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Description

"Here is your black and lactose-free latte, enjoy!"
- "Excuse me... do you have any sugar?"
- "Yes, at the service counter to your right."
- "Thank you."

As Emeria took the large coffee cup in her left hand, she looked around. She observed the busy baristas taking orders in the kitchen, and she paid attention to the newly arrived customers, all occupied with their smartphones, expressionless faces part of their routine. She glanced at a table where a boy with dicephalia was rejected by his female companion after handing her a bouquet of flowers that read "I'm sorry." The girl responded by taking her purse and leaving with indignation on her face. Without a doubt, personal relationships are a complicated matter, one that Emeria does not particularly like. She has always felt more comfortable with numbers and machines; they are easier to predict and please.

"Watch out for the door!" - a guy shouts to a lady holding a box with four drinks by its handle. The lady turns towards the direction of the words, only to be hit by the door by someone in a hurry, apparently hiding from someone looking for him. Everyone stares at the guy, puzzled by such medieval behavior, but no one notices the lady on the floor. Three feet steps closer to her, crouching down to help pick up the cups, which fortunately didn't spill.

"Thanks, dear. Nowadays, no one pays attention to you unless you have a graceful figure or face, you know?" - the lady says in a soft and resigned tone.
- "You're welcome..." - the white-haired girl affirms with a barely perceptible voice. She often struggles to communicate with others while getting up again. As she does this, people lose interest in the guy who had just entered clumsily and focus on the girl's wide hips. Emeria is someone who continues to attract attention with her voluptuous figure, composed of three thick thighs that shape her trio of long legs. Having said that, she decides to leave without looking at anyone, lowers the yellow-tinted sunglasses resting on her grayish-copper eyes, a color that defines her perception of the world: a place of few colors and rusting. New Vex, "the perfect society," is far from being perfect for that short-haired, white-haired girl who likes ten sugar packets in her 500ml drink, leaving the place without saying more, hoping not to have to socialize further, simply retreating to her home.

Year after year, the Ministry of Productivity evaluates all its citizens, expecting them to have met their goals this year. Each person works in the areas where they excel, determined by JANUS, an AI system that serves various functions in society; one of them is to determine the best job opportunities for each person, relying on the annual evaluations conducted by the Ministry of Productivity. This system has been governing New Vex for centuries and has proven to be extremely successful, to the point that people have accepted it without question. But of course, there are always people who, the more they know the system, the less they believe in it; a small disconnected community. Freedom of speech is promoted and boasted about, but everyone knows that it's better to keep dissenting comments to oneself. Not out of fear of being jailed or exiled, simply to avoid a decrease in the score. There was little difference between real life and video games, to the extent that no one knows which came first; accustomed to life being governed by numerical values, and the great goal is to increase this value to overcome various obstacles and achieve a satisfactory outcome.

Emeria is someone who is completely accustomed to this lifestyle; it's predictable, easy to understand, just be a good citizen, deliver results, and the rest will come naturally. She also knows that there are people who disagree with this system, refusing to accept the idea that people's value is delimited by a simple number, one that assigns value to each individual based on various factors; from genetics, ideas, personal and social relationships, and of course, their achievements and goals, which are supposed to determine each person's stratum.

Emeria often navigates the deep web under the pseudonym "Nemo"; she is a frequent navigator of the deep web, where all kinds of inaccessible information is shared with the average person. It's something she does simply for fun but doesn't want anyone to find out about, for fear of the consequences, whether social or legal; yet strong enough not to want to give it up. The truth is, she feels more comfortable as Nemo than as Emeria. Driven by simple curiosity and interest in the JANUS system, Nemo has managed to decipher only a few algorithms within this AI, using an old computer completely disconnected from the networks, to which she provides encrypted information through her main PC. But this afternoon, Nemo was going to take a break; Emeria just wanted to be in her room, relaxing.

Having arrived at her sanctuary, sheltered by the walls that made up her room, immensely messy, with cables and video games scattered everywhere, making the barely perceptible wooden floor that supported it, Emeria takes a sip of her drink in front of her computer. She remembered for a moment the accident of that woman. While systematically browsing through the current memes on her computer, the distracted part of her brain, the one that occasionally prevents her from fully concentrating on her tasks, reminded her of the incident that happened at noon, the lady who was hit by the door and ended up spilling her drinks, even though she had been warned in advance to be careful with that same door.

"If she hadn't been warned about the door's risk, would she still have had the accident?" "Did putting her on alert take away her free will for just one second to look where she wanted, with which she might have noticed the situation?" While continuing to read her networks and asking herself questions, a name crossed her mind: "JANUS."

Janus was an ancient god known for having two faces; someone who could see both the past and the future at the same time. Undoubtedly, no one better than him to judge people and give them a place in this world, one where they can contribute better than anyone else; for nothing, the name given to the AI that controlled people's destinies was JANUS. As a result, Emeria begins to question several things about the JANUS system, the same JANUS that had told her years ago that her future was in the military; that her gift and skills were suitable for tasks that required precision from any angle. Without a doubt, JANUS was indirectly pushing Emeria to follow in the footsteps of her father, the legendary Frederick Unbreakable. And there was no way JANUS could have been wrong in its predictions; after all, Emeria was considered a prodigy in the military, demonstrating incredible skill with the sniper rifle and turrets. However, she had never felt satisfaction with these results. In the end, it wasn't like in her video games, where every achievement injected her with a slight dose of dopamine, making her feel happy, satisfied, but wanting more. - "Maybe no one really feels satisfied with their lives and achievements" - the girl thought while continuing to watch on her networks how some acquaintances of hers posted about their feats and small merits.

Still, questions formed in the girl's mind:
"Does the system give you a career because it's the best for you?"

"Or does the system give you a career and expects you to believe it's the best for you?"

"In the end, no one is able to see the 'what if' of the scenarios, and we only choose to believe in what the same uncertainty has provided us. It works just like quantum physics, where we are unable to see the multiple possibilities, represented as marbles scattered on the floor, forming countless irregular and chaotic patterns; and when we put on glasses called 'reality,' we can only appreciate a winding figure formed by small marbles; and no matter how many times we look at it again, the pattern seems not to change."

Emeria moves her chair to be able to rest her trio of feet on her desk, right next to her team's CPU. Looking at her ceiling fan, using her arms as a pillow, with her mind brimming with questions, guided by the rhythm of that oscillating fan hanging from her ceiling.

"Perhaps freedom is... to accept its unexistence."

Description

"Here is your black and lactose-free latte, enjoy!"
- "Excuse me... do you have any sugar?"
- "Yes, at the service counter to your right."
- "Thank you."

As Emeria took the large coffee cup in her left hand, she looked around. She observed the busy baristas taking orders in the kitchen, and she paid attention to the newly arrived customers, all occupied with their smartphones, expressionless faces part of their routine. She glanced at a table where a boy with dicephalia was rejected by his female companion after handing her a bouquet of flowers that read "I'm sorry." The girl responded by taking her purse and leaving with indignation on her face. Without a doubt, personal relationships are a complicated matter, one that Emeria does not particularly like. She has always felt more comfortable with numbers and machines; they are easier to predict and please.

"Watch out for the door!" - a guy shouts to a lady holding a box with four drinks by its handle. The lady turns towards the direction of the words, only to be hit by the door by someone in a hurry, apparently hiding from someone looking for him. Everyone stares at the guy, puzzled by such medieval behavior, but no one notices the lady on the floor. Three feet steps closer to her, crouching down to help pick up the cups, which fortunately didn't spill.

"Thanks, dear. Nowadays, no one pays attention to you unless you have a graceful figure or face, you know?" - the lady says in a soft and resigned tone.
- "You're welcome..." - the white-haired girl affirms with a barely perceptible voice. She often struggles to communicate with others while getting up again. As she does this, people lose interest in the guy who had just entered clumsily and focus on the girl's wide hips. Emeria is someone who continues to attract attention with her voluptuous figure, composed of three thick thighs that shape her trio of long legs. Having said that, she decides to leave without looking at anyone, lowers the yellow-tinted sunglasses resting on her grayish-copper eyes, a color that defines her perception of the world: a place of few colors and rusting. New Vex, "the perfect society," is far from being perfect for that short-haired, white-haired girl who likes ten sugar packets in her 500ml drink, leaving the place without saying more, hoping not to have to socialize further, simply retreating to her home.

Year after year, the Ministry of Productivity evaluates all its citizens, expecting them to have met their goals this year. Each person works in the areas where they excel, determined by JANUS, an AI system that serves various functions in society; one of them is to determine the best job opportunities for each person, relying on the annual evaluations conducted by the Ministry of Productivity. This system has been governing New Vex for centuries and has proven to be extremely successful, to the point that people have accepted it without question. But of course, there are always people who, the more they know the system, the less they believe in it; a small disconnected community. Freedom of speech is promoted and boasted about, but everyone knows that it's better to keep dissenting comments to oneself. Not out of fear of being jailed or exiled, simply to avoid a decrease in the score. There was little difference between real life and video games, to the extent that no one knows which came first; accustomed to life being governed by numerical values, and the great goal is to increase this value to overcome various obstacles and achieve a satisfactory outcome.

Emeria is someone who is completely accustomed to this lifestyle; it's predictable, easy to understand, just be a good citizen, deliver results, and the rest will come naturally. She also knows that there are people who disagree with this system, refusing to accept the idea that people's value is delimited by a simple number, one that assigns value to each individual based on various factors; from genetics, ideas, personal and social relationships, and of course, their achievements and goals, which are supposed to determine each person's stratum.

Emeria often navigates the deep web under the pseudonym "Nemo"; she is a frequent navigator of the deep web, where all kinds of inaccessible information is shared with the average person. It's something she does simply for fun but doesn't want anyone to find out about, for fear of the consequences, whether social or legal; yet strong enough not to want to give it up. The truth is, she feels more comfortable as Nemo than as Emeria. Driven by simple curiosity and interest in the JANUS system, Nemo has managed to decipher only a few algorithms within this AI, using an old computer completely disconnected from the networks, to which she provides encrypted information through her main PC. But this afternoon, Nemo was going to take a break; Emeria just wanted to be in her room, relaxing.

Having arrived at her sanctuary, sheltered by the walls that made up her room, immensely messy, with cables and video games scattered everywhere, making the barely perceptible wooden floor that supported it, Emeria takes a sip of her drink in front of her computer. She remembered for a moment the accident of that woman. While systematically browsing through the current memes on her computer, the distracted part of her brain, the one that occasionally prevents her from fully concentrating on her tasks, reminded her of the incident that happened at noon, the lady who was hit by the door and ended up spilling her drinks, even though she had been warned in advance to be careful with that same door.

"If she hadn't been warned about the door's risk, would she still have had the accident?" "Did putting her on alert take away her free will for just one second to look where she wanted, with which she might have noticed the situation?" While continuing to read her networks and asking herself questions, a name crossed her mind: "JANUS."

Janus was an ancient god known for having two faces; someone who could see both the past and the future at the same time. Undoubtedly, no one better than him to judge people and give them a place in this world, one where they can contribute better than anyone else; for nothing, the name given to the AI that controlled people's destinies was JANUS. As a result, Emeria begins to question several things about the JANUS system, the same JANUS that had told her years ago that her future was in the military; that her gift and skills were suitable for tasks that required precision from any angle. Without a doubt, JANUS was indirectly pushing Emeria to follow in the footsteps of her father, the legendary Frederick Unbreakable. And there was no way JANUS could have been wrong in its predictions; after all, Emeria was considered a prodigy in the military, demonstrating incredible skill with the sniper rifle and turrets. However, she had never felt satisfaction with these results. In the end, it wasn't like in her video games, where every achievement injected her with a slight dose of dopamine, making her feel happy, satisfied, but wanting more. - "Maybe no one really feels satisfied with their lives and achievements" - the girl thought while continuing to watch on her networks how some acquaintances of hers posted about their feats and small merits.

Still, questions formed in the girl's mind:
"Does the system give you a career because it's the best for you?"

"Or does the system give you a career and expects you to believe it's the best for you?"

"In the end, no one is able to see the 'what if' of the scenarios, and we only choose to believe in what the same uncertainty has provided us. It works just like quantum physics, where we are unable to see the multiple possibilities, represented as marbles scattered on the floor, forming countless irregular and chaotic patterns; and when we put on glasses called 'reality,' we can only appreciate a winding figure formed by small marbles; and no matter how many times we look at it again, the pattern seems not to change."

Emeria moves her chair to be able to rest her trio of feet on her desk, right next to her team's CPU. Looking at her ceiling fan, using her arms as a pillow, with her mind brimming with questions, guided by the rhythm of that oscillating fan hanging from her ceiling.

"Perhaps freedom is... to accept its unexistence."