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LOCATION: VOSS TOWER, 20TH FLOOR
CITY: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
DATE: JULY 18, 2026 | TIME: 6:30 AM
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System Broadcast
Vitalyx Recipients: 698,432,551
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It was early in the morning, but Mallory, Darian, and Vanessa were having a hard time sleeping so they showered and headed to Voss Tower.
At the conference table in Mallory's office, all three had their laptops open and were going through various social media feeds.
Ronan was on his way in, too, as he'd been tracking it in real time.
"I don't even know where to look first," Mallory said. "Twitter/X is all over the place, and so is Facebook."
"Everything from the rapture to the end of days," Darian said.
Vanessa laughed. "Not to mention the conspiracy theories."
"Here's one of my favorites," Mallory said, putting it up on the large projector screen at the end of the table.
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@TruthSeeker2026: WAKE UP SHEEPLE! They're putting chips in Vitalyx to control your minds!
#DontDrinkTheKoolAid
#VitalyxConspiracy
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Just then, Ronan walked in. He glanced up at the screen as he was offloading his shoulder bag and setting up his laptop.
"Ah yes, TruthSeeker," he said. "It's kind of funny, right?"
They went through a nearly endless montage of TikTok videos, long-form Facebook posts, and tweets.
"Those are the negative side," Ronan said after two hours. "Now for the miracle stories. Although we can keep this one shorter, given that we all know what Vitalyx can do."
He launched the second presentation, and went over another representative sample of the social media response to the new miracle cure for everything.
This time, the slide deck was full of stories of advanced cancer being cured in two days. Multiple stories of people who had been wheelchair-bound for decades, standing up and dancing. Medical practitioners patiently discussing the reams of data Voss Foundation had provided.
There was very little in between. It was either doom and gloom, or it was the second coming of Christ.
But then there were two other categories. The liars and the cheats.
The liars were, pretty clearly, hired by various parts of the healthcare industry. The industry that had, already in 72 hours, lost tens of billions in value, and the bottom didn't seem to be in sight yet.
A sickly man with pustules all over his face claimed to have had a negative reaction to the serum.
A man in a white coat with a clipboard in his hand and a stethoscope stood nearby. He was wearing a KN-95 mask.
"This patient," the alleged doctor said, "has had an extreme allergic reaction to Vitalyx. 85% of his body are covered in bleeding pustules, and he is bleeding from multiple orifices. I can't say this enough: DO NOT TAKE THIS DRUG. IT IS UNSAFE."
The words flashed in red capital letters at the bottom of the screen.
The video, which was posted on YouTube, Twitter/X, Facebook and Tiktok, had tens of millions of views and thousands of comments.
The user, @Alex0322445664, had exactly one post to his name, and his profile on all sites had been created on July 16th.
"People love to talk about bleeding pustules, don't they?" Ronan asked, scrunching up his face and setting his bagel back down.
"There are hundreds of these," he said. "We need to decide whether we're going to respond officially, or let it go."
"Colin is flying in early this afternoon," Mallory said. "I think he may have some ideas for us."
Darian sighed loudly. He was looking away from the screen and out the window at the Bay.
"What's on your mind, babe?" Vanessa asked, squeezing his arm.
Darian almost jumped in his seat at the sudden contact.
He chuckled.
"Sorry, I was a million miles away. I'm just so… disappointed, I guess. When Elliot and I began working on this concept so long ago, we knew there would be some pushback. Maybe from religious bodies or conspiracy theories. But this…"
He squeezed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
"This is just… so disappointing. I've got no better word."
He looked up at everyone.
"Does humanity even deserve this? If this is the response, do they? I feel bad for those invested in healthcare stocks. Sorry, but we actually cured humanity. That was supposed to be your job in the first place."
Darian started pacing and continued his rant. Nobody interrupted him.
"How dare they value their own stock portfolios over the health and lives of eight billion people?"
He turned suddenly toward the group again.
"I hate to say it," Mallory said, "but you hit the nail on the head right there. They do value money over lives. That's why incremental medicines were deemed good enough. They were never going after an actual cure for anything."
She sighed.
"I sound cynical, but I don't care. Did you see that company Silvane Pharmaceutical? They had a drug that would reduce tumor growth by 5% and it only worked on 60% of the patients. And what's even crazier, is that their drug was considered a breakthrough."
"Yeah," Ronan said. "And we've made every such solution obsolete. Of course they're angry."
They discussed a while longer before decided to reconvene at 1:30 when Colin arrived.
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System Broadcast
Vitalyx Recipients: 702,055,953
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@JuliaMills: Still waiting for Vitalyx to fix my student loans, but it sure fixed my health problems! lol
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<
LOCATION: VOSS TOWER, 20TH FLOOR
CITY: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
DATE: JULY 18, 2026 | TIME: 1:30 PM
Colin arrived at Voss Tower and rode the elevator to the 20th floor.
When he entered Mallory's office, he found her, Darian, Vanessa and Ronan at the conference table. A lunch spread was set up on a side credenza.
Colin hugged everyone before setting his bags down and booting up his laptop. Then he grabbed a sandwich, a bag of chips, and a bottle of water and sat down.
"So," he began, "you see the rising count of Vitalyx recipients. Despite all the bullshit, it's not really slowing down. I wondered if we should be concerned about the shitstorm of conspiracy theories and hack doctors trying to denounce it."
He took a bite of his sandwich, and everyone waited for him.
"Sorry," he said, "they didn't serve lunch on the plane."
"Haha, no worries man, take your time," Darian said.
"Anyway," Colin continued, "I uh… used my special access. And I was told not to worry too much about the dissenters for now. Our main focus should be in making Vitalyx available to everyone. Once those who want it have gotten it, we can begin to form a plan for the rest. The fact is that we have no idea how many will be left. And peer pressure is a real thing."
Ronan leaned forward.
"I think it's good advice. You know, I keep wondering how many of the loudest critics already took Vitalyx in secret."
"Hah! You want to expose their lies?" Vanessa asked. "Maybe we can have the System turn their eyes red when they are lying."
Everyone laughed, but Colin's question was a serious one.
"That's cute," Colin said, "but I meant for our interfaces. We have the running tally that's easily accessible, but we also have all the data on who's taken it. Name and address, along with their voice imprint. And when they tap the tablet to confirm the address, we have their fingerprint. I haven't pulled it all together yet, but when I do, we'll know exactly who's taken it."
He took another bite of his sandwich, thinking a bit more on the issue.
"I guess in the end, the misinformation is frustrating, but we can decide that it's a problem for tomorrow. I don't care what the liars post or how loud the trolls get. Every new Vitalyx recipient is one less mind they can sway."
"And one more life saved," Mallory said. "Let's not lose sight of the greatest benefit."
"Perfect health trumps trolling assclowns any day," Ronan said.
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System Broadcast
Vitalyx Recipients: 748,049,931
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@TexJusticeLive: They DON'T want you to know this. Vitalyx GOLD™ is the REAL serum! Not only heals you, but makes you STRONG, makes you VIRILE, and yes gentlemen… harder. On command. Get it before the globalists shut me down! Link in bio.
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