002 THE ARMAGEDDON
Dan woke before dawn, long before the rest of the house stirred. It was the only way to survive mornings here—get the chores done, cook breakfast, and be out the door before Ralph staggered in to stall him.
If he wasn't quick, he'd be late for school.
He set out the plates: rice and eggs for Ralph, aunt lody, and Beck…his cousin, who enjoyed the luxury of a bus ride while Dan had to walk the long road himself.
Another small injustice he'd grown used to and reason that he needs to get out early.
As he slipped his shoes on, a thought stopped him at the door. "Wait… I didn't check."
He pulled out his phone. The DemCoin app pulsed to life the mont he thought of it.
18.46 … 18.49 … 18.51…
The counter ticked steadily upward. It had mined from Ralph through the night.
"Huh. Serves you right," Dan muttered with a crooked smile.
But as he stepped into the street, sothing changed. The digits froze. He slowed, frowning.
Dan exhaled, amused. "Just as I thought. It only works if I'm close to the target."
He pictured the distance in his head, pacing it out in the quiet street. He made a note. "Thirty ters. That's the limit of the app."
Pocketing the phone, Dan quickened his stride toward school, already turning over the possibilities in his mind.
-----
[lrose Middle School No.9]
"Hey, Dan! Guess what?....my physicals went up by one point," Mikey Rolands said, grinning as he dropped into the seat beside him.
Dan stirred from his half-nap, rubbing his eyes. "Really? That's good news." His tone soured as he leaned back in his chair.
"anwhile, at this rate I'll never make it out of middle school," he thought.
The final exams lood over him like a storm.
Without a decent score, high school was out of reach. Dan's grades were already scraping the bottom of the class, and everyone knew it.
Everyone except Mikey…his best friend, maybe his only friend. The others sneered at him, wrote him off as the poor kid destined for the Aur mines.
"Don't worry," Mikey said, catching the shift in his mood. "You've still got ti to pull it together."
Dan forced a smile, just enough to acknowledge the encouragent. Then a thought hit him. He pulled out his phone.
"Hey, did you get a new app on your phone? Sothing called… DemCoin?"
Mikey frowned, digging out his own school-issued handset. "No way. These bricks don't install anything. You know that."
"Check anyway. Mine got one yesterday."
"Fine." Mikey swiped through his screen, then shook his head. "Nothing new. What's it called again?"
"DemCoin. Looks like a mining app. For coins, I think."
Mikey snorted. "Dan, don't tell
you're falling for that. Coin mining's been dead since the Armageddon."
"I know," Dan said quickly, tucking the phone away. But the weight of it in his pocket felt heavier than before.
-----
[The Armageddon]
A century ago, the world changed forever.
ta-humans…ordinary people who suddenly awakened extraordinary powers, appeared without warning. Their arrival coincided with sothing else: Spatial Rifts.
The Rifts tore open passages to realms beyond our own, spilling horrors and hostile beings into the world. These creatures weren't content to remain confined; they pushed through, hungry to conquer.
Humanity might have fallen then, if not for the ta-humans.
With powers that defied imagination, they fought back and closed most of the Space Rifts.
The world was eventually saved but its saviors were never truly trusted.
To governnts, ta-humans were less miracle than nace. Laws were written overnight. So were imprisoned, others forced into registries and compliance programs.
Control seed possible….at least for a while.
But resentnt simred. Eventually, the ta-humans rose together under one banner: the Alliance of Evolution. At its head stood Quantum, a man whose mind operated with the precision and depth of a quantum supercomputer.
His war was not waged with bombs or bullets, but with code.
In a single catastrophic strike, Quantum shattered the digital foundation of civilization. Every password, every account, every cryptographic key was compromised. In one night, the Alliance seized the world's wealth.
Markets collapsed. Economies crumbled. Nations plunged into chaos.
For a ti, society itself hovered on the brink of ruin. That dark chapter beca known as the Armageddon.
Governnts eventually clawed back power, but the scars never faded. Politics, economies, and daily life were reshaped forever.
ta-human abilities, once feared, beca unavoidable.
If humanity could not suppress them, it would harness them. Governnts embraced ta-technology, binding it with strict laws and discipline.
The world had been broken and remade. And it would never be the sa again.
-----
The room filled piece by piece, student by student until it buzzed with the usual morning chatter. No one spoke to Dan except the occasional thumbs up by Mikey.
No one ever did. He'd long since stopped expecting otherwise.
He watched instead, scanning faces for any ntion of the DemCoin app. There was only Silence. There were no whispers, no traded rumors at all about DemCoin.
"Strange. Am I the only one with the damn app?" he wondered.
The school bell cut through the noise.
Miss Poney Black, a thin woman with a long ponytail was their horoom teacher. She entered the room and took attendance.
"Final exams are coming," she told them. "If you don't take your studies seriously, you won't get into a good high school."
"Yes," the students chorused, perfunctorily.
Thas Jackson, smug as always, waved a hand. "Our scores are fine," he said, then jabbed a finger at Dan. "Can't say the sa for him."
Laughter rippled around the room.
Dan felt the heat of it creep under his skin. It wasn't just talent that failed him.
He knew how to learn but he had no ti. There just wasn't ti to do so. Afternoons in the Aur mine left no hours for revision and ta training, and he was left exhausted after that.
Miss Poney's expression hardened. "Dan, your scores are dragging the class average down. At the rate you're going, you'll be the only one who fails to graduate."
A hundred eyes were on him. He mouthed, "I'm sorry," because the words were expected. The apology landed like a stone.
Miss Poney turned her back to the board, and began to scribble lesson notes. The classroom noise settled into the low hum of pens and chairs.
Dan's face burned…not with sha now but with a slow, cold anger. It wasn't his fault he was poor. It wasn't his fault he'd been forced into labor.
He slid his phone from his pocket and felt the app's presence like a pulse. Miss Poney turned slightly, writing a formula on the board. For a mont she looked completely ordinary….just a woman at work.
Then she beca a target in his screen.
Dan raised the phone a fraction and, almost without thinking, tapped the button.
Begin Mining.
The small thrill that ran through him was ugly and private. The counter began to climb.
18.54 …. 18.57 …. 18.61
"Damn, she's mined much quicker than Ralph
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