Syf starts by telling them about his girlfriend Sophie. The very sweet girl he met one day when he was on an errand for his boss. He worked under the event organization team and saw Sophie at one such event. At first glance, she looked like the girl who kept her focus on herself and nothing else, and that much was true even in the end. Syf knew he couldn’t get her even if he tried. However, because of it, he felt like trying, and he succeeded.

  Their relationship continued while she was in her sophomore year, and Syf changed jobs after being fired repeatedly. It wasn’t even because of the recession period; they just thought it was proper because he was better than them.

  With Isolle studies and college. It was only proper of him to work his ass off so that he could get her whatever she wants. He made sure that money didn’t get in the way of her studies. Time continued to fly, with Syf making sure he was trying his best. However, with each job he did and each job he was forced to quit, he realized it was better to be mediocre. He started to get small, doing things intentionally wrong and got shouted at for it. Some things that became common for him.

  But it was still not enough. The rent was high in the city, and Syf did not have that much savings. So one day, he just decided to leave his previous residence and started searching for a place that was cheaper. And he finally found one, with the help of a colleague. God knows how thankful Syf was to him. Syf thought he had found his first friend. The colleague was a man in his 40s. However, the man never shied from giving Syf advice on stuff.

  Among many merits that stood with the man, there was one demerit. His habit of drinking alcohol. At the start, it was small; however, with time, it only grew worse.

  Many times, Syf had given money from his own pocket, knowing he wasn’t getting it back. But he tolerated it as such. Until one day, Syf was fired again. He once again went searching for a job. Finding work as a clerk under the receptionist. It was one of the better jobs. Because it gave him a sense of fulfillment, and it was enough money. It continued well for a few months, until one day, the man came inside the hotel and suddenly started begging him for money. God bless his rotten luck, because when Syf turned around to look if anyone was watching him, his eyes met the manager’s. He was fired that same day.

  Syf’s eyes turned misty. "Syf, just give me money this last time; I am begging you. This isn’t for alcohol. I need to purchase some medicines.’ However, at that time, Syf was so angry that he had ignored the man and boarded the public bus. All while the old man continued to beg him from the ground. Syf didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for the man.

  “A week later, on my way back to my home, I found a man lying in the middle of the road. Others didn’t bother giving the man any attention, and so the man just lay there. I decided to check on the man because his outfit felt familiar to me. The woollen jacket was covered in dust and grime. I walked toward the man. And… it was the same old man. He was lying there, without any breath or pulse," Syf finished. This was the curse of his strong memory. Things lay clearly in his vision.

  The hollow face of the man, devoid of any expression, as if he were just lying there to rest. He never told Syf his name. No one knew about his family or anything. Syf decided to let the man have his rest. Syf didn’t have the money to put him in a grave. So Syf watched as the body burned in the hospital and turned into ashes. He knew he could have done something for the man.

  Syf was never the same after that. He avoided making contact with anyone apart from those he deemed necessary. His relationship with his girlfriend became like a thin wire, stretched to the point of breaking. Because he often didn’t have much money, Syf felt inferior in front of his girlfriend, who came from a rich family. He hated it when she went to expensive places, even knowing he couldn’t afford it. Every time she told him she would pay for it, he felt a part of him diminish. He even tried speaking to her about it, which she ignored, saying it was just small stuff.

  The money was a small amount for people like her. Not for Syf.

  So Syf became just like anyone else. Desperate to earn some money, however, he knew the risk associated with quick money. Until the opportunity presented itself. He finally found a well-paying job. His task was to look at all the data in the submission and make sure it matched the requirements, and if it did, he just had to give it his approval. It was less work and, in a sense, made Syf feel important.

  He continued to work there for a few months. Accumulating a decent amount of savings for himself. He could finally take his girlfriend to some good places, although occasionally.

  Something had changed, though. Even with all the money and feeling like his life was finally on track, he felt like he was missing something. He started to get into more arguments with his girlfriend. Slowly, he realized he was losing interest in her.

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  He used this time to work more. Because the pay for overwork was almost 1.5 times. In his time in the company, he gained an understanding of the other employees working there. He found a common pattern in them; some of them were slightly too rich in terms of their salary.

  They wore lavish-looking watches and expensive suits. They drove the high-end cars. Syf got curious because of it. He wanted to know what they were doing that he wasn’t. And so, for over a month, he started studying them. Watching their habits, following their routines. It wasn’t wrong to say that he was stalking, and he was largely discreet in the way he did that. Or maybe it was that the others didn’t care. In the end, he finally found their golden goose.

  It was some kind of scheme that was giving them high returns for the money they invested in it. With more research, he found out that company clients were into the same thing, too. However, he was but a small clerk; why would they bother to share it with him?

  So, Syf started researching it. Apparently, the scheme had been launched recently, but the growth was almost instant. It was some kind of token, which was a digital asset people were so invested in buying. The most important thing was that the government was in it too. It was a legit scheme by all measures.

  That was how it looked to Syf back then. Or maybe he was just ignoring the loose corners about the whole thing. He went to discuss things with his girlfriend. He had been too excited about it. So much so that he was talking frantically about it. However, she wasn’t listening to him.

  “You don’t talk to me for over two weeks and suddenly call me here to talk about this. Talk about a joke," Sophie said in disbelief. Syf suddenly stopped. It wasn’t how he thought things would play out. He thought Sophie would commend him for finding such a genius scheme that only the elite knew about. He could even convince her to join.

  Syf suddenly laughed in resignation. “You aren’t even listening to me.”

  “Why would I even listen to you? This whole thing screams of scam, and you know it, Syf, you just aren’t ready to accept it.” Sophie said, but to Syf, it felt like she was mocking him.

  He felt his ears turning hot, having called out in such a manner. In a hurry to prove how right he was, he left the place, leaving Sophie in the middle. “Just wait, I will show it to you.”

  He wasn't concerned about how Sophie would react after leaving. He was above that; for once, ideas were brewing in his brain. He went home and started counting all the money he had. He could finally have the life he always wanted for himself.

  When it was his shift again, Syf used the chance to put his money in it. His heart was beating erratically the whole time. He was afraid he would be caught by others, and then he would be expelled from his position. The loading screen continued to turn round and round, increasing his stress to an unimaginable level. Finally, when it showed the message ‘Transaction Successful,' he was relieved. With it, he found his own token number. He couldn’t scream in excitement even when he wanted to, but it was all over in his eyes.

  Everything started to go downhill after that. There was nothing wrong with the token as its value continued to climb higher and higher. But it was the fact that he wasn’t the only one who knew about it. Suddenly, the whole world was talking about it. People sitting in cafes, in metros, in malls. Everywhere it was the same.

  The digital token was all the rage. By the time he realized what was happening, it was already too late. One day, sitting in his home, he got the message that the company he worked for had disappeared completely, and all the people had run away. The company had gone bankrupt.

  Syf, in a frenzy, started to search for the news. He felt like the whole world was crashing on him. Suddenly, his mind turned, and he wanted to look at what had happened to his money. He opened the website. It was working, fortunately. But when Syf started to enter the details, it was then that he realized how big a mistake he had made.

  The token didn’t exist.

  The cart he had been pulling, with all the baggage, had at some point broken off. Syf sat there watching on his mobile as everything was snatched away from him.

  He shivered alone in his room. It was the only thing he did again and again over the next month.

  Often, he would wake up in the middle of the night with uncertainty and fear chilling him to the core. He didn’t know where to go, and he didn’t know whom to ask for help. Because the whole country was facing the same feelings of uncertainty and fear due to the widespread scam. Everyone had become a victim of the scam. What a fucking brilliant scam it was.

  Syf would wake up, go outside, and observe the vast crowd of people participating in a protest. He realized that he wasn’t cut out for that either; his courage had abandoned him long ago. For the first time, he understood the agony the old man must have felt when the only person he knew refused to help. Wasn’t this something Syf deserved?

  Two months went by, with him trying to find a job. When he realized how much devastation this single scam had caused for the people. Syf survived these two months by doing some odd jobs; no one did. By the end, life had escaped his eyes. He was just a body, unaware of what it was doing.

  One fateful day, he woke up when his sister called him back, and he realized this couldn’t go on forever. He carefully planned everything, from how he would start his day to how he would end it. Syf was finally excited; at last, everything was going to change.

  That day, his girlfriend had broken up with him, and he had almost forgotten about her. But why did her voice still hurt him? When Syf thought that everything was going perfectly fine, his rotten luck had to play him for a fool once again. The world as they all knew came crashing down with all the revelations from the strange voice. And something inside him felt compelled to listen to the voice.

  “That’s it, my perfect life.” Syf finished in a sarcastic tone. He told them about everything except for the part where he decided to commit suicide. Instead, he told them how he wanted to start a new journey. He didn’t even tell them what he thought of the voice or the whole other world, for that matter.

  He had accepted whatever the future held for him.