Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 15: Advertisements

chapter 15: advertisements

sun jack lay on the bed, listening to the rain outside. for the first time in a while, everything felt calm.

but that calm was fleeting. slowly, like a tide creeping in, the emotions he had been suppressing caught up with him—fear of death, rejection of the unfamiliar environment, and the grim realization that he was now disabled.

shaking his head firmly, he forced himself to his feet. he had to adapt quickly to this strange new world. without adaptation, he would likely face danger again.

sitting on the sofa, sun jack began watching the advertisements and news displayed before him, absorbing as much information as he could to familiarize himself with this new reality.

the more he browsed, the clearer the world’s current state became. the concept of "countries" no longer existed. governments had vanished, replaced entirely by corporate capitalism. mega-corporations controlled entire cities, using their wealth to govern regions.

each city, including this one, was managed by a corporate council formed by the largest companies. even security services were outsourced, with corporations pooling resources to hire private security firms.

technically speaking, the bcpd wasn’t a police force—they were private security guards.

of course, corporations didn’t do this out of altruism. expecting corporate executives to have a conscience was as absurd as expecting the moon to fall from the sky. the simple truth was that a minimum level of order was necessary to maximize profits.

scrolling further, sun jack found a detailed history of corporate conflicts over the past century. wars, assassinations, espionage—corporations engaged in relentless battles to the death, all in pursuit of profit.

strangely, seeing all this gave sun jack a small sense of relief. it seemed corporations cared only about money. as long as he wasn’t a threat to their profits, he wasn’t a target. the field of archaeology had vanished completely, which meant he, as a man frozen for a thousand years, wasn’t seen as some magical relic everyone wanted to devour.

for now, he was safe—but only for now.

he recalled song 6’s warning: in this world, exposure meant danger. if his true identity were revealed, he’d be in deep trouble. tapai, for instance, wouldn’t hesitate to erase him if it came to that.

sun jack clenched his fists. he had to keep his identity an absolute secret and blend in as much as possible with the locals.

looking over, he saw tapai tinkering with a wireless charging port, modifying it into a compatible charger for himself using fiber optic cables.

"don’t you sleep? up so early?"

"sleep? bro, how old-school are you? you still sleep? just get the surgery and cut that habit already."

after everything he’d seen yesterday, the idea that people didn’t need sleep here didn’t even faze him.

"cool," sun jack replied, giving him a thumbs up. he freshened up quickly, grabbed his jacket, powered up tapai, and stepped out.

the three of them descended in the elevator and headed for the building’s exit. sun jack, still grappling with his neural system dilemma, felt tapai tap his shoulder.

"jack, look! (◔-◔) factory settings, low b-light!"

sun jack looked up and saw a woman walking toward them.

it was the catgirl from last night, though she looked nothing like her sultry club persona now. she was carrying her high heels in one hand, a cigarette in the other, her eyes droopy and lifeless—clearly a victim of an all-nighter.

"have some manners, will you? stop giving people weird nicknames," sun jack scolded tapai, annoyed.

"linda linda! what a coincidence! you live here too?" song 6, ever the chatterbox, greeted her cheerfully.

the catgirl recognized the three of them and responded with a blank expression, raising her chin slightly before heading to the elevator, brushing past them without a word.

watching her retreating figure, sun jack couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy. life must be hard for her, forced into such work at such a young age. she probably felt awful inside. what was she thinking about right now?

just as the elevator doors were closing, her sultry, melodic voice floated out: "fing hell, what luck. i run into three fing idiots right after finishing my shift."

"......"