The difference between living and surviving is a thin line, drawn uniquely in the reality of each person.
Some live intensely, endlessly seeking stimulation, happy and satisfied in the poverty of pleasing themselves with fleeting pleasures.
Others live simply, just enough to meet their daily needs and ensure some comfort. They move in a constant cycle, without directionlike a ship with a broken rudder, spinning in circles.
There are those who live in constant adrenaline, searching for a higher purpose to feed their ego or superiority complex, incapable of facing reality. The only difference between one and another lies in how much they know and accept their own truth.
In essence, the human being, in his relentless pursuit of pleasure and desire, advances with those feelings as his guide. The more one desires, the more greed grows.
The desire expands and becomes insatiable. Its only limit is found in frustrationin the pain of no longer being able to reach further. That pain is the boundary of human capability.
And what will they do for it?
Anything.
There is no collective, no community, among humans whose desires do not align.
Desire is individual, but the patterns are the same.
It was with these thoughts that a young scientist, Adam, finally reached the peak of his ambition. He had built something no human had ever created or even imagined.
Before him was a briefcase with three objects: a syringe containing a blue liquid, a replica of a human eye, and an implantable chip.
The laboratory trembled. Dust fell from the ceiling like a warning that time was running out.
With great care, despite his trembling hands, Adam picked up the syringe and injected the serum into his own arm.
Slowly, the fluid entered his body, burning from the inside, as if each of his cells were melting and reforming into something new. Different. Unbearable.
His thoughts writhed in agony.
Desperate not to lose consciousness before completing the process, he placed the chip into his head with the help of an injection pistol.
Then, with shaking hands, he removed the glass prosthetic eye that had replaced the one he had lost, and inserted the new eye from the briefcase. With two taps on the iris, the eye lit up and synced with his nervous system.
It was complete.
Stumbling through the lab, searching for support where he could find it, he reached a table and sat beside an apple. He laid down, closed his eyes, and surrendered to the pain.
He disconnected himself with a smile on his face.
Satisfied with his achievement.
The sound of torches at the door pierced my ears, as if I could hear the sun itself burning matter. Each burst of the tool sounded like a bomb exploding next to me.
The discomfort was immense. When I opened my eyes, time seemed to slow down, like everything was in slow motion. Details were too sharp. Movements more precise. But the noise, and this alien perception invading my body, brought only confusion and agony.
Standing and maintaining balance was extremely difficult, but even so, I forced myself to rise, using a rolling cabinet to move toward the central computer. All the research was there. It was my duty not to let it fall into the wrong hands.
I accessed the terminal and initiated the self-destruction sequence for the lab and server, with a fifteen-minute delay.
I could hear the voices beyond the door. The enemy was in a hurry. They spoke in Portuguese.
"Open this shit, you son of a bitch! You think weve got all day? The major wants this crap before noon!"
I sat in the chair while waiting for them to break through. I reflected on the last moments of this chaotic world.
Five decades ago, the planet was marching toward the Third World War. Trade disputes and conventional battles over rare earth metals dragged nations into endless proxy wars. Great powers clashed wherever those materials existed, all to build superior technology.
But one nation chose a different pathBrazil. A country destined to be the world's farm and mine, where wealth was measured by the ability to produce food or extract resources.
And it was in agricultural research that everything changed. Quietly. Without warning.
Instead of relying on rare metals to develop cutting-edge tech, they turned to what nature constantly produces.
Why build chips out of silicon when you could use brain tissue? Why create industrial infrastructure when you could grow organic systems for heat control?
By breaking humanity's most forbidden taboos, they triumphed.
They created the finest human specimensresistant, intelligent, strong.
As the world tore itself apart, they sold to both sides. Grew. Dominated.
By the time the rest of the world realized what had happened, Brazil had already become the new empire.
They were everywherearmed with biological weapons, genetically engineered beasts, hive-minded swarms of modified animals.
Flesh became the nightmare.
Endless clone armies swept across the continents.
The response from the other powers?
MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction.)
When the atomic bombs fell, rendering the Earth uninhabitable, only conventional humans perished.
For the mutants, radiation became sustenance. A source of life.
They survived. And they won.
But some resisted. Not for long.
Even within Brazils dystopian regime, dissidents existed. But they were powerless.
Until now.
One spark remained.
The Reset.
Recovered files from former world powers, dating back to the Second World War, revealed myths that had always hovered at the edge of reality. Die GlockeThe Bellwas one of them. The only barrier to its construction had been energy.
In that era, such power was unthinkable.
In this era, it is merely technical.
With fusion reactors providing limitless energy, and particle accelerators capable of reverting collapsed matter, the theory stood readyscattered, yes, but complete.
To revert matter to its original form.
To reduce it to pure energy.
Then collapse it again.
Madness. Insanity. But possible.
Once reduced to energy, time becomes singular. Infinite possibilities, infinite events.
Past, present, and future exist as one.
The only thing missing was direction. Calculation. Precision.
That was where the Brazilians had triumphedelevating flesh to a level metal could never reach. Their organic processors surpassed anything humanity had ever created.
Fifty years of research had led to this.
And I could feel the results in my very skinrenewed, youthful. My mind sharper than any supercomputer. My body resonant and powerful.
I whispered to myself.
"I can do this."
The pounding at the door stopped. They were ready to enter.
But I would leave them nothing. Not even the world itself.
They may rule this Earth, but they still bow to the laws of the universe.
Beneath this lab lies the first antimatter bomb ever built by mankindcreated not to win a war, but to end our own monsters.
To recreate, one must first destroy.
I tapped my eye twice.
A menu appeared before me.
A form. A date. Coordinates.
I filled them in carefully.
And then...
————————-
Jorge Couto
Special Insertion Forces
Today is the day we wipe out the Resistance!
Jorge was a simple soldier. Do the job, go home, hit the nightclubs, and wait for the next mission.
But for the past two months, he had been assigned to eliminate the final nests of the cursed Resistance.
Today was the final strike.
The last bunker. The final laboratory. The one housing the most important research. The lab of the infamous scientist Adam Cortezknown as Bodysculptor. Resistances number one most-wanted. Charged with stealing classified research and spreading biological weapons around the globe.
Zombie viruses. Parasitic spores. Autoimmune plagues. Hyper-replicating cancer proteins.
His death toll rivaled that of entire world wars.
A monster.
But today, the monster hunter had arrived, and the reckoning would begin.
Jorge's eyes gleamed with anticipation as the door to the lab opened, revealing the sterile, dim interior.
His excitement turned quickly to scorn and fury.
The lab was empty.
A pristine lab, still powered and humming, but devoid of life.
Still, with the advanced equipment in place, there was a chance to find a clue.
Jorge moved swiftly to the main terminaljust as a countdown neared its end.
His eyes widened in terror.
Too late.
The hunter became just another victim.
3... 2... 1... 0
Existence ended.
From space, orbiting near the sun, one could see a small blue planet collapse into itselfshrinking until it was
no more.
That was the end of Earth.