by Adrian P
Arif stood up.
“Your Imperial Highness,” he said. “I hope you understand the amount of trouble we’ve gone through. We didn’t build this company out of thin air.”
Victoria frowned. “And?”
“We have sacrificed our time and money in order to establish this company. From hard work. Blood, sweat, and tears,” he continued. “Yet you would vilify our effort to earn money?”
“I won’t vilify what you’ve done had it been in any other situation, but are you blind?” her voice stiffened. “This planet is collapsing! The entire surface, temperature, pressure, everything is running amok!”
“And so?” the man stood defiant. “I’m beginning to understand why most people support Crown Prince Christopher over you.”
Victoria flinched.
“Crown Prince Christopher understands that people should be valued according to their hard work. The more they work, the more they should gain. People have the right to enjoy the freedom to do what they want as long as they worked hard for it—without interference from some damned government telling us to share our hard-earned rewards with bunch of lazy people who haven’t worked hard for their life.”
“Hard work? What are you talking about—“
“Wealth is a sign of hard work, princess, and if you don’t even have 30,000 Weymars by the time you’re 30-year-old, then you haven’t worked hard enough,” Arif replied. “There’s a lot of method to earn money: starting a business, investing, working overtime. You don’t have enough money? That’s your own fault.”
The boy clenched his grip on the metal bar tight.
“Lazy people don’t deserve to live, and it’s good that our world naturally selects these people for extinction. Crown Prince Christopher understood this. That’s why he’s working to abolish all forms of stupid welfare which allows those rats to leech off money from the taxes of hard-working people. They are but a burden, and the sooner they get filtered out of society, the better—“
Audi struck the man’s head down with the metal bar.
The man fell down with blood spurting down the floor. His body convulsed for seconds, before his breathing ceased. Audi kicked the body and hit it again. Twice. Thrice. Until blood painted the metal bar crimson red.
“You think people haven’t worked hard enough in their life, you piece of shit?” the boy screamed like a tractor. “You think people are poor by choice? You think children of poor parents grew up to be poor because they didn’t work hard? When the world charges a steep price on education because people like you want to profit from them? When the world requires a person to own a fucking certificate of degree just to work in the shittiest-paid desk job in the darkest corner of the galaxy? A degree which costs eighty-fucking-million Weymars to obtain? A degree which teaches knowledge that one will barely ever use anymore?”
The executives watch the boy pummel Arif’s dead body in horror.
“How the fuck do you expect people to save money, when our cost of living skyrockets every day? When we have to pay for expensive rents? When we have to keep replacing shit quality clothes? When energy bills keep hiking? When fucking hospitals and clinics conduct fucking businesses instead of community services? When healthy foods are so fucking expensive, and cheap foods will only send us to those bastard profit-seeking clinics every damned year?”
He pulled out his pistol and fired at Arif’s bashed open head. Twice. Thrice.
“Bastards like you poison the minds of the young and the poor with your corrupted notion of hard work and success. You appear in motivational talks, public debates, and conferences as lifestyle fucking gurus, forcing us to blame ourselves for our own misfortune. You blame poverty on an individual’s lack of hard work. You blame suicide on an individual’s state of mental health. You blame unemployment on an individual’s lack of will to look for work. You!” the boy kicked the body away with his bloodied boots. “You have no idea how many people have to suffer from the way our world fucking works!”
“Help!” one of the executives screamed. They scanned for escape, but the only exit was the double-door behind Victoria.
“Y-your Imperial Highness!” one spoke with a tattered voice. “He just killed Arif! Please, stop him—“
“I will turn a blind eye,” Victoria said.
The executives shook.
“Whatever happened in this room, I am no witness,” the princess turned. “Do what you feel is necessary, Audi. Come downstairs after you’re done with what you have to do.”
“Clean these filths from the face of my galaxy.”
Chapter 4 / Part 5
Charlotte dragged her suitcase around the city. She’s been traversing the streets for half an hour, slightly panting with heightened breathing pace. Think, think. She thought. If I were him, where would I go? Audi’s actions are unpredictable to the untrained, but his thought does actually have a pattern.
She stopped in front of a large, protesting crowd.
The world is a mess. He’ll try to escape. But not really. He would look at his surroundings. The situations. And therefore—
“Let us in!” the crowd shouted.
Charlotte turned to the protest. She tilted her head. This is the spaceport…but nobody’s letting these people in? Why?
She paused.
The girl swam through the forest of people like a tiny breeze, swishing past gaps smoothly without stop. She reached the front row, and faced a group of guards with their guns pointed at the crowd. Behind them was a tiny door, where a group of men in shiny suits just entered.
The crow’s jeer grew louder.
“Excuse me!” Charlotte waved at a security guard. “Have you seen a young man around one and a half head taller than me?”
“You’ve got to be more specific than that,” the security guard turned to her. “Didn’t you see the thousands of people here? You could’ve described anyone.”
“My bad,” Charlotte cleared her throat. “He has black hair, olive skin, and a little annoyingly sarcastic at times.”
“Does he wear a bandana?”
“Yes, yes! That one!”
The guard sighed. “So you’re a friend of that git,” he pointed at a building across the street. “He went there with a girl in purple dress. They should still be in there.”
“Purple…” Charlotte paused. What is she doing walking around?
“Anything else?” the guard grumbled. “I have to control these bunch of people before they break into the spaceport.”
“Understood. Thanks by the way!”
She turned and walked towards the office building.
Charlotte entered the lobby. Empty. The reception has been abandoned, while chairs and cabinets were flipped all over the place. Near the lift, a security guard laid on the floor unconscious. She approached him and checked his pulse.
He’s alive. Is this his doing?
The girl pressed the lift button. One door opened, and Charlotte jumped in. She closed the door and scanned through the lift buttons. If only I can figure out which floor he’s in.
She opened her suitcase and unveiled her exoskeleton suit. Piece by piece, Charlotte attached different units on her body, from torso, to hips, to legs, then arms. She pressed a button, and metals crawled out of her neck piece, forming her ghost helmet and activating its power.
Now, scan for fingerprint trace. Her eye units blinked red. Fingerprint marks painted the lift buttons, but Charlotte activated another function. They became coloured. The most recent fingerprint is from…five minutes ago. Fifteenth floor.
She pressed the button for 15th floor.
After several seconds of quiet ascend, the lift door opened. Charlotte stepped out into a white-painted secondary lobby floor with a sign reading: EXECUTIVE AREA.
Charlotte retracted her helmet.
Security guards lied around unconscious. Some smashed into a table, while others piled on top of one another. She frowned. What are you doing, Audi? The girl traced a path forward using the guard
s’ bodies as benchmark.
Slam.
A blunt noise echoed from a distance. A sound of metal hitting something soft. Slam. The pounding noise kept going. As Charlotte walked towards an open double-door, sounds of whimpers became audible. The pounding noise got louder. Sobbing voice. A tiny call for help.
Charlotte entered the room.
Her chest shook in abrupt.
Surrounded by three dead bodies, Audi swung a metal bar on the ground towards another man lying down. The man moved no more, but the boy kept hitting him like mining an ore. Blood spurted. Flesh painted the floor. A woman wearing blazer shrivelled in the corner with terror painting her face.
“What are you doing?” Charlotte yelled in horror. “Audi…this!”
The boy turned slightly and glanced at her. He kept hitting the dead body.
“Stop it!” she kicked him away.
Audi fell on the ground a short distance away.
Charlotte scanned the dead bodies. Their head were bashed open. Drips of tears and sweat littered the floor. Crimson red blood splattered throughout the room.
One died instantly, while the other three died after he hammered them on the floor, helpless without chance of resisting.
She turned to the boy.
“Are you crazy?” the girl shouted as Audi stood. “What have they done to deserve this?”
“What have they done?” the boy’s voice was coarse and deep. “Woman over there. Tell her what you’ve done.”
The woman only cried.
“These people took over the spaceport and began charging tickets to refugees,” Audi spoke. “They’re the reason nobody but the few richest can enter the spaceport and leave.”
“What?” Charlotte flinched and turned to the last survivor. “Is that true?”
“I…it wasn’t my idea! It was Arif’s! Please!” the woman begged. “Don’t kill me!”
“It wasn’t your idea?” the boy sniggered. “But did you reject his proposition?”
She flinched.
“And there you go,” the boy said. “You didn’t stop him, therefore you don’t mind. Therefore you’re complicit in denying people the right to live.”
“Help!”
Audi smashed a table with full force. “Nobody’s going to help you, you greedy piece of trash,” he marched forward. “I will not kill you with one hit. I’ll make sure you experience the longest suffering in the world, you’ll wish you can kill yourself—“
Charlotte punched the boy down.
He fell and smashed through a chair, breaking it in two.
“I won’t let you kill her,” Charlotte gritted her teeth.
“Really?” the boy stood up as he glared at the girl. “I didn’t take you to be a hypocrite, Ghost Girl.”
Charlotte kept silent.
“These people. The kind of people who would not hesitate exploiting people’s suffering for their own gain. I thought you hated them?” the boy said. “Didn’t you kill Simonovsky Tech’s directors for precisely the same reason? And yet, you would not let me kill these bunch of morons?”
“I realised I was wrong!” Charlotte yelled. “You stopped me, remember? You‘re the one who made me realise my mistake! That no matter how heinous these people act, killing them will not solve the problem!”
“Ah yes,” the boy grinned. “I did say something like that.”
“Then why did you betray your own words? The very words that saved me from needless killing? Why—“
“Because I overestimated humans.”
Charlotte stopped.
“I believed. Once. That humans can be reformed. That humans can be redeemed. That through words, reason, and education in ethics and morality, humans can be discouraged from selfish acts and be guided into kindness,” he began. “And then I see the light, the train heading towards us at the end of the tunnel.”
“What?”
“They won’t budge no matter how much I talk about ethics, how much their humanity has been compromised,” he clenched his fists. “Seeing the sufferings they’ve caused outside should’ve shaken their conscience had they possessed one. But no. They kept going. They justified the people’s suffering using the logic of hard work.”
Charlotte listened.
“I’m disgusted. Perplexed. To think someone would justify other’s sufferings on the basis of lacking hard work. Hard work?” Audi kicked a table aside. “I’ve fucking worked hard my entire life! Risking my life! So much more than these fucking businesspeople! How many times do you think I’ve nearly died? How many times have I been forced to inflict pain and agony?”
“That…”
“If hard work really determines how successful and rich someone is, I should be a fucking billionaire right now! Nobody should be living under poverty! Nobody should be forced to die in a self-destructing planet, just because they don’t own the damn means to pay for fucking tickets!”
“I understand what you’re saying, but that doesn’t make killing them all right!” Charlotte replied. “You’re just succumbing to your irrational rage! Do you think I don’t find them disgusting?” she paused. “But I don’t rush to bash their head open! No. Because I know, killing them won’t solve anything.”
“Of course killing them won’t solve anything. I know that much.”
“Then—!”
“It is but a beginning.”
Charlotte froze.
“When humans are faced with adversity, they adapt; adhere to the rules of the world, and seek a way to benefit the most from the situation,” he began. “Matthew was born poor, cannot find a job because he cannot afford education. He has to feed his family. What did he do? He adapted. He sold his morality to money. He chose to fight for Konstantin and become complicit to his mass murder, just because he’s the only one who can provide him with money.”
Silence.
“Bryant’s ex-fiancee. He chose a generic rich man with title over Bryant, even when she admitted that Bryant was the kindest and most loving man she’s ever met,” Audi gritted his teeth. “This is simply an act of adaptation. Adaptation to a harsh world where nobody can live without money. It is simply foolish, suicidal to have done otherwise.”
“And how does killing these people factor in to all these?” Charlotte yelled. “How—“
“And like them, I’ve done the same.”
“Eh?”
“I was just a poor boy living alone in a small dusty flat under the harsh heat of Planet Vurste. But then I saw a chance. I manipulated two women with immense resources into fighting one another, leaving millions dead in the wake of their battle. I used them. Used their powers, connections, and wealth for my own benefit,” he clenched his fingers on his head. “I’ve denounced these businesspeople bastards, only to realise that I’ve done the same. Even I. Even I!”
Charlotte stepped forward. “It’s…not your fault,” she replied. “We’ve both seen the way the world works. Nothing you said that I disagree,” she said. “You were powerless alone. I was powerless alone. But that’s exactly—“
“Yet they’ve accepted me.”
The girl paused.
“Why?” Audi bit his lips. “It was so obvious that I’ve used them. Yet they smiled. They trusted me in everything I’ve done. They let me venture away into this planet, knowing I could’ve just run away from all their troubles. So why? Why did they—“
“I understand why.”
Audi glanced at her.
“You went your whole way to mask yourself as a cold, heartless, and calculating individual. You wanted to blend with the world, and this persona is a reflection of what you think the world truly is.”
The boy flinched.
“But you’re not the world,” she continued. “Precisely because the world is a heartless place that you’ve become its exact opposite, an antithesis. You’ve adapted to the cruel ways of the world with spite instead of pride, unlike most humans that walked the galaxy. This dissonance is painful. The realisation that you’re alone in
this world is horrifying. I understand. I was like you once too.”
Silence.
“These people whom you’ve made use of, I believe they’ve seen the same with their eyes. Beyond the skin of image, right to the centre of your being,” Charlotte placed her palm on his chest. “That the boy wishes for nothing less, but the creation of a better world.”
Audi turned his gaze down.
“Keep believing, that we can fix this world. That there is a way to change the way our society think and feel.”
The boy raised his face.
“Then Konstantin was right.”
Charlotte flinched.
“He wanted to change the way our society think and feel,” the boy gripped his bloodied metal bar tighter. “But how can that be possible, with bunch of greedy bastards like these populating the galaxy?”
“What are you talking about—?”
Audi shoved Charlotte away and turned to the female executive whimpering on the room’s corner.
“It is fashionable to blame the rich for exploitation, but that’s an understatement of what they’ve done.”
He took a step.
“So long as people who obsess over wealth accumulation exist, the cycle will be eternal. Kill all rich people in this world, someone from the middle-class will simply take their seat. Kill them again, and someone else will assume the throne,” the boy swung his metal bar like a bat. “So long as the culture that equates happiness and wealth exist, people like Matthew will keep killing themselves, and people like Bryant will never be loved by anyone.”
Charlotte clenched her fist.
“Too many people have believed in the perverted notion of hard work and success, a result of centuries of indoctrination by the wealthy class. Countless literatures, fictions and non-fictions, have permeated through our society by promoting these dangerous life philosophy,” he paused. “No amount of preaching can fight that. No amount of fact-sharing can fight that. Murder. Violence. Killing. Those are the only ways.”
The girl stepped forward.
“I will destroy and annihilate them. These inferior beings who are beyond redemption. Lest everything will remain the same. Lest everyone will hide behind the veil of pragmatism,” he continued. “If I have to keep killing, then so be it, I shall. Until nobody has to suffer. Until nobody dares to glorify suffering. Until—“
