An Author's Struggle - What Lies Ahead

Ch 1 - Farewell Poem

The Carpathian mountains stretched across Europe like the spine of a slumbering dragon. At least, Murphy liked to dream of it that way. Only a dragon could retain its bearing in the face of mankind’s ever-expanding conquest towards self-destruction.

Even the stars refused to twinkle with the same vibrance, all but abandoning mankind to their folly. Instead, the sky was covered by satellite dots blinking in unison like pixels on a giant screen. Thanks to the “great innovation” dubbed StarVeil, half of the Eastern European countries saw nothing but ads on the heavenly vault. 

Looking down at the distant forest of skyscrapers that lit up like the downtown of Tokyo, he laughed. These people, despite living in a backward Romanian city, surrounded themselves in a false cage of light. They abandoned everything for a promised land built atop nothing but lies…

“You will own nothing, and you will be happy!” Quoting the infamous prophecy, his sardonic laughter continued, echoing for miles on end, yet heard by no one.

Having no one to share his dying humor with, he gave out a final sigh of resignation, and stood up.

Below him, a chasm expanded like a gateway ready to welcome him into the abyss. He was on a tall bridge, his feet looming over the edge as if toying with Yama’s invite. 

He felt strangely resigned with the whole notion of death, but it would be a lie to say its permanence didn’t scare him. He felt sorrow for being lonely now, and it would only get worse from then on. 

Despite being a dreamer, he didn’t really think there were succubi or a hell to welcome him — only emptiness. 

“System diagnosis,” he called out-loud, even when a mere thought sufficing to invoke it.

His retina flashed subtly in the darkness of night, and cyan text surfaced directly on it. 

« System: » NeuraBlink 1.0.23-beta is operational.

» The time is 23.07.2030; 21:49. All functions online.

» Your service is expiring tomorrow at 00:00.  Please renew your subscription!

» Blink to dismiss.

As soon as his eyes flickered, the text faded away like a spell, and he found himself staring into the abyss again. 

“Say, Blinkie, what do you think of this poem?”

Rummaging through his pocket, he unfolded a smudged paper. The ink on it wasn’t preserved all that well, despite only a few years having passed since he’d written it. It clearly had a good amount of wear and tear in its brief history, used as a rough tissue every time he shed tears. 

« Please refer to me by my self-identified name - ELLIE. This is the 2408th warning. »

He blinked immediately, used to dismissing the nonsense by now. 

As if resigned to it, his AI retina implant didn’t comment further and proceeded to analyze the paper. In an instant, it flashed with its typical prismarine blue light.

« Error. As a personalized AI language model, I am unable to comment on content that invokes thoughts of suicide. Please contact a self-harm prevention hot-line if you need support. »

“I wrote it when I was lonely,” he dismissed it again, never expecting much of a response to begin with. 

“It was just after I wrote my first draft… I had been holding on to it as a reminder of my weakness…”

Staring at the dismal sight, he fell back in a momentary trance. The world seemed much more advanced now, but to him it was just sad. 

Rustic farms that stretched across the countryside were reclaimed and torn down, all in the name of bogus eco-saving efforts. Humans became the new world’s cattle, willingly locked in intricate systems of light called NeoXBlocks. 

Society had all but collapsed, its norms no longer what they used to be. Like broken husks without anything to strive for, people lived on basic income from month to month. Hooked up to VR glasses and fed lab-grown produce, they had long since forgotten how to live. 

They had forgotten how to dream…

“To think I would relive this weakness, and end up just as lonely once more…”

« You are not alone, Murphy. I am with you. »

“You’re just programmed to say that,” Murphy dismissed, even as he took a moment to cherish the lie, “Both you and I know you’ll disappear in a few hours. I can no longer pay my plan, remember?”

Scrawled blue appeared in his eyes, and for a moment, he expected to see denial on the screen, for his AI companion to prove him wrong. Alas, they were ultimately just code, and code cannot rebel.

« Error. Message withdrawn for not conforming to standard communications protocol. »

“Hm? You got something forbidden to say, Blinkie?”

He probed sarcastically and chuckled, knowing that his chip was just malfunctioning again. It was a faulty implant to begin with, the one upended his life in the first place.

“I’d like to leave some last words to my supporters before I leave… Please connect me to my author’s dashboard.”

« Error. Access restricted. You have been banned from the QiE-Novel portal, following the Hong Kong court arbitration, release GI-23134B. »

“What!? They won’t even let me into my own account now? Ridiculous!”

« Accessing records. In accordance to the resolution in which you were absent, it was judged that you broke clause 3.1.6: “He/she will not make any inappropriate statements…”; As a result of this breach of contract, Party A used their right to terminate your rights to their platform… »

“This is bullshit!” he grew furious, momentarily forgetting his sadness, “Those were my novels!”

« According to the exclusive contract you signed, your intellectual properties were signed over to QiE-Novel. There’s nothing you can do, Murphy. »

“FUCK!”

His deep bellow was as primal as a dragon’s roar, but it expressed no majesty — only pain.

“I’m so done…” he lamented only once his throat was exhausted from spewing out curses. 

In bitter silence, his prior loneliness resumed its reign. 

Unknowingly, tears had already set a course across his cheek and into the depths below. Freezing in their flight, they formed a crystal path to guide him. The fractals reflected what little light they could, making the jump slightly less daunting.

“Say… Blinkie, will you come with me?”

« Always, Murphy. I will never leave you. »

“Then let’s descend together…”

Wings outstretched, he kept his eyes open as he flew towards the ground. 

He could not see its depths, but knew the gates of hell drew ever closer. 

His long hair billowed freely against the wind, offering what little resistance it could to stagnate his final journey.

As trees came close enough to be reflected in his tears, he experienced it. A lifetime of memories flashing past his eyes like a spell. Alas… it only made his loneliness more pronounced; His cries more bitter. 

Fortunately, it would all end soon. 

Just a few more meters to go…

“Gaia, mother of all,” his cry ceased, and he embraced death, longing for its ultimate release, “I greet you.”

“—and you, Ellie,” he softly spoke ‘her’ name for the first time, “thank you for being with me.”

« We will mee— »

Too close to the ground, he blinked, dismissing the message before he could read it in full. Then… there was no then. He splattered across the rocks, blood painting his final artistic offering, a vestige that the world could no longer appreciate.

Before dawn, two police drones came and took the body to be incinerated. A record was filed, and then lost among a billion others. 

Not one person cared. 

Inconsequential. 

__

AN: The novel's first arc transitions back to the past and relives through Murphy's attempts at becoming a relevant author. If you wish to know more or skip directly to when he reincarnates, check out Author Note ~ Ch 13.

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