"Blasted lag!"
The other inhabitants of the internet cafe were doing their best to ignore the old man in the lab coat with the big grey moustache. They were all hiding in here to avoid dealing with a world gone mad. They could understand why an old man might get frustrated.
They might have paid the unassuming old man more attention however, had they realised he was busy hacking into G.U.N. databases.
"Sloppily organised, of course…" The old man grumbled. He cricked his neck one way, then the other. "Alright. Copy the data each time it glitches, and soon I'll have all the details…"
Surreptitiously looking one way and then the other, the old man quickly pulled out a long black quill from a coat pocket.
Touching it to his tongue was like licking a chocolate bar and an electrical socket at the same time. Painful, sure, but he just couldn't bring himself to stop, despite knowing it couldn't possibly be good for him. He'd probably have tried some kind of detox program, if it wasn't for the fact that he was half convinced it was the main thing keeping him alive after all these years.
Well, the shocks from the quill and a great big heaping dollop of hate.
His computer beeped at him, and the old man quickly hid the quill away and started scrolling through the results.
He frowned. "Firing squad, eh? Hmph. Stupid, not keeping me alive. But also, smart, not keeping me alive."
He hovered his mouse over the button that would take him to the second document of his search.
One that recorded somebody else's fate.
He stared at the button for a long while, then growled, slapping himself in the face.
"Stop that!" He hissed to himself. "There's no point delaying. You have to know."
Bracing himself, he double-clicked.
For a long moment, the old man didn't make a sound. He almost didn't breathe. He just continued to scroll.
Eventually, he finished reading. He still didn't react, just staring blankly at the blinking cursor, hovering at the final line.
Finally, the old man closed his eyes. Exhaling deeply, he leaned back in his chair. Whatever it was he'd read, it seemed to have aged him another decade or so.
"Alright." The old man said quietly, huffing to himself. "It seems that there isn't a world that deserves to live after all."