"I'm tired."
I don't think I can take any more of this BS.
I feel like I'm slowly wasting away here…
My job is trash. My pay has got to be illegal at this point. The clients are all pricks on the other side of the phone. My team manager's a dick who gets a kick out of dominating his subordinates with pay cuts.
And worst of all is this constant, soul-crushing, mind-breaking cycle of debt that consumes me.
"I'm tired."
Six years… six years of working for this black company, and what do I get?
A promotion? No.
A pay raise, perhaps? Never heard of it.
This isn't right… I'm a thirty-five-year-old man without a future or a relevant past, let alone a comfortable present.
What am I doing here?
I'm on a train heading to a trashy job, in the same trashy suit, holding the same trashy suitcase every single day.
Well… except on weekends. On weekends I try to drink and smoke the pain away until I get just numb enough to smile.
Gosh, just look at that bastard in the window reflection.
Tall for nothing. Dark hair with bangs like a loser, barely covering brown eyes that lost their glow a long time ago. The bastard's so tired his eye bags look like camouflage makeup.
I look like a corporate mess.
I can't keep this up.
"I'm fucking tired."
I'm going to break if I keep living like this.
But… what can I do?
I'm pretty much screwed. I don't even remember exactly how it happened, but I inherited a mountain of debt from my late family. Now I'm just struggling to get by while paying the interest.
Still…
I sighed and looked at the last message I received from my girlfriend this morning.
[Hey Mike. I'm just going to say this straight. I think we should start seeing other people. This relationship isn't doing it for me anymore. Don't make it a big deal. Bye forever.]
She couldn't even tell me in person.
I got broken up with by text.
A relationship of three years—ended in a few lines of text.
I chuckled at how pathetic I felt.
I couldn't blame her, though. I wasn't in any position to truly provide the life she wanted. I was just a loser scraping by.
I couldn't complain about the outcome.
Honestly, I was impressed she lasted this long.
But still…
"I'm too fucking tired."
Then a scary thought crossed my mind.
"Should I just end it all?"
I stepped off the train at the nearest station. It wasn't my stop, but I had to get out. I felt like I'd suffocate if I went any further.
It was raining, but I didn't care.
I left the station and wandered through the streets of City A.
At some point, I zoned out… and when I came back to my senses, I was standing on the rooftop of a seven-story building.
I stepped toward the edge.
"I guess this is it…" I was ready to end it.
There was no emotion left in me. No more fight. No more life to begin with.
Just a void.
I raised my right foot over the ledge that would lead to my quick end—
Then—
"Wait… why the fuck do I have to end it?"
I immediately stepped back from the edge.
"I didn't start this shit… and I sure as hell am not going to finish it like this!"
Thunder roared as the storm raged around me.
"I didn't ask for these debts! I didn't ask for this shitty job or this stupid cycle of regret!" I roared into the wailing sky.
"I wasn't given a fucking choice from the start! I was forced into all this by some twisted fate. A joke at my own expense!"
I pulled out my phone and read the message again.
"This relationship isn't doing it for you? Don't make it a big deal?"
I smashed the phone against the rooftop floor.
"Bitch! It was three fucking years! You didn't offer anything either! You were a parasite! A bitch who only cared about herself!"
My voice cracked as I shouted, "You're talking like you did anything to support me or the relationship! I was basically watering dead grass!"
I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Fuck you! Fuck the debt! Fuck this generic-ass city! Fuck the company! Fuck all of it!"
I fell to my knees.
Then I noticed something strange.
The clouds above began to disperse.
The rain stopped.
And what remained was a beautiful blue sky, glowing with sunlight.
"I needed that…"
I slowly stood up and left the rooftop.
Wandering around that part of City A, I was cold and soaked, but I felt more alive with every step. Like I had finally taken a breath after holding it for years.
"Oh… an arcade." It had been a long time since I played anything.
The place was practically empty since it was still morning.
I dropped my suitcase, dug some change out of my suit pocket, and slid the coins into a machine. Then I grabbed the joystick like my life depended on it.
And I played.
And played.
And played.
Hours passed.
No machine in the arcade went untouched.
For the first time in years—
I was free.
"This was fun," I said quietly after finishing the final game.
The title on the screen read: The Matrix: Path of Zero.
A strange sense of peace came over me.
I had seen the movie it was based on once, but somehow I could replay every scene in my head perfectly.
Then a random thought crossed my mind.
"What if this was all just some dumb simulation… and I was just an NPC stuck in a never-ending loop?"
I laughed. "Nah… that's dumb. Completely unrealistic."
Still…
Good movie though.
I wouldn't mind fighting a few hundred Agent Pitts if it meant getting out of work.
I think this was the first time in years that I had actually had fun.
But eventually—
The fun had to end. I picked up my suitcase and headed back to work.
By the time I arrived—
Night had fallen.
"Whoa… it got late all of a sudden." I hadn't realized how much time had passed.
Not that I cared.
Then I saw it—the place I hated most in the world. The towering skyscraper of the black company that had been the bane of my existence for six years.
Even the building itself was painted dark, a perfect reflection of the place. A breeding ground for leeches, mosquitoes, and every other kind of blood-sucking parasite. Through work, of course.
"Let's get this over with," I muttered as I stepped into the elevator.
Sixty-sixth floor.
I sighed. "Bane's going to be on my ass tonight."
The elevator doors opened. I stepped into the office. And immediately—
"Michaelson, you fucking bastard!"
—