Safety has always been and continues to be his top priority. Things mostly work under his control, under his plans. But, someone as prudent as him must take further precaution for unpredictable events.

Money. Knowledge. Transportation. Safe place. Those things are necessities at any given moment. Especially now, when this region's system is corrupted.

Of course, he would not store all his time in one place. Who did that, anyway? He still has so much time, so many investments here and there. However, the time capsule is the only thing can be quietly taken out. He stored three hundred thousand years in a secret vault in the wall of his old junior partner-office 5-floor down. Only three hundred thousand years, he thinks as he goes down by elevator. He starts regretting of putting too much money in building apartments and factories. The elevator's door opens and stops his thought process. Good god. He climbed from the middle; now, he scares of not being the richest. That amount of money will be enough for him to live hundreds of years from now without doing anything.

He walks out to the empty hall. 60 years. Even his wife or his stupid daughter would not know nor remember this phase of his life when he was not a someone, but a small accountant. After all, most people died: for the few to be immortal, many must die. How the people agree on this system of time distribution is still out of his imagination. He would never approve this; he would fight tooth-and-nail for the tiny chance of being an offering for others' survival. But, he was born in this dreadful era, and soon, he understood the rule.

There is no rule but jungle rule, silly. The person who is stronger, smarter, more adaptable to this world will live on the weaker, duller one's suffering. Like Feeding Frenzy, the old video game, big fish eats smaller fishes. It is natural selection, even though, this system is created by human.

Call his belief in natural selection an obsession. It should be. Because it is the backbone of any other rule in this society, who gave this rule well amount of intention will flourish. Work hard, play less, never buy unessential accessories. A cup of coffee cost you one-fifth of your paycheck is not your thing.

Here goes his office. It stations at the end of the hall, as he had the lowest status then. Then, this room used to be his home. No house is needed when your body is so young and strong. He used to work behind this table until he could not open his eyes. Day, night, he could not acknowledge the time passing by as the room has no window. After all, knowing it wasn't important compared to his need for survival. Saving seconds by seconds, minutes by minutes, his voice carried more weight in the company in parallel with the number of stock he owned.

When he finished buying the company, he kept this whole floor for himself as a reminiscence and his own sanctuary. No one except him can walk on this floor, as only by using his elevator and having his biological identity, people can get into this room. The place is his and his alone. You can say that his now-office is where he works, but this floor is where his mind stays. Like his brain, his old office filled with ceiling and ceiling of drawers, from the bottom to the top of the wall; in each drawer, he kept something important to him; in some, there are data sticks (once. they had been called USB?).

All dirty secret. All record. All.

Most people realized the world is controlled by the rich. The worldwide residents were divided into hundreds of cities. Each city has its own tycoon ruler. Global population has shrunk from 14 billion in 2050 to about 600 million nowadays. People believe living close together increases their chances of becoming immortal. Low population made people clustered in a colony between 3 to 5 million people.

Too few people understand that colonies are the rich' farms of fresh time. Philippe has soon understood it and became one of those farmers. Actually, a very productive, very progressive farmer.

He opens the first drawer, where he stores a detailed map of this region. It is not a normal map, though, it is an old hologram. The hologram shows the 3D scheme of this city, from the sewerage, the metro to the rooftop garden.

Every route above the ground is not on his list. The council most likely choice is putting a hemisphere shield above the colony. The amount of energy required is hardly a problem, compare to the shortage of a human army. After all, it is 600 million people consuming what fracture produced for 14 billion people. This shield will prevent anyone with a defected id from going out of its boundary. It will materialize whenever a person walks near it. The council never intervened a colony's affair. The disturbance colony will be left alone until it reaches a new equilibrium.

The lack of human also means that the council can issue a droid army to patrol the city. Soon, he will take a deed that will make him its target. He should not stay here when it comes.

He takes the bags and places the map inside it.

Next drawer contains a transmit-blocker, specialized for the id. By his own eyes, Philippe witnessed how it works. Before today, the event only served as a grain of knowledge for him. From that day, he understands that the timer has to count pass zero to shut down a person's live. Actually, the counting down is one step in the process. Aiming to mimic a "natural" death, he has to have his time as close to zero as possible. At that moment, the machine blocks the system's command and shuts down his id transmitting wave at the same time. Receiving no transmission, the system mistakes him as a "death" person. Then, it stops tracking him.

Time-capsule is the following object he needs. Bringing a large sum of time out of its safes alone alerts the authority. But, a million years running loose will cover any smaller amount of time.

He understands that he needs the procedure, to get out of the city. But, timing down himself is just, scared him.

Do it. Do it. Do it. Part of him commands him with consistency.

The other part, just hate the solitude life. He will come to his safe house in the middle of Sequoia Forest, near Lake Mary. It is a middle of nowhere, and no one will go there. The forest, expands now more than ever, will cover him from the satellites and drones.

He will come back and rejoin society. Faking a death loses him his identity. But, some say, ones can hack into the system. Or, he can trade an identity with the transmit-blocker and money.

Someday.

He traces his time with his finger, reads the ridiculous amount that he keeps there.

9104:51:6:23:59:54

Philippe makes his decision and starts pouring down all the years on his arm. A long wait until the hard part.

0000:00:0:00:02:00.

He throws the time capsule into his backpack. Now holding the machine directly at his wrist, he waits for his demise.

0000:00:0:00:00:03

0000:00:0:00:00:02

0000:00:0:00:00:01

Now.

0000:00:0:00:00:00

Thirteen zeroes and he is still alive. He can't help but look and touch himself everywhere, to check if he was alive. His hands, his arms, his face. Philippe feels the wetness everywhere. Oh, he was sweating so much that he made a small pool in the damn seconds.

But, he is okay. No, he is great. He is still alive. He wants to laugh and just lays down right here., but his consciousness tells him to celebrate later when he has gone to the safe house.

He has to finish packing first.

Next, he packed 15 data sticks, each has all exchanges of his zone and significant event of the world in 5 years. The bright side of being an accountant in this world is "everything involves trades". What you do is recorded with time and place. And guess who can understand your deeds looking at a mountain of number? A good accountant. He checks over your tax papers, your investments and just penetrates your cover.

Of course, as a counselor himself, he gathers as much as possible information of his colleagues. Sometimes, he sends them his people, in other word, spies. Any person in his shoes is expected to do so, after all. Or all the old courtesy is lost.

In the end, he takes a look at his car's key collection and chooses one, before picking up the backpack and leave.