Chapter 78: In Time
Time: Unknown, roughly in the 21st century future.
Location: Unknown, appears to be in North America.
At six in the morning, the poor rushed out of their homes, glancing at the green fluorescent numbers on their forearms as they hurried toward the factories.
This is the world of In Time.
The story is set in a dystopian future where humans stop aging at twenty-five, remaining in this state until death, no matter how long they live!
Immortality is technically available to everyone here.
However, there's a catch: upon reaching twenty-five, everyone's remaining lifespan is reduced to only one year. To continue living, they must acquire more time!
There are many ways to acquire time: you can work to earn it, beg for it, or even rob and kill for it. As long as you have time, you can live indefinitely.
Time is currency—there is no money here, only time, and everyone craves it desperately.
This world still has banks, but they're no longer used to store cash; instead, they store time in small capsules.
Simply pressing the capsule against the green timer on your forearm will automatically transfer the time.
In this world, there are no police, only a group called the Timekeepers. Their responsibility is to regulate time, functioning much like law enforcement in the real world—maintaining order. They arrest and confiscate the time of those who abuse or steal it.
For the poor, they are harbingers of death, because when people truly can't survive, robbery becomes their only option.
In this world, the wealthy can live forever, while the poor, to avoid death, must work constantly to earn a meager existence. If the countdown on their arms reaches zero, they will die instantly.
A poor man named Will unexpectedly receives a massive windfall. A working-class guy who toils for hours just to earn days suddenly gains over a century of time. However, before he can even enjoy this fortune, he's targeted by the Timekeepers and suspected of murder.
Will begins running, heading to the affluent New Greenwich district, where he experiences the life of the rich. But the Timekeepers still track him down. Will is forced to kidnap a wealthy man's daughter to escape, but unexpectedly, romance blossoms between them.
As they experienced more together, the two decided to fight the system, becoming modern-day Robin Hoods, robbing time banks and distributing time to the poor...
This was a ghetto, where life moved at a breakneck pace. Perhaps only children too young to work could play carelessly.
Even these kids carried time capsules, diligently accumulating minutes so they could live one more day when they grew up.
Was it really beneficial for people to know exactly when they would die?
From a societal productivity perspective, it was effective—humans would never slack off, constantly working to survive. But from a human perspective, knowing when you would die was undoubtedly cruel.
In this fast-paced slum, a conspicuous figure appeared. He wore an expensive black suit, a luxury watch, and designer shoes.
How expensive were his clothes? Worth 100 hours? Or 1,000 hours?
The poor didn't have time to speculate on such trivial matters, because the countdown timer on their forearms constantly reminded them that if their wages didn't arrive on schedule, they would die!
"I never expected to find something like this here," Jake said, rolling up his suit sleeve. Sure enough, green glowing numbers unique to this world appeared on his forearm.
They counted down in seconds, decreasing by one digit every second until they would reach zero.
He wasn't sure if this world naturally had such a timer—perhaps it was genetic engineering? If not, he would have to leave and search in other universes.
Thankfully, he hadn't traveled here for nothing.
"I only have forty more years to live!" Jake stared at the time on his wrist. He had thought he would live longer.
Including his first twenty-some years, he could only live into his sixties at most, not even making it to retirement age in modern society!
He had come here to find ways to extend his lifespan, but now he desperately needed to. He didn't want to die in forty years. Honestly, in forty years, he could only explore a fraction of the movie worlds available to him.
He might not even get to visit Superman's universe yet.
He wanted to live for centuries, maybe even millennia. But what if he lived too long? Would he become utterly bored? Would he end up like that wealthy man at the beginning of the movie, constantly seeking death, even giving his life away to strangers?
He'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Right now, he just wanted more time.
Seeing the poor like Will, desperately struggling to live even one more day, Jake felt it was better to stay alive.
His goal in this world was straightforward: rob a time bank!
Robbing just one bank would extend his lifespan significantly.
Looking at the countdown on his forearm, Jake unconsciously quickened his pace, feeling that every second of hesitation was wasteful.
While the path to immortality in this world was simple and not particularly dangerous, Jake subconsciously didn't want to linger here too long.
Time could be stolen, traded—it lost its abstract quality, becoming just another commodity. And as a commodity, someone would surely develop sophisticated theft techniques.
They could even steal your time while you slept!
Faced with the possibility of such silent, insidious time-theft technology, it was impossible for Jake not to be paranoid.
The fact that his remaining lifespan would be displayed openly on his arm for anyone to see filled him with subconscious fear and revulsion.
People always say life is exciting because of the unknown. If you knew exactly when you would die, how many people would still be motivated to achieve anything?
But these philosophical questions didn't matter. Right now, Jake had to take action to extend his life.
This world was one of the few where he didn't need to interact with the protagonist at all. Maybe Will was currently working overtime to earn enough time to survive a few more days? Or perhaps he'd already encountered that suicidal rich man in the bar, but neither scenario would affect Jake's mission.
There were time banks in the ghettos, but could you really expect the wealthy to dedicate substantial amounts of time to facilities in areas inhabited by the poor? How much time could possibly be stored there?
Therefore, even if Jake robbed a bank in the slums, he couldn't possibly steal enough time to matter.
Rushing to rob a bank might attract the attention of the Timekeepers prematurely, even though Jake wasn't particularly concerned about these so-called Timekeepers.
Only the wealthy district was his true target.
Jake didn't linger in the ghetto. He casually approached a young girl earning spare time on the street corner and asked her for directions, paying her three hours from his own timer.
This was a fortune for the girl, and her smile practically lit up her entire face.
Following her directions, Jake hailed a cab, paid the agreed-upon fare in time, and the driver took him toward New Greenwich.
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