2 REOCCURRING APOCALYPSE
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Eric Brander had just received a life-changing realization of his existence and his reality. He was depressed.
The rainstorm poured even more and thundered even louder.
"You need to tell me why?" Eric said, his tone was deep and calm, but there was an eery fearless tone that seemed to emerge from his voice.
"Pardon?" The unknown invader was confused at Eric's current question, it's not like he had not just explained everything to him.
"You heard me... I need to know why I have to die, otherwise..." There was an eery silence after Eric's pause. But then he broke the silence by saying...
"Otherwise... I'll never accept it!" There was conviction in Eric's entire aura, talk less his voice. He stood up tall and faced the invader, eye to eye.
"As I mentioned before; To remove any chances of reality breaking to pieces. And for some reason, your existence gives off a 5% chance of that happening and they can't take that chance." Eric was reminded once again.
"They? Who's they?"
"'They' are the Watchers, the supervisors of the universe and the entirety of reality, they are the ones that truly want the error corrected." The unknown invader took a seat and casually crossed his legs as he explained to Eric about the situation.
"The Watchers, huh..." Eric thought out loud.
"Don't stress yourself thinking you can get them to let you go, their whereabouts are completely hidden from society. Even if you wanted to try to find them, you would be dead before you even got the chance. And lest you forget, you don't have much time left."
"...." Eric couldn't retort because the unknown invader was absolutely right, there wasn't any more time left to find the so-called Watchers, and Eric understood that.
"Instead... Why don't you focus on finding a way to survive your assailant." The invader made a suggestion, a better suggestion. And Eric listened carefully.
"Well, you could...try to hide till the sunrises." The unknown invader suggested.
"Really? I mean it's that easy?" Eric was surprised.
"You know what, I'm sorry, that's a bad idea, it wouldn't work considering the fact that he could easily just track you down by your lifeline."
"Lifeline? What's that?" Eric asked.
"It's basically your life data recorded in the CyberVerse; It tells us, hackers, if you're alive, dead, asleep, scared, running, walking, defecating, peeing, depressed, and even your location." The unknown invader explained.
"Is that even legal!?" Eric felt a bit disturbed by the fact that his every action was basically out there for others to see.
"Oh don't worry, it depends on the situation that we watch and record people's lifelines. Just like this one whereby your life is at risk." The unknown invader reassured Eric.
"I see..." Eric wasn't all that convinced but he decided to just go with it and not ask any more questions about it.
Rather, what seemed to be of more importance to him was his survival which he continued to discuss with the unknown invader...
"Isn't there a way to escape the, uh, Delete guy?" Eric asked.
"It's Delete, and no, not that I've thought of or seen."
"What if I just ran away from the building and avoid any alleys?"
"No... That wouldn't work, he would just space jump to you." That response shocked Eric, desperation began to set in.
He began mentioning more and more different ways to escape his upcoming death...
"What about..."
"I don't think so."
"I could..."
"No."
"Maybe if I..."
"No, no, and no!"
"...." Eric let out a sigh.
However, such death-avoiding ideas were time-consuming, and wouldn't be possible to execute with so little time. It was hard for Eric to admit it but there really wasn't any logical way of getting out of the situation.
The possibility of survival was now looking bleak and impossible.
"Listen. I've tried to save you before but your stubborn character or rotten luck always got in the way." The unknown invader confessed to the existence of other Erics.
"Wait... What do you mean you've tried to save me before? This is the first time we've met, isn't it?"
"....No, it isn't."
"What...? But I don't remember ever meeting you."
"Of course, you don't remember me! I mean, it's been different Eric's from different timelines that I tried to save you. And If I remember correctly, it's been exactly twenty-three lifetimes that I have tried to save you already." The unknown invader just exposed the existence of timelines and alternate realities to Eric.
It took a lot for Eric to process everything he had just heard. Even with the reality, he was in being a simulation, he was surprised to find out the timelines were involved as well.
"How does it all work?" He wondered, it had really piqued his interest and curiosity.
"What the...that doesn't make any sense? How!?" To Eric, at this point, there wasn't any logic to the weird combination of programs, simulated realities, and people being watched 24/7.
"I don't think I have the time to explain and I doubt you'll understand any of it as well but realistically speaking, twenty-three versions of Eric Brander, who are all you, have already died." The unknown invader said promptly.
"Huh? Twenty-three of me, already dead!? But how!?" Eric exclaimed.
"Yes well, five died of natural reasons like natural disasters of the planet dying and so so, you know how it is." The unknown invader was saying.
"I really don't." Eric jumped into the moving conversation but was ignored.
"-But the lifetimes after those five deaths, that is, the remaining eighteen different lives of you died from the CyberVerse Reality agent, Delete." The unknown invader concluded.
"Argh...! THIS IS CRAZY!" Eric was overwhelmed by the number of deaths.
"I know, right? That's the highest record of someone's timelines being snuffed out in a row."
"This isn't a joke! But wait... Delete? Is that a person?" Eric stumbled on another character.
"Well yes, he is. More specifically, he's a hacker like me and you could say we both work for the same company, but in different departments." The unknown invader explained.
This was just too much for Eric to handle, his head began to ache, and he started feeling lightheaded to the point that his speech began to slur a little...
"Umm, w-wait, w-w-wait a second. This is too much to process. I-I think I need to lie down."
Eric Brander took a sit on the floor and leaned on the wall of his cubicle, contemplating life, death, and reality.
All in all, it was just too much for Eric to digest all at once. The world was basically a simulation, some watched and managed the population in the world as well as the fact that somewhere else, in different timelines, Eric had died multiple times.
"Listen to me, Mr. Brander. I know it might be hard for you to take in right now but you have to accept the fact." The unknown invader approached Eric and placed his right palm on his forehead.
"And what fact is that?" Eric ignored the hand on his forehead.
"The fact is, and I really don't mean to overwhelm you but you have to understand that..."
"That..."
"That one way or the other, everyone in this "reality" has died before, even you."
"Huh? What do you mean, everyone?" Eric's curiosity got the better of him, he would come to regret asking further.
There was an eery silence after Eric asked further. And for some reason, his forehead began to feel a bit warm and tingly.
"...oh, I would explain... But I think it would be better if I showed you." And just like that, hundreds of series of two-dimensional zeros and ones flowed through the unknown invader's hand and into Eric's head, specifically, his brain.
It was an extremely painful experience for Eric...
"What are y-!? No! Argh!! Stop! Stop! Stop!! It hurts- Arghhh!!!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't just stop. The copying process has just begun." The unknown invader ignored all of Eric's cries. No, it was more like, the cries and tears didn't phase him at all.
During the excruciating copying of memories, the first image that seemed to repeat itself in Eric's mind was the planet, Earth, imploding into thousands of pieces, over and over again.
Eric was in true hell in his mind.
๐๐จ ๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐๐...
