Friend
Hello, friend.
Hello, friend?
That's lame.
Maybe I should give you a name, but that's a slippery slope.
You're only in my head.
We have to remember that.
Shit.
It actually happened, I'm talking to an imaginary person.
Anyways, work at the production line has been crap. Maybe I'll die a dog's death like my parents, a meaningless cog in machine. Oh well.
So as you can see, life has been treating me like shit. As usual.
Oh wait...i haven't introduced myself have i?
Well, the name's Yoshino. Hiroyuki Yoshino. I am twenty-two years old. I work at a factory, specifically at the production line. I have the minimum wage of 22 credits per day. I live in a one bedroom apartment at the regional complex. I initially lived at my parents condo but i sold it to buy myself a dive gear. As you can already tell, I have a hobby of playing games, my favourite being Yggdrasil.
I am what you would classify as a loser. Someone that lives in the dregs of society. I have my birth to blame for my current situation. After all hard work is but a ridiculous philosophy concocted by the hopelessly foolish. One can't escape the position they are born into. Well at least in today's society. So as it stands, I am a loser. As should be.
But this doesn't bring me down. Being a loser is not as bad as you think. On the contrary it offers a lot of freedom. I mean, aside from the usual clusturfuck called life, being a loser has many benefits.
Let me give you an example. A loser has a lot of leeway when it comes to personal freedom. The megacorporations don't care what happens to the lower class, aka losers, as long as profits are stable. What i mean by this is that as long as the money keeps flowing we are free to do whatever we want.
For instance, in basic education I had a bully, a loser just like me. The insufferable prick went by the name of Kaid. So anyways, he did what bullies usually do, steal, beat, rape, etc. His torment went on for a few years until I completed my basic education and left school. That was the last time I saw him, or so I thought.
It was twelve years after my completion of basic education. I had been working at a chemical factory called W&Z United, a subsidiary of Sky Corp, for five years at the time. I was recently promoted to production director because of my 'diligence', a ruse the higher ups used since the previous one outlived his usefulness. To put it simply, it was a position that offered no value whatsoever, just a measly increase of 1 credit to my wage. While working at my new position, I was notified of my replacement since the promotion caused an empty position. Said empty position normally wouldn't cause a change in performance output, but the higher ups wanted as much manpower as they could get. As you can already imagine this new recruit was the one and only insufferable prick that left a mark in my mind. Kaid
According to company guidelines I was to introduce Kaid to my newly founded underlings. So the usual crap happened. I greeted him and proceeded to introduce him to the staff. You know what surprised me most was not that he didn't remember me, but that he had changed. He now resembled my parents. Kind and altruistic, a far cry from the raping motherfucker he once was.
Of course I didn't care about his changed persona. I still hated him to the bones. I was determined to make his time at the company a living hell. So for the coming months I proceeded to plan a way to make him regret his very existence, just as a supervillain would. Goodness, I'm corney.
I began by ruining his reputation. This wasn't too difficult as a few of my coworkers suffered from his torments at basic education. Enticing them to spread a few truthful rumors was fairly easy.
The following days were glorious. Seeing his sunken face from his past haunting him made me shiver in excitement. People avoided him like the plague and he worked in solitude. The depression was literally visible in his face.
Next came his health. Employees ate the company cafeteria, so one particular day I approached Kaid at his table of solitude. I portrayed myself as the amiable fool. We greeted one another and quickly became 'friends.' At first he seemed to have Deja Vu moment after seeing me, which honestly scared me for a moment, but he seemed to dismiss it. Our so-called friendship continued for about a month, a time I spent understanding every single aspect of his life.
From what I could gather, he was now married and had a 2 year old daughter. He lived 4km away from the factory. He ate two times a day, with lab meat and vitamin pods on the side. He spent his time off from work with his family and spent much of his wages on sustaining their standard of living. Pretty typical if i say so.
After gathering a bit of sufficient info, I acquired a long acting poison from a local dealer. Said poison was called LIK4. It was a long acting poison that lasted a period of two months. Its main features were to cause perpetual weariness and gradual destruction of mitochondria.
For the following months he seemed dejected and incredibly tired. His performance was low even by the lowest of company standards. Anyways his torment lasted for a good month before i decided to get rid of him.
During lunch one day I sneaked the antidote to his drink, effectively curing him of the poison. A week passed, making him all healthy again. Since it was now his birthday, we decided to celebrate it at one of the parks from the previous age. Said park was a far cry from what it was. The current atmosphere has killed any plant life that could have existed there. It was a park in name only.
The following week we both showed up to the park with our rain coats and gas masks. We sat on the stone bench and celebrated his birthday with an amiable talk. A few minutes later I led him to a hill that was supposed to have a good view. He thanked me for my care and gave me a good hug. As he gazed at the barren view I walked up to him and whispered the name he used to call me as he beat me in school. Instantly his eyes widened and he looked at me in astonishment.
Without wasting time I hit him in the head with a stray rock. He tumbled down as wailed in agony. Contrary to my expectations, I felt empty at that moment. Not the joy i wished to experience. I continued to pummel his face senseless as he begged for me to stop.
This went on for about half an hour to which Kaid's face was reduced to a gory puddle. His head was essentially turned into a red pancake with brain matter flowing out.
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the result i walked back to work. Briefly, I glanced at his body that was being lathered by the acidic rain.
The following weeks nothing happened. Business went as usual, a new recruit replacing Kaid's position. Now back to my initial point, you might be wondering why i didn't face any repercussions for the murder i commited. The answer is simple. It doesn't matter in the eyes of society. I've told you before we are losers. The cogs that run the machine.
The higher ups, the operators of the machine, don't care about what happens to a missing cog they simply replace it. This is the reason we dregs of society have the freedom we do. We are expendable.
"Yoshino are you going to keep standing in the rain?" Hm? Ah...friend it seems fate has smiled on us today.
"I apologize Patricia, I was just lost in thought." Patricia moved next to my apartment a few years back. You should recognize her, friend.
"No it's fine i get lost in thought every once in a while as well. Especially when I think about my husband. I really miss him you know. Jaimie will be turning five today. She has begun to forget her father's face. It pains my heart when I think about that. I miss him so much." Patricia lowered her head as a single tear flowed down her face.
"I miss him too Patricia, i miss him too." I gave her a long hug before walking back to my apartment.
So friend you should know a bit about me now.
Shit.
I can't believe I just had a conversation with an imaginary friend. I must be losing it.
I'm tired.
Since it seems to be the last day for Yggdrasil perhaps i'll play a bit before going to bed.
How bout you join me, friend?
Hello reader. Welcome if you've made it this far. Enjoy, and let me know of your thoughts in the reviews.