The lower city was in chaos, but there were still no signs of the briefcase. The police were searching high and low for it, but when they couldn’t find it, they started turning on each other.

Unable to answer to the woman, they began pushing the blame. First to take the blame was the leaders involved with the initial situation, then it was the officers who were there that took the blame. They started to believe that someone took advantage of the situation and took the briefcase when no one was looking.

With this search they found that one of them was missing, and believed that he had took it. They passed all the information on him over to the woman, and even brought his family into custody for her to punish. His family was silenced after proving that they weren’t useful.

The target of their search had now tightened. With a particular person in mind, they again scanned through the camera footage of the surrounding area at the time. They found that he had returned to the warehouse after everyone had left. Their suspicions were clear, now they just had to find him.

They tried to access his mental chip remotely, but noticed something odd. The chip was no longer active. He had died. This increased the difficulty of accessing the chip, but eventually they were able to gather footage of what happened before his death.

They saw everything. From Ed running away with the briefcase in hand, to the police officer’s death. Having locked onto their target, they sent the footage to the woman. After receiving confirmation from her, the police force settled down, and with that, so did the entire of the lower city.

After the hours of chaos and mayhem, the lower city slowly returned to normal. But at the same time, the city had changed forever. The balance of power had been thrown out of whack. The gang's were all either shells of their former selves, or had gone into hiding. The future was uncertain for the citizens of the lower city. But then again, when wasn’t it?

Would they have a brighter future ahead of them, now that they were no longer under the thumb of the gangs? Or would an even worse group of people climb to power?

Either way, things were about to become very busy for them.

~

Back in the middle city, the man felt numb. He had been frozen there for what must have been hours. His body was aching, and the room felt cold. No matter what he did, he couldn’t move. He was left standing there with the briefcase in hand.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

His body wasn’t his own to control. He was trapped there. Waiting.

The woman called, and just like with his body, the call was accepted without him even having a choice. When he saw the woman again, he turned pale. He must have looked like a walking corpse.

Her eyes were cold. So cold. Like she was staring at a dead man. He knew in his heart that it was over for him. He was going to die.

The woman told him what had happened. There was no emotion in her voice. Nor on her face. Like she was telling something unimportant to a stranger.

Needless to say, the man suffered the same fate as many poor people that day.

His servants spent the rest of the day cleaning his blood and guts off the walls. It wasn’t like before there were no signs that he had died. All of his personal possessions were taken away and sold, and the place was restored to what it was like before he had first moved in.

By the next day, someone else had moved in. The house had become someone else's. His job had been given to someone else. He was forgotten by all that knew him, like he had never existed.

His life had come to an end.

~

Down below the lower city. Far below. Ed was sitting above the sky. He didn’t know what had happened up above. And he didn’t know that he had been caught. He was worriedly looking at the briefcase in his hand.

But it couldn’t really be called a briefcase anymore. Most of it had been destroyed. Pieces of the briefcase had scattered across the floor, but much of it had fallen off into the sky. I wonder where it's all going to end up?

He turned his attention back to the thing in his hand. It was a small metal box. The top of which was the screen he had seen earlier. It had stopped moving and breaking apart not too long ago, but he wasn't sure if something else was going to happen.

He didn’t place the box down, afraid that it would throw itself off the railing. If that happened, all his effort would have been wasted. So he kept a tight hold on it.

He flipped it around, checking each of the sides for a way to get in. Clearly whatever was in the box was important. Why else would it be so heavily protected?

Looking at every side and angle, it was just a plain metal box. The screen was the only thing that was different. He tapped away at the screen, trying to wake up the AI inside. Hopefully it’s still working.

Thankfully, the screen lit up after a couple minutes, and the face from earlier returned. This time, it was looking at him with a friendly smile.

“Hello boss! How can I help you today?”

His eyes lit up. This is my chance. Thinking about what to say, he decided to play along and hoped the AI would listen to his command. “Open the box for me.”

The face on the screen continued to smile at him. It was silent for a minute, staring unblinkingly at him. Just as he was about to speak again, she opened her mouth. “Of course. What is the password boss?”

“...Ugh, umm.”