“Good morning, Ed.”

“Morning Buddie.” Ed yawns, getting out of bed. My entire worldview has changed completely from what it was two weeks ago. Mythical creatures are real and still alive. Whole other realities exist outside of the world I knew, and the people controlling them seem to be hellbent on forcing their own brand of justice on us. And from what I’ve seen, humanity doesn’t stand a chance. The company is far too powerful for humans to stop. There’s nothing I can do to change that. All I can do right now is try my best to protect my own sanity, so that I don’t become like them... Hopefully I can pull Zara to my side. Sitting at the table, Ed has a bowl of corn flakes for breakfast.

“Buddie, how many credits do I have?”

“Currently you have one hundred and nine credits.”

One hundred and nine... I don’t even know what I want to spend it on. This apartment is decent. It covers all my day-to-day needs. Unlike Zara, I don’t really need a kitchen. I’m fine with the clothes I have as well. I guess I’ll just keep saving it up in case there’s something I want. Finishing his breakfast, Ed showers and gets ready for the day. “How much longer until my file comes in?”

“You have half an hour until your file arrives.”

Okay, I've still got a bit of time. I need to try and get more information today. There’s just too much that I don’t know. “Buddie, now that I’m an official employee of the company, I should have access to more information than I would have had as an intern, right?

“That is correct, what would you like to know?” Buddie asks.

Thinking carefully over his words, Ed asks. “How does the company know if someone is a sinner?”

“The company keeps constant surveillance on all areas within its control. The employees of the operations department will gather information on every single detail of a person’s life, which is then organised into a file by the marketing department. If a person is innocent, their information is stored, but if they have committed an act that is deemed sinful, they’re file is sent to a suitable employee in your department.”

Well that answers my question from yesterday, it looks like the company is watching everywhere all the time, so I can’t take Zara on a holiday to try and sway her to my side. I have a bit of an idea of the internal structure of the company now... I can’t imagine having to sort through all of that information. Just looking at one complete file caused my head to explode, there’s no way I’d be able to handle that. But this still leaves me with a burning question. “What makes something a sin? Does the company just decide what is or isn’t sinful.”

“The company has no control over what is counted as a sin, we merely enforce appropriate punishments on sinners, whether something is a sin or not is left up to fate.”

Ed slumps down on the bed, looking soulless. Fate... If fate is real, then is everything I'm trying to do meaningless? There’s no way I can defy fate. If the company is just enforcing the will of fate, then I’ve lost this fight long before it’s even begun. Ed sits there, his soul seemingly shattered. Zara’s words from yesterday echo in his mind. “Think about it Ed. Why would the company have chosen us? There has to be a reason as to why we were chosen over everyone else on Earth. Clearly, we are different from them.” Why was I chosen? Am I fated to become like them?

“You have ten minutes, Ed.”

Hearing Buddie's voice, Ed snaps out of his thoughts. No, I need to snap out of this negative spiral. Surely, there is something that can be done. There’s so much that I don’t know. Who's to say that fate can’t be changed? I need to learn more. The company should have a library. I’ll check that out after work.

Picking himself back up, Ed walks through the door and sits down at his seat next to Zara.

“Morning Ed. Are you ready for work?” She asks cheerfully.

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“Yeah, sure.” Ed looks around the office at all the other employees. If I didn’t know what was happening here, this would look like any old office on Earth.

“You doing okay?” Zara asks, noticing how absentminded he looks.

“I’m fine. I’m just thinking about the conversation I just had with Buddie.” I need something to distract myself, otherwise, I won’t be able to focus at all.

“What were you talking about?” She pulls her chair closer to him, curious about it.

Ed finally turns to face Zara, noticing that she’s wearing the outfit she bought yesterday. His eyes dart around, remembering what happened yesterday. “Oh, nothing important. I’ll tell you about it later. There’s actually something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

“It’s about what happened in the fitting room yesterday.”

“Yeah, what about it?” She looks up at him curiously.

“Well, you can’t just pull someone into the fitting room with you. If people see that, they may think that we’re in a relationship. I mean, the store owner even told us not to fuck in there.”

“What does that have to do with me? Just let other people think whatever they want to think. I was just trying to get your opinion on something. Besides, if I wanted you to fuck me, why would we do it in a clothing store’s fitting room?” She jokes light-heartedly, giggling a little.

Ed sighs, a little relieved. I guess what she’s saying makes sense. She just wanted my opinion; I was thinking about it all wrong.

“I’m far more romantic than that. We haven’t even gone on our first date yet.” Zara whispers.

“What?”

“Nothing. Hey look, the files came in.” Zara tries to distract him by pointing to the screen.

Did she just say... you know what? I’ve already had one too many revelations today. I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with this right now. I’ll unpack how she feels about me later.

Name: Cecílio Antunes

Age: 20

Occupation: unemployed

Biography: Born to parents Ramiro and Celina Antunes, Cecílio grew up in an impoverished home, which quickly fell to ruin when both of his parents were killed when he was a teenager. In order to survive, he began doing odd jobs for people around the neighbourhood, usually in exchange for food and water... One day, while cleaning a person’s house so that he could have something to eat for lunch, he found evidence saying that the owner of the house was responsible for the death of his parents. Filled with rage, Cecílio killed the man, strangling him to death when he came home from work. He buried the body, then left the town in the middle of the night.

-End of document-

Hmm. What should I do here? After reading, Ed sits and starts planning what he wants to do

“What did you get Ed?” Zara pops over to check on Ed.

“Murder. The victim killed the guy’s parents, so he strangled him to death.”

“Cool, my guy’s a dictator. He used public wealth to fund a private military, instead of using it on repairing the broken infrastructure of the country, throwing his citizens into poverty.”

The two sit there, brainstorming ideas. After a while of going back and forth, they both settle on what they want to do, turning to their screens to start working.

“Let’s focus on the trap first. Give me a model of Cecílio please.” A young Brazilian man appears on screen. His hair is a mess, and his clothes are dirty and ridden with holes. “I want a thick metal collar to be placed around his neck. The collar will slowly tighten, eventually crushing his neck. To escape, he will have to find the key to unlock the collar, which will be somewhere in the room. Give him four to five minutes to try and find the key before he loses consciousness, as that should match up with how long it took him to strangle the other person to death. Also, I want it to start tightening after you finish speaking to him.” A chunky metal collar appears on the model, an animation plays of it slowly tightening around his neck, with the model eventually dying.

Now for the room. “I want the room to be identical to the house he killed the man in. The key to the collar will be placed with the evidence Cecílio found. Place the model at the entrance of the house.” A small, squalid house appears on the screen, with only four small rooms tightly packed together. This house is smaller than my apartment. After checking through all the details and making sure that the key is findable within the time given, Ed passes the design onto Buddie, allowing construction to begin.

On Zara’s side, she recreates the manor that the politician lives in and has him go through his normal morning routine. She adds a bunch of hungry, poverty-stricken peasants outside the manor’s gates. “I want the peasants to riot, throwing trash and stones at the house, while making as much noise as possible and being a general nuisance. This will catch the dictator’s attention, and he will have to try and quell the anger of the crowd. The only way for him to do so is to promise to make their lives better, and to invite them in to appease their hunger.

If he dismisses their complaints, or tries to use force, the peasants will break through the gate, trash the manor, and eventually try and kill him. He can try to appease them throughout this part as well, but it will be a lot more difficult.”

“Thank you for submitting your plans, I will inform you both when they are ready.”

The two set off through the door, going to grab lunch from the cafeteria.