“The world ends tomorrow,” the crackhead told Zeff.
In any other reality, Zeff would have kept walking and ignored what he said, but unfortunately for him, his reality didn’t allow him to just ignore the addict. After all, Zeff lived in a simulation and not the real world.
Twenty years ago, a whole mountain glitched out of existence, revealing to all people that they were no more than a simulation on someone’s computer. After that, the whole world descended into chaos for a year. People quit their jobs, riots started all over the world, people demanded the heads of higher-ups in every country, and conspiracy theorists kept edging to telling people, “I told you so.” In short, it was a shit show, but in the end, people came to terms with their new reality, and everything went back to normal.
People went back to their jobs, the government took control, and the whole incident became a meme. But you might be wondering what all this has to do with the crackhead. You see, after the glitch, crackheads and other psychedelic users became some sort of seers who could see beyond the matrix or something. No one knew why that happened, but no one could argue against it. After all, many predictions they made came true.
“Come on, Tyron, you’ve got to give me more than that. How does the world end, and is there anything we can do to stop it?” Zeff pleaded to the crackhead.
Tyron scratched his neck and looked at Zeff with hazed eyes. “Give me a dollar first.”
Seeing the future or not, crackheads will always be crackheads, thought Zeff as he pulled a dollar from his pocket and handed it to Tyron. A dollar was a cheap price to know how the world would end.
Tyron took the dollar, smelled it, and turned around while raising his hand to the sky. Just then, the clouds parted and the sunlight illuminated Tyron. The scene looked majestic, just as if a divine revelation was about to descend upon this world. Then Tyron opened his mouth. “CRAAACCCK HERE I COOOME!”
Zeff watched in shock as Tyron ran away. “Goddammit, Tyron, come back here, you fucking addict!” Zeff shouted, but it was no use. Tyron was already gone, and there was no sense in chasing him either. If a crackhead didn’t want you to find him, you wouldn’t.
“Don’t get mad, that’s on you for trusting a crackhead,” Zeff told himself, but calming himself didn’t fix anything. He still didn’t know how the world would end. He thought of looking for another crack or meth head to get the information, but they were rare these days.
You would think there would be a lot more of them with the existential crisis of discovering you aren’t really real, and superpowers like telling the future. But the government went hard on drug traffickers after the glitch, not because they cared about people’s health, but because they didn’t want people who could tell the future and other stuff running around freely.
“Ah, fuck it. The guy who runs this simulation is probably gonna delete it, and there is no way of saving it,” Zeff gave up. It’s 5 P.M. right now, so that leave only 8 hours before the world ended. Zeff knew himself; he was no hero and he didn’t have the power to change anything. So, if this world was really about to end, he might as well enjoy his last moments in it.
Making up his mind, Zeff grabbed some snacks from the store and headed up to his apartment. He called his boss and told him he fucked his wife. He was lying, of course, but his boss didn’t know that. After doing that, he set an alarm for 12:50 on his phone and turned on his PC. Zeff was going to spend his last moments playing video games. Other people might go clubbing, do drugs, or stay with their loved ones if they knew they were going to die soon, but Zeff wasn’t that type of person. He was 22 and grew up in a time when everyone was still on edge about the simulation, so he was used to hearing that you might get deleted at any moment and such things when he was a kid. All that left him a little bit damaged, like most people in his generation, so he didn’t really care if he died.
As he was waiting for his computer to boot up, he grabbed a drink and looked through his window. Seeing all the people moving around, he felt bad for them. Some of them were coming from work, while others were just about to head to it, and some… Zeff didn’t know what that guy who was licking the wall was doing, but yeah, he felt like he at least needed to tell them. So he opened up his window and shouted, “The world ends tomorrow.”
Usually, people would ignore him and keep walking. After all, trolls still existed, and this trick was used so many times that people became numb to it. But no matter how much people got used to something, being in a simulation would always make people feel on edge, and that’s why someone shouted back, “How do you know?”
Hearing the guy shouting back, Zeff felt like trolling him but decided against it. There might be virtual heaven after this, so he might as well get some good deeds. Instead of trolling him, Zeff told him the truth. “A crackhead told me.”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“Swear on your mom’s life,” the man shouted again.
“I swear.” When Zeff replied, the man and the whole street stilled for a moment, and then the chaos started. In just moments, people were flying around, cars crashed, and that man from before started humping the wall instead of licking it.
When Zeff saw all that happen, he let out a sigh and closed the window. Humans, real or not, were always amazing creatures.
Zeff returned to his computer, which had finished booting up. He put the drink on the table and started Elden Ring, then looked at the time: 6:28. “Let’s see if I can beat Maliketh in the next 6 hours.”
As Zeff kept playing and dying to Malekith, time went by. It took him 1 hour to defeat the Tree Sentinel blocking the way to the boss, and another 2 to defeat Malekith himself. The rest of the time was used to let out his frustration on the regular enemies, who in turn killed him many times, which made him more frustrated. But in the end, he did it. He killed Malekith, and with it came a great sense of accomplishment. Truly a perfect way to spend his last moments. Sadly, he wouldn’t be able to finish the game as only one more hour was left before the end. Not wanting to ruin his sense of accomplishment by dying to a regular enemy, Zeff closed the game and looked out of the window.
The people who were raging a couple of hours ago were huddled up together now, telling stories to each other and laughing about them. Humans were truly amazing; they could go from complete chaos and destruction to supporting and comforting each other in a matter of minutes.
As minutes ticked by, Zeff kept watching the group, listening to their stories and laughing with them from afar. Zeff wished this could last a bit longer. Staying like this and listening to those people’s stories and laughter wasn’t so bad, but unfortunately for him, it was 12:59. It was time for the end.
Zeff closed his eyes as he saw the group hug each other and waited for the end. One minute passed, then another, and another, but nothing seemed to happen. Zeff decided to open his eyes, and when he did, he was met by an angry crowd.
“You son of a bitch, I broke my car because of you!”
“Fuck you, man, I lost my fucking job because of you!”
“I humped the wall in public because of you!”
“What kind of retard believes a crackhead?”
A stream of curses was directed at Zeff, who in turn shouted back, “Get fucked, assholes! Hahaha.” Zeff didn’t believe in retreating after making a mistake, only doubling down. He then closed the window and thought to himself, “Fuck humans.”
Zeff then jumped on his bed, put his pillow on top of his head, and wriggled in embarrassment. He thought of calling his boss and apologizing, but then he heard screams coming from his window, and this time they weren’t the angry type, but ones of fright and panic.
Zeff rushed and opened his window, and he couldn’t believe what he saw. The group of people were fighting against what seemed to be goblins and slimes. Some were running around trying to escape, while others fought the monsters.
Zeff thought of calling the cops or going down himself to help, but then he heard a knock on his door. Thinking it might be someone from the group who managed to escape, he moved toward the door to let them in, but the knock turned into a slam, as if trying to break the door. Getting a foreboding feeling from the lack of voice and the way the door was being slammed, Zeff rushed to his kitchen and grabbed a cleaver.
Just then, the door gave in and two goblins rushed inside, but before they managed to see him, Zeff ducked under the counter and held his breath. He couldn’t believe what was happening. Goblins and monsters shouldn’t exist; they were fiction. Just as he thought that, the world seemed to hear him and wanted to remind him of which reality he lived in. A blue transparent tile flashed in front of him.
[UPDATE IS FINSIHED INSTALLING. WELCOME TO THE WORLD 2.0]
Zeff, surprised by the sudden appearance of the tile, threw his head back and hit the kitchen lower cabinets, making a lot of noise in the process and alerting the goblins to his presence. Hearing the noise, the goblins rushed in its direction.
Zeff, still reeling from the hit to his head, was surprised when he looked up and saw a goblin looking at him. Unable to think clearly from the fright and adrenaline rushing through his body, Zeff threw the cleaver at the goblin from a bad position. The cleaver flew and hit the goblin in the head, but it was the pommel that connected and not the sharp edge. Even though the cleaver didn’t kill the goblin, it staggered him and gave Zeff the chance to stand up. Seeing the goblin clutching his face in pain, Zeff rushed at him and kicked him as hard as he could, sending him tumbling over.
He then tried to grab the cleaver, but just as he was about to, the other goblin jumped on him and bit his arm. Zeff let out a scream and swung his arm, slamming the goblin into the wall. The goblin, in shock from the hit, let go of his arm.
Not letting this chance escape, Zeff grabbed the goblin by the neck and threw him at the counter. The goblin hit the counter and toppled over to the other side. Zeff grabbed the cleaver on the floor and turned to look at the first goblin, who was just standing up, one of his eyes was full of blood. Looking at Zeff with just one eye that spelled hatred, the goblin ran in his direction again, but this time Zeff was ready. When the goblin came close enough, Zeff swung the cleaver with all his power, hitting the goblin in the neck and splitting its head from its body.
The goblin, now without a head, hit the ground like a sack of meat. When the goblin died, another tile appeared in front of Zeff’s eyes, but this time he didn’t flinch. He shook his head to clear his vision, and the tile indeed dispersed. Moving around the counter slowly, Zeff peeked to see if the other goblin was still there. The goblin was still there, but there was no reason to be afraid of him anymore as he seemed either dead or unconscious. However, Zeff didn’t want to take that risk, so he moved closer and hit his neck, killing him just like the other one. Again, the moment the goblin died, a tile appeared in Zeff’s eyes, but this time he had the time to read it.
[You Killed Goblin LV2. You Gained 4 EXP]
“What in the fucking hell.” Zeff couldn’t believe his eyes. He even rubbed them just to make sure, but the tile was still there. Remembering the first tile that showed up and what it said, Zeff looked at the dead goblin under him and came to a conclusion: the world… no, the simulation had turned into a game. That must be what Tyron meant when he said the world was ending—not ending in the literal sense, but the end of one world and the beginning of another. A world where goblins and other fantasy creatures are real. But why? And what does that mean for us?
Zeff collapsed into the ground, and went into hysterical laughter. The blood of goblin on the floor soaked his cloth, he couldn’t cope with what was happening. A few moments ago, he resigned himself to death and just after it he fought with all his power just to preserve that same life. Going through all that in such short amount of time was just too much. “What the fuck wrong with you? Are we just some fucking toy to you? are our life’s so meaningless that you can just do whatever you want with it? Fuck you and fuck this world.” Zeff hollered with all his strength all while laughing manically, but no answer was given.
After a long time, he was finally able to collect himself and stand up. With heavy steps, he went and closed the door to his apartment, this time barricading it with the furniture around his house. Then he went to the window and looked at the street, fearing what he was about to see. He had every right to fear because what he saw sent shivers down his spine. Mutilated bodies were all around; the whole group that was outside minutes ago were now nothing but sacks of meat for the damn monsters to feast on.
“How did we end up like this?”