“Am I even a good person?” He thought as he laughed to himself. For this man had just advanced humanity to a level no one else could.
He stood on the world stage. He was the pinnacle of humanity, anything a human could ever dream of becoming, he had become.
Axure Saint Avante.
It was as if the stars had declared him a name that would be etched into the stones of history. He stood on the stage with a beaming smile, drawn from ear to ear. His heart beat with ecstasy as he looked down upon the thousands of humans before him, cheering his name, standing as they clapped to his achievements.
“I’ve changed the world. Only I could have done this. Only I could have created something to change humanity forever.” Axure thought.
His arms were spread out like an eagle, breathing in the loud voices that filled his soul to the brim. The stage was dark but the hundreds of flashing cameras and lights lit up his face as a white glowing screen casted his shadow over the floor.
His black hair swaying, with strands glistening white from all the beaming lights. His dark eyes turned orange with every click of the camera as his red coat hung down low to his feet.
“All these billionaires, all these stupid men that stand at the top. I fucking did what they couldn’t.” He thought again as he dropped his hands to the side.
With a microphone attached to his red overcoat, he began to speak and the audience went silent. The lights became smooth, the clicks of the cameras faded and a spotlight singled him out.
“I present humanity, the newest advancement in technology. Something that will take us to a new age… a new era.” He spoke boldly as his confident voice echoed through the waves of the world.
The screen behind him changed, presenting the audience with a computer chip. Or what seemed to look like one.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is what will solve all of humanity's problems. Behold, the first neurochip that can be implanted into your brain.” He continued. As he spoke, the screen began to move as if listening to him in a smooth manner, zooming into different components and highlighting important texts.
“Through simple surgery, cheap at that, we have figured out a way for all people of all backgrounds to have this implanted,” he said, “and if you didn’t know, I’m controlling this screen with my mind.”
The crowd suddenly cheered and stood for a quick ovation. Excitement filled the man as he took in the flames of a new era before him. One that he started single handedly.
“Endless knowledge, memory stores, artificial intelligence talking to you in your own head.” He pointed to the screen.
“Imagine… How far can humanity move forward now? Those who struggle in poverty struck backgrounds, who receive no education. When they have this implanted under a government scheme, they will have access to endless knowledge within their own brain. They will have instant internet access to the world. Those struck with deformities, those hurt by the loss of limbs, who want to pursue an art, can do so with this in their head. Soon, we will be able to give limbless humans limbs, we will accelerate education tenfold, we will create millions of new jobs. Everything. And I mean everything…Starts from here. This is it ladies and gentlemen, this is the beginning of a new revolution. This is the beginning of a new world.”
After what seemed to be an endless speech to the masses, Axure left the stage and headed out through the back door. He wanted some time away from the booming crowds to come to terms with how far he had come and what he had accomplished in life. A blacked out Rolls Royce waited before him in a quiet alleyway around the back, sitting discreetly. He had become an A list celebrity these past few months after his constant new developments with technology. Handsome, tall, rich and intelligent, he had it all.
The only downside to that, was that he couldn’t really enjoy a quiet life anymore. But he loved it. He loved the attention. He welcomed the feeling of standing alone at the top of the world.
He slid into the orange leather seats of the car and tucked his coat inside. The chauffeur slowly moved the car. Smooth. It was as if he hadn’t even begun driving.
Axure stared out the window with his face in his palm as his elbow rested on the side compartment.
“A new era… huh…” he thought, “I wonder how far I can lead humanity. What else can I bring to this world?”
As time passed by, they eventually reached his apartment, deep in the heart of central London. He left the car, sliding back out in the same fashion he came in, and thanked the driver.
“Avante, what time is it?” He asked as he stood before the tall building. A suited man greeted him with a smile as he opened the huge glass door.
“9:32PM sir,” the chip echoed in his mind with a crisp, robotic voice. He had named the AI after his third name.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
What the public didn’t know was that the chip had already become available to the government a little while before the public and this was just the announcement for the worldwide distribution to everybody. Axure genuinely wanted the whole world to have it, young, old or poor, everyone needed this. And so he needed to at least let the government have their hands on this to help with distribution and such. And after hearing Avante speak in his head, he nodded at the man and walked in.
He went up the lift all the way to the top floor and walked to his door. He put his hand on the handle and paused for a moment as he plunged into a flashing of memories spread across his whole life.
How hard had he worked to get here?
How much sacrifice had it taken to reach this point?
He was laughed at, berated, used, exploited. He climbed his way to the top in hopes of creating a revolution for mankind. It was hard. It was so hard. But he could not stop here, he had to continue to push forward and guide the world as the pinnacle of man. He closed his eyes.
After letting out a deep exhale and a little chuckle followed by a smirk, he opened his door.
But when he stepped in, he noticed something was missing.
Was the floor always this dir-
No.
Part Two
Where did the door handle go? My heart thumped. It beat. Sweat began to dribble down my head as if a bucket of hot water had been poured on me. My eyes widened as I looked down to my dirty shoes, nested in a rocky, sandy coloured floor. My shoes looked tattered, like I had just walked through a desert, but they were still my shoes nonetheless. My red overcoat still hung down, but it looked dirty, and the colour seemed faded.
I was still wearing my clothes.
A strong gust of wind battered my face as I heard a whistle cut the air open. I inhaled the smells of… What were these new smells?
I jolted my head upwards, and my eyes were immediately burned by the rays of the morning sun. I froze.
My heart hammered onto my rib cage.
This… this was not my home.
I was stranded in the middle of a street, which looked like the slums of Brazil mixed with the infrastructure of tree houses in a forest. The conversations were loud and I understood everything. The street was busy with people… or creatures, flooding in front left to right as I got pushed back to the side. There was no road, and the floor space was tight, where no cars could travel through.
My heart rate was climbing up as a hole began to form in my stomach. It was like a bottomless pit began to eat away at my nerves, leaving only the feeling of despair. My brain began to malfunction, my reasoning began to fail. As I looked around to take in the sight, I watched children swinging from vines hanging down buildings and passageways, arching over my head.
Were these houses? Shops? I did not know, but above me were buildings interconnected with one another, and structures piled on top of each other like one lazy architect had given up on their work. The colours were weak, mostly made up on sandy dirt, faded grey or a dirty white. The structures seemed to be built with wood and stone.
My chest felt tight. The oxygen was sucked from my lungs. My panting grew louder.
My eyes felt like they wanted to drop as I gripped my stomach. Blood rushed to my brain, pumping it up as if it were an engine. But I could not understand what was before me. And that was what ate me away.
Fear.
This was not my home. This was far away. Far, far away. I pinched myself.
I felt it.
I looked across the road and looked for my reflection.
I saw it.
This… this was real.
I didn’t need to believe in magic or any of that nonsense, but it would be far too ignorant for a man of my stature to ignore what was reality. And that reality towered before me. I was transported to a different world.
“No, no, no, no, nononononono,” I grabbed my face with my hands, covering my vision as if I tried to block out the reality before my eyes. But my eyes remained wide open as I fell to my knees in despair and disbelief. My breathing rate soured and my heart began pumping as if it were on life support. My wheezing grew louder and my breaths got hotter, sweltering my skin as I dug my fingers into my face. I pulled my hands down, dragging the skin along with it, as I frantically looked left and right.
“But I was- I was there. And now - and now I’m here.” I huffed like a dying dog. I tried to formulate my sentences, I tried to say words, but I couldn’t conjoin anything. Like my thoughts, they remained disoriented.
But my world came to a sudden stop when I felt the touch of a hand resting on my shoulder.
“You okay young man?” A manly voice clawed into my ears. What seemed like kind words, just came off as more chaos. I looked up to the man, with eyes widened in despair.
He wore a ripped, brown coat with the most basic designs and had dark brown hair matching his beard. He had what seemed to look like a smoking mechanism, similar to a Kiseru of Japanese culture, resting in his mouth. And as he spoke, purple fumes wafted out.
The question was simple, but yet so hard to decipher. Where am I? Why was I brought here? What should I do?
“You seem like you’re lost.” He continued as he rested his hand on my shoulder. I stared into his eyes.
Nononononono. I couldn’t accept the reality. No I couldn’t. What do you mean I’m in another world? What do you mean by that? What should I do? Where do I go? How do I live? What the fuck? What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck?
What about everyone back home? My colleagues? Wait, and my grandmother? My… my friends? My… everyone? Where are they?
Nonononononono. I pulled on my hair like a madman and the man suddenly switched expressions. I was so deep in my own muddled up thoughts, that I couldn’t even make out what face he had made. But fear had quickly consumed me as my legs began to shake.
What… What about the world I had just left behind?
I had just started a revolution. I had just helped humanity walk into the next era of humanity. Me! I just fucking started that! And now I’m here. Stranded in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Fuck that.
Fuck that fuck that fuck that.
I’m going to go back.
I’m going to go back to earth.