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… no good...

…......... subject ...... is...

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… . .. . ……unresponsive. . .....

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… confirm.... …. nding...

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…. results.. .. .... .. ......

Subject … … ..e waking up...

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.. . .…faster …..... … ..commended ….. …..

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Task.. ….. ….plete..

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Execute command.

*****

….. Subject 016…. … ailed…

Sear. .. ...for nex… . …… . .ject...

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…. . searc………not …… .ed..

…inputting new .. …… .. data..

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New subject acquired

*****

*Ring Ring*

…

*Ring Ring*

“Ugh...”

Eren woke up the ringing of his phone on the table next to his bed. Groggily, he reached over and grabbed his phone, hitting the answer button at the same time.

“Hello? This is Eren.” he answered.

“Hey Eren? I was just calling to make sure you were on your way.” Jena’s voice came out from his phone.

Jena was his coworker at the rundown café he worked at part-time when he wasn’t going to classes at university or slacking off at home. ‘Steve’s Coffee and Chill’ itself wasn’t too much. The cafe was named after the owner Steve from when he was near Eren's age when he first opened the doors for business. For the small suburb he lived in, it wasn’t the best cafe around, but it was the best area to meet up and hang out for most of the university kids.

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“It’s not time for our shift yet, but I was a little worried since you’re usually early, and you weren’t here yet.”

“Huh, what do you mean?” I looked over at the clock mounted on the wall across my room. It read 8:25. Dumbfounded, I stared at the clock for another moment before the situation finally registered in my head. “Shit! I’m so sorry Jena! I overslept and didn’t wake up to my alarm! I just woke up!”

“Oh! That’s ok Eren. Take your time! I can go in and start preparing for when we open. It’s the least I can do when you always cover for my mistakes at work. Don’t worry!” Jena quickly responded.

“Still, I’m really sorry for making you do this Jena. I owe you one! I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Eren said back to her.

“Alright! I’ll see you in a few!”

*Click*

The phone went silent and Eren immediately began tossing around in his closet searching for his work uniform. He had already gotten out of bed as he was speaking with Jena.

'Shit! When was the last time I’ve ever been late for work?'

His boss, Steve, was pretty lenient with his workers and was fine with a few mistakes every now and then, but Eren prided himself on always being on time for everything no matter the occasion. Of course, on-time for him meant at least ten minutes ahead of the scheduled time. Arriving on the exact time designated to meet always felt wrong to Eren.

Work usually started at 8:30 so that the employees could prepare all the things necessary for the store opening at 9:00 in the morning, but Eren usually got to work at 8:20 without fail each day.

As Eren continued to rush in getting ready, the lit-up screen of his desktop caught his eye as he was on the last button of his dress shirt. The pop-up box on his screen seemed to proudly declare: -Hive Evolution-

Hive Evolution was the game he had been playing last night, but for some unusual reason, Eren had been completely absorbed into the game. More so than he had ever been before in any other like it.

When he had finally looked up at the time, it had been several hours past the normal time he usually went to bed, and when he had gotten up from the chair, he was suddenly overcome with fatigue. He guessed that he had collapsed onto his bed and had fallen asleep immediately after his head hit the pillow.

The game itself wasn’t an entirely new concept. It was simply a mix of an empire building and role-playing game with the addition of an alien like species following a hive like system. Nonetheless, Eren was completely enraptured into the game, and that was why he was late to work. He grabbed his car keys and ran out the door, putting aside any stray thoughts of the game for another time. He had a job he needed to be at.

*****

As the last customer left the cafe, Eren let out a breath of relief. While normally he would be a bit tired at the end of a full day shift, he was beginning to feel the creeping slips of consciousness from the lack of sleep the night before.

“Good work as well today guys!” He called out to the other workers. Besides Jena who had left earlier from working a shorter shift compared to his full day, there were a couple of other part-timers working that day.

After hearing a few replies of ‘good work’, Eren started walking to the back of the cafe to collect his belongings. Work let out at 9:00 at night, but on a few days such as these when there were no customers, Steve let his workers out early.

After letting out another sigh, Eren walked out the back door to his car and pulled out his keys to unlock his car. Following the lull of driving, he quickly began to start dozing off at the wheel again. He turned on the radio to try to stave off the sleep as he stopped at an intersection on the road. When he looked up again, he saw a green light so he immediately stepped on the accelerator to hurry home.

*HOOOOOOOOOONNNNKK*

*SCREEEECH*

Eren immediately turned his head to the right where he heard the honking, and he saw a truck barreling down the road towards him incredibly fast. At that moment, the world around him seemed to slow down to a stop. His car was small, and getting hit by the truck would probably destroy the car if it were to hit. He vaguely thought of the cost to repair the car if his car were to be completely totaled. Looking out through the corner of his eye, he noticed that the stoplight he had thought was green was still red. He had ran a red light but had probably thought the light was green from sleep deprivation or a hallucination of some kind.

‘Is this it?’ he thought. ‘Sorry mom and dad… I’ll be moving on before you guys. Damn, and I didn’t even ask Jena out… What a pity...’

At the end of that thought, time seemed to return to normal, and Eren could hear a faint high pitched screaming that seemed so far away. He caught the eyes of the truck driver and saw that the truck driver’s eyes were wide open and he seemed to be in the middle of a scream. He had tried to stomp on the brakes, but at the speed he was already going, it was impossible to stop in time.

In the next moment, the truck collided with the car, and Eren felt the airbags bursting open. However, despite the efforts of the airbags to save him, Eren had already been slammed to the side of his car as the car flipped over multiple times. The feeling of being crushed didn’t seem to register in his mind though, and blackness was already starting to fill his sight.

The screaming in the distance began to grow quieter, and Eren soon succumbed to the darkness.

*****

Greetings Subject 217.

...Huh?

Do you wish to live?

I’m not dead yet...? If not I mean... sure… I guess I’d like to live.

Do you wish for power?

Power? Well… I guess if I had the power to not to be hit by that truck, it’d be nice.

Do you wish for change?

Sure...? I guess my life was a bit borin- W-wait. What’s going on…?

Conditions met. Subject responses are positive.

Positive?

Beginning sequence.

Wait. What sequence? What are you doing?

Terminating subject’s conscious.

What?! My consc-

Subject in stasis.

...

Execute Command