floor has become bright, but to him, all he could see was a bright yellow light.

During this moment, thanks to the Clear pill he took before, time slowed down to a crawl.

He noticed he was surrounded by a force field making him unable to move, like magnetic field. Than he noticed a lack of gravity making him feel even more nervous.

“what is going on.”