Finally...
Huuuff. I exhaled a thick, velvety plume of smoke into the dim room. Nothing beats a cigarette. Seriously, nothing.
I glanced at the digital interface nearby: 10:13 p.m. Time to get some sleep. But as I stared at the ceiling, a frustrating realization hit me—how the hell was I supposed to fall asleep tonight considering I'd only been awake for about three hours today? I had spent practically the entire daytime unconscious. Curse my luck. If I was going to be stuck awake, I might as well do something I was actually good at: online betting. Aha!
There was just one problem. I didn't have my laptop, and my phone still hadn't been returned since it was confiscated yesterday. What to do?
Can I ask my beloved Tayley how to access the network around here? Well, here goes nothing.
I pulled out my sleek personal ID card and pressed my thumb firmly against the logo, feeling the hidden sensor click beneath the plastic.
"Hallo, halloo. Tayley, do you copy? Tayley, this is Edgar, come in!" I pitched my voice low, trying to sound like a operator in a military thriller to make it sound more convincing. "Tayley, do you copy?"
Silence.
"Tayley, come in."
Nothing but static.
"Mayday... mayday."
Still no answer. I lost my patience. "Heii, Tayley, you stupid shit with the little pen—"
"FUCK, EDGAR!" A furious roar erupted from the card, the volume so loud it rattled my fingertips. "What do you need?! This is my sleeping time, you asshole! Please, just let me sleep already!"
I blinked, staring at the tiny piece of plastic. I couldn't imagine this little card had its own high-fidelity speaker embedded in it. No wonder I could constantly feel its invisible wavelength leaking into the air. But wait... what about the battery? I didn't see a single seam or battery bump on this thing, even looking this close.
"Ahh, I apologize for disrupting your sleep, my love," I replied, instantly pivoting to a sugary, polite tone. "You see, I'm kinda having a hard time sleeping. Ughh... can you tell me how I could access the network? I think surfing the web a little bit could soften my eyes and help me get an easy sleep."
"You little bastard," Tayley hissed, his breathing ragged on the other end. "You seriously woke me up for an insignificant problem like this? Just you wait... huftt. Got it. Now follow my instructions. Go back inside your room and look for the wardrobe—the right corner beside your tiny bed."
"Oke, I'm at the wardrobe, but I don't see anything."
"Stupid shit! Slide the door open and look on the inside right side. You'll find a panel of secret buttons there. From those random buttons, use your little 'trait' to detect which one is routed with the matching digital wavelength to the right compartment. AND REMEMBER: don't press the wrong button, or we'll literally need to bring a chisel tomorrow just to hack the compartment open."
Whohoo, this is awesome. Would I really be able to use my ability for something like this? God, how incredibly gifted am I?
"Now, let's focus," I muttered to myself.
I brought my hand close to the tiny electronic module connected to the compartment. Closing my eyes, I tuned in. I could immediately feel its faint magnetic field pulsing against my skin. Judging by the wavelength, it was a standard low-frequency signal, hovering right around its main base of 135 kHz. But as I concentrated, I realized it was just constantly beeping at a flat, unvarying frequency. It didn't have a code, a pattern, or a sequence. It was a total blank slate.
If the wave was flat, how the hell was I supposed to determine which button it was paired with? No—there had to be a way.
I swept my hand back and forth, hovering over the module, desperately searching for a sudden spike or a subtle shift in its wave pattern. Nontheless, I found absolutely nothing. Did Tayley pull a prank on me? No way... right?
Stuck and feeling the frustration mounting, I decided to press my index finger directly onto the bare surface of the module.
The moment skin met metal, my breath hitched. I don't even know how to explain it—it was as if the module was actively trying to connect with me. Suddenly, the flat signal broke. I could feel the module rapidly pulsing a distinct signal pattern over and over, responding directly to my touch as if my finger itself was a physical key.
What was the logic here? How could touching it directly allow me to feel its exact internal pattern? Did my finger act like a master key? No, that wasn't possible. My power didn't have the ability to inject or project a wavelength; it was strictly meant for detection.
"Hmm, this definitely sparks my curiosity. Let's experiment a bit."
For the next several minutes, I tried every method my brain could cook up. I held my hand close, then far away, deeply concentrating on the mental image of the wave. I held it there for specific intervals of time, then went over to test other magnetic equipment in the room to see if they reacted the same way. But everything I did was meaningless. The other machines remained completely unchanged; no special patterns appeared.
So... was my finger actually acting as a master key, or what? For a whole 30 minutes, I racked my brain, desperately digging through every theory I had ever learned from the depths of the internet all the way back to my basic education. But science offered no answers.
Fuck it, one last time. I would touch it one more time, focusing every ounce of my sensory ability into detecting the minutest changes. If nothing happened, I was officially stripping myself of the title The Great Compass Man and renaming myself The Newbie Master Key Man.
I extended my hand and touched the module slowly. I tightly closed my eyes, pulling all of my scattered attention inward, funneling it directly into my brain.
Beeep... Beep. Beep. Beep...
Beeep... Beep. Beep. Beep...
I became so profoundly focused, so utterly consumed by the microscopic world of the current, that I didn't even notice a warm, thick liquid beginning to drip from my nose onto the floor. I was in a state of pure, euphoric hyper-fixation. I didn't care about the blood. I didn't care about anything—until the massive realization finally slammed into my mind.
N-no way... No way, right?!
Am I really a genius capable of rivaling the legendary Einstein?!
In that brilliant flash of clarity, I finally understood how my ability worked. By focusing entirely on the module's wavelength, my mind was actually visualizing the physical circuitry hidden inside the wall! I could trace the basic wave originating from its copper coil. I could see how it utilized transistors and capacitors to modulate into a distinct signal wave. I could literally feel the microscopic resistors snapping on and off in real-time to carve a highly specific pattern into the frequency.
Nooo fucking wayyy! My brain was capturing a thousand electronic flips per second just to map out the wave's geometric pattern. For a fleeting, glorious moment, my mind was functioning as a living, breathing oscilloscope. No way in hell! I might actually be a certified genius rivaling Einstein. AND FOR REAL AT THAT!!!
Now that I had the exact pattern memorized, I hovered my hand over the row of random buttons. I scanned their frequencies until I isolated the one emitting the exact same geometric wave directly to the module. The moment I found the perfect match, I pressed it slightly.
Shreekkk.
With a mechanical click, a hidden compartment popped open smoothly, resembling an ordinary dresser drawer. Nestled inside the velvet lining was a metallic orb about the size of a tennis ball. It featured a sleek, futuristic design, its chassis covered in a polished chrome and wrapped in strange materials I couldn't even begin to identify.
Now... what the hell am I supposed to do with this orb?
I pressed the ID card again. "Hallo, Tayley, you little pen—"
Before I could finish the insult, a deafening shout blasted from the speaker.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT, BITCH!! I know, I know! The button was on the far right of the wardrobe, the blue one! Now tak—"
"I already have it," I interrupted, cutting him short with a smug grin. "I did exactly as you instructed. I have the orb in my hand right now. What do I do with it, then?"
Silence fell over the line. Five seconds passed. Then ten.
"Hey, Mr. Little PP, are you there?" I asked, tapping the card.
"Ah... yeah, sorry," Tayley's voice returned, sounding completely dazed. "I just... lost my train of thought for a second there."
"So, Mr. Little PP, wha—"
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?! Huuuft. Never mind. How the fuck did you open it so fast? Did you just randomly mash the buttons?"
"No."
"Did you bring a lockpick with you?"
"Uh, no."
"Did you actually use your ability, then?"
"Ah, yes?"
"Holy fuck, Edgar..." Tayley whispered, his voice trembling with genuine shock. "It... it shouldn't be possible to open that with your current ability level. Wait. This is massive news. I'm coming to your room first thing tomorrow morning. See you later! And never call me Mr. PP something again, do you understand?!"
"U-uh, yes."
Tutt. The line cut to a dead dial tone.
Well, fuck me. Wasn't he the one who explicitly told me to use my trait to find the button? Fuck my life. I was entirely right about my theory: every single person working in this facility suffers from severe lunatic syndrome. Just my absolute luck.
"Now, what do I do with this orb? Huuuhh... never mind, I'm just gonna force myself to sleep."
After using some tissues to clean up the crimson blood stains dripping down my nose and onto the cold floor, I marched into the small bathroom. I washed my face with freezing water, rinsed my hands and feet, and wiped myself dry.
Finally, it was time to bed—no. Fucking hell, no. I absolutely had to light up a cigarette before hitting the sack.
I dragged a chair over, sparked my lighter, and took a deep drag.
"You know... nothing beats a cigarette after a massive, genius-level nosebleed."
After finishing the cigarette down to the filter, I finally laid my heavy body onto the cramped, tiny bed and tried to force my brain to shut down.
Fuck. My mom always told me when I was a kid that if I ever had a hard time falling asleep, I just needed to count sheep up to a hundred. And if I didn't fall asleep by then, I just had to restart the count from one.
"Sheesshh... fine. One, two, three, four..."
...
"Eighty-three, eighty-four..."
I snapped my eyes open, staring furiously into the dark room.
"FUCKKKKK! That was my eighth time repeating the goddamn count and I'm still not even slightly sleepy!" I thrashed against the thin blanket, sitting up in total darkness.
"DAMN IT!!!!!! FUCK YOU, SHEEPS!!! I'M GONNA SLAUGHTER EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU ALL!!!"